If you could re-write Prometheus, what would your story entail?

Fewer characters, no holograms, more screen time for Engineer and Deacon Alien, deeper philosophy, and less (exposition) dialogue.

I was fine with the Engineers but i wish they would have done the following:

* Hinted at clues to an even more powerful ancient being that was in control or had influenced everything (just whispers or clues but nothing solid, something to play with the audiences imagination of what could be out there, that way they have something to play with for later movies)

* Retool a lot of the dialog between characters, it was awful at times and kind of wooden

* Keep the black goo idea but give it definitive properties, like how does it break down organic life or does it mutate organic life, or maybe just have it do one or the other, because from a horror standpoint its better for it be a mutation agent.

* Give Captain Janek more screen time, he was awesome but just had very few lines

* Cast someone else as Holloway as he was awful

* Increase the ancient cosmic horror, even though they found the Engineers it should have been only a gateway to more unimaginable things and horrors out there

* Defintely not retconned the Space Jockey into a Engineer with a suit, that was awful for me

While i like the movie a great deal, it has many flaws and angles that it could have and should have taken instead of the path it went with, also with certain characters being stupid and poor dialog at times, although i like it i felt it dissapointed me as a lost opportunity to really go with the cosmic horror vibe

While i liked Charlize Theron in this i felt she was wasted, having an actress of her caliber and really other than being dubious and getting crushed she offered hardly nothing to the movie 

They should have answered some Alien film universe questions but created more....for example in Alien they showed the juggernaut , the Space Jockey, hinted at the knowledge of the Company having knowledge but never explained why it was there, how old it was, how the eggs got there, why the Alien was what it was, how the Company had knowledge ...leaving little mysteries for me is best as it opens up our imagination and these elements are what has made the Alien film universe a lasting one. Understandably maybe having unknown mysteries doesnt work for many of the younger generation who must have everything be tied up with a bow or explained and just care about explosions or if something looks cool on screen, The Transformers is an example of "looks good but horrible storytelling"...i want deep concepts that provoke and terrify and leave us wondering and thinking. 

but myself i prefer to have some mysteries with a hint of something greater or some secret as of yet undiscovered.

I love Prometheus and probably wouldn't change much.....

Lets look at the first 4 Alien movies:

Alien : Humans struggle with a space monster.

Aliens : Humans struggle with several space monsters.

Alien3 : Humans struggle with a space monster.

Alien: Resurrection : Humans struggle with several space monsters.

Prometheus : Humans get infected, become space monsters and give birth to other space monsters.

Prometheus was actually a refreshing change...had it's problems...but I thought the premise worked...*shrug*

Thanks for the responses.  But I did not like the notion of an alien being the creation of us and then seeking out the creator to be aligned with the Alien series.  That could of been a separate movie such as "At the Mountains of Madness".  Even though humans battling against a creature has been the main theme for the majority of the serioes, Alien and Aliens told it best.

I felt that just having the Space Jockey was simply part of an Alien race that created the Alien monster and was wiped out from it.  I think that is where Alien Covenant is leading to but with the notion that we were part of that creation as well (David).  But then, other movies have done similar to show we were the problem all along (Planet of the Apes).

By the way, I am going to see the opening of LIFE tonight.  It is an Alien rip-off but the monster has some unique aspects to it unlike the Xenomorph.  I did re-watch Alien last night and I just realized that the Alien could survive in cold space because when he was jettisoned out of the shuttle; he was still fighting to get inside of the ship; instead of immediately freezing to death.

Yeah, I'm going to see LIFE tomorrow! Can't wait!

Alien/Xenomorphs surviving space is a very interesting argument...tons of varied opinions on this forum.

The Queen from Aliens should have survived if this is true!

The Engineers might also survive..the one in Prometheus survived the hostile conditions(dead in seconds if you're human!)as he sought out Shaw.

MonsterZero (I remember that Godzilla movie).  I am 51 years old so I know all the old school monster movies lol.  You made great points and is interesting to know what the Aliens are more capable of. 

-I would NEVER have used that makeup on Guy Pearce. It made him look ridiculous and was very insulting. I cannot believe he agreed to do it. I wouldn't have, and I'm not as pretty as he is!

-definitely would've cast someone else as Holloway. He was easily the worst "actor" on the set. I could've done a better job, and I'm just a community stage actor.

-I would've "dumbed down" the technology a bit. The Prometheus looked like it came from WAY in the future from the Nostromo, as opposed to the way it was supposed to be.

-The "mutations" would've been...well, different. The human ones just seemed stupid and not well thought out.

-The Engineers would've been better "made". They simply looked like CGI. They should've been larger. 

-This may come to pass, BUT I DON'T WANT THE "SPACE JOCKEY" TO JUST BE AN ENGINEER IN THE SUIT!

-Showing Charlize Theron's legs was a bad idea.

-The whole pregnancy/self abortion/trilobite thing was just stupid.

-Having Vickers die from a "rolling Juggernaut" just seemed stupid. In fact, a "rolling Juggernaut" just seems stupid.

More Engineer time

I just saw life and in my opinion, it is a better movie than Prometheus lol.  I doubt it will make the same money as Prometheus did but nevertheless, it is an entertaining movie.

Starlogger,

Many made the same observation about Guy Pierce as an age old Weyland.  Some critics stated they should have simply used an older actor to play the role.

I would want characters I cared about- it wasn't fair to have Fassbender do all the heavy lifting. I get there were religious themes and I came to terms with it but I can't stand zealots like Shaw. I need to stop before I start having a tizzy fit.

Cast the Character Milburn as a exo-biologist not a clown that goes patting life forms he obviously does not believe exists.

this is a good topic...would like the hear others' ideas.

I doubt that I am a writer like that but I can give examples of what I would do different.

I would remove Shaw or at least make her more rational.

Most of the characters would either be removed or rewritten. I would make their motifs clearer and I would fill in most of the holes that Prometheus had, this depends on if I would keep the character. Scenes that are dumb would be removed.

Janek should have more scenes because that is a character that was good.

There would be more everyday dialogue, which would be an attempt to make the characters more like human beings rather than some archetypes. For example instead of “I am in it for money” it would be like “I need money because I have a family to support (and so on)”.

My draft would focus more on the Xeno. Since Prometheus is a prequel it wouldn’t have Xenos but more Xeno related monsters. The Zombie Fifield would be totally removed (because it sucked), leave that to the zombie movies and I would use the Xeno Fifield.

Since I am kind of goofy at times I would put in some lame jokes because if it is a serious movie then we need some balance. This could be difficult since my type of humor is silly but someone could tell me when there is too much goofiness. For example I would have a space bathroom with big neon letters where it says Space toilet/space shitter. LOL!

The Engineers would have been given a bit more background and it would be better explained why they would like to see humanity eradicated. I think that they would rather have 80% genes in common with mankind instead of being an exact match.

Eventually I would have the Xeno as something that the Engineers found and made into a super-weapon, that the Xeno would be a purer form of something else. The origin would be kept a secret because it would be more interesting that way. One of the things that made Alien work is that everything wasn’t obvious, I like that.

Prometheus had many interesting ideas it is just that it was executed in a lame way.

Personally, I would have written out Peter Weyland and focused more on the Yutani side of the company.

I would have rewritten the scenes in the Chamber with the urns/big head. For starters  I'd given the team more time exploring the mural with the deacon/xenomorph, giving the audience something to wonder/think about.

Second I'd change the whole Fifield/Milburn debacle. That was just wierd. Having them act as intelegent scientists, confronted with an alien species for the first time. I also never understood the Fifield yelling at Shaw, outside of the chamber. That felt somewhat misplaced...

More Engineer time. 

As Thoughts_Dreams stated, more of Idris Elbas character, as I really think he is a gifted actor and it was a role that could have been developed a bit more.

Delete the squid. I hated it. The C-section scene had potential, but for me became a WTF-moment when the bubble bursted... That allmost ruined the whole film.

I'd make the deacon smaller and more fierce, more Gigeresque(not necessarily more alien like, though). Smaller because I allways thought that it was to big to fit inside the Engineer. And not CGI. That was a shame, really.

@Parkerparrot Good stuff. Agree nearly completely.

@Parkerparrot

I agree with what you stated about more time with the characters exploring the urn room and mural. For a bunch of people that just discovered an alien race of beings they didnt have the sense of awe and wonderment that i felt they should have. If done properly on screen that sense of awe and wonderment is amazing especially if they film it in a way to where the film makers puts the audience in the same shoes as the characters on screen. 

When discovering an ancient race of aliens whether they are alive or dead, scientist or not would have some grand sensation of awe, and that was not captured in Prometheus and i feel it missed a great opportunity of that.

Sort of like the sensation of when Dallas, Lambert and Kane discovered the chamber with the Space Jockey you could almost feel the bewilderment and excitement and tension that discovery posed to the characters on screen. There should have been something like that in Prometheus.

Prometheus should have just been about the discovery of another race ( engineers) first and foremost..the crew could have entered the Juggernaut and activated footage of their species/ home / mission etc. I think a few scenes from the film should have stayed but the film should have mostly been about WOW we've found another race and their DNA is a match to ours...WHO are these beings/WHERE are they from..

They should have had David translate from murals etc...then at the end of the film they found one alive as in film but after bringing him out of stasis he could of just about to speak and gets chest bursted... Ensue chaos and black out with to be continued