Uneven but worth seeing

Rating: 6/10 (16 June 2012)

I guess I'm missing something as the average vote for this movie was 7.7 when I wrote this. I'm long enough in the tooth to have seen the complete Alien series on first release in the cinema and am a big fan. I'd read that "Prometheus" was conceived as a kind of prequel but subsequently gained a life of its own, so my hopes were high for great visuals and special effects (achieved) and a strong new storyline (not so much). I can't stand 3D so saw the movie in old-fashioned 2D. Somehow after a breathtaking and intriguing opening sequence the film ultimately seemed rather disjointed, as if Scott had shot a three-hour epic then edited it down crudely to around two to suit theatres. It was also curiously flat and uninvolving in its pace and the acting, with lame twists predictable from a mile off and even the leading two or three characters given little chance to develop as personalities and many just ciphers. Later I may come to see this as deliberate, perhaps part of an overall aim to show the human combatants as helpless pawns in a bigger game. Of course, the original "Alien" had the advantage of shock and awe, whereas audiences are maybe now too familiar with these landscapes and ideas to be impressed; Scott's back catalogue raises the bar really high for him! Finally on the downside, one odd thing was the curious lack of tension in the roving sequences. Much play was made of the hostile atmosphere but not until the very last minutes did this seem to threaten the combatants at all. Despite all I say above, this is still an interesting piece of work which looks great and I will no doubt be re-visiting it on DVD or TV very soon to find out what I missed first time around!