This 2012 sci-fi masterpiece is now the top movie on Netflix

Well over a decade over it first came out in theaters in 2012, Prometheus — director Ridley Scott’s return to the Alien universe — is the number one movie on Netflix, according to FlixPatrol, which keeps tabs on these sorts of things even if streamers like Netflix don’t share all their data.

Prometheus was added to Netflix in several countries in February, and clearly, people were eager to buy what it was selling. Prometheus’ newfound popularity provides a good excuse to look back on this ambitious, strange, divisive movie.

Prometheus still works all these years later

The sci-fi action epic that makes you think

Prometheus is about a group of scientists who board a ship of the same name and go out looking for the origin of mankind, which we learn may have been created by an alien species known as the Engineers. But you know what they say about meeting your heroes…The Engineers may well not feel kindly towards their wayward progeny, especially after they see that we’ve been making our own children. One of the most important characters in Prometheus is David (Michael Fassbender), a lifelike android who was created by humans but who is largely unimpressed with them. After developing his own personality and ego, he starts hatching plans his human creators surely wouldn’t like.

Prometheus is a movie with a lot on its mind. The Engineers created humanity and we created androids. What is the responsibility of the progenitor species to the offspring? Do we treat our creators like gods or take them as proof that we live in a godless universe? And what children might an android like David bring forth?

The story is told beautifully by Ridley Scott, who’s in full command of his gifts as a director here. The world of Prometheus is grand, eerie, and weird. You’ll regularly be knocked out by the gorgeous cinematography. At other times, the unsettling tone will have the hairs on the back of your neck standing up.

Prometheus is still controversial all these years later

What kind of Alien movie is this?

Prometheus got pretty good reviews when it came out, with pretty much everyone loving the lush production design, the ambition, and Michael Fassbender’s performance. But some critics thought the film dragged under the weight of its own pretensions. Is this an action-packed sci-fi blockbuster or a ponderous exploration of the meaning of life? It tries to be both, and not everybody thought it struck the right balance.

Another problem — or at least, something that caught people off guard at the time — is the fact that while Prometheus is set in the Alien universe, it seemingly has little to do with any of the previous Alien movies, although there are references. In the very first Alien movie, also directed by Scott, we see a large dead humanoid alien in a crashed spaceship; this, we later realize, is an Engineer. But the franchise is called “Alien,” not “Engineer,” and some fans wondered why Prometheus didn’t include any of the franchise’s famous Xenomorphs, the vicious alien beasts who had tormenting characters like Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) since 1979. The movie does include a kind of proto-Xenomorph, but it’s not the same.

Prometheus also ends in a way that clearly sets up more movies, which may irritate people who want a stand-alone adventure. It did eventually get a follow-up called Alien: Covenant in 2017. That movie also ends with a lot of things unresolved, and unfortunately there’s no sign of a follow-up in sight.

Prometheus deserves this new burst of popularity

Time has been good to it

Looking back, Prometheus feels a bit like an original sci-fi movie that was forced to be an Alien movie, which accounts for why people were a little taken aback when it first premiered. But if you approach it as more of a standalone story, it works better. Now that so many years have passed, people know how to watch this movie, and clearly they’re enjoying the chance.

Meanwhile, the actual Alien franchise has fallen off a bit since Prometheus came out. The latest entry, the TV show Alien: Earth, built up to a bit of an anticlimax, which makes you nostalgic for the days when the franchise was at least taking big swings with films like Prometheus. At the moment, Alien’s longtime rival the Predator franchise is getting the best of it.

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Prometheus around the globe

Although Prometheus is the number one movie on Netflix around the world, it’s not actually available to watch everywhere in the world; namely, viewers in the United States can’t watch it at the moment, although maybe after seeing how well it’s done elsewhere Netflix will try to change that.

But in many other places, the movie is doing gangbusters business. At the moment, it’s number one is Bulgaria, Egypt, and Lithuania, and was very recently number one in countries like Australia, New Zealland, Coatia, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Poland, Serbia, Qatar, and the United Arb Emirates.

The original Alien movie also didn’t get the respect it deserved; it’s one of several sci-fi films that should have been a shoo-in for a Best Picture Oscar but that didn’t even get nominated. Today, it’s considered a classic. Perhaps Prometheus can follow in its footsteps.