Director: Ridley Scott
Year Released: 2012
Rating: 2.0
Basically the same set-up as Alien (which Scott directed in the late '70s) ... only not nearly as effective: space explorers - including a doctor (Noomi Rapace), an android (Michael Fassbender, comically mimicking Peter O'Toole's T.E. Lawrence) and an incredibly old rich man (Guy Pearce in bad makeup) - travel to a planet far, far away based on star maps they found on Earth ... and on that planet, there's nothing but trouble. Visually spectacular - a Ridley Scott trademark - but as far as screenplays go, distractingly (and fatally) dumb: temporarily ignoring the numerous plot holes and frustratingly illogical moves by its characters (let's take our helmets off! let's touch this thing! let's mess with that scary thing!), it makes a weak attempt at asking Some Big Questions about Life and Existence and the Origin of Man and even Christianity, but comes across as a high school freshman's theories about the Meaning of Life (humorous if you don't take it seriously). Scott as a director is still exemplary, and some of the tense action sequences in the last third of the movie (including Rapace performing surgery on herself) are wonderful on a visceral level (just stop thinking, if possible).
