Apology more appropriate than a sequel

Rating: 3/10 (4 January 2014)

Based on pedigree alone -- this is, after all, the Director of the original Alien and Blade Runner and Gladiator -- this is a movie you should be willing to sleep on the sidewalk for, just to get tickets. But looks can be deceiving. What you actually get with Prometheus is a deeply flawed and astonishingly imperfect film. Worse, if you did not know this was Scott's work, you would assume it was the effort of a newbie director, just out of boot camp, desperately trying to find a story to fill in the gaps between wonderful bits of cinematography. Critics, the brave ones not afraid of saying what they feel, have opined it is derivative of the first Alien. Under some circumstances that might be faint praise. Unfortunately. these are not those circumstances. If you ignore this warning and see it anyway, you will note that Prometheus, oddly, shares with The Avengers a passion -- nay, an obsession -- to bore you to death for entire the first hour. However, in the case of Avengers, the setup had a payoff, about 45 minutes of non-stop, head-spinning action. There is no payoff in Prometheus, although the pace does pick up a mite, and slithery things do dart hither and yon earnestly looking for bodies to infest. Naoomi Rapace, lately of the hit Euro trilogy "THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO," gives a very compelling performance (for a newcomer to Hollywood) and (apologies for the gender reversal) pretty much sets the visual bar for the old saw about "jogging home from your own vasectomy." The movie ends so abruptly, with so many unresolved story threads, that an apology would be more appropriate than a sequel.