Among several things that commend it–not least the baroque design and slick visuals you’d expect of any back-to-the-future mission mounted by Ridley Scott–the new “Prometheus” contains the most electrifying body-horror shock scene in recent memory.
It’s part of a harrowing sequence, already icky enough in conception, that climaxes in a claustrophobically walled-in space. The scene is explosive and gut-churning and very messy, of course; and no matter how much you might wish it otherwise, it’s unforgettable. Too bad, then, that the movie’s discursive narrative leeches energy from the proceedings, and that it only intermittently approaches this level of graphic power.
“Prometheus” seems to have hovered above us for more than a year now. The long, steady drip of pre-release promotion was coy about what the movie would actually be. Now we see that it is, in fact, not exactly a prequel to “Alien,” the 1979 game-changer in which Scott scuffed up and pulped out the pristine techiness that had dominated sci-fi films over the decade since Stanley Kubrick’s “2001.”
Heading in another direction, Scott created a wet, grotty darkland of inescapable horror that still resonates.
Read the full review at Reason.com
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