I think the movie is absolutely terrific. It has heart and terror as well, as well as some pretty good depth. And Im not referring to the whole creationism thing, its actually the character's stories and pathos that made biggest impact on me. I dont know where to start, but if you havent seen the movie yet dont read further cause Ill be "spoilering" the whole thing.
The opening is great, the first notes of the music and the whole credits sequence sets up a great mood and sense of dread contrasted with beautiful and peaceful images. Davids sequences showing him as this harmless, lone guy watching movies and doing chores on the ship is excellent, very moody. Watching Shaws dream was also a nice touch, Davids a great character, he seems to innocent and sincere and yes, Fassbender did a great job with the character. Reading reviews I thought people must be seriously overdoing on praising his performance, but he definitely deserves all the praise he gets. First attack from the hammerpede was actually pretty tense and terrifying, I thought its gonna be a typical gory slasher scene, but it nicely created tension. One of the things I really liked was that Holloway was such an annoying *****ebag and I hated the guy, then the movie successfully twists my feelings when he gets infected and I feel very sorry for him in that moment. The burning is a great emotional moment, but has a flaw in the movie's structure - it cuts away to soon, not leaving enough time to fully digest the drama of the moment. The abortion scene was phenomenal, and it wasnt the gore (there was barely any) or even the idea itself that made it terrifying, but it was Rapace's great, great acting. I mean, she does such a great job in selling the pain and terror that you really feel like its real and her fear and physical and emotional pain is contagious. The whole subplot with Weyland doing the expedition in hopes of prolonging his life was pretty sad, because everyone of us wants to live, and the shadow of death is right upon him. All he wants is just to live, yet he dies in such awful way, killed by a being that he thought would understand his fear and help him. It was also very sad that he still lived for a second after the hit, knowing that all was for nothing and that hes dying. His relationship with David was also interesting. The finale was grand and created genuine tension, something I dont feel during action sequences watching recent movies. It was great to feel the thrill of the action along with the tension again. The ending is one of my favorite scenes, Its very creepy and the creature itself is creepy as hell, sounding like a baby at first and with torso looking like that of a child and this horrific head and double jaw. It was also a nice classic horror ending
What I didnt like was the design of the squid, which was almost as awfully bad as The Thing 2012 designs. I didnt care for the hammerpede either. I didnt like the first explorations scenes too, they just felt bland. Shaw reuniting with David and both going to another world was meh
Whats also interesting is that the movie doesnt have a villain. Monsters appear very sporadically and briefly, engineer appears just at the end, and Vickers isnt a villain, shes just an cold character
Overall, Im extremely surprised by the movie, I expected a good movie and then hoped for one when bad reviews were coming in, but at the end it was better than I ever thought it would be. Definitely buying the DVD, and I think its a great addition to the franchise. 8/10
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