Very disappointing

Rating: 3/10 (16 June 2012)

The effects and visuals were good, great even, but this was a horribly written story. I don't think 3D did much for it either. The characters were thin, the movie seemed to have hardly any significant dialog, and there was almost no suspense whatsoever. This is arguably, for all the hype, Ridley Scott's biggest dud.
Basically, a trend is detected in the paintings and carvings of ancient civilizations that allow us to determine the origin of a solar system with a planet that has a hospitable moon on it. Based on the geometry of five stars. Seems like quite a stretch, but OK. So you'd expect that the best of the best would be gathered to go investigate, right?
Instead a motley crew of some of the world's most unprofessional "scientists" are randomly gathered up and sent to a foreign world to search for the origins of life. Clearly a grand mission involving tons of money and planning you'd think. The characters were stored in some sort of bio-stasis device which allowed them to sleep off the 2 plus year's journey. Once awake and past their travel sickness, they acted as if this was the first time they'd ever met. No joke. The movie was fine until this point and then it spirals pointless and hopelessly out of control hereafter. Highly illogical and nonsensical decisions are made, often for no reason whatsoever. Characters that were freaked out by almost nothing are then completely calm over what should have been alarming situations.
Some examples: In one scene, the "robot" (as the humans refer to him and who is of similar mold to the android from Alien) knowingly and purposefully infests a character with a pathogen that leads to the character's demise. No reason is given for this act, but you expect to learn later in the movie why and that explanation never comes. The sinister nature of the act is reminiscent of the behavior of the android from the movie Alien. Also, the movie resorts to the same cliché it borrows from Alien, with the android's head getting severed off, but alive and speaking, albeit this time without the gelatinous ooze spewing from its mouth (perhaps Scott thought that too much of a cliché).
And the award for most unbelievable character went to the geologist, whose person looks and behaves like a street punk, is a stoner, and who after learning that there aren't any rocks available to look at, forgoes any further scientific curiosity and elects to abandon the main body of scientists (along with another scientist) while on the planet and in the abode of a strange temple-like complex and manages to get lost. This despite only having to basically make one right or left turn to head back in the correct direction inside of a "C" shaped structure. OK.
And it goes from there and gets no better and you can read some of the other reviews that will give you more of what made this movie so very disappointing for those of us who were big fans of the Alien series.
To sum it up, while the movie touched on elements of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, and Alien, it lacked all of the charm that made those movies great. Perhaps, in part, because we'd already seen these unique elements before in these earlier movies. The biggest fault of this movie was that it lacked any real ingenuity, and only repackaged the novel parts from these earlier movies and added nothing of its own.