I have never seen Alien. So I can’t tell you whether or not Prometheus works as a prequel. But I can tell you that Prometheus absolutely doesn’t work as a stand alone movie. All the hype, all the anticipation, and all we get is a very standard action movie with no surprises, no scares and nothing we haven’t seen before. I don’t care if it’s directed by the legendary Ridley Scott, or that he’s revisiting his most classic sci-fi film. Apparently he’s lost his touch.

Prometheus asks all these big questions about the origins of the human race and where we come from, but then answers them with standard movie violence.

Movie rating: 3/5: Alright.

I can’t bring myself to say that Prometheus is a bad movie. It’s competently made, looks cool and has enough action and Idris Elba to keep someone entertained. But the film has so many plot holes and contrivances that I can’t consider it a good movie. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. I also can’t imagine it answering too many questions about the Alien franchise. Everything we learn about the aliens and the Engineers in this movie is just boring and ho-hum. We don’t learn anything about the origins of the human race. And the big moment where it looks like we might see something new, Scott just inserts more needless, pointless violence.

The characters are paper thin, the designs are dark and murky, the aliens are wildly inconsistent and some of the twists just don’t make any sense. I expected much more from Prometheus, but got so much less.

Spoilers and more after the jump.

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