BEFORE: As I said before, 2012 was a big year for sci-fi, so here's another one. This one was promoted as a possible prequel to "Alien", and I tried to stay away from any reviews that confirmed that fact, or talked too much about the plot. I think I've got to try to see films either just after they open in theaters, or a year or two down the line, when I've started to forget about any spoilers I might have encountered. Linking from "The Chronicles of Riddick", Judi Dench (still can't believe she was in a sci-fi film) was also in the 2011 "Jane Eyre" with Michael Fassbender (last seen in "Shame").
THE PLOT: A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight to save the future of the human race.
AFTER: OK, I got that description from the IMDB, but it's inaccurate - the universe doesn't really have "corners", unless it's a cube shape, which it's not. It's like when people say "the four corners of the Earth" or "sail the seven seas". Plus, which parts of the universe are darker than others? Space is, like, really dark - well, most of it is, but I think that since you can't get much darker than dark, no one can say which parts are the darkest. But, I digress.
Last night's film got me thinking about religion, which is somewhat odd for a sci-fi film, unless you're talking about Jedis using the Force or those weird Vulcan rituals. We tend to think of science and religion as opposing forces, because of debates about human reproduction, genetically modified foods, and whether prayer has healing powers. But in truth I think science and religion sort of come from the same place, and have tried to answer many of the same questions over the years.
The first primitive religions came about because people wanted to understand the sun, the rain, the afterlife and so on. So they had sun gods, rain gods, death gods - if they wanted to explain something, they just godified it. Well, of course a god carries the sun across the sky in a giant gold chariot - to suggest otherwise would be crazy talk! But as time passed and scientists took a crack at it, they realized what the sun is, and that it's really the earth spinning that makes the sun APPEAR to move (I realize the sun IS moving, but not in that way). Though our language needs to catch up - we still say "the sun rises" and "the sun sets", even though that's not what's happening.
Anyway, science got better and better, and explained the rain, and the earthquakes, and where babies come from, and even started taking a crack at the origins of the universe. There are even some people now who believe that evolution and intelligent design are not mutually exclusive theories. But there's one thing that science has not been able to prove or disprove, and that's the afterlife. Some cynical people might suggest that since it can't be proved or disproved, the simplest answer is that it doesn't exist, and the simplest answer is usually right. But religion as a whole is still sussing this thorny issue out, it seems to be the one thing that's powering the whole engine. And we kind of want to keep that engine going, because it could be the only thing preventing worldwide chaos.
OK, maybe there are more questions that neither science nor religion can give clear answers to - where did we come from? How did it all start? If Earth is a garden, who planted it? And if it's a machine, who built it? These are, perhaps, not the questions that you might expect to be raised by a film in the "Alien" franchise, better known for its shocking tension, gross destruction of human lives, and crazy monster designs based on the work of H.R. Giger - the reason why tentacle porn is even a thing.
Don't worry, all that stuff is present in "Prometheus" (I recommend avoiding the popcorn, or any food for that matter while watching this) but so are some interesting questions and possible answers about the origin of life on Earth. Oh, they're not definitive of course, but I find it fascinating that moviemaking has stepped in to do what religion and science can't (so far). It's almost as if filmmaking IS the new religion - and just like religion, it doesn't even have to be true, it just has to answer its own questions.
Which leads me to wonder - can moviemaking take the place of religion? I've certainly been more devoted to watching movies over the last 5 years (OK, 25) than I ever was to going to church. And I believe in movies more than religion, even though I know they're not real - but I believe in their un-realness somehow. And as a teen I went on my own personal quest, traveling hundreds of miles to one of the places where movies are made, and I met other people who believe in them and wanted to make them, and that's what I continue to help people do. So why not? I make my annual pilgrimage to Comic-Con, which is kind of like Geek Mecca, and I worship every night at the glowing altar of premium cable, asking for inspiration.
Maybe someday I'll reject the religion of film, as I've (mostly) rejected organized religion itself. (It's not really the religion I have a problem with, it's that "organized" part.) After all, I've seen behind the curtain of filmmaking, I've met some of the high priests and found out they're just imperfect men. Still, I favor it over a religion because every religion tends to say "ours is the one, true path", and filmmaking allows you to find your own path. I think each person's path is probably in a different place anyway. But for now the dogma continues to work for me.
Still, there are those nagging questions that I started asking myself as a kid - about where we all came from and ultimately where we're all going to end up. Since religion, science and filmmaking have so far been unable to give me constructive answers, part of me wishes I'd never started asking in the first place.
The movie, right. It does supply some answers, particularly about the origin of the alien from "Alien", but it defiantly does not answer many of its own questions, which leads to the possibility of a sequel to the prequel. In the meantime, take comfort in the fact that one day we'll be able to travel to other planets, meet other races, and get killed by them. Oh, and robots will take care of us while we sleep (though they'll watch our dreams - creepy!) and machines will perform surgery on us (also creepy, as it turns out...).
Also starring Noomi Rapace (last seen in "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows"), Charlize Theron (last seen in "Mighty Joe Young"), Idris Elba (last seen in "The Losers"), Guy Pearce (last seen in "The Proposition"), Logan Marshall-Green, Rafe Spall (last seen in "One Day"), Sean Harris, with a cameo from Patrick Wilson.
RATING: 6 out of 10 mysterious jars
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