Prometheus (Rhoades)

“Prometheus” Starts a

New Outer Space Legend

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

My friend Harry is a college professor, a brilliant musician, and a former cab driver. He knows most things I don’t. So I asked him about the Greek myth of Prometheus. He explained succinctly: “Prometheus was the Titan who stole fire from Zeus to give to man; Zeus chained him to a rock, where an eagle ate his liver daily.”

Hmm.

Prometheus is the name director Ridley Scott chose for his spaceship in the same-named science fiction movie, currently playing at the Tropic Cinema.

“Prometheus” was first conceived back in the early 2000s as a prequel to all those “Alien” movies. You remember those four monsters-in-outer-space films where “no one can hear you scream.”

Noomi Rapace (Lisbeth in the original “Millennium” movies) is the new Sigourney Weaver, facing off against this extraterrestrial threat – a race known as the Engineers. These are the aliens who engineered life on the planet Earth.

She plays Dr. Elizabeth Shaw, an archeologist who along with her partner (Logan Marshall-Green) discovers ancient manuscripts depicting a faraway star system. So they and a team of fearless explorers funded by multibillionaire Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) fly off in the Prometheus to meet their makers. Literally and figuratively.

On board the ship is the prerequisite human-like robot (Michael Fassbender) who assists in their adventures. And, of course, along the way this android begins to develop “its own ego, insecurities, jealousy and envy.”

Also along for the ride is a beautiful Weyland Corporation employee (Charlize Theron) who has been sent to monitor the expedition for her gravely ill boss.

Landing on the moon LV-223 in the distant solar system, the explorers encounter a seemingly abandoned civilization with dead bodies lying around. And a few intriguing egg-like ampoules.

This turns out to be a dangerous Easter egg hunt. These Engineers aren’t all gone and they aren’t the benevolent father figures the earthlings had hoped to meet.

Remember, no one (except the audience) can hear them scream.

Turns out, the movie’s not a prequel to the “Alien” movies after all. As Ridley Scott and screenwriter Damon Lindelof rewrote the original script by Jon Spaihts, it turned into a different story – although Scott admits the film has “strands of Alien’s DNA, so to speak” and “takes place in the same universe.”

Most moviegoers agree that “Prometheus” may not be quite as good as the first “Alien” movie, but it’s a lot better than that dead-end conclusion of the series, “Alien vs. Predator.”

Some Hollywood insiders call this film a “reboot” of the “Alien” franchise. A sequel is planned.

And like the stealer of fire in the Greek legend, we moviegoers can figuratively expect our livers to be eaten over and over and over. You may as well start screaming now.

srhoades@aol.com