A Controversial Sci-Fi Movie With A Perfect Score From Roger Ebert Is Streaming On Hulu

Ridley Scott's 2012 sci-fi film "Prometheus" is hotly contested by audiences. "Prometheus" is a prequel to Scott's 1979 classic "Alien," and it explores the origins of that film's central monster. In "Alien," the Xenomorph is presented as an ineffable and terrifying creature (part teeth, part aspic, part phallus) that a human crew just happens upon while on a routine deep-space mining expedition. Its origins are shrouded in mystery, making the creature, well, alien. "Prometheus," however, ignores the events of the "Alien" sequels before it, shifting backwards in time to about 30 years before "Alien." From there, it follows a different crew on a mission to find the extra-terrestrials that they believe were responsible for creating humanity in the first place.

Many fans of the "Alien" film series find "Prometheus" disappointing, especially those who prefer it when the franchise is more action-oriented and gun-forward, like in James Cameron's "Aliens." Scott's prequel, on the other hand, is slow-moving, heady, and features characters behaving illogically. Similarly, a mysterious black goo, which is discovered on the distant planet where most of "Prometheus" takes place, has a wide variety of mutagenic and reproductive abilities that are never properly explained. Other folks will likely bring up the film's climax, in which two characters running away from a massive, rolling, wishbone-shaped starship don't think to run at a 90-degree angle from its current path of movement. One needn't look too far to find someone who found the movie disappointing upon its initial release.

Certain critics, however, loved the film. The late Roger Ebert famously gave "Prometheus" four stars, admitting that its heady sci-fi ideas about the origins of life in the universe were like catnip for him. Currently, "Prometheus" has a 73% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is available to stream at your convenience on Hulu.

The plot of "Prometheus" is dripping with religious symbolism. The film opens on primordial Earth, whereupon a tall, statuesque, pale-skinned alien humanoid drinks an eerie, self-destructive liquid. The humanoid's body breaks down and melts into a nearby river, where its DNA is seen (in microscopic closeup) leaking into the ecosystem. This being, known as an Engineer, is seeding Earth with its own DNA. In millions of years, humans will evolve on Earth based on that imprint. The Engineers are our godlike creators.

Fast-forward to 2089, and a religious archaeologist named Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) has discovered ancient cave paintings indicating that the Engineers last visited Earth about 2,056 years before. Using the paintings as a map, she and a team of scientists board a ship (the U.S.S. Prometheus) to visit a distant planet where the aliens might have come from. What they find, however, is fraught with mystery and foreboding. They uncover the corpses of Engineers, as well as haunted-house-like repositories of semi-organic canisters. The scientists are semi-stoned and terrified, so they easily get lost, despite their best map-making tech.

A sinister android named David (Michael Fassbender) is also present, and he seems to know more about the mission than he lets on. He discovers the above-mentioned goo and begins secretly feeding it to his crewmates. The goo alters DNA and causes human bodies to act as cocoons for other, more terrifying alien monsters. Every non-Engineer monster they find on the planet seems to have evolved specifically to take human lives, either by violent attack or by more disgusting, forced-reproductive means. Elizabeth also finds that the Engineers fully intended to transport all these killer creatures to Earth. Why do the Engineers want to kill us?

It's heavily implied that the Engineers intended to exterminate humanity because we had the temerity to crucify Jesus Christ. Yes, "Prometheus" is that direct. Indeed, it's suggested that Jesus of Nazareth was actually an Engineer, likely sent to Earth to check up on the humans that his species created a few million years before (as seen in the prologue). When we rejected Christ's message of unity and love, the Engineers got mad and spent the next 2,000 years engineering special biological weapons. By extension, the alien Xenomorphs seen in "Alien" were just more weapons in that Engineer arsenal. It's worth noting that there are Christmas trees on board the Prometheus ship, further deepening the Christian connections. "Prometheus" is a Christmas movie.

Ebert loved that kind of thing and noted as much in his "Prometheus" review. He compared the movie to golden-age sci-fi stories and appreciated that "it raises questions about the origin of human life and doesn't have the answers." Ebert also wrote:

"The film then develops horror scenes comparable to 'Alien,' although it depends more on action and weaponry than that film's use of shadows and silence. For me, the most spellbinding scenes involve the crew members exploring the passages and caverns inside the pyramid, obviously unvisited in aeons, and their experiences with some of the hibernating alien beings."

Ebert was effusive, although he wasn't the majority. Some critics felt that the film was distant and illogical. Many, as noted above, disliked the movie's slow pace and lack of action. Online critics have made videos dissecting the film's supposed plot holes. "Prometheus" remains hotly contested to this day. 

Personally, though, I agree with Ebert. "Prometheus" is a stone-cold classic. Many of us are with Ebert.