It’s “2001: A Space Odessey” meets “Alien” with Faustian overtones. Well filmed, well acted, and well directed, it somehow doesn’t measure up to the level of Scott’s previous space sagas. There really isn’t much story, despite the epic history involved – The Origin of Mankind. Maybe what dissatisfied me was the film’s slow pace, which can build tension or lose audience attention. I fell into the latter category. In short, I didn’t love or hate this film, and I’ll most likely forget it.

First, let me state that I love some of the elements of all of the first three Alien-films: the promise of fright rather than the plastic monster has always been much scarier to me. Second, I like the idea of incorporating something more to a scary film than just sneak-sneak-THERE’S-THE-MONSTER!!. So, “Prometheus” actually does a fine job at this. It’s subtly directed, letting the characters and the actors speak for themselves. The sound and cinematography definitely helps, apart from choosing brilliant actors like Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Charlize Theron and Sean Harris. This film is scary, mostly in a philosophical way, for me questioning humanity, our right to life and our seemingly God-given right to be the top of the food chain; this film probably gives the best slant of the latter for a film than any I’ve seen in ages. On a stream of consciousness-tip, I can’t really state how much the image of an alien that first looks like a penis and then transforms into a vagina-flower-with-penile-stem has haunted me. Recommendable.

Hmm. Glad I saw it, and there was a lot to enjoy, but overall just… meh. Could not have lived up to expectations, I guess, but I found it just a bit messy. Which totally impacted on the tension levels for me – I wasn’t particularly spooked out at all, which just felt wrong.

Sigh.

(dammit I meant wishy washy!)