I have a bad feeling about this...

I find that most reviews go to extremes - the film is either the best thing since sliced bread or the biggest waste of time ever. When was the last time you read a review that gave an honest opinion, for example... Snorkelbottoms Review of John Carter... The actor in the main role of Carter does not, IMO, show the necessary range to play such a role, especially when considering that the actor has the most screen time. That said, with the exception of the aforementioned actors portrayal I did find the film entertaining. Although the story is meant to epic in scale it is not and feels more like a typical summer adventure movie, and on that merit the film is enjoyable. Its not the best film you'll ever see, but it won't be the worst film you'll ever see either. It's just a shame that the main character is overshadowed and out performed by most of the other characters, especially his pet frog/dog thing. Overall 3/5 - Enjoyable, nothing more, nothing less.

hopefully this is a "special case" given the anticipation and the internet spoiler machine in full force on this one. If the critics don't get it by Monday, I might be getting nervous too

They all stink! Based on what - reviews or lack of? I saw all 3 movies and found each of them entertaining. A review or lack of means nothing to me. If I base what I see on a guys opinion that I do not even know, I would never see single movie until video release. No sweat here. Go or don't go - doesn't matter to me one bit. I hope you intend on seeing the film despite any good or bad reviews.

I'm sure they don't want to take the chance on spilling the beans by allowing early reviews. Ridley seems pretty confident he's got a winner in the can & I'd say he's probably right.

oh, I'm seeing this come hell or high water. But it is customary for the studios to sneak in a crap movie without a vetting by the critics. If they are proud of their product, it *helps* the box office to get great advance word of mouth (some might disagree with this). @RickK....In Ridley We Trust ;)

Usually a movie not being screened for critics is a bad sign, I dont think this is the case for Prometheus however. I'd say its more about keeping the plot under wraps in line with the intense secrecy we have see up until now. Chill

Don't worry, I have my tickets for the 12pm showing friday 1st June. It's just that the last time I was this excited about a movie was the Phantom Menace and that left me so deflated, I'm Sure Ridley has done a good job, but marketing departments love a big poster with lots of positive critic quotes on it to sell the movie and there have not been any.

They have already spoiled a significant portion of the movie with the trailers and other media. While there is a rabid fan base who love the alien movies, most people probably don't even know what the space jockey is. Having good movie reviews will go a long way in making this film a success among the average film goer. The fact that they are holding them back is not a good sign. The BFCA has given the movie a 55/100, which is on par with battlefield (52/100)

It started out at 90/100 so someone didn't like it, obviously. It may be one of those movies you either love it or hate it.

If it was the case that fox are holding back the critics because they are wanting to keep some story elements secret why are they releasing it at different times around the world, surely it makes sense to release it universally on the same day, I think it is going to get 3 out of 5 stars. Still, lots of reviews for the original Alien were bad but I loved it when I saw it on it's release in 79.

The reason that the UK and some of Europe are getting it a week early is because you guys have some football (soccer) thing going on that would create conflicts. Stuff happens.

Forcing critics to hold back reviews or not allowing them to see the film at earlier screenings is a bad sign. Positive early reviews can tremendously boost box office numbers (as evidenced by the meteoric rise of The Avengers) to the point where any spoiler leaks are negligible. This is because the average movie goers (the ones that push films past the half billion mark in ticket sales) are not on Alien and Prometheus fan-sites but may be looking at metacritic or rotten tomatoes scores to get a quick glance at what might be good. Furthermore, most serious critics do well not to fill their reviews with spoilers and instead focus on what worked and didn't work in a film. If recent history is any indicator of success, then this may very well mean that the people at Fox think that Prometheus may not be a hit with average movie goers and critics. This delay tactic is usually used to get as big of an opening weekend as possible for bad movie that happens to have a lot of hype.

The reviews will polarise on this film, they will either say that it is terrible or that it's a masterpiece, imagine the Blade Runner reviews were released early, that would have been disastrous!

I wouldn't really read much into the way Prometheus is being screened with the staggered release date. The marketing campaign has been very successful IMO so I think Fox is just playing it safe to ensure maximum grosses the first weekend. Movie embargoes in general have gotten much stricter and by holding the movie back removes the risk/temptation by an eager review to prematurely break embargo like what happened with Avatar and the Dragon Tattoo movies. Also Scott probably has legitimately been tinkering with the cut until very recently.