So I just watched this last night and I have a few impressions: 1. First, a good sci-fi movie starts with excitement over discovery. Everything is shiny, interesting, and amazing. Prometheus starts out with the lighting of a vampire movie and stays at this dark, gloomy tone throughout the film. This is also the same with the performances. Charlise Theron is a mega-bitch (actually played really well, so she remains interesting) from the moment she steps out of her pod. The nutjob geologist is a dick the first moment he opens his mouth and is predictably the self-interested coward of the group, and the robot predictably betrays the group - in an illogical fashion that seems to show he is capable of passive-aggression though this isn't well developed. The director is responsible for this and now I see it in his other films. Go check out Ridley Scott's imdb page and think about Blade Runner, Black Hawk Down, and White Squall (he is an exec producer on most other things - not the director), and they all share consistent tone and characterization. 2. The alien baby and surgery machine bit were amazing. The only bit I didn't like was how I'm not certain if David was intentionally trying to put her into cryo (if so, why didn't he do it and explain it to the crew after he knocked her out), or what? He's supposed to raise the tension as we are supposed to suspect him of being just a mad killer without an agenda at that point (which is boring and predictable writing), or if he is just incompetent - and that's equally difficult to believe. What would have been more interesting is if he was programmed to preserve life and accordingly tried to stop her removal of the alien fetus as he would consider it an abortion. 3. The premise of humans going off to find the race that made them is interesting, and they never resolved it. I know that this is the big mystery that fuels the sequel, so I can deal with it, but I have to say that the original sci-fi premise offered in the film is much more interesting than the monster-flick it turned into about 40 minutes in. Sure, you need some action and some scares. . . honestly, the uniform bleak tone of the film contributes to this. I didn't get a chance to care about the people or their project due to the bleak tone at the beginning and it's hard to build fear and dread when you've inoculated the audience to it for 40 minutes before the first scare.
