WTH? OK, 7/10 (IMAX 3D) subject to change. [SPOILERS]

We went and saw it on Saturday with another couple. That ended my ~2 week hiatus from reading about the movie and visiting the site. Prometheus in IMAX 3D was visually stunning! The 3D was like good spicing in a meal, not overdone. What was bothering me so much after the movie was that the trailers were like they were for a different action movie! Almost like watching the trailer for Aliens then sitting down and watching Alien. For me, Alien is a solo movie. No talking, just be absorbed. Aliens is like a party movie. Everyone cheer! That's why I'm heading back this week to be by myself in 2D. This isn't a serious review, just an overview with comments. [u][b]Opening[/b][/u] [b]Awesome[/b]. Earth? Not Earth? Doesn't matter, the fact that the Engineers could spark life on one planet means they could have done it on dozens, hundreds or thousands. I'd like to think that it isn't Earth in this scene to add a bit more wonder to the story. [u][b]Awaking, Crew, Pre-landing.[/b][/u] What a bunch of misfits. Sorry, this was a One Trillion Dollar mission and you can't find more balanced scientists? No psych profiling was done? Weyland himself is counting on this mission to gain long life or immortality with his $1T. Did he not think to check out this band of miscreants? Vickers... why oh why do so many movies seem to portray a woman in power as a miserable bitch? It's like the [i]"Devil Wears Prada School for Successful Women"[/i] is the only training around for female executives. Love the ship, love David. Captain Janek was great, but what kind of accent was that supposed to be? Maybe he had a mini-stroke, who know. [u][b]Landing, Exploring I, Storm, Party[/b][/u] Completely mind blowing. Was fully immersed in the atmosphere and scenery. Best creepy non-Earth planet scenery in any movie since Alien, IMHO. Unfortunately, this is where it all starts to get a bit silly. What caused the holograms to appear? Why were they even recorded? I loved them but it seemed contrived just to lead up to the decapitated Engineer and as a lead in to more holograms in the bridge. Fifield cracks up after seeing a long-dead body. Imagine if Howard Carter did that when exploring Egypt. OK, I get it, maybe he's top of his field and overly eccentric. Why, then, did Milburn, [i]a biologist[/i], decide to leave as well? A new life form, likely a career-defining discovery for him, and he decides to go back to the ship? Sorry, that's just silly. The container room was great. I wish they could have spent more time exploring it before all hell broke loose. Especially the green crystalline item. Was it loose? They likely could have just taken it. I don't recall anyone actually touching it. Fifield and Milburn get lost on their way back to the Prometh... wait, what? Didn't Fifield have his "pups' flying around to map the place out? He even has an interface on his arm to communicate with the pups yet they still get lost? They can't chalk that up to interference as Janek has a nice 3D map being laid out on the bridge of the Prometheus. The storm is the one sequence where the 3D was annoying. The flying fragments/shards were too distracting for what was going on behind them. The bit where they drop the Engineer's head and David tethers back to Shaw and Holloway was unnecessary. Holloway gets loaded, David spikes his drink with goo, David gets lulz, Holloway parks his car in Shaw's garage. That sums it up. The interaction between Holloway and David could have been expanded on but instead we get a sad drunk with a surprise in his drink. The moment Shaw mentions she can't have kids, what happens next was brutally obvious. Sorry, but it would have been nice to have a real surprise. The whole setup was a connect-the-dots book with the dots already connected. [u][b]Hello Kitty, Oh My Arm![/b][/u] Back in the alien structure, Milburn and Fifield find a worm creature and suddenly want to play ball with it. (Long dead creatures are scary, live alien things are kittens. Remember this when you explore, kids) Cootchie cootchie coooo....[i] Oh my arm[/i]... [b]snap[/b]... dumb. A good scene to watch but when you think about what led them to it, the shoddy writing is glaring. [u][b]Exploring II[/b][/u] I absolutely love every facet of the Engineer ship/pyramid. The halls and rooms are creepy yet awe inspiring. I was getting the same tingles I still get when watching Dallas, Kane & Lambert explore the SJ ship in Alien (Kane whispering "What the hell is this?" when being lowered into the egg-bay is one of the finest moments in sci-fi [u]ever[/u]) Yet, because they had left the place for the night when the storm hit, it didn't seem as creepy the second time around. I guess an analogy would be the Alien crew freezing Kane then deciding to go back to the derelict ship. The SJ room would not be as jaw dropping on a return visit. The crew returns to the structure. They find Milburn's body. Where's Fifield? David sneaks off by himself and finds more neat rooms including one which has an Engineer in cryosleep/statis. The spiked drink David poured for Holloway is working its magic. Holloway is ill and needs to return to the ship for immediate medical attention. Vickers, being the angry bitch she is, does not like this idea and roasts Holloway with a flamethrower. [u][b]Mama, Oh Hi Weyland, Brraaaaiiinnsss[/b][/u] Shaw discovers that Holloway's "Super Black-Goo Enhanced Semen" did the trick. Off to the auto-med thing for what is a truly disgusting bit of film. One of the best scenes of the movie. After leaving with some staples in her belly and well-need pain injections, she finds a person in terrib;e old-man makeup pretending to be a wheelchair-bound Peter Weyland. Weyland's dreadful makeup was a reminder that we're watching a movie. Anyhow, Olde Man Weyland wishes to wake up and have a heart-to-heart with the nice Engineer David discovered earlier. Hey, it was his one trillion dollars, it's his call! Zombie Fifield kills off some no-names back at Prometheus. Good action scene but it didn't add to the story and just killed off some of the 17 crew. Don't recall how many, 4? Doesn't matter, they were fodder from the beginning. No brains were eaten. [u][b]Exploring III, Wakey Wakey, Kamikaze[/b][/u] Back to the alien structure we go! There is little sense of wonder remaining in the familiar halls, we've seen it before. Once we get to the 'bridge' room, things get good! They wake the Engineer. It and David have a short chat which ends rather abruptly. David has his head removed, Weyland and a couple of no-names, who are likely wearing red shirts under their spacesuits, die. Engineer Mad, must continue mission! Atomic batteries to power, turbines to speed! Shaw makes it out of the ship. She asks Janek to take out the Engineer ship in a kamikaze attack. Janek, understanding the gravity of the situation, agrees. His two nameless bozos, laugh it all off and agree to die with the Captain and the ship. This was decided in about 15 seconds. Vickers is in her lifeboat and makes it to the surface. Captain Janek and the Two Nameless Bozos die crippling the Engineer's vessel in a selfless attack. I liked Janek, would like to have seen his character fleshed out further. Alien ship crashes, lands on Vickers, Vicker goes [u][b]splat[/b][/u]. Who cares? Carter Burke in Aliens was all all around despicable "company man", Vickers was just an annoying seat-warmer. [u][b]He's Coming[/b][/u] Shaw is crying and low on oxygen. She gets to Vicker's life boat at the 30 seconds-of-oxygen-left mark. Shaw finds the med bay where she had her baby squid removed. It's all grown up and not too happy, good thing the door is closed. David, or rather David's Head, contacts Shaw by radio. You see, after the jostling of the alien craft during take-off, kamikaze strike and crash landing, it seems David's head and a radio landed within a meter or two of each other. Very good luck, indeed! David asks if she can hear him. Shaw replies "Yes, I can here you" in a not funny in-joke. That is the same line Ash's head replies to the Nostromo crew when they power up his noggin. David warns Shaw that He is coming after her. "He" is the Engineer. He survived the crash and is not a happy planet-sterilizing dude at this point. The computer announces that there is an air lock breach. The Engineer smacks Shaw around. When things are looking bad, Shaw hits the Open button for the door to the med bay and her little squid takes care of Mr. Engineer. Shaw returns to David, takes his body and head along to another Engineer ship. They are off to file a formal complaint on the Engineer Homeworld. The sign-off message is a rip-off of Ripley's at the end of Alien. Finally, in a scene that is uncalled for, the Engineer pops open and a xeno appears. "Grrrr! Hiss!!!" telescopic jaw and all. Completely unnecessary and patronizing pandering to the fanboys. You can call it "Deacon", I'll call it "Retarded". [u][b]~Teh Endz~[/b][/u] [u][b]BEFORE YOU SLAG ME IN THE COMMENTS[/b][/u]: I really did like this movie a hell of a lot! It wasn't the classic I was hoping for but it was still very well done. I'll be seeing it again this week in 2D so I can concentrate more on the story and less on the amazing visuals. Some of what I wrote may be out of sequence, but you get the gist. The music didn't fit some scenes. Where their should have been dread in the air, music suggesting wonder was in your ears. The classic score from Alien could have been reworked to better effect. I don't see much fault with Scott's direction. Almost every issue has to do with the writing: Hey, Lindelof, [i]this wasn't another stupid episode of Lost![/i] I'm giving it a solid 7/10. Once I take in another viewing that may change.