A mix of star wars episode 1 and Blade runner.

Rating: 5/10 (2 June 2012)

This film is watchable but slightly deflating. And perhaps the worst part is the glaring script error at the end. Has no one else spotted it yet?
From the first mysterious scene there is a strong emphasis on DNA. And in that first scene lies the problem of the entire movie that much remains unexplained or at best badly explained.
Soon after, the first hint of a 'Chariot of the Gods' and ancient humans type storyline begins to loom with its religious undertones.
I love the early spaceship scene, very reminiscent of the original Alien scene, Into this mix was thrown David, who is an android. For some reason, never fully explained he likes to read Elizabeth Shaw's dreams.
Elizabeth, well played by Noomi Rapace, is a key figure of the film, a failed attempt to equal Ripley. She is an archaeologist. Naturally you take an archaeologist on a deep space voyage to an unknown planet. Clearly David and Elizabeth are closely linked though this relationship is not fully explored which is a bad loss for this movie.
Once on the planet there is the usual sequence exploring the newly discovered alien structure. Despite having clever robot scanners they still sent humans first. The structure scenes are well filmed and very suspenseful but perhaps this is because you are anticipating the alien to arrive very soon.
There are odd scenes such as where David operates a "computer panel" with no effort or even study and no one challenges him much on this brazen act. There is a poor hologram of ancient humans running for their lives. Interestingly if you look closely you can see they are wearing the helmets the space jockey in Alien was wearing. Why the hologram is so poor is unclear. This is a technologically advanced race. Digital holograms are either on or off. They do not degrade unless they were using VHS.
There is a scene best described as a church with a large statue in the middle. This movie is riddled with religious undertones but they are so understated they fail to make the point.
In the best scene where two stranded men are left in the structure they are attacked by a rapidly evolving creature which though not a face hugger has the same type of behaviour. Almost immediately the storyline is now obvious and a sense of disappointment sets in.
Then Elizabeth becomes pregnant (hints of Ripley in Alien 3 here) and there is a laughable scene (not gory like some have said) where a machine operates on her and removes a creature. The creature is left, presumed dead, in this amazing automatic surgical robot.
Then we are told that the structure is a military base where biological weapons are produced. And later the android, having managed to operate yet another computer console, deduces that the human-aliens planned to return to earth to eradicate all humanity via their biological weapons.
Around now Weyland emerges from his secret hole in the ship. This is so poorly done it is unbelievable. So many wider questions about Weyland Corporation are left hanging. Ironically AVP explains more about this than this film.
Of course an ancient human is found alive who naturally kills almost everyone.
And then there is our major error. The alien is going to pilot his ship (which we now see is the ship from 'Alien.' He climbs in to the famous seat (Alien fans will know what I mean) the famous mask comes over his face and you go ohhhh and hold your breath. There he is in the seat, one of the most famous scenes in Alien but 'IT' does not happen. The film speeds up here. There is a ramming, a squashed Charlize, a reunion between David and Elizabeth and the ancient human being impregnated by a creature more like a face hugger.
Laughably David knows there are other spacecrafts on the planet. How? Elizabeth decides rather than fly this fantastic technology back to Earth she will take in to the alien-human home world. Nice decision girl. Next scene we see another alien space craft and are left to presume they are heading to the home planet for Elizabeth to give them a damn good talking to. (Hint of sequel here I guess.)
And here is the continuation of the blatant error. The space jockey dies on the escape pod from the Prometheus, not in his chair. His chest cracks open and out pops another stage of evolution which clearly is an early version of the classic alien. This last scene both elated me and disappointed me. One the one hand we finally see the clear history of where the alien comes from. He is nothing but a biological weapon. On the other hand the mistake is so embarrassing I cringed.
As for the characters - they were irrelevant. The crew numbered 17 but I am sure we did not see 17 characters. There is Elizabeth's boyfriend. He dies because David poisoned him. I am pretty sure Elizabeth knows this but she does not seem to be interested in revenge. Then there is Charlize Theron who plays what turns out to be Weyland's megalomaniac daughter. Sorry but her role is pointless and her death is very poor. And there is even an old Weyland himself though this is very poorly explored other than to say he is seeking immortality.
Clearly Ridley has stuck a finger in the air about any link with the Predator character. which is a shame even if the AVP films have disappointed to date. We now know that the alien creature was evolved in the late 21st century so quite what the predators were hunting in the pyramid in the Antarctic is now unclear.
I rate this better than Alien 3 and 4 but far behind Alien and Aliens.