Great start let down by some writing issues and inconsistencies

Rating: 6/10 (8 October 2012)

I don't usually write reviews, but I felt compelled to express my opinions on this film...my expectations were maybe a little unfair - I was expecting something monolithic and thought provoking. Being a big fan of Alien and Aliens, I think I subconsciously demanded more from this film, which many had touted to be an introspective journey into the origins of man and the philosophy of religion. Whilst the original Alien worked on a suspense/horror premise, and the sequel followed with suspense/action - I was probably expecting too much of the former and something more meaningful from the plot.
It turned out that I was lulled into a false sense of security from the start - what begins as a colossal journey into the depths of the universe ends up a pretty simple creature feature with plenty of nonsensical action sequences which seemed to do nothing to further the story. I was also surprised to find that there were a fair few plot holes in the storyline (which I'm sure die hard fans will find some way to explain!) and also plenty of puzzling behavioural issues with some of the ships crew.
It seemed many of the crew member characters were wasted and no screen time was spent on them at all making them not much more than 'the guys in the red uniforms that die on away missions' in Star Trek. Whilst certain characters in the Aliens sequel were not given much screen time, there were plenty of characters that did, all of which played an actual 'role' such as the skitty nervousness of Hudson, the reassuring calmness of Hicks, the bad-ass duo of Vasquez and Drake and the slimy, profit chasing Burke; not to forget Bishop who was there to put Ripley on edge The characters in Prometheus are very one dimensional - not much time is spent fleshing anyones back-story out and a lot of the characters are forgotten a few minutes after viewing. There are also some laughable scenes where stupidity is paramount and one or two characters sense of self-preservation are forgotten about, making them nothing but creature fodder. Some of the scenes just seemed to have been created as an excuse for something gory to happen...
Don't get me wrong, the film is great to look at - there are some beautiful scenes, and certainly everything looks chunky and authentic - with the ships reminiscent of the ship in the original Alien film, but there are just too many silly moments and too much bad writing for the visuals to compensate. It's not a bad film, it's just not a good film If you are a die hard fan - watch with cynicism and you may enjoy it more than I did. For people new to the franchise, watching it won't hurt, but may leave you wondering what all the fuss was about.