some good moments but also disappointing

Rating: 7/10 (23 June 2012)

And again I was afraid to see a movie in 3D. I mean, most of them are done to attract people because producers are afraid that their flick would flop. The same here, everybody was expecting so much of this prequel to Alien (1979) also directed by Ridley Scott. Naturally Ridley also moved forward in film making and were Alien didn't had a big budget, Prometheus had big money and it shows. The effects used are really unbelievable at some times but of course effects doesn't make a movie.
It does, but that's for other science-fiction flicks with no history. But here everybody wanted to know what happened with the ship found in the original Alien. Remember that the crew of the deep space mining ship Nostromo are awaken from hypersleep to investigate a strange signal from a nearby planet. While investigating the signal, they discover it was intended as a warning, and not an SOS. This is what Prometheus is all about. Why did they send that warning signal.
I was expecting aliens and facehuggers and all of that but nothing here at all of those creatures. In fact Prometheus was out in space to search for the origin of mankind. It's done by archaeologist couple Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and her boyfriend Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green). They discovered that star maps of different ancient cultures (Sumarian, Maya's, Egyptian,...) all show the same configuration. Of they go to find the planet (LV-223) with money from Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce). Weyland do rings a bell toward the original Alien but the planet was LV-426.
From there on we do have resemblances towards the original one, they have an android (Michael Fassbinder) on board and they do travel in hibernation. Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron), the mission director is a bit afraid of the planet and warns them not to touch anything. Of course they do due circumstances and things go awry on the planet.
From that moment I thought that it all would start but we already had a lot of talking and special effects. Sadly the monsters do attack and enter throats of humans but they leave soon and we have to wait until the final before some kind of octopus alien returns and attacks.
The special effects do their work but still it is a bit of horror science-fiction and I was left with a hunger for the aliens to attack. This movie is more about the origin of mankind then were the aliens were coming from. There's indeed on alien to see in the last minutes, not as in the other alien flicks but an earlier version of it.
On part of the acting I found Noomi Rapace doing well and somehow she reminded me of Ripley. Fassbinder was also doing very well but Charlize Theron couldn't convince me. Again she's playing some kind of ice queen and we all have seen that before.
This prequel did remind me a bit of the prequel to The Thing (2011). It was just made to earn some money on the cult status of the original flick. Although that the ending of The Thing (2011), in fact the scene's seen in between the end credits, was stronger than Prometheus.
Overall it wasn't that bad at all but it would have been better that it didn't had anything to do with Alien and it's followers. Here we do see the Gods (called Engineers) out there to destroy mankind, Nothing of that in the other flicks. Okay, maybe when they enter that terrestrial spaceship in Alien you can see an Engineer sitting in some kind of chair but nothing is said about that. I really was left with a bitter feeling. People who hasn't (anyone?)seen Alien will love this, you will see attacks of a squid kind of creature but for the followers it just doesn't deliver and explain.
Gore 2/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 5/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5