Enjoyable if slightly messy 'Alien' prequel

Rating: 8/10 (9 January 2014)

This much anticipated 'Alien' prequel opens with a humanoid alien standing above a waterfall and drinking something; he then collapses and breaks down into his component DNA. Flashing forward a group of archaeologists led by Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway on the Isle of Skye discover an ancient cave painting depicting people worshipping a giant who in turn is pointing to what their believe to be an alien solar system; an image that has been replicated in ancient art around the world. Shaw and Holloway believe these images indicated the location of a planet where a group of aliens they call 'Engineers' live and they believe these Engineers created all life on Earth. A few years later they take part in a mission to the indicated system and find a huge apparently artificial structure.
Inevitably things soon start to go wrong; the team trigger a holographic recording that leads them to an alien skeleton that has been decapitated by a closing door. David, the robot in the team, opens the door and they find hundreds of strange cylinders. Soon things start to go badly for the team as two members encounter strange creatures which attack and contaminate them, David deliberately infects Holloway with a liquid found in the cylinders and Shaw finds herself pregnant with something far from human. If that wasn't bad enough they discover a direct threat to Earth that will require extreme measures to prevent.
After hearing some fairly negative comments about this film I was a little wary about watching it as I really enjoyed the original 'Alien' films. Now I've seen it I can see why some people didn't like it but I thought it was pretty good; perhaps having low expectations helped. The first thing to say is that it isn't really an 'Alien' film; it is merely set in that universe. The treats were scary at times although nowhere near as frightening as 'Alien' with the possible exception of the scene were Shaw uses a medical device to remove her 'baby'.
The cast features a number of fine performances; most notable is Noomi Rapace who played Elizabeth Shaw; a protagonist who is quite different from the iconic Ellen Ripley; she is a more vulnerable character and it is by no means certain that she will survive. Michael Fassbender is great as David; nicely modelling the character on Peter O'Toole's T.E Lawrence. Other notable performances come from Idris Elba and Charlize Theron. One rather strange casting choice was having Guy Pierce playing a very old Peter Weyland in heavy makeup; I can only assume there were plans to show the character at a younger age at some point.
The special effects looked really good although at times I thought they were overused; holographic recordings and controls looked good but at times it felt the creators were showing off what they could do rather than do what was needed. The lead characters were interesting but there were a few too many minor characters who didn't serve much purpose other than to be killed off unfortunately before one could start caring about them. The plot was solid for the most part although it got overly convoluted at times; especially when we learn the real reason Weyland bankrolled the mission. The conclusion nicely tied in with the original 'Alien' film while also setting thing up for a sequel which could go off in an entirely different direction.