Plot holes galore!

Meh, you look way to deep into things. Smoke on ship - Though I do not know the composition of oxygen on current ships I would imagine by 20XX we would have a more Earth-like simulated system. Smoking may not be safe as it would deplete oxygen and would cause smoke damage to equipment, but certainly wouldn't make the ship go boom. Along with the "tobacco" in Fifield's oxygen supply. Again by whatever time those suits could have either company made or off market respiration systems that could in fact let you smoke out of them. In some likeliness he could have modified it. Of course there are many strains of Aliens in the movie. The first things that came in contact with the black ooze were those maggots. Clearly on a biological level if you were creating a weapon of mass destruction that was bio-warfare like that it would have a different effect on different plants and animals. Did you miss the whole "believe" idea in the movie? No one stated, not even Weyland in the TED talk that during this particular future that there is no god, there is no heaven, and that we know what these engineers did or are doing. Let the old man believe what he wants to believe. Not all men of science and money are atheists or agnostic. What's to say he didn't believe without a doubt in Greek mythology/religion? Within some respect the engineers or "pre-humans" as you call them are explained. We know they existed before man did. We know that they were advanced enough to come to earth. We know that they created the [u]possibility[/u] of humans. Then we find out they were creating weapons and one ship just happened to lay a course back to earth. If we are to assume that they came before us, and we know by the story that they are genetically the same, then we must also assume that they war like we do. Please watch the movie again and I think you will have a better understanding of your particular problems with the situation

There are numerous plot-holes for sure, but about the cigarette smoking I'm not so sure. Certainly, it may not be wise to smoke on the closed-off atmosphere environment of a spaceship ( for fear of using up too much of the air supply/causing a fire ), but it wouldn't automatically combust, just as lighting a cigar in you own house wouldn't cause it to combust. The ship's artificial air supply is probably calibrated to match natural earth atmosphere, no?

#Burmingham - well said. This movie requires a few views before you can make an honest assesment. This was a great movie. All the people talking about plot holes is rubbish. Bunch of fanboys looking for an Alien tie in. News Flash: The movie is not about Alien, Aliens, 3 or 4, AvsP. Everythign in this movie has an explanation but you have to want to see it. Absorb the movie think about it a while go see it again. It all make sence. Well written story great acting, directing, visuals this is the whole package. Funny thing about sci-fi is anything goes. I have heard people complaining about the ship fluing through space and ehat happened between the time they left earth and when they arrived at the planet. Talk about the engineers, the black goo, how did they find the location so fast on the planet, All of this is right infront of your noses but you have get Alien out of your head - forget it exists or ever existed at all. Take this movie as a whole new look at something new. Yes this movie leave a lot of questions but it was written that way for a purpose. Can you say sequel? Just hope we see a sequel soon.

This movie did leave us with some loose ends, but it clearly is a setup for more movies. It is probably part 1 of a three part arc. Give it a chance.

@dopelganger I'm sorry but I disagree, this was NOT a great movie. Jaws is a great movie, Alien is a great movie, Aliens is a great movie, The Terminator is a great movie and The Thing 1982 was a great movie. This great looking dud is not. Why do people need to watch this multiple times to just understand the basic plot? I get that it leaves questions open, but when one guy starts to die from a substance and it turns another guy into zombie with a giant forehead for no reason, its like OK make up your mind. Great acting? Well yeah Michael Fassbender was excellent but none of the other red shirts really stood out to me. Was I looking for an Alien tie in? Well yeah I was actually! Wonder why?

The ship is not pure oxygen, if it was they were be stoned all the time, where did you even get that notion ?

@vaughany It doesn't say, nor imply that he was DYING from exposure to the black goo. He was going through that transformation but was stopped and burned. It's pretty easy to see if you put more than a few seconds of thought into it. Threads to the other Alien movies are EVERYWHERE in this flick, but they're the beginnings of those threads. If you WANTED a slapped together movie where they just have quick, simplistic reveals of where everything came from, then I guess that's your druthers. I'd say this isn't a dud, but really, who am I to tell someone their opinion is wrong as if it's fact?

@vaughany As Washout says it was never implied that he was dying, but we can assume by seeing what happened to the maggots that he was "evolving" and apparently his reproductive capabilities were one of the first things to "evolve", as he was able to impregnate Elizabeth. I saw the clip (dl'ed it poor quality) with the red head dude and we don't really know what happens with him, it seems he gets drenched in the black goo as the helmet is melted to his face. Could lead the stuff to react differently as he probably dies before it can evolve properly or the black goo can have different ways to evolve with each individual. The alien tie in came in the end, we were the source of the first facehugger and the first alien queen came from the engineer. I saw the movie once (Dl'ed a bad quality movie just to refresh the red head incident) and that is what I got from it, of course I have more questions, but they have said that they want to do more than this movie if it is successful. And I do hope they get more movies, because I loved it.