Mentos' official review (SPOILERS)

So I saw Prometheus in IMAX 3D on screen 7 at Sheffield's Cineworld (UK) at 9:30pm on Saturday the 2nd of June. I'll start with my rating; 7/10. This film is easily a 7/10, there are definitely problems but the positives outweigh the negatives. Now with that out of the way, I'll move on. The problem with Prometheus is that so, so much of it is phenominal. The cinematography, set design and some of the scenes are some of the most memorablly excellent I've ever scene. And because of that, the mistakes with the film seem really trivial and stupid. Honestly this needs a re-edit, in fact it just needed a creative editor to sit down and watch the film through once it was completed. There's a voice inside my head that's telling me if I bring attention to the problems, then maybe we'll be rewarded with a re-cut version on the blu-ray. With a bit of simple editing, and work in the studio (no re-shoots necessary) the rating could easily increase to 8 or even 9/10. I'll start from the beginning. 1.) The opening scene where we meet the sacrifice engineer is just plain silly. I'm sorry but it is; its daft. His prosthetic muscular physique was both cartoonish and poorly executed, and the fakery really showed up through the quality of the IMAX reel. Then the bloody eyes. Jesus Christ, the engineer's eyes were a simply awful design choice. They took what was supposed to be a grand and intimidating figure (the creator of all life on earth) and made him look like a small child. (On the plus side, the cinematics before that scene were superb and beautiful. And the DNA special effects afterwards were probably some of the best I have ever seen). 2.) The next scene involved David wandering around the Prometheus, and frankly it was brilliant. Not only was Fassbender's performance amazing, but the set design and the ship's functionality was incredible. It was a sight that wet my fan boy appetite and made me happy that the film was sticking with realistic and grounded technologies. 3.) David reads Shaw's dreams. Hmm...they could have really dropped this scene in my opinion. I don't think it'll bother mainstream audiences, but the child (a younger Shaw)'s dialogue delivery was just excruciating. (On the plus side, there are some nice moments of character interaction between Fifield and Milburn, and it was nice to see a seemingly realistic side effect of cryo-sleep). 4.) Weyland's presentation. This is my next problem. I kept thinking whenever Guy Pearce was onsceen; why is he old man make up? Why not just use an old man? For some reason this bothered me, and to be honest I thought the make up during that presentation was pretty awful and the scene also suffers from cartoon syndrome. (But on the plus, the star map presentation afterwards is great. Logan Marshall Green delivers some great dialogue, and seems like a really human character. And Milburn and Fifield calling 'bs' on his theory was a nice natural reaction. Buuuut Emun Elliott (Chance) was so, so wooden in his dialogue delivery it think might have actually shortened my life span a little bit). 5.) Next, the Prometheus lands which is fantastic, and looks great in IMAX. The only interruption comes from Kate Dickie (Ford) to deliver some dialogue in a horrible, horrible way. Its probably worth jumping in here to say that I thought the script its self was great in terms of dialogue, it was just the two aforementioned actors that fucked a few lines up (something that would take about 5 minutes to correct in post). 6.) Now the temple. This bit was just amazing (honestly pass me the thesaurus, I'm running out of words). The set design is great, the holograms are both creepy and intriguing, and the cuts back to the ship as you watch the scanning probes map the area are really quite something; extra points for great CG. The crew enter the temple, which looks great. We get more grounding and realism as the murals deteriorate due to the change in atmosphere. And I liked the fact that Milburn and Fifield bolted after being freaked by the body of an Engineer. The discovery of the Biomechanical shrine is also pretty creepy and leaves us with a lot of questions. 7.) Now we've got a great action scene involving the large storm that consumes the area around the temples. 8.) Back on the Prometheus an Engineer's head is examined by the crew. The static prosthetic head looks great, but the cut to the animated CG version was a bit meh. 9.) Hang on? What's this, David has smuggled an ampule back to the ship, and now Holloway is infected after orders from Peter Weyland...who is apparently on the ship! Sneaky David. This scene is great, its a really fresh new take on the android. The fact that David has no morality really adds a hell of a lot to the story. We're then treated to a really nice interaction between Holloway and Shaw where she discusses her inability to have children. 10.) Right...we now get to my favourite parts of the whole film. Milburn and Fifield are back in the temple. The overflowing ampules have had an adverse effect on a seemingly harmless earth worm and have created our friend the space cobra. This action scene is great, and the animatronic cobra is excellent. The acid special effect on Fifield's helmet is also great. Milburn bites it, and Fifield falls into a the pool of black goo surrounding the ampules. 11.) After a quick nip back to the temple we find that Holloway is really not very well, and just as they crew return to the Prometheus he declares his love for Shaw and then receives the full power of Vickers' flamethrower. This is probably one of the best parts of the film. Its pretty heart breaking, and doesn't shy away from showing you Holloway's burning body in full. His make up is also excellent as we see his health deteriorate, and Shaw's reaction to the scene is really realistic. In the temple David finds another passageway that leads to the bridge of the Juggernaught. He activates the start map with a flute (seriously? Why was that necessary?) and the star map opens up. This sequence was truly astonishing, and probably one of the best special effects I've ever seen. 12.) Now Fifield's helmet cam kicks back in and we find that he's right outside the ship's hanger. This part is phenomenal. The mechanics open the hanger door to find his contorted body laying on the floor, only to stand up and reveal his horribly mutated face (which looks amazing!!) a fantastic fight ensues and we get some nice gory bits. To be honest I could've watched the hanger fight for a good 10 minutes, but unfortunately it only lasted about 1 or 2. 13.) Now Shaw's birth. Excellent animatronics, great gore, and an equally great performance from Noomi Rapace. 14.) The next part I do have a problem with. So far throughout the film, upon discovering Milburn's corpse, and then the death of the mechanics and mercenaries in the hanger, no one has even discussed the deaths, or even acted like they had ever happened. It was only Noomi Rapace that was putting on a great performance, and really conveying her heart break and struggle towards the death of her Holloway. Something similar happens next. David implies that he infected Holloway, and Shaw barely re-acts, even willingly travelling back to the temple. This really bugged me; characters that don't react in the way that normal people do. 15.) Everyone bar Shaw in the temple bites it when the engineer wakes up and the scene is executed to a fairly decent extent bar David's head removal which was a little goofy in my opinion. 16.) The Juggernaught taking off was awe inspiring, and the collision between the Prometheus and the Juggernaught was incredible, especially when Juggernaught crashes to the ground and a debris shower ensues. Watching it in the cinema, its a very moving and convincing scene, but on reflection I can't help but ask; did the pilots have enough motivation to sacrifice themselves? (Oh and Vicker's death was pretty decent, it did a good job of conveying the astonishing scale of the Juggernaught, and was very realistic in the way that Shaw managed to avoid getting squashed). 17.) Now the engineer attacks Shaw, but gets wrestled down to the ground by cuddles. This scene felt a bit rushed, but the struggle between the engineer and the giant squid monster was pretty brilliant. When the engineer finally gets it, there's a really sexual nature to the way the squid impregnates him. Even though the squid appeared to be full CG, it looked excellent and the engineer was really struggling to put up a fight. 18.) Shaw dashes back to the Juggernaught after a conversation over her suit's radio with David. He convinces her to go and get him to pilot another ship off of the planet. David's head is still active and his twitching detached body looked very cool. In a slightly comedic yet out of place scene, Shaw zips David's head up in a bag, repels out of the Juggernaught and sets off in another ship. Her last words mirror Ripley's in Alien, which I though was quite a nice touch. 19.) Now we see a full size Biomechanoid burst out of the engineer. The busting appears to be a really decent practical effect, but the creature that emerges from the engineer's body is fully CG. Although the CG didn't look too bad, the design was pretty plain, It really resembled a sort of goblin rather than something Gigeresque and threatening, but the design of the inner jaw was fairly cool. Another thing to add regards the score. The score was brilliant on occasion, but really hindered the film sometimes. When scenes required a build up of dread and creepyness, the score would be powerful and booming. Just a final comment on unanswered questions. Personally I felt that the film really cracked this well. It doesn't give you too many answers, which leaves elements open to discussion and thought. You're never confused on lost in the film, and this helps retain a mysterious air over some of the events in the same way Alien did. Just to summarize (what is already a really long review) I liked the film a lot, but the sillyness of the mistakes have severely bugged me. With a day or two in the editing studio, this has the potential to be a fantastic film. I just pray that Mr Scott takes the time to re-evaluate the film and fix his mistakes.