"While I enjoy the first two 'Alien' movies, I'm no fanatic of the series. My opinion of 'Prometheus' is based solely on 'Prometheus.' If you still have not yet seen 'Prometheus,' rest assured knowing that my review is mostly spoiler-free. I will not explain the reveals.

Having seen the movie or not, if you know about 'Prometheus,' you know that it is a prequel – of sorts – to the 'Alien' franchise that Ridley Scott kicked off in 1979. The more you know about the 'Alien' movies, the more that you will see it as a prequel – but if you know nothing about the franchise, if you haven't seen a single of the 'Alien' or 'Alien vs. Predator' movies, you can still watch 'Prometheus' and follow it with ease. It carries the ability to function as a 100 percent stand-alone film. Not a single element of 'Prometheus' hinges on you knowing the 'Alien' movies – but the more you know about them, the more you'll enjoy revisiting the franchise from an angle you've never considered.

The first time I watched 'Prometheus,' I saw it functioning just as much as a remake as a prequel. The manner in which the story unfolds originally seemed similar to that of the first 'Alien,' but after four viewings (once theatrically on a standard 3D screen, another time on an IMAX 3D screen, on a standard 2D Blu-ray and also on Blu-ray 3D), I no longer view it that way. I have put a lot of thought into this film (especially after watching it four times and seeing all seven-plus-hours of special features that appear on the 3D Blu-ray release – not this one) and realized that it's a completely original formula with ties and imagery connecting it to 'Alien.' With each viewing, I learn something new about it, something that makes me appreciate it even more – so much more that I have been tempted to boost my original rating up to five stars. Perhaps I'll be inclined to do so on my fifth viewing.

Like all good science fiction, 'Prometheus' is a story about the morals of science. When science fiction films exploded in the early days of film, many of them were cautionary tales disguised at entertainment. Think about it. I'll use 'Godzilla' as an example. Think of what was going on at the time that Godzilla was made. Man invents the atomic bomb – this horrible weapon whose fallout is atrocious, immoral and inhumane. The radiation – something that scientists barely knew anything about at the time – resulted in mutations. This was taken to the far end of the spectrum in 'Godzilla,' the result being a monster of enormous size. Who created it? Man. What does it do? It destroys man. Science was scary in those days. It held unknown consequences. Many people thought that perhaps we were playing with something that we should not have been playing with.

While 'Prometheus' is an ensemble film led by Noomi Rapace's character Elizabeth Shaw, when you look at it in terms of themes, there are two groups of characters: Shaw and her boyfriend, and everyone else. The story of Shaw focuses on religion, creation, the beginnings of human life. In some ways, her story is like that of The Tower of Babel in the Old Testament. She's seeking God and just-so-happens to find a way to get to him – but we all know how well that turned out for the Babylonians.

The story that belongs to the remainder of the characters is brilliant. Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), the old tycoon who is funding Shaw's deep space mission, has sent a few of his own employees along with Shaw and her boyfriend.

The most important and interesting of them all is David (Michael Fassbender), a humanoid robot. (If you know the 'Alien' movies, then you know already know this type of character.)



The story that David commands is not unlike that of 'Godzilla' – man, or a robot in this case, is toying with science, unsure of what the consequences will be. When these two stories collide, 'Prometheus' fires on all levels."


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