A disappointed fan of the work of Ridley Scott

Rating: 5/10 (7 June 2012)

I have now seen Prometheus here in London, England yesterday afternoon. I admit to being a fan of Ridley Scott work, but this is definitely one of his worst efforts. The film disappointed me on many levels, which I think many reviewers have reasonably well detailed, notably Michael-Albertsen (Denmark). However, to use one of the supposedly present thematic threads from the movie, that of human nature, I expected Scott (with his vast experienced) to have fathomed that unless this effort could at least match his greatest works he was always going to take a hiding from critics. I hoped for something on par with Blade Runner, or even Gladiator. It appears that he did not. Not even I would have thought the final script for Prometheus was worth waiting 30 years for in order to return to that film genre that Scott had clearly contributed towards.
At points during the film I wanted to defend the film and the directorial flaws I witnessed, but as the lack of a strong story became more and more apparent I asked myself why be defensive? To err is human. Let's be quite frank here, Scott criticised the others for milking the Alien franchise. However, I genuinely believe that even the film Alien v Predator was better than Prometheus. I'll go as far as to say that it appeared to me that the Prometheus writers 'ripped' aspects that are clear and fully present within AVP. Maybe it was just a rumour but if there is any truth to it Scott should have been less grandiose and directed the AVP script as he would have produced a better final product than both the existing AVP and Prometheus.
Here is my 'Turing test' for this film. Imagine if you will there was no Alien film or story to predate this. Or that you'd never seen Alien - and folks there are many people that haven't seen that film - Would Prometheus be able to stand on its own merit as a film with a story to tell? I'm sorry but for me this is a 'B' movie, and definitely not worth the alleged $200million.
There is a lesson here to all film makers. Invariably your best work is done when you're hungry (eager to make your 'break', to expose your talent) and / or that you have a story to tell. Without either of those two forces as your motivation generally it becomes film making by numbers, or simple prostitution (merely selling oneself).