I don't know how I'd rate it because obviously there were a ton of flaws. That being said, five years ago I left it feeling a sense of exhilaration. I still remember the weather when we came out: left the theatre in the early evening, sun was setting over the Sierra Nevada's, walked over to Chocolate Bar, and had cocktails and a dinner watching the sunset talking about the ideas in the movie, the perspectives, what were the engineers, why did they give up on us? What caused them too? Were they good, or bad? Why were they so insanely violent if they were supposedly good? Who were they judge? Why did that idiot decide to try and pet an alien snake thingy? Why did that guy trust David? Why was the South African model actress such a nut job? Why didn't they do more with Idris Elba? What were they running from? Xenomorphs? Fifield type things? What exactly? Why would such a planet be the site of such testing? Did they just want to kill us, or were they murderous scumbags? Isn't there a better way to seed a planet than suicide? How long were the engineers on that planet dead and gone before we found them? How in hell did that dude survive that long w/o a technological malfunction? Why is Weyland so obsessed with not dying when a huge percentage of older people actually wish to go to whats next when all their loved ones are gone? Why could someone as brilliant as Weyland not be remotely interested in the questions Shaw was trying to ask? Why wasn't the alien sympathetic to Shaw when it was obvious Shaw was the only reasonable one in the room?
I could go on and on, and already have done so. But that's the key for me. I've seen enough in the commercials, heard enough spoilers, and trailers to, read enough here to get the gist of what's coming in the movie and I can't for the life of me understand why Alien fans blanked all over Prometheus so we could get just another warmed over half-blanked alien xenomorph redux dog pile on the screen. Even w/Ridley's brilliance as a technical director, don't we want to see a movie with big ideas, even if it's put together erratically? What point is there in the 10th iteration of a face huger and xenomorphs punching holes in the bodies of faceless/characterless victims? Have we not seen that 1000 times? What questions are there to ponder in that drivel?
It just really, for me, really, really sucks that all the grand, big ideas explored, sometimes effectively, sometimes not, in Prometheus, were flushed down the toilet because more fans needed to see a dozen more actors get facehugged, and give birth in xenomorph horror porn deaths.
I apologize for being so po'd about it, but it definitely seems like Ridley, or the studio or both completely changed the course of what they planned to make based on fan reaction, and it's my firm belief that we ended up with something FAR lesser because of it. Just bums me out to no end.
I get that there was a ton of stupid in Prometheus. A lot of inexplicable decisions being made by supposed brilliant scientists. I get that that was annoying, but why weren't the big ideas being explored interesting? Why didn't they matter? Why did having some serial killer xenomorph and it's cousin tearing through chests and backs and what not trump getting these big answers explored?
I suppose what it comes down to is what draws people to these movies. For me the thrill of Alien was the mystery of the Space Jockey. The Alien itself was fascinating, and they did a brilliant job exploring the concept in the movie and future movies to some extent, but at the end of the day, there's only so much to that alien. There was so much mystery to the engineers, and so much more left to explore, and it definitely seems like we're either not going to explore it, or we're only get some completely half-blanked exploration of no or very little value. kinda breaks my sci-fi heart. We don't get much great sci-fi, so much of it is already tailored to sci-fi horror schlock, and to not be able to explore what for me were some really interesting angles to the story is just a major bummer, already had tasted greatness with Arrival and was hoping for more from Covenant, but now I'm convinced that simply isn't happening.
Maybe some day.
