Prometheus

It's been so long since we've had decent sci fi movies. The only good ones that come to mind since The Matrix are two low budget indie films, Moon and Another Earth. Both of which are great and two of my personal favorites, but sometimes you want giant aliens destroying space ships or a large duck having sex with Lea Thompson like in Howard the Duck. This was bad sci fi at it's freshest but I still have a soft spot for that flick. When I look back, I think the 80's ruined sci fi forever because you had such classics in The Terminator, Blade Runner, Alien, the Star Wars sequels, and My Stepmother Is An Alien; just to name a few. But due to the success of these films and more advanced fx becoming available , Hollywood gave birth to Roland Emmerich. From that point on it was all downhill. The story quickly became irrelevant and all that was needed was an excuse to blow up a building or have Will Smith yell "Aww hell nah!!" as he punched an alien. All special effects and no soul. So now when sci fi comes along, we dont recognize it and you get mixed reviews for something like Prometheus.

Now why it took Ridley Scott so long to make this prequel, who knows. I've heard a number of reasons but my guess is that after working with Tom Cruise on Legend, you'd want to get as far away from science fiction as humanly possible too! I'm sure that Cruise spent most of his downtime on set floating above ground in his Xenu state striking random extras with his hydrogen bombs. But the point is, Scott is back doing what he does best in my opinion. I dont want to give away too much of the story but basically the movie starts off with some alien (we assume) who looks like a cross between Powder and Stone Cold Steve Austin drinking some substance which not only kills him but disintegrates his body, followed by a spacecraft leaving him. Next they shoot over to Earth in the distant future where we see Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) discover yet another cave painting that points to what they believe is the origin of mankind on Earth. And once they discover another solar system that is similar to ours and a planet that can sustain human life, they head there believing that they will find  our creators to answer the numerous questions they have about why they created us and how we got here. But once the crew gets to this planet, they discover that there are all sorts of hidden dangers there and that this planet may not be what they initially thought it was. Plus it appears that everyone that is a part of the crew has their own agenda. David, who is played wonderfully by Michael Fassbender, is the robot created by Waylend(the money behind the expedition) to help them in communicating with the aliens. However the entire movie he is creepy and calculating and you never quite know who's side he's on and whether he is aiding in the hell that is about to break loose or if he indeed is trying to help find the answers they came looking for. David is by far the most interesting character and is basically a modern day version of  HAL. Again, I dont want to give away too much of  the story but just know that this is indeed a prequel to Alien and by the way the story is written it works well not only in that regard but it's a movie that can really stand on it's own. Plus they dont pull a Spielberg. And by that I mean they don't spell everything out for you. Not everything is wrapped up in a nice and neat little package and you end up having to figure out for yourself what really happened and why. Scott and the writers take their time telling the story to help you get a feel for the characters and setting up the creepy mood and tone of the film.

In the end, it's just refreshing to see a sci fi flick with so much thought put into it.  And to actually have the backing of Hollywood to put good writers, directing , and acting in it. Do yourself a favor and pay the 3D money to see it, there are quite a few scenes in it that just wouldn't be nearly as cool in 2D. I definitely rate this movie as kind of TIGHT and would suggest that you go see it as soon as possible before the weekend of idiotfest is upon us in Rock of Ages and That's My Boy.