Better than the first time I watched it

Rating: 7/10 (26 October 2014)

When I first saw "Prometheus" a year and a half ago, I described it as a hodgepodge of bad ideas. Taking a second look at it now, I realize that my original views on the film were a little harsh. "Prometheus" in no way reaches the level that "Alien" and "Aliens" is on, but it is still an impressive movie with a few problems that do bog it down.
After discovering a series of similar drawings on location of ancient civilizations that never had contact with one another, two scientists, Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) believe the drawings are a map back to their creator's home world. Sponsored by Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), the crew of the Prometheus is sent to the location shown in the drawings to try and find the creators, who are dubbed engineers. Among the crew of the Prometheus is Vickers, a Weyland company employee named(Charlize Theron), an android named David (Michael Fassbender), Captain Janek (Idris Elba), a geologist named Fifield (Sean Harris), and a biologist named Millburn (Rafe Spall).
Like the original "Alien", it Scott makes the audience wait for the creatures to appear and the horror to start. Only after the movie is half over do we get the first casualties on the mission. The film also does have a scary premise that our creators are not happy with us, so they want to destroy us. The only problem with this is that the engineer who is trying to kill the crew of the Prometheus has no known motivation to do this.
A problem that I had that I've never seen anyone else bring up is the lack of relationship between the characters. Yes, Shaw and Holloway are in a relationship, but it never actually feels like they are. Vickers is actually Weyland's daughter, but they are given very little screen time together, and Weyland views David as the son he never had, which could of had potential for an interesting relationship between Vickers and David. Shaw discovers that David killed Holloway, but is barely shown angry at him, until the end when he needs help and it feels like it comes out nowhere.
Like most people, I think there were some dumb and confusing character moments in the film. Shaw and Vickers running in a straight line from the rolling ship is something everyone has pointed out, as is Millburn (the biologist) being scared off by a dead alien and then being interested in an alien snake creature. Fifield and Millburn get lost when the Prometheus has a sophisticated tracking system and Fifield has all the mapping equipment. David's motivation for infecting Holloway with the black goo is something that does not make a lot of sense.
The movie does have very impressive visuals and some strong performances, the best coming from Fassbender as David. The entire landscape of the world that the crew was on looked amazing and like it was really there. The movie also has the second best scene in all of the Alien franchise with Shaw getting the creature cut out of her.
The movie has a few problems that bog it down, but the movie is held up by its premise, the performances, the visuals, and Scott's superb directing. I didn't bring up anything about the loose ends because there were not as many as I remembered and none of them bogged the movie down for me. This is definitely a movie I like but I can understand why others might not.