Most of the words spilled over Ridley Scott’s remake/sequel/prequel (take your pick; it doesn’t matter) of Alien have to do with its efficacy as a reiteration or as a stand-alone sci-fi horror movie.  But both movies are ruthlessly manipulative, devoid of internal logic, and utterly dependent on surprise penetrations of the frame lines from off-camera for “boo!” effects.

            But Prometheus does serve as a marker in Hollywood’s reckless drive towards complete abstraction. Most of Scott’s creative energies are expended on scale in the simplest sense of the word; showing stuff big, then bigger, then biggest.  The movie climaxes with the appearance of a huge, horseshoe-shaped spacecraft that does more rolling than flying.  The escaping humans are nearly microscopic, which is just the way Scott likes them, those “ants” we see from skyscraper windows.

            Welcome to a celebration of the 1%.