A rehash of Alien, minus the cat

Rating: 5/10 (1 June 2012)

Throughout the years I came to consider Alien and Blade Runner more as exceptions than as standard Ridley Scott masterpiece productions. Therefore, I did not have high expectations for Prometheus.
Nevertheless, it was with some anticipation that I joined a crowded audience for the premiere of Prometheus in Brussels. I watched online the promotional "teasers" about "David" and about the fictional 2023 speech for TED, delivered by Guy Pierce (as Peter Weyland) and I was hoping for some new concepts to be developed.
Turns out, those two teasers were – almost – the best part of the movie. I cannot but agree with most other reviews so far. Great photography and CGI, poor story.
The movie opens with an enigmatic sequence about DNA merging, which is left unexplained. What follows is a rehash of the Alien plot. Namely: assorted crew sent for an undisclosed mission; mysterious android who might have a hidden agenda; spunky heroine; a hasty exploration leading to infiltration of alien material; dire events that cause the extinction of almost all the crew does that remind you of Alien or I am biased? Only this time there are no pets on board and I really miss the cat Jones.
The distinctive qualities of Prometheus are few. The crew is supposed to explore the planet from which humankind originated, thanks to alien "Engineers". I guess this should be the great twist – looking for the creator rather then stumbling upon the destructor. Unfortunately the development and outcome are very similar to Alien, with zero depth attached to the philosophical quest.
Frankly laughable, even at fictional level, the way the so-called scientists explore the alien artifacts and analyze the samples they collected. Indeed, some of the scenes cause unintentional amusement When the spaceship lands, even if the "scientists" are told there are only few hours of daylight left, they rush out like children to investigate the alien "building". Once inside, they touch everything around them, sticking their fingers everywhere. Two of them manage to get lost, even if they are carrying very sophisticated directional equipment...
Worth mentioning a creepy scene of the Engineers escaping along dark corridors and the tri-dimensional space map (as mentioned, the visual part is terrific). Also the enigmatic android David. He is truly the star of the movie, and it is not a good sign when an android is the most interesting "character" of a movie. The Rapace character – "scientist" Elizabeth Shaw – is not so successful.
If you saw Alien you might not be so impressed by Prometheus. Perhaps young audience will like it better, but what I start to find tiring in the Alien universe is that we still have no clue about how all this started or is going to end. And sometimes closure is really needed.