"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

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

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. 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

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.

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

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The dying question that all of mankind has to know is, who created us? what are we created for? That is what the main question in the movie Prometheus. Is this an Alien prequel? I believe this is the second question that has been on everybody's mind. A team of explorers discover a clue that leads them to a far planet across the universe. there, they make a terrifying discover that might change the course of mankind. first, I would like to state that if you're expecting aliens to pop out and cause hell on people, that is not what we have here. I believe that if you look at this movie as a syfi horror film, and not expecting aliens to steal the show, you will happily enjoy this movie a lot more. Michael Fassbender was absolutely marvelous in his role as Android David. he plays the part so compelling that at times seems like he was a robot. Fassbender was evil without even knowing. the movie also had great performances from everyone. Noomi Rapace was a good lead, and had that Ripely feel. the visual effects were outstanding, especially if you see Prometheus in 3-D, which I highly recommend. the one thing that I admired the most about this alien Odyssey was the clever script. the film has a lot of stories going on (three to be specific) all come together. all in all I defiantly enjoyed Prometheus enough to see it twice in theatres. the one flaw to the movie, which was a big problem, was the character development. 17 crew members on the ship, and director Ridley Scott only opened 5 characters to the audience. Charlize Theron played a fine roll, but her character was as pointless as alien 3 and alien resurrection. overall Prometheus is a great find for the extinct genre of syfi horror, and has tremendously great visual effects. Prometheus being a great summer blockbuster. the question. is Prometheus an alien prequel ? GO SEE in 3-D to find out!… Expand

If you want to watch Alien, go watch it! If you want to watch something new then stay around for Prometheus. This sci-fi story of finding our creator is beautiful. It is deep and at times to philosophical for some, but if you listen to the last line of Weyland than you can understand the scope of the journey. I really enjoyed it and the action scenes are intense. GO watch it.

Ambitious film making at it's finest! A lot of people will be sore over Prometheus. Everyone wants to say it's because of the weak script, the unanswered questions or erratic pacing but it will be because of expectations overall, do to it's Alien DNA. It has been said to be a stand alone film within the same universe as Alien and people just started comparing the two. Yes, the movie requires you to think a little harder than you usually would in a movie theatre but that's the whole point. As for all of the unanswered questions, for whatever reason, whether you need to come up with your own conclusions or Ridley Scott doesn't want to relinquish info that could possibly be in a sequel. Prometheus was a very guarded project, no one knew what to expect, so i'm just wondering why people are so upset at the fact that the movie didn't dumb itself down to revealing all it's secrets. That is my favorite aspect of the whole thing is that no matter how hard you try to answer the questions, another is lingering behind it. To me the pacing was just right, not going into this long process of introducing everything about it. The Sci-fi drama/thriller get right down to business and doesn't really hold back on any level viscerally or intellectually. There are not many film out there like Prometheus and it was a real treat to watch in IMAX. The entire premise was so carefully conceived i was in utter awe during most of the it, due to the amazing atmosphere, grand ideas, and pitch perfect performances(props to Fassbender on his eerily superb David) but the Noomi Repace takes the cake. The caesarean scene was by far one of the most intense things i have sat through during a movie, almost to the point where it was terrifyingly unbearable to watch. It was a fantastic experience that I wont soon forget and hopefully if were lucky, it's not over. People can be mad all they want but the entire crew has created something really amazing and the film simply strives to be more.

My advise to all the disappointed people would be to see it again. The second time I went, i immediately fell in love with Prometheus.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I am also an Aliens saga fan, but Prometheus was a huge disapointment. Great graphics, but a long stretched out story with a sudden unexplained ending. Looks like the movie makes wanted to make a quick buck. And who bribed the critics to give it a high score!!!… Expand

Prometheus would look fantastic as a coffee table book since it is a respectable visual evolution of the Alien franchise. Beyond that it is a failure. It is a two hour demo reel for distractingly bad science. It might answer one or two questions left from the original mythology, but poses infinitely more new questions and tells the story in such an unsatisfying stumble through poorly written characters and their inexplicable actions that you don't care about the answers that dribble forth and are encouraged to be apathetic about any future revelations as they are sure to be unsatisfying.… Expand

Prometheus is one of the most beautiful and intriguing films I have come across in a long time. Reading some of the negative reviews on here, it appears that most of them just want the answer spoon fed to them and are unable to think for themselves. The amount of debate this film has raised is because of the lack of answers! The cast all perform incredibly well, with particular note going to Fassbender as David the android. As mentioned earlier the film looks absolutely stunning; I highly recommend a proper IMAX experience (Manchester's very good) for the full effect, with brilliant looking sets and wonderful creature design.

If you're a fan of the Alien series you might have a better idea of what's going on purely because the films are set in the same universe, but they're still far enough apart for anyone to appreciate Prometheus on its own merit but please don't go into the cinema expecting a horror film like alien, or an all out action movie like Aliens, its very different and you might appreciate it more if you go in without these preconceptions.

Overall I think Prometheus is a very unique film, we haven't seen something like this for some time and I hope it paves the way for more intelligent Sci-fi films in the near future.… Expand

Pure crap. Expected to see a film promoted as a crew searching for the meaning of life and the origin of the universe and paid $36 (!!!) for an ALIEN PREQUEL.

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This film was such a disappointment. THEY REALLY DUMBED IT DOWN. Of course visually it was nice...but that only go so far. Cheesy dialogue and plodding! I guess this was to pay for a new piece of real estate for Ridley. Watched it at Waves! The screen and sound effect was good.… Expand

"They went looking for our beginning - What they found could be our end" Prometheus is a sophisticated, beautiful and very promising science fiction film which really makes you wonder what would have happened if it were real. I am a fan of science fiction and alien films and Prometheus is a classic science fiction that I would remember forever. I have been seeing a lot of negative criticism from fans and it just makes me laugh because I don't get what else they were expecting this film to be. So, it's a lot easier for me to say that this film proved to be much, much better than my expectations because I really wasn't expecting it to be good, or even great. Ridley Scott kept this film separate from previous Alien films and that is prodigious. He delivered it wonderfully and deliberately left so many questions unanswered to keep the viewers wondering and let their thoughts go beyond the imagination. The plot might seem a bit typical and predictable sometimes but it has been executed and incorporated in the direction in an amazing way that is really worth watching. Hats off to Scott's direction and Damon Lindelof and Jon Spaihts' writing. Production design is brilliant, and so is the cinematography. Visual effects are up to the par and seem really good and believable and somehow a bit genuine (especially those blue-ish blurry ones, they were really good). Outstanding performances by Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Shaw, Michael Fassbender as David and Charlize Theron as Meredith Vickers. I liked Rapace's performance so much because of her little bit resemblance to Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley and also because she continued to shine like she did as Lisbeth Salander in the Millenium series. Overall, it is a really great film, which gives you a wonderful experience.… Expand

What a pile of horse manure? It has a 7.6 rating on IMDB which was the main reason I went to see it (that and the fact that Ridley Scott directed). It is intended as a prequel to Ridley Scott's Alien but it's really just a very bad re-make of Alien with an invisible, non-nonsensical story line. The characters are paper-thin idiots, the dialog is asinine, and the actors have nothing to work with. The whole thing is utterly forgettable. The visuals are okay for a while but gradually overwhelm everything. There is a hint in the end that there may be sequels and with 7.6 on IMDB there probably will be. Scott needs to hire some writers who know the difference between suspense and shtick and can write dialog that is not aimed directly at the audience. 1/10 for production quality.… Expand

A victim of many things, including poor screen writing and rampant fan-boy-ism and hype, Prometheus fails to live up to much of anything. Many people have the name Ridley Scott on their lips, but, the blame can't really be attributed to him in this case, as the real problem is with the plot. It REEKS of too many fingers in the pie, too many half assed ideas pasted together to form a "story" that tries to be on one hand, an intellectual film and on the other an extension of the now mundane space monster movie, and fails to deliver on either account. With too many plot holes to list, mediocre casting / acting and a hollow ending, it's just not worth it.… Expand

The problem with Prometheus is that it isnt a horror movie, thriller, or an action flick. Its just a slow sci fi movie that asks a lot of questions and leaves them unanswered. You will walk out of Prometheus wondering what was going on, why things happened, and what was the meaning behind different events. I didnt walk out thinking I wasted my money, but I wasnt completely satisfied.

This is a movie that makes you think! These are the type of movies that I absolutely love! It's rare these days when we get a movie in the box office that actually presents a true and moral dilemma. In the case of, "Prometheus," it's the question of human existence. We follow a group of explorers, scientists, soldiers, and business folk. They have their different agendas, but have to know to work together. Making a tremendous discovery, it's nothing that they could have ever imagined. Special effects, acting, cinematography, and plot. It's all there! You need to see this movie!… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Read the other negatives... this is as bad as serious movies can get, and I enjoyed the red reviews more. There are so many plot holes that it is not even worth analysing them. People seem to make excuses by looking for depth, depth which just isn't there. The symbolism can be summed up in two sentences, or a one word title, which is about the best thing in the film. The dialogue is just mind-bogglingly bad. The beauty of Alien was it's naturalism. People talked like where they were and who they were. This film tries to replicate that, by some pointless bickering between unimportant characters, and some portentous dross from other side characters. You end up wanting to rip everyone's head off to see if they're a robot.

The other excuse people raise is that it looks good. It doesn't. It looks like Armageddon crossed with Dune for 2012... and I mean that in a bad way. Throw in Biff from BTTF (were no actual old people available for the role?), suicidal space jockeys, zombies, attack snakes... and some holograms. Seriously don't start me on the holograms, I can imagine the script session: "We need to move the plot along"
"How about some holograms of people running away from something?"
"Won't people notice that makes no sense at all?"
"Probably not... don't overestimate your audience."
"Cool, what about learning to start the alien ship?"
"No problem, we'll use the holograms to show the alien controlling his ship with a flute."
"You are da man!"

I think my main problem was that I wanted to take it seriously. Had I known going in it was "Alien know what you did last summer" I would have sat back and enjoyed the laughs.… Expand

Very disappointed. All of the good reviews here (so many 10's, even Mr. Ebert?) just talk about how interested they were in the plot. The characters, with the exception of Fassbinder, were so neglected over plot that the movie was uninvolving for me. Huge character motivation holes. Really important things happen that don't seem to faze the characters or change their behavior at all. And for such an important mission, they seem to have sent the cast of Jersey Shore to accomplish it...… Expand

It's so stupid I hardly managed to survive till the end. It's pretty though, nice 3D - if it's what's you're looking for, this one is for you. My problem was that every single dialogue, every single decision, almost every move of the characters is completely stupid, it makes no sense at all. Waste of time :(

Ridley loses Mojo

Never thought I would say it about Scott, but once you take the special effects away what you are left with is a really, really poor "B" movie. Poor in imagination, poor in dialog, poor in science and poor in execution.

The gaping holes in the plot cannot be filled by even the best Blarney you may hear from the likes of Lindenhof. Fassbender, an actor who I have a tremendous amount of respect for and is probably the best actor of his generation, did a lot of Scott arse kissing in the marketing lead up to this movie... well, it is was all for naught, his head ends up in a bag in a scene reminiscent of a really bad school play.

Great talent is lost through complacency. Let's hope Scott can find his Mojo and stop believing his own hype... starting with a better script would be an idea.… Expand

This is one of the best science fiction movies I have ever seen! Visually stunning, mysterious, haunting and with an ambitious story, and all elements blend together perfectly. The greatest part however is that Ridley Scott leaves a lot of space for the audience to fill with their own fantasy instead of breastfeeding them. What a perfect movie!

Would be an awesome movie... if the characters weren't completely unlikeable and idiotic. I mean, if humanity finds a hint of the origins of life on an extraterrestrial planet, they would send a team of highly trained astronauts, not a ex-convict in it for money, or a lazy captain.

An incredible complement of the Alien's saga, which explains all the mysteries that the Alien universe lend us. A film that don't use a lot of digital effects but amazing sets, with an incredible performance of Michael Fassbender that musts win the Oscar this year. This film mixes the elegance and the science fiction in a perfect combination, showing again that this genre is capable to make true masterpieces.… Expand

It's a gorgeous movie but that's literally all it has going for it. The scenes are long and drawn out, the horror is utterly predictable and impossible and the characters are thoughtlessly one-dimensional throughout. If an early revelation that evolution is false and we were created by some far away aliens, independent of the other species on this planet, might bother you, steer very clear of this movie. It's a mockery of science, filmmaking and religion all in one.

Thanks, metacritic, for littering my review with a bunch of backslashes. Time to move away from the PHP, fools.… Expand

It always amazes me how movies and television portray scientists as complete and total buffoons who do all the things a scientists are NOT supposed to do. This movie has that in spades. I just don't understand why Earth would send a bunch of misfits into space who don't know each other on something so incredibly important. Beautiful movie - just stupid and predictable.