It Should Have Been A Masterpiece

Rating: 4/10 (3 June 2012)

Where to start? It doesn't take an Alien fan, or even a film fan to know Prometheus is a big event. It's every bit as visually stunning as the trailer suggested, Fassbender is as every bit effortless as everyone has mentioned, but every problem that it suffers circulates back to its script.
The writer, Damon Lindelof, doesn't shake his typical Lost quandary of asking twice as many questions, to half as many answers meaning it is simply a starting point to a franchise. Example (spoiler-free), a 'twist' occurs towards the start of the third act involving two major characters that adds absolutely no narrative significance. It's as if Lindelof decided interjecting something, even as tenuous as this, was better than having nothing at all.
Alien seems an appropriate parallel but Alien is entirely different. Claustrophobic, tense, characters who we cared about, feared for, who spoke wonderful dialogue (my personal favourite, Ash calling the xenomorph "Kane's son" – simple, brilliant). None of this is in Prometheus, even the main characters are largely underdeveloped. It's a series of issues that don't evolve – Shaw's Christianity completely unchallenged, David's allegiance never really brought into light (less enigmatic, more irritating) it sets up great ideas, but ones that never formulate beyond the 'Why?' stage.
And scares? All would agree Alien maintained an unwavering level of fear by revealing so little. Prometheus has it on full display, leaving nothing to the imagination. CG may be an innovation, but is sure as hell overkilled what would have been more effective through minimalism. It's interesting that the most horrifying scene involved no extra-terrestrial life, just a person against another person.
This rant would make it seem like Prometheus is a bad film. This is not the case. But there is so much wrong with it, so much that makes six months hype evaporate within two mere hours, it's a film that should have been a reward after enduring the latter two entries of the Alien franchise. But it's muddled, often silly, and generally an upsetting experience.