Dumb and Dumber go to Space

Rating: 5/10 (6 July 2012)

CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS
When I saw the production poster for 'Prometheus' I was filled with awe, but I was ultimately disappointed by a weak story and a weaker script. Decent CGI and decent performances by some of the actors help, but not enough to save the movie from being an incredible disappointment.
The movie suffers from many plot holes which could have been easily filled. These have been well-documented by other reviewers, so I'll only add one one that no one else has raised: Supposedly the 'space engineer' at the beginning sacrificed his body to give DNA to start life on the planet. But look at the vegetation that surrounds him: That has the same DNA with the same building blocks. His 'sacrafice' is redundant. I know it's a movie and not a science lesson, but a science adviser could have easily corrected those sort of gaffes (for example, by suggesting they not show plants).
'Prometheus' promised answers but didn't deliver. Director Ridley Scott has in fact revealed in interviews the background story. Here it is and I warn you that it contains MAJOR SPOILERS: The space engineers seed planets with DNA to bring them to life. When we humans got too warlike they sent 'Space Jesus' to Earth to calm them down. Of course we killed him (sorry!), and for that reason the space engineers decided to wipe us out.
Scott said he didn't state this explicitly in the movie because it was over the top. But having left it out he didn't provide an alternative, making the motives of the space engineers incoherent.
Evidently the audience was supposed to guess this from the movie. To be fair the 'we did something wrong 2,000 years ago' was a pretty big clue and he left a lot of religious symbology in there (washing feet, crucifixion). But Scott's Space Jesus doesn't make sense either: The space engineers are a pretty violent bunch, as are the exterminator aliens they bred for the job. Even if they want to 'reset' life on the planet as the Android suggests, how are they going to clear out their exterminator aliens once they've done their job? Scott really should have made sure the story made sense before he started filming.
The story has enough problems, but the screenplay is worse. It is inconstant. It doesn't make sense. It lacks suspense. We don't care about the characters, because they are uniformly stupid and repeatedly ask for death by doing dumb, dumb things. How did these people get chosen for a deep-space exploration team? Compare that to the characters in the original 'Alien' and 'Aliens' who never put a foot wrong: Those that are reckless (Ash, Burke) have sound albeit immoral reasons. Now contrast this to the scene in 'Prometheus' when the idiot scientist removes his helmet with a big stupid smile. He's allowed back onto the ship without any sort of quarantine. Not only that his girlfriend brings a big, dead head which they inspect without so much as a face-mask. Compare that to the original 'Alien' where Ripley wouldn't let the infected landing party back onto the ship due to quarantine.
There was a lot of mystery to the original 'Alien'. I got glimpses of the answers behind these when I bought the original 'Alien' preproduction art book back in 1980. That mythology was far superior to what we see in 'Prometheus'. That the Space Jockey has now become a guy in a spacesuit is a real let down. Likewise the organic-look of the Derelict spaceship is now nothing more than postmodern Art Deco styling.
I do give Scott credit for not bringing back the original Xenomorph. It's literally been done to death.
I don't get Ridley Scott. He makes some great movies, but he also makes some very bad ones. His weakness is (as was the case with 'Robin Hood') is that even if the story isn't ready he starts filming anyway. Maybe he figures they can make it up as they go or fix it in editing. But as we've seen in his other failures, it doesn't always work. A stitch in time saves nine, Mr. Scott.
Being a member of the Alien franchise 'Prometheus' will make no doubt make a fortune anyway. I just hope in the obvious sequel Scott is shamed into cleaning up his act (and getting better writers!) If you're a fan of the Aliens franchise, by all means see 'Prometheus'. While disappointing, it is still watchable and the performances by Fassbender and Rapace are good. With your expectations turned to zero you may actually enjoy it. It's better than 'AVP: Requieum', but worse than 'Aliens 3' and 'Aliens vs Predator'.