Devin Parker

I do think the visuals were impressive and well-designed, but it's tragic that so much work went into propping up such a lousy script. Science fiction, lest we forget, begins with the word "science" - it is meant to be a plausible extension of what we currently know. It also does no good to say that because it's science fiction, it doesn't have to make sense. Every story must be internally consistent; we as an audience need at least a minimal degree of versimilitude to suspend our disbelief. "Prometheus" beggars our imaginations in that regard.

As Turkichiki pointed out, this team of supposed scientists behaved like anything but; like children racing to see who could stick their fork in the electrical outlet the fastest. If I were a super-wealthy CEO assembling a first-in science team that I was also going to be entrusting my life to, I would have at least chosen candidates with suitable psychological profiles, people who would be able to work together and get along with each other in tight confines over a period of months or years. Why did these people agree to be part of a mission that would put their lives in danger and take at least eight years of their lives in cold-sleep alone, without knowing what the mission's objectives were?

Shaw is a naive dreamer with an infantile mischaracterization of religion ("It's what I choose to believe") as a philosophy that she applies to all areas of life, including science; Holloway is a disaster waiting to happen, blissfully ignorant or uncaring of the most basic rules of survival as well as being carelessly rash especially for an archaeologist, and furthermore makes himself unlikeable by taking delight in antagonizing the ship's android without cause; Janek seems less like a ship's commander and more like a hobo who conned his way into becoming captain of the Prometheus because he sort of knew how to play a concertina (seriously, his lack of concern about the rest of the crew is comedic); Millburn establishes himself as the worst biologist ever by deciding it's a good idea to stick his hand out to an alien creature that's plainly displaying cobra-like intimidation behaviors; Fifield is ridiculously antisocial right off the bat; and Chance and Ravel have no personalities to speak of beyond "vague concern", finding no joy in anything until Janek tells them they're going to kill themselves, at the prospect of which they seem positively thrilled. I can't say much about Ford except I would have imagined she might have complaint about the fact that the medical bed was only outfitted to treat male patients; strangely sexist for future technology. Vickers just seems wasted; cold and distant for most of the film, giving a token show of sibling rivalry with David and dying stupidly because she refused to run two feet to her left. Guy Pearce in old-man makeup comes across as ridiculous when there's never any scene in which he's young (why not just use an older actor?). Michael Fassbender is really the only reason to watch this film aside from the visuals - he's fantastic as David, though I would recommend to future engineers that creating androids who experience jealousy and callous lack of respect for life is probably not a good idea when the majority of humans are going to treat them as second-class citizens. Just a thought.

Everything that happened in the story hinged on every character carrying the Idiot Ball through the entire film. This story could have been thoughtfully told with the same amount of tension had the characters behaved more like a science team than the cast of a Coen Brothers film. Instead, a potentially thought-provoking and dread-laced science fiction horror story became a lite-popcorn special effects show with some insulting generalizations about things the scriptwriter apparently knew nothing about and all the philosophical sophistication of a teenager who's just discovered Nietzsche.

May 4 - 03:01 PM

John Tyler

I agree with you 100%.

Apr 17 - 04:17 AM

Liz Taylor

Maybe it wasn't meant to be compared to the exquisite Alien, 1979, and films that followed, but one couldn't help but make comparisons. Didn't have the emotional subtlety of script & acting of franchise forerunners. My impression was the acting from some of the cast namely, Idris Elba's character, was somewhat forced, stereotyped, "Yeah baby", kind of couldn't care less captain of the ship. & Charlize Theron's done before, incompassionalte,ice-cold commander, It was plain annoying. that is, apart from Michael Fasbender's canny robot, David,which was divine and spooky at the same time!Was shocked at the improbale caesarian scene, which was intended I'm sure. Sadly, not carried away by the visuals or actors, this was for me, however, a very watchable and thought provoking film.

Apr 14 - 05:21 AM

Nick Fury

I love Prometheus! The acting, cinematography and story were excellent, and it always kept me on the edge of my seat!

Apr 9 - 12:36 PM

Keith Smiley Waisnor

Why destroy us? Why leave clues to the location of the planet? Why create a life form to do it? Very confusing.

Mar 18 - 09:20 PM

Turkichiki Leung

What really kills me wasn't the "unanswered questions", was amazingly unlikable characters and dragged dialogue and decisions, it's almost as if I was watching a bunch of 16s running around making lame decisions but god those are meant to be scientists and most intelligent people on earth and whatever stupid shit Scott claims them to be. And visually good-looking? Giive me a break

Mar 11 - 11:03 AM

Magnus Grant

I loved the movie too. It's not as great as Alien but I was still blown away by it. My third favourite film of the year behind The Dark Knight Rises and Looper.

Mar 10 - 01:16 PM

Sean Patrick

Michael Fassbender got snubbed at the academy awards this year, as he seems to often. I foresee an award for him in the next couple of years.

Mar 6 - 04:32 PM

Tallulah Robinson

I actually really liked the tone...and the ending! That was really interesting. People need everything answered for them, they hate the unknown and having to think for themselves, so their loss.

I haven't heard people say unrealistic - it's sci fi, of course it's unrealistic, just what.

Shame everything else was ridiculous! I think I would've liked it a lot better if I just even slightly liked ANY of the characters.

Feb 19 - 10:50 PM

open 768

dave was my jarjarbinks in prometheus - ruined it for me completely by his robotic acting.

Jan 27 - 07:26 AM

Sara Howard

I totally agree. I'm tired of reading all this negative stuff about the script and the characters, give me a break, the film had some flaws, so what. Prometheus is a great SciFi flick and it was awesome in 3D.

Jan 11 - 10:48 AM

Jessica Aissa

There's a fine difference between a movie being instigating and mysterious, that is, bringing up questions and leaving some things unsaid, and being plain stupid - which is the case with Prometheus.
You're right, not many movies are actually realistic and may push the bar a little, but Prometheus goes way over the line to - imagine - stupidity. If we take the C-section scene by itself, in any other movie that actually manages to deliver something good, then it isn't so bad. But it's not just that particuar scene. Every ten~fifteen minutes of the movie gives us something like that: the "silica rain" (I'm sorry if I got this wrong) that should have killed anyone who stayed outside, yet the two doctors were out there enjoying the sunset without getting a scratch; how they magically landed right next to the Engineers' spaceship; the fact that Weyland has been in there the whole time, but only decides to show up at the end to die after five minutes for no absolute reason... And I'm trying not to count the times there was some sort of character failure that led to something stupid to happen: the biologist and the geologist getting lost and dying because, well, who wouldn't go around playing with these weird little creatures no-one has absolutely no idea what they are? And at the end, the remaining crew simply agreeing to commit suicide in benefit of the entire human race, without even knowing why... well, maybe they know, but it's only because, all along the movie, someone simply came up with an explanation to everything and everybody accepted it. Like, when Dr. Shaw starts talking about the Engineers' plan for Earth? Where the hell did she get that from? I get that maybe that's one of the things left for us to wonder, but when you start piling those unlikely events on top of each other, plus the ridiculous behavior of each character, the movie just doesn't hold itself together. It's not about being realistic, it's about being believable. And Prometheus isn't. It's simply confusing, poorly written and delivers a lame explanation to the origin of the Aliens. And I could go on and describe a few more scenes that are the results of some non-sense part taking of one of the characters, but you've seen the movie. I honestly sat down to watch it with high hopes, but after they landed on the planet, it all went downhill. There were so much unbelievable decisions that were made by the crew that, by the end, I no longer cared. Prometheus may look good, but it's just a terrible movie, when you think about Ridley Scott's previous work and what he could have done with this kind of budget. Like you said, I don't think I could have done any better - but, hey, he's the one making a million bucks, not me.

Jan 5 - 12:52 PM

David Tanny

Yea, I'll admit, it wasn't what I was expecting. And now that I look back, I'm not even sure what I was expecting. I hated it right out of the theater, but after dwelling on it, and re-watching it on blu-ray, I found it to be a good movie. Flawed, but very watchable.

Dec 10 - 12:37 AM

Andrew Milito

I agree 100%

Dec 5 - 11:40 AM