I saw the movie again tonight. Having spent 2 weeks reading everyone's gripes. I was kind of expecting to be picking the movie apart more, but the opposite actually happened. I felt like the movie actually made more sense this time around and came away with less complaints this time. I picked up on a lot of things that I didn't the first time and the narrative actually seemed to flow a lot smoother. Maybe its because since I already knew everything that was going to happen, I was kind of examining things and watching a lot more intently than I was the first time.
I don't wanna say you NEED to see it a second time, but I'd certainly highly recommend a second viewing to pretty much anybody, even if you hated it the first time. I think it might counter a lot of the knee jerk reactions people first had.
Also, with the movie fresh in my head, I can go back and shed some light on some of the questions raised earlier in this thread.
About on how those two dumbasses got lost in the cave. They couldn't see the map the probes made, only the captain could, and they stupidly didn't try to contact him for directions out. That and the one dude was high as f*ck (which also might explain his paranoia).
About the Engineers creating life on Earth. A lot of people are asking how other species exist if the Engineers created life on earth. But in the movie, they never say that, they just say they created human DNA, more or less. So Earth could have been inhabited by other species already.
About why David chose Halloway as a test subject. In addition to Halloway being a cock to him the whole movie, David asks him how far he's willing to go to find his answers and he says he'll do "whatever it takes." David takes this as his invitation.
About the scientists taking their helmets off. The theory I posted earlier was kind of correct. Their devices read toxicity levels (they say the atmosphere outside has high toxicity) and the air in the temple didn't have any toxicity. So not only was it breathable atmosphere, it was non-toxic. Later on, when Shaw is going back in, she asks if maybe what made Halloway was sick could be in the air and David assures her that there are no viruses in the air.
About Milburn touching the Hammerpede. When they are looking at the dead Engineers, Milburn expresses concern over whether whatever killed them was still alive or not, so I think that's why he was so spooked. As a biologist, when he sees an alien lifeform that's actually alive, he unleashes his inner Steve Irwin. Don't get me wrong, he's still a poorly written idiot, but I can see how excitement perhaps got the best of him.
Now with that out of the way, I wanna talk about a theory I had... I was thumbing through the Art of Prometheus book at the book store (still haven't gotten it cuz I figure I can get it cheaper on Amazon) and they have a whole page with the sculpts for the unused final form of Fifield's mutation. Hopping online, I found a scan:
Who knows if they actually shot anything with this guy... but in addition to looking super freaky, look at his head... kinda looks like a Xeno head, right? Also, the Hammerpedes were obviously worms that were mutated by the black goo, right? And they clearly posses some physical traits of the facehugger, no? And it has been confirmed by that the Xenos have been around prior to Prometheus, hence the mural (and they probably killed all those engineers). So consider this... right now, the popular theory is that the Xenos came from the black liquid somehow or that the Engineers maybe created them a long time ago. But seeing how the black goo seems to make its host take on traits of the Xenomorph, do you think perhaps the black goo is harvested FROM Xenos instead? In that they made a bioweapon out of their genetic material? I think that might actually be the case and I can't believe I didn't think of that earlier. But I wanna know what you guys (especially our resident Xeno biologist, KG) think...