Fantastic visuals, brain-dead script

Rating: 5/10 (11 June 2012)

At the Theater- "Prometheus"- Outstanding cinematography and razor sharp special effects work is completely undermined by a brain-dead script. Although there are many references and a ton of familiar designs that call to mind the previous films in the "Alien" franchise, I wouldn't call this a direct prequel to the 1979 film- too much doesn't add up. It boasts an impressive cast- though their roles and motives come across as shallow, pale imitations of some of the excellent characters we've come to know (some we've come to love) in "Alien" and "Aliens". It's just not what it should have been and reminded me more of Paul W.S. Anderson's "Event Horizon" in nature.
There are far too many of those massive lapses in logic (coupled with a slew of glaringly obvious continuity errors) that typically plague teen slasher flicks present here- "Wow, lookit that neato snake-lamprey-eel thingy... lemme try to pet it!" or, "WTH, I just saw a tiny worm poke out of my eyeball... no worries, it'll probably just go away." Some of the decision making by "characters who should know better" is grade-Z awful. I'm sitting there thinking to myself- '33 years after Ridley Scott Directed Alien, this is the script that pulled him back to it? You gotta be kidding me...'
Noomi Rapace (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) is solid- though her character isn't really allowed to go into full kick-ass "Ripley" mode here, she does convey frantic desperation quite believably. There is an impromptu abortion scene that will have you squirming something fierce. Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class) does his best Peter O'Toole impersonation as the obligatory android (an undercooked mixture of Ian Holm from Alien and Lance Henrikson from Aliens) of this space jaunt- he's merely serviceable. Charlize Theron's corporate shrew walks around rather stiff and mysterious- she's someone you never really care about or completely understand. Idris Elba only has a handful of brief scenes as the ship's Captain (Tom Skerritt in Alien, anyone?)- his "Texas" accent is unnecessary and out of place. Logan Marshall-Green (Devil) is completely forgettable and Guy Pearce's old-man makeup would be the only effects failure, IMO. Patrick Wilson shows up in a quick cameo. A few of the characters/crew milling about in the background could have easily been excised and you wouldn't have noticed.
Although the effects work involving the "creatures" is first rate, the designs are somewhat lackluster and they're only on full display for a few moments- I have a hard time believing that they'll "haunt" anyone in any capacity...
It's implied that we'll be subjected to a sequel to this film, but I'm not really caring where it goes from here. I'm sure that Ridley Scott will have a Director's Cut released at some point in the future, though there's nothing that I can possibly foresee that could be added to fix all the issues I had with the existing film. Needless to say, it's a disappointment.
Prometheus- 6.0 outta 10
Alien- 9.0 Aliens- 10 Alien 3- 5.0 Alien Resurrection- 5.5