Ridley Scott's 'not an Alien prequel' Prometheus gets a trailer that looks an awful lot like an Alien prequel, or an Alien rip-off.

If I seem a little less excited about this project than others, it's because A) I'm not an Alien junkie (I love Aliens, like Alien and Alien: Ressurection, and respect the comprised vision that is Fincher's extended cut of Alien 3) and B) Ridley Scott is just as likely to make Robin Hood or Hannibal as he is to Kingdom Of Heaven or Blade Runner.  Actually, as I scroll down the list of Scott's movies over the last 20 years, I actually find far more I didn't like (1492, American Gangster, GI Jane, Black Hawk Down, etc) than ones I did enjoy (Gladiator which I still think is vastly overrated, Matchstick Men which is underrated, Thelma and Louise, etc).  Aside from that, the project feels a whiff desperate, as if Scott just decided to return to the franchise that made him a name after a few costly flops.  Now having said all of that, the footage on display does look quite impressive. The scale is pretty large and the cast is aces, but I could have said the same thing about Body of Lies.  And the preview is certainly selling the movie like either an unofficial Alien prequel or a big-budget variation on the template that Alien established (think Event Horizon or Virus).  But for now, there is no reason not to give everyone involved the benefit of the doubt.  This one drops on June 8th, 2012.  As always, we'll see.

Scott Mendelson