8/10
First up, I would recommend seeing this film knowing as little about it as possible! There may be spoilers ahead...
The film is set in 2093 and is therefore a prequel to the Alien movie (which was set in 2122). There is one direct link between the films which, once shown, is genuinely exciting; you understand the back story to the strange space craft and the alien creature which the Nostromo crew discover at the start of Alien....
Whilst Prometheus and Alien share the same universe; Prometheus stands on it's own in terms of mythology and subject matter. It asks (and answers) a few of the BIG questions; where did the human race come from? Is there a God/who is the creator? Is there a difference between our creator and us and the relationships we have with OUR creations; i.e. Androids?
For a film of this type and a Director with the commercial reputation of Ridley Scott, the film was given a reasonably modest production budget of $120-$130million. Scott has worked visual wonders with the budget and you wouldn't know from the visuals. Everything looks great; the sweeping vista's of planet Earth at the start, the space-ship and space-suit designs (in particular) are uniformly fantastic.
I'm a huge fan of the Alien Franchise movies (even the slightly shoddy 'vs Predaor' films), and I enjoyed the movie a lot. BUT, I feel the movie could have been better....
The cast is excellent (particularly the fragile/strong lead of Elizabeth Shaw played by Noomi Rapace) BUT characterisation was not particularly strong. 'Character arcs' felt too rushed which made otherwise sensible, intelligent characters come across as unhinged and individual motivations confused. This is most apparent with the character of Charlie Holloway (played ably enough by Logan Marshall-Green). He goes from energetic, life affirming alien-hunter in one scene to introspective drunk the next. Personally, I'd like to see a Director's cut of the movie with an extended running time giving characters the room to develop.The film is about humans after all! I also wasn't that blown away by the sound-track which, to me, felt out of place. Music for the action scenes was fine, but opening/closing credits didn't work for me.
Despite my minor gripes, the film is great - it's thought provoking and I hope we get the chance to see a sequel (which apparently Scott and script writer, Damon Lindelof, already have the outline for).
Recommended! Just one last thing, I saw the film in 2D (I'm not convinced about 3D yet) but I understand the film was shot using 3D cameras and that this version is excellent...
