Before I go get started and give you my opinion on this movie, I would just like to say that I have noticed one thing about the consensus for this movie. Everybody is going to have their own opinion, and it will be either extreme love or extreme disdain. Having said that, I really, really liked this movie. However, I can only really speak for myself on this one because even this early I have noticed that some people who have the same tastes as me have said that they hated it. But even though I really like this movie I will say that it does have its problems. The problems that I mostly have are with the ending. But before I get into that, let's talk about the good things in this movie. The one thing that everybody can seem to agree on is that Michael Fassbender does some really good work as the android David. I would go so far as to say that it might be Oscar-worthy. You really do buy into him being a robot with his emotionless face and fairly monotoned voice. And it's not like Keanu Reeves playing a robot, who always sounds like an emotionless robot to begin with, so playing an emotionless robot isn't that much of a stretch. We all know Fassbender can act, whether it's as Magneto or a sex addict, so his performance in this is quite good. Unfortunately, he is the only performance that really stands out or wowed me. The other high point for me is the visuals. One thing that is common amongst Ridley Scott films is even if the story itself is crap, he at least does a good job of creating the atmosphere of the movie and making it look beautiful. The overall tone of the story is pretty haunting and the tone and atmosphere of the movie is fittingly haunting and gloomy. So top marks to Mr. Scott on that one.
Alright, on to the things that I didn't like, and yes this is going to be a spoilers section. If you want to see my final opinion, just scroll down to the bottom. As I said before, the primary problem is with the ending. Okay, brief summary. The movie is about a group of people who are in search of answers that a lot of people ask themselves. Why are we here? Where did we come from? Two scientists come across evidence that suggests that humanity was placed on earth millions of years ago by more intelligent beings that look like the jolly green giant if he was pale and had his head shaved. Side note: If you are a fan of the Alien movies, it's the space jockeys. Once they find the evidence they need, the Weyland corporation (also recognizable if you are an Alien fan) funds a mission to search out these beings who are believed to be inhabiting this one moon. Once they get to the moon, not only do they learn that these beings did indeed place us here, but they also planned on destroying us as well. That is all we ever really learn. In the end, one of the main characters decides to continue their journey in search of the home world of our creators (or as they call them, the Engineers) to find out why they put us here and why they decided they would try to wipe us out. The problem that most people have with this ending is that it didn't answer very much. It raised a lot of questions, but gave very few answers, like most episodes of Lost. Oddly, I kind of liked that it gave few answers, considering that whatever answers we are going to find from this point on aren't going to be good ones, I liked that it was kind of ambiguous. It actually kind of pissed me off that the one character decided to continue their journey. They say that they have to know why, when really, I don't think chasing this query would lead to anything good. It would be like digging your own grave and thinking you are going to find buried treasure. I think it would be more realistic if they had just said "You know what? Screw this, it's not worth it" At least that's what I would have done.
SPOILERS END HERE
Okay, that was pretty much a cut and dry summary of this movie, minus all the deaths and chest burstings that go on. By the way, even though this isn't a direct prequel to Alien, there are a lot of nods to the movies. I already mentioned the Weyland Corporation and the presence of Space Jockeys, but there are a few other things. While the xenomorphs, chest bursters and face huggers themselves that we all know and love are not in this movie, there are still a number of creatures that are like those creatures. For example, there are creatures that do latch on to you and squeeze more and more the more you struggle, and there is a creature that tries to come into the world through bursting out of a person, but it tries to come out of their abdomen, not the chest. That may not seem like a very significant difference, but it is. Just take my word for it. Don't question it.
So apart from that one problem that I have with the ending (which some say is a set up for a sequel, I hope to God that it isn't), I would say that this was a pretty good movie. As I said before, I can only speak for myself because because everybody is going to have their own opinion of this movie.
