Ridley Scott fulfills expectations, mostly

Rating: 8/10 (31 May 2012)

When I first heard of this movie some six months ago, I was really excited. I'm not a die-hard fan of the Alien series, but I figured anything inspired by its universe directed by Ridley Scott has the potential of a masterpiece.
In Alien, there was a lot of attention to aesthetics, and Prometheus takes this trend to a whole new level: from the first frames, the viewer embarks on a journey of dazzling visuals. 3D is used very well throughout the movie and enhances the viewing experience beautifully. The aesthetics are a major contributor to the mood of the film, but the soul of it lies in Ridley's masterful storytelling. From beginning to end, the film will have you on the edge of your seat as you sink deeper and deeper into the depths of the nightmare, with a couple of negligible dents in an otherwise perfectly paced picture. The cast all deliver a great performance, most notably Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender.
Discussing the plot is especially difficult for this film, so I will have to be a bit brief and very vague. The plot is epic in scope, but suffers from a few inconsistencies, or loose ends. Fortunately, these are minor elements that don't divert the core storyline and don't take much away from the viewing experience, but they do leave you with a slight feeling that the movie was a bit under polished. I feel like Scott bit off a bit more than he could chew (the "all about everything" quote comes to mind), trying to mix too many elements together, but I still think that he did a good job pulling them together and making it work somehow.
All in all, a very satisfying movie, just shy of being a masterpiece, but definitely worth the attention it is getting.