Prometheus

A movie like Prometheus was always going to have a lot to live up to given it has been widely reviewed as a prequel to the classic 1979 film Alien.
In some ways it is most definitely intended to precede that film but I think director Ridley Scott has done well to put some distance between them.
Because of this connection to a legendary film a lot of critics have been pretty savage in their disdain. Indeed the reviews I was told by others who had seen it ranged from no good to outstanding.
I'm not going to go into the intricacies of the plot and what planet the ship lands on etc, you can find that out elsewhere.
Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) are scientists who discover a link to the origins of mankind and their discovery prompts rich tycoon Peter Weyland (an unrecognisable Guy Pearce) to fund a trip to a faraway galaxy in search of answers under the guidance of Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron).
When the crew of the Prometheus arrive they discover a strip of land that has been cleared and several dome shaped buildings erected.
Naturally the crew checks out their finding and they discover a strange labyrinth with a large number of dead creatures and a room that seems to be a tomb or a temple.
When the ship's android David (Michael Fassbender) smuggles something from the room back onto the ship and gets Holloway to consume some of the strange substance he has discovered all hell breaks loose.
Being spoken in the same terms as the Alien series is a bit unfair but you do get insight into the origin of the species seen in the original series. You do have to wait for it, though.
Fassbender is particularly good in his role. David, being an android, can't feel emotion and the actor does an outstanding job of appearing cold, aloof and very calculated in his moves as he carries out the wishes of his master Weyland.
There's enough tension in there to keep you on your toes and a little of the horror that you'd expect from an Alien movie (think more movies 1 and 2, not 3 and 4). Given the trail blazed by those films and our general desensitisation to gore the movie isn't as unsettling as it could have been say 20 or 30 years ago.
I think it might benefit from a second viewing, there is so much to work out in so little time (even though the film is over two hours long) you don't really pay a lot of attention to the characters.
Overall, if you can manage to see Prometheus with an open mind and not associate it too closely to Alien (let's face it, Rapace's character is no Ripley) then you'll go a long way toward liking it.
The ending is a little weak, I might add, but really, how do you top 'get away from her, you bitch'?
I thought a 7 out of 10, and I'll say it was a lot more interesting than I was expecting.