10 Movies That Subverted Expectations (And Fans Hated It)

6. Prometheus

Prometheus EW Cover
20th Century Fox

One of the all-time great directors, the output of Sir Ridley Scott has had an up and down few years.

A director known for stunning movies like Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, American Gangster, and The Martian, Sir Ridley has delivered a mixed bag of features recently; most notably in how he’s disappointed with his return to the Alien franchise.

Scott returned to the Alien series with 2012’s Prometheus, and followed that up in 2017 with Alien: Covenant. Both movies struggled to win over fans and critics alike, but the one that is most culpable for taking audiences by surprise is Prometheus.

The movie itself looked fantastic and had some great performances, yet it didn’t give the franchise’s ardent fan base anything close to what they were looking for. Gone were the tightly-shot, fear-laced dark corners of space that we'd become accustomed to; replaced instead by admittedly glorious-looking, bright tracking shots.

Visually the movie was a huge step away from what we’d seen previously in the Alien movies, but more importantly, the sense of unrelenting dread so often associated with the franchise was scarily absent.

Sure, Ridley Scott did something few expected with an Alien movie, yet you have to question just how wise a move that was. Especially with how the franchise is once more in a state of uncertainty after Alien: Covenant failed to deliver.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.