OK but lacks tension

Rating: 7/10 (7 June 2012)

See this on a big screen in an atmospheric cinema and it is pretty good popcorn-fodder big populist entertainment, nothing more but more importantly, nothing less. It's unfair to compare Prometheus to the first Alien movie - considering the knowledge we have now, having seen 3 or more Alien movies, there is no way you can achieve anything like the same level of mystery and awe. We've simply 'seen it all before'. You would have to come up with a very different or novel concept to achieve anything like the shock and awe of the original. So instead Ridley attempts something a 'little' different but still keeping a few horror movie action set pieces and some conventional sci-fi comic strip trappings. The beginning reminds a little of Terrence Malick and beautiful it is too. I think it sets the tone Ridley was after even if it doesn't gel with the comic book script and characters from then on. The biggest of the flaws is the lack of tension (partly caused by very weak characters we do not truly get to know). Okay we don't expect awe and mystery and this is populist sci-fi so the comic book level of ideas is fine, but tension would be good. I'd like to think he could have achieved more tense episodes (as tense say as Kathryn Bigelow achieved in Hurt Locker or Christopher Nolan achieved in Dark Knight). As it is I think he came very close with Rooni's gruelling scene and the final alien scene: If you can suspend disbelief just enough those scenes work well. Finally if you factor in Fassbender's captivating performance, you have a decent big screen sci-fi entertainment, as good say as a recent Star Trek and perhaps better (and shorter) than the 2nd and 3rd Matrix movies.