Wow... Didn't think there'd be this much negativity about it!
I really enjoyed it... It's not often that I come out of a film thinking, "Wait... So what did that mean... How did they get there?... Why this? Why that?".
The fact that they left a lot of things open worked very well. You're not supposed to
know the answers to everything. You're seeing it as a human, just like the crew of the ship. You know just as much as they do.
The way I see it... They came to earth and seeded it with their DNA, from which humans as in homo sapiens came about. Obviously we are not going to look exactly the same as them because our atmosphere is different, the length of day and night will almost certainly be different etc... We as humans are a result of their DNA manifesting in earth's environment.
My guess is... they seeded earth with their DNA... Probably one of many planets they have terraformed. Obviously they are monitoring it from a very long way away. They see that it's not going to plan, so they decide the planet needs to be purged... Either that or they were planning to genetically engineer us into a race of hyper intelligent killing machines.
Also on the DNA subject... Phigure said "Two genetically identical organisms will be the same regardless of the environment they live in.". Look at dogs. Labradors are among the same species as Great Danes. They both share the same DNA, but are different in size, colour and build. It's the same principal here I believe.
The Bio weapon to me seemed like it was effectively a virus that breaks down DNA and reforms it in a way that is probably dependent on the environment surrounding it? As you see in the scene at the very start, the 'engineer' drinks the liquid crystal stuff, which attacks his own DNA, breaks him down completely and then once in the water begins to reform his DNA. I think it's already established but I'm pretty sure that scene is on earth.
Also if they are at such an advanced state of existence how do we know they hadn't previously engineered their own DNA? How do we know that they hadn't engineered their own existence to it's highest potential and somehow inhibited evolution? Just a thought.
Also when they find the engineer's severed head they say that it's been there for roughly 2000 years, meaning the events that killed them obviously happened that long ago. 2000 years? Are you kidding me? Just an idea, but this to me says HEY, THIS HAPPENED AT EXACTLY THE SAME TIME AS WHEN WE CRUCIFIED JESUS, WHO SAID HE WAS THE SON OF GOD. Engineers = God. Engineers made Jesus to go down to try to get humans straight after we started running around and killing each other a la Roman Empire and those before it. Before that, they thought, yeah they're doing alright, we could go and kill them whenever we want, but they're doing ok so let's give them a chance. We failed, therefore they got ready to come and destroy us, which is when things went wrong at their end. And strangely enough, they land on LV-223 on Christmas Day.
The SJ attacked the humans that woke him because we were a futile experiment... All of the ships on that planet were designated to travel to earth to wipe humans off the planet. The SJ wakes up, looks at them and realizes what they are. He admires David as if to say "Aww, look what our itty bitty humans gone and done!", then destroys him and the rest of them because they are futile, and possibly something to do with us killing their space messenger.
In answer to a few of Phigure's questions:
About David - I don't think he necessarily
knew it would infect Holloway. I think he did it purely to see what effect it had on living humans.
About the black goo. I think it's a synthetic organism that reacts differently according to it's surroundings or the DNA it attacks. Because it exists on a microbial scale, it's evolutionary process is incredibly fast. Myabe they designed it to react and adapt/evolve at such a speed? The thing is we don't know and probably aren't meant to find out what the engineers were actually aiming to achieve through it's use.
I think the squid thing is the result of shaw having sex with holloway - human DNA infused with black goo which impregnates a human egg. The thing that comes from that obviously grows incredibly fast and the concoction of DNA that makes it up was obviously never meant to infect an engineer. The result of which is the first 'Alien'. The reason there was no bulge in the SJ is because the organism doesn't take nutrition and grow from it over time, but rather consumes organic tissue and uses it to rapidly accelerate growth. So basically it eats everything inside the SJ and uses it to build it's own DNA structure. It's like a mutated form of the bio weapon they created for use on themselves - it was never intended to impregnate an earth human.
I think the holograms were there for any other SJ's that might have come to the planet after the incident. It would tell them the last things that happened.
All in all it's a film that makes you think. Really, really really makes you think. That's what I love about Sci-Fi. This one has made me think more than most, which is why I give it a strong 8 out of 10.
There are a few holes in the story, but I think that gives it added depth. The holes could be filled with any number of reasons, multiplied by the fact that we simply cannot comprehend what a race such as the engineers could be capable of. About the crew: I wasn't the least bit interested in the crew to be honest, apart from Shaw and David. The rest of them seemed to just be there for the sake of it. There were 17 members of the crew. You didn't
need to know or become attached to all of them... If
any of them... The real gem lies in the ideas of the story, and what could come from them. Who actually are the engineers? Where did they come from? Why did they create us? How did they create the black goo? What is the black goo? If they are so advanced, why did they not make the black goo more stable? Are they still only as naive as we are? Creating a substance capable of destroying and rebuilding worlds but carrying the risks that it does?
I can't type any more, my head hurts
EDIT: I just remebered the bit in the place with the human head monolith... There were maggots crawling around and you see them crawling into the black goo. Then the two comedic relief guys get eaten by giant worm snake things. To me that says straight up that the black goo is some sort of rapid genetic mutator. Explains alot about what happens to everyone and everything that comes into contact with it.
Edit again: after reading
this it all makes a hell of a lot more sense. Read it. Seriously.