Originally published by L.S. Media. June 1st 2012.

L.S. Media Rating *****

Cast: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green, Charlize Theron, Rafe Spall, Sean Harris, Katie Dickie, Emun Elliott.

If you want a franchise done properly, bring back the guy who made it a commercial and critical success in the first place. Prometheus does exactly that and sees the Sci-Fi/Horror film reunited with Ridley Scott, the man who scared cinema goers back in 1979 with Alien, and the result is stunning.

The build up to this film has been lengthy with the franchise suffering badly with the three sequels, Aliens, Alien3 and the deeply forgettable, dull and stale Alien Resurrection, in some fans eyes. However in this prequel, the magic, the deepening sense of dread that fans initially felt in 1979 has returned and partly in thanks to the man who had the vision to bring this story to the cinema screen and also to the writing of Damon Lindelof.  Within the script, the film is paced just right and the clues to where the story was going being littered throughout the dialogue.

The main reason though was an excellent cast and this factor bonded the other two reasons with a huge nod to the audience’s growing unease and violent imagery that this film would return the Alien franchise to the best of the Horror genre. As with Alien and Alien 3, the cast are virtually perfect for the parts, unlike Alien 3, the stars within the film are given the right to portray their characters with a sense of duty to the original. There is no need for egos when you are playing around with one of the meanest creations ever devised for the cinema screen. The film, the creature or Ridley Scott will certainly take apart and devour any ego that threatens to spill over on to the film.

Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Shaw is a revelation. The undisguised fear and hope she portrays throughout will remind viewers of Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley in the first film but it has to be said with more passion, more direct vulnerability and the shots where she is trying to the remove the alien creature from her own body in the laboratory will have many turning their heads for the briefest moment.

Perhaps the greatest asset to the film, aside from the actual alien is Michael Fassbender as the android David. After two years on his own, with only old films and single basketball to amuse him, it’s not surprising to believe that, like Hal in 2001 A Space Odyssey, he has become slightly unhinged and begins to take pleasure in watching Elizabeth Shaw’s dreams and personal unhappiness in her younger years.

Michael Fassbender portrays the android as intelligently and as unnerving as possible. An almost extremist approach in showing that David is jealous of mankind for having a soul shows Fassbender to be actor that revels in the disturbing actions of humanity, even when being a child-like unfeeling android.

Prometheus is up against some incredible films that are due out this summer but there will be few that builds the suspense, the action and the growing desperation that every actor within this great film should be proud of having attached to their C.V. and in the return of Ridley Scott to the overseeing helm, it adds a monster boost to what was a flagging and in some cases laughable franchise.

Ian D. Hall