I recently did a deep dive on Prometheus and found a way to reconcile a lot of the problems I had with the film to the point where I think it is an excellent sci-fi movie and worthy entry into the canon. Through the writer commentary with Spaihts and Lindelof, the info revealed through the Covenant press junket, and other sources, my problems with the way the black goo functions, the medpod's specificity, the scientists leaving and getting lost, even the running in a straight line while the juggernaut rolls towards our hapless protagonists thing, they actually do make sense. Many of my issues were the same problems you guys had with it and I just thought you were being unnecessarily hard on the movie as I used to be.
You look at their arrival on LV-223. They only had a couple of hours before night fall to get a quic look at the pyramid. They were looking for direct contact which is why they were amazed by everything they saw but didn't really stop to examine anything. They were planning to be there for a while. They were coming back to the structure.
Millburn wants to be Fiefield's friend. This is one of the more obvious character bits right from the very beginning of the film and plays out a little later.
Fiefield and Millburn show their bias in the briefing scene about where they stand on the origins of man. When they get to the pyramid, they both are a little freaked out. Fiefield moreso. When he panics and wants to go back, the expedition crew is cool with it because this is a quick stop. They will be back. They are doing a recce. Millburn decides to go with Fiefield because he wants to show solidarity and he's probably kind of freaked out too.
They take their helmets off because studios want to see actors faces, not helmets. Why hire a star if you cover their face and hamper their performance? It's lame. I hate it, but it's explained away by Holloway being reckless and being a bit of a maverick scientist and he starts the circle of let's take off our helmets.
The black goo affects all organisms differently. It is a genetic catalyst. A mutagenic substance that is chaoticand turns worms into hammerpedes, Fiefield into a monster, Holloway was going the same way, and the infected Holloway was able to impregnate Shaw because he had infected spunk which created life in Shaw where there should be none. Nothing we see in Prometheus has any connection to the xenomorph. Even the Deacon isn't really connected. More of a sneak preview with the trilobite as a form of facehugger and the Deacon as the end result of goo+Engineer+human DNA.
Fiefield and Millburn getting lost was a joke that does fall a little flat. The geologist with the mapping gear gets them lost. Irony.
Millburn is probably wary of the hammerpede but it is the first complex lifeform he has ever encountered and he wants to show off to Fiefield, He is confident that the suit is virtually impregnable as stated by Scott in the director's commentary. He doesn't feel too threatened until things go awry.
The murals showing Gigeresque images and an obvious xenomorph image get explained away in the Covenant novelization where David says he didn't create the creatures, the Engineers did. He just played around with their design.
The medpod was programmed just for Weyland. He is a selfish, miserly, mysoginysti, egomaniacal old man. He sticks it to Vickers every chance he gets and having the most sophisticated piece of medical gear on the ship just for him...makes sense.
Weyland had no evidence that the Engineers could help him but he had no other option. He exhausted every other avenue and this was his last chance. He didn't know, he hoped. It was a leap of faith.
Shaw running around with staples is something that still irks me but everyone involved just says future medicine is really good. lol
Finally, the running scene. They were hurt, panicked, on rough terrain with formations intermittently at their sides as well as debris and flaming rubble falling at their sides. They also didn't know the juggernaut was going to roll evenly, it could have fallen to either side as it did later. Mostly though, it's a hollywood convention like Keanu Reeves outrunning a nuclear explosion on his motorbike.
So...yeah. I guess I'm that guy who tries to offer explanations for the things people have issues with when he enjoys something. I'd be curious to know if any of these changes anybody's mind about anything with the film. It certainly turned me around like 180 degrees to the point where I'm a fan of this story and this movie.
Anyways, hope that wasn't just crazy ranting. Just thought you guys were being really hard on the movie. Covenant, too, but we won't go there right now.