Blockbuster? Nope.

Rating: 5/10 (14 June 2012)

I know what you are wondering, does the movie live up to its trailers? Promising trailers portraying a movie with lots of action, fights with an alien race maybe, awesome story, mesmerizing eye candy visuals AND it is the prequel to the Aliens series of movies! Basically giving you an idea of a movie which will blow your mind away and give you the memory of an amazing summer blockbuster. Well, sorry to disappoint.
Prometheus is not your traditional sci-fi horror because the aspect of horror in this movie is very little as compared to everything other than horror. The movie starts out slow and initially does manage to excite you for the rest of the movie with certain key scenes and beautiful vfx, however, as the movie progresses, you realize the excitement was in vain. The characters are not allowed to grow on screen to create an emotional bond between them and the audience nor between the characters themselves. Though efforts were made, it fell flat. It even seemed like it was deliberately done. It seemed rushed as if making a huge effort to cram and be done with the characters mumbo jumbo to show the magnitude of vfx in the movie. You would expect the movie to compensate with insane firepower and action sequences, sorry to disappoint again.
As far as acting is concerned, except for two characters, namely, Elizabeth Shaw played by Noomi Rapace and David, the android played by Michael Fassbander, both characters played brilliantly by the way, special mention to Fassbander, his acting was just brilliant and he does complete justice to the character. The other characters just felt like props that needed to be placed to carry the movie forward no matter how significant or insignificant their role, yes, including Charlize Theron's character Meredith Vickers, whose existence in the movie didn't make sense. Pretty soon into the movie, apart from Rapace and Fassbander, you realize all the others are losing grip over their character.
As far as the script is concerned, after a point of time, you lose track of what is going on and what is what and why. The jump from one plot to another is so quick and without any proper explanation that it becomes bugging, leaving you with more questions than answers. There have also been characters in the movie making big sacrifices when they were barely involved on screen or in the expedition or even emotionally connected with each other!
This being said, the movie does deliver in certain areas. It does make you sit on the edge of your seat at times and it does make you want to close your eyes but then these moments are very occasional and not influenced by the plot at all. The movie does give a believable explanation to the origins of Aliens, however, though this movie might be liked by a full on sci-fi fanatic simply because it is the prequel to the Aliens series, it might not strike the right chord with the audience who got influenced by the trailers and were expecting something mind blowing.
Although this movie had tremendous potential to be something amazing, it simply falls flat and fails to match the expectations set by its predecessors or by other blockbusters released this summer. Lower your expectations created by the trailer and you will find this movie to be just about entertaining and if you are a fan of the aliens series, you will be provided with a satisfying if not overwhelming answer to the origins of Aliens, no, you won't get the same thrills as its predecessors, not even close.
What is the movie about? A group of explorers find clues of the origins of mankind in a cave and take it upon themselves to spend a trillion dollars to go into space and check it out because they think all the clues are invitations for them to come over. Now, what happens when you see a "welcome" mat at a strangers doorstep and decide to bring your friends over and knock on his door because you thought it was an invitation?
All in all this movie was a big budget mediocrity with high expectations. If you are looking for action sequences, don't, because it barely has any, it is pretty slow, the script just about delivers and you get confused about what is going on half way through, however, the visuals are indeed beautiful. When the movie ends you cannot help but feel that it was incomplete and rushed and a bit of disappointment will set in. What IS noteworthy in this movie are the visuals and brilliant acting done by Fassbander.