[pruh-mee-thee-uhs]

Prometheus in greek mythology was a Titan who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to the mortals. For this outrage, Zeus had him tied to a rock while an eagle ate his liver for the rest of eternity...

If this wasn't enough of an epic prologue to the name Prometheus, than the trailer for Ridley Scott's possibly-is-possibly-isn't-precursor-to-Alien should be the tipping point. This film is going to be great.



Now Empire magazine has already dissected this trailer and a number of youtube vids have followed suit so I'm not going to repeat what is already offered. Instead my take on this is from the angle that I originally intended this blog to be about; design.

So let's get straight into it:
STYLE:
It's debatable whether you would design a films aesthetic looks to be an obvious reference to a previous film in a series because it has to actually fit this existing world or whether you are taking the nostalgic route for a specific fanbase. Needless to say the entire trailer has the same feel and look to it as the Alien trailer and feature did back in 1979. It's more than likely that the designers Giger, Ron Cobb, Moebius and Chris Foss to name a fiew have not worked on this film but the many artists from David Vyle Levy to Ben Procter can be trusted to bring this familiar world back in a great way. Besides, with Ridleys background being in design, it would be fair to say if he had all the time in the world he could take on all design roles himself if he wanted to. Looks great so far Ridley...

SPACE:
We see space and if it makes sence to readers this looks like 1970s space. This is a quiet place. It's not hightened by fast paced Star Wars prequel action scenes or mad cap explosions. This looks like it resembles the sci-fi we loved from the late 70s when 12 foot miniatures would silently loom past the camera into an endless star covered canvas.

VEHICLES:
Again a feeling we have come straight off the Nostromo and found some similar craft. These ships including the trucks have the bulky quality as previously seen. In particular, the trucks and machinery is more likely to remind people of the military feeling James Cameron went for with his sequel. Looks cool all the same in particular the use of the Weyland logo (the evil corporation with sinister plans in all the Alien films)...

LANDSCAPE:
The terrain and atmosphere has been compared to LV-426 the original Alien planet. Certain shots do bare resemblances to this but Im not sure about one of the more sandy backdrops where a vehicle heads back to a landing ship. All the same these environments look like great locations for some great action pieces as we see later in the trailer.


As my next post will mention I loved Super8 this year and that was suited to my nostalgic sensibilities as does this trailer. Plus it's Ridley Scott back where he first broke out.
Can't wait...