Have Your Say: The Concrete Shoes of Alien Expectations.

Look, regarding Ridley Scott's upcoming film "Prometheus": I'm doing my utmost to avoid spoilers and keep my expectations at a 'meh' level for my own safety, but I do write for a movie site and as such I also need to keep abreast of current proceedings. So yes, I've seen the trailers.

Ever since I accidentally saw on CNN in 1991 that Arnold Schwarzenegger was going to be one of the GOOD guys in "Terminator 2" I've had a bit of a laisser-faire approach to spoilers. I try to avoid seeing them (and try never to put any in my articles) but I do not go too far out of my way. Story is only one part of the intricate whole which is a movie, and was my surprise at Arnie being good going to be more valid in the cinema than it was when I experienced it in front of the telly, a few months earlier?

Fast forward twenty years and we now have Ripley, oops, RIDLEY Scott returning to the franchise he inadvertantly made nuclear with its first installment: "Alien".
Or is he?
Prometheus brought fire from the Gods and gave it to the humans. Ridley Scott now seems to be playing with fire as well, or the marketing at least seems to be running a jojo game with the Alien fanboys, constantly downplaying, then reinforcing the perceived links between "Prometheus" and "Alien". The evidence that "Prometheus" is a straight prequel to "Alien" is becoming ridiculously overwhelming at this point.

What strikes me most from the trailers so far is the absolutely stunning beauty of some of the shots, to the point where I'm thinking: can I see that in a few weeks, in IMAX, in 3D? Wow!
I'm not even thinking about the story for a second. Ridley seems to be having a whale of a time with his compositions and that makes me very happy already.

As for the Alien franchise: it has been cracked, broken, glued together again, copied, imitated, used, raped, and incinerated several times already by a wide selection of talented and not-so-talented filmmakers worldwide. "Prometheus" sure won't be able to harm what is left of it.

So my question to you all is: how much do you think "Prometheus" will be able to exist as a standalone film? Do you expect you will consider it to be part of the Alien franchise? Does it NEED the Alien franchise? Does the Alien franchise need "Prometheus"?

Will the Alien expectations mire and sink "Prometheus", and will fanboys be eating Ridley Scott's liver day after day?
HAVE YOUR SAY!