First off, I edited the thread title to include a spoiler alert. It's a movie thread for a movie that is now out. If people honestly don't know the thread will contain spoilers, they should have their Internet privileges revoked.
Anyhow, saw it on Friday. And let me just say, I liked the film. I didn't love it. But I liked it. Let me also say right up front that Scott was in a difficult position. It is a given that the film was going to evoke a lot of imagery from Alien, and that certain things were going to happen certain ways. Just inevitable. He handed that as well as could possibly be expected, I think. And, yeah, pretty much every big event in the film was predictable. With Scott directing, that predictability was tolerable. With anyone else directing, it would have been a boring mess. But let's face facts: Most of us, myself included, would have seen it even if it were horrible.
All that being said, even putting aside my theological issues with the movie and how stupid the whole "superior aliens from far, far away created us" myth is, it was a fun 3/5 movie that I would see again just to be able to fill in some of the gaps in my own mind for certain issues. That's my overall impression. I few specifics, positive and negative:
1. So, the premise basically centers around the fact that the engineers essentially created what appears to be a weaponized virus that re-engineers the DNA of whatever it infects to creae mutated parasitic life forms that multiply rapidly and destroy all non-virus-based life forms. Pretty cool, interesting, and frightening premise. So far, I'm on board. The fact that they were basically in a military bunker added to the effect. Perhaps it was just my military background kicking in, but when the Prometheus first found the bunkers and was landing, my first thought was, "those look like either munitions bunkers or burial mounds." Turns out I was essentially correct on both counts.
2. Despite the coolness of #1 above, Scott made some gaffes in the genetics area. Namely, the Engineers are NOT a complete, 100% genetic match with humans. If they were, they wouldn't be so different from us. It would have been such a simple thing to say they are almost a complete match. Small detail, but it is attention to the small details that often takes a good movie and makes it great. This was small, but at the same time, glaring, IMO.
3. Why did the Engineer in the beginning drink the virus in the first place? And why did it have the effect on him that it did? I think that scene was meant to imply that his DNA basically spread around to create life here on earth. But it just didn't seem to make sense to me. First off, the virus doesn't shatter DNA elsewhere in the film. It modifies it. Second, if that's how they were going to create life, surely there were better ways to spread Engineer DNA than a suicide mission. Third, I thought the cave painting were supposed to indicate that humans lived side-by-side with Engineers for a time. Maybe this is to set up that humans are essentially descended from a virus, which is why the Engineers ultimately decide to destroy us? Maybe it's to set up the chilling premise that humans actually share a genetic kinship with the xenomorphs and other nasty creatures produced by the virus? Those would be interesting twists, I suppose. But I'm not really sure Scott had something like this in mind. It may simply be a throwaway scene that has no real point other than to make us ask questions there are no answers to.
4. Why did Shaw have to become inpregnated? I mean, yeah, it goes back to what was perhaps one of the most frightening aspects of the whole Alien series: these terrifying, creepy monsters start out inside of us!!! But that whole sequence of events just didn't work for me. It just didn't. It felt dumb and contrived from start to finish. If it was just to set up the xenomorph at the end, it could have been handled differently (and better). For instance, we could have merely had a chest burster pop out of the scientists who were in the bunker rather than simply have one disappear and the other turn into zombie scientist.
5. Why a xenomorph at the end? Yeah, there were millions of geek-gasms across the country this past weekend from everyone who saw the original Alien movies. It was worth it for that alone. But, again, Scott did it wrong. First off, mature xenomorphs don't pop out of their hosts. Second, they don't look like a kid in a pterodactyl suit.
6. The falling Engineer ship. Oh, the falling Engineer ship... Okay, let's set this up. Large, tall object is falling along a certain line and will crush the puny protagonists underneath if they can't somehow manage to escape. Rather than take a few steps to the right or left, which would be an easy escape, the protagonist instead chooses the futile exercise of running as fast as possible (but not fast enough) down the same line that is the path of the falling object. If I have done even a mediocre job of explaining the problem properly, you should be having the exact same reaction I had when seeing this scene, which is: "Wait, this seems familiar--Is this...?--Did he just...?--THIS IS BUGS BUNNY! I HAVE SEEN THIS EXACT SAME GAG IN EVERY SINGLE BUGS BUNNY CARTOON SINCE THE DAWN OF TIME!" And as much as I adore Bugs Bunny, I don't want Bugs Bunny in my Ridley Scott alien sci-fi horror thriller, thanks. I was legitimately expecting to see a cutaway scene any moment of Wile E. Coyote receiving a package from Acme, which is not the reaction a movie set in the Alien universe is supposed to evoke.
Those are some of my questions/beefs. Still a decent movie. I will see the sequel(s) and likely see this one again, just because.