I thought the trailer made it look like paint-by-the-numbers generic sci fi. Then I thought the trailer must have done a poor job of getting across what was sure to be a new fantastic step in the direction of the genre, but it sounds like I wasn't too far off the mark with my first impression...was I?

It's style but no substance. Maybe it will end up being another Blade Runner tho.

Yeah I too thought it was generic sci-fi and was iffy about seeing it until I read Ebert's review. I probably would have seen it anyway, as often as my wife and I go to the movies.

As soon as Noomi was given the line about not being able to create life, my expectations of it being anything new were out the window. Some of the graphic design was hilarious, although I'm not sure if it was all intentional (e.g. the alien spaceship was a giant Prince Albert dick ring). I'm positive the vagina dentata creature design was on purpose.

Nah. Too many superfluous characters. Lack of a main villain. Unfocused plot. Visually unexceptional. I think we can safely say this won't be considered a classic at any point in the future.

Mike

Really? Damn. Some of the shots in the trailers made it look like, visually at least, like it might be pretty good. Is it just another case of the marketing guys picking out the best scenes for the advertising?

Visually unexceptional in that you're not going to be blown away like people were by Blade Runner. It still looks pretty good, but Scott isn't breaking much new ground here.

Mike

I think he broke some new aesthetic ground: this is the best looking digitally created spectacle since Blade Runner's non-digital spectacle. But, shit, Mike, the gorgeous landscape shots at the beginning, the lovely detailing of the android's period of waiting for the others to wake up, Giger's expanded designs, such as the tomb and the control chamber, etc., etc., while not radically transforming cinematography or set design, are heads and tails above the look of every other SF film of the past 30 years ... at least, in terms of creating a fantastic setting. It's of an exceptional quality.

Maybe I just don't pay enough attention to that stuff, in which case I don't think I'm unique, but having seen plenty of big budget, digital landscapes in films, I didn't walk out of Prometheus feeling like I'd witnessed something either radically different or radically better than what I'd seen before. If the setting is just a setting, I don't care that much about it. I mean, is this that much beyond The Fountain, visually speaking?

Mike

While the visuals are not revolutionary, they are indeed some of the best we've seen in a long time. This movie is like they took the most excellent gourmet sauce ever devised by a chef and poured it over a Big Mac value meal.