"Prometheus"

I'll be honest, I desperately wanted to love this movie. Are you ready for more honesty? I think I only liked it, and even that I'm not sure about. It's difficult for me to gauge this movie based on trying to reconcile my expectations versus how I actually enjoyed the movie. This is especially difficult when it was quite disappointing when set against those expectations. First off, this is Ridley Scott. Second, this is "Alien," or at least set in the same universe and touted as a loose prequel. Those alone made me way excited for this movie. Then take into account the intense emotions of the previews and I was sold. I realize having such expectations is dangerous; it inevitably sets one up for disappointment. I also realize that it is unfair to compare. But I'm sad that I couldn't help but compare and feel this way about "Prometheus." The biggest disappointment was it's relation to "Alien." I'm a huge fan of the first Alien movie and unfortunately this movie was more "Aliens" than "Alien." I missed the tension and suspense that was in the first. It is especially noticeably missing when it was advertised as such too. Sure there were intense parts, but nothing that made me tense up in fear. And whilst this was supposed to be in the same universe (which it was) and not really a strict prequel to "Alien," it felt as if they couldn't make up their mind what to do. So many references to "Alien," yet nothing really to do with it. It's as if they had an original story idea that was in a science fiction setting and decided to try and fit it in with the Alien universe in order to draw in a larger crowd. The silliness of that is that that crowd they are trying to bring it by promoting it's relation to the Alien movies is the crowd that is already going to see it. So this is where I think I like this movie. As a stand alone movie. It was fun. Ridley Scott is a great filmmaker. It was well put together. The cinematography was incredible. Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, all great performances. The story was a fascinating premise. Repeating all these things that I liked about it lead me to believe that I like this movie. This is where I think I don't like this movie. It's supposed relation to "Alien" was sometimes fun but more contrived than anything. There were certain elements that were cliche. They too often leaned on spoken exposition rather than fear of the unknown or the assumption that the audience has common sense. The lack of tension and suspense, even missing from the action scenes (that one is kind of a big one). Overall, I think I just need to see this movie again. Now that I have a better understanding of what to expect, I feel that I would better be able to make a sound judgement on this movie and not an emotional response to disappointed expectations.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1446714/