Prometheusbegan as a straightAlienprequel, and over the course of its development went further away fromRidley Scott’s classic 1979 sci-fi horror to become its own beast. It eventually reached the point where there are some slight nods toAlien, butPrometheusis a distant cousin at best and certainly one that’s nowhere near the quality of the film that inspired it.
It looks likePrometheus 2is pretty firmly set as Scott’s next film and will bring viewers a step closer toAlien, but only a step. Last month, he confirmed thatit will be his next movie, and he told Steve at TIFF that the film will explain why the Engineers created “such evil biology”. However, this sequel will still only be part of the lead-up toAlien. Speaking to FilmFutter [via The Playlist], Scott said:
“Prometheus has its own story to tell before it eventually ties into the movie that started it all…it won’t be in the next one. It will be in the one after this one or maybe even a fourth film before we get back into the ‘Alien’ franchise.”
And why exactly do we need all of this build up? Scott elaborated:
“The whole point of it is to explain the ‘Alien’ franchise and to explain the how and why of the creation of the Alien itself. I always thought of the Alien as a kind of piece of bacterial warfare. I always thought that that original ship, which I call the Croissant, was a battleship, holding these biomechanoid creatures that were all about destruction.”
This is Scott getting hung up on curious ideas that don’t seem to have any thematic weight whatsoever. Part of the xenomorph’s appeal was its mysterious nature. It was an unexplained terror. I don’t really care about how or why it has acid for blood or a spear-tail. Perhaps ifPrometheushad better set up its own story rather than rideAlien’s coattails, I would want to see the merits of that adventure, but as it stands, I’m certainly not excited for two or three more movies ofNoomi RapaceandMichael Fassbender’s severed head discovering why the Engineers thought likeH.R. Giger.
