Prometheus
Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Logan Marshall-Green
****
The trouble with prequels is that, by their very nature, they're designed to strip away the mystery. Last year's The Thing, for example, set out to join the dots right up to the point John Carpenter's 1982 icy alien classic of the same name began. It's merely part of a larger Hollywood trend that sees screenwriters taught to explain, to answer, to solve riddles, to leave the audience without a shred of doubt.
So any trepidation that Alien fans may be feeling towards Ridley Scott's Prometheus is understandable, particularly as Scott has promised that, 33 years since his film Alien changed the face of science fiction movies, he will return to the franchise he started, to answer some burning questions. Not least, the origins of the so-called "Space Jockey" - the creature whose carcass is glimpsed briefly in Alien.
While Prometheus does indeed provide answers, at least the script by Jon Spaihts and the Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof makes a virtue out of this. Set primarily in 2093, some 30 years before Alien, the crew of the ship Prometheus, led by the archaeologist couple Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green), are travelling to distant moon LV-223 to uncover the origins of mankind and, quite literally, meet our makers.
Funding the trillion dollar trip is the Weyland Corp - the insidious "Company" from the original films - led by the ageing CEO Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), who has an agenda of his own. His agents on the ship include the mission director Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) and the lifelike android David (Michael Fassbender) - one of several reminders that while Sigourney Weaver's heroine Ripley is absent, we are very much still in the Alien universe.
For all the tangential links to the franchise, there are differences: the crew of Prometheus (led by Idris Elba of The Wire) is more A-list than Alien's cast ever was, and the tension and dread of the original is largely absent, simply because this is not a film full of acid-spewing, dome-headed aliens munching through the crew one by one. But if it's more sci-fi than horror, there are some shocking sequences, one involving a nail-biting self-surgery that will turn you inside out.
Performances are first-rate - particularly an eerie Fassbender - but what really impresses is that Prometheus is a film about ideas. Expanding on Alien's preoccupations - the very male fear of reproduction - Scott's return to this bleak, forbidding future world asks big philosophical questions about the responsibility of creation. As forensic as it is frenetic, it's as thought-provoking as blockbusters get.
Results
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The specs
Engine: 2-litre 4-cylinder and 3.6-litre 6-cylinder
Power: 220 and 280 horsepower
Torque: 350 and 360Nm
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Price: from Dh136,521 VAT and Dh166,464 VAT
On sale: now
MATCH INFO
Sheffield United 2 Bournemouth 1
United: Sharp (45 2'), Lundstram (84')
Bournemouth: C Wilson (13')
Man of the Match: Jack O’Connell (Sheffield United)
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
The Disaster Artist
Director: James Franco
Starring: James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogan
Four stars
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
RESULTS
6pm: Mazrat Al Ruwayah – Group 2 (PA) $40,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
Winner: AF Alajaj, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)
6.35pm: Race of Future – Handicap (TB) $80,000 (Turf) 2,410m
Winner: Global Storm, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
7.10pm: UAE 2000 Guineas – Group 3 (TB) $150,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Azure Coast, Antonio Fresu, Pavel Vashchenko
7.45pm: Business Bay Challenge – Listed (TB) $100,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: Storm Damage, Patrick Cosgrave, Saeed bin Suroor
20.20pm: Curlin Stakes – Listed (TB) $100,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner: Appreciated, Fernando Jara, Doug O’Neill
8.55pm: Singspiel Stakes – Group 2 (TB) $180,000 (T) 1,800m
Winner: Lord Glitters, Daniel Tudhope, David O'Meara
9.30pm: Al Shindagha Sprint – Group 3 (TB) $150,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Meraas, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.