Yet another director sells out his legacy.

Rating: 1/10 (2 January 2013)

Biggest disappointment of all the films I viewed over the New Year was Prometheus, which was a load of rubbish from beginning to end. A story that followed the same beats as Alien, with cardboard characters who have a tendency to do the stupidest thing possible at all times, the worst ageing make-up since Back to The Future pt II, an almost total absence of suspense or drama, and about as much atmosphere as Sponge Bob Squarepants! In short a fourth rate rip off of Alien and a sixth rate rip off of 2001. Having forked out my cash for the blue-ray edition I've never felt so short changed and ripped off by a movie as this.
Let's start with Michael Fassbender's android character David, and his love of Lawrence of Arabia; he appears to have watched only half of that movie judging by his character. Major writing problem with David - just compare this blandest of androids with the skilfully layered performances of Ian Holm and Lance Henricksen. Even when he's supposed to be sinister he isn't. "Try harder" is something the script-writers could have done with heeding themselves.
And though the film is set about 30 years before Alien the technology on display here is vastly better. Hell all the crew of The Nostromo needed was some of those bouncy red ball thingys to map everything out. No need to go to the alien ship at all. The whole mystique of the "Space Jockey" is completely destroyed by this movie. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. The motivations of the Engineers are utterly murky and the scientific rationale behind their genetic engineering of humanity is just plain wrong. Mr. Scott do you think a lot of your audience is stupid? Plainly you do. Human DNA ancestry can be traced back millions of years, not two thousand.
Poor old Guy Pierce must be in need of a job to accept the role of the ancient Weyland. Indeed they all must have been to play such uninteresting characters. Dr. Shaw heads off into the wide blue yonder at the end, searching for The Engineers. No emotional trauma at all after her Ceasarean of an alien-type creature in her womb. Indeed, she even takes the guy who tried to let the fetus grow along with her. Yeah, right. How do these guys get such highly paid script writing jobs?
Charlize Theron appears even more robotic than David - a Hitchcock blonde in the wrong movie. She's always good for a few laughs. The alien ship is navigated by playing a flute solo. Presumably a Will Ferrel cameo.
As a result of all this I've made a New Year's resolution not to see a franchise movie unless it's proved itself a good film. I'm going to totally ignore The announced new Bladerunner films as a result of watching this - Scott will only screw it up, and in doing so with this turkey he's now joined a lengthening list of film makers who just want to sell out and cash in on their legacies.