SPOILERS: How Prometheus helped spoil Alien

Rating: 3/10 (10 June 2012)

The special effects kept me entranced during the course of the movie, but over time I came to realize that the inconsistencies, errors and just plain stupidities were piling up fast. When the movie finally ended, I had a long list to work through, and found myself completely disappointed with Ridley Scott's attempt at a prequel. SPOILER ALERT: 1. I was really let down with they got the head back to the ship and they peeled off the 'helmet' to reveal a humanoid head inside. It was so disappointing to see that Ridley Scott didn't have the guts to stick with the mystery alien gunner that he created in Alien, and didn't have the imagination to follow through with his first creation and show us something really new and amazing. He copped out and had to make them people instead. What a weak move.
2. So I'm guessing that the very first humanoid we see at the beginning is dropped off on Earth to drink his black goo (the purpose of which keeps changing) and start populating our planet with his DNA. The constellation map found in various archaeological sites on Earth conveniently points to LV-223, the planet where most of the movie takes place. We're supposed to believe that these angry, destructive aliens came back multiple times throughout human history to make contact with 6+ civilizations, kindly and benevolently teaching them what stars to draw on the walls? The star map makes no sense when it's origin is considered, it's a terrible deus ex machina.
3. The classic Alien that we all know and love makes kind of an appearance at the end of the movie, but again no thought or respect for established canon went into this. From previous Alien movies, we know that the DNA of the host affects the resultant Alien to a certain extent (see the dog Alien from Alien3). In Prometheus, the alien life forms are just tossed out randomly in a "wouldn't it be cool if" fashion. Why is the alien facehugger that the protagonist cuts out of herself a squid that grows to the size of a car? Why do the snake facehuggers look like penises? Why didn't the mapping spheres pick up the mealworm lifeforms? The management of life on LV-223 is very sloppy.
4. It's been brought up before, but the protagonist sure gets around good after getting her stomach cut open. There's plenty of other irritating smaller oversights and needless moments that disrupt the flow of the movie - why is the protagonist's partner busy getting drunk and moping on the most important day in human history? Ridiculous reaction that has no explanation or basis. Why does the captain jump in bed with Weyland's daughter? No reason. Ridley also should have cut the scene where the protagonist's partner tried giving an Aliens drop-ship style pep talk during the crew's first expedition to the dome, it was embarrassing.
The mystery gunner was always intriguing in Alien, but now he's just another humanoid. Blah. The mystery of the big ship itself has always been a cool part of Alien and Aliens, and the revelation of where they came from is a little less disappointing... but not fulfilling. It's too bad he couldn't do this movie right, chances for things like this don't come along very often and Ridley blew it. I wonder what James Cameron will do for Prometheus 2 :D