This is not a prequel to Alien.
Though set in the same time period, this latest offering by Ridley Scott is something different than your usual space man gets face humped by an octo-crab with acid for blood.
But first, let’s examine Prometheus.
My Greek mythology is a bit rusty, but I’ll give it spin.
Prometheus brought Mankind fire, which he stole from Zeus. I believe Prometheus also stole glazed pastries and the clip-on tie that has revolutionized the security guard industry. Nevertheless, Zeus punished him.
He chained Prometheus to a rock.
Each day an eagle would arrive and eat his liver.
Each night, Prometheus’ liver would regenerate.
The next day, the eagle would return and eat his liver again, though without side dishes such as onions or a beverage.
Zeus felt these items should be the eagle’s responsibility.
And so it went for many years until powerful Hercules freed Prometheus who moved to a beach house in Sonoma, California. There he bought a kiln and took a journaling class. His dislike for large birds never really faded.
It is reported that Prometheus would pot sea gulls with a .22 caliber rifle and toss the bodies into the tide, shouting, “Eat a bird, Poseidon.”
Over the centuries, the gods power diminished, grew less, then waned, but not in that order.
Which brings us back to Ridley Scott’s new film.
Brilliant move. Instead of more xenomorphs and face-humpers, Scott has embraced the legend of Prometheus. He has chosen a liver-eating eagle as villain.
An expedition from Earth is lured to another world by a cryptic message.
But it’s all a trap by the liver-eating eagle. Soon expedition members start turning up with their livers missing and big eagle feathers everywhere.
And what makes this concept work is that NO ONE’S LIVER GROWS BACK! So the stakes increase. Plus most people dislike liver in general. (Try getting a kid to eat it.) Elements like that keep the movie humming on multiple levels.
Naturally, the eagle hopes to hide aboard the vessel and return to Earth where it will tuck in with a vengeance.
I was troubled that the liver-eating eagle migrated to this outer space world and we’re never told how it could fly in an airless vacuum. Couldn’t the eagle have hidden out in the San Diego Zoo?
That would be more like something on the Syfy Channel, but nonetheless accessible to a larger audience.
I quibble.
Three stars for a solid film that, incidentally, is not a prequel.
