This film is set in 2093 and takes place in the same universe as the 'Alien' movies. A group of explorers, including some archaeologists, are on an "undisclosed" mission. They arrive at a moon trillions of miles away from Earth. The team spot what they believe to be signs of civilization. They go to investigate and find more than just signs, they find conclusive evidence. But some of them have an ulterior motive for being there, including the Weyland Corporation. They believe that this is where the human race actually came from. Things soon turn from excitement to survival once inside their discovery. Written by

Plot Synopsis:
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Millions of years ago, a spacecraft of an advanced humanoid alien race arrives on Earth. One of the aliens consumes a dark liquid, causing its body to disintegrate and fall into a nearby waterfall. We see its DNA break down and recombine, seeding Earth with the building blocks of life.

In the year 2089 on the Isle of Skye off the shore of Scotland, archaeologist couple Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and her boyfriend Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) discover a star map in a cave which they record among the remnants of several otherwise unconnected ancient cultures. They interpret this as an invitation from humanity's forerunners. Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), the elderly founder and CEO of the Weyland Corporation, funds the creation of the scientific deep space research vessel called the USS Prometheus to follow the map to the distant moon of LV-223 several light years from Earth.

The ship's crew travels in hibernation stasis at light speed while the android David (Michael Fassbender) stays awake at the pilot control to monitor their entire voyage. In 2093, the ship arrives in the orbit around LV-223 (Note: it is not the same planet first seen in the 1979 movie Alien but is in a nearby region of space, as confirmed by Ridley Scott on Friday June 1st on BBC radio 5 live. Alien is set on LV-426). After being awakened from hibernation, the crew are informed of their mission to find the ancient aliens, called "Engineers" who may be the creators of the human race. They also view a holographic message from Weyland himself, who tells them about his funding for the mission and that he has since died.

Mission director Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) orders them to avoid any direct contact and to return if the aliens are found. The Prometheus lands near an alien structure (resembling a large temple-like pyramid) and a team including Shaw, Holloway, and David explores it, while Vickers and Captain Janek (Idris Elba) remain aboard the ship and monitor their progress.

They find several cylinder-like artifacts, a monolithic statue of a humanoid head, and the decapitated corpse of a giant alien, thought to be one of the Engineers. Other bodies are later found in the structure, and the species is presumed to be extinct. They view archive footage of holographic Engineers running down the corridors reacting to a long-ago emergency (also of note: the alien Engineers are dressed in the exact same bio-mechanical spacesuits that the dead alien "Space Jockey" wears in the crashed spaceship in the original Alien movie, thus confirming the connection between them as one and the same extraterrestrial species).

David secretly returns a cylinder to the ship, while the remaining cylinders in the chamber begin leaking a dark fluid. A rapidly approaching storm forces the crew to return to Prometheus, leaving crew members Milburn (Rafe Spall) and Fifield (Sean Harris) stranded in the pyramid structure after becoming lost trying to find the way out. Shaw insists they take the Engineer's head back to the ship with them and they barely make it back alive.

In the ship, Shaw and medic Ford (Kate Dickie) analyze the Engineer's head, and discover that its DNA is identical to that of the human race. But upon exposure to their breathable atmosphere, the severed Engineer's head decomposes rapidly and disintegrates. Meanwhile, David investigates the cylinder and discovers a small ampoule containing a small amount of black fluid.

The crew of Prometheus discuss the meaning of life, the android David questions why he was created by man and Shaw questions her own existence as she is infertile and unable to create life.

David intentionally infects Holloway with the substance he found within the ampoule, hiding it in a drop of liquid on his finger and briefly dipping it into a glass of champagne Holloway drinks to celebrate their discovery. Later, Shaw and the infected Holloway have sex. Holloway later looks in a mirror and sees his eyes are changing; they are rheumy and he sees a small, silver worm-like organism behind one of his corneas.

Back inside the structure, Fifield and Milburn are attacked by snake-like creatures. Milburn is killed, and a corrosive fluid (yellow acidic blood) from one of the creatures melts Fifield's helmet, exposing him to the dark liquid leaking from the cylinders.

The next morning after the storm subsides, the Prometheus crew returns to the structure and finds Milburn's corpse. David discovers a room containing a living Engineer in stasis and a holographic star map highlighting Earth. Holloway's infection rapidly ravages his body, and he is rushed back to the ship. As he visibly deteriorates, Vickers refuses to let him aboard, and immolates him with a flame thrower at his own request.

A medical scan reveals that Shaw, despite being sterile, is pregnant. David subdues her in order to return her to Earth in stasis, but she escapes and uses an automated medical surgery pod in Vickers' quarters to extract a horrific cephalopod-like creature from her abdomen while she is still conscious. Weyland is found to have been in stasis aboard the ship, and it's revealed that Vickers is his daughter. Weyland explains to Shaw that he intends to ask the Engineers to help him avoid his impending death.

A mutated Fifield is discovered just outside the hanger bay and attacks and kills several crew members before being killed himself. Janek theorizes that the moon they are on was used by the Engineers as a military base until they lost control of their biological weapons, namely the cylinders and the black fluid they contain. The remaining crew return to the structure and awaken the Engineer, who is occupying what is discovered to be a space ship (the same design as the derelict alien space ship seen in Alien).

David speaks an alien language to the Engineer, asking him why they made mankind and asking him to extend the life of his own creator Weyland. The Engineer responds by decapitating him and killing Weyland and Ford. Shaw escapes from the alien ship as it is activated by the Engineer.

The still-active David suggests the Engineer is going to release the ampoules of black fluid on Earth, thus killing every living creature in the planet. Vickers orders Janek to return to Earth, but Shaw convinces him to stop the Engineer's ship. Janek and his two surviving crewmen take off and crash the Prometheus into the Engineer's ship while Vickers flees in an escape pod. The disabled Engineer ship crashes onto the planet, falling onto Vickers, crushing her.

Shaw goes to the escape pod to retrieve supplies and finds that her aborted-but-still-alive alien offspring has grown to gigantic size. The Engineer survives the crash, enters the escape pod and attacks Shaw, who releases the tentacled creature. It subdues the Engineer by thrusting an ovipositor down its throat. Shaw believes she's stranded on the planet until David contacts her and tells her that there are more of the Engineers ships elsewhere on the planet. She recovers David's remains from the alien ship, and together they activate another Engineer ship. Shaw and the remains of android David then take off to travel to the Engineers' homeworld, Paradise, in an attempt to understand why they created humanity and why they later attempted to destroy it.

In the final shot, in the Prometheus escape pod, an alien creature (very similar to the xenomorph seen in the other Alien movies) bursts out of the dying Engineer's chest.

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michael-albertsen from Denmark
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I'm really sorry, but this a major disappointment.

No, I didn't expect miracles or something close to the original Alien. I've been following Scott for 30 years - and it's clear that he has been on the decline since Gladiator and Black Hawk Down.

I liked a few of his later movies like A Good Year - but most have been rather flat and uninspired.

One thing I've noticed, is that he's gotten increasingly complacent with his own "point of view" in terms of historical facts and how things work in reality. It's like he has a complete disregard for plausible motivations or factual information about how things work.

Case in point - there's a scene in the movie where a certain character has to have an operation performed on her body - and it involves slicing directly through the skin and muscle-tissue of her abdomen. After the procedure, she's simply "stitched together" by metal clips in like 3 seconds - and with a bit of local anesthetic, she continues to move and jump about with some moaning. Ehm, you CAN'T have any kind of normal movement with your muscle tissue completely severed - and there was absolutely no healing involved. Just one of a series of ridiculous events.

The plot is entirely juvenile and cliché stuff with "profound" questions like who created us. For some reason, the beings who created us also want to kill us - and it seems to involve incredibly elaborate genetic engineering that also happened to kill most of them in their remote "lab facility". They're CLEARLY much more powerful than we are - and they could just bomb the hell out of us, or do it in a thousand simpler ways. But no, they seem to want to utilize excessively elaborate and dangerous genetic modification or infestation - that they can't even control.

They also like to record recent events with some kind of holographic recorder device that is unable to render clear images, only some cool ghostly images that I bet Scott loved to play with. But they're quite flexible in how they let you play recordings of their security procedure - so you can access their systems without effort.

Characters are void of personality and growth, they're REALLY stupid - and they like to freak out for no reason, and they like to stay calm and playful when there IS a reason - like when encountering a nasty looking cobra-worm - an alien - for the first time in history.

Among these faceless people - we have some willing to gleefully commit suicide by ramming an alien ship, because they like their captain, and they're required to do so because he "can't fly worth a damn" - despite him being the primary pilot hired by a billionaire to do nothing but fly the ship.

We have a religious scientist who concludes that she's found our creators, based on: "It's what I choose to believe".

Then we have the very same religious scientist look at an alien "head" they brought back - and she notices some strange growth on it. She then spends 2 seconds thinking and concludes that this is obviously some kind of "foreign cells" (impressive deduction, I must say) - and she decides to stimulate the cells with electricity - just to see what happens. No research - no caution - no nothing.

We have people who decide to open the door to their ship, seemingly with no thought process, despite having just faced complete chaos by extremely hostile alien forces - because one of their crew mates seems to be lying in front of the door. This while other crew mates have just been taken over by some kind of alien infestation.

Then we have the boyfriend of said religious scientist (a douche) who decides that the air in an alien environment is safe to breathe because his device tells him it is - and he immediately removes his helmet. A classic Hollywood scientist moment, and clearly there's no need to worry about biological contaminants in a place like that.

This movie is FULL of this kind of utterly implausible behavior and random decisions.

It has a couple of "for effect" gore scenes - but Scott manages to include ZERO tension along with them. As a result, they're mildly disgusting - but they have no lasting effect whatsoever.

The "aliens" that are a part of this movie all look like plastic - because of overly smooth and pale skin. They look like Lovecraft creatures without a much-needed paint-job.

We have a horribly predictable, pointless and wasted twist involving Guy Pearce and a certain other cast member.

We have an android, well-acted by Fassbender, who seems to be fully random in his decisions and motivations. Few actions made sense in any context - not to me anyway.

The music was overwrought and didn't fit with the mood of the film, and it seemed like one theme being repeated endlessly. A surprise, given Scott's usual flair for good music.

I think Lindelof is a complete and total hack - who only got the job because he was the "yes-man" who could match Scott's ego. This is pretty obvious in interviews - where Lindelof always manages to publicly kiss Scott's behind.

1 Star for Fassbender's performance.

1 Star for the amazingly detailed visuals.

1 Star for how the above combine to form the excellent beginning.

Now, it's just a matter of leaning back - musing over a thousand different people coming up with a thousand different explanations - each being the "correct" interpretation of this deep and thought-provoking masterpiece.

Going by the IMDb rating, I can do nothing but stay mesmerized by how efficient it is to rely on the "Emperor's New Clothes" effect and let hype do the rest. Stay real Scott, Lindelof and Hollywood.

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BJBatimdb from Cardiff, Wales
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Prometheus is the story of a trillion-dollar mission to discover the origins of human life on a distant planet. Basically, this is supposed to be the greatest exploration undertaken in the history of mankind.

So who do they send? A gaggle of fractious goons whose collective scientific nous is rivalled only by that of the Three Stooges. Within minutes of touching down (conveniently beside the only 'man-made' structures on the planet, a'la 1960s Star Trek) the 'scientists' are yanking off their helmets, on the basis of 'it seems fine to me', dipping their fingers into strange organic ooze, and lugging a severed alien head back to an unquarantined spaceship in a sandwich bag.

Once there, they speedily discover the meaning of life. Then, while one of them gets a bit drunk, his two female companions decide it would be useful to stimulate the head electrically to reanimate it. They don't say why. They give it a bit too much juice, then too little,then dither over too much or too little like a couple of schoolgirls fiddling with a dicky bunsen burner, while the most important scientific discovery in human history waggles its ears and rolls its eyes - before eventually blowing up like a frog in a microwave.

Are the scientists abashed? Is the man angry? Do they all calm down and remember they have degrees in clever things, not diplomas in macramé? Do they heck.

The WHOLE MOVIE is a litany of ludicrous so-called science, schoolboy errors, and pseudo-profundity about the origin of species. Ironic really, when none of the crew would have a chance in hell in any sort of contest governed by Darwinian rules.

Crass stupidity is rampant in every department. Hi-tech helmets record every heartbeat - apparently until anything worth recording happens; stranded crewmates are abandoned to their fate in favour of a quick shag, and the spaceship door is opened to anyone who comes a-knocking. Although, after hitting the 'welcome' button, Idris Alba does do a double take and go 'Hold on a second!' but that might have just been an involuntary ad lib at his own character's baffling idiocy.

There is spectacular cinematography and effects, but not one iota of originality has been squandered on plot, subtext, tension or characters - which are as shallow as the Prometheus's muddy little gene pool.

Ridley Scott is a hero of mine, but Prometheus is not the intelligent, emotionally satisfying prequel that Alien deserves. It's a derisory, empty experience - and anyone who loved Alien is surely too old and too smart to be fobbed off with something this bad just because it's shiny.

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Jey Stone from United Kingdom
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Lindelhoffed /'LinDelHôfd/

Verb:

1 a : Similar to a "Rick Roll", when one is conned into viewing a series of moving pictures with no conclusive finale, despite the viewer investing a lot of emotion and time in the story.

b (1) : a bottom feeder (2) : to Lindelhoff, much like a cock tease, when a sexual partner brings the other to the point of climax but then bails just before reaching orgasm.

PROMETHEUS Plot holes AND IRRITATIONS ***SPOILERS***

1. The dreams sequence. David can watch Shaw's dreams. Amazingly this technology also cuts from scene to scene like a movie camera...Please. No one dreams like that.

2. How did they randomly find the temple so quick? This is an entire planet surface!

3. Why was the landing so soft and easy?

4. Why does Fifield start screaming at Shaw like that? Calm down mate..jeez..And later on with an Alien cobra he is cool as ice.

5. Why does that moron Buddy Holly scientist try and touch the cobra alien? not once....not twice...but 3 TIMES!!!

6. Why on earth would a scientist remove their helmets in a possibly infected temple? I am just a civilian and even I understand the concept of VIRUS CONTAMINATION ON AN ALIEN FRIGGIN PLANET. They then have the cheek to talk about Shaw's strict quarantine fail-safe procedures...please

7. What does this Black Goo do exactly? Accelerate worm growth? Infect crew members? Cause pregnancies? Create life? Pick one and stick to it please

8. Why does Ford straight away start giving the head electricity for kicks? Do they not have procedures? What is this fun with Frankenstein?

9. Why does the head explode?

10. Why are the medical staff so damn careless with a possibly disease ridden and bacteria infested decapitated head? I swear they didn't even wear plastic gloves.

11. How did Shaw know the Jockey was heading to Earth to destroy it? Pretty big assumption from a couple of punches thrown.

12. How does David know the Space Jockey is heading to kill Shaw on the Medical Bay?

13. How does Shaw know her baby will attack the Jockey?

14. i was really amazed that Shaw has this 'baby' but fails to mention the horrific and super extraordinary situation she had just been through. ''oh hey guys, ha ha, nearly forgot. FYI, you won't believe what just happened to me on the way here''....''i just gave birth to an alien..'' ''yeah, i know CRAZY right, considering i had sex only 10 BLOODY HRS AGO!!''

15. -The whole Vickers' Star Wars 'Father' line...

16. -The 'bet' between the co-pilots was cringe-worthy

17. HUGE ONE…How the hell does Shaw walk after abdominal surgery? If abdominal muscle is cut you can NOT walk, the muscle needs to be sewn back…But no, a few staples and she is good to go…

18. Why does the tentacle creature have tentacles from the evil Planet X?

19. Why do the space jockeys allow any old tramp to walk in an use their security systems?

20. Why does the space jockey want to kill, kill and kill…You'd think an advanced race would be a little civilised?

21. What was the point of Guy Pearce as Weyland? Why was he even there? So he just assumed this temple would contain a fountain of life…..right….I guess he 'chose to believe' too…f**k me…

Honestly there are so many more I can't even write them all…But this movie has more plot-holes than the Iraqi Navy

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Animal Software from United Kingdom
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WARNING: LOTS OF SPOILERS.

Synopsis: Two archaeologists find some old drawings of an alien and a star map. They "choose to believe" that the aliens created human life. So they travel to the planet identified in the drawings. When they arrive at the planet, the members of the expedition all work against each other even though they all want the same thing. Each member then repeated does really stupid things until most of them are dead. The film ends before we see the final stupid decision actually kill the last surviving members.

Nothing the characters did made any sense:

> The robot without feelings falls in love with a woman.

> The robot then risks her life because he wants to preserve the parasite inside her. Why? No reason.

> The expedition is searching for life, but the biologist wants to return to the ship when they find a 2000 year old corpse.

> The geologist also wants to return to the ship rather than look at rocks.

> The geologist then gets lost despite being in charge of the mapping device.

> The top boss pays for the expedition, but pretends he's dead and hides on the ship. Why? No reason.

> The leader of the expedition refuses to cooperate with either the robot or the archaeologists - even though they all want the same thing.

> The alien tries to kill everyone, so the surviving characters decide to go to the alien's home planet to talk to them.

Another issue that kept annoying me was the inaccurate terminology used. There was no reason for it - it was just wrong. For example, at one point the archaeologists talk about abiogenesis and the biologist weirdly starts talking about evolution. Later on, a head exploded (like in Scanners) and the scientist says "Why did that head combust?". I don't expect screenwriters to have degrees, but they should at least look up words in the dictionary.

The CGI is good and the acting would be fine if the actors had been given something worthwhile to do. But every other aspect of the film was a disappointing waste of time.

1/10

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kevinhayward from United Kingdom
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I saw this at a midnight preview and I was really looking forward to it. I'm a big fan of Alien, but I was really disappointed; this is a bloated mess.

In Alien, the creature presented an abstract threat to earth but the plot centered on the immediate, physical threat to the crew. In Prometheus, the threat is purely abstract and while SOME bad stuff happens to the characters, they are all unsympathetic so it is difficult to care. Characters are established with simplistic dialog; this is the cool black guy, this is the incautious explorer, this is the obnoxious mercenary cyberpunk (who, for no reason, is also a scientist), this is the uptight corporate type.

The scientists don't behave like scientists, they don't talk like scientists. The nerdy biologist (who has to walk off to be monster fodder later), walks away from an alien corpse because it's not his field of interest. Huh? Archeologists suddenly turn into medical experts and people exploring an alien ecosystem for the first time remove helmets without regard for contamination of the environment or themselves. Often, the only justification for character actions seems to be to set up later plot points.

Alien worked because it focused on believable characters stuck in a terrible situation, without that believability the film would be greatly lessened. Prometheus, lacking that, is uninteresting.

Prometheus puts me in mind of Avatar. The use of 3D is excellent and the art direction is amazing. However, as with Avatar, technical excellence cannot make up for a terrible plot, sub-standard characterisation and meaningless dialogue.

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mark-southwell-385-725850 from United Kingdom
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Oh the hype. I cannot recall anticipating a movie so much. Matrix Reloaded may have come close, and the feeling of disappointment is all too familiar.

This is the first time I have been compelled to write a review on this site, mainly because most of my friends haven't seen it yet and I just have to vent my feelings somewhere. But before I begin that cathartic release let me say that this is no way a bad movie. I never once had the urge to walk out and I expect I will watch it again some months down the line. I don't feel the anger I experienced after Matrix 2 or Indy 4 but I certainly don't have the buzz of having just watched a truly great movie.

Lets start with the storyline. I think anyone going to watch this is fully aware by now that this is q prequel to Alien, and trust me, you'll have been slapped so hard in the face with this fact by the end of the film that your cheeks will be stinging. Time spent on plot background is over in a matter of seconds. If you've seen the trailers then you've pretty much seen the reason they're off to another planet. From there the storyline follows the usual tried and tested Alien(s) method, i.e. They find stuff, it ain't good and people start dying. What's wrong with that? You cry. Nothing is wrong with that but from then on in in you can't help yourself comparing it to the other two films. And that's where the wheels start falling off.

The first two Alien movies were filled with strong characters who acted and behaved as you felt they should when their friends and colleagues start dying around them. In Prometheus however they may well have all been androids as Rapace apart, they were all taking death and destruction remarkably in their stride. Even one of the best scenes in the whole movie (Rapace's DIY Cesarean) is just glossed over like it didn't happen when . She escapes quarantine, removes a baby squid from her stomach and then runs into the others covered in blood only to be mocked for lacking scientific fibre. Theron may just have well not been there for all she adds and will someone please tell me why they felt it necessary to employ Guy Pearce to play an old man? Here's an idea, just hire an old man to do it instead!

Even the characters taken as a whole are a rather strange bunch. In Alien they were a mining vessel (believable). In Aliens they took some hard asses because they were expecting trouble (believable). However on this occasion a billionaire thinks he'll take himself half way across the universe fully expecting to meet another civilisation who may or may not be hostile and who does he take with him? A couple of scientists, his daughter and a bunch of misfits. Oh but its OK, they have flamethrowers and a few pistols.

Moving on to the bad guys and here we have something which I thought was rather good, as an idea. The concept of humans having evolved from an alien race is a good one, and one of the more believable parts of the film. It was a good idea tackled well. Now if we'd just stayed with that idea and made a film about it I may have been a much happier man. However Scott had decided from the outset that this would be an alien prequel and we were subjected to this absurd notion that they were sinply created by a squid impregnating a super human. Bingo! Quite why this hadn't already happened on the planet before is a mystery, as is why the Alien's don't come out looking more human every time one pops out of our stomachs. And so to the final scene which I suspect Scott saw in a ream one night and built an entire film around it. I can only compare it to Darth Vader's unavailing in Star Wars 3. Laughable.

As a rule I don't like prequels and sequels. They all too often lead to feelings of anger and dismay. But I thought if anyone is going to do it right it would be Ridley Scott. Alien was his baby and there's no way he'd make a mess of it. Well now I feel its time for a public appeal. Will somebody please make a decent ORIGINAL sci-fi movie. PLEASE!

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yogsottoth (yogsottoth@hotmail.com) from Ankara, Turkey
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SUCKED BIG TIME! The story was all over the place, most of the characters were completely unnecessary and underdeveloped, and there were no creatures to talk about really. I wasn't even tensed up for a second, let alone being scared.

Can you imagine a biologist guy, signed up for a mission to explore a different race, shitting his pants and literally leaving the scene at the first sight of an alien body that's been dead for 2000 years? Well, Ridley Scott could. However, the same guy goes ape schit over a real, moving alien cobra-thing and wants to cuddle her! Perfectly consistent character writing! And what the hell was that android guy trying to do with his plots and schemes? What was your plan? Who actually did you serve? And Shaw who did nothing to fill in Ripley's shoes... She attacks the crew, performs a surgery -I'm not even gonna touch that one- that probably overthrows a plan in motion, comes out covered in blood and no one even says "Hey! What the heck?" and they go on another expedition together? And what was that space jockey's problem!? Relax, dude!! I mean you have to be a really mean bastard, consumed with rage to come out of a crashed ship and go after a woman you missed the chance to beat up before.

The final suicide mission could easily be completed with 1 guy.

I will never understand what Shaw hoped to achieve by going after "our creators" to "find the answers". What answer are you gonna find with a beheaded android by your side from a race that clearly thrives on rage and hostility? And finally, this was the most UNNECESSARY use of Guy Pearce ever in a movie.

Making fun of a Ridley Scott movie... Wow, I thought THAT would never happen.

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Norman Cook from Orange County, California
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I can forgive the unanswered questions about the motives and biology of the aliens in Prometheus. After all, they're aliens! What I can't forgive is the awful, awful protocols shown by the human scientists, technicians, and spaceship crew throughout the movie.

To begin with, a legitimate scientific expedition would have started by releasing weather and observation satellites to orbit the planetoid for weeks, perhaps months before Prometheus ever landed. This would determine the most likely places to hunt for aliens, rather than just luckily finding alien structures. Then, the small, remote-controlled probes would be sent into the alien installations to map them thoroughly and take air and soil samples. When pictures of the dead aliens came back, the scientist would spend many hours determining likely scenarios and procedures to avoid a similar fate before setting a foot inside.

The biggest mistake the movie makes, though, is something I haven't seen discussed anywhere. People have written about the folly of the crew taking off their space suit helmets without checking for microbes or other contaminants. It's not just the air quality that could cause illness or injury. What hasn't been mentioned is the danger of the humans contaminating the alien environment. Good scientists are concerned to the point of paranoia about destroying a pristine environment and invalidating their results. This is why Mars rovers are sterilized before they leave Earth. Once an alien planet is contaminated, there's no way to know what's alien and what's not. The crew of Prometheus would have to undergo rigorous decontamination procedures both when exiting the ship and on their return.

Another question that I haven't seen discussed elsewhere is why would an expedition as well-financed and equipped as Prometheus not have more than one robot? Weyland would want to have as much redundancy as possible to maximize success. Moreover, the humans would need to be cross trained, just as astronauts are now, so that in case of injury or illness there would be someone to fill in the gaps. This goes for the scientists, flight crew, security, and every other function.

Wouldn't Prometheus be crewed with the absolute best people in every role? People who knew what the mission was and who had trained together for months before leaving Earth. There is no excuse for second-best in a first-contact mission that's exploring a dangerous alien world.

It's one thing to have a haunted-house movie filled with naïve teenagers, but it's quite another to see supposed top scientists do dumb things. With a little more thought, Prometheus could have addressed the plot holes I and others have noted, and as a result been a tighter film with more tension and surprises.

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Michal Dudek from Manchester, England
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I must admit that the special effects and overall scale of the film is epic. But for crying out loud the plot is thin as paper and the writing is very very bad. None of the characters are acting in a logical way. There is no explainable motivations behind their actions and the story behind the alien race contradicts itself. After watching it I have a feeling it's just a collection of cool ideas put together without any logic to link them. The film pretends to raise some philosophical questions but it's done in a very childish way and in the end you can "choose to believe" whatever you want despite the evidence to the contrary.

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They come to this alien planet (not Alien alien, just extraterrestrial) and decide to land immediately without any surveillance from the orbit. Luckily out of the whole planet the place they happened to fly over had alien structures so they land there. Only then the scientists learn from the mission director what they are allowed to do. They go to this alien structure with their hi-tech equipment and an android. The android presses all the buttons he can find like 5 year old and nobody's surprised that he doesn't explain anything. Apparently he mastered a couple of ancient earth languages but that's no explanation to why he understands alien writings. The guy operating the hi-tech probes that map the structure suddenly flips out when he sees an alien corpse while everyone else is cool, decides to go back to the ship and gets lost in the tunnels. In the structure they decide that the air is breathable on the basis of it's chemical composition and take off their helmets. Who in their right mind exposes oneself to an alien environment. You don't know what can be in this air especially that you're looking for alien life. Then out of nowhere a sand storm appears as if triggered by their actions. So they retreat and they take the alien head with them to the ship while the geo-expert most competent on finding his way back gets lost in the structure. In the ship they do decontamination of the alien head but they fail to decontaminate their own heads after the exposure to the alien environment. And now the best happens: The paleontologist/archaeologist suddenly becomes an expert on alien physiology and just by looking at the head decides that there are some new cell outgrowths on the forehead. They decide to reanimate a 2000(?) year old head by using electroshocks after which the head explodes. (What was the point of that scene? To show their incompetence?) Then they examine the alien DNA under the microscope(!) and the analysis tells them it matches human DNA. (Wow really? After millions of years of evolution of human species it's still the same? Oh wait, you can "choose to believe" so. Yet the opening scene of the alien committing suicide and dispersing in the water with cool particle effects suggests that he initiated all the life on the planet. But then again the ancient cultures worshipped the solar system the alien structures were on. So maybe we are their direct descendants. But it's not where the alien race comes from. It's just a storage place for biological weapon. Why would the aliens leave an "invitation" to their military base?) Meanwhile the android opens one of the vases they found in the structure like he knew exactly what he's doing. All in his room without any secure containment. He brakes open a vial of unidentified liquid which for all he knows could be kryptonite or cool-aid and decides to roofie one of the scientist with it. Meanwhile the guys that were afraid of the alien corpse and got lost in the structure decide to make friends with a snakelike life form that emerged from a puddle and get raped by it. The roofied scientist gets sick but before that he manages to have sex with his colleague (Elizabeth) and impregnate her with an alien life form. Then the android scans the Elizabeth on the next day like he knew what he was looking for and tries to restrain her so she will give birth to an alien. (Why would he want to do that???) She escapes and uses automated surgical chamber to remove the alien from her belly. The procedure cuts through her whole abdomen and then staples it back together. From now on she runs around in all action scenes with her severed abdominal muscles. (The least they could do is show some hi-tech quick healing procedure or something.) She escapes and finds Wayland to be on the ship and he's looking for cure to old age. No one is surprised she has a gushing wound across her abdomen and they embark on another trip to the alien structure which turned out to be a spaceship. They revive one of the alien crew members which goes on a killing rampage after a chat with the android (no explanation why) and decides to fly the spaceship to eradicate life on earth. Fortunately after a quick chat with the female protagonist the pilots enthusiastically decide to go kamikaze on the alien spaceship and die with smiles on their faces. Then there is the nerve wrecking scene of the doughnut spaceship rolling and chasing Elizabeth and Meredith in a straight line when all they had to do to avoid it was to step aside. The alien pilot somehow survives the crash and comes back with a revenge on his mind. It is defeated by the foetus Elizabeth gave birth to which grew to a gigantic size on absolutely nothing in a matter of hours closed in the operation chamber. In the end Elizabeth joins forces with the android who poisoned her lover and tried to kill her as well and they fly off to find the home planet of the alien race.

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robin-hectors from Belgium
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OK this is a lame title for a review, but prometheus kind of deserves a lame intro.

The move opens up very promising, with epic landscapes and a beautifully done intro and epilogue. Then there's a scene where we see David doing his every day chores and keeping himself busy while the rest of the crew is still in cryo-sleep. This scene is utterly genius and should'v really set the tone for the rest of the movie, but all what comes after is really disappointing.

the films builds up quite nice, but until half of the movie it slips away in to unnecessary dialogs. probably to cover up the major plot holes. I was sitting in the theater just asking myself: why are they doing that? Why is this character stereotype in the movie? How did they find this place so fast? Why in the hell do they have a switchboard that turns on holograms about what happened last time and who put them there? What is up with the zombie??? and so on.

If all these questions were compensated with raw action, or tongue in cheek humor, i could have just waved it away; But the film propagates itself as an intellectual, epic adventure about the beginning of mankind.

For a guy who made brilliant films such as Alien, Bladerunner, Gladiator etc. You have to wonder, why is he satisfied with a lame sci fi movie that any other director could have made...

and i hear he's planning a sequel to blade runner... Please, will somebody tell him he has to stop before he destroys his name as a brilliant director...

strong female lead|strong female character|medical scanner|pregnant with an alien fetus|suspended animation|character repeating someone else's dialogue|cave painting|interracial relationship|planet|cryogenics|cave|disembodied head|mercy killing|impregnation|human body as an alien host|star map|future|one word title|surprise ending|moon|alien|statue|explorer|survival|blood|mission|archaeologist|starship name in title|starship crew|starship|starship captain|push up|box office hit|xenomorph|man on fire|kamikaze|spaceship collision|spaceship captain|spaceship explosion|holographic projection|new lifeform|starship landing|barefoot|altered version of studio logo|panspermia|man with glasses|drunkenness|mercenary|trapped in space|year 2094|crucifix pendant|fire axe|running for your life|biological warfare laboratoty|finger ring|walking with a cane|mayhem|surgical staple|emergency surgery|anesthetic|planetarium|breaking arm|animal attack|red rose|pile of corpses|stranded|infected|decontamination|flame thrower|winch|terraforming|year 2091|padded shoulders|female vomiting|child playing violin|internal view of body|immolation|blockbuster|religion|talking head|trailer trash|title appears in text|lens flare|gash in the face|faith|cross|meaning of life|open ended|lifted by the throat|stasis|character's point of view camera shot|sole black character dies cliche|death of loved one|head ripped off|young version of character|dream sequence|character says i love you|father daughter relationship|head bashed in|broken arm|suicide|acid|skeleton|skull|probe|tomb|lightning|dune buggy|commandeered vehicle|scottish accent|eccentric|billionaire|dog|hologram|tattoo|christmas tree|piano|christmas|pool table|shared dream|flashback|basketball|isle of skye|religion versus science|flashlight|camera|cave drawing|captain|biologist|archeological dig|expedition|scientist|deoxyribonucleic acid|dismemberment|mountain|snow|blood splatter|severed head|neck breaking|shot in the shoulder|shotgun|wheelchair|revelation|shot to death|shot in the chest|shot in the head|pistol|mutation|epic|suspense|knocked out|medical|hypodermic needle|bare chested male|death of boyfriend|fainting|person on fire|premarital sex|boyfriend girlfriend relationship|presumed dead|betrayal|drugged drink|science|genetics|genetic engineering|tracking device|shaving|looking at one's self in a mirror|death|self surgery|self mutilation|infection|alien parasite|impalement|burned alive|burned to death|injection|old man|back from the dead|exploding head|microscope|laboratory|sandstorm|dust storm|green blood|necklace|cigarette smoking|stomach ripped open|poetic justice|attack|showdown|strangulation|giant monster|giant creature|axe|crushed to death|crash landing|explosion|race against time|escape pod|countdown|self sacrifice|chase|murder|megalomaniac|super strength|ancient astronaut|geologist|medic|spaceship pilot|year 2089|spaceship crash|god complex|maintenance man|exploding ship|escape|alien intrusion|alien possession|mutilation|tentacle|survival horror|sole survivor|heroine|technology|video screen|robot|slime|creature|parasite|lifeboat|decapitation|pilot|biological weapon|surgery|sterile|space helmet|liquid|storm|giant|corpse|botanist|waterfall|spaceship|human alien|caesarean section|pregnancy|2080s|monster|space travel|violence|outer space|2090s|megacorporation|laser gun|human versus alien|flamethrower|space voyage|spacesuit|space expedition|alien contact|android|alien race|alien planet|alien space craft|alien technology|3 dimensional|horror movie prequel|gore|sequel|prequel|title spoken by character|cross necklace|creature feature|

AKAs Titles:


Certifications:
Argentina:13 / Australia:MA15+ (original rating) / Australia:M (re-rating on appeal) / Austria:14 / Brazil:16 (original rating) / Brazil:14 (re-rating on appeal) / Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) / Canada:13+ (Quebec) / Denmark:15 / Finland:K-16 / France:12 / Germany:16 / India:A / Ireland:15A / Italy:VM14 / Japan:PG12 / Netherlands:16 / New Zealand:R16 / Norway:15 / Peru:14 / Philippines:R-13 / Portugal:M/16 / Russia:16+ / Singapore:NC-16 / Singapore:PG13 (edited TV version) / South Africa:16 / South Korea:18 / South Korea:15 (cable rating) / Spain:12 / Sweden:15 / Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) / Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) / Thailand:15 / UK:15 / USA:R (certificate #47068)