The concept of 'Prometheus', not Alien

Rating: 7/10 (5 June 2012)

We are welcomed to an earth like planet, uninhabited, clean and beautiful. We see a humanoid alien by a waterfall, a space craft in the vicinity as if it were watching him. The Humanoid takes out a flask of sorts and drinks its contents. Its body disintegrates and flows down the waterfall, yet we see new life form being generated using what remained of his DNA.
In 2089, archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) discover some cave paintings dating back 35,000 years. Seeing the consistency within the paintings, depicting a star map, and the inscriptions, the two are convinced that this is an invitation set out to mankind to meet their makers or engineers if you will.
With the help of funding provided by Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) aboard Prometheus (the ship) commanded by Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) they set out following the map to the distant moon LV-223 with extremely earth like characteristics. Aboard the ship are 17 crew member including android David (Michael Fassbender), responsible in taking care of the crew. The crew find what looks like built structures and decide to investigate...
What awaits them in the structures? Will the Humans meet their maker? Will they finally be able to solve one of the great mysteries of life, and the question of who we are? Or will this be the biggest mistake they could make?
I could have put more into the plot, but I imagined it could spoil the movie.
Let's begin with the good points of the movie, as is with Ridley Scott, with reference to 'Alien' (1979), you can always associate him to being the best in the business in terms of cinematography and visual effects. When you compare the budget of the "awesome" cinematography / visual effects movies that have been out over the couple of years, for example, Transformers: dark side of the moon $195 million, The Avengers $200 million and then see Prometheus budget of $30 million you can't help but let your jaw drop in awe of the amazing stuff they have done with such a small budget.
The acting was really good overall, I am continually being impressed by Michael Fassbender, and he was extremely effective as an Android. Noomi Rapace did a great job as the lead, you could certainly feel the intensity of her beliefs and the situations she was put through. She started of emotional and fragile and ended up strong, with nothing to lose, but the transition wasn't abrupt but well built.
The story lacked a bit of substance though, it felt quiet slow and yet you felt there were many things missing. At times I felt as if the story followed the same pattern of Alien and then towards the end changed it as if to imply, what if this had happened. But that's probably because I have watched it Alien and even though I tried had I couldn't help but compare the story to the original which was a masterpiece. Probably an unfamiliar audience will have a better appreciation for the movie.