A very mysterious movie. But not in a very good way.

Rating: Null/10 (13 April 2013)

I absolutely love the first two Alien(s) movies, and at least like all of the rest, in a popcorn kind of way. This one is enjoyable in many ways, but I can see why many people got so worked up hating it. It's got flaws.
Good points: Very cool special effects. Some of the same buildup of creepiness that you felt in Alien/Aliens. Good to get the backstory on the Weyland corporation.
Bad points: Characters do things that make absolutely no sense. The last time I saw space explorers test the air on an alien planet by taking a deep breath was in Galaxy Quest -- and that was a comedy. My 5-year old niece treats broccoli with more caution than these scientists show in handling oozing alien substances. And the way they go around an alien-built complex randomly pushing buttons and opening containers made me laugh. What could go wrong?
My biggest issue with this movie, however, was that there is no real protagonist. The main characters are not particularly smart, gutsy, appealing or virtuous. There's a Hicks-like character who appears near the end, but where's the Ripley-equivalent character? The main character, a bit of a helpless scientist, manages to live to the end of the movie, but seems to do so mostly by blind luck. She's literally a bystander in what I assume were meant to be some key scenes near the end.
For that matter, there's hardly even a villain. Most of the bad guys aren't so much sinister as just kind of small-mindedly violent, including the big albino aliens. It felt like they made the movie with whatever aliens showed up at the casting call.
All that being said, this was visually very interesting, and at the very least it made me curious about where the story will go. Please, please let it go somewhere coherent!