A fun alien movie

Rating: 8/10 (15 June 2012)

Let's see this movie for what it is: a fun, gross, beautiful alien movie.
And, like its predecessors Alien and Aliens, this one is all about provoking and messing with our sense of being contained, clean and whole.
Various creatures bearing remarkable resemblances to the male and female reproductive organs attempt to penetrate, strangulate and grow inside the largely unsuspecting crew, especially in places where we would definitely not want aliens to be. All of this is packaged in a light and amusing story related to the origin of human life on earth.
(Some aspects of this movie's Panspermic theory, in particular how it focuses on human existence and totally ignores all other life forms on earth and their close relation to humanity, caused this biologist to giggle freely.)
The visuals are gorgeous. I loved the huge, magnificent, carved walls and statues. Also really liked the atmosphere of the planet and its caves. The ship was super expensive. Nothing looked cheap or tacky. I liked how gooey and icky and obviously-organ-derived the aliens were. You could really see the money dripping.
I loved the cast. I was totally rooting for them, specially Naomi Rapace's character, as she ... took care of herself... (audience members who are trained in physiology would giggle freely at those scenes, I suppose). Micheal Fassbender himself has said that he does "creepy and weird well," and, boy, does he ever. On one side I was awed and mesmerized by David (Fassbender), played perfectly by a robot....No, that was wrong, he played the robot perfectly -- but my error only proves how well Fassbender does it (amazing actor, by the way). David is cool, precise, highly capable, very charming, and incredibly confused. Although everyone keeps telling him that he can't feel anything, being a robot and all, we can all see that, indeed, he can definitely feel somethings.... And these somethings are what, on the other hand, kind of made me cautious and suspicious of David. Other than those two, I thought the Captain of the ship was cool, and that other woman played by Theron with aggression and crankiness was also cool.
A sequel is promised at the end, which is kind of an irritating way to end, but I still found it better than the "and then they got back to earth safe"-endings.
I suppose one could find themselves ultimately mislead by the very promising, mysterious tone of the start of the movie and also possibly by the advertising, as it promises the explanation of the meaning of everything (in a sci-fi tone, of course). I think it's actually kind of cute how this particular installment in a long line of cheesy alien movies feathers up to be akin to 2001: A Space Odyssey. I think that's one of the reason it was a lot of fun.