No masterpiece, but the best sci-fi movie of the decade

I expected a lot from Prometheus. Well, not really. But I expected something.

I guess I was taken by the trailers and the ambiguity that they relayed was, to me, an indication of quality, for the director had sufficient faith in his movie so as to not sell it outright in the ads.

Nevertheless, we are talking about Ridley Scott here. Sure, he made the original Alien, which although a good movie, was not a masterpiece either. Blade Runner, on the other hand, was something special for certain, but again, the uniqueness of that movie may have had something to do with the unbelievably awesome Vangelis score that underlined the entire picture and the cinematography of the "retrofitted future".

However, I won't steal away from his credit in that film - it was an incredible experience, even if the story and movie itself wasn't so grand, the scale at which the movie was made can not be understated as pivotal in cinema.

So, when I start to consider movies coming from the man, some part of me hopes a glimmer of that quality will come out.

And as we saw with the god-awful Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, the forgettable Black Hawk Down and the plethora of other movies Ridley Scott has made since Blade Runner, we understand that he's cashing in on some directorial status but not really putting great films out there.

I am happy to say that according to me, Prometheus was a great example of him trying really, really hard at creating a movie that was of quality, and the best of his ability.

Let's explore the storyline - it was resoundingly well done, with enough mystery to tickle you but at every turn what needed to be revealed was.

When we found out that the planet was actually a military base, it came suddenly, without delay, and all the pieces fell together.

When we found out David's purpose in the mission, it was clear as crystal, and no ambiguity remained.

When the alien creature attacked the humanoid alien creature, prompting what we can only assume is the first impregnation of that species within another (which we saw as the method of choice in subsequent Alien movies) it ties all the lore from the last 30 years together in a very sexy manner.

We're excited to see where she gets to in the ship with David, and if she will find the home planet of our creators, and discover the lore behind the military planet and why they wanted to destroy us.

We don't even really care how or why the chemical weapon was created - we have enough experience to know vigilant and military nations can do a host of stupid things. Trying to decode that in detail is irrelevant, and the movie doesn't try to force that on you.

Even the side effects of it as it mutated are irrelevant, because we also know that biological warfare is a tricky animal to control.

However, the movie does not come without detractors. The central one being that all the characters were more or less 2 dimensional. No one was real, or acted in a real manner, and it was almost like a comic unfolding. That isn't without it's merit, but I prefer movies with realistic characters in fantastic situations.

Secondly, certain scenes were poorly done. Primarily the one where the two guys stuck in the alien base at night. When they see the alien snake species, and it's the first live alien species humans have ever seen, I'm guessing your first reaction wouldn't be "Hey baby" and try to touch it. This guy didn't just do that, he did it a lot, and then he got killed. Some caution from an apparent scientist would be more warranted.

The scene where the boyfriend kills himself and then comes back to life - it seemed like an unnecessarily violent scene that didn't really play into the consistency of Alien lore - fire DOES kill these things.

Finally, Charlize Theron was pretty bad in it. I mean, not painful bad, but irrelevant bad, and her hard-ass stance was annoying. I think they realized this in the editing room and gave her very little screen presence as a result, which is yet another indication that Ridley Scott went all out on this picture.

All in all, the best sci-fi movie I have seen in the last ten years. I thoroughly enjoyed it, was thoroughly stimulated. And that doesn't happen often anymore. (Avatar? Cmon)