You seem to be using "plot hole" in place of "question." In my experience, an unanswered plot question is not a plot hole. Plot holes are when the movie makes a radical jump that prevents us from understanding the story's progression. The reason people complain is not because we don't fully comprehend the universe, but rather that a character suddenly stopped being an "x" and became a "y" without connecting the two.
For instance, why the aliens want to kill humans is a question, not a plot hole. The only guy on the planet with a map getting lost is a plot hole. We have to ask why didn't he look at the map, since that was his job. In that respect, though the movie looks good, the plot fails. We may be on an alien world, but these people are supposed to be...well people. Holloway confirms that aliens came to earth a long time ago, but suddenly becomes depressed after spending less than half a day looking at the evidence. It actually confirms his theory, but (as a scientist) he expected the aliens who left a thousand year old message to be still alive waiting for them. He spent years on a spaceship waiting for something he wasn't even sure existed...and he's depressed because he didn't find everything in less than a day? Also, Fifeild isn't scared at finding an answer. He is scared because he finds a dead body, but somehow isn't scared by meeting a live alien. If he has a consistent reaction to finding out about alien life, we didn't see it.
As for the "same experience" part, what we see is humans behaving nonsensically. I guess you could argue that the scientists are discovering things that make no sense, but that's the only part of the "same experience" part.
illegitematus non carborundum est
Yep, there's a big difference between the mystery of "we don't understand why they're attacking us or ''even can't" and the idiocy of "why would you run in a straight line from a rolling circular ship?" or "why would you pet a clearly dangerous alien snake?" So rather I see the film as a mixed bag, not thematic throughout.
I'll buy into this providing no-one has considered making a sequel to Promethus where they further explore the questions raised in this film. Because if something crazy like that were to be true then it would mean the film wasn't about the disappointment of finding answers to life questions (because the answers are coming later) but that the writers were relying on the mystery as an audience hook and couldn't cram said answers into their film and left it incomplete
@Tom “From the very beginning, I was working from a premise that lent itself to a sequel. I really don’t want to meet God in the first one."-Ridley Scott He wanted this to be a franchise, not an individual movie.
illegitematus non carborundum est
But what I mean is the film can't be about the lack of satisfaction from finding answers if it fully intends to find more satisfying answers later on as part of the plan.
Also fair or not, Prometheus gives off the lost feel where a lot of the questions and mysteries seem like the creators haven't figured out where they're going to go with them yet
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Final Answers
I loved Prometheus. I went and saw it three times, and went and bought it the day it was on DVD. So you can understand my confusion when I saw the reviews claiming it be average or even terrible. And I think I understand why, the complaints about plot holes especially. Prometheus is about what it is like to find the answer to life, the universe and everything and how disappointing it is. On one hand we have Shaw, who passes her answer on the road, but denies it is her final destination, and marches on. We have Holloway, who is disappointed to the point of depression. We have Fifeild, who is frightened. We have Vickers, who views it as a irrelevant. And most interestingly, we have David, who has had his answer since he was built. The movie carries this theme with it until the end, where it refuses the audiences questions. The "plot holes" are intentional. It puts us through the same experience as the crew (minus the gruesome deaths).As for flaws, it is not by any means a traditional three act movie, and the pacing is erratic. But I find this a low price to pay for such a beautiful film. 5/5