Kya ba ye Prometheus?

“Hey, let’s go for a movie tonight?”

When VJ invited me for a movie, I thought it was about time to get to know my new roommates.  

After living with your college pals for two years, it is not that easy to adapt yourself to live with four new guys. Not to mention, if all of them are from God’s own country, and I mean it strictly from India’s perspective here, you become a dumb spectator in all the group talks, chanting repeatedly, ‘Subtitles please,’ or ‘Translate please,’ every alternate minute.

So, as I said earlier, I decided to keep aside the language barrier for once and thought of hanging out with them, mentally preparing beforehand to reject the offer in case it turned out to be another Bollywood movie.

“Which movie, dude?” I asked him.

“Promise the US,” he said.

Since the time I shifted to the new apartment, my general awareness had been limited to my office cabin and a couple of newspaper headlines.

So, slightly intrigued by the title, I asked him, “What kind of a movie is that?”

“I think it’s some action-adventure movie. I’m not sure either,” he said unconvincingly.

“Okay, no problem. Let’s go.”

You can imagine my reaction when we went to the theatre and I saw the huge poster with an illuminated bald alien.

“Dude, it is Prometheus! It seems to have aliens and all,” I exclaimed.

“Oh, I thought there was an ‘s’ before the ‘t’,” VJ said laughing and added, “Don’t you like aliens?”

I walked into the cinema hall without responding to his question, earnestly hoping for a Greek mythology instead of a collection of nauseating scenes which would turn my stomach. Boy, was I in for a special package that night.

The opening scene of the movie was undoubtedly a visual treat, promising good graphics and a cosmic epic to unfold. Set in the late 21st century, the story centers on a team of explorers discovering a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to some of the darkest corners of the universe on the spaceship Prometheus. Led to a distant world and an advanced civilization, the crew seeks answers to some fascinating questions like,

How did we originate? Who created us? Why are we here? What happens after we die?

I was hooked instantly. I sat there on the edge of my seat, impatiently waiting for the answers to unfurl. The Prometheus lands near a large artificial structure, inside which the crew finds numerous stone cylinders, a monolithic statue of a humanoid head, and a corpse of a large alien, thought to be an “Engineer”.

I must say, these “Engineers”, who are supposedly humanity’s forerunners or the creators of mankind, had a wicked sense of humour. They had these clean shaven heads, perfect ripped abs which you can only dream of, and strong, sturdy arms, but then, they decided to create us men with paunches, myopia and dandruff.  

Anyway, the crew finds several corpses and presumes the species to be extinct. But, an unexpected storm forces them to return to the Prometheus, leaving two members of the crew stranded in the structure. Until this point, everything was going fine. A decent sci-fi movie, I thought, with the story beginning to converge from various points.

Alas, the plot just disintegrates in the second half and the nightmare begins.

Director Ridley Scott conveniently forgets about the questions raised earlier in the movie by taking up a different story line. The whole scientific expedition financed by the devious capitalist, Weyland, has a secret agenda. Weyland just wants to ask the Engineers to prevent his death from old age. The Engineers, on the other hand, want to destroy humanity by releasing a dark, mysterious liquid, a virulent biological weapon on Earth. So, the Prometheus’s crew turns from research team to supreme defenders of humanity. The movie ends with the protagonist launching an Engineer spacecraft with an intention of reaching the Engineers’ home world to understand why they wanted to destroy humanity.

Let’s all bow our heads in silence for a minute to the wonderful plot and to the audacity of the director to suggest hints of an upcoming sequel.

However, there are a couple of scenes that I shall not be able to forget for quite some time.

One, no scientist would EVER remove his/her helmet in an alien atmosphere, no matter how breathable it is; and two, scientist or not, when a snake-like creature suddenly rises up from a dark fluid, you jump out of your skin, scream your guts out, grab your ass and run in the opposite direction. What does Mr. Cool Guy do in the movie? He gets entranced by the beauty of the slimy creature and walks slowly towards it with no protection or back up plan whatsoever, and almost intends to gush affectionately, “Oh, you cude liddle baby, come to daddy.”

No prizes for guessing, the creature goes through one hole on his body and comes out of another. Then, it displays its artistic nature by spraying out a corrosive fluid. There are more gut-wrenching scenes for the benefit of the viewers; squid-like creatures thrusting tentacles down the human’s throat, nose, mouth, chest, stomach, you name it.

It was only during the post movie discussion that I was made aware of the fact that Prometheus was a prequel to the well known Alien franchise. Apparently, this movie makes more sense to the “Alien” fans.

I have nothing more to say.

P.S. – Don’t even let me start about “The Amazing Spiderman”.