I am a huge fan of the Alien series. The first two are deservingly classics. Alien 3 and Resurrection were ok, so after the years AND Scott directing this, I had high hopes. The idea of a Prequel explaining the background of the xenomorphs and the artifacts of the first movie is definitely promising. However, they completely squandered the opportunity and instead, they produced a mostly bland and uninspiring re-hash of the first few films: A crew lands on an unknown planet to explore it, but is soon forced to return aboard. That is basically the same plot as the original Alien (add the last log Shaw records at the end, which is also almost word for word the one Ripley records at the end of Aline). As such, the plot is (for the most part) entirely predictable: David is the robot that wants to research for Weyland with no regard for human life (like Ash in Alien); the two crew members turning back but getting lost and first ones to die, Shaw getting an Aline inside her, etc.
In addition to the unoriginal writing, there are immersion-breaking scenes, some of which are just unexplainable. For example: The geologist maps the whole alien structure, and in the ship the resulting map is shown in 3D with all of the crew members positions marked. Now how is it possible that the geologist Fifield and his buddy Milliburn manage to get lost? Are we to believe that the crew back on the ship are dickheads that don't tell them the way out? Later, captain Janek asks these two where in the structure they are, while their positions are clearly marked in the map on the ship in front of Janek. When the rest of the crew later try to rescue these two, they neither consult the map with the markers (they should still show where the suits are, even though these two are dead) nor try to radio Fifield or Milliburn beforehand. Instead, they go into the structure and yell their names like some idiots.
Overall, this is a disappointing and weird film. On one hand, they rip so much from the previous Alien movies, on one hand they didn't want to call this "Alien: Prometheus" for some reason. The omission of "Alien" in the title is rather fitting though, because this feels like an off-brand Alien movie. The weird sort-of-Alien-but-not-really creatures in the film are not helping either. Worse than Alien 3 and Resurrection.
In addition to the unoriginal writing, there are immersion-breaking scenes, some of which are just unexplainable. For example: The geologist maps the whole alien structure, and in the ship the resulting map is shown in 3D with all of the crew members positions marked. Now how is it possible that the geologist Fifield and his buddy Milliburn manage to get lost? Are we to believe that the crew back on the ship are dickheads that don't tell them the way out? Later, captain Janek asks these two where in the structure they are, while their positions are clearly marked in the map on the ship in front of Janek. When the rest of the crew later try to rescue these two, they neither consult the map with the markers (they should still show where the suits are, even though these two are dead) nor try to radio Fifield or Milliburn beforehand. Instead, they go into the structure and yell their names like some idiots.
Overall, this is a disappointing and weird film. On one hand, they rip so much from the previous Alien movies, on one hand they didn't want to call this "Alien: Prometheus" for some reason. The omission of "Alien" in the title is rather fitting though, because this feels like an off-brand Alien movie. The weird sort-of-Alien-but-not-really creatures in the film are not helping either. Worse than Alien 3 and Resurrection.