Liver lover's delight

Rating: 9/10 (1 April 2013)

Having relished my brief time on planet LV-223, I got an even bigger kick out of reading the reviews at IMDb documenting the show's many, many shortcomings*. I suppose one should not bother with this at all unless one is a serious Alien fan --of course it appears (ironically) that the numerous negative reviews come from just such people-- but still I can't help chipping in my two cents on what was surely one of the most anticipated offerings of the past year.
And I must say it was a big treat seeing the engaging Noomi Rapace (as Dr. Elizabeth Shaw) having been so recently captivated by her presence in the (new to me) Millennium Series.
My one beef (and here a lot of shortcomings might have been redressed) is that it's just too short, I would say by at least 30 minutes. Indeed I think it should have made a terrific 3-hour movie. After all, if anything was obvious from the myriad negative reviews, it was that serious fans were expecting something substantial, something of epic proportions. Which is one reason it was rather puzzling that the 'deleted scenes' weren't left in. Certainly Charlize Theron's character would have benefited thereby, her presence as is being almost entirely gratuitous. And (at the risk of gratuitousness) it might have gone a ways toward justifying the amount of time spent on Guy Pearce's makeup. (There, as others have quipped, they could have done worse than simply take on Pearce's dad or granddad for the role.) Even more to my delight were the (apparent) Christian convictions attributed to Shaw, which provide her character with an unexpected dimension; and the questions this raises lend congruent depth to the story, bearing as they do on mankind's most basic philosophical enquiry: the question of the meaning of life. Granted the level of enquiry herein is relatively shallow (as others have noted) but it's unusual for movies in our time to treat of these issues at all, let alone in a serious and respectful manner (Ellen Ripley's effective trashing of the albeit crude religiosity of the inmates on Fiorina 'Fury' 161 in Alien 3 being more in keeping with the zeitgeist).
The bottom line is that there is just too much packed in here: a more leisurely pace would have been so much more appropriate in light of the stunningly beautiful cinematography and spectacular special effects, which together create an ambiance deserving of my four-and-a-half stars out of five.
*One thing I didn't see mentioned is that the Expedition cost a mere trillion dollars, whereas I should think it would have run at least a cool quadrillion (with a Q) by 2093, taking into account a lot of intervening inflation and bad Federal Reserve policy.