it was definitely better than both avp films, so anyone who said otherwise in their review here is full of it.
Let's at least establish that upfront. It clearly was nowhere near as good as Alien or Aliens, but I knew that before I went to see it and wasn't expecting it to approach those films.
Also as almost every review states, Michael Fassbender was amazing as David 8. He really gives it his all and stretches his role to the limit, doing all he can with the script and plot he had to work with. Noomi Rapace was good too, but her character, Elizabeth Shaw kind of had some annoying lines, mainly to do with her beliefs ("It's what I choose to believe" etc.), but it wasn't a predominant theme as you might expect. Logan Marshall Green was actually good in his role, but the problem is, his character didn't really do too much. (Other than have sex, talk a little bit and get roasted by Vickers)
Idris Alba was good too, but once again his character, Janek, pretty much stayed on the ship's bridge the whole movie, watching monitors and such. (with the exception of his containment of the mutant, uber-Fifeld zombie)
Charlize Theron was good but hardly does anything, apart from burning Holloway to death. Her death was lame and felt dictated by the need to get rid of her and move the plot along towards the film's final act. (crushed wizard of oz style by the falling ship.
)
Anybody else worth mentioning for their standout acting role? Not really, with the possible exception of guy pierce,(who looked unconvincing and pretty retarded as the decrepit, dying Peter Weyland but I'll get to that/rant about it soon enough) Katie Dickie's character, Ford was pretty useless. She was just there in the background and played assistant to Shaw here and there in some scenes(examining the jockey head etc.) but didn't have to many lines or do too much. She also happens to survive for most of the movie, only to get smacked around by the musclebound meathead of a jockey who is awakened towards the end of the film and meets her end in a pretty boring way.
I kind of liked Sean Harris as FIfeld, or at least I would have more if his character was more developed and he had more screen time. Rafe Spall was hardly in the film as Milburn and his death sequence by the hammerpede, while one of the coolest parts of the film, didn't lead to anything that contributed to the rest of the movie. He also just dies apparently when it goes in his mouth. (Also, was it just me, or did the hammerpede regrow it's head when it was cut by Fifeld?)
As people have harped on, time and time again, there really were too many "redshirts". Too many no-name mercenaries and technicians who either have no lines or literally one line or two. The two co-pilots Chance and Ravel were really pointless characters too. The lines they had were often just pitiful attempts at humor that no one in the theater laughed at. Their eagerness to face the ultimate finality of death in a colllision with the jockey ship seemed really weird and unrealistic. Just bad writing. I have no idea what the whole "hands up!" thing was supposed to mean either.
The jockeys, suprisingly weren't in the film too much either, save for hologram sequences, which there were two of. The attempt to reanimate the jockey head was pretty retarded too, because it ruins an otherwise badass scene where they take the helmet off of it. The scene in the beginning with the sacrifice engineer was cool, but i did almost laugh at the grunts he made. The engineer that gets awoken is in the movie for like less than ten minutes. They wake him up and bam, he rips david's head off, kills weyland, a random mercenary and Ford. Then he attacks shaw, giant squid gets him and that's it for his presence in the film.
The medpod squid extraction scene, as expected, was one of the coolest in the film. The squid itself, really does look like a squid, not simply the closest analogy to reference it, but rather like a grey squid which just flails its tentacles around and makes screeching noises. In it's bigger form, it was an ok creature, but nothing to be impressed by. The so-called "proto-alien" was a little weird, and could have been a little better. The only shot of it I liked was when it turned its head and moved its version of an inner jaw out.
Have I forgotten anything? Oh yes, Peter Weyland as the old fossil. He was pretty pointless. No sooner is he brought out of hypersleep aboard the ship to be taken to see the living engineer to be killed by him.
So in conclusion, I'd say that the film had a lot of redeeming qualities, great visuals (both the planet, the temple and the prometheus itself were all beautifully designed set pieces) It's just held back by awkward pacing, some bad dialogue peppered throughout, underdeveloped/underused characters and a lack of cohesion between the various ambitious directions the film tries to take from one minute to the next. It was by no means horrible. It was an ok film, perhaps worthy of being called "good", but certaintly not great.
