I enjoyed it but it had a lot of plot gaps. For example, near the end of the film Elizabeth Shaw's life support informs her she has 30 seconds of oxygen left. She enters the smaller craft, meets the big alien thingy and the bald human/alien thingy. She leaves the craft putting her helmet back on. I'm not 100 percent sure if it's the same helmet she used before but if it is she seems to have an infinite supply of oxygen!
Another big plot gap: Shaw doesn't tell anyone - Peter Weyland included - that she was pregnant, that she removed the alien parasite from her body, that she left it in the medical bay, that she trapped it in the operating chamber. Wouldn't this be of vital importance to the mission? An alien life form on the craft, possibly still alive and worthy of further analysis?! But nope, she doesn't mention it to anyone and the crew go back down to the planet to find out why the bald alien bloke hates humans.
Another slight leap of plot credibility is the ship doesn't have any weapons. I understand the ship was an exploration vehicle not a combat vehicle however it did seem slightly strange to think the only way the Prometheus could stop another ship was by smashing into it.
And perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the film is why no explanation is given why the bald alien/human - who we are to assume was 'first generation' human created us, 'second generation' humans, but decided to kill us. We're teased with some dialogue like "I have to know why?" but it felt a bit pointless. The whole film built up to a bit of a pointless conclusion. Some alien created us but then decided to kill us. How bizarre!
And the very first scene when the bald alien gets broken up and falls into the river doesn't seem to make any sense. I don't get why that happened.
Anyway, I enjoyed it but who knows what much of the plot was about. Felt like the screenwriters made it up as they went along.
mezo5
Teacher's Note: Some insightful script analysis here. What I found most illogical about the script was when Elizabeth Shaw walks into a chamber (after her operation) and finds Peter Weyland alive and well, and nobody reacts to this shocking surprise, including her. I felt that the first part of that scene got cut off.
As for why the aliens want to kill us, it is pretty clear to me by inference that they realize that we are also one of their monsters, and we must be destroyed before we do something terribly evil. If you could imagine yourself as an alien looking down on the Earth over time, what would you think of the human race? (Just my two cents.) Thanks for a hugely thoughtful post!
--mike
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