A True Disappointment

Rating: 5/10 (10 June 2012)

I waited six long months for Prometheus to come out. Prior to that, I bought the Alien Anthology on Blu Ray and watched a whole slew of sci-fi films in a similar vein before going to see Prometheus.
What threw me off the most about Prometheus was the marketing. The marketing campaign itself was one of the best in movie history, but it sent mixed messages. The trailers suggested this would essentially be Indiana Jones in space. The behind-the-scenes spots with Ridley Scott suggested this would be a horror movie in the vein of Alien ("I want to scare the s*** out of you.")
Frankly, I would've gladly taken either of those movie genres. Unfortunately, what we get is essentially a History Channel episode of Ancient Aliens with a death or two thrown in. The action doesn't start until the fourth quarter of the movie, and instead of it being a total bloodbath like I had hoped, it was all offscreen violence and cop out violence. And with only one F-word, I can't help but wonder if this was supposed to be rated PG-13 but after fan outrage they increased the blood amount. None of the violence is R- worthy.
SPOILER ALERT BELOW I mean seriously, Peter Weyland, this arrogant, self-centered man who thinks he's god dies by being hit in the head once by the Engineer. After magically awakening and appearing on screen for two minutes. I mean I get it, but couldn't the engineer beat the life out of him after he asks some selfish question or something? It was a death worthy of a mercenary, not the jerk that sent them all into space to die finding an intergalactic Botox for him. And Ford gets killed with a punch. A punch. I get that the Jockey is supposed to be strong, but Ridley, you didn't scare me with his strength, you actually made me laugh at how he flung people across the room. Woah! And Vickers is his daughter?! What the hell do I care, she dies five minutes later anyway. In my opinion this movie serves as nothing more than a trailer for a sequel, which is an utter disappointment. What Damon and Ridley should've done instead of being greedy and typical Hollywood types is make one epic film that isn't roughly cut, has SOME character development, and doesn't introduce twists just for the sake of introducing twists. Oh, and the most important part, make a damned movie that answers SOME of the questions you set out to answer. Instead, this was just some weird and boring Sci Fi channel movie made for the big screen.
With that said, the visuals are a 10/10. Don't buy it on Blu-Ray, see it in Imax 3D and then never see it again. This isn't just a poor articulation of an Alien prequel/tangent, it's just a weak and uninteresting film in general.
Here's hoping 10.11.12 means they shot a sequel in secret.
5/10