So this ISN'T a prequel to Alien?!

Nope not a prequel, just set in the same universe. The alien probably look the same because it was the same alien technology. As for the rest, yeah well - you're not alone there

It looks like Alien because it is set in the same universe (and quite close too - I think that they're within 10 light years as the solar system from the first movie is one the six dots in the cave drawings -the one on the bottom right Zeta 2 Reticuli.) The crews actions on operations are very badly written, and it was one of the things that ruined my first viewing (aside from the very big twist this universe has taken from the straght futuistic version, into mythology and exogensis ). Form how Milburn and Fifield get lost to ths stupidity of letting Fifield in when they saw from Holloway that there is a contagion problem (and they didn't even check in with him on radio). I have a theory on how the little worms lived for 2000 years (which also explains why in that time they didn't feast on the head of the Space Jockey. ) I suspect that there is a device, probably controlled by that big green stone in the altar, the puts the goo and any organisms into a dormant state. When David activated the door controlled he may have deliberately turned that off, or not known about it (could be like some any intruder response, that people can't just walk in and take stuff without it becoming active... and if they don't possess their own 'green rock' technology... its going to eat them before they get very far. For example, they might only make it as far as LV 426 before their chest explodes as they sit in their pilot seat. Why Shaw doesn't mention the C-section? To her mind the squid was killed by the MedPod, so it's not a threat she needs to warn the crew about. And she's not got time to moan about her wounds, because she has just discovered Weyland is alive, and he intends to wake up the Space Jockey, which is risking every human on Earth, just so Weyland can ask for immortality for himself. In that scenario I doubt her staples are going to be the main topic. They don't care about her wounds, Weyland wishes to meet and become like a god. The next character she meets is Janek, and they have a discussion which is also more important to her than anything else. From the flow of it, it could sound like she is prepared to risk her life simply to find out "why" the Engineers made us, and now seem to have changed their minds, while Janek isn't interested in that, and will put the safety of Earth above his own survival. Shaw at this stage doesn't know that the Space Jockey has plotted a course to Earth, because David hasn't told her, so I don;t think she was simply hoping to try talk the Space Jockey round to discussing it all over a few beers. She has this huge deep need to know, probably stemming from her childhood, any child losing both parents at an early age, and believing in god would have a lot of 'why' questions.

@Hadley's Hope You've just fleshed this movie out more than the writers themselves. Contact Ridley and write the sequel so Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof don't get a chance to toss more crap at us!

I don't think the studio would have been brave enough to release it without some fairly strong link to the Alien universe. Its need to borrow from the Alien universe is evidence enough that it is not the "distinct new mythology" that was promised. You see this film wasn't formed from a creative spark and a need to tell a powerful story, any more than the Star Wars prequels were. It was conceived in a boardroom with the aim to make the maximum $ over the longest period possible.

@Slipp_Digby Truer Words Have Never Been Spoken.

Alien is leap years ahead of Prometheus. This behind the scenes is why I loved it alot [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6q-8lwa7BQ&feature=channel&list=UL]behind the scenes of Alien[/url]

there's a BBC podcast with Ridley Scott and he says that this film is not a direct prequel to Alien BUT if he's allowed to make 2 more films it will directly lead into Alien. my take? it bloody well wont tie-up if you have that buffoon Damon Lindelof involved in the writing.

@hadley. LV 426 is closer than LV whatever in Prometheus. Remember in Alien, Lambert tells Captain Dallas there are 10 months away from Earth right after they left LV 426. Look at these superior movies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2etJSfz9pQ&feature=channel&list=UL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GPLP96KOBM

SPOILER ALERT I don't think I hated this film, I just expected better from Ridley Scott. I never took him for a director who lets the studios pull his strings, but maybe he can afford to be mellow now that he's made his career a success. I do believe that Prometheus's big failings are there in the script. In my opinion it was trying to be too many things and all those things got jumbled up. For example: Hardcore sci-fi, mass market blockbuster, Alien prequel, NOT an Alien prequel, preachy morality play, a warning on the future of genetic-engineering and bio warfare, etc etc... Maybe a little more focus and a LOT more plotting might have fixed it. More plotting? SOME plotting would have helped. I had a real problem with the two guys who got lost in the tunnels. I get that we needed to see those corpses piled outside the door, and I get that we needed a couple of stooges to get infected by the goo and have shit happen to them. The best way the writers could figure this one out was by having these characters decide that they've had enough and they want out. They only get paid for doing rocks, and there are no rocks here. So they turn around, head back to the ship, and then they get lost. Is that it?? So these guys get on a spaceship, spend two years in hypersleep, and when they reach the alien planet they suit up, they get in the truck, they walk down all the dark scary corridors and then they decide, right outside the Big Door, that they’re turning round? I don't buy this AT ALL. It could only have been worse if Ripley - sorry Shaw - had said to one of them "I've left my screwdriver in the truck, would you mind going to fetch it for me?" Lazy writing. Idiot plotting. Same goes for the lifeboat and the medical machine. "Vickers' quarters are completely self-sufficient" someone said in the film (or words to that effect. I’m paraphrasing). "And look at that very sophisticated medical machine". And I thought, straight away, "Hmm. I bet this will Come In Useful Later On." Come on guys. You don't have to dumb-down to your audience. Alien never did, and nor did Blade Runner. I'm not saying every film has to be cerebral, I like eye-candy special effects and gross space-alien monsters as much as anyone, but please show a bit of respect for my intelligence and that of the majority of the human race. But back to the plot. I'm not really sure there was one. There was the ghost of a plot. It went Wooooooo a lot, but vanished when you tried to look at it more closely. Character motivations? Reasons for this to happen and for that to happen? Story? So, they find some old cave paintings which point to a constellation Far Away. Maybe. If we could get there, Shaw says (off-screen) to Old Man Weyland, we could meet our Maker (huh?). There’s no real evidence for this but Weyland’s old and he’s got money to burn so he doesn’t care. He certainly doesn’t ask Shaw where exactly in this group of six stars light years apart, is the exact location of the planet where these Makers are to be found? It's like saying "There's trash bin in New York, in which a piece of paper has some writing on it that might mean something. It won't be in our language, but if you could maybe make a creepy robot as well as a spaceship, then in the time it takes us all to get there, he might be able to not only understand the writing when/ if we find it, but actually converse with the people who wrote it because obviously they're waiting outside the trash bin smoking fags and killing time. Oh, and don't worry if their language has evolved over the last 35000 years. You're analysing it too much. Get building." Or did I just miss the bit that told them all where the planet was exactly? Anyway the Company builds a spaceship because the Old Man wants to live forever, (because OBVIOUSLY these Makers can do that right?) and maybe he’s seen Star Trek The Final Frontier a few times and wants to play Kirk, so he spends his trillion dollars building a spaceship to get this crew out there. And so it comes to pass that they land on a planet where they see a dome designed by Giger and they should know at that point to get the fk out. As a friend of mine put it, what happens then is “They get in a truck to go that way. Then they come back in the truck and go this way, and then they get back in the truck and go that way again. And in-between time, some shit happens which reminds me a bit of some stuff in the Alien films." But then we’re told that this isn’t an Alien prequel. OK. So why bother putting all the Giger/ Alien stuff in there then? Because it happens in the same universe. Right. Now I’m confused. And how old is the "We want to meet our Makers" line? It ain't an original story. If the company I work for, which is massive, was going to spend a trillion dollars on a spaceship, I tell you now they'd want a lot more than some old cave paintings pointing to the stars. They'd want some spreadsheets populated for sure, and I didn't see a single spreadsheet in Prometheus. ha ha. ahem....... And what about all that "Daddy, what happens when you die?" bullshit from Shaws memories? My kids take great delight in telling ME what's going to happen when MY Maker comes knocking. And they're not pleasant about it either. What's all this saccharine soft-focus Hollywood bullshit they forced down my throat like a facehugger with a giant bowl of cinema popcorn? That was the one part of the film where I really did start to feel sick. Kids are NOT like that. They do not say those things in that way. EVER!!! On the plus side....... It looked great. And what the hell, I know I'm going to buy the disc when it comes out and providing I don’t get glooped, I’ll watch the sequels too. (sucker)

Riflemangreen....excellent!

They get the cash we get the trash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@Slipp_Digby I think you're right about the alien link. But - if we're being[i] totally[/i] honest - I don't think we would have been as excited, or here even, if there hadn't been a strong link to the Alien universe. The reason we were [i]so[/i] hyped was because of the Alien link.