Entertaining Sci-Fi, Let down by bad script and acting.

Rating: 6/10 (2 January 2013)

Let me start by saying that I am not a die hard Alien/Ridley fan, so I like to believe that I'm giving a relatively open-minded review that views this movie as a film in it's own right and not a pre-cursor to the classic movie Alien.
Many people were disappointed by this, because of it's legacy, and it's promise. It was a prequel to a great film, by a great director, and it had some great marketing, but the film itself just was not that great. If you compare this to Alien, it falls short big time, and thus I will not compare them - It's only fair to examine this film as a film in it's own right as well as an accessory.
Anyway, the one thing you instantly notice from the get-go is just how beautiful this film is. I mean really, the opening 5 minutes are truly astounding. The cinematography and editing for the most part are picture perfect - really enjoyable for camera and film buffs like myself.
As the film progresses, we meet the crew, who all seem to be airlifted straight out of 'sci-fi cliché's 101'. We've got the cold, takes no sh*t female captain, The cocky overzealous 'all guns blazing' badass, The nerdy Asian co-pilot, The cheeky sarcastic android, The beefy black guy with an attitude. And really, apart from David the android, the characters are all pretty dull and un-developed. You really get no insight into any of the characters at all, and they are generally all portrayed less than brilliantly by their respective actors.
For the most part this can be blamed on the script - it's generally solid enough, but there is some real half-assed writing going on in there. Many of the characters lines are predictable and corny, and it all feels very unnatural. The conversations don't really flow, and there is surprisingly little exposition, considering the film had a lot of information to convey.
However, if you can look past the B-level writing an acting, there is a very solid movie underneath. It's not ground breaking by any means, but it's certainly entertaining from start to finish, has plenty of action and plenty of intrigue. Some parts of the film are a little OTT, and the film seems to have trouble building any kind of tension, but overall I did enjoy watching Prometheus, and will definitely watch it again in the future. Definitely not a timeless classic, but certainly a film worth checking out if you're into sci-fi.
6/10