ANOMALY //>

Prometheus
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Noomi Rapace
Directed by: Ridley Scott
4/5

A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe.

In case you've been living under a rock for the last year, Prometheus has been hinted at being a very loosely based prequel to the Alien franchise. Because of that, Alien fans are very curious as to how much both films are linked together.
In Prometheus, any links to Alien are fairly low key. Essentially what we are given are two different teams from two different franchises existing in the same universe, but having two different storylines beginning from the same source material".
The tone and feel of Prometheus borrows very heavily from Alien. Giger's artistic creations take center stage once again, which gives the movie a great nostalgic throwback feel to the Alien series.
Seeing the film on IMAX really gave the visuals of the movie a spotlight to shine under. Every sweeping landscape was beautifully showcased, and Ridley's always slick direction looked amazing on the big screen. When it comes to aesthetics, Prometheus gets everything right.

Story wise, every character follows a similar pattern to a lot of these sorts of sci-fi films with characters being a good mix of curious doctors, captains, hard arsed corporate big wigs and assorted angry and wild crew members being thrown into random events throughout the course of the film.
Nothing new is brought in as far as character development is concerned, although it wasn't really an issue since the characters are likeable enough and cast well. Stand outs are Charlize Theron as the cold Meredith Vickers, and Michael Fassbender as the intelligent robot, David.

Much like Alien, the pacing is slow and steady with some great tension as the drama starts to kick into gear. Anything Prometheus lacks in mildly under-developed characters gets made up for with an entertaining story.
My only small gripe with the film was that it didn't actually answer the two big questions the movie was asking of the audience to actually stick around for. I would have been happy to have at least one answered, but the answers to "why were we made" and "why are we being destroyed" don't actually come to any sort of resolution. Of course that would be something that could be explored in a sequel, however, i still think the movie felt too open ended. Sure the characters discover where we came from, but it wasn't enough for me to really feel like i got as much as i needed from the story as a pay off.
The one thing that made up for that was the one and only moment of the film that really tied a strong link to Alien, and that was a scene that pops up right at the end. I won't go into detail about what it was, but it certainly put a smile on my face as a fan of the Alien series. It was a good fan finish.

Overall, Prometheus was a solid film. It feels completely unfinished in many ways, and i guess we'll see more of it once the next movie comes along. For now though, Alien fans will get a lot out of it, and non fans will be in for a well directed and tense sci-fi drama.