One of the biggest disappointments ever

Rating: 2/10 (10 October 2014)

I came to this film with the opinion that Alien and Blade Runner are two of the greatest Science Fiction films ever made.
What I'd really hoped for was that Scott could make this a hat trick. But I had heard bad things and if I'm honest I don't think the director has made a great film in a very long time. I'd waited a little while before seeing this and with the caveats already mentioned, I had tempered my expectations so that even something mediocre would have been enough to satisfy on some level.
What was actually delivered needed to be really poor to fall below expectation, but it managed to deliver in that respect. Let's get the positives out of the way - this is a visually stunning flick and the one thing that's never dipped in Scott's work is stunning cinematography - and that's coupled with great special effects (although of course this is not so unusual nor so original as in his earlier brace of pictures). The cast also - particularly given the material they have to work with - act with conviction and give competent performances given the limitations of the script.
And there's the rub: It looks like there's been some sort of grand committee discussion over what a prequel might be and what special effects might be employed to generate some of the shock value of the original film - as well as generating new ways to die at the hands or claws, or blood, or whatever, of our not so favourite xenomorphs.
Unfortunately it looks like they were loath to throw any of these tricks and surprises away in the service of a cohesive and consistent story.
This is a trait which afflicts the entire film, but to give one instance of dramatic implausibility - SPOILER ALERT - the pair who turn tail and run away from the main party on the strength of no more than feeling uneasy in the alien labyrinthine structure, then stop to interact with the 'cute' weird looking alien snake-like things. These are not apparently the same as immature gut-bursting aliens, nor the face huggers, but something inexplicably (literally) different. The result of this is however all too predictable.
In fact the only unpredictability the film has is its cavalier disregard of any sort of consistency with the biological patterns of the alien species well established by the original and its spin-off franchise. Much as I thought the many sequels lacked the atmosphere as well as the originality of the original in the sequence they did (mostly) succeed as strap yourself in actioners.
Prometheus serves us up with a breakfast to the lunch of Alien that would churn the stomach of even the most iron-constitutioned canine.
I hear a second helping is on the way - perhaps they'll just call that one Emetic.