Prometheus Rising

Death by Snu-Snu!

Of all the movies that I thought I would not be excited about this summer, Prometheus is on the top. Don't get me wrong, I admire the scope of the Alien franchise. It's been written about better than me, but the whole point of the Alien series is to say to guys "What if The Other is a female out to rape men, none of your manly toys like guns or muscles will protect you, and your only chance of salvation is a female savior?" The fact that Scott (and Cameron) have gotten men to celebrate a series that, at it's core, is designed to provoke fear among men via violent and penetrative vaginal/uterine symbology is impressive.


Unfortunately, the Alien franchise didn't appeal to me mainly because horror movies are difficult for me to enjoy (though I have re-watched Alien and Aliens due to this movie coming out). I think the reason for this is the same reason I'm good at my job:  I'm very empathetic. A trait that many in the TV generation develop is an ability to seperate themselves from the characters on screen. At the end of the movie, the actors are fine and all it really is, despite the violence and the gore, is escapism. When it comes to horror movies, though, I never could implement this ability. I end up over-empathetic with characters and can't find enjoyment in on-screen suffering since it often just makes me uncomfortable (it's the same reason I can't enjoy cringe comedy like Meet the Parents or The Office).

So why, then, would I be excited about Prometheus? Two reasons: the music and the philosophical context.

Music:  Watching the Prometheus trailer prior to the Avengers took my breath away.  I had seen the trailer on the smallscreen with tiny speakers.  Seeing it on the bigscreen was impressive, but the rising tension of the music and the crescendo of sirens that sound like screams (revamped from the original Alien trailer!) IN ADDITION to the visual aspect was, frankly, sublime. Here's the part I'm talking about. The last time I experienced anything even close to that was listening to Radiohead in college when I was very, very high. If Prometheus can replicate that experience a few times in the movie, I'll consider it a worth the money.

Well doesn't that make you feel... significant.

Philosophy: Outside of the symbolism I mentioned above, Alien at its core is simply about human and predator.  Prometheus does try to tackle some deeper issues; namely what if we do have non-divine creators? Let's face it as humans, we consider ourselves one step down from the divine, but what if we did find out that we are further down the ladder than we believed?  This is more or less the basis of the Lovecraft Mythos but I also think Weiss and Hickman do a great job of exploring it in "The Death Gate Cycle".  Frankly it's a sci-fantasy theme I never get tired of.