Prometheus

Will Ridley Scott's return to space prove to be the game-changer many are predicting?

This summer Ridley Scott is returning to space, 33 years after he captained the mothership of horror/sci-fi movies, Alien. But will his long-awaited pseudo-prequel, Prometheus, be the game-changer many are tipping it to be?

On the evidence of the four trailers, three TV spots and two virals released thus far in the run up to the film's June 1 UK release, the 20th Century Fox marketing team are certainly stacking the odds in its favour. For those of you who have somehow managed to avoid the campaign, here's a quick overview of where Scott's latest sits within the Alien universe.

Prometheus takes place some 62 years after Peter Weyland’s infamous TED speech and approximately 37 years before the Nostromo first responded to the distress beacon on LV-426 in the original Alien film. Following the discovery of a starmap in the markings of ancient civilisations on Earth, two scientists (Noomi Rapace and Logan Marshall-Green) convince Weyland Corp to fund an expedition across the universe to discover the origins of mankind.

We’ve seen roughly five minutes worth of footage in total, but even at this early stage it appears Scott hasn't overlooked even the most miniscule detail. What's most intriguing, however, is the environment in which Prometheus unfolds – a world of tall grassy hillsides, expansive vistas and goliath set pieces.

And without a single xenomorph or facehugger in sight, it's clear that this isn’t your typical Alien franchise installment. That said, each trailer contains various aspects of the mythology from the original series. The breathtaking view of the elliptical alien ship, that Space Jockey, a gooey substance stringing between the fingertips of Michael Fassbender's android crewmember. It might not be Alien as we know it, but Prometheus has definitely got Alien in its DNA.

Perhaps the most promising conclusion to draw from all of this is that Scott hasn’t returned to space after more than three decades just to do the same thing all over again. Rather, it seems Prometheus is daring to do something on a grander scale; to answer some of the biggest questions that have been left dormant for so many years. Who or what was the Space Jockey? How did Weyland Corp. know about LV-426? Where did these hostile creatures come from? What is mankind's link with the xenomorphs?

What began as a fanboy’s wet dream come true has in recent months transformed into something much, much bigger – a film that looks set to push the boundaries all over again. But what are your hopes for Scott's latest space odyssey, and what have you taken from the trailers?