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Ridley Scott returns to the Alien franchise in a movie that really didn’t need to be an Alien movie, and would have been better if it were not. The first two-thirds are pretty solid sci-fi thriller fare, as the story’s ensemble cast of space faring scientists and corporate ne’er-do-wells arrive at a mysterious planet that may hold the key to humankind’s origins. I knew going into Prometheus that there would be shades of God and religion, and these are almost always things that turn a movie sour for me. But Ridley Scott and his screenwriters do a remarkable job avoiding any firm ideological position — thank goodness for that.

As far as any deep meaning to the narrative proceedings go, I think you’ll probably get from Prometheus what you bring to it. And that’s not to say it’s a deep or provocative film — the execution of its ideas are more complicated than the ideas themselves. Personally, I could have used a little more blasphemy and a little more horror. While there is definitely a fair amount of monster mayhem and suspense, the film is miles away in tone from Scott’s original Alien, decidedly brighter, shinier, and more action-oriented.

My main gripes come in the last twenty minutes, as the film asks me to suspend my disbelief regarding a few characters’ actions, and a handful of provocative narrative threads are left dangling. I’d also single out the score as a problematic element at times — it begs a more spiritual reading of the film than is warranted.

With Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba, and Guy Pearce.