Ridley Scott’s return to the Alien series, Prometheus, is a movie that feels both massive and intimate — but not always in the ways you might expect.
A Visually Stunning but Spiritually Different Return to the Alien Universe
If you walk into it hoping for the same nerve-racking tension and skin-prickling scares that made the 1979 original such a classic, you may find yourself surprised. This time, Scott trades claustrophobic horror for sweeping spectacle. Instead of dark, creaking corridors where danger hides in the shadows, we get grand landscapes that look like they belong on the cover of a science fiction novel.
It’s a bold change. The original Alien thrived on the idea that in space, no one can hear you scream. The fear came from confinement — the feeling that there was no escape from the creature stalking you. Prometheus keeps that same sense of danger in small doses but swaps it out for something more ambitious: a quest to uncover humanity’s origins. This means the focus is less on hiding from an alien and more on exploring an alien world.
Visually, the movie is breathtaking. The planet’s surface, the alien temples, and the ship’s interiors are all meticulously crafted. The CGI creates towering structures and eerie landscapes that the original simply couldn’t have shown back in 1979. But there’s a trade-off here — the bigger the scenery gets, the smaller the tension feels. You can’t really feel trapped when you’re standing in the middle of a massive alien plain.
Michael Fassbender Steals the Show
Every once in a while, a performance comes along that sticks with you long after the movie is over. In Prometheus, that performance comes from Michael Fassbender, who plays the android David. From the moment he appears on screen, Fassbender brings a chilling calmness to the role. He moves and speaks with precision, almost too perfect to be human, and that’s exactly the point.
David is fascinating because he doesn’t have to raise his voice or make big gestures to seem unsettling. His politeness feels slightly “off,” like he’s always calculating something behind those calm eyes. The way he observes the crew, mimics their speech, and quietly influences events makes him the most unpredictable presence on screen. It’s not that you know he’s dangerous — it’s that you can’t tell when or how that danger will emerge.
There’s a parasitic relentlessness in his character, much like the alien creature from the first film. You can’t help but watch him, even when there’s action or special effects pulling your attention elsewhere. Fassbender’s David has the unsettling quality of someone who knows more than he’s letting on, and that alone makes him scarier than any CGI monster.
The rest of the cast does well enough — they’re believable, they deliver their lines convincingly — but they’re often overshadowed by Fassbender’s quiet intensity. Even the film’s biggest set pieces feel more engaging when he’s in them.
Big Ideas, Big Designs, and a Few Big Misses
Prometheus tries to do more than just scare you. It dives into big, philosophical questions: Where did humanity come from? Did aliens create us? And if they did, why? These ideas connect to a real-world book from 1968 called Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Däniken, which argued that ancient astronauts might have seeded life on Earth. In the film, the crew of the ship Prometheus travels in 2094 to find the answers to these questions.
It’s an intriguing premise, but the movie’s storytelling sometimes gets lost in its own complexity. The narrative takes “intestinal convolutions,” twisting and turning until you might forget exactly what the characters are trying to do. It’s part prequel to Alien and part entirely new storyline, which can make it feel a bit disjointed.
The pacing is also unusual. There are moments of quiet wonder as the crew explores ancient alien structures, but these often stretch on so long that the urgency drains away. The 1979 film had tension built into every minute because danger was always right around the corner. Here, the danger often feels far away — until suddenly it isn’t, and by then, the shock doesn’t hit as hard.
One of the clever touches in the film is how it nods to the original Alien. There are visual callbacks and familiar beats that will make fans smile. But these moments can also be a double-edged sword. They remind you of how thrilling those original scenes were — and how Prometheus, for all its grandeur, doesn’t quite reach that same level of heart-pounding suspense.
The score deserves a mention too — it’s big, loud, and orchestral, with booming kettle drums that make sure you feel the drama in every scene. But sometimes it’s almost too much, drowning out the subtler moments and overwhelming the atmosphere with sheer volume.
Final Thoughts
Ridley Scott’s Prometheus is a bold and visually impressive return to the Alien universe. It replaces the horror and intimacy of the original with spectacle and cosmic mystery. For some viewers, this will be an exciting evolution; for others, it will feel like a loss of what made Alien so powerful in the first place.
Michael Fassbender delivers a performance worth the price of admission alone, crafting a character who is both mesmerizing and unsettling. The design work, special effects, and grand ideas are all there — but the tension and fear that made the first film unforgettable are not as sharp this time around.
If you go in expecting a straight-up horror movie, you might walk away disappointed. But if you’re open to a slower, more visually driven journey that asks big questions about humanity’s origins, Prometheus offers plenty to admire. It may not make you scream, but it will definitely make you think.
