New Jersey Stage 2017: Issue 5 | Page 25

mysteriously out of nowhere. Heading down to investigate, they find the planet hosts earth- like vegetation, along with some very familiar eggs, two of which are cracked open by a pair of red shirts who immediately find their bodies hosting minute black spores. This early passage offers the strongest material we’ve seen in the franchise since David Fincher’s flawed but interesting Alien 3, as Scott skillfully ratchets up the tension, using our knowl- NJ STAGE 2017 - Vol. 4 No. 5 edge of the series’ lore, and his character’s ignorance of same, to create some nail-biting suspense. Once a returning character from Prometheus shows up in the second act it’s all downhill sadly, as Scott once again finds himself bogged down in point- less and unnecessary world- building. The middle section of the film plays out like a riff on those mad scientist narratives that were so popular in the hor- ror cinema of the ‘30s. You know the kind - a bunch of square- INDEX NEXT ARTICLE 25