10 Movies One Mistake Away From Being Masterpieces
3. Prometheus
The Almost Great Movie: It's rarely used as a phrase to describe him, but Ridley Scott is a typical hit-and-miss director. I guess people don't care because when he's on form, he's brilliant. Back in the late seventies/early eighties, he revolutionised sci-fi twice over, so with Prometheus marking his return to the genre, hopes were naturally high. In the end, it did well with critics, OK at the box office, but poorly with fans. Thing is, the film was far from bad - it had good effects and told a classical sci-fi story - but one element overpowered all that.
The Big Mistake: It had no relation to Alien.
Unlike Revenge Of The Sith, which was bloated from having too much to do, this film didn't do enough. Even the most staunch Prometheus defender has to admit that it did a rather poor job of tying itself into Alien; with an out there interpretation of the Space Jockey and contradicting references to the Xenomorph, fans actually knew less of Alien's backstory than when they went in. Of course, this wouldn't have been as much of an issue if Scott hadn't so publicly declared the film as being a prequel to his previous masterpiece.