Visually, this is beautiful. The SFX, the suits, the technology, the absolutely massive ship, the gorgeous scene when Android, David, is surrounded by a holographic map of the universe, even the engineers and aliens themselves. Everything is visually well-done, and unlike most, I'm actually not at all disappointed that it's not the same as Alien because I didn't expect it to be. That said, it's full of very smart people making very stupid decisions. Seriously, why are these smart characters so painfully dumb? It honestly killed the movie for me, but while this movie wasn't for me, the visuals alone make it worth watching and honestly, if you're not a writer in the entertainment industry like I am, then you probably won't be bothered at all, so please don't let me scare you away!!!! I really wanted to enjoy this movie, and thankfully there are people out there who are able to do that for me. If that's something you have the gift of being able to ignore, or not even notice to begin with, you don't even need to keep reading, just watch the film, and enjoy. If, however, you were also bothered by just how dumb these people are, keep reading to find out why I only gave this beautiful movie a six.
Elizabeth stupidly falls into the trope of saying "it's a scientific exploration, so we don't need weapons" when they're on an unknown planet looking for other life forms, and they have no idea how friendly those life forms are, let alone if there are any other unexpected dangers. Minutes later, it backfires, and a character even remarks that it was dumb that they didn't bring weapons. Two throw-away characters then stupidly run off because they get scared, and after they separate from the main group, they end up getting lost and, inevitably, left behind. It felt like watching Scooby-Doo. Captain, Janer, then stupidly leaves his post to go have sex with boss Vickers, and doesn't even bother telling anyone to stay and keep radio contact with the two people who are now stuck, and this is AFTER a censor reported another living thing in there with them. Of course, these throw-aways are killed (after several more stupid decisions on their part).
Scientist Charlie stupidly removes his helmet because there's air on the ship even though he has no way of knowing what types of viruses, spores, bacteria, etc could be in the air, and everyone else follows suit. It ends up being a dose of black goo David slips him that makes him sick, however. Even though he is aware he is sick, he still goes back again and doesn't let anyone know. He just watches as they all remove their helmets once again. He starts feeling sick but repeatedly tells everyone he's "okay" while simultaneously asking Elizabeth to figure out what's wrong with him, and they still don't have helmets on! Charlie also decides to stupidly get drunk immediately after returning to the ship the first time because he's upset that all of the engineers are dead even though not minutes before, Elizabeth discusses with another character that they've only been there a couple hours, so they have no way of knowing if they're all gone, and spoiler alert, they're not. While the other characters are examining a head that they found, he's practically laying on a pool table. He's meant to be a scientist, but after two hours on a completely new planet, he is getting drunk and throwing a tantrum because he didn't immediately find what he wanted. Elizabeth and Charlie stupidly decide to have sex the second they're alone (that's now four characters who go off to have sex in the middle of something important) instead of examining their finds, and one another, to make sure nothing dangerous made it back, which of course it did. On a third return to the ship, Elizabeth tells everyone that they need their helmets because it could've been something in the air that infected Charlie. The other characters stupidly refuse to listen, and for some reason, TWO MINUTES LATER, Elizabeth takes hers off too!
Elizabeth is extremely intelligent and manages to program the med chamber to give her a make-shift c-section, after it is tells her it is only programmed for males, by telling it to cut out a foreign body on her abdomen. You heard that right, in the year 2091, a ship that is run by a female has an extremely expensive med chamber in her room, but it's only designed to do procedures regarding reproductive organs on men......... wut? Seven decades in the future (8 since the film came out), there are medical devices on space ships that can travel across the universe run and crewed by women that aren't programmed for any female-specific medical needs. It's an excellent chance to show off Elizabeth's intelligence and quick-thinking, sure, but it is still a silly plot point because there's no logical reason that machine wouldn't be able to do a cesarean, and once again, it makes it even more confusing when Elizabeth herself then begins making more stupid decisions, which is a disservice to her character.
David brings back an object from the ship and doesn't sterilize it. He also begins pressing buttons and opening doors any time he is near them and touches every wet and/or goopy thing he sees. This is all in a ploy to make him seem overtly suspicious, but we're practically beaten over the head with it, which makes it fairly obvious that he isn't the main villain, so it's obnoxious watching this very obvious misdirect for an hour and a half instead of having a realistically intelligent robot who isn't rude, sometimes sadistically so, to the other characters for no reason while claiming to be emotionless.
When the characters realize the only way to save earth is to destroy the engineers' ship with their own, Janer gives Vickers a chance to run and disconnects the escape pos for her. She jettisons herself from the ship, and Janer disconnects the escape pod, which crashes because there's no pilot. She then makes a critical mistake while running from the engineers ship as it falls. Her character was shown to be intelligent, calculated, and self-interested on multiple occasions, so it makes no sense for her to do this. Once again, a disservice to a smart character. There's clearly no reason for this stupid decision other than plot purposes, which is obvious about four minutes later. The characters do the same thing we see in every other film when something large is about to fall on them. Instead of running to the side, Vickers and Elizabeth stupidly try to outrun the giant ship in the same direction that it's falling. The film seems to have zero self awareness of how dumb this decision is because moments later, Elizabeth falls and is able to roll out of the way and avoid being crushed by moving LITERALLY THREE FEET to the side, while Vickers keeps running straight and is crushed. Elizabeth makes the same mistake when the ship begins falling the other direction moments later, but thankfully isn't killed when the ship nearly lands on her because she's wedged against a rock.
These are some of the dumbest smart characters I've seen in a long time...
Elizabeth stupidly falls into the trope of saying "it's a scientific exploration, so we don't need weapons" when they're on an unknown planet looking for other life forms, and they have no idea how friendly those life forms are, let alone if there are any other unexpected dangers. Minutes later, it backfires, and a character even remarks that it was dumb that they didn't bring weapons. Two throw-away characters then stupidly run off because they get scared, and after they separate from the main group, they end up getting lost and, inevitably, left behind. It felt like watching Scooby-Doo. Captain, Janer, then stupidly leaves his post to go have sex with boss Vickers, and doesn't even bother telling anyone to stay and keep radio contact with the two people who are now stuck, and this is AFTER a censor reported another living thing in there with them. Of course, these throw-aways are killed (after several more stupid decisions on their part).
Scientist Charlie stupidly removes his helmet because there's air on the ship even though he has no way of knowing what types of viruses, spores, bacteria, etc could be in the air, and everyone else follows suit. It ends up being a dose of black goo David slips him that makes him sick, however. Even though he is aware he is sick, he still goes back again and doesn't let anyone know. He just watches as they all remove their helmets once again. He starts feeling sick but repeatedly tells everyone he's "okay" while simultaneously asking Elizabeth to figure out what's wrong with him, and they still don't have helmets on! Charlie also decides to stupidly get drunk immediately after returning to the ship the first time because he's upset that all of the engineers are dead even though not minutes before, Elizabeth discusses with another character that they've only been there a couple hours, so they have no way of knowing if they're all gone, and spoiler alert, they're not. While the other characters are examining a head that they found, he's practically laying on a pool table. He's meant to be a scientist, but after two hours on a completely new planet, he is getting drunk and throwing a tantrum because he didn't immediately find what he wanted. Elizabeth and Charlie stupidly decide to have sex the second they're alone (that's now four characters who go off to have sex in the middle of something important) instead of examining their finds, and one another, to make sure nothing dangerous made it back, which of course it did. On a third return to the ship, Elizabeth tells everyone that they need their helmets because it could've been something in the air that infected Charlie. The other characters stupidly refuse to listen, and for some reason, TWO MINUTES LATER, Elizabeth takes hers off too!
Elizabeth is extremely intelligent and manages to program the med chamber to give her a make-shift c-section, after it is tells her it is only programmed for males, by telling it to cut out a foreign body on her abdomen. You heard that right, in the year 2091, a ship that is run by a female has an extremely expensive med chamber in her room, but it's only designed to do procedures regarding reproductive organs on men......... wut? Seven decades in the future (8 since the film came out), there are medical devices on space ships that can travel across the universe run and crewed by women that aren't programmed for any female-specific medical needs. It's an excellent chance to show off Elizabeth's intelligence and quick-thinking, sure, but it is still a silly plot point because there's no logical reason that machine wouldn't be able to do a cesarean, and once again, it makes it even more confusing when Elizabeth herself then begins making more stupid decisions, which is a disservice to her character.
David brings back an object from the ship and doesn't sterilize it. He also begins pressing buttons and opening doors any time he is near them and touches every wet and/or goopy thing he sees. This is all in a ploy to make him seem overtly suspicious, but we're practically beaten over the head with it, which makes it fairly obvious that he isn't the main villain, so it's obnoxious watching this very obvious misdirect for an hour and a half instead of having a realistically intelligent robot who isn't rude, sometimes sadistically so, to the other characters for no reason while claiming to be emotionless.
When the characters realize the only way to save earth is to destroy the engineers' ship with their own, Janer gives Vickers a chance to run and disconnects the escape pos for her. She jettisons herself from the ship, and Janer disconnects the escape pod, which crashes because there's no pilot. She then makes a critical mistake while running from the engineers ship as it falls. Her character was shown to be intelligent, calculated, and self-interested on multiple occasions, so it makes no sense for her to do this. Once again, a disservice to a smart character. There's clearly no reason for this stupid decision other than plot purposes, which is obvious about four minutes later. The characters do the same thing we see in every other film when something large is about to fall on them. Instead of running to the side, Vickers and Elizabeth stupidly try to outrun the giant ship in the same direction that it's falling. The film seems to have zero self awareness of how dumb this decision is because moments later, Elizabeth falls and is able to roll out of the way and avoid being crushed by moving LITERALLY THREE FEET to the side, while Vickers keeps running straight and is crushed. Elizabeth makes the same mistake when the ship begins falling the other direction moments later, but thankfully isn't killed when the ship nearly lands on her because she's wedged against a rock.
These are some of the dumbest smart characters I've seen in a long time...