Really Pretty Good

Rating: 8/10 (2 June 2012)

Whilst its true what some of the negative reviews may say in terms of plot points and realism, I think we should just take a minute to remember that the original crew of the Nostromo were hardly the realistic types to make it into deep space anyway. Lets face it, even deep space miners would need a Ph.D. at the least in any kind of reality we know.
So in Prometheus we have Hollywood scientists, a stupidly uberdecked spaceship and a woefully inappropriate zombie.
Nevertheless Prometheus IS awesome, and despite what some have said, this is not a direct prequel. It is, though, deliberately made to ALMOST be a direct prequel. The differences, for those who are paying attention, will be obvious, and appreciated. The vase contents, the colour and form of the 'alien' the way the story ends. It's all very familiar, but different.
The beginning is very arty and impressive, the cinematography throughout is fantastic and as a 3D naysayer I can tell you its the best use of it I've seen so far. Fassbender is truly wonderful in his role. Rapace is a good enough non-Ripley to pull it off.
If you read enough reviews you'll see endless moans about why space jockeys would allow recordings of their death scene antics to be played accidentally and why well trained and disciplined scientists would take their helmets off in a totally alien environment without a care in the world for any completely alien pathogens that might be present but undetectable, just because the thinga-me-bob on their wrist says it's "OK". But that's what the phrase "suspension of disbelief" was made for isn't it? Not to mention that this is a FILM, designed to appeal to as wider audience as possible, and thus needing to focus on human faces, so that we can understand and connect with what's going on via the characters?
I for one was thrilled, NOT having let the memory of THE GREAT AND IMPOSSIBLY BRILLIANT "Alien" totally cloud my judgement of any of this films attributes. Just like any prequel, since you kind of know what is going to happen, it's a bit lame to start whining about how it was unoriginal, and how you didn't get any of the suspense. Why bother watching if you didn't want to know what was going to happen?
In summary this film is great. 25 years down the line from anything truly original this has reinvigorated the Alien franchise whilst not even giving a nod to the childishly pathetic AVP films. Sci-fi at its relative best in what must surely be the genres sunset era.