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

5. Don't Shoehorn In Alien Franchise 'Moments'

If you're going to include moments which reference previous installments of the series, it's advisable to do it with a degree of subtlety. Prometheus isn't too concerned with this approach, and the Cesarian scene comes across as the obligatory chest-bursting homage everyone was expecting. It's certainly handled very well, but as technically proficient as it is the feeling that a scene of this kind was inevitable is inescapable. Even more audaciously, the entire first act - from the arrival on the planet to the discovery of the pods - feels like a remake of Alien. Other obvious franchise nods include David's severed head, which plays as a riff on the finale to Aliens in which Bishop gets torn apart by the queen alien, and the closing scene, as the traditional-looking alien we're all familiar with emerges from the dead body of the Engineer - it's the kind of reveal we've already seen in the series, and comes across as a lazy way to end the movie. These nods feel like products of studio executives shoehorned in just to satisfy fans. Prometheus 2 would do well to either embrace the essence of the previous films entirely and take them to new heights or forge its own path.