If ever there was a film where the trailer was better than the feature...

Rating: 5/10 (2 June 2012)

This was it. Gutted to be frank...
***Potential Spoilers***
My expectation based on the original films & the trailer : Brooding, sweeping landscapes, moody, grimy but strong characters, shades of 'less is more', tension building & building to an epic crescendo & superb action/effects.
How much of that did I get? Not much is the honest answer.
Setting & landscapes - Superb, but little use was made of them as the majority of the film is set underground in two areas. I really expected the light moving to dark to be gradual and help build the mood of the film. That just didn't happen.
Characters - woeful. Truly Woeful. 90% of the characters are miss-cast. Noomi Rapaces is frankly dreadful miscasting & delivers a poor performance as a wishy washy scientist imo, Therone is a waste of time & effort. Pearce as an elderly wheelchair bound man? Farce, complete farce. Fassbender is very good - not as great as some have suggested, but does enough to come out of it well. The rest? waste of time,effort & fee. The main cast could & should have been 6 strong and spent more time developing those characters. Huge own goal and completely detracts from the film.
'Less is more' - This is what I loved about the original Alien movie, and has worked so well in many of my fave sci fi movies in recent years (i.e Moon) & of all time (2001). When will movie makers realise that people have brains and are able to grasp plots beyond the bleeding obvious? This movie was just in your face, throw everything at the audience, without being refined in the slightest. One minute we're looking at 35000 yr old cave paintings in Scotland, 5 mins later were 4 years in the future and half way around the galaxy. Why was no more time paid to this period of discovery, the most interesting element of the whole movie for me? Unfortunately as soon as David (Fassbender) reawakens the rest of the deadbeat cast from their space travel lumber, the whole movie goes downhill.
Tension - What tension? There is not an ounce of it in the entire film. I've witness more tension as a toddlers tea party. The film plot just bundles along in a mess with half hearted 'who are we, where did we come from's through to characters who act like complete idiots at every turn. Think slasher horror 'Scream' type characters set on another planet.
Action/Effects - the redeeming element of the film. Some superb action sections, and as expected the effects were first class. Such a shame they were wasted on weak screenplay and a paper thin plot
Overall general disappointment that leaves me feeling 'what if'. Not a complete turkey, but not a galaxy away from it.