enjoyable but disappointing

Rating: 6/10 (9 June 2012)

I went to see this movie without knowing much of the script or even if it was an Alien prequel, i heard some rumors that it was and the name sure brought me back some memories.
It starts a bit awkward, with this huge E.T. drinking some boiling "sake" from otter space only to desintegrate himself in a huge waterfall.
Confused from the beginning, i became even more confused as the movie rambled on with strange decisions from crew members, lack of logic in many parts and general lack of direction.
Without going into many details, i doubt that in 82 years from now we have the kind of ships portrayed in the movie.
I doubt even more that human beings are capable to withstand a baby pop-up cirurgy in 2 minutes and run, hop and jump in the next minutes like nothing ever happened.
Major faults:
The giant Alien dude dies inside Prometheus instead of being in his chair when the alien pops out of his belly (like he was shown in "Alien") - strange decision since Ridley took the trouble of detailing the chair, suit, ship and even Helmet only to strip him out again and kill him far from the alien ship
The belly operation was ridiculous
Robot made no sense in his intentions: i don't understand if he was just following directives, trying to bring a species back home or trying to destroy it (ping-pong beta model?)
Charlie transformation after being cremated was a stupid move, i swear it almost ruined the movie right there, but thankfully he never appeared again
The 2 crew members in the cave that suddenly want to bail out just because they find out they weren't there just for rocks (what the hell???)
Lack of enthusiasm from the biologists who wanted to meet their makers and yet wanted to run away or even destroy them at the first sign of danger
Aliens had the technology to build very advanced ships with very detailed space travel menu-holograms, only to have very primitive holograms whenever they appeared in action
Apparently aliens film themselves all the time (with terrible quality holograms) including on how to operate their ships (this was by far the most awkward ship-manual method i ever saw)
After all the mess, Shaw wanted to go back to the planet of the same beings that wanted to destroy her (yeah right...) - very forced excuse for a sequel
A crew that, realizing their warship sucks (no major weapons hint hint), volunteers to destroy the alien ship with their own ship, risking their lifes..... right... forced patriotism here we go again (Independence day 2?)
Some music elements were way off, sounding like a G.I. Joe movie
Technology seems light years ahead from the "Alien" movie - they could have disguised more the suits, computers and all that stuff so it felt more in line with the original movie
Planet is huge and yet they amazingly land the aircraft exactly in the spot where the alien ship is standing (even not knowing there was a space ship there), just because Charlie thought it was the perfect place to land (riiiiight)
Guy Pierce used as an old man (he sounded ridiculous). Why the hell didn't they use a real old man instead? By the way, why the hell was he hiding/pretending he was dead in the first place? After all he was financing the whole operation!
Good points:
Some music elements, dark themes were well used here and there.
Very good CGI special effects: I liked the giant Alien looks and the huge "face huggers" (although nothing beats a good old Alien look)
The "cave", alien facilities, ship & atmosphere were well conceived, although i would have made it even more darker putting more emphasys on suspense & detail (you hardly know whats in the ceiling or whats that strange sculpture on the wall)
Very good acting by Fassbender, the best actor in the movie and a major role well deserved
All in all, an entertaining movie but the faults are so obvious even a blind man would notice them.
The sequel will come, for sure... but if there aren't original Aliens there, i doubt it will have the same impact: this giant Alien lacks the charm of the classical "Alien" series, perhaps the most successful creature ever created in cinema.
I sincerely hope there's a director's cut to this, to somehow redeem the script gaps and explain what the hell was going on in the head of this crew, alien & even Ridley Scott to release such a faulty "vehicle" to the public.
But.. then again, perhaps Ridley will be known for the director who used to do things perfect in the old days ("Alien", "Blade Runner", "Gladiator") but now needs a director's cut in every movie he makes to bring some sense to them and make them somehow better or even great (like in "Kingdom of Heaven")