'Prometheus' An Epic Tale for Sci-Fi Lovers

A crew sets out to find the origins of man on a planet far, far away and finds thrills, frights and mammoth landscapes for the audience in "Prometheus."

Director Ridley Scott, of the first "Alien" movie and "Blade Runner," put together a great thriller here. Noomi Rapace (the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) plays an archaeologist who, along with her boyfriend, is sent to find what some believe are the origins of humans on a faraway planet. Their mission is overseen by shady corporate big wigs Guy Pearce and Charlize Theron, with most of the corporate experiments being conducted by scene-stealer android David, played by Michael Fassbender.

The title "Prometheus" is the name of the spaceship and also refers to the Greek mythological god who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to humans. This, in a roundabout way, is what the movie is about. You see, it's hard to talk about the plot without giving anything away, and I'm not into spoiling movies. It's sufficient to say that scientists on this expedition find some black goo on the planet that does bad things to people who touch it or ingest it. When the ship's captain, Idris Elba, wants to scrap the mission he's held back by the evil corporate puppet masters.

The film does have connections to the box-office hit "Alien" back in 1979. For fans of that franchise you will definitely see it in the 3D "Prometheus." There are plenty of jumps and jolts to keep you on the edge of your seat for the two-hour movie, Theron and Rapace do a great job of making big turns in the film, not to mention Fassbender as the droid. He was great. The movie, however, does pull back a bit toward the end and left me without that crucial connection it should have concluded with….So the Flick-O-Meter gives "Prometheus" a four out of five.

I like the idea that this tale asks questions about the meaning of life, but comes up with some fairly poor answers in a script that screams…attention-deficit disorder. The ending could have been just a little bit better.

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