Prometheus: Masterfully done, but dang-nab-it, I wanna know!

As planned, I went to see Ridley Scott's Prometheus last night. I will start by saying that I was not disappointed, though I was rather seething at the end.

In true Scott fashion, the story starts off slow, introducing you to the ship, it's crew, and it's mission. Some themes mimic Scott's first Alien movie. The crew is aboard a commercial vessel, there is some ulterior motive the crew is not being let in on, and they hastily run out and examine the very same moon. However, these are all minor plot devices in the story, and are quickly forgotten in the wake of what follows.

The evolution of the Aliens was masterfully done, developing them in such a way, that you see some resemblance, but they clearly aren't anywhere near what we know them to look like until the very end. Scott uses a detail that I personally had forgotten about to thoughtfully evolve his Alien species: the fact that they evolve by absorbing the DNA of their hosts. I'll admit, I was confused on how these white, long, squishy snake-like creatures were going to become the Aliens we know and love. True, they greatly resembled the Face-Huggers and Chest-Bursters of the first movie, but the further into the movie we get the longer you're spent wondering how and when they would evolve. (Unless, you know, you remembered that whole DNA stealing aspect that I forgot. :P) Then, BAM!, an Alien rips from a body, resembling an early form of the black, elongated skull, four limbed Aliens the franchise is famous for. Masterfully done Mr. Scott, masterfully done. (No sarcasm intended.)

The story's lead heroine, Elizabeth Shaw, is somewhat softer and more feminine than her future counterpart, Ellen Ripley, but no less brave, wise and determined. Some might say even more so, as you get to know her more deeply than Ripley, and get to see both her strengths and her weaknesses. We see her pain when (SPOILER: it is discovered that she cannot conceive children, despite desperately wanting to), and her strength and determination when she (SPOILER: later fights off members of the crew, who try to put her in cryo-stasis, so she can use a medical pod to surgically remove an alien fetus from her body). We see her weakness when (SPOILER: she risks her life to bring aboard an alien specimen by going back for it in a deadly storm), and her strength when (SPOILER: she, for all intents and purposes, sacrifices her own life by demanding the captain take down an alien vessel intent on bring destruction to Earth by blowing up their own ship).

At the end of the film, despite her obvious acceptance that it is the end, and her life will be over in a matter of a few short minutes, when given the choice to give up or fight back, she fights. (SPOILER: And instead of taking the easy route and going back to Earth, she instead chooses to find the 'Engineers' and, assumably, ask them WHY they want to destroy us). And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the part that pissed me off. Not because I didn't like it, not because I think it was the wrong way to go, not because I didn't believe it, but because I. Hate. Cliffhangers.

I know, I know, but it's Ridley Scott! And Aliens! What did you expect? But I got to watch the Alien movies all in a row. I didn't see any of them until 2010, so I never had to deal with any of that. I never had to wait to find out what happens, and I am horrifyingly impatient. I also got the "just watch Alien, that's the next one" answer, but Alien doesn't cover what happens to Shaw and David with the Engineers. We never get the answers she was looking for. And in all likelihood, that was the intent, but dang-nab-it, I wanna know!

So, I say, bring us more Shaw, bring us to the planet of Engineers, and bring us the answers she was looking for! ('Cause I wanna knnooowww! XP).