Since the stories about Ridley Scott’s return to the Alien series started coming out about two years ago, I’ve been looking forward to seeing whatever it was that he released. I’ve been a big fan of Alien since I was a kid so the wait for this movie has been long for me. I saw Prometheus in 3D this Tuesday afternoon (free movies for Optimum subscribers!). I went alone because Robyn and I had planned to go on Saturday night but her mom wasn’t able to babysit due to a fall she had taken at home – she’s fine but was sore.

Having been in theaters for a few days, I was seeing reviews about the film that didn’t seem to be very positive so I went in with high hopes but not expecting too much. Even though I tried to stay pretty much spoiler-free, I had seen a few reviews that hinted the movie was only distantly related to the existing Alien franchise and that it was much more of a philosophical debate than a full-on horror/action film that we had come to expect. I was cool with that since I had always favored Alien – the first film in the series over the others due to the dark tone and relatively slow pace.

I think the reviews were mostly right on. The overall theme of the story was great. I enjoyed the movie and I find myself still thinking about the questions that it poses. But there were some plot holes that needed patching and scenes that I could have lived without. My biggest annoyance was seeing an elderly Peter Weyland played by a young Guy Pearce – the makeup looked bad and completely broke me out of the movie. Why not just hire an older actor? There was also some bad dialogue and some unbelievable decision-making by the characters but these are mostly things I can live with. The visuals and aesthetics, especially in 3D, were amazing – as one would expect from Ridley Scott.