Forget the countdowns and the vague teases and the bootleg shot-on-a-cell-phone versions. Thanks to Apple.com, the first trailer for Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus” is live and online, and it’s a trip.
I guess at this point, all the games that Fox and Scott have been playing about “is this an ‘Alien’ prequel or not?” seem silly, because it’s screamingly apparent from the trailer that this is set in the same general reality. My guess is they just don’t want to use the word “prequel” because of the expectations that sets about things tying together neatly. This does not appear to be a story all about setting up the specific incident on the Nostromo in the original 1979 film, but rather a story about what led to a world where that incident could have happened at all.
What excites me here is the scale of this and the idea that we’re getting the sort of strange and heightened SF that seems to barely exist these days. It’s a chilly trailer, designed to unsettle and tantalize, and it does both quite well.
You have to look closely if you want to see Charlize Theron or Michael Fassbender or Noomi Rapace, because they’re not really introducing them as characters in this trailer. Nor are they particularly interested in selling you on the storyline. This is all mood and atmosphere and striking landscapes and what the heck is with that giant head and that sort of thing. It’s gorgeous, and I can’t wait to see these sets and these other worlds that Scott’s brought to life.
More than anything though, I just love that it feels like a SF film with some reach. That title is very provocative even as it’s ridiculously on the nose. I love it. I love that it is clearly about what happens when our scientific reach exceeds any rational grasp and things backfire on us.
I want to know very little about this film before I see it, and this trailer is the perfect mix of reveal and tease.
“Prometheus” arrives in theaters June 8, 2012.