5. The Tease
But my oh my, if we need to choose just one key area of Prometheus that highlights the broad reliance of nostalgia that leads to so many of its problems, then lets pick the blatant fan-pleasing twist that everyone who has ever heard the word Xenomorph was waiting for from the start. Quite possibly the worst crime Ridley Scott could have committed when helming this ambitious project was succumbing to fan pleas for obvious links to Alien, and he does exactly that here, as sure enough, a proto-Alien of sorts (certainly recognisable enough for mainstream audiences) bursts out of the chest of an Engineer in the dying seconds of the flick. Here above all, it feels as if Ridley is simply out to prove that this does take place within the same universe as Alien, but the worst part of it all is that there were so many better ways that this could have been done. Why could Scott simply not have hinted at the infection leading to the birth of this famous race of extraterrestrials rather than outright showing them, or fast-forwarded in some way through their evolution to bring things full circle with the Nostromos arrival on a nearby planet? The last thing I claim to be is a better writer than this iconic legend of science-fiction pioneering, yet I believe there were many more efficient ways that the final moments of the film could have been conducted rather than simply saying No Aliens here, but hey, watch the sequel for them! Even perhaps a tease of just the chest bursting might have proved better. This dismal ending just goes to sum up how little disregard Scott seemed to show for innovating his franchise into something entirely new, instead relying on nostalgia from his greatest hit and thus making Prometheus one of the most disappointing movies of 2012.