Prometheus (2012) Review: A Sci-Fi Classic with Major Flaws?

Prometheus: 12 Years Later – Why That Sci-Fi Classic Still Has Some Serious Issues!

Prometheus: A Rewatch Reveals Some Ugly Truths

Prometheus (2012) was a huge hit – critically acclaimed and a massive box office success. That 73% Rotten Tomatoes score and $403 million globally? Impressive! But twelve years later, revisiting this Ridley Scott flick reveals some pretty glaring flaws that can't be ignored; even considering the impact and fame surrounding it. Let’s dig into those problematic moments that remain a huge stain even today!

The movie’s connection to the Alien franchise is itself problematic. Ridley Scott said it shared "Alien's DNA" and while it totally connects to Alien, the storyline wasn't a direct prequel– different characters and directions! And it had massive potential– that blend of grand scale and suspenseful sci-fi intrigue; however while that visual spectacle holds up surprisingly well even now in 2024, many other aspects haven’t aged very well at all and those flaws only continue to persist in future re-examinations of the movie!

Also Read: Alien: Romulus Could Fix A Huge Problem With Ridley Scott's Prequels

10 Harsh Realities About Prometheus: Even Great Movies Have Flaws

10. The Engineers: A Seriously Messy Alien Race

Prometheus' problems start right away with those Engineers. These aliens (the race behind Alien's mysterious "space jockey") seeded humanity, and leave those hints that would eventually affect this very narrative’s progress; creating huge questions around mankind’s origins. Their role brings about those profound philosophical and ethical considerations around life and existence and who might’ve designed humanity to be; and yet this aspect ultimately falters! This article points to multiple problems:

Their motivations are completely unclear: why send humans toward a bioweapon stockpile? Why this desperate effort to completely eradicate humanity once they're awakened? This makes their plot impact questionable.
Their relation to human evolution, those significant connections and thematic considerations, contain plot holes mentioned in the movie! This simply breaks the initial attempt at creating the kind of mystery that was needed; ultimately failing entirely at this important plot point.

It really underwhelms and showcases a lack of effort to actually connect everything. Their mysterious origins could've provided great insight– but that gets thrown away and the potential of exploring those deeper questions about space-faring races interacting with Earth is lost; this makes exploration feel rather pointless, a severe underutilization and missed opportunity.

9. The Black Goo: A Mysterious Substance Without Any Explanation

Michael Fassbender as David in front of the ship from Prometheus Image

That creepy black goo is central to everything. It is deeply, profoundly important within this universe’s very origins. But it is sadly quite problematic! Its actual purpose remains frustratingly ambiguous!

The movie states it killed Engineers, creating that internal parasite (seen in Holloway), it spreads sexually (Shaw), transforming Fifield into a zombie. This highlights its deadly power; yet the mechanism is just vague.
It’s also connected to various alien creatures in the Engineer facility – that creepy hammerpede, other weird insects and xenomorphs which appear in future Alien installments— this totally undercuts how important this substance would be, demonstrating the many contradictory explanations and inconsistent implications.

The black goo’s importance and continued existence across the wider Alien franchise (seen later in Alien: Covenant and Alien: Romulus) makes its complete lack of detailed explanation even more frustrating, particularly because it showcases that many issues exist in connecting across storylines in this extremely popular franchise.

8. Alien Symbology: A Contradictory and Unexplained Mess

Despite the lack of full-fledged xenomorphs (only a Deacon creature in the finale which shows some hints toward the creatures), many Alien hints litter the movie, and those H.R. Giger–esque designs, with many creatures having that distinct Alien style make these clues too obvious to overlook. Fifield and Millburn's discovery shows how the Engineers had internally exploded! That was an obvious hint to some major connection; and these themes had serious consequences to those storylines.

Yet this ultimately failed because later sequels created serious problems in this particular series of movies. In Alien: Covenant, those xenomorphs become a totally different creature created by the character David; contradicting everything from Prometheus, rendering it fundamentally illogical. That severely problematic and contradictory element simply hurts the impact entirely.

7. Shallow Characters and Seriously Bad Decisions: A Contrived Plot

Prometheus had a big cast but few characters really get explored – leading to some seriously thinly-sketched individuals, like Fifield (purely motivated by money); this lack of characterization leaves some characters poorly realized. The poorly developed character of Vickers and her cold attitude also fail to work.

And the really annoying part? The dumb decisions, showcasing some frustrating levels of idiocy— removing helmets, touching hostile Aliens, ignoring those silica storms all in service to progress those crucial plot elements; all this makes it terribly unbelievable and makes every event forced and the overall narrative utterly contrived.

6. Wasted Talent: Great Actors with Little to Do

The massive cast hurt development–leaving even big names like Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, and Guy Pearce underutilized. Michael Fassbender as David shone. However others were barely there— Elba (heroic self-sacrifice after one scene!), Theron (just showing her icy persona), Pearce (mostly absent!). Even Benedict Wong shares Elba's fate; This wastes phenomenal talent; those actors remain incapable of adding more life and intensity to their parts; a truly missed opportunity to showcase a variety of talented actors, some well known in other contexts and within this universe. So much potential!

5. David: A Fascinating but Confusing Character

Fassbender’s David is brilliantly detached; slightly creepy and sociopathic, a character almost resembling the actual main antagonist of this series of movies! Yet his motivations are vague— that Lawrence of Arabia obsession is basically useless! It never explains why David poisoned Holloway, or why he allies with Shaw – or even if David’s actions are due to curiosity, or even loyalty! These gaps make the entire narrative extremely frustrating because we need these details in order to actually interpret its implications.

4. A Flawed Script: Lack of Logic and Cringeworthy Dialog

Prometheus suffered terribly from both structural issues and incredibly poor writing that creates many illogical sequences and plot points which remain completely frustrating, leaving this storyline full of illogical narrative events which undermine its own intentions! The trillions spent by Weyland; sending unprepared scientists on a blind mission. It shows terrible storytelling, which isn’t supported by good dialog—Fifield’s "love of rocks," Vickers and Janek's terrible attempts at flirting– all that awkwardness undercuts that serious tone and theme!

3. Style Over Substance: Great Looks Can't Hide the Flaws

Prometheus’s great visuals initially distracted from flaws! The style, cinematography and spectacle made a powerful, compelling impact upon initial audiences and overshadowed most negative opinions. But, twelve years later– seeing Prometheus in the context of the entire Alien franchise exposes everything that initially went unsaid— plot holes; inconsistent narrative choices made throughout. That amazing initial impact has dulled.

Those visual aspects are stunning; it was easily recognized immediately after it came out – and it managed to completely mask just how weak and uninspired some parts of that plot and narrative design had truly been; resulting in poor quality even by that initial point of evaluation.

2. The Unnecessary Alien Connection: A Standalone Story Would’ve Worked Better

The Alien prequel hype worked, totally building that excitement—especially bringing back Ridley Scott but connecting to Alien was completely unnecessary for a potentially fascinating standalone. The story, surrounding mankind's origins could've totally worked independently—creating an amazing franchise entirely independent from its previous existence; a missed opportunity which failed to create any lasting success and value!

But that Alien connection made Prometheus do a near impossible task— creating a separate story, connected to a source material, showing its limitations right away; severely limiting how far these thematic possibilities could actually reach. This shows it tried for far too much, failing completely and underperforming.

1. Prometheus Hurt the Alien Franchise Itself!

That impact initially seemed questionable—a slightly unrelated prequel and slightly problematic connection to its previously established plot and character designs. Alien: Covenant, changed everything! It makes the xenomorph an android bioweapon, totally trashing the "perfect organism" concept from the first Alien! And the impact remains significant— the entire Alien franchise continues being completely changed and reworked throughout the later releases – now, they want to correct these narrative changes again, showing that this has failed! This makes Prometheus’s legacy severely negative!

Also Read: Xenomorph Evolution: From Chestbursters to Spitter Aliens

Conclusion: Prometheus' Flaws Outshine Its Style in 2024

Prometheus initially felt impressive. The visuals really held its own and masked its failings initially—however twelve years and various franchise updates show just how damaging those earlier issues truly are! It makes audiences question whether trying too much is ever going to result in actual value and what creative changes could easily turn this kind of story arc from bad, into something critically successful; and the questionable and unnecessary reliance on previously created intellectual property and its established franchise creates another truly problematic element. Its flaws now fully outweigh those aspects that worked back then. This movie severely weakened the wider Alien franchise. And that is simply something the entire cinematic community needs to carefully consider.