I saw this one last night. It is pitched as Ridley Scott's quasi-prequel to the Alien film series, but other than the opening title and the last 45 seconds of the movie, it stands on it's own as a philosophical sci-fi flick. Earth scientists that discover mutiple cave paintings are funded by an aging, dying man to travel into distant space to find an ancient species that they believe started life on Earth. Things get dicey as circumstances are not what they first seem to be and alien-infested hijinks ensue. Ridley Scott can still create an amazing visual film. During the first scenes on the huge transport ship, the references not just to his 1979 Alien film, but also the sequels are evident in the design and feel of the shots. The Alien series world is definitey visually represented in the film, even if it is very rarely referenced by the plot or characters. The story was almost too big for the film. Unfortunately, the philosphical who-are-we and where-did-we-come-from questions were attempted, but were lost in the tension of the action sequences. I definitely sat through the second half of the film with a feeling that I wasn't entirely sure what was going on and that there would be a big "AHA!" moment...but it never came. The acting was decent, but again, the character development was overshadowed by the action and granduer of the situations. Michael Fassbender playing the obligitory Alien series android was the best of the bunch. I was amazed at the amount of actors in this movie that were playing characters with different accents than their native one: Noomi Rapace is Swedish, but had a British-ish accent Michael Fassbender is German born, but moved to Ireland at the age of two, but had an American/British/Android accent Guy Pearce is an Austrailian, but had an American accent Idris Elba is British, but had an American accent Charlize Theron is South African, but had an American accent Patrick Wilson had a small role; he is American, but had a British accent I guess I was hoping for more of a true Alien prequel, so I came away slightly disappointed, although, I would have most likely been disappointed in a true attempt anyway. I will definitely watch this film again when it comes out for home viewing, as I feel there is a lot that I missed in trying to keep up with the action. I wouldn't mind immediately revisiting the original Alien now, too. This film was better than most but not excellent.