Why such a piss poor score?

Couldnt agree more with you on this. The soundtrack really let the film down. If they stuck to similar music which featured in the trailers the film would've been more more tense. As it was it sounded like something from a Disney movie

I found nothing at all wrong with the score. I was mesmerized by it at certain parts. I guess different ears hear different things.

Agreed with abordoli. There were other aspects of the film I felt were lacking, but the score wasn't one of them. The main theme that ran throughout the film (Engineer's theme?) gave me chills.

I think the music was quite good... i agree that some of the score did not suit some of the scenes, but i guess we can be just nit picking... As lets look at the score of other Sci Fi movies over the last 10 years and do any of them have a great score...... not many.

Halloween had a great signature score. The Thing and Alien up to three did.

I had huge issues with the score, it ruined the movie for me more than anything else. The Soundtrack reminded me so much of Star Trek I half expected Captain Kirk to break into his famous "These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise"...

I liked the score when I heard it before I saw the movie. As a seperate entity it wasn't bad. But when watching the film, there were certain points (i felt) that it didn't 'fit' in well. Like it was poorly edited into the film. Did anyone else feel that?

I think the score exceeded my expectations and those choral motifs interspersed with the 'Engineers' theme are wondrous and chilling. It screams everything 'alien'. I like the Bernard Herrmann type flourishes in 'Try Harder' and the really spooky 'male' rumble in the middle of 'Discovery' evokes our first sighting of the colossal head - fabulous. 'Hypersleep' recalls David stepping up to the surviving Engineers' cryotube vividly (with the slow heartbeat) and the 'Weyland' theme is a lovely homage to both Goldsmith's and Horner's themes. 'Planting the Seed' I think is the one at the end where the Engineer is struggling with the giant hugger, am I right? THAT is damn eerie and conveys relentless alien horror. 10/10 from me.

@jwbenn78 - I did! I listened to the whole OST on youtube almost everyday for a week before I seen the movie and loved it...but the main theme was repeated too much and used in some parts where I'd prefer either a different theme or no theme at all. Sure, its disappointing that its not perfect like in Alien 1979, but its not much of a big deal to me seeing as I dont hate it.

Yep, the score was very obtrusive at times. Good scores highlight and emphasize the mood of the scene, and the film as a whole. The goofy triumphant Star Treky music in Prometheus was distracting and didn't fit. There were a couple of scenes where it really pulled me out of the film and got me sidetracked. Just another example of poor Quality Control on this film. With a few modifications it could have been stellar. I'm not a professional screenwriter, director, composer, or editor. But I honestly believe I could have sat down with Ridley and suggested a handful of changes that would have resulted in a truly great film. Such wasted potential.

When I heard the score in 'Prometheus', I was feeling "discovery". When I heard the score in 'Alien', I was feeling "dread". Maybe the score for 'Prometheus' was be design?