Good Elements, But Bad Execution

Rating: 6/10 (15 October 2012)

I'm a HUGE fan of Alien, and I saw this movie twice. I like it a bit better on the second viewing.
First, let's start with the good. The story and its elements weren't bad. These cosmic beings were much like humans in the sense that they experiment and create much like we do and sometimes forget or don't care about the consequences of their actions. These beings evidently created an unexplained black goo that causes new life to evolve from other forms of life. Weather it was a weapon or an accident we don't know. In a deleted scene, Captain Janek talking to Vickers reveals he was witness to a similar top secret experiment gone wrong and had catostrophic results in the end. Why they deleted this scene is strange because it adds details to the already thin plot. Anyways, all we do know is that they have been to earth, and visited ancient civilizations that considered them Gods and may have been the basis for what we know as religion. They leave enough clues to their origin that prompts a team to go to a distant galaxy to find answers about the creation of the human race.
Later on we see the relationship to the Alien movies. Early forms of the fast growing rapid life cycle similar to the Xenomorphs, a creature that resembles a face hugger, and eventually a primitive version of the Xenomorph itself.
The bad part about this movie is that the character development and the plot direction are terrible. The main lead characters are Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Shaw and Logan Marshall Green as her boyfriend/co-scientist Charlie. They are joined by the usual suspects in this type of movie; the curious scientist, a nerdy biologist, a punk rocker geologist, corporate goons, and ex-military grunts. Now this wouldn't be so bad if they all acted like someone of their respective professions would however, common sense does not apply to this group.
There is one scene in particular that makes my blood boil to no end. The biologist finds this snake like creature after getting lost in the caves. On an alien planet where you have no idea what may be harmful or friendly, the last thing you want to befriend is anything resembling a cobra!! This is literally the point at which the movie jumps the proverbial shark. Now a minor argument can be made from another deleted scene where the same character finds small worms and is amazed because of all the planets humans have been to, this is the largest form of life they have ever seen. So curiosity kinda got the better of him, but still.
As for the rest of the characters, there are a lot of questionable behaviors as well, but none as bad as the example above. Shaw does OK as the lead, but comes off annoying at times. She likes to whine about faith and religion because of her past, which is also vaguely mentioned, and is the only one who truly believes in what they are doing. Idris Elba as Captain Janek kinda mails it in on this role. I like him as an actor, but he just seemed more like he was there to act cool and be a ladies man rather than the hard nosed leader a captain should be. His accent also sounds horribly made up; like a British Cowboy from Texas. In Alien, Dallas was your typical overworked, under paid blue collar worker who only cared about getting the job done and getting home. He was very much a no nonsense type of guy. But he also seemed more like a real person rather than a guy acting for the camera. The same comparison can be used for most of the other actors in Prometheus as well. I love Charlize Theron as well, but her role in this movie was just totally useless. She plays a good part at being at B*t*h, but her character was so under developed it didn't matter. She added nothing to the plot.
In Alien the situation for the characters felt real. Like, if you were lost in space on a ship with a deadly creature, that's pretty much how the events would unfold. Their mission was very vague in the beginning, but you always felt that sense of impending doom that was about to befall the crew. And when the real motive was revealed, it gave a sense that now there really was no hope left. One of the best scenes in Alien was when Dallas was talking to Muthur asking for advice and what his chances of survival were. All it responded back with was a typical cold, emotionless answer you would expect to get from a machine, "does not compute." Even though there is no dialog, that scene says so much and really sets up the following scene in the air vents.
In Prometheus there are just too many overblown "Hollywood" moments and it completely destroys the movie as a whole. The scene where Shaw gives herself an operation is a good example of this. One minute she has her abdomen ripped open, the next she's running around saving the world. Not to mention, no one asks or cares why she is covered in blood after the fact. The movie literally jumps from one storyboard to the next without conveying any emotion. Even in the end, the real reason for their mission was just plain stupid and very anti-climatic.
As I said, there are things that I like about the Prometheus. But in the end, its short comings really take away from what could have been another great movie.