In the year 2089, archeologists Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) discover a series of matching symbols in various unrelated ancient sites around the world. They lead an interstellar expedition, funded by the Weyland Corporation, to investigate. With a crew that includes company stooge Vickers (Charlize Theron), blue collar Captain Janek (Idris Elba) and a state-of-the-art android named David (Michael Fassbender), they follow the signal to the remote moon of LV223, where an underground series of caves reveals the same symbols – and a whole lot more.

PROMETHEUS is a film that benefits from its audience knowing as little as possible going in, suffice to say it certainly has plenty of grand ambition, both in its design, philosophy and intent to see its cast die horribly at the hands of extra-terrestrial beasties. On paper the cast seems to be a perfect rag-tag assortment of prickly crew and prissy scientists, all destined to meet their makers together, but the script seems intent on squandering their talents. The often sinister Sean Harris is largely wasted as the jobbing geologist with a vocal disinterest in anything otherworldly, while the over exuberant Rafe Spall is barely given a look in. Guy Pearce is completely miscast in a role that has been desperately kept secret by the filmmakers – and for good reason.

Michael Fassbender steals the show yet again as the T.E. Lawrence-loving android, whose loyalties appear to lie with everyone other than his fellow crew members, and is ably supported by Idris Elba’s endearing captain. Noomi Rapace does her best as our increasingly put-upon heroine, but she lacks the star power to really get the audience on her side. Personally I think she’d have been far better suited playing a weasely company employee, sent to ensure the mission go off according to plan and under budget. Instead that role goes to Charlize Theron, who commits herself admirably, but would have made a far more robust and heroic lead than her diminutive co-star.

Director Ridley Scott built his career on his defining visions of a dystopian future, and if nothing else PROMETHEUS looks incredible. Witnessed on a large IMAX screen, Scott’s swooping vistas of the Icelandic wilderness, endless panoramas of deep space or even the interiors of caves and spacecraft deserve to stand alongside anything you will see in BLADE RUNNER or his original ALIEN. But in many ways this is also where the film’s problems lie. Frequently the plot of PROMETHEUS veers too far from recognisable ALIEN mythology for the film to be satisfyingly embraced as a prequel, all the while surrounding itself with iconic imagery synonymous with Scott’s earlier film. Elsewhere, the script teases at a quasi-creationist backstory that is then left largely unexplained, instead devoting its time to characters and situations that go nowhere.

Fans of the ALIEN franchise will doubtless walk away from PROMETHEUS disappointed, as this simply isn’t the film they were hoping to see. However, when taken as a standalone deep space monster movie, there is more than enough action, suspense and monster-related gooiness to keep most summer moviegoers and even dedicated science-fiction fans entertained. Scott has already suggested that PROMETHEUS may become a trilogy of films if this one does well, which would certainly give him the opportunity to answer at least some of the myriad questions – both profound and mundane – that are left scattered across his majestic yet inhospitable landscape.