I hated the deleted scene, where Holloway takes Shaw pretty roughly. In the end, she yields (whatever floats her boat, I guess) but for two characters who are supposed to have chemistry the scene didn't really explain their attraction. In fact, I couldn't tell why they were together apart their mutual desire to meet aliens, or whatever, but even then, they disagreed rather strongly. Opposites, attract, and all that--sure, fine, whatever. I understand the concept, but didn't like the characters when they were onscreen, together. They did nothing but argue and bicker, it felt like.
The movie wasn't really that funny. For such a short film (shorter than Alien, and that film, with the number of characters and the rate at which they are dealt with, is expeditious), I found it far easier to bond with jokers like Parker and Brett, than, say, Milburn and Fifield, who clearly were supposedly to be the comedic relief, in Prometheus. The short amount of time they spend onscreen is used to demonstrate how much they dislike each other, with a small chuckle being delivered right before the Hammerpede scene. Nobody in the movie likes each other, even remotely. It's like, none of them could relate to each other, and if they can't, how are we supposed to relate to them? There has to be some kind of understandable animosity or friendship. Alien did this very well, was a very lean film at the same time. Prometheus, on the other hand, was far too skeletal to stand on its own two feet.
My point is, this skeletal, truncated, terminally-abreviated quality to Prometheus, left it unable to function as a horror film or an adventure film, because most of the characters were unlikeable or difficult to relate to, or just downright confusing. People die in horror films, so you have to be able to relate to them, or the deaths don't mean anything.
The one character I appreciated the most was David, who is ironically the most enigmatic and duplicitous, but infinitely more enjoyable than the bevy of other baffling crew members. While the others were confusing, however, I was able, with David, to theorize and potentially understand his motives. He's a complex character, but studying his actions gleans something satisfying: a) He was funny and b) while he hated certain characters, I got why. He pretended to like them, but had things going on beneath the surface that gave him a layered, satisfyingly-mysterious quality to his persona. With characters like Shaw or Holloway or Vickers, they were simple, and did things that were more confusing than anything else. Attempting to reason their actions yielded confusion, and frustration, because they really are simple, with everything laid up in front of you, but the pieces don't add up. It's like having a jigsaw puzzle with 2-3 pieces where none of them fit. There's nothing complex going on--it's just nothing works.
If Scott really wants to scare people, he needs to avoid the kind of simple, confusing character design that populated Prometheus' cast. Less characters, more screen time, more laughs, more compatible and sympathetic people and situations. I'm not a trucker, but I can still identify with the Nostromo crew, on some level. The only person I could relate with in Prometheus is David, and he's not even human! Maybe that's the point, sort of like in 2001, where the human characters have essentially become dehumanized. But then, in Prometheus, trying to tug at the audience's heartstrings when Holloway buys the farm, or scaring us properly during any of the other fatalities, is like mixing beer and wine.