Prometheus 2: 10 Lessons It Must Learn In Order To Succeed

8. Make The Characters More Believable

For saying that the crew of the Prometheus are supposed to have been selected for their scientific expertise, many of them behave completely out of character, committing acts which seem to point towards the fact that the writer has little understanding of the roles these characters are supposed to play. The most obvious example of this problem is the geologist Milburn (Rafe Spall), by turns terrified of an Engineer's severed head and desperate to return to the ship, then moments later enamoured with a very much alive alien snake which he tries to pet, with predictably deadly consequences. The fact that the entire mission appears to be predicated on Shaw's whim - choosing to base her confidence in the mission on faith rather than reason - confirms just how anti-scientific these scientists really are. This boils down to the overuse of stock characters, where disposable secondary characters are padded out with standard issue personality quirks and central characters embody broad archetypes. Since Prometheus 2 only has Shaw and David as its starting point it has the advantage of starting on a blank canvas upon which to continue the story. Perhaps the next time around they'll introduce characters who are more rounded, nuanced and, well, human - like, for instance, Ellen Ripley...