Could this ever have truly delivered? A brave attempt at something great.

Rating: 5/10 (1 June 2012)

SPOILERS...
I entered the cinema last night with both tempered cynicism and a real hope that this film should live up to its (predictable) hype. I have been a great fan of Alien, its sequels and all things science fiction since being introduced to them at an early age. Prometheus had been long in the waiting from the man himself: Ridley Scott. I hoped that unlike the unfortunate later Terminator sequels this film would really build upon the Alien franchise in an original and fresh way whilst retaining some of the Alien 'DNA' (pardon the pun)which made the original two films so great. After all, one should never underestimate the importance of a quality director (which terminator 3 and 4 sorely missed). I must also say that I approached this film from the view point of a Biologist and as such any fiction film which claims to be rooted in some sort of science (as Scott claimed this would be), attempting to deal with the creationist vs darwinian hypotheses (albeit in an overblown, entertaining way) is going to get my juices flowing, as it does for many people from all backgrounds. However perhaps I was always asking too much of this film that it should ever deal with some semi-accurate 'pseudo' science and a plausible discussion of such profound questions with a modern audience, big bucks and, needless to say, a dreaded sequel, stamped into the producers' minds.
This does not mean to say that Prometheus is a bad film:
The acting from Fassbender is of significant note drawing great similarities to the androids from Alien and Bladerunner that came before him. Rapace is also capable (but no Weaver) and Charlize Theron delivers a strong performance. Other supporting actors also do the original crew of Nostromo justice, although I have to say fault lies with the script for a lack of emotional engagement and care for the majority of the casts' lives.
As many others have said, the film is visually stunning and the 3D worked well to immerse rather than to distract and as such the film is worth seeing just from a visuals point of view. Having watched the trailers I was worried that this film had turned all Star Trek on us in comparison to the 'gritty' atmosphere of the original films, yet it all stacks up considering the budget the Weyland corporation is said to have set aside for this particular mission.
I also have to say that whilst the score is very different to the original Alien films, it is fitting to the grandeur of this particular story.
Where this film really falls down is the plot. It loses it. To me it wreaks of the TV series LOST and has the disappointment to boot, hence there is little surprise that Lindelof had a big hand in creating the story. I have to say that I am very surprised Scott let this film hit the screens as it currently stands. It is as if they either wrote the story as they filmed it (LOSTesque) or just forgot to edit it. The first 45 minutes build the story very nicely and I thought we were really in for something. Needless to say it all rapidly falls apart during the second and third acts. Not only is there way too much going on, it is also at times farcical and just generally makes little sense.
The writers could have gone down one of two routes: make an avatar-esque film of wonderment and human discovery (mixed with a little bit of sinister monster action) or make a full blown horror film in space (more like Alien/Aliens). What they end up with is a mediocre compromise. Whilst there are scenes reminiscent of the original Alien film (e.g. in the medical booth), there is little/no surprise or originality and (mostly due to the fact that there is just so much happening) importance/tension attributed to any of these individual scenes. Some of these scenes are just ridiculous (SPOILERS): making an alien head wake up by basically plugging it in... then doing a genome association study in about 5 seconds only to claim the alien has identical DNA to us (if it has an identical genome then why is it 10 foot and built like a God?). Another example being the fact that Noomi seemingly has the constitution of a whale and is able to run about chasing spaceships with her stomach literally stapled together. Then there is the geologist who by some miracle turns into more of a freak than he already was, before killing a load of hopeless crew and being run over by an APC to never be spoken of again. The list goes on and on. I understand that this is science fiction, but the beauty of the original aliens is that their lifestyle and the action that followed had a sense of engineered plausibility. If you were going to go down the route of making a terrifying and macroscopic bioweapon then it might look something like an xenomorph, it's as if Scott gets this science from a comic, why couldn't the engineers design an effective weapon from the start? Why do they want to kill us anyway? The film opens far too many questions and answers far too few to remain an interesting proposition.
Of course it is very easy to pick holes in any fantasy film but I am disappointed by the amount of ammunition this story has provided. Undoubtedly many of the big questions will be answered in a sequel/s and I am sure there is far more to this story than meets the eye. I can only pray that Scott doesn't get stuck in a circular argument of Gods preceding Gods, for he is no philosopher.
Either return to sci-fi with some original material or leave it alone, someone needs to tell the old-timers to quit while they're ahead.