If you're going to include moments which reference previous installments of the series, it's advisable to do it with a degree of subtlety. Prometheus isn't too concerned with this approach, and the Cesarian scene comes across as the obligatory chest-bursting homage everyone was expecting. It's certainly handled very well, but as technically proficient as it is the feeling that a scene of this kind was inevitable is inescapable. Even more audaciously, the entire first act - from the arrival on the planet to the discovery of the pods - feels like a remake of Alien. Other obvious franchise nods include David's severed head, which plays as a riff on the finale to Aliens in which Bishop gets torn apart by the queen alien, and the closing scene, as the traditional-looking alien we're all familiar with emerges from the dead body of the Engineer - it's the kind of reveal we've already seen in the series, and comes across as a lazy way to end the movie. These nods feel like products of studio executives shoehorned in just to satisfy fans. Prometheus 2 would do well to either embrace the essence of the previous films entirely and take them to new heights or forge its own path.