Despite many legitimate audience concerns, Ridley Scott’sPrometheusstill ranks as one of the director’s most financially successful movies. Made for a hefty $120 million, the movie more than made its money back – generating $403 million at the global box office. By most measures, this would mark the film as a success – especially considering that it spawned a sequel,Alien: Covenant, in 2017. However,12 years on fromPrometheus' release, the harsh truth about the movie’s legacy has become impossible to ignore.
In some ways,Prometheusis an extremely atypical prequel. While itsconnection toAlien, Scott’s legendary 1979 sci-fi horror, was much-vaunted, the movie eschews most obvious links to the source material. The xenomorph itself, for instance, is only referenced through subtle imagery and a fleeting appearance from the related Deacon creature inPrometheus' ending. Instead,Prometheushas more lofty philosophical ambitions, usingAlien’s building blocks to ask big questions about humanity’s origins. It was certainly a bold strategy. Sadly, subsequent years have proven beyond doubt that the approach was a failure.
Whatever Its Strengths, Prometheus Is A Creative Failure
It’s Visuals Can’t Make Up For Its Story
With a 73% positive rating onRotten Tomatoes,Prometheusis clearly not devoid of merit. In isolation, there is much about the movie to admire. From the opening sequence set above a raging waterfall, to the haunting, sepulchral interior of the Engineers' ship,the movie makes full use of Ridley Scott’s credentials as a visual stylistpar excellence. The problem, however, is thatPrometheusexists within a broader narrative context.
As a forerunner to one of the most beloved sci-fi franchises of all time,Prometheus' story was always going to be much more central to its success than other factors. The movie’s decision to reveal ’s enigmatic space jockeys meant that, from the outset,Prometheus' reputation would simultaneously depend on both how the story stood on its own merits and how it impacted the classic on which it was based. On both counts, the film disappointed.
On reflection, creative issues are evident throughoutPrometheus. Characters like Fifield, Millburn, and Holloway come and go with little development – succumbing to devices like the hammerpede and mysterious black goo that have almost no explanation. Plot threads likeMeredith Vickers' relationship with her fatherhave no satisfying resolution, while actors like Idris Elba feel sorely underutilized. These multiple flaws become impossible to ignore with repeat viewing, detracting from strengths like Michael Fassbender’s performance.Prometheus' biggest problem, however, is how it impactsAlien.
Prometheus Committed The Cardinal Sin Of Prequels
It Made Alien Worse
HadPrometheusbeen a standalone sci-fi project, problems with peripheral characters and issues with certain story elements would have been easy to ignore. However,the biggest problem withPrometheus' legacy is how its choices undermined the movie it sought to support. BeforePrometheus,Alienexisted as one of the most enigmatic, striking, and mysterious horror movies ever made. Its central creature and design were so charismatic that it spawned an entire franchise, based on what – from a narrative perspective – seemed to have just been a chance encounter in deep space.Prometheuschanged everything.
…Prometheus' decision to directly tieAlien’s inexplicable space jockey to humanity paradoxically made the whole universe feel smaller.
With its story of Engineers and their impact on humanity, the movie transformedAlien’s events from a random twist of fate to something altogether more prosaic. Suddenly, the random and inexplicable violence afflicting the Nostromo’s crew had a straightforward explanation – albeit one that involved intergalactic space travel. The result was thatPrometheus' decision to directly tieAlien’s inexplicable space jockey to humanity paradoxically made the whole universe feel smaller. Instead of making our civilization an insignificant speck in the vast mystery of space, it meant everything revolved around us. It’s a subtle change that undoes one ofAlien’s central themes.
Beyond this bigger philosophical point,there are other ways thatPrometheusretrospectively damagesAlien. The original 1979 movie’s retro-futuristic design, for influence, is one of its most enduring aspects, influencing the genre for decades afterward.Prometheus, despite being a prequel, offered a disconcertingly glossy vision of the future – completely at odds with whatAlienhad offered. For anyone looking for narrative consistency, it was a particularly jarring approach. By challengingAlien’s perspective on humanity’s future and undercutting the original’s broader philosophy,Prometheusbecame actively detrimental to the wider franchise.
Prometheus' Lack Of Answers Hurt The Movie
Its Explanations Were Limited
Even without takingAlieninto account, hindsight proves thatPrometheus' story failed in its objectives. While the script is full of portentous musings about humanity’s creation and the nature of our creators, the answers it offers leave a lot to be desired.The explanation ofAlien’s space jockeys only poses more questions, with there being little rationale behind why they left encouraging messages for humanity, why they suddenly became so hostile, and what the bigger picture behind their plan is. Having set out to explain something that needed no explanation originally, the leastPrometheuscould have done is provide an answer.
Theoretically, addressing who or what the space jockey was could have been an interesting tangent (so long asAlien’s other features were respected).
InAlien, the space jockeywas both a warning about the fate that awaited the Nostromo and a stark and terrifying realization that the universe was so much bigger and more mysterious than we could know. Theoretically, addressing who or what the space jockey was could have been an interesting tangent (so long asAlien’s other features were respected). Yet, at the story’s conclusion, the audience is no closer to understanding the Engineers' true motivations. By the timePrometheusends, with Shaw and David jetting off to the Engineer homeworld, all the audience has is another question.
Alien’s Future Proves Prometheus' Failure
The Franchise Is Going In Another Direction
Whatever fans' opinions onPrometheus' approach to theAlienstory, the movie had at least committed the franchise to a bold new path. As expanded on inAlien: Covenant,the decision had been taken to turn the xenomorph from a terrifying force of nature to a bioweapon, created by the android David using the Engineers' strange black goo technology. As antithetical as this seemed to the original ideas explored inAlien, it was at least a clear creative commitment from Ridley Scott – paving the way for futureAlieninstallments to continue with this story.
Now, however, upcoming installments in theAlienfranchise have put the final nail inPrometheus' coffin. TheprequelAlien: EarthTV series, for instance, will offer a totally new origin for the story – not only promising an Earth-based setting, but seemingly pledging to undo the ideas thatPrometheusestablished. Creator Noah Hawley has already confirmed, for example, that his show will ignore many of the changes implemented inPrometheusandCovenant. In an interview withKCRW’s The Businesspodcast (viaScreen Rant), he explained:
“Ridley and I have talked about this — and many, many elements of the show. For me, and for a lot of people, this ‘perfect life form’ — as it was described in the first film — is the product of millions of years of evolution that created this creature that may have existed for a million years out there in space. The idea that, on some level, it was a bioweapon created half an hour ago, that’s just inherently less useful to me. And in terms of the mythology, what’s scary about this monster, is that when you look at those first two movies, you have this retro-futuristic technology. You have giant computer monitors, these weird keyboards … You have to make a choice. Am I doing that? Because in the prequels, Ridley made the technology thousands of years more advanced than the technology ofAlien, which is supposed to take place in those movies’ future. There’s something about that that doesn’t really compute for me. I prefer the retro-futurism of the first two films. And so that’s the choice I’ve made — there’s no holograms. The convenience of that beautiful Apple store technology is not available to me.”
The fact thatAlien’s next chapter will directly contradictPrometheus' approach is a damning indictment of its creative failure. Had the story it set out been true to the franchise and felt narratively satisfying, there would be no need for such a dramatic retcon. As it is,Prometheusis slowly becoming more irrelevant toAlien’s story – a surprising outcome for any $400 million blockbuster.
