8 Good Films One Crippling Flaw Away From Being Awesome

5. Prometheus

The Flaw: Damon Lindelof Arguably the most eagerly anticipated film of the last ten years, Prometheus had all the ingredients it needed to become a modern classic: director of the franchise starter? Check. Great cast? Check. A budget that can handle the demands of the genre? Check. This Prometheus cake was going to be fantastic, but then someone poured in a whole bottle of Lindelof sauce and totally ruined the mixture. There are moments in Prometheus that are still great and upon watching the open 30 minutes one is filled with the kind of hope that the rest of the film wouldn't unfold into the confused, coincidence-riddled mess that it ultimately does. Is this all Lindlelof's fault? In a word, yes. For one of Hollywood's most lauded screenwriters, Lindlelof has somehow managed to fool everyone into thinking he knows what he is doing by looking exactly like a writer, while seemingly ignoring the first and most important rule of writing a script. Everything must happen for a reason, but not according to our Damon it doesn't. Why does David infect Holloway's drink with the 'black liquid'?! Why, when exposed to the aforementioned black goo, does Fifield mutate into a ginormo-headed monster instead of just getting a bit sick like Holloway?! Where did that f***ing van go?! How on earth did that squid get so big so quickly?! And why is Guy Pearce dressed up like an old man?!* The answer to all of the above is, no reason whatsoever. The explanation and motivation for all of these actions/events is non-existent. The only reason for them is that Lindelof wanted 'The Alien' €“ or an early incarnation of the Xenomorph €“ to come out of The Engineer's chest at the end. It doesn't matter that the majority of the film made no sense whatsoever, as Damon got where he wanted to go, leaving behind him a trail of destruction that confined the origin of one of the greatest creatures ever committed to a celluloid to that of a coincidence. Game over, man. Game over. Oh what I would give to see Jon Spaihts original script be made into the movie this should have been. *Obviously we now know there was a more age-appropriate scene involving Guy that was cut, and admittedly, his viral video speaking about the eponymous Titan at TED 2023 was awesome.