Scarce Entertainment

Rating: 6/10 (9 December 2012)

Standing on the shoulders of the original 1979 Alien film, the 124 minutes set aside for this story attempts to introduce us to our "maker" . Whether or not this tale is worth spending twice as long as you would in church on Sunday depends on how big of a fan of the original film(s) you are.
In the beginning, we find ourselves in the familiar setting of a deep- space ship with a cryogenically frozen crew as we land on a planet, far, far away from our own Earth. As the crew comes to, Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (NoomiRapace) believes that she has finally found the "engineers" of the human race, and is anxious to take full advantage of meeting them face- to-face. The mysterious David (Michael Fassbender) is a remarkable android, more interesting than the rest of the crew, and is programmed for a very different agenda. Meredith Vickers (CharlizeTheron) at first seems to be an integral part of the story, but never seems to amass any value, unless in the sequel perhaps? Tell me if you've heard this one, when the crew learns that they are not alone on this planet, things finally get interesting.
The direction was good and the performances were solid. I'm actually now a big fan of Noomi Rapace who was the body of the film. I can see her becoming a sci-fi icon like Sigourney Weaver. It's really too bad that when the film finally gripped me, other than the normal horror fare, it was about 60 seconds from the ending. They should have started this movie at its end. Cheers to a potentially thrilling and meaningful sequel!