PROMETHEUS
Dir: Ridley Scott -Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idrus Elba

So much is good about Ridley Scott's return to science fiction. It looks stunning – from the magnificent opening shots on earth, to the ultra-slick, sci-fi gadgetry - it takes us back to the original universe of Alien, and it has the series' third great robot – sorry, synthetic human – in the form of Fassbender's David. He's far and away the most interesting character.

But this is only very loosely a prequel. The planet visited is not the one in Alien' and the aliens from previous films do not feature here, though there are many nostalgic riffs as a crew go in search of the origins of life on earth.

Prometheus attempts to meld the requisite thrills and scares with ‘big philosophical targets'- though most of the deep stuff is ultimately vacuous. Meanwhile, the genre elements - the style that harks back to the original film - are often just thrown away, with characters frequently behaving completely illogically to service the plot: many story strands just peter out. There seem to be bits of different script drafts swilling around trying – not always successfully – to cohere.

This makes Prometheus rather enigmatic. You want to watch it again immediately because it almost seems to make sense. Perhaps you just missed something... But the more you think about the ‘big issues' - and the plot lapses - the more you wonder if the writers were just winging it.

You really need to like Simon Pegg to enjoy A Fantastic Fear of Everything since, for a large part of the film, it's pretty much a one-man-show. Pegg is a children's author, now venturing into serial killer territory and hampered by set of fears and phobias that leave him a gibbering wreck - a potentially lucrative meeting is in danger of being derailed by his fear of laundromats. It's pretty silly stuff and Pegg works hard, gurning and prat-falling all over the shop, but if you're not a fan it'll be a slog.

The Duplass brothers' earlier Cyrus starred Jonah Hill as an infantile grown-up son who refused to leave home. In Jeff Who Lives at Home Jason Segel – albeit a little older – fills a similar role, a stoned slacker living with mom (Susan Sarandon). He's obsessed with the movie Signs and not really up to coping with life; his brother (Ed Helms) is an irritating salesman with an uneasy marriage. In typical Duplass style the plot wanders and character is foregrounded over gags. But Segel is superb and there is much to like among the gentle rambling.

In a film world still overrun by vampires, I can't say I was looking forward to We Are the Night. But right from the start its German origin brings a welcome freshness (there are German and dubbed English sound options) as a gang of hot chick vampires lay waste to the passengers of a small plane. It's certainly more True Blood than Twilight with perhaps a dash of Near Dark, as pickpocketing street-kid Lena is seduced to the dark side by sultry leader Louise, who introduces her to a world of hedonistic excess. But you just know it'll all end in tears.

Another Starship Troopers sequel? Oh dear. But this one brings back the characters from the original! Sadly, Starship Troopers Invasion is animated and the original characters don't look, or sound like the, er, original characters. Perhaps they couldn't get the rights. Actually this is so unremittingly awful that it hardly matters: the CGI animation is on par with a video game; the character scenes are embarrassing; the bug battles look cheap, and gratuitous lingering shower scenes will seem bizarre to anyone not aroused by animated nudity. For fans only.