Hello. Could someone explain to me why so many fans were unhappy with Prometheus?

"My only real issue with the film is that nobody really knows what the big guy in the chair is"

Batchpool, that was the idea, all along this prequel in every draft was to show us that our Engineers and Space Jockey are one of the same...

Here are the facts...

1) The Space Jockey was intended to be a 26ft Pilot of some Alien craft... Giger had the idea that he was actually part of the chair, fussed and a prisoner.  Ridley went for the idea that he was fused to the chair but not that he is actually part of the ship but becomes part.

Ridley at the release of the movie, like the O'Banon Drafts had this Space Jockey as a Race of Tall Beings who piloted the ship.  Ridley then said the Space Jockey was some kind of Space Suit that connects to the Chair.

In REALITY... there was scale issues the Prop was 16-18ft long thus the Space Jockey was 13-15ft the use of Child Actors was hopped to make it appear to be like 25ft+ but it actually appeared as 21ft.

Then with the closer shots using Adults revealed that the Chair and Jockey was not 26ft but only appeared about 16ft.

2) Then comes the Prequel, knowning the scale issue in Alien the idea was these Engineers to be 15ft tall that fits in with the Space Jockey size.  Ridley realised to create such a scale on screen using the methods he would like and budget, that 15ft Engineers would be to hard to create and so they went for a 10ft Race but again one that in essence was Engineers in Suits, the difference in size to the Space Jockey well could be some Engineers are taller and that also over time the Space Jockey suit simply expanded, just as Dallas said when it seemed he grew out of the Chair.

3) Again in REALITY another mistake in scale sees our Engineers only show to be about 8 feet tall, some scenes they are near 9ft (Space Jockey Suits hanging on Wall) others they are merley near 7.5ft (The Last Engineer close up fight scenes).

What we are left is a 13-15ft Space Jockey and a 8ft Engineer that was intended to be 9-10ft tall.

Now how they will logically fix this, i think the deletion of the Elders is key, why remove all references to them?  Because maybe they looked frail and also they appeared to be smaller than our Sacrificial Engineer.

So i feel they could go the route to try and show us our Engineers are 8-10ft tall and vary and that maybe then the Elders are 10-12ft or they have created another Humanoid race who are 12-15ft or that indeed its a 12-15ft Race that created the Elders (especially if there size is shown to be the same as Engineers).

These are a few things i think could be done to explain the Space Jockey size difference.

Heres my opinon on it....WAITING 30+ years for a movie and then expecting something else!

Svanya put it perfectly...sloppy....and I would add sloppy as hell. As was so aptly stated, it's simply good not great and, in some ways, purely awful. Svanya also correctly pointed to the editing, which is one of this films Biggest issues. I spent much of last year re-editing the film for my own personal enjoyment and because I felt that from the first moment I saw it (and was horribly disappointed) this film could have been better. The material is there, it was just edited horribly. Scenes are improperly oredered in places, some were left on the cutting room floor that helped better drive the plot, others were poorly chosen in favor of alternate versions that more logically applied to the characters involved. Said characters end up coming off as incredibly shallow, childish, or down right silly when it was not necessary in the first place. This speaks to numerous issues with the credibility of our scientific expeditionaries on this mission, but that's a whole other can of worms. Essentially, what I learned was that Prometheus was lost in the cut. It was never going to be a masterpiece, and I am FAR from thinking my own cut is a masterpiece, but it could have been SO MUCH BETTER than it was.

"This speaks to numerous issues with the credibility of our scientific expeditionaries on this mission, "

We have to remember many of them was purely plot device, if we try to scientifically pick holes in the plot then we could do the same with many movies inc the latest Star Trek lol

A way i look it is Vickers Agenda, it seemed she did not want to be part of this mission but she also had her own Agenda to take over the company and maybe the failure of this mission would help her in her Agenda.  She hand picked the crew and it seems that she did well as far as making sure the Pilots was up to there job, and so could get her to and from LV 223 safely, and that the Ships Engineers and Security was Top Notch, and even that Ford was good at her job.

All this staff basically insures a safe journey and keeps the ship and its crew safe and protected.

The only part of the crew who do not function for this task are Dr Shaw and Holloway and Fifield and Milburn,  Fifield was only in it for the money he was useful for study of the Geology of the Planet and use of his Pups to map the place.  But seemed Vickers wanted to undermine Shaw/Holloway and her Fathers Mission, and Milburn being the Biologist was as with Fifield not the best in their field but thats what Vickers wanted to do, save money and get people in who would not been the best for the purpose of finding what Weyland and Shaw was after.

Thats how i kind of make of some of the crew not being well very good lol, as far as how they all died in some dumb ways... well thats what happens in most Horrors and Sci-Fi they are just canon fodder to use as plot devices.

Yes they was not as well thought and done as the Alien Cast, or like the Thing 1982's the 2011 Thing the cast u had no feelings for they was same kind of mindless fodder that Prometheus cast was.

However craigamore i have to agree with the rest you said, my biggest gripe was the movie seemed like it needed to be 3 hours long and that the deleted scenes added to the movie plot and i said all along after it first come out the movie looked like it had been cut up by someone and they then tried to peice them back together but got order and some parts mixed up.

The alternative shots in the trailers seemed to show this, and when we finally got to see the deleted scenes, and even shots we never saw in deleted scenes, these include Engineer leaving his Chair and then running across LV 223 to get to the Lifeboat, and how the Engineer was shown reading a book on the floor.

All these unused but shot scenes would have added to the movie would have left it less Ambigious and Confusing.

Add to that if they had managed to pull of the Orginal Concept ideas and drafts of a taller Engineers and used the Lord or the Rings and Hobbit effects that take 5.5ft tall Actors to look 3.5ft tall thus near 60-65% reduction in size, if this was applied to 6ft actors we would get 10ft Engineers they could even make the Engineers using this Technololgy to be 12ft on screen easy.

This was not the case due to maybe Budget and Time Restraints and also Ridley is more a fan of what you can practically see and use on screen than using effects like CGI etc.

This brings me to Fifield, its seems they orginally was working on Animatronic Fifield that had a more Xeno look, but they then went for CGI which never looked right and so they in the end went for Sean Harris in make up to give us Toxic Avenger Fifield.... now if they had tried to keep to the orginal concept works and more like the un-used Animatronic Fifield we would have seen more of a connection to the Goo effects on the Worms and Fifield and ultimately a link to the Xeno DNA.

Just these few changes above would have vastly improved the movie.

Off-top, but I never understood, even reading all the arguments, why Alien 3 has been rated so low. I liked it very much, as much as previous two. In fact to my personal taste, it's a true gothic-smelled grotesque horror movie that scared me even more than Alien 1. I would rate each of the original 3 as much as 10/10.

The situation with Alien 3, Return of the Jedi and some others just seems to confirm my belief that the worst part in every franchise is its fans. It's so religious and ridiculuous.

I have to disagree with you there scutinizer1. As much as I like 'Alien 3' more than 'Aliens', as I think it gets the closest to approaching the horror atmosphere of 'Alien', none of the sequels come close to quality of film that we see in 'Alien'. The first film is, quite simply put and for countless reasons, a masterpiece and you would never say that about any of its sequels.

alot of the things we are rightfully picking at could have been easily and inexpensively remedied... Its a shame really. Scale, script, actions,creatures...

Over all Promethius is a beautiful looking film with great effects. Its just that we Alien fans have such huge and eager expectations...

Haven't posted in a while... but I have been looking at the forums since the announcement of Ridley scouting for P2 locations. Good to be back on the forums! Anyhow, on to the thread topic...

I have several friends that really dislike Prometheus. The one universal complaint I keep hearing is: they beleive several characters (mainly Fifield and Millburn) acted strangely or even stupidly, and made decisions that are deemed inconsistent with the level of intellect normally associated with their character's educational/professional status (Dr's, Proffessor's, Scientists, etc.). In other words, they think the character behavior was a large plot hole. 

I do not agree with this opinion, but again, its what I continue to hear from people that dislike the movie. 

A minor few others claim that they do not understand the purpose of the "black-goo" or how it worked since to them it seemed to be a "magical-do-anything-liquid". I have touble with this opinion as well, but hey...everyone's entitled to their opinion. 

Prometheus remains one of my favorite movies. Surpassed only by the original ALIEN. Bring on Prometheus 2!

Not sure if people are so worried about the goo and we'll find out more about it anyway i assume. But yes the other stuff your mates are correct with. Man just finished watching the latest game of thrones that feels more real then prometheus even though it's a fantastical world. A little too nasty but probably the biggest breath of fresh air in a Hollywood dominated film scene in years.they should get some of that team working on prometheus 2 especially the author! Actually since the crimson wedding I keep seeing film after film killing off characters in an attempt to copy game of thrones it seems but doing it poorly...I wonder about prometheus hmmm...that was one of the problems I had...i just didn't care about any character but Shaw and David...and sorry but alien is so much better...but yes everyone's different...