10 OKAY Movies Elevated By ONE Phenomenal Performance

Prometheus actually has a pretty great cast with Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Noomi Rapace and Guy Pierce alongside Fassbender’s David. However, they’re either starved of screen time or too one note to shine, and so it’s all on Fassbender to carry this one.

Playing a humanoid robot, Fassbender has the difficult task of creating an AI with enough personality to pass for human while still keeping humanity at arms length. Star Wars and a few other sci fi movies have gone for a more jokey angle on this, something Fassbender does well to avoid.

With the possible exception of HAL in 2001 (who, conversely, is stripped of all humanity), Fassbender’s David might just be the most introspective robot ever put to film.

Fassbender so often has a rugged grit to him, in X-Men, 12 Years A Slave, Shame or Hunger. Here though, he’s almost ethereal. Prometheus received some criticism for abandoning Alien’s horror based roots, but Fassbender is inch perfect for the more ambiguous mystery themes Ridley Scott is after here.

It’s a shame that the movie falls short around him, as Michael Fassbender’s performance deserves to be as remembered as Sigourney Weaver’s as Ripley. Unfortunately, it probably won’t be.