A natty list of plot holes taken from the Prometheus forum.
7. What does this Black Goo do exactly? Accelerate worm growth? Infect crew members? Cause pregnancies? Create life? Pick one and stick to it please
8. Why does Ford straight away start giving the head electricity for kicks? Do they not have procedures? What is this fun with Frankenstein?
9. Why does the head explode?
25. What was with the little flute and Fisher Price squishy buttons?"
There are plenty of points on that list that I'd consider unreasonable criticisms.
For example, point 2:
2. How did they randomly find the temple so quick? This is an entire planet surface!
Simply put, you wouldn't want for there to have been a 30 minute landing sequence, would you? Sure it could have been handled better. They could have found the bunkers with sensor scan from orbit. Etc, etc.
So I've cut those out and also the things we've discussed before. The points I've left are valid, and some deserve a bit more critique.
7. The black goo is clearly magic. It does a bit of everything. It makes you deconstruct; it makes you a super-strength zombie; it makes you grow 10x faster than normal; it alters/replaces your sperm; it grows in your womb. You think maybe it does the dishes too?
Also, the new goo-based alien life-cycle is batsheet insane.
8. This bit *really* annoyed me.
"I've just encountered an alien species. In less than an hour since first contact, I'm pretty sure I know how their physiology works. I am certain that if I jam this needle thing into its head, like so, and apply precisely the right amount of juice, I will get exactly the result I'm looking for. I know all this, because I studied Engineer Biology 101 in high-school. Didn't you?"
That was one of the most insulting scenes in the film, because it implies we're all too stupid to recognise how dumb it is.
9. The head explodes because she couldn't remember the "necessary voltages for Engineer head reanimation" lecture at high-school. And also because Ridley Scott thinks we find exploding heads scary. I don't actually know if the head exploded, mind you, because I was hiding behind my chair at that point. You got me Mr Sott, you got me!
No, not really.
25. It's advanced technology. So are solid metal chairs to sit on, btw. Our comfortable swivel chairs and padded seats are the laughing stock of advanced alien cultures, who like nothing better than to sit on cold, back destroying solid metal furniture. It's the future.
Admittedly, this is a silly thing to moan about. Falls under "artistic license" and as such, I'm moving on...
26. "This unit is configured for male patients only. Seek medical attention!"
Shaw presses three or four buttons.
"Begin caesarian procedure!"
".....Beginning procedure."
This whole sequence was dumb as a rock. The unit was going to turn her away based on the fact that it was improperly configured, BUT, the configuration takes all of five seconds to do? Wow, that system must have been designed by the same chaps that do IT for the NHS.
The scene could be *easily* improved.
"This unit is currently configured for male patients. Shall I reconfigure for you?"
"Yes!"
BEEP-BOOP-BEEP
"Specify procedure."
"Caesarian!"
This, while remaining dumb, is significantly less dumb than before. It still gives the audience a small amount of info partaining to Weyland being on board (the reason for this piece of equipment being there and being configured for a male patient).
But what is the point of the unit moaning about being configured wrong, and advising that you should seek help elsewhere, when evidently all she has to do is press three buttons and bark a command, and suddenly it works for women too? Utterly pointless.
