Confusing but fun

Rating: 8/10 (15 December 2012)

The visual effects and the 3-D are pretty impressive. The idea behind the plot is quite interesting - a discovery leading to the attempt to find a super-intelligent alien race that created humans. The action is furious and gory and continuous. The stars of the show are the robot and the female lead - both are good and retain the interest. The intelligent aliens don't figure much in the story really (except for providing an opening for a sequel), but as creators of the human race, they are reasonably similar to humans - but bigger.
Now for the downsides. The idea of humans being planted on Earth by supremely intelligent alien beings is as old as the hills - it has appeared in several sci-fi stories, including Quatermass and the Pit (1967), (although in that case the aliens themselves were wasp-like). The story seems to borrow a lot from Alien (another of Scott's films):

The mindless alien bugs behave in a similar way to the aliens in Alien,melting spacesuits, burrowing into human bodies, turning them into hybrid creatures;

The female lead proves to be the toughest fighter;

There is a humanoid cyberman that leaks white fluid when damaged;

The organisation that is funding the mission has an ulterior motive that could compromise the crew.

The plot does not bear too much scrutiny. The actions of the crew in dangerous situations seem ridiculous (e.g. a geologist trying to stroke a reptilian creature without any knowledge of its demeanour or weaponry). The robot "spikes" one of the team's drink with an extract of alien DNA - for no apparent reason and then tries to force the female lead to give birth to an alien hybrid, again for no apparent reason. So it was rather confused or confusing.
On the face of it. the downsides appear much larger than the positives. But on the whole it is a really enjoyable film that kept up the interest right up to the end - and the visual effects are stunning.