the art design and effects are a triumph for shooting digital (truly a movie that needs to be seen in a high-end theater to appreciate). this would be a striking experience even without a line of dialogue.

it just misses being a masterpiece, however. there's an amalgamation of Blade Runner and Alien here, but the existentialism and horror thrills are not as strong as either predecessor. perhaps that's an unfair comparison (as they are arguably the best movies ever made in their sub-genre) -- yet it's hard to avoid when Prometheus culls so liberally from both.

I did appreciate the attempt at reconciling the emotions of religion and unproven aspects of science. both rely so much on faith, they are more similar than unlike. I also dug the power of creation, from the engineers "mistakes" to human-made droids and the thread of ownership/parenthood.

again though, they teased those aspects more than explored them (leaving an ending that suffers from sequel syndrome). a very, very good movie that was nearly great.