Disappointing

Rating: Null/10 (13 June 2012)

Ridley Scott is one of my favorite directors. I was extremely excited at the prospect of Scott coming back to helm a new chapter in the "Alien" franchise.
I just came back from catching an 11pm show at my local theater and can't seem to make sense of it. Not the movie or plot points so much as the fact a man like Ridley Scott could have put his name on it. The script was not compelling, the performances one dimensional and the direction...surprisingly weak.
I saw the non-Imax 3D version. To me the 3D was more of a distraction than anything else. It didn't add to the visuals in any significant manner. Many of the 3D movies out today (like Prometheus) aren't truly 3D so much as they simply push the background away from you. It's more of a generated effect than something that makes you feel closer to what's happening on screen.
There was nothing established for me to care about- no threads to follow or objectives to reach for. The science crew seemed not the brightest... taking careless chances in unknown environments with not even the most basic of scientific precautions. Characters act in ways that just never made sense or brought me in enough to care about them.
There are a lot of allusions in the story towards religious and philosophical themes. One gets the sense screenwriter Lindelof was trying to make a cerebral epic along the lines of "2001 A Space Odyssey"- along with its flat performances (he even has Guy Pearce made up similarly to Keir Dullea at the end of "2001"). Unfortunately Lindelof forgot that even the most sophisticated of metaphors & plot themes require some minimal levels of storytelling structure, character development and logic.
Prometheus opens the door to more sequels/prequels/whatever- a prospect that years ago I might have have looked forward to. But as I watched the credits, I thought to myself, "when & if they do come out with a sequel... I'll just catch it on video".