Did it Ridley end like that?

Rating: 8/10 (16 July 2012)

*I would first just like to apologise for the horrendous punny title.
Unaware of its existence as a prequel to Ridley Scott's original 1979 Alien, I approached the "first screen on your right (enjoy the film)" unknowledgeable, with exceedingly high expectations due to the unconventional word of mouth, natural technique of marketing.
Aesthetically fulfilling does not do this picture justice. Its estimated $130 million budget enhances the attractiveness, but as we all know, money cannot buy personality. To commence, this film has a personality, a purpose, with an intriguing concept of space exploration in the hope of discovering mankind's greatest question of our existence, abolishing Darwinism in the process. Absurd right? Wrong, well wrong in terms of Ridley Scott's ability to explore some logic and reason behind the idea. Furthermore, we feel a great sense of humanity from our homo sapien (or not) protagonists, which brings it right back down to earth (pun intentional). Ironically however, our greatest sense of humanity establishes itself from our least human character, an android, David, portrayed by Michael Fassbender. His performance within the cast is that of a Usain Bolt on the race track, while the other racers are talented and adequate for their role, their names are forgotten amidst being outshined by the one, one step ahead of them in their respective profession.
Prometheus emerges as another I can add to my collection. Abstract noun. The collection is a thought, consisting of many recent pictures I have seen, embarking on a pattern of decline; decline of quality, of substance, originality and self interest. A scatter graph presenting a negative correlation, we started so well, so high, yet we fell, fell to where we began, at the bottom. Null hypothesis? Down to chance? Absolutely not, Scott and the writers are well aware of their decision to leave aspects of the plot unresolved, and motives of the characters unexplained in order to accommodate for a sequel which will reportedly fill the gap between Prometheus and Alien. Necessary? No. After a strong first 50 minutes or so, this picture's tragic flaw is its acknowledgement that there is more to come from the Alien story, though this should not excuse the fact that the narrative is left as open as the Universe we live in, the one they are exploring. This film has, excuse me, HAD, as much potential as the ambition of Elizabeth Shaw (played by Noomi Rapace) and Chris Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) in their determination to meet our 'engineers', our creators. It could be an advantage of not knowing Prometheus to be a prequel because it enables one to objectively review the film for what it is. What it is is a motion picture that was begging to conclude itself and the ongoing series. Had Scott and the producers done this, Prometheus would have been a stand alone prequel that exceeded audience expectations, as well as my own.
Sunshine + Alien vs. Predator = Prometheus is the best equation that can be used to describe the atmosphere outputted by the 30ft X 70ft screen (approximately). Forgive me for not having seen the 1979 original, so I can only assess this 2012 release against the more contemporary releases in the series, along with its similarities with the 2007 Danny Boyle sci-fi drama Sunshine. What does Prometheus equal? Unfortunately, too much of the prequel is left unanswered for that equation to be completed.