A Dash of DNA and Half a Brain

Rating: 10/10 (17 September 2012)

What makes this movie great is the concept that even with technological advancement, people are inherently stupid - Ergo Logan Marshall-Green (Charlie Holloway's) remark about anyone with a dash of DNA and half a brain being able to create life.
As with the first Alien film, where there was one and only one intelligent person (Ripley) on the crew who saw the danger of allowing an unknown alien life-form into the ship, the 17 Members of The Prometheus are mostly dumb even though they are Geologists and Biologists (Whose stupidity caused them to become the first victims of mutated earthworms).
But some people are not stupid, and other people simply make the wrong choice. Even others who are not actually human are simply "following orders" as with the case of David 8 (Michael Fassbinder, Magneto from X- Men first Class) - Who, as the indentured servant robot David would rather be T. E. Lawrence. But in fact he is bound to do everything Peter Weyland (Guy Pierce) commands him to do-Until in fact released from that contract by Weyland's death.
Basically what we have here is a story of Men trying to be Gods on several different levels, or trying to steal fire from Olympus and having to pay the consequences. In the opening "creation" scene I do not believe the "Engineer" was left on Earth with the blessings of the crew of the flying saucer we see leaving the vicinity. But it is clear that these beings later interacted with people due to the "chariots of the gods" evidence found by Dr. Shaw (Noomie Rapace), an alignment of planets oddly similar to the planetary system shown at the beginning of Alien, identified as LV-426 in Aliens. This moon is identified as LV-223.
This story is magnificently filmed and directed, using a minimum of CGI, and Weta Digital at that - And so the landscape of LV-223 looks wholly real.
The only thing that bothers me, is why did The Prometheus have such High-Tech computers and gear, but the Nostromo, a ship from a later time, have tape, paper-clips and chewing gum with Computers that look like IBM PC 8088's? Obviously in 1979 the computer tech shown was top of the line, but I just wish Filmmakers, when dealing with future stories, would use some imagination, so that High Tech PCs will not look like Anachronisms 32 years after the film is made.
Other than that, story. We know that most or all of the crew of the ship must needs be killed in horrible ways during the course of the film. But to see such idiocy... We would think that Humans of the late 21st Century would develop a sense of caution especially in space. What occurs in this film is basically a bumbling, inept comedy of errors which results in ironic tragic deaths. The basic Tenet of "Don't Touch anything that you do not understand" or "Do NOT Open Doors" should be a given. In a potentially hostile environment, you simply don't run amok opening doors and Vases full of "Make-Me-An-Alien" Juice. You DO NOT try to pet an Alien-ised Earthworm as if it is a pet CAT! And you really, really NEVER leave your group in an unknown place, unless you know exactly the way out. I accept this movie as a lesson that Stupidity has its own, permanent sentence: Death.
Even the "Engineers" - Maybe were trying to "Clean Up" an Exxon Valdez oil spill of their own: But the contagion of Stupidity must have affected them as well.
As a warning, this film is great: As a Prequel to Alien, it is wholly acceptable. The Music of Marc Streitenfeld is excellent, including the riffs from the original Alien. The little stylistic influences on the production design by H. R. Giger was a great "Almost-Alien" - Or, because this was LV-223, perhaps things happened differently than they did on LV-426. Because we KNOW that the Xenomorph will take on characteristics of its host life-form: Human, Dog (Or Cow if you watch Alien 3 Directors Cut), Predator.
Needless to say, this happened on a different corner of the Galaxy as did the events leading up to Alien. Now that know there are as many designs for creatures mutated from Host life-forms as there are stars in the sky, perhaps some of these can be exploited in Movies about them. As far as this film goes, it paves the way for that to happen. But I REALLY want to follow where Noomie and Fassbinder's head went, after leaving that place. It was excellent to see one of those ships in working condition. NOW WE KNOW, who was piloting the ship in Alien, was not as non-human as they originally appeared.
The only other thing I do not like, is that this movie appears to be targeted, with hundreds of verbatim 1-star reviews: Obviously from the same person.