Nice movie but in the end, its all about the small details..

Rating: 9/10 (9 June 2012)

In this case, all the ingredients for an epic movie are lined up perfectly.. A brilliant director, a very good cast of actors, a massive movie budget and above all, Prometheus itself, a movie that its purpose is to explain the history behind the Alien Saga. So all the elements are here but it seems that something along the way went a little bit wrong.. I am not talking about a major disappointment from my point of view, I found the movie nice, I liked the planet scenery, and above all I liked the whole Space Jockey / Mechanics explanation that links with the Alien origins.. The main problem for me is that the original "genes" of the first Alien movie were absent in this case and the epic result was never accomplished..
In order to be more specific I must explain in details some points of the movie and unfortunately "I must enter the Spoiler territory", so if someone has not seen the movie yet, please do not read the following lines.
*******SPOILERS*******
Firstly then, what I liked. I liked the Planet scenery or surface if you prefer. That was ideal. Desolation at its finest and a very intriguing terrain for this story to unfold. The basic story of the Space Jockeys / Mechanics origin was not explained fully in the movie and here I have to say that the movie had to be longer, in order to have some things explained more thoroughly. But as an overall result it worked, at least for me. The acting was good and I personally think that Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace delivered both, top notch performances. As far as the special effects, i think that they are something that a good movie can do without, but in this case, as we have a 2012 Sci-fi movie, they are needed and they are indeed very very good!
So where did the movie go wrong? As I said before the small details make the difference. Firstly when they land on the planet they "accidentally" find at once the right spot! No searching, no testing, no researching. They find the dome as soon as they land. How convenient.. I did not liked the cliché / stereotype - macho man, Fifield geologist who looked more like a mercenary than a scientist. Rough and tough and was there for the money and not for the historical findings. OK, I will go with that then.. A macho man that when he sees the first Mechanic dead body, he is scared like a 10 year old child and wants to go back! Where is the logic behind that?..
Another weird scene, is when the scientists arrive inside the dome and they take off their helmets (!!!) without being concerned about possible viruses or biohazards of a new environment! The fact that the air was breathable was OK for them.. and we are talking about scientists here.. Moreover David the droid finds hidden buttons inside the spaceship that open doors and navigate the vessel and without any prior knowledge, he manages to open every door inside and navigate the spaceship without any problem! Last but not least, during the film Dr Shaw performs an abdominal surgery on her, she gets stapled and within 2-3 minutes she is up and walking!!! If someone has been through a surgery like this, he/she knows that you can't even move a muscle after an incision of that kind.
As a general conclusion, I believe that still, this is a good movie. The Mechanics history is not been deployed in full length here and I hope for a director's cut version in the near future, but it works for me and I enjoyed the special effects combined with that story. Now, why the mechanics want to kill their own descendants? Perhaps they saw the badness and creed in human kind.. Don't forget the scene where David talks to the only remaining Mechanic and in this case, the first question should be obviously scientific or a simple friendly greeting, but no.. The question is about Weyland's desire and need of eternal life.. and at the same time Weyland orders one of his goons to hit Dr.Shaw, because she is interrupting this question! The Mechanic sees this and notices straightaway 2 bad "habits" of the human kind, creed and cruelty.. "Why kill us then"? Well, here is your answer.. Too bad that these details that I mentioned earlier exist, details that can ruin a movie's status and unfortunately Prometheus gets a little bit "ruined" from them. Stereotypes and clichés, wrong scientific behavior and a rather poor scenario in some parts, that deny from Prometheus an even better place in the Sci-fi genre.
7/10 for me..