Ambitious and muddled.

Rating: 7/10 (2 June 2012)

**SPOILER-FREE until notice towards the end of the review**
I'm just out of Prometheus, and there is a lot running through my mind. I'm sure this will be somewhat rambling and incoherent, but I'm just going to try and articulate my opinion on each aspect of the film.
Whilst definitely being a mixed bag, let me affirm that Prometheus is sci-fi done right. It is an intelligent, challenging and surprising piece of work that doesn't spoon feed its viewers with unnecessary expository dialogue, choosing to allow questions to float in the air instead. It is so packed with ideas and ambition that it often teeters on overflowing, but it is consistently entertaining at the very least.
I'll begin with saying that all of the marketing has disappointingly been VERY SPOILERISH. I really and truly wish I hadn't seen them. Much like how the Avengers trailer spoiled the big climatic moment where Iron Man is plunging from the sky, all the key moments in the film are telegraphed in the marketing so whilst watching scenes I could piece together the direction they were headed and figure out what would happen. This highly disappoints me and I have no doubt at all that the movie would have been a much fresher and surprising experience had I gone in blind. There is nothing other than main character deaths that wasn't hinted at in the pre-released material.
Visually, Prometheus is an unparalleled triumph. The effects are completely seamless, with absolutely every cent of the budget presented on the screen. Photo-real in almost all instances, I think this has a case for the best special effects ever (whilst not being showy like Avatar or most other big budget sci-fi films). The 3D was excellent bar one or two ghosting issues. Holograms popped and there was great depth field. Unfortunately, I found the score to be a bit of a non-entity. Not booming like the trailer suggests, it's just kind of there which I found disappointing (though at least it wasn't distracting).
It is also a spectacle, with gorgeous digital cinematography complemented by stunning visual effects and well-done 3D. I do not believe that Prometheus will sit well with general audiences - I've been preparing for the movie for months and even I felt lost in the shuffle at times - though at the very least they can marvel at the beautiful images on the screen.
Genre-wise, it's undoubtedly science fiction, but I don't know if I'd also classify it as a horror. It's more distressing than scary, particularly in a scene involving Shaw halfway through the film (you'll know when you see it). There is underlying tension, yet the sense of dread is not omnipresent like in Alien. Gore-hounds should have their quotas met, though most of the severed limbs are of Alien creatures rather than humans. The lack of human blood isn't a flaw however, and didn't hinder from the film in any way. There are some nice bodily mutilations that substitute for this which I found more than satisfactory.
Fassbender, Elba, and Rapace are the stand-outs, being uniformly excellent in every scene (despite Rapaces English accent being a little jumpy). I found Kate Dickie to be distractingly wooden in the tiny amounts we saw of her, and Sean Harris does great work with some truly horrible dialogue (I won't paraphrase, though throwaway lines regarding how he's only here for money and something to do with how his business is with rocks and not headless bodies definitely didn't land). I also don't feel Guy Pearce in painfully obvious old- man make-up to be necessary.
The story is not always coherent, which added a layer of mysticism to the proceedings. Loyalties are tarnished, motives are questioned, and above all else - life is created (to quote David, "Big things have small beginnings").
SPOILER NOTICE
I encountered some plot holes in the film, the worst of them being Idris Elba inexplicably uncovering the motives of the Engineers and their intentions to attack earth (I might have missed something, if so please enlighten me). The Sean Harris zombie attack was another moment that should have been jaw-dropping but ultimately fell flat to me. From what I could gather (again, prove me otherwise if I'm wrong), approximately zero suggestion was provided as to how his transformation might have occurred, why he was suddenly murderous & incredibly agile, and really just feeling like little more than an excuse to dispose of some of the more expendable members of the already very large crew. I also thought the whole Weyland/Vickers father-daughter relationship thing felt tacked on, but it may have been Therons delivery of that "father" line that made it feel like forced sentiment.
The final shot of what is clearly an earlier generation of the original xenomorph was welcome and enticing, leaving me excited for any potential future installment.
END SPOILER NOTICE
I'm only out of Prometheus for about an hour, so many thoughts are still running through my mind and I'm sure I've missed plenty of other good & bad moments in the film. What I can say is that it left an impression on me, and will certainly be polarizing. I loved The Avengers, but it was merely a neat and tidy superhero flick that played it safe and loose whilst having fun the whole time. Prometheus is a completely different beast which dares to ask profound philosophical questions on the story of creation and the genesis of life, which is non-existent in the realm of 150+ million dollar studio Summer films. It's a film that concurrently intrigued and excited me whilst confusing and frustrating me, but I respect it for that. It's one I'm sure I'll see again, for its faults just as much as its strengths.