Despite many legitimate audience concerns, Ridley Scott's 12 years on from Prometheus' release, the harsh truth about the movie's legacy has become impossible to ignore.

In some ways, Prometheus is an extremely atypical prequel. While its connection to Alien, Scott's legendary 1979 sci-fi horror, was much-vaunted, the movie eschews most obvious links to the source material. The xenomorph itself, for instance, is only referenced through subtle imagery and a fleeting appearance from the related Deacon creature in Prometheus' ending. Instead, Prometheus has more lofty philosophical ambitions, using Alien's building blocks to ask big questions about humanity's origins. It was certainly a bold strategy. Sadly, subsequent years have proven beyond doubt that the approach was a failure.

Whatever Its Strengths, Prometheus Is A Creative Failure

It's Visuals Can't Make Up For Its Story

With a 73% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Prometheus is clearly not devoid of merit. In isolation, there is much about the movie to ire. From the opening sequence set above a raging waterfall, to the haunting, sepulchral interior of the Engineers' ship, the movie makes full use of Ridley Scott's credentials as a visual stylist par excellence. The problem, however, is that Prometheus exists within a broader narrative context.

As a forerunner to one of the most beloved sci-fi franchises of all time, Prometheus' story was always going to be much more central to its success than other factors. The movie's decision to reveal more about Alien's enigmatic space jockeys meant that, from the outset, Prometheus' reputation would simultaneously depend on both how the story stood on its own merits and how it impacted the classic on which it was based. On both counts, the film disappointed.

On reflection, creative issues are evident throughout Prometheus. Characters like Fifield, Millburn, and Holloway come and go with little development – succumbing to devices like the hammerpede and mysterious black goo that have almost no explanation. Plot threads like Meredith Vickers' relationship with her father have no satisfying resolution, while actors like Idris Elba feel sorely underutilized. These multiple flaws become impossible to ignore with repeat viewing, detracting from strengths like Michael Fassbender's performance. Prometheus' biggest problem, however, is how it impacts Alien.

Prometheus Committed The Cardinal Sin Of Prequels

It Made Alien Worse

Had Prometheus been a standalone sci-fi project, problems with peripheral characters and issues with certain story elements would have been easy to ignore. However, the biggest problem with Prometheus' legacy is how its choices undermined the movie it sought to . Before Prometheus, Alien existed as one of the most enigmatic, striking, and mysterious horror movies ever made. Its central creature and design were so charismatic that it spawned an entire franchise, based on what – from a narrative perspective – seemed to have just been a chance encounter in deep space. Prometheus changed everything.

...Prometheus' decision to directly tie Alien's inexplicable space jockey to humanity paradoxically made the whole universe feel smaller.

With its story of Engineers and their impact on humanity, the movie transformed Alien's events from a random twist of fate to something altogether more prosaic. Suddenly, the random and inexplicable violence afflicting the Nostromo's crew had a straightforward explanation – albeit one that involved intergalactic space travel. The result was that Prometheus' decision to directly tie Alien's inexplicable space jockey to humanity paradoxically made the whole universe feel smaller. Instead of making our civilization an insignificant speck in the vast mystery of space, it meant everything revolved around us. It's a subtle change that undoes one of Alien's central themes.

Beyond this bigger philosophical point, there are other ways that Prometheus retrospectively damages Alien. The original 1979 movie's retro-futuristic design, for influence, is one of its most enduring aspects, influencing the genre for decades afterward. Prometheus, despite being a prequel, offered a disconcertingly glossy vision of the future – completely at odds with what Alien had offered. For anyone looking for narrative consistency, it was a particularly jarring approach. By challenging Alien's perspective on humanity's future and undercutting the original's broader philosophy, Prometheus became actively detrimental to the wider franchise.

Prometheus' Lack Of Answers Hurt The Movie

Its Explanations Were Limited

Even without taking Alien into , hindsight proves that Prometheus' story failed in its objectives. While the script is full of portentous musings about humanity's creation and the nature of our creators, the answers it offers leave a lot to be desired. The explanation of Alien's space jockeys only poses more questions, with there being little rationale behind why they left encouraging messages for humanity, why they suddenly became so hostile, and what the bigger picture behind their plan is. Having set out to explain something that needed no explanation originally, the least Prometheus could have done is provide an answer.

Theoretically, addressing who or what the space jockey was could have been an interesting tangent (so long as Alien's other features were respected).

In Alien, the space jockey was both a warning about the fate that awaited the Nostromo and a stark and terrifying realization that the universe was so much bigger and more mysterious than we could know. Theoretically, addressing who or what the space jockey was could have been an interesting tangent (so long as Alien's other features were respected). Yet, at the story's conclusion, the audience is no closer to understanding the Engineers' true motivations. By the time Prometheus ends, with Shaw and David jetting off to the Engineer homeworld, all the audience has is another question.

Alien's Future Proves Prometheus' Failure

The Franchise Is Going In Another Direction

Whatever fans' opinions on Prometheus' approach to the Alien story, the movie had at least committed the franchise to a bold new path. As expanded on in Alien: Covenant, the decision had been taken to turn the xenomorph from a terrifying force of nature to a bioweapon, created by the android David using the Engineers' strange black goo technology. As antithetical as this seemed to the original ideas explored in Alien, it was at least a clear creative commitment from Ridley Scott – paving the way for future Alien installments to continue with this story.

Now, however, installments in the Alien franchise have put the final nail in Prometheus' coffin. The Screen Rant), he explained:

“Ridley and I have talked about this — and many, many elements of the show. For me, and for a lot of people, this ‘perfect life form’ — as it was described in the first film — is the product of millions of years of evolution that created this creature that may have existed for a million years out there in space. The idea that, on some level, it was a bioweapon created half an hour ago, that’s just inherently less useful to me. And in of the mythology, what’s scary about this monster, is that when you look at those first two movies, you have this retro-futuristic technology. You have giant computer monitors, these weird keyboards … You have to make a choice. Am I doing that? Because in the prequels, Ridley made the technology thousands of years more advanced than the technology of Alien , which is supposed to take place in those movies’ future. There’s something about that that doesn’t really compute for me. I prefer the retro-futurism of the first two films. And so that’s the choice I’ve made — there’s no holograms. The convenience of that beautiful Apple store technology is not available to me.”

The fact that Alien's next chapter will directly contradict Prometheus' approach is a damning indictment of its creative failure. Had the story it set out been true to the franchise and felt narratively satisfying, there would be no need for such a dramatic retcon. As it is, Prometheus is slowly becoming more irrelevant to Alien's story – a surprising outcome for any $400 million blockbuster.