Not bad, but surprisingly superficial

Rating: 6/10 (15 December 2012)

Who would have thought that, after all the endless hype and speculation, PROMETHEUS would turn out to be run-of-the-mill? It turns out to be nothing more than a completely traditional, paint-by-numbers sci-fi movie with crew members of a spaceship getting killed off messily by some nasty parasitic alien things. As this is a prequel, there are few ties to the original Alien other than some slavish moments where things have to be set up ready to tie in to the beginning of that movie (same with THE THING prequel).
Ridley Scott seems to be impossible to gauge sometimes. He can make genuinely amazing movies, like GLADIATOR , and badly flawed movies like this and ROBIN HOOD. Sure, these latter films are entertaining on a superficial level, but they're the kind of work that a journeyman director would produce, not a supposed visionary like Scott. The best thing about PROMETHEUS isn't the direction, which is nondescript, but the calibre of the special effects, which truly are special. There are SFX here we've never seen the likes of before, with some of the best use of CGI I've witnessed.
A shame, then, that the aliens are so mundane, a simple riff on a thematic alien enemy that popped up on THE X-FILES fairly regularly over a decade ago. Surely with all the effects and imaginative minds involved they could have gone for something genuinely startling, instead of a type that's been done to death? The script is nothing to write home about either, with character models too obviously based on successful types in earlier movies and a general lack of depth for everyone involved. All too often the characters act in stupid ways that hasten their deaths, just the same as in a cheesy slasher sequel.
Noomi Rapace feels particularly awkward, especially given the effectiveness of her work in the MILLENNIUM trilogy. She stumbles and stammers her way through the film, too busy trying to enunciate to give us to time to sympathise or even like her. A particularly uninteresting Ripley clone, then. Michael Fassbender, unsurprisingly, gives the best turn as an android, and cast-wise that's as good as you're going to get. I did like Idris Elba, but why Guy Pearce is wandering around in some distracting old-man makeup I have no idea. As with many things in PROMETHEUS, it's a bit of a mystery!