Prometheus

Last Saturday night, I watched the movie "Prometheus" in the cinema in Bratislava. The movie has not been released in Spain yet, as it will arrive there in August. If you do not want to know more about the movie, just stop here and do not go on reading.

The promotion of the movie tells us that we were going to see a prequel to the Alien series. I would say that, although it has many aesthetic elements in common with the Alien movies, the plot is somehow closer to "Blade runner". Both movies, "Blade runner" and now "Prometheus", pose decisive questions about the sense of life, in the framework of a science-fiction film. My understanding is that "Prometheus" is a lesson of modesty for the mankind in its search of the creator, as it deals with the difficult issue of what if the creator is not proud of us at all and we are just an accident, which the creator is trying to remove from the universe (in this sense, the android David makes the right questions in the middle of the movie).

Nevertheless, everything must be said, "Prometheus" does not reach the level of perfection of "Blade runner". "Prometheus" seems to have tried to tell many things at the same time, but in an indirect manner, forcing the spectator to reach his own conclusions. However, there are too many open questions in the plot and some behaviours which are difficult to understand.

To the first group belongs the opening scene, where we see an "engineer" eating something and then being totally dilluted in a waterfall in Iceland (by the way, I have been in that waterfall). What does it mean? I would say this is the Prometheus of our movie, a person who decided to bring life (the fire of Gods, in terms of the Greek mythology, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus) to Earth, but it is punished for it and must sacrifice his own life. In addition to that, as already said, some behaviours in the film are difficult to understand. Just two examples: the android David has an excellent knowledge of the culture of the "engineers", what seems quite challenging given the fact that there has not been any previous contacts; and, at a certain point in the movie, the "engineers" are shown running desperately towards the room where the "dark fluid" is, but what is the point in running away to a room where you have a tremendously large weapon like the "dark fluid"?, they should be running in the opposite direction.

Anyway, in spite of these minor flaws, I can say that the movie is one of the most interesting I have seen lately, light-years away from things like "Avatar", "Harry Potter", "Twilight" and others.