Trailer for 'Prometheus': First Look at Ridley Scott's Return to Science Fiction

COMMENTARY | The first trailer for the long anticipated return of film maker Ridley Scott to science fiction, "Prometheus," is now out. The film is set in the same universe as the "Alien" franchise and shares with those films the dark, cinematic style.

The story of the film, according to Yahoo Movies, concerns a group of space explorers in the later part of the 21st century which has traveled to another planet to terraform it for human colonization. They discover two things.

First they find evidence of aliens who are responsible for humankind's origin and its progress to a space-faring civilization. This is an old science fiction theme, most familiarly used in "2001: A Space Odyssey."

The second thing they find is a race of biomechanical killers which threaten the existence of the human race. This too is an old science fiction theme.

The trailer has all the elements of a Ridley Scott science fiction/horror epic. Everything is dark and dreary, whether it takes place on the star ship or on the planet, a frigid world that could certainly use a lot of terraforming.

There are shots of space explorers screaming, spacecraft crashing, a space suited guy grabbing his face plate, another space explorer being blown out the airlock, and anguished faces looking on with expressions of terror.

Ridley Scott has made two other dark science fiction films. "Blade Runner," a dystopian tale set in a Los Angeles of a few years from now, starred Harrison Ford as a government assassin who hunts down "replicants," androids who are caught illegally on Earth. "Alien" was the beginning of a franchise that has so far generated four films and a crossover film with the "Predator" about a crew of space explorers who unwittingly take on board an alien monster that picks them off one by one as they try to make it home.

From the few brief scenes in the trailer of "Prometheus," one can see parallels with "Alien." Once again a crew of space explorers find themselves in the heart of darkness out on the space frontier, suffering from hitherto unimaginable horrors. It will have a big budget and modern special effects for the purpose of scaring movie audiences out of their minds while, one would hope, providing some insight into some of the more cosmic questions.

Sources: The trailer for Ridley Scott's Prometheus is finally here! Carol Pinchefsky, Blastr, Dec 22, 2011

Prometheus, Yahoo Movies