4. The Pace
Another shortcoming of Prometheus which is fundamental to the factors which hold it back from its success (hinging on the overreliance on nostalgia) is the bizarre pacing of the piece. For the first half, i.e. the opening hour or so, things are pitched perfectly, with a slow build into Prometheus landing on LV-223 and its crews initial exploration of their new surroundings. However, as soon as things take a turn for the worst and members of the team begin to bite the dust, Ridley Scott and his writing team clearly feel the need to kick the speed up by 200%, as every secret and twist surrounding the crew and the planet gets thrown into the mix at a near breathtaking pace. To be fair, this was to some extent the case with the original Alien- those were the days when a running time of nearly three hours didnt shock viewers- but again, if we go down this route of defence, then we once again return to Scott possessing little ability to move out of the comfort zone of this films predecessors structural boundaries. We might have been in a wholly different situation here if the acclaimed director had decided to hold secrets such as Weylands strive for immortality or the other ships Shaw sets out in search of for sequels or used a longer script, yet as it is this rushed execution of what could have been a longer, deeper piece can once again be near-completely blamed on nostalgia.