What is a Prometheus anyway?

The internet seems to be abuzz with twenty and thirty something geek men all jerking off to what will be this summers thinking mans blockbuster. Prometheus was initially supposed to be an Alien prequel directed by director Ridley Scott, who's work includes A Good Year, 60s dated brit cop show Z Cars, and the Hovis advert. In spite of his frankly terrible CV (Terrible, only because I have left out all his good films.) Geeks are going mental, my facebook feed looks a lot like people are expecting the second coming of Christ, and who knows, maybe he might decend from the heavens to watch Prometheus. Although it was supposed to be an Alien prequel, Scott simmered down the Alien references reducing the sauce of Prometheus to a film which "shares strands of Alien DNA."




With the huge amount of hype surrounding this film, I thought I would prepare for the backlash in advance, being the cynical fucker that I am; the problem is, secretly, I am one of those geeks that are quite looking forward to this one. I am torn between the man I've become and the man I wanted to become when I was a boy, before the priests touched me; which is the sort of thing Ridley Scott could direct his next film about.

So on to the main question this blog is asking about...

  What is a Prometheus anyway?

Prometheus is a mythical greek god who appears in Hesiod's Theogony, Occaisionally refered to as the creator of man but almost universally acredited for giving fire to man. something that he was punished for by Zeus, who didn't want man to have fire for some reason or another.

What does that have to do with Alien?

Good question! I'm not sure why but Ridley Scott's initial 1979 Alien had what appeared to be one of the most pointless diversions a film has ever had. When the crew discovered this weird thingy stuck to a chair with a hole in its stomach,(left) but this is where the Prometheus myth comes into play. One of the most enduring images of Prometheus the god is the punishment that Zeus handed him.

The manlike gigantic thing in Alien bares more than a passing resemblance to the portrayals of Prometheus which artists and poets have mused over for thousands of years; the titan who was tied to a tree having his ever regenerating liver pecked out by a giant bird of prey. There is no bird of prey present in Alien but there is a big manlike thing tied down with a hole in his belly. Prometheus has been many things over the six thousand years he has been dipicted and written about, a trickster who incurred the wrath of the most brutal god, a benefactor of mankind who gave the gift of knowledge and intelligence to mankind. He was revered by Karl Marx and apparently hated by Hesiod, but Hesiod was a miserable bastard anyway. It will be interesting to see if Ridley Scott manages to make Prometheus a sympathetic character but as far as I know he won't appear in the film, it is simply the name of the spaceship which Michael Fassbender and co touch down on to find life.

That's the myth but what is the actual film about?

In the late 21st century, a star map is discovered within the imagery of Aztec, Mesopotamian and Magdalenian cultures. The crew of the spaceship Prometheus is sent on a scientific expedition to follow the map as part of a mission to find the origins of mankind. Exploring the advanced civilization of an extraterrestrial race, they soon face a threat to humanity's very existence. Of course I haven't seen the film, so that whole spiel was stolen from wikipedia, which is the sort of thing a school child might do.

...and are there going to be Xenomorphs in it?

I don't know, I can't get my internet connection to work to look it up, talk to me in a minute.

is your internet connection working yet?

Yes, and to answer your previous question, No. Here is what Ridley Scott said in answer to that question.

"No. Absolutely not. They squeezed it dry. He
(the xenomorph) did very well. (He laughs)
He survived, he’s now in Disneyland in Orlando,
and no way am I going back there. How did he
end up in Disneyland? I saw him in Disneyland,
Jesus Christ!"

So are you excited?

hmm... well maybe just a little bit.