Review 1/6/12 - 2.5/5 Ok, but no cigar (spoilers-inside)

I saw Prometheus last night, and I have to say I found it massively disappointing. I’m not here trolling, just giving my honest opinion based on what I saw. While it isn’t phantom menace bad, and it does have its good points, it tries to achieve so much but falls well short of the mark. The Plot The plot is a lot simpler than much of the speculation had initially suggested. For me it lacks a really strong plot, and as a result we are left with an overload of sub-plots which jump about and feel as though they were thrown together from different writers. We as viewers are given answers to the main question that the protagonist is pursuing in the first 5 minutes! The characters also seem to know so much about what they are going to find that it all becomes rather inevitable and they wander about smugly patting themselves on the back. There is no awe and wonderment in their discoveries. It feels inevitable and uninteresting. The ‘characters with hidden agenda’ is rather lazy IMO and adds nothing to the plot. Characters Ok, I know many of these characters are cannon fodder there are far too many characters. This means they are all poorly developed and impossible to care about. Suspense, tension and threat work the best when there is some kind of threat to a character you care about. This isn’t helped by characters behaving in a manner which is illogical and without clear motivation. I can’t relate to characters who do things which are just plot devices to move the story forward, or characters who are irrational idiots. Characters also seem to get over major traumatic events very quickly – I suspect this is related to packing too much into the script and perhaps having to edit down for theatrical release. Tone & Pacing From the very first scene we are introduced to a film which looks like a philosophical space exploration film - soft music, panoramic views of landscapes, questions from Weyland about our makers, excited scientists. The problem however comes once the horror elements are brought in. The action sequences begin to grate next to the more philosophical and attempts at thoughtful elements, and the latter part are poorly developed and a bit cheesy. Dare I say it – the action sequences and horror element, for me they just don’t work. They feel awkward and forced in the context of the tone that has been set in the previous 45 minutes. The film canters along at quite a speed - this is no bad thing - but the need to constantly switch between the different tones is distracting. Horror, or threat needs to be sustained to make it work,. You cannot mix fighting for your life with wondering about mans origins. Soundtrack Used quite obtrusively throughout and it grates with its repetitive nature. There are parts where it is entirely inappropriate in relation to what’s happening on screen. The flute Ridley Scott may have found his Midi-chlorian moment. As others have pointed out, people laughing during the film is normally a bad sign (do they not have test showing to find this stuff out?). Conclusion Ridley Scott said that this shared only the DNA of Alien, and that it should be judge as a stand-alone film. Unfortunately, as a stand alone film its not coherent or entertaining enough. The poor plot and characters make the extraordinary visuals feel soulless and redundant. A missed opportunity. Score 2.5/5