A decent score and promising start full of bleak beauty, conveying a good sense of the vulnerability of space travel, isolation, and the beauty of life. Up until the point the main body of actors are introduced, the film was going excellently. Two main things let this film down- the characters and the plot. That sounds pretty damning, like there isn't anything left to salvage it. Not so. Good points were excellent visual appeal, reasonable tension, a believable level of future technology, and engaging questions about the origins of humanity. The characters. It is such a shame when a film is ruined because characters do not act believably. There may not be a faster way to ruin a film. The most obvious example of this is the sheer recklessness of the so-called scientists. They are just falling over themselves to stick their tongues into unknown goo. The list of these incidents honestly goes on and on. In fact, the number of incidents of people actually behaving believably are so few that they stand out like megaton blasts when they finally crop up. The motivation of many of the characters is very muddy, and is never clarified. Most of the characters are never explored at all, which somewhat diminishes the impact of their later noble sacrifice.

The plot. For the first half of the film, it was essentially the exact plot of Alien, although there is nothing wrong with that. It wrestled (not wholly unsuccessfully) with grand themes, but left most questions unanswered, and the few answers offered were very ambiguous. Everytime it felt like a revelation was about to be reached, the resulting pronouncements were always rather vague. A lot of possibilities were hinted at, but nothing really concrete was ever offered to any of the million questions posed. It felt too much like it was paving the way for a sequel, and not enough like a self-contained plot. In general a lack of answers and a lack of continuity. There was never really any impetus or momentum, just a series of barely related (and generally icky) events.

The alien beasties were reasonably grim and imaginative, although lacking the classic horror that made Alien so good - allowing the imagination to fill the gaps. Perhaps it's just the biologist in me, but the alien's life cycle made no sense whatsoever. It was as if the film studio had 5 wacky ideas of horrible alien creatures, but couldn't be bothered to bring them together cohesively, so just tossed them into the film willy-nilly (I'd bet decent money that this is exactly what happened).

The major themes of "Where did we come from?" and "Do we actually need to know where we came from?" and "What does this mean for religion?" cropped up repeatedly, and made for interesting intellectual fodder. There was definitely more than just a cursory nod to exploring these ideas, so well done there Mr Scott. As if it even needs to be said these days, but the special effects were seamless. Many parts of the film were visually very rich, and the score was very good. In fact, the set designs really were outstanding, an extremely lustrous visual world that satisfied very well on a superficial level.

All in all, not a terrible film. It had all the pieces necessary for a good film, yet it cemented them together disjointedly and inexpertly- like shattered diamond stuck back together with excrement. With another edit, and maybe 3 minutes additional footage here and there this could have been an excellent film. So nearly a classic 80s sci-horror, but not quite.… Expand

Ridley Scott once again crafts a fantastic science fiction film that stands among his best sci-fi movies like Blade Runner and Alien. Not only does it have an intriguing story, but it also has some memorable characters in it. Is this movie perfect? No, it is not (some lines of dialogue I felt weren't needed, and the movie took a while to get rolling) but if you look past these faults you will have yourself one helluva gorgeous thrill-ride.… Expand

Has way more questions than answers. Trying way too hard to answer the question of our existence existentially instead of just being a cool science fiction movie. I don't mind these questions being done in an interesting way, but it is not done that way here, and the characters don't have enough depth to make you feel otherwise. This movie looks super cool, and has two or three super intense sci-fi scenes. So if that's your recipe for a great movie, than you will think Prometheus is great.… Expand

As a big fan of Alien and, to a lesser extent, Aliens, I can't help but find this movie a travesty. As a prequel, it tries to reinvent a classic and fails miserably. Even taken as a standalone effort, it looks beautiful, but it's completely overshadowed by a pretentious, ponderous and incoherent plot that, in the end, amounts to little more than utter nonsense. Extremely disappointing! I've got some advice for you Ridley: keep it simple, stupid. You aren't as smart as you want everyone to think you are, not by a long shot!… Expand

Absolutely fantastic BECAUSE it was so jumbled and chaotically written.
The script jumps whole sections ahead and back. True. The characters behaved nonsensical and were flat. True. However; the story does answer a lot of questions ; where do the aliens come from, who are the giger corpses in the crashed ship, why is wayland so horny to exploit it. Albeit chaotic, it has excellent pacing. Theres not much suspense, but it mixes mystery exploration with nastiness. I didnt even know who the protagonists actually were until half the way through. Which in times of utter plot predictability is a welcome variation. The main characters are a christian fanatic and a "i wear flipflops while sipping my latte in this space ship" douche who was so stereotypically hipster that ridley scott must have made intentional statement on his hatred for apple stores and starbucks. I couldnt wait for them to die, and my sympathies were with the evil charlize theron all along. Fantastic! A movie that destroys classic plot structures so profoundly and still gets away with it is a true innovation for mainstream hollywood in my book. The story jumps a little too harshly here and there, and some characters are propably supposed to be 80ies cheese stereotypes as a hommage, but too flat in the end. But the visuals are fantastic and the pacing works. Its not an intelligent movie as the questions about the origins of humanity (aliens vs god) is overdone and shallow in itself, but the movie is not supposed to be 2001 anyways. As a plot framework its sufficient. All in all quite unpredictable and quirky, a true experience. I felt thoroughly brain raped. And thats a compliment.… Expand

**Possible spoiler but maybe not really, but so was the trailer*** What were you expecting? True lies? Half life? Transformers? Alien 5? Care Bears in Space? This is not a remake, nor a direct prequel. I expected the movie to be mysterious and interesting and completely unknown excpect for the fact that it was set before the event of Alien, in which universe i expected it to set. I'm so glad that Peter mother-fukking Cullen didn't do a narration with Optimus Prime explaining the time before time (although he's very talented, would be completely out of place in this movie - despite many half-wit viewers needing such hand-holding). Prometheus is, what i believe, to be the first of several Alien stories that prelude the original movie. This is not another alien or mission to mars story, it's THE Alien story. Pay close attention to everything within this movie. Is this a review section or an explanation message board? So there are a few stupid moments, namely the biologist looking for a root with the alien worm. It could have happened another way with different dialogue but the premise would still be the same: two guys messing about in the egg chamber and that's how they got infected. Remember the beginning, how the Alien started out, as a virus. It could have been a military experiment gone wrong or just with serious containment issues. Maybe the "Engineer" in the pod wasn't really human, maybe not. Was he there to await the scientist and determine their nature if hostile? Most people reviewing this movie giving it low scores didn't actually understand the movie, that it was a science fiction STORY, not a face paced action thriller with all guns blazing. They already made that movie, it's called Aliens or Tron. Sometimes it's like working with children, you take as many shots as you can get in the time frame available, and take the best one. This movie is, like the original Alien and subsequent movies, about a monolithic Corporation using young college graduates to explore and secure an alien world so that the mission specific andriod - played perfectly my Micheal Fassbander - can recover the specimen for what ever military/scientific/monetary purposes back on Earth. It's fairly obvious there will be movies that follow this one, that may answer some questions from this film. This movie is great, fantastic, amazing, deep, and thought provoking. In the book of the original, the SOS distress signal coming from the planet was not an SOS, but a warning. This movie is also set in a fictional future, where completely new attitudes and technology exist. Just like any other movie, go see it twice because you get more out of it the second time. Prometheus is what it is and what it is, is not perfect, but perfect enough for a very entertaining movie. And just so you know, it's based on a true story of actual events!… Expand

If you've already seen the trailer, then the movie's already been spoiled for you. For those who haven't, this is one of those tragic instances where some truly great elements are lost on what is undoubtedly the most unimaginative, unintelligent and uninspiring story of the year riddled with more loose ends then Alien appearances. While the dialogue isn't abysmal and is well acted out by a talented cast, the characters are all one dimensional at best. Although they hint that there may be more personality hidden below the surface, no actions are made to support any evidence of existence. There isn't a single fighter among the entire group and the heroine's unrealistic amount of luck in surviving a never ending onslaught of dangerous scenarios gives this an almost a Disney-like quality (in a bad way, i.e. John Carter) despite a complete and utter lack of reasons why we as the viewer would want to relate to, emulate, sympathize with, or watch this character. Her bravado is poorly paired with displays of lower-level aptitude, which is simply sad for a scientist. Other things to note are this film plays long (2 hours feels like 4) and anyone who's seen Aliens will no doubt find this (alleged prequel) to be an insult to its' memory. However, if you're looking for signature Ridley Scott shots, special effects and sequences there are some visually appealing parts of the film that make up for about 5 of the 127 minutes of the movie. If you're on the fence, watch the trailer and if you still want to see some nonsense for the purpose of amusement, go watch The Dictator- it's ridiculous as well, but in a good way and funny too.… Expand

All I want to say is that most of these negative reviews really didn't absorb what this movie is. It's very complex, and in no way did I think for a moment that this movie was trying to be like 2001: A Space Odyssey.
I'm not trying to sound pretentious here, but the movie does NOT deserve this low of a score, with millions of meat heads going straight to metacritic for spoonfed interpretations by movie critics that take away any sense of imagination and insight.
Think of it this way, when Fight Club first came out, it got ripped to shreds by movie critics...after a few years for it to sink in and now it's a classic.

This movie gets a 10 from me. I went in, just to enjoy the ride, and I wasn't bored for a minute.… Expand

Piece of ****
They say it is a prequel, but you might has well seen a Harry Potter movie where a alien prances out of the woods at the end. Also, the aliens look like penises.

I finally saw Prometheus last night and boy was I completely disappointed. For a movie directed by Ridley Scott and set in the universe of Aliens, the movie was a complete letdown. A movie without an effective narration, which this had, is just a waste of 2 hours sitting in the dark. My biggest qualm with Prometheus is the fact that nothing was reasonably explained, for example, who were the 'Engineers', and why did Michael Fassbender's character, David, intentionally infect Logan Marshall-Green's character, Charlie Holloway. Idris Elba's character, Janek, with no explanation and completely out of nowhere, reveals all and concludes that the planet is a storehouse for weapons of mass destruction - it seems like he pulled that one out of his ass. The movie gets to a point where the questions that you want answered you no longer care about because it hasn't effectively pulled the audience into the story, and all you want is for the 2 hours to just pass. At the end Noomi Rapace's character, Elizabeth Shaw, wants David to take her to where the 'Engineers' came from - which is an obvious setup for a sequel - but after about 2 hours, I no longer care if she ever achieves that. All I'm hoping for now is for James Cameron to step in to the director chair and elevate the sequel to Prometheus like he did with Alien.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Very , very, very dissapointing. Yes it looked amazing for the most part and maybe the plot makes sense if you dissect everything and analyse it, but I doubt it. I really wanted to like this movie due to its connection with the Alien universe but it just didnt engage me at all. I love the way the Captain figured everything out all of a sudden and without a second thought decided to commit suicide along with the remainder of his crew. WTF.… Expand

This certainly was not a perfect film, but it was definitely a visual feast. Overally the story was good but not 100%. Prometheus didn't answer everything, which was the biggest thing that bugged me. It still left some things hanging, and the editing seemed spotty. It seemed like it was skipping around at times. I feel like this movie although already over 2 hours, should've been longer. The visuals (cgi and all) were certainly beautiful, and the acting was spot on as well. The main flaws in this movie were the editing and it seemed a bit corny at times to me, and it didn't seem to answer any questions either, i left the movie slightly confused, but overall this movie was slightly over par, but not by much, and if you are a fan of the alien franchise its worth the admission, but if you haven't even seen the alien films, you will have no idea whats going on. 6.5/10… Expand

I found the movie enjoyable and impressive on three dimensions: theme, visuals and excitement. However, the plot was a neutral point for me as I have seen worse, but it felt rushed. The characters were not very deep at all, and were very frustrating! I felt so frustrated by the team dynamics/actions/interactions i was nearly pulling out my hair yelling out "why are you doing that!?" or "why aren't you doing this!?". Also the crew seemed incapable of utilising the technology they had to aid their situations, and often didn't act like scientists!… Expand

A truly phenomenal movie! Acting was top notch, plot was intriguing and the visuals were spectacular. Script was well done despite all the criticism. Many people just can't appreciate the style in which it was written. A kind of style that says, "if it doesn't need to be explained, don't explain it." Also, the characters were GREAT. Michael Fassbender was was brilliant as the android David, and added a great mystique to the character who was already fascinating in the script. Noomi Rapace was fantastic as Elisabeth Shaw. A character who was kick-a$$, but in a very believable way. A magnificent example of a "strong female lead". Any flack the film may receive concerning the crew making "stupid mistakes" is unjustified. Considering humans have never encountered anything remotely close to what the characters in the film come into contact with, it's safe to assume that the same mistakes could be made my any real human being. Point being, the characters were believable, and made choices and mistakes real humans might also make. If you are at all a fan of the Alien universe or good cinema you will love this film. However, if you are expecting a Hollywood blockbuster like Transformers or a token horror film, this film is not for you. Overall Prometheus is a brilliant film and a worthy revival of the Alien universe.… Expand

I thought this movie had a really good story, great special effects, inspiring movie score, fantastic cinematography, creative creature design, and scary moments that were actually scary. I enjoyed every minute of it, however... the execution was off. The story had plot holes and the transition between scenes were awkward. Now, I know Ridley Scott has a tendency to make very long movies that are very difficult to edit for theatrical release. For example, his film Kingdom of Heaven suffered the same problem and it ruined the movie, but then the directors cut showed us the full version and everything flowed perfectly. I will give Ridley Scott the benefit of the doubt until I see the full version. The movie wasn't flawless do to some poor acting and lack of great characters, so I'm going with a 9. If I see the full version of this film, and it still has those plot holes or transition problems, then I will downgrade to an 8. I think everyone was expecting perfection, and we didn't get it, so the disappointment is resulting in lower user scores than it actually deserves.… Expand

The special effects & 3D are ok, but the storyline is slack and muddled, unlike Alien. The characters are poorly developed: Charlize Theron is totally wasted and Noomi Rapace is nowhere close to her performances in "The Girl Who" (Swedish version). Michael Fassbender lamely reprises Hal from 2001 and/or Ash from Alien. Really disappointing.

Acting in this movie is bad, there is an uninteresting plot full of senseless and illogical stuff where some of it it's based on premise which is of course nothing new to sci-fi genre. We have an alien DNA, besides all those other crap seen and mentioned - oh come on...

Nothing new there judging by today's Hollywood standards.

However the thing that really saddened me the most was the unstoppable raping of HR Giger's design which is obviously something that in the mind of Ridley Scott should make this film looking interesting, looking ''alien'' . But he pretty much failed there as well. Why? Because he already used it once when he used it with the purpose in the first alien.
Trying to repeat that effect is just silly and it can easily be compared with what Lucas did with raping SW saga.
Regarding that ''Bumblebee'' design of Prometheus I wont even talk about. That kind of design totally doesn't fits this movie.

It seems that even the greatest directors don't know when to stop.

I'm giving this movie 1/10 only because the first 3 minutes of this movie were very interesting and original which confirms the fact that a good movie can still be made.… Expand

Appallingly poor big budget movie. Sub standard visual effects. Sub standard makeup FX. Fassbender/Theron are the only decent actors giving interesting performances here the rest are wasted/very poor with the limited dialog they are given. Apart from Theron/Fassbender the other actors could be anyone they are so average/bland & do not even belong in the movies.

Story is a jumbled mess & incomprehensible at times. Approx 90 mins of the running length consists of actors sprouting unmemorable/confusing dialog in boring darkly lite locations (80% of the movie is in underground tunnels on LV223).

Avoid at all costs this is so poor you would stuggle to sit through it all on TV in a few years its way below Alien3 as a movie going experience & atthe same poor level as Alien4.

Shockingly bad overall & has some of the most ridiculous action scenes/fights ever created (many are so bad you will laugh out loud which is certainly not the film makers intent!!).… Expand

If you enjoy a high budget visually appealing movie that leaves the audience to self interpretation, then see this movie. Many will complain about "loose ends" or "holes" in the story, but I for one enjoy the unknown when it comes to a sci-fi psychological thriller such as Prometheus. Ridley manages to take us on a entertaining trip giving us insight as to what happened to the ill-fated ship Prometheus that started the Alien Franchise. I agree with many of the "trolls" who state the characters were very shallow, for the director never really develops them, rather keeps the movie moving and the audience thinking and wondering. In summary, this is not a Michael Bay movie where little thought is required, this is a sci-fi ballet, once complete, will be the buzz in your car all the way home and into the next day.… Expand

Ridley Scott's highly-anticipated sorta-prequel to "Alien" doesn't live up to expectations. A crew of intergalactic explorers lands on a mysterious planet, where they discover mysterious life forms (nothing original here). Rather than any real surprises or shocks, the plot unfolds in a pretty predictable mannerâ

Terrible move. No suspense whatsoever. I kept waiting for the movie to get exciting but it never happened. The storyline stupid. No explanations of anything that was happening. I could barely tell it was a prequel to Alien.

This is a visually spectacular film and one of the best sci-fi films I've seen in a while. I think people that complain that it isn't 'like Alien' just aren't paying attention, and anyways, why would you want Scott to just remake something entirely the same. This is set in the same universe, but tells a different story. There are some weaknesses, such as some of the character development, but then again, the original Alien didn't give us a lot in that regard - perhaps it's more noticeable here due to how much it is trying to show. As for unanswered questions - I have answers for each one, they might not be the "Right" answers, but it's what I'll choose to take away from the film, and as a real sci-fi fan, I love that. I usually hate 3D films, but this was gorgeous, and so smooth, even better than Avatar. Not a perfect film, but a real quality science fiction film for fans of the genre. I sincerely hope something else will follow this film!… Expand

This review contains spoilers. Prometheus was a Greek Titan punished by Zeus for playing a trick on him. The trick was hiding bull's bones in glistening fat (something inedible inside a pleasing exterior). When Zeus found out, he commanded Prometheus be chained to a rock for all time, where his liver is eaten daily by an eagle, only for it to regenerate overnight, due to his immortality.

Ridley Scott has delivered a similar trick; a film with a pleasing exterior: beautifully-staged trailers and plenty of talk about what a great film this will be. Ridley should be similarly punished for having delivered such bullâ… Collapse

Although visually wonderful to behold, the story is downright dreadful and dull. People who expect a prequel to "Alien" will be disappointed, even if you just want to see a decent scifi-horror-flick you might leave the theatre dissatisfied. All of the characters seem to suffer from the infamous "character in a horror movie disease": They got the depth of cardboard cutouts and their actions are ranging from inconsiderate to insanely stupid.… Expand

Being a fan of the Aliens movies (particularly the first two), I was very interested in this movie and made sure not to spoil myself before watching it, but it turned out to be a disappointment. Visually, though, it's impressive: the cinematography and the effects are amazing. I'll try and not give any spoilers.

The characters are just too shallow and the crew, generally, so unrealistically incompetent as scientists and explorers from what you would expect for members of a scientific endeavour in journey to another star system, they just seem like a bunch of ordinary guys with little education put together on a bus, pardon, ship. Given the scientific, religious and philosophical implications of their mission (involving the origins of life), they respond with virtually no interest or criticism in an attitude best described as "just doing my job". The expedition itself has little planning, organization, leadership, discipline, procedure and protocol for extraterrestrial exploration, sometimes with a complete lack of common sense precaution, let alone a scientific method or approach that is to be expected, up to and including downright childish behaviour. However, the technology and gadgets available are amazing, which in turn allow some excellent visual effects... Throughout the movie, the findings and implications are rarely discussed or very poorly so, which is shocking, given what they encounter. Characters aren't really explored that much, and one can only assume their "general motivations", which seem shallow and bland. The performances of the actors aren't particularly noteworthy either, except for Fassbender, though it isn't exactly stellar. Additionally, there's the occasional scientific mistake or inconsistency here and there, which lead to very awkward plausibility. Also, the suspense/horror scenes don't have much tension to them, and the soundtrack was completely forgettable to me.

The philosophical questions the story poses are only very thinly hinted and left in the air in a not very particularly interesting fashion.

In short:
If you've seen and like the Aliens, you will get something out that universe with this, but it can come with a lot of frustration depending on your patience. As a sci-fi movie, this is not a particularly intelligent one and the visual presentation is the only thing to stand out.… Expand

It was an epic movie. Beautiful, and MUCH more insightful as to what's going on. Not just "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, KILLER ALIENS!!!!!!!!!!!!", it's taken a great leap into story depth. Ridley Scott is da man.

Great movie. The Alien genie has been out of the bottle for years. It was natural to explore the space jockey in this one. This is a mature movie with real thought provoking questions in it. More of a journey more than a destination.

This was a bad movie and it had nothing to do fitting into the Alien(s) universe or not. The story made little to no sense but worst of all the characters were idiotic. This trillion dollar expedition staffed with what we presume to be elite & eager SCIENTISTS must have spent years training and planning, at least two years in hibernation travelling billions and billions of miles to make first contact with an alien civilization no earthling has ever encountered before, and what happens when they finally arrive at their destination? They act like a bunch of college kids on a road trip. Let's get laid. Let's get lost in cave system that we just completely mapped out and then immediately get high. Let's remove our helmets and breathe the air, because heck why not? Let's do no science and touch every possible slimy unknown substance we can and take it all back to the ship without any sort of quarantine procedure. In fact, screw it, let's just turn around and go back home.

Cabin in the Woods had way more humour and suspense and even John Carter was a more entertaining sci-fi movie.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. OK. Let me preface this review with a couple of facts. The original 'Alien' is a masterpiece. That movie scared the hell out of me as a 7 year old. I'd read the book, so I'd coerced my parents to take me to the movie. Sigourney Weaver had a lot to do with that, because she's a really good actress. Prometheus just doesn't quite hit the mark. It's a good, fun, well-detailed movie to watch, but gets flaccid toward the end. I don't blame Ridley for any of this. I blame **** 'Lost' writers for this. Guys who sit up at Comicon panels every year and say, "We're not going do anything that stupid", and then they do. Nice one. There are glaring plot holes in this thing, mainly concerning the evidence left behind from a previous expedition, an escape suite, an escape pod, other fully functional alien spacecraft lying about, and all sorts of unseen wreckage, that the cast from the '79 cast should've seen bold as day. I thought the "Engineer" aliens being near-human was a total lazy cop-out too. It was unnecessary. Weyland wasn't Lance Henriksen, which creates some other problems, and the artificial person really broke with canon for more reasons than I care to count. Despite all it's flaws, I did have fun watching it. It's delightful to look at, but it isn't an 'Alien' movie. Ridley...you need to start writing this stuff yourself. You're better at it than these lousy, lifestyle, wanna-be nerd hacks.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I am noticing a lot of people giving this movie bad reviews simply because they lack the cognitive capacity to put two and two together. Most of the people giving prometheus a bad rating are complaining that the movie is full of plot holes. Most of these "plot holes" are actually explained if you pay attention to the movie. Yes there are parts of the story line that were unanswered, or to be continued, but that was the way it was panned. Prometheus was shot beautifully and Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, and Charlize Theron did a wonderful job portraying their characters. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and everything the film had to offer. I highly recommend it.… Expand

I normally don't give out a perfect 10 but this movie deserves even more than that. I was a little upset when i (SPOILER ALERT) heard that no actual franchised "Alien" would be in it, but what they did was even better than i could have ever expected. It's great to get a true director like Scott back in the directors chair. My body was actually getting sore from being in an intense state. I loved every single second of the movie and i can't wait to see it again. If you want to spend 2 hours in absolute intensity then go see Prometheus!… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Ridley Scott is a great director, but he appears to be perfectly capable of making awful movies. Prometheus's problems range from absurdly predictable plot to characters acting in such a stupid manner that horror movie cheerleaders would be appalled. There are many instances were the internal logic of the story breakdown or never develop at all. The horror scenes are not suspenseful, with jump scares that you can predict to the second and blinding stupidity. Combine that with large amounts of pointless religious symbolism, no character development, no emotional connection and an ending that borders on offensive to the viewers intelligence (the main character knowing leaves the planet on a ship that contains a bio-weapon that can cause extinction with the explicit purpose of landing on a populated planet) and you have yourself a bad, boring movie. I cannot give it a lower score, however, because the acting is generally good (its the writing that fails) and the movie contains one of my favorite death scenes ever.… Expand

A movie of could-have-beens. Could have been written better. Could have been acted better. Prometheus is too much about corny dialogue and bungled mysticism. The characters are flat and stereotyped. I think there were 2 or 3 occasions where my wife and I made eye contact and groaned.

A friend told me that this was a horrible movie and that I would be bored to death. With that in mind, I went anyway,and found that the movie was not boring but it was rather stupid. I was entertained but the story is absurd if you apply any logic or reason and you end up asking yourself a lot of questions that are not answered. The crew do things that are beyond belief for this mission and I wonder why the writers thought that anyone watching this movie would find their actions believable. I hope that Ridley Scott will use his talents to make a much better film if he does a sequel. However, do we need another film with those alien creatures in them? That idea has lost its luster many years ago.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Be warned, this film is very stupid. Highly intelligent alien beings created all life on earth yet are stupid enough to revisit ages later and leave us clues and directions to their moon base so we can go there and destroy them. This is a trillion dollar endeavor to reach this moon and this rag tag group of characters is the best Peter Weyland could come up with to see this mission succeed? State of the art probes that can't detect worms or mutated snake aliens. An android with the ability to see into the future. How else would david know that by poisoning a crew member with alien goo he would copulate with his barren girlfriend an she would conceive an alien facehugger? This film has more plot holes than swiss cheese. Since when are archaeologists also biologists and skilled enough surgeons to operate advanced surgical equipment on themselves while a squid tears at their insides? Still not impressed? Evolution only takes minutes and hours in this film, not years or eons. One final spoiler: the alien life cycle has no incubation/developement stage and produces full grown xenomorphs that explode out of the host body, no chestbursters here. Very disappointing film indeed!… Expand

just saw prometheus, don't believe the reviews it was great but it differed from the core ideas of alien and that's what is throwing some people off

it was more of a dramatic sci-fi film like say, 2001 (although not as meaningful or cryptic) that tied up a few loose ends provided by alien (but not all of them, it was set on a different planet after all)

it explained the space jockey, the birth of the alien race and it set up a rough idea for how the events of alien were set up

a lot of the characters weren't quite up to the gritty, rough and really "human" ones shown in alien and aliens, but michael fassbender was amazing as david and the way he interacted with people along with a good steady progression of plot points and information given really made this film

the effects were really neat, although as I've said numerous times before I hate 3D for the stupid gimmick it is even when it's used to its fullest potential (see like, avatar, I suppose) but in this it was really inappropriate and there were only a few moments were I was even aware it was in 3D

overall: don't expect a film that captures the same feel of alien, because that's not what it's trying to be, but the characters and good story really make it worth seeing… Expand

Ridley Scott essentially remade "Alien," this time without the suspense or intelligence. I could list off the top of my head 10 unnecessary plot elements, most of which are rendered poorly. While the visuals are, at times, striking, the movie was, overall, a crushing disappointment.

A mixed bag. It's no Alien or Aliens and the hybrid of dreamy sci-fi (the best thing about Prometheus) and horror (inconsistent) is at odds with each other. The movie is filled with throwaway characters and dialogue that have none of the spark and wit of Aliens. Prometheus is worth seeing for the expansive effects, but don't expect to leave with the andrenaline rush from the original and the first sequel.… Expand

Is this an Alien prequel?: yes, definitely! Does it answer all of your questions?: about 70%, some stuff is still unexplained. As this is a Ridley Scott film it surely looks VERY nice, super hi-tech production design and very sleek VFX. I watched it in 3D but you can skip that coz it doesn't add much. I had incredibly high expectations for this film and they are mostly met. The basic ideas from Alien are carried over and expanded from Alien 1. You don't actualy need to have seen any of the Alien movies to appreciate it as the story works on it's own. If you are a fan of Alien or have appreciated any of the Alien movies I would highly recommend seeing this film, you won't regret it!… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. First of all I like to say that this movie is not like Alien or even Aliens. The cinematography is outstanding and the 3D brings it out even more. I would recommend 2D and just imagine how it looks in 3D.

Yes it is a prequel and here is a question to everyone. Don't you believe there will always be unanswered questions to the origins of human life? This movie is meant about to reflect your own ideals about how we came on Earth. This is probably a spoiler but during the movie Noomi's character was tested about her own beliefs with God even to the point that they accused her of abandoning her own belief. Her cross was taken during the movie due to her Medical attention and at the end of the movie she got her cross back from the android David. She was offer to go back to Earth but she still wanted to seek out the questions on why and how these Aliens came to Earth and created humans.

There are bits of other stuff in this movie that are related to the Alien movies. The thing that came out of Noomi's character would be the face hugger, the Alien that came out of the chest would be the chest burster and the space jockey/engineer are part of the relationship to the other Alien films.

Wonderful movie but not for everyone.… Expand

I'm a huge fan of early Ridley Scott sci-fi. Bladerunner and Alien have been two of my top ten movies of all time, for over two decades. It's probably because of this that Prometheus failed so hugely for me. As soon as the first preview was released, I was amped for this film.I watched every preview, Ridley Scott interview, and pre-release item I could find. I knew I had "expectations" that few directors could meet--including my all-time favorite. Now, it seems, I cannot find five redeeming things to say about the film without thinking of 85 complaints.What was the purpose of the Prometheus "God" in the beginning sequence, drinking the "alien Koolaid?" Why were the "gods" angry with the "earthlings? Why couldn't the creature designers pick and stick with ONE alien creature design--instead of the squid-vagina-penis-cobra-Alien 3 morphed creature combos? The original Alien design was so perfect, so basic, so original; it was as if Scott couldn't decide on how to represent that concept in the "pre-story" so he just went with ALL the ideas. What was the point of making the beautiful Bishop re-dux robot character, David, an evil-plotting-alien-spawning bad guy? How many "homages" does one director get in one movie? There was the 2001 Space Odyssey -bicycle-basketball scene, the John WIlliams' Star Wars theme music. .... The narrative is splintered, incongruent, and non-sensical. The special effects canNOT save the film from its many contradictions and easy horror ploys.… Expand

Wow. Can not believe all the negative reviews. It might be spaam on here honestly. This movie was amazing! the directing, the acting, the visuals, the sounds, the intense scenes, the premise of the film were all fantastic.

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This was a reasonably good science fiction film. It was not the epic or classic film I hoped it would be. The visuals were excellent. The acting was quite good. The story/script was OK, but there were a number of problems (see below). The story tried to be serious and ask/answer serious questions about the origin of humans. It was partially successful. It was way more than a monster movie, but ultimately it failed because of too many unrealistic plot issues. I love Ridley Scott and most of his films. I liked this one and am glad I saw it. It just wasnâ… Expand

Prometheus combines all the great aspects of a sci-fi film (special effects, cinematography, futuristic technology) with an absolutely insulting to intelligence philosophy. When Scott tries to answer life's biggest questions he gives you the impression of a 15 year old kid with a religious upbringing who doesn't understand how anything in life works. The crew of 17 supposed "scientists" are scripted to say things most scientists, or even lay people will cringe at. But the film is filled with a few good thrill rides and Fassbender is fantastic as usual. If you want to see another brain dead blockbuster this ones for you.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Visually stunning, yet the underlying story lacked futuristic plausibility and authenticity for the created realm. Initially I thought this was going to be this year's "best movie" despite the terrific competition, but unfortunately the movie left me scratching my head way to often. There's so many things I can nit pick to death about this movie that I can only rate it as "a good watch". There's so many questions I wish I could ask the writers, the director, and producers. Here are a few of the things that irked me most... (1) when reaching the planet, why wasn't the planet observed from space first to decipher the best place(s) to land and investigate? They should have treated this moment to be similar to how we in our present time treat Mars exploration. Study the geology of the planet and decipher where best to investigate further. Instead we got an immediate surface cruise with the hope of stumbling across an interesting feature to suggest that intelligent life exists/ed. (2) The removal of the space suit head gear inside the cavern just because some readings reported the atmosphere was similar to earth's air was extremely stupid and unrealistic. The risks... (a) unknown viral contaminates within the atmosphere that may not of been capable of being read by the scanner could have made the scientists deadly sick, any smart scientist wouldn't have risked that possibility, (b) any contaminates the crew themselves might have introduced into the alien atmosphere would have been equally foolish. Just think back to the history of our own world, when Europeans discovered America the sicknesses that got passed to the indigenous people were huge. The fact that all the other exploratory crew simply followed along after the male scientist took his off bothered me... was that a form of peer pressure or mass stupidity? (3) The Biologist and Geologist scientists. Part 1: When the crew discovers the dead alien body why is it alright for the crew to let the biologist guy walk away? Wouldn't the study of that corpse be one of the reasons he was brought along in the first place? Secondly, the Geologist guy, how is it that the guy who's supposedly the expert on understanding the cavern and the one who's in charge of the mapping drones, how is he the one who gets lost in trying to get out of the cavern? Plus, these two characters had the ability to stay in constant contact with both the ship and the rest of the exploratory crew while making their way back out. Not-to-mention, the Captain of the Prometheus was able to watch all of their exact positions within the cavern while being in constant contact with them. Part 2: These 2 characters were so scared of the dead alien body that they left the rest of the exploratory crew to get back to the ship, they also showed that same attitude when they were asked to check out a mapping drone which was signaling that an active life was near it, then when they find themselves back at the initial chamber they decide to have a look around? The biologist guy even decides to reach out in awe when being confronted by a worm-like creature, funny considering he was freaked out by the possibility of encountering something alive just a bit earlier and now he's all stupidly curious. Where did the character consistency go? (4) The investigating method the exploratory team had once the sealed chamber was opened. I'm surprised that the chamber wasn't treated more like a mix between a crime scene and a decontamination zone. Instead you had the characters simply walking around in awe, touching and handling a preserved alien head with their space suits and the AI character messing around and touching **** without using some sort of sample collecting tool(s). Plus, the fact that black goo substance was seen on the top(s) of some of these containers was that not enough of a reason to be more cautious about breathing in the air within that room? (5) The AI's decision to open the alien container inside the ship. First there's no evidence of him running any scans on it, which implies he couldn't have know the potential harm that could have been done to the atmosphere within the ship. He simply pulls out the vase like container from cool storage and he begins opening it. He even eventually cracks open the glass-like inner container to expose the liquid inside. What was a supposedly super smart AI thinking? That action endangered everyones lives within the ship, even his creators. Then there is the question of what happened to the rest of that sample? Did he destroy the rest after taking the amount on his finger to the male scientist or did he keep the rest of it. If he kept it, how did he prevent it from oozing like the black substance was doing in the chamber? BTW, the fact that the black substance was oozing out of the vases inside that chamber, does that imply that all of those glass-like containers were broken, except for the one he took with him?… Expand

Way too much bad writing and obvious plot holes. Other user reviews have already mentioned in detail the issues with the script, so I won't get into that...but I agree that there are just too many dumb or unexplainable actions by the characters in this movie. If feels like they forced this script into production, yet no one in the process questioned the obvious logic flaws contained in it. An earlier review by the user Taantric does a thorough job of pointing out all of the flaws.… Expand

I m sure that all of us expected more of this movie. Is Ridley Scott lacking originality in Prometheus? Why resemblance to Kubrick's 2001? Why same sentences of HAL 9000, even the same tone of the voice? Why the landscape that is almost same as "Mission to Mars? Why the main character is "religious scientist"? Many things in this story does not make sense... I know it is SF, but it could have been written better in many ways... It could have been a great movie... Even Anderson's "Alien V.S. Predator" had a much more solid plot with less holes in the story. Special effects are great in 3D but that's it... Anyway, considering the fact that in past few years we did not have a pleasure to watch many decent SF movies, Prometheus is worth watching...and nothing more.… Expand

The cgi is beautiful. The story is an old one, told many times before. What a waste of a great opportunity. I wouldn't waste my money on the theater with this one.

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. when ridley scott does a movie well, it's beautiful! i loved aliens, gladiator, blade runner, but prometheus was a big disappointment mostly because of the script...

ridley scott's signature is his ability in depicting the vastness of or closeness of an environment, the intricate detailing and grandeur of of a scene, and creating an impactful ATMOSPHERE; i didn't really get much of that in this movie. also, there was very little character development so you didn't become involved with anyone; i wanted to learn more about charlize theron's character but it never happened, the altruism of the captain and crew to sacrifice their lives wasn't developed so i didn't feel any empathy, even with the main character ('shaw' noomi rapace) i didn't get a sense of her motivation for her search? the only character that had any character development was david the android, but his motivations were not clear either, although it seemed there was a "pinochio" metaphor going on..and is he supposed to have emotions or not, confusing? and the whole scene and aftermath of the pregnancy and self operation, was terrible! it didn't add to the story nor was it believable how she could do it awake and then start running right after? (oh, yeah medical technology i guess...whatever...)

overall a let down. wait for video.… Expand

Could have been a great film, but riddled with story holes, poor character involvement & development, awful dialogue ... typical for SciFi-Channel quality but not for a film that had a $120-million budget. So disappointing. And Ebert's sell-out review is disgusting....did he even watch the Alien series? He didn't even criticize this film for any of the plot flaws or terrible acting.

Actually, I am surprised at the lack of intelligent investigation/critical review by many of the formal critics. Only one, Ebert, out of Chicago caught and interpreted Scott's "Grand Design". Prometheus is about mankind's divine/physical origins. From the myth-like divinity of Prometheus, god of science and mankind's friend, to elements of scientific theory and fact (Eratosthenes, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Sagan, Hawking) Scott brings to his tale of divine origin a host of ideals and threats. Is life the survival of the fittest or the survival of the brightest, and/or is life about faith and discovery of self and the universe? Does science buy immortality or at the least the keys to immortality or does faith unlock the secrets of immortality? Without question, the scientists and philosophers' of the enlightenment pepper the script and Scott's movie reflects his remorse that contemporary philosophers are so rare - yet Jarad Diamond, "Gun, Germs and Steel" emerges reflecting that the true enemy of mankind is not one another but bacteria and viruses or even what is hidden in the subatomic mists. Blending the constructs of religion versus faith by introducing a Voltaire element of "Candide" into the script - Scott continues to utilize the great moments of sci-fi by replicating the primordial ooze of life similar to Clark's short story. The protagonist, Shaw, played by Naomi Rapace, is without question the Eve Gene - a truth seeker, scientist and adventurer who will challenge the boundaries of science and faith with her desire to find the land of the divine, man's creators. The glue that binds the above elements together is Hawking "Grand Design" - that divinity resides in the universe and life itself. The question; will it be a singular entity, tight and congruent like a Kantian model or is life in constant need of repair? Scott and his writing team - Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof - incorporates the best of the best in grand celluliod tradition and example, touching on the intellectual dominance of the sci-fi genre of Bradbury, Asimov, Clark, Herbert with a blend of sci-fi fantasy that includes the eternal battle between good and evil, negative and positive polarity, matter and antimatter. At the same time, Scott tickles his audience with images of great moments in Sci-Fi movies - the slimy snake like creatures that are parasites (Star Gates Gao'ld), Van Danikens (Chariots of the Gods) reflecting a race of superior aliens in archeological stone, David = Hal the computer of Kubrick's 2001, and often tongue in cheek moments of Scott's own trilogy Aliens (Ash resembles David or is David really the "Lawrence of Arabia of other worlds"?) or the moral debate when Shaw removes the parasite from her body conflicts with Ripley who birthed and destroyed the hominid-alien link of DNA cross breeding.

Of course, any intelligent critic will see the next movie - the sequel - and the leap from current theoretical debate to Hawking's "Grand Design". And in doing so - will Ripley look the lens "darkly" or give his audience a tiny picture into the Divine? This movie is not for the banal or the horror advocate - it is a movie where Scott, in all integrity, uses art to mirror society. So will his intellectual critics condemn or praise Scott's vision? Will it become a provocative movie (similar to Kubrick's 2001) that will mirror current theory of our origin and the struggle to survive? What is life, where did it begin, is it Divine or Darwinism, or a combination of both or neither - and is life governed by good or evil, negative and positive, or is brith itself the singular event of life?

It is a big movie, a big challenge. I think for the most part Scott has succeeded. The challnege will be his sequel - the dynamics of the main plotting. I, for one, will be to see the results of Scott's vision. "f he is successful, he will join the ranks of enlighten men and women.… Expand

For the average Joe, it's a great sci-fi horror movie (score 7.5). But for me, a fan of the Alien universe, it was a disappointment, and a reminder that big names (Ridley Scott) do not always mean a good story. The movie has shallow characters, lots of story holes, sequences that defy your intelligence and lots of questions unanswered. Fassbender and Rapace are great (her, after things start going wrong). The movie has good things, though: the C-section sequence, the visuals, the score. That's about it.… Expand

Dreadful. Ridley Scott has harvested all the best bits from the previous Alien films and jumbled them all up together to make a clumsy hotchpotch of a film that tarnishes his record. Some of the dialogue is embarrassing. The action is tedious, I was bored after about 30 minutes. The story is infact quite dull. Wait til it's on TV one Christmas, see something else unless you enjoy disappointment.… Expand

As one of two most anticipated summer blockbusters of 2012 by most fervent cinema-goers, me included (the other is THE DARK KNIGHT RISE, doubtlessly), I watched it in the cinema, a plain 2D version, but in a nutshell, it is not satisfactory at all.

The film has wrought some doze-prompted moments, there are just too many routine procedures have to be dealt with (tediously) to tell a tale (with cliche-ridden dialogues and stereotyped roles) before any flare or more precisely, casualty to take action. Then quite ironically, the ill-fated first casualties are the geographer and the biologist (no career-based prejudice, I may watch too much of THE BIG BANG THEORY), whose raisons dâ… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. What a spectacular disappointment. The pictures are pretty, but that's it. The characters are paper thin. Their motivations are never explored. Everyone does really stupid counter-intuitive things that leave the audience groaning in disbelief. It assaults any sense of disbelief by continually ejecting you from the movie with an incongruous plot device. Science fiction should be smart about science, there should be internal logic. This movie isn't scientifically fact checked at all (the half a billion miles from earth that Theron says they have travelled, puts them near Jupiter, not another solar system - which would have been an incredibly easy thing to check... but it isn't). And that's just the beginning of the disgrace (flamethrowers work without oxygen, a woman runs around after having her stomach muscles cut, medical machinery is gender specific, video camera's cannot record, there is no gps to find missing team members although they are wonderfully display in HD mapped holograms... and on and on... it seems to go out of its way to be stupid). Science is treated as magic and smart scientists as people with "faith - not facts" in science with wonderful responses like "I choose to believe" when asked for scientific evidence that begins a journey costing a trillion dollars. These are scientists... you know people who spend their whole life looking for facts. But in our story, the main scientist doesn't present facts, we the audience (and the Peter Weyland the financier) must just accept her word that she might be right because she has faith. Peter Weyland pays for everything, secretly wakes up on the ship, goes to meet his maker and is summarily killed. Wow... Guy Pearce has about as much screen time as the aliens do. Groan.The musical score is turgid, just doesn't fit and repeats far too often. All in all, it's the worst Scott movie I have seen by far and is most certainly the most expensive flop I've ever seen. Stick to the viral movies on youtube... they are far more interesting.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. PART 1 OF 2 (Due to space limitations)

I'm reproducing a review here written on darkhorizons.com from Weyland Smithers, who puts it all far better than I ever could:

"Prometheus is a hilarious comedy in the tradition of "Spaceballs" and "Men in Black" about a motley crew of forgetful, scaredy-cat scientists who go into space and try to find their alien creator. They find maps in caves that are their invitation, but this turns out to be a hilarious trick, like a mousetrap for retards.

The first scene is a giant, german-looking albino steroid guy who drinks some coffee out of an ashtray and gets sick and falls in the waterfall. Special effects reveal that he has little, tiny ladders in his blood called D&A. This guy looks like a member of the Blue Man Group, except White. There is a UFO flying overhead that is never seen or mentioned ever again in the movie. Just one of the many pranks that the writers and director have put in the movie to trick you with.

Next we meet these two very forgetful and silly scientists and they get to go into space on a beautiful ship. It is taken care of by a gay robot who does stuff like dye his hair and dress up like Robocop with a colander on his head to entertain himself. If C3PO had a human face, he would be this guy. All of the silly bungling scientists wake up from hyper-sleep in time to watch a hilarious hologram of a guy in an "old man" mask that looks like the Emperor from Return of the Jedi. I think he is wearing the old guy mask to get some laughs from the wacky scientists, but no one notices it. There is another funny guy with unconventional hair and tattoos who is really mean to everyone - that's so true! Guys that look like that are always dicks!

The spaceship starts to land on the planet, and as luck would have it, lands exactly near the alien castle on the very first try without even looking around too much - another hilarious example of serendipity! These guys are so lucky and fun to watch! The crazy scientists go into the alien castle and two of the guys get so scared that they decide to go back to the ship and get lost, even though they have flying superballs that make 3D maps of everything. Those two bungling doofuses! They are like "Dumb & Dumber" or "Abott & Costello". The rest of the gang finds more poisonous coffee and somehow the gay robot steals a whole pot of it without anyone noticing. He's such a Sneaky-Pete!

Everyone has to go back to the ship at the last minute because the Captian pranks them and waits until a violent storm is nearby before telling them about it! Haha! This guy is great! The two bungling idiot scientists get stuck in the castle and decide to goof-off all night. They try to pet a space cobra that lives in the poisonous coffee, but it kills them, which I think is what ALL cobras wish to do, space or no. Meanwhile, back on the ship, the gay robot does a HILARIOUS prank on the whiny scientist who wears a hipster scarf. He puts a little poisonous coffee in this jerk's drink and gives him pink eye and diarrhea (probably). Haha! That's like a whoopee cushion x100! Luckily the scientist has enough health left to hump his forgetful girlfriend one last time before he is all the way super-sick from the bad coffee. As one last prank to his fellow scientists, he suits up and goes back to the castle with them, even though he secretly knows he is very, very sick. Haha. What an inconvenience to the rest of the group - the ulimate prank!

The mean lady burns him later. The forgetful scientist gets pregnant with a white octopus and has to take it out using Michael Jackson's special oxygen bed. Now here is where the movie gets really hialrious, because she TOTALLY forgets that the alien squid is in there and just leaves to go do some errands! HAHAHA! It turns out that the funny guy in the old man mask is really hiding on the ship and he does some funny slapstick "old man walking" with a cane! I love it!

(CONTINUED!)… Expand

Hard to imagine it's by the same director as Alien, it's so far away in tone, pace and a lot of the acting*.
Like a remake for the short-attention-span generation, or a George Lucas prequel, there's enough happening for 5 movies, all rammed into 2 hours and with the odd 'big concept' thrown in there, with no time to make anything to seem believable.It seems borderline insane instead.
Certainly entertaining though, can't say it's boring - I needed a few moment's silence after the end. Looks amazing in places too. However I don't think I'd want to see it again in a hurry and it.certainly won't be seen as a classic in 30 years.
*There's some very dodgy supporting character acting, - the Scottish woman was particularly cringe-worthy.… Expand

This movie is so incredibly atrocious that it's hard to put into words just how bad it is!

The story is laughable, the character development is non-existent, the pseudo-science claptrap is intolerable. It is a hateful pastiche of the Alien films with other elements stolen from any recent sci fi you can think of. The dialogue is cringe-worthy in the extreme - just embarrassing. There is exposition delivered at every possible opportunity.

Going against evolution and having humans made by a creator means you're starting with by wiping out our knowledge of science, which strangely won't appeal to many sci-fi fans! Yet if you're going down this route, don't use DNA matching with the engineers as evidence, as it quickly begs the question, what about the DNA similarities with our evolutionary cousins? The man who wrote this tosh is clearly an ignoramus - best start with a basic understanding of science if you plan to write sci-fi!

I left the cinema feeling extremely disappointed and just plain angry that I wasted hours of my life watching such drivel. It makes me sick to see the great talents of the visual effects artists wasted - not to mention the gargantuan sums of money that it must have cost. I have lost all respect for Ridley Scott, and I hope this pile of offal fades quickly into the obscurity of failure and doesn't besmirch the incredible legacy of Alien and Aliens.

Read the Forbes review for a pretty spot-on summary of its failings:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2012/06/11/review-prometheus-is-a-visually-stunning-epic-failure/… Expand

A major debate that underlies the film is what's interesting, what I believed was supposed to be the question of Religion Vs Science, Creationism Vs Evolution. Unfortunately the film doesn't really do much with it. Apart from that the film offers a few interesting new ideas to the Alien story and of course the gorgeous visuals and a few expected scares.

Overall this film was enjoyable to watch but just fell short of being a great film, it seems as if there were missing scenes, if not then some lazy story telling but I find the later hard to believe coming from a seasoned director.

Fully expecting a much more coherent directors cut some time in the future. I hope that the film wasn't chopped up on purpose just to push more BluRay sales.… Expand

Prometheus stood on its own entirely. It was still a classical sci-fi film and had its action/thriller/horror aspects like the Alien movies, but in terms of its message and overall meaning, it was its own entity, and I thought was absolutely brilliant. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, never a dull moment. Plus I saw it in IMAX 3D (and the 3D was surprisingly good and not distracting), which made it a billion times more epic. Personally, I hope that the sequel tries to stay away from the Alien movies. I like the idea of Prometheus by itself, and the fact that Ridley Scott threw in that last scene made the movie a little less climactic. Yes, I definitely agree that this film gives new hope to the sci-fi genre. There were definitely some parts that were a little cliche, but overall it was fresh and absolutely thrilling. No idea why Madagascar 3 beat this at the box office this weekend. I may have to kill myself.… Expand

Special effects and Guy Pearce's makeup were good but it seems that there's something missing in the movie and I can't tell what it is. Prometheus pales in comparison with Aliens series. And even for the lead character, Sigourney Weaver's character, Ripley, is more likable, trustworthy, and determined than Noomi Rapace's Dr. Elisabeth Shaw.

If one can't keep up with the subtext of what's going on in the film, they are going to come away completely disappointed and confused by Prometheus. If you have the chops to hang in there, though, the film is a fantastic, and important, exploration into the nature of human existence. Make no mistake, the monsters and horror of this film exist SOLELY to support the existential quest that is the root of the story. If you are expecting a film about aliens who kill people, you won't be satisfied. (Even if aliens to spectacularly kill people)… Expand

It has all the trademarks of an Alien movie while combining science and religion in the search for the origins of human kind and the discovery of the possible end to life on earth. Scott uses great cinematography with intense horror to bring the story to life.

While this movie isn't perfect, it's still a far better experience than Alien 3 and Resurrection, which recycled the ideas of its predecessors and spit them back out; whereas Prometheus attempts to take the franchise in a new direction while still staying true to the core elements of previous installments. Aside from one motive left unexplained and an unaddressed continuity issue in the time line between Prometheus and Alien(it would seriously take 2-3 sentences of narrative to bridge everything together...but sequel maybe?), the movie exceeded my expectations; between its amazing cinematography/visuals and convincing acting, this crazy story somehow becomes believable.
This is far from a bad movie and the 3D version by far had the best 3D I've experienced yet(no obvious scenes with way too many people at too many varying distances or stuff flying towards my face). To wrap things up, this is a great movie that is well worth seeing on the big screen in 3D, even though it has some faults, they aren't that detrimental to the film itself, but rather it's continuity between it and it's current sequel Alien.… Expand

"I'm not here to be your friend, I'm here to make money."
Save your money. Watch it on DVD some day when you've run out of things do, your future self will hate you for it. I know you're a fan, you loved the last movies, you like bad movies that others don't get, sci fi movies, AVP, ...trust me this movie is dumb, full of Swiss cheese-wiz and pathetic symbolism. It's like that last season of LOST...… Expand

Poor attempt at cobbling together a new mythology. Good sci-fi is rare; this wasn't even close. While alien movies ranged from pure terror, ego-driven, vain militaristic blends and various other facets, they were at least focused. This movie's lofty ideals execute themselves so badly that one wonders if the director had gotten too familiar with his intent that he assumed others seeing this would simply see his cohesive sweeping grandness that probably resides in head alone. Not so. Director's costly error.… Expand

This is for sure the best movie of 2012 I have seen so far, Sci fi movies are of my favorites, I also loved Alien I also liked this one but not that much as alien, but still awesome

The movie cannot live up to hype. It is asinine, imbecilic, z-grade, cut-rate schlock. It's the SPECIES of our era. A groaner of a dud of a flop.

Another great Ridley Scott movie, he is a great director, it has awesome special effects and it has to much suspense, and we have a great performance by a new movie star, Michael Fassbender, who is really popular at the moment

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Rather than explicitly deliver the plot to the viewer in tight punchlines, this movie flows from one rich template to the next...and the plot unfolds without pausing for the laugh track. When its over, you are left with the intriguing question: why do these Romanesque demi-gods who've engineered themselves into perfect physical specimens...and who've engineered the development of a mirror species (us), why on earth do they design this biological weapon to destroy mankind (their own creation) approximately 100 years after the crucifixion?

What are the parallels between them, human civilization, our destruction, and they symbol of Rapace's crucifix? Could Ridley Scott be tying everything together? Could earth be an outpost for their empire...and when our civilization chose something other than the regimented slave-system of the Roman Empire, this did not fit into their plans for a new colony?

There are a billion intriguing ideas, and only a few clues...

One of the best movies in years, IMO, and even if it is not widely praised, I think it will have a spot on many "best sci-fi movie" lists for a long, long time.… Expand

Wow! Oh, wow. I just returned from the theater and I think my head is still in outer space. No kidding, the special effects and sound in this movie are ramped up to such intensity, it will take you a while to adjust after the first time you see it, too. Hang on to your popcorn. You're in for a ride.

This movie deals with the theme that life may have come from other planets. Was it benevolent? Was it intelligent? Did it have the potential for peace or death? The answer may be, all of the above. A group of humans and an android take a massive craft to the site of a possible civilization. They are out to see whether it was the source of human culture. They are so optimistic, in fact, that notions of potential difficulties don't stop them. Soon they're on the planet, and searching through what seems to be an inhabited mountain. Is anything still down there? The viewer familiar with the rest of the Alien series will recognize the wry nods to the characters down the road. There is the smart-aleck humanoid robot, the eager explorers, and those who are skeptical of the whole thing. I won't tell you too much, since this is one of those stories that's so elaborate, and has such momentum, you really have to see it for yourself. Although I was frustrated by some of the plot twists, of which some are explained and others just aren't, it's clear that this film is a complex, supercharged thrill ride. Fans of science fiction will be agog with happiness over the dark storyline and the special effects. Those who like horror will understand the relentless fear that follows you all through the film. If the entire movie feels as if you are scurrying down a tunnel, it's because much of the time, you are. Good versus evil is always a worthwhile theme. In this movie, although it's not always clear what constitutes winning or losing, the battle is a heck of a thing to watch.… Expand

This metascore is an absolute travesty. A beautiful, thought-provoking science-fiction film discussing what it means to be human, and the origins of life. It's metascore should be much much higher, at least in the seventies.

Yes, this movie has flaws, but that doesn't escape the fact that I just can't get the darn thing out of my head. It's not the flaws, such as some plot holes and lack of character development, that are sticking with me. It's the beauty and the outright audacity of the film. It's the kind of sci-fi no one makes anymore, in that it actually has something to say. What that "something" is is, like the best sci-fi, left up to interpretation. This film does not pander and has no easy answers, and that can sometimes be frustrating. But I applaud it nonetheless. Even if you wind up disappointed, there will definitely be something here that will stick out as memorable, even if it is just the visuals.… Expand

Had high expectations for this movie as I'm a huge Ridley Scott fan and after watching so many of his interviews where the legend seemed genuinely excited and gave fans many promises surrounding Prometheus. Well... I never in my right mind thought I'd be saying this but it was very disappointing, mostly because there was a lot of potential in that the cast was superb and could not have done a better job with what they were given, as well as the cinematography but the script was extremely disappointing and I cannot believe that Scott gave the green light to such a horribly done script with so many novice mistakes, it really is sad to see before our eyes the fact that he has fallen so low. I will focus on the negatives without trying to spoil the movie for you. Basically, I am convinced that if the writing was on par with all the other elements of the film, it would have been everything we were expecting (I thought the 3D was also fairly poor which was very surprising giving Scott's technical prowess but that could have easily been overlooked). It really felt as if 30 or so minutes had been cut as the movie moved lightning fast with no character development (besides David who was the only character you actually care about). Things just happen throughout the movie with absolutely no explanation, only subtle implications that seem to only raise even more questions, and after critical scenes these events are dropped entirely and the characters seem to forget whatever even happened. Character motivations and actions are very questionable and they just don't sell it at all to the audience (it is hard not to spoil this for you but I have to be as general as possible) and then there are inexplicable plot holes throughout : terrifying and intense scenes occur involving death and horror and in the immediate scenes after it is as if nothing had even happened as there is no mention of what has just occurred and instead more things are quickly introduced. Charlize Theron as a character is actually quite useless and I have no idea why she was even in the movie?
The ending is just extremely sloppy and makes absolutely no sense and it will only enrage you. I still think you should go watch it and see for yourself but do not have the high expectations you would normally have had for a new Scott film in the Alien franchise, which is unfortunate to say the least.… Expand

I really enjoyed this movie. I never saw the 'Alien' trilogy because I'm 25 and they were before my time. I went into this movie expecting an edge of your seat space-survival drama and got exactly that. As with all good stories it leaves a lot of questions unanswered and I very much prefer it that way. I found it was a nice change of pace from a lot of movies today that force the plot down your throat. The movie doesn't pander to the dull witted or people who need every question answered. If you like this type of movie and you're willing to think a little bit then you should enjoy this film immensely.… Expand

empty and pretentious all at once! there must be a better version out there than this one, i.e. the director's cut. otherwise, how could one make a movie out of such an empty and crappy script?

multiple discontinuities, no character development other than that of the android, so many contradictions, blah blah blah.

what a waste of $12.

I waited a bit for the hype to die down but also had some preconceptions going into it that it would "not be very good after all" thanks to people thinking it acceptable to flood social media with spoilers, I also know this was part 1 of probably 3 films which all helped to raise my satisfaction with film.

Had I seen it on opening night with the idea it was the greatest film in 30 years (as I was starting to believe based on the trailers) then I too would have been gutted by so many questions being raised rather than answered.… Expand

Entertaining, with a plot that leaves a lot unanswered for, seemingly, a reason. The film sets itself up great as we slowly are absorbed into its world. As the film goes on, the mood changes and the final scenes had me on the edge of my seat. Sure, the plot is as full of holes as swiss cheese, and Ridley Scott seems to throw a new idea into the mix about ever other scene then completely abandon it, but I can't help but feel that I have been incredibly engaged and immersed by this film. If you can get past its "hush-hush" attitude about 50% of the core plot material, you will definitely enjoy yourself.… Expand

Upon seeing Prometheus I was very disappointed with the movie. It was rushed, abrupt, answered no questions that were presented because of a lack of story and the characters were one dimensional. The special effects were great and the action, when there was some, was good. The movie just didn't flow. It didn't off set the negatives though. However, I went back and watched the original Alien film and it made Prometheus much better because you can see how the two are connected. Fassbender's performance was the highlight of the movie.… Expand

Well the marketing previews showed us nothing sort of like PT Barnum with his EXITorium. And when we finally got to see the movie there was a reason they showed us nothing. It's moronic and I am being kind. Just a waste ot time and money. They promised us nothing and that is what we got. Avoid.

Some nice visuals and lots of symbolism, but the basic delivery of the plot is terrible. Characters act like complete idiots without any regard for even the most basic safety procedures (or even concepts) and the plot is driven more by their idiocy than anything else. Fails to even address the concept of the movie or the questions raised by that concept, instead opting to focus on a bunch of stupid people doing stupid things. Honestly at times it feels like a grindhouse slasher flick. Unrewarding, unentertaining and intellectually shallow. You can derive some enjoyment from the interpretation of symbolism and the stunning visuals, but this does little to make up for the very poor delivery of the narrative.… Expand

It's a great film, and those who say it's ridden with plot holes lack the imagination and intelligence to fill in the gaps that the film purposefully leaves. Superb visuals and a story that doesn't answer many questions because THAT'S WHAT IT'S ABOUT -- the pursuit of forbidden knowledge.

Two days before this review was written, I watched Alien. Two days later, I saw it again, except this time it was in 3D, and not as good.
Perhaps I should elaborate? The films (plural) are about the crew of a spaceship with a quasi-meaningful name and their discovery of an alien structure. They investigate at first and then attempt to flee after things slowly but surely hit the fan. All the while, their efforts are impeded by members of the crew with ulterior motives. I canâ… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Big and beautiful film, which I enjoyed, but which had literally dozens of plot holes. I feel like a couple of guys got into a room and came up with the story, "yeah, and then when we charge the head, it comes alive, and then explodes, yeah, cool", and "we can make the robot kinda evil," but without any motivation to be? While if you can ignore so much nonsense, you will enjoy this movie, I can't help feeling, over and over, every time I see a big budget film that either the producers are stupid (because it would be so ridiculously easy to patch the plot holes), or they think I am.… Expand

Awful script with shallow, underdeveloped characters and massive plotholes. One of the worst pieces of sci-fi writing I've seen in years. Even the great acting and direction can't redeem this film.

Don't waste your time and money. Hype aside, this movie was worthless from start to finish. Not exciting, not scary, and the lack of storyline just makes it a painful experience. I'm a huge fan of Ridley Scott as well as the Alien franchise and yet I found this movie utterly and totally useless. I'm being particularly brutal about it so that I can hopefully save someone the disappointment of wasting a Sunday afternoon on this.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I saw Prometheus on opening day in IMAX. I really was drawn in at first but felt like there needed to be more, like an hour more of backstory. Like was this the Weyland from the Aliens movies? or is this his father? Many questions left unanswered except for one, we helped create the Alien. I like many other yearn for more. Do I smell a sequel?… Expand

My friend and I saw this movie with low expectations after reading many negative reviews and we were blown away by how awesome this movie was. I would recommend watching the original alien up until where they explore inside the alien ship before seeing Prometheus. It helped us enjoy the movie that much more. Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace had the best characters in the movie IMO. Here is my checklist of why I loved this movie.. Very good cinematography, the best CGI and visual affects to date, alien references, tense scenes that keep you on the edge of your seat, and finally this is just an awesome sci-fi movie. Prometheus had its flaws however as other reviewers have pointed out. If you go into this movie with high expectations you will be let down. The movie raised more questions than answered. There is little character development and over all the script could have been better. I would definitely recommend seeing this movie. Just go to be entertained.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Possible Spoiler.
If your an Alien franchise fan this movie helps explain the genesis of the Xenomorphs, at least the early genesis. Still leave a lot of unanswered questions and raises a few more. Overall a solid sci fi film with A LOT going on.… Expand

PROMETHEUS: feh to meh. Kinda turgid. Doesn't know what it wants to be, as though plot strands ended up on the cutting room floor. Meandering, no real suspense save for one scene. With few exceptions, pretty lackluster performances, though the actors need to be extended some credit for being saddled with lame, underwritten characters. And why dress Guy Pearce up in freshman year old man makeup when you could get, like, a real old man?? Pretty awful, imho. (Upon reflection, obviously there must have been footage of a young Guy Pearce that didn't make the final print. Even more laziness; my g.f. and I sat there the entire time thinking "why is this guy MADE UP??") Good to know: $200+ million and you can still suck.… Expand

Too many people haven't done their research before posting a review on here. A lot of people are saying that the movie sucks and had great potential. Did it actually suck?

They are giving it such a low score on bases that it wasn't what they expected. People wanted xenomorphs but they didn't get that. Everything is explained, this film is most definitely original and the people that don't understand it are giving it such a low score! This film does not deserve a zero, or a two. Those are ridiculous ratings based solely on what you didn't get within the film.

Just because you don't understand it, doesn't mean that things didn't get answered. They did get answered, it's because you don't understand it to truly see what the answers were!… Expand

Story, characters, ideas, visuals - nothing in Prometheus surprised me. Which is the worst thing you can say about any piece of entertainment. (Gross-outs don't count as genuine surprises.)

you know in horror movies where some teens are out in the woods and they see a house with severed heads outside, and they say 'hey let's go in there and ask for help' and the whole audience groans and also rubs its hands and waits for the monster to come and chop the idiots to pieces? well sadly transfer that level of idiocy to space, and substitute scientists for teenagers, and you've got Prometheus. There are SO MANY holes and 'WTF???' moments. From people pointing at a totally vague cave painting and deciding it's an accurate star map and an invite from aliens zillions of miles away, to approaching an obviously mad space snake, and petting it, (guess what happens next)... to opening the spaceship door to totally bonkers monster men just for the hell of it... oh you get the idea. Enjoy it, but for lords sake, don't take it seriously.… Expand

Let's get this out of the way: Prometheus is not Alien. It's a very different beast. It's a movie with big ideas, big questions and big mysteries. The weakest aspects of the film are its poorly developed characters and some perplexing story beats. However, it features some gorgeous cinematography, good performances (including a brilliant turn by Fassbender as the android, David) and the courage to pose questions without spoon-feeding the audience all the answers. Prometheus is not Alien... and that's not a bad thing.… Expand

Prometheus is a true prequel to Alien but not of the same caliber. Great cinematography but as hyped as this movie was, it fell short because of a serious number of plot holes and things that were left unanswered. If your the type of person that is in it for the suspense and entertainment then you will be satisfied but if you find yourself asking questions your gonna find no answers.

I am a fan of the Alien films, but this movie is based on the old plot that gives sci-fi movies a bad name: Take a group of insane misaligned people, that no intelligent being would choose to go far away on a possibly dangerous mission, and watch them react their own misery against each other - they will break apart even without any alien help!
And while the good old aliens was understandable as a natural predator that simply does what a predator does, there is no understanding given to something that should be an intelligent species, but reacts like just another wounded animal.
In short: It is all very beautifully made, and has a new cool female lead role, but the story has been told too many times before without giving any new twists. But as a fan of Alien, you of course still need to see it, just to see the old spacecraft again :-)… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I haven't watched any previous alien films apart from Alien Vs Predator but this was pretty scary for me. Although it felt like it was lacking at least 45 minutes worth of extra footage, there were so many times where I was so confused. For example, you expected to stay with the two men in the tomb for a lot longer instead of skipping back to the ship and watching a head explode. And then magically one of the men somehow becomes like a zombie later in the film which to be honest has no explanation in the slightest. All in all I thought it was quite enjoyable but certainly lacking.… Expand

After a long and excited wait, I finally saw Prometheus on release day. It started out promising, but I first saw little red flags when the characters tried to present their pseudo-philosophy as deep and meaningful. Performances were good for the most part, but some dialogue seemed incredibly forced and the script made the characters do things they obviously wouldn't consider if they were realistic. Be prepared for a very shallow and loose ending that doesn't tie any of the plot up and might as well shout "Hey guys we're making a sequel!"… Expand