RIPLEY: the missing ingredient!

Rating: 6/10 (6 June 2012)

This is my most anticipated movie of the summer and it's quite a disappointment. Remember how the original ALIEN made you jump? And not just when the creature popped out of John Hurt. Well, this film has very few make-you-jump moments, even though there is an "alien-birthing" scene - and another one, closer to the John Hurt moment, near the end. There are a number of "awesome" moments, including another skeleton-like giant spaceship (we even get to see it fly) and some fantastic 3D holograms, but - and it's a big but - where this film falls down is in the pace and the plotting.
The film is co-written by Damon Lindelof, one of the co-creators and senior writers on the TV series Lost. Like the TV series, PROMETHEUS frequently feels as if the cast are "winging" it, working with a plot that's being made up as they go along. The first three ALIEN pictures all had very tight scripts and sustained tension. PROMETHEUS has a very messy script and very little tension. Director Ridley Scott has lost the magic touch he brought to the original ALIEN and to BLADE RUNNER.
The key character is biologist Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) who proves very resourceful and survives things no woman should have to go through, but she sadly lacks the bravura presence that Sigourney Weaver brought to the original quartet of films.
Weren't we promised a prequel that would take us to the home planet of the Alien monsters? The finale of PROMETHEUS renews that promise, but whoever directs volume six will need to bring back the original writers. And maybe - bring back Ripley. She is very much the missing ingredient that robs this film of its full "flavor".