Not quite stolen fire

Rating: 7/10 (1 June 2012)

There's no point crying over spilt milk and, after the Alien vs Predator outings, you could be forgiven for thinking that there wouldn't be another good movie in either series. With Ridley Scott at the helm Prometheus seemed like the perfect chance; and even with trailer upon revealing trailer you held out hope for the movie.
And, for the first two thirds, you were right to.
We can skip across performances quickly. Everyone is good, even when the script isn't perfect, but worthy of mention is Fassbender's awesome and creepily logical David, Theron's Vickers and Elba's, long in the tooth, Captain Janek. Rapace is good too, but she is so much in the mould of Ripley she doesn't stand out. If there's one complaint there are too many characters to keep up with and so fine banter is often lost, as the viewer is trying to catch up on each members motivations.
Music is oddly upbeat at times, but occasionally harks back to the series that spawned it. Direction and camera work is what you would expect from Scott and his team; simply stunning and often beautiful, even at the moments of true horror. There are even subtle nods to his own original, as well as the sequels (not the AvP Movies).
Where Prometheus is let down is with story and editing. Both of these sit reasonably well for the start and middle section of the movie, as long as you accept that none of these scientists have any common sense: Quarantine anyone? As you approach the end, and the inevitable links to the Alien films, the ball is dropped dramatically and continuity falls apart. There is no explanation why the planet visited by the Nostromo is so ravaged, why the planet number listing has changed, why the alien jockey does not die in the correct position on the ship or why the Nostromo failed to recognise the remains of the Prometheus. There is also the scene designed to kill off numerous characters you never knew, making you wonder why they were there in the first place. This may sound like geeky picking but, really, who was this film directed at?
Worse still is the editing. When Guy Pearce's oddly accented Peter Weyland is proved to be alive, and on-board, the whole ship seems to accept this without batting an eyelid. There is a rather pointless scene where Vickers is proved to be his daughter, Shaw seems to become close to invulnerable after a major operation and the aliens, who led them to this world, make no sense – especially when you take into account the opening scene. Even David's logic seems to fall through the floor and the whole film gets very jumpy, as if large sections are missing.
What Prometheus gives you is a better film than the cinema release of Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection but something that is well off the mark of Scott's own epic and Cameron's sequel. The shame is, with a little bit more thought, it could have been much better. However fans will still enjoy the experience, even if it is just so they can pick holes in it with their friends later.