Fails to juggle thinking and thrills but a great film nonetheless.

Rating: 7/10 (8 June 2012)

Science fiction has always balanced and blended the idea of presenting a thought-provoking subject matter with entertainment and everything that's ever been labelled 'sci-fi' has leaned a little more towards one than the other. Prometheus attempts a balance of these two that is rare for a visual presentation of sci-fi,and unfortunately suffers for it somewhat. But it is still ultimately a highly entertaining film.
I won't dwell much on the technicalities as they've already been covered, to summarize: The performances are solid overall with Fassbender and Rapace the unquestionable highlights, both are stellar in their roles. The plot is somewhat less firm, several characters don't act realistically and there are holes (not glaring errors but they are there). The visuals are nothing short of jaw-dropping and extremely well presented.
These things have already been said by others, but I'd like to defend Prometheus from the surprising number of negative reviews I'm seeing on here. All of 'great' sci-fi films from Hollywood in the past have had very little actual sci-fi in them. Certainly the idea of space or a near future provides unique thematic elements and settings, but films like 'Alien' (which everyone seems to lord over poor Prometheus) is barely sci-fi at all. It was a horror film first and foremost and its goal was to entertain. Prometheus has the exact same goal but instead of being a pure horror film, it attempts to engage the audience with some interesting questions regarding what it means to be human, a classic science fiction subject.
Does it do it well? Not really. Its vague pseudo-philosophical bent falls pretty flat and only distracts from the action, and i'm sure it would make a better film if it was cut out entirely. But I want to acknowledge and admire the effort, even if it didn't really work out, of adding some actual sci-fi to a big budget Hollywood movie. From what i'm seeing the poor handling of these themes is what has upset people, yet the films requirement that it be an entertaining thrill ride similar to previous films like Alien are what prevent theme from being explored in a much more effective and deeper fashion. Prometheus's only fault is that it tries to balance thrilling entertainment with deep thinking in a genre where it would seem that being truly great requires you to chose one.
So don't go into the theatre expecting the answers to the universe, just a really great film with just a bit more brains behind it than usual.