IN CYBERSPACE, NO-ONE CAN SEE THE SCREEN (PROMETHEUS)

"In space, no-one can hear you scream".

With these seven words, a sci-fi horror franchise was born.

In 1979, Ridley Scott's 'Alien' came hot on the heels of 'Star Wars'.

As Hollywood sought to cash in on the huge box office success of George Lucas's film with a flurry of family friendly science fiction films such as 'Battlestar Galactica' and 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century', Scott pitched his movie at a more adult audience.

'Alien' was dark. It was tense, it was cleverly paced and it was unconventional, giving audiences a heroine, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) when they might have assumed that the spaceship's captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt) would have had the principal role.

Scott's film was a masterclass in horror moviemaking, slowly building up the tension as the crew of the Nostromo stumble upon a crashed spaceship after picking up a distress signal, only for an alien pod to lash out at one member of the crew, Kane (John Hurt) and attach onto his face. 

The film gave us one of the most shocking horror scenes of all time as Kane has a meal with fellow crew members following his apparent recovery, only to begin choking and coughing, culminating in the alien bursting out of his chest as he writhes in agony.

But the movie was also packed with memorable set pieces from the moment the crew wakes up after being frozen for the first part of their journey, to the eerie later sequences involving Jones the Cat. 

With 'Alien', Scott showed a Hitchcock-style grasp of how to ratchet up the tension until it reaches white knuckle ride territory and he was assisted by strong performances from Weaver, Skerritt and Hurt as well as Veronica Cartwright as the highly strung Lambert, Ian Holm as the ice cool scientific officer Ash and Harry Dean Stanton and Yaphet Kotto as two dissatisfied crew members Brett and Parker.

The other major factor in the movie's success was its claustrophobic sets, courtesy of production designer Michael Seymour and also H R Giger's hugely admired and much imitated alien design.

Initially, 'Alien' met with mixed reviews but its reputation as a cult film grew with the advent of home video. Its box performance was strong enough to spawn James Cameron's more brash sequel 'Aliens' seven years later, David Fincher's flawed 'Alien 3' in 1992 and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's underwhelming conclusion to the quadrilogy, 'Alien Resurrection' in 1997.

In 2004, Paul WS Anderson attempted to combine the 'Alien' franchise with the 'Predator' franchise, with the rather unimaginatively titled 'Alien versus Predator' and it tanked critically and commercially.

So there was understandable excitement, bordering on mania when Ridley Scott announced three years ago that he planned to direct an 'Alien' prequel after three decades away from science fiction.

Scott assembled a smart, up and coming cast (Charlize Theron, Noomi Rapace, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba and Michael Fassbender) and it soon emerged he was shooting it in 3D on location in Scotland, Iceland, Spain and at Shepperton Studios in England.

The last 11 months have seen a publicity campaign mixing traditional and viral marketing which has broken new ground for the Hollywood studio system.

It will no doubt be studied in marketing courses in universities across the world as a textbook example of how you can generate a buzz around a product through a smart mix of traditional and new media.

The hype around 'Prometheus' began with Scott, Rapace, Theron and one of the two screenwriters, Damon Lindelof participating via satellite in a discussion at the San Diego Comic Con and previewing footage and images from the film. 

This immediately stirred up anticipation online and in print.

Then, in late February, 20th Century Fox teamed up with the global technology, entertainment and design conference brand, TED to release an online video of Guy Pearce's industrialist character, Peter Weyland (played Guy Pearce) addressing an imaginary TED conference in Long Beach, California in 2023.

This specially commissioned video (shot by Ridley Scott's son Luke) not only raised awareness of the real life TED conferences and whetted the appetite of sci-fi fans but was accompanied by a blog on the fictional 2023 event and a fake Weyland Corporation website. This naturally generated more social media buzz.

On St Patrick's Day, Scott previewed the trailer for 'Prometheus' at the Wonder Con event in Anaheim in California, which was streamed live on Twitter and Facebook and then immediately posted on You Tube. Within three days, the trailer had received three million views and there was a deluge of mostly favourable comment on social media.

Delegates at Wonder Con were given a card directing them to a phone number and website.

The phone number triggered a text message from the fictional Weyland Corproration, linking to a second viral video, advertising the 'David 8' android (played by Fassbender).

A 'David 8' Twitter account was also set up, enabling 'Alien' fans to interact with the character.

In April, the relentless marketing of the film continued with Scott premiering in 3D 13 minutes of footage from the movie at the Vue Cinema in London's Leicester Square.

Fans of the TV series 'Homeland' on Channel 4 were given a sneak peak of Scott's movie during an ad break and encouraged to comment on the trailer on Twitter.

Meanwhile, the studio teamed up with telecommunications giant Verizon FiOS to offer a virtual tour of the spaceship on its website and a third viral video featuring archaeologist Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace), requesting Weyland's support to seek out alien life, was posted on the Verizon FiOS's Facebook page.

In Paris, commuters using Saint-Martin train station were treated to a recreation of the alien architecture from 'Prometheus'.

As last Friday's release for the movie approached, the question begged: could Scott's movie possibly live up to the frenzy generated by its sophisticated marketing campaign?

'Prometheus' begins impressively with a prologue featuring an alien on Earth consuming a dark liquid which ultimately destroys him, causing him to tumble into a waterfall and sew the seeds for life on the planet.

The action moves to the Isle of Skye in 2089 where Elizabeth Shaw and he boyfriend Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall Green) discover a star map in a cave, matching similar maps from other cultures around the globe which all hint at a creator race in space.

Four years later, the couple are part of a 17 strong crew on the Prometheus, having persuaded the dying industrialist Peter Weyland (a heavily made up Pearce in elderly man mode) that there is a chance through the expedition for them to meet mankind's maker.

The crew are initially frozen, allowing Scott to introduce us to the 'Lawrence of Arabia' obsessed android David 8 pottering around the spaceship on his own until Prometheus approaches its destination and the time comes to raise the crew.

One of the first to emerge is corporate ice queen Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) who quickly asserts her authority over Shaw and Holloway, ordering them to avoid any contact with aliens and return to the spaceship immediately if they come across them.

Guided by Janek (Idris Elba), the ship's captain, the vessel lands near an alien structure which Shaw, Holloway and David explore along with a botanist Milburn (Rafe Spall), a hard bitten geologist Fifield (Sean Harris) and a medic, Ford (Kate Dickie).

There, they encounter hologram images of the race they have been searching for before coming across a huge human skull sculpture and containers of the mysterious dark liquid.

David sneaks one of the containers back onto the ship with devastating consequences while Fifield and Milburn are left stranded on the alien structure.

Scott's movie is stunning to look and features some strong performances - most notably Elba, Theron and Fassbender who steals the movie with his menacing detachment. David is like a glossed up version of Ian Holm's Ash in the original movie.

However the film is weakened by a screenplay by Lindelof and Jon Spaihts which takes a while to crank into gear and never quite lands a punch.

Whereas 'Alien' gave audiences a series of haunting original set pieces, 'Prometheus' has only one magical moment - when David finds himself in a hologram depiction of the galaxy - and it has very little suspense.

In fact, the movie merely reworks some of Scott's tricks in the original movie and so we have variations of the alien chest bursting and face hugging scenes.

Rapace's Shaw is an unconvincing twist on Sigourney Weaver's Ripley, while some potentially interesting characters, Milburn and Fifield, are never quite developed. 

One of the reasons why 'Alien' remains the strongest movie of the series is its tight plot, claustrophobic atmosphere and its small cast of seven.

With a 17 strong crew, it is hard to identify and empathise with some of Prometheus' characters.

Dariusz Wolski's cinematography is accomplished but take my advice: stick with the 2D version of 'Prometheus'. The 3D visual effects are underwhelming - adding very little to the format.

After the elaborate marketing striptease, 'Prometheus' has been exposed as having very little substance behind the show.

Too much effort has been put into marketing the movie than in fully developing the plot. 

In cyberspace, it seems, no-one can focus on the screen.

Ends