[movie] Prometheus (previously Alien the Prequel)

[Razgon]

To me

Spoiler for Hiden:

I am going to see it tonight, so just you wait, ten thousand spoiler tagged posts! I WILL See you soon!

[metallicorphan]

To me

Spoiler for Hiden:

I am going to see it tonight, so just you wait, ten thousand spoiler tagged posts! I WILL See you soon!

Spoiler for Hiden:

LOL


I know how you feel,i have seen the film and thought 'holy fuck' at all of the spoiler tags

[Purge]

This one is going to wait - I just saw Avengers, and I think I'd rather watch that a second time.

[PR_GMR]

This one is going to wait - I just saw Avengers, and I think I'd rather watch that a second time.

You 'just' saw 'Avengers'? It's been out a month. Where do you live? On a holy mountaintop in Nepal? 

[hepcat]

When I mentioned what I'd read in interviews, she chimed in with "shouldn't the movie be designed so you can figure that out from watching it?" Exactly. I dunno. Maybe it's by design.

It would be a miracle if someone found a way to be thought provoking AND completely transparent at the same time.  Everyone processes information at different speeds.  There's no universal method to getting through to every member of an audience at the same time...without just simply having a narrator tell you what's happening at all times, that is.

[hepcat]

This one is going to wait - I just saw Avengers, and I think I'd rather watch that a second time.

You 'just' saw 'Avengers'? It's been out a month. Where do you live? On a holy mountaintop in Nepal? 

Worse...Canada.

[PeteRock]

This one is going to wait - I just saw Avengers, and I think I'd rather watch that a second time.

You 'just' saw 'Avengers'? It's been out a month. Where do you live? On a holy mountaintop in Nepal? 

My wife and I haven't seen it yet, either.  And we're big fans of the material.  <<shrugs>>

Sometimes life gets in the way. 

[Blackjack]

The Penny Arcade guys came away from Prometheus... not pleased   I believe they saw it in California after a Child's Play benefit golf tournament there.

Oh, and there were only like seven people in the theater!  I don’t know why, but those nonexistent viewers had the right idea.

If I tell you that it is bad, which is something I genuinely believe, it will inoculate you against it; no matter how bad it might be, it won’t be as bad as I said it was, and your moviegoing experience will be improved.  I’m only too happy to provide this service, as someone should be able to enjoy this movie, even if it’s only as a result of these quantum-cinematic abstractions.  

Gabriel and I tried to figure it out most of the flight home, only to realize that even if it we did figure it out, what would we have then?  Sometimes you get to The Emerald City, like, all the way there, but it is only a Sizzler someone has painted green.

I noted maybe 20-30 people were in the large 3-D theater (a Rave Motion Pictures theater) for a 12:40 p.m. show Sunday. I assume between church and a nearby fair, paying $13.50 for alien glop just wasn't high on everyone's to-do list?

[metallicorphan]

This one is going to wait - I just saw Avengers, and I think I'd rather watch that a second time.

You 'just' saw 'Avengers'? It's been out a month. Where do you live? On a holy mountaintop in Nepal? 

My wife and I haven't seen it yet, either.  And we're big fans of the material.  <<shrugs>>

Sometimes life gets in the way. 

yeah mark me down as not seeing Avengers yet...really looking forward to it,.but just not got round to watching it,Batman is next though

Madagascar 3(i didn't know they made a number 2!)has just taken over the top spot from Prometheus

[PR_GMR]

For Hepcat:

So many unanswered 'Prometheus'. It makes the poor dude's brain melt.

[PR_GMR]

This one is going to wait - I just saw Avengers, and I think I'd rather watch that a second time.

You 'just' saw 'Avengers'? It's been out a month. Where do you live? On a holy mountaintop in Nepal? 

My wife and I haven't seen it yet, either.  And we're big fans of the material.  <<shrugs>>

Sometimes life gets in the way. 

You've that cervical neurosurgery thing going on. You're excused. These two (points at Purge and Metallicorphan).. Shame! Shame on you! 

[hepcat]

For Hepcat:

So many unanswered 'Prometheus'. It makes the poor dude's brain melt.

This quote from the comments section made me laugh...

Dunno if anyone mentioned this in the earlier posts but the film script for Prometheus was made by the same man who wrote script for the Cowboys and aliens, and that explains a lot... except why he is still in the movie industry.

   

[th'FOOL]

Great analysis: http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html (spoilers, natch)

[Blackjack]

Penny Arcade did a comic on it. mild spoiler, as they say. If you remember the scene, you might get a chuckle out of it.

Ouroborous or Whatever
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/06/13

Actually, the more I think about the movie, the less I like it and the more annoyed I get by the screenplay and the character's actions. In the end, perhaps it's just not fair to expect a 72 year old (knighted, no less) director with dozens of films under his belt to bring the same Storytelling flair as the 39 year old who had only one film to his credit (re Scott circa 1979 when he directed Alien). Nor to expect the 47 year old me to respond like the scared 14 year old in '79.

I think 14 year old me would've loved Prometheus without reservations. Somehow, old me just can't embrace it even though it looks as great as any other Ridley Scott film.

Aliens, Blade Runner and Gladiator are among my favorite films, and I'm a fan of Black Hawk Down, Thelma and Louise etc. I'm a big Ridley Scott fan. But I haven't really been able to get into some of his later stuff (Robin Hood, American Gangster, etc.). Tastes change, and directors change, I guess.

[hepcat]

In looking over Scott's resume, I don't believe he's actually written any of the screenplays for his films.  So blaming him for the stories themselves may be a bit unfair.  It might be more fair to say "they just don't write 'em like they used to".   

[Razgon]

Just saw the movie and loved it. Its not as full of plotholes as many people around the internet assumes. They just arent paying attention, but there's a few major things that sticks in the craw, or whatever its called.

That said, its clearly set up for a followup movie, which is kinda bad since a movie should be able to stand on its own.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Its not as full of plotholes as many people around the internet assumes.

Actually, it is full of more plotholes than many people assume. 

[hepcat]

I wasn't that disappointed in the plot holes (I didn't think there was THAT many), but I was disappointed in the 2 dimensional characters and use of tired horror tropes towards the end of the film.

David was great, the basic story of the Engineers and how they create life was interesting and the sense of awe when discovering the Engineer's planet was sufficiently inspiring.

[Razgon]

Its not as full of plotholes as many people around the internet assumes.

Actually, it is full of more plotholes than many people assume. 

nope..

[Ralph-Wiggum]

I wasn't that disappointed in the plot holes (I didn't think there was THAT many), but I was disappointed in the 2 dimensional characters and use of tired horror tropes towards the end of the film.

David was great, the basic story of the Engineers and how they create life was interesting and the sense of awe when discovering the Engineer's planet was sufficiently inspiring.

+1

I thought the first half of the movie was exciting and interesting, and then everyone starts to act like idiots. It might have been posted before, but this article gets at many of the problems I had.

"Prometheus" suggests to me that Ridley Scott, Jon Spaihts, and Damon Lindelof all must have had some very interesting conversations and some very heady goals when they sat down to start work on this movie.  I appreciate the ambition.  I think the most basic conceptual mistake they made was attaching this in any way to "Alien."  I think the idea that the film is structured like a mystery, slow to yield any real information, is also a problem.  It is a largely passive experience for the characters, and as a result, it is the sort of film where it feels like we're watching something happen at a remove.  Because there are things that have to happen to underline the points of The Big Message, characters act in ways that no human being would, functioning more in service of the action than having the action result from the expression of character.  If none of that matters to you, then "Prometheus" might well be a great experience for you, but when I don't recognize basic human responses, then drama doesn't work for me.  It's that basic.

[metallicorphan]

Just saw the movie and loved it. Its not as full of plotholes as many people around the internet assumes. They just arent paying attention, but there's a few major things that sticks in the craw, or whatever its called.

That said, its clearly set up for a followup movie, which is kinda bad since a movie should be able to stand on its own.

one thing i hated was that i was really getting into the movie and then it ended,which made me look at my watch and say that wasn't 2 fucking hours...seems it was though


oh and Charlize Theron

Spoiler for Hiden:

had a lame death scene,i really did not believe her to be dead because of how she died,still she could of ran to the left or right instead of straight forward where the ship was falling

[Blackjack]

These deleted scenes images suggest the...

Spoiler for Hiden:

Alien engineer might've had a deeper back story than:
"Engineer with Ryan Reynolds abs eat wormy things and turn into DNA strands!
Engineer hate human!
Engineer SMASH android and humans and kill humanity! YEEEEEARGH!

Basically, the engineer is like The Hulk. And that's my Reader's Digest Condensed Summary of the movie btw.


New Behind-the-Scenes Images from PROMETHEUS Reveal Unseen Alien
http://collider.com/prometheus-images-new-alien/173252/

Despite my decaying opinion of the film, I remain steadfast people should see it at least once on a big screen. Then you can make up your own mind about it. You may very well love it like my brother and nephew. Or you might initially like it and then find your opinion of it fading rapidly. Or you may walk out of the theater wishing you spent $13.50 on something less maddening. 

 But I don't think you should wait and see it on a a TV, not even a 72" TV. You should see it in all its digiital projection, mega-wattage sound glory, even if the theater's nearly empty. Then you can just judge it on whether it moves you, without any distractions. 

[PeteRock]

Finally saw this last night.  I enjoyed it for what it was, a sci-fi romp postulating human origins within the Alien universe, complete with huge set pieces and a handful of intense scenes with Alien-esque horrors, but the overall story was told in a clumsy, unclear manner.  It also seemed to try too hard to incorporate religious themes in a manner reminiscent of the Wachowski brothers, caring more about telling the story they had envisioned than others understanding it.  That isn't to say that films need to bludgeon us with revelations, playing to the lowest common viewing denominator, but sometimes leaving too much interpretation to the viewer feels like lazy or pretentious storytelling, suggesting that if you don't get it, it's on you, not the storyteller.

I appreciated some of the nods to Alien, such as the engineer's pilot seat, the "birth" of a xenomorph (I'm not going to say the very first as a mural in the life giving goo chamber depicted one, suggesting that others had inadvertently formed due to past incidents of DNA corruption), and the acidic blood of any life formed from impure emotions such as selfish refusal of personal sacrifice (pulling from one of the sites offering clarifications on the story).  

But ultimately it felt clumsy and muddled, trying to do more than possible within the film's confines.  I enjoyed it for a sci-fi adventure within the Alien universe, but I think it tried to be more than it could handle in terms of life origins, DNA corruption, and the policing of the bastardization of life by the "engineers".  

EDIT:  Edited to add that Fassbender's performance almost makes this film worth seeing just to see the depth of his acting ability.  I also felt Noomi Rapace did an excellent job.  But Fassbender easily stole the show.  He was hella creepy to boot. 

I also enjoyed the geologist, however brief his role was.  I could easily relate to his fascination with rocks but complete unwillingness to further explore alien dead bodies.   

[Blackjack]

2nd Friday domestic box office was seriously weak at $5M (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=daily&id=prometheus.htm), which doesn't bode well. If your 2nd Friday for a big summer release barely beats the preceding Thursday, that's baaaad. The budget was supposedly around $150-$160M. I'm sure it'll do well enough overseas to break even.

It just seems to reinforce that people aren't walking out of the theater rushing home to tell their friends how much they loved it and telling people to go see it. I'm not sure the masses are going around bad-mouthing it, but it seems more like there just isn't much buzz on it at all, post release. It almost reminds me of Cowboys & Aliens last summer. Something that seemed like it should be a big hit on paper, but just wasn't something the masses ended up wanting to see.

I only saw Alien once in 1979, but I do remember how cool my brother and I thought it was. There was no Internet to blab about it on, but I remember telling a couple friends how exciting I thought it was. Prometheus just doesn't seem to generate that sort of good buzz.

If the box office really turns out disappointing, I suspect the studio will be less inclined to back a sequel unless the budget's lower.

[Punisher]

Spoiler for Hiden:

The cave paintings were dated to 35,000 BC (well after the origin of Homo sapiens but about as ancient as we find any art). Then we have Egyptian and Sumerian art likely dating from 3,000 BC - 0 AD showing the same thing. So the engineers were clearly around for a good long while.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Or the more "recent" ones were based on stories passed down through generations..

[Punisher]

Spoiler for Hiden:

Oh, and for the killer engineer... I feel he's a soldier and..
He sees most of his friends killed while getting ready for an attack on earth.
Then he gets put into a sleep chamber for a while
Then he gets woken up by the same people he was going to kill anyway, so he's pissed and tries killing them now
some get away and then more of the people he was trying to kill ram him and wreck his ship... and they probably weren't insured for ship to ship accidents and they are dead to boot, so probably no insurance claim.
so he's pissed some more and goes after the last human he finds (maybe, just to get license info?)

so anyway.. he's a soldier who was supposed to attack earth/humans anyway and just got started before getting to earth.

as to why... Maybe the whole earth/human thing was just an expiriment that went wrong and they are trying to clean up the mess...

[Blackjack]

If you've seen Prometheus and were annoyed by it, particular the decisions by various characters, you MUST watch this funny video:  

Red Letter Media Talks About Prometheus [SPOILERS]
http://redlettermedia.com/red-letter-media-talks-about-prometheus-spoilers/
WARNING: Language is at times NSFW

[kronovan]

In looking over Scott's resume, I don't believe he's actually written any of the screenplays for his films.  So blaming him for the stories themselves may be a bit unfair.

Good God no, Scott is no writer! Apart from direction, his forte is production design with an excellent eye for cinematography (he's actually done a fair amount of filming in some of his movies) and in general the artistic side of film. About the only writing he ever did was for his film school short Boy and Bicycle, and that was almost 50 years ago.  

Still haven't managed to get to this yet, but hey after this weekend I can at least say I've seen The Avengers.  

[McNutt]

Saw it last night and was really disappointed.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Dumb scenes – The main character has a C-section and seconds after getting stapled back together is out running and jumping.  I know it’s the future, but c’mon.
 
How in the hell did David think he could talk to the engineer?  I know he studied every language, but he never studied their language.  Somehow he can read their language and knows how it sounds when spoken without having ever heard it.
 
The engineer at the end survives falling 1,000 feet and becomes a mindless psycho killer.  That’s an element from a bad horror movie that didn’t fit in this kind of movie.
 
The stuff found on the planet had been there for thousands of years, yet the ships were still ready to go and absolutely nothing showed signs of age.  Even the head of the engineer that died two thousand years ago could be reanimated and had blood and stuff still in it.
 
Plot holes – There are maps found all over the Earth that point the way to the planet.  How did those maps get there?  Did the aliens paint them on cave walls?  It looked like the work of primitive artists, so how did those people know about the aliens or have the ability to draw the planets in such a way that later man could pinpoint that location?
 
The biggest plot hole was the “invitation.”  The aliens seemed to want us to go to this planet.  Why?  It wasn’t their planet.  It was just a staging ground for a strike fleet that was going to destroy all of the planets they seeded (my assumption about the seeding).  Why would they want us to go there so bad?  Also, this liquid is so nasty it transforms people and creates killer aliens.  I’m guessing that the engineers were planning on dropping it off on those planets and letting it wipe out everything.  But they obviously can’t control this stuff either as it killed the engineer’s crew and prevented the other ships from launching.  So this crap is super deadly and will ruin those planets, not only by killing the inhabitants, but also by making those planets completely inhospitable to the engineers.  Why would they do this???  Do they just have unlimited numbers of habitable planets that they don't mind destroying a bunch of them?

[Roman]

you know whats funny?.....

I saw this last week and liked it for what it was. Left the theater and thought that I could see it again later with my wife etc.

But now after reading this thread over the past week I am getting angry - no wait that is too harsh. I am 'irked' now that I have been drawing parallels between what I saw and what is being posted here. Boy oh boy did he ever flub it - I think that it may have all started with the re-write and adding that Lost screenwriter to the mix http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/05/11/damon-lindelof-prometheus-life-after-lost/ That new screenwriter (Damon L.) stated in an early post link (above) that he told Ridley that there was too much Alien material (chest bursters/face huggers / aliens) in the original screenplay and suggested that the movie could be made without making the direct links that the fans want and need. What a douche! If I want artsy fartsy make me think I will head back to university and enroll in philosophy and sociology classes.

If they expect to make a sequel and make people happy they had better be prepared to answer all the questions and spoon feed the audience with explanations and details. Wrap it all up with nice paper and bows and ribbons.

Now I'm mad!

[WorkingMike]

This was some sloppy film-making. It bored me. I actually caught myself wondering when it was going to be over.

My wife and I were just talking the other day about how television has replaced film for us. These last few years have seen some really amazing tv that adheres to my basic rule of entertainment - the characters should drive the story. I should be able to take the characters out of their setting and put them anywhere/when and still be engaged. When you fail at that then you fail at storytelling.

This film failed at just about every level for me. I didn't care about the plot or the people, didn't understand the story and found it as a whole to be stilted and uninspired. This is a film I wanted to love and I hate it all the more because of it.

[Bullwinkle]

SPOILERS

Saw it today.   I remember saying that I worried we wouldn't see any Alien xenomorphs in the film and that this "it has the Alien DNA" stuff being backpedaling being put out there to prepare folks so they wouldn't be disappointed.  Roman mention that Lindelof told Ridley that there were too many direct Alien references in an earlier draft.  What a maroon.  Honestly, this should have shifted even further away or stayed on target.  Now it just feels half-assed.  Why have an Alien that only sort of looks like the Alien?  Why have a space jockey, but have him die not in his space gun chair?  Why have the engineers be just a little taller than humans when the engineers were enormous in the original film?  Why have the cannisters lined up like the eggs but not be eggs?  They clearly wanted to tell a story that used the same images but wasn't actually connected to that universe, but why the hell do that?  Make it less obvious if you need to go that route or connect it full on.

The Red Letter video was pretty dead-on and funny.  But not all of the questions apply.  Speaking of that.  McNutt some of your points: She was in pain through a lot of the end of the film, inconsistently, though.  The assumption was that our languages are based on theirs, I guess.  I thought there was a comment about that somewhere in the movie.  Plus there's something about language being mathematical, and robot magic...  The atmosphere had been changed inside and clearly with the intention of preserving the goo.  The cave drawings are not plot holes, even if the question couldn't be answered.  But they can.  The engineers told them what to paint.  And as for the last point, it doesn't make a lot of sense that they would invite us to a sub-planet, but a lot of the other stuff is explained very well in the article that th'Fool posted.

Before reading that article, I was wondering if the engineer at the end wasn't actually being held in prison, instead of just sleeping.  Like he was a unibomber of the engineer race and the other guys had come to get him.   There was a fight, which is why they were all running.  And, though many of them died, they were still able to put him into a deep sleep to figure out what to do with him.  Or maybe then they all died.

But I like the Space Jesus theory better.  Really it's a great article.  If you haven't read it, do.  It clears up a lot.

Doesn't make the movie better, though.  I mean, who the fuck is going to stick their hand out to a space penis vagina snake?  That's just ridiculous.

[leo8877]

Why have a space jockey, but have him die not in his space gun chair?  

It's not the same guy (or ship or planet) as the one we see in Alien, that's why he doesn't die in the space gun chair.

[Bullwinkle]

Why have a space jockey, but have him die not in his space gun chair?  

It's not the same guy (or ship or planet) as the one we see in Alien, that's why he doesn't die in the space gun chair.

Well, yeah, it's not the same alien or eggs or anything (although it sure as hell seems to be the same ship, somehow).  My point is what's the point?

[leo8877]

Why have a space jockey, but have him die not in his space gun chair?  

It's not the same guy (or ship or planet) as the one we see in Alien, that's why he doesn't die in the space gun chair.

Well, yeah, it's not the same alien or eggs or anything (although it sure as hell seems to be the same ship, somehow).  My point is what's the point?

I get what you're saying about the vases/eggs.  I don't know why they were different.  I can speculate.  But the Engineer was not on the same planet.  It was not the same ship.  It wasn't intended to be the ship that the Nostromo finds in Alien.  You have an idea now how that ship got into that predicament, but this movie isn't supposed to show explicitly what happened to that ship.

[Razgon]

MORE SPOILERS!!


Ultimately, it all boils down to that they want to make a sequel that "explains" the first movie. Its the Lost way but its infuriating.

Thats why its not the same planet, thats why there are so many things that makes little sense. It will all be explained in the next (season) movie.

[metallicorphan]

I saw an Interview with the cast,and Ridley Scott admitted that it lead to a sequel "if the public want it"

Well, yeah, it's not the same alien or eggs or anything (although it sure as hell seems to be the same ship, somehow).  My point is what's the point?

Spoiler for Hiden:

wasn't there a whole army of ships under the surface of that planet?

[McNutt]

I don't know if there was an army, but I think they just said there were more of them.  The ship they encountered didn't launch seemingly because everybody onboard died (except for the one guy who went into stasis for an unknown reason).  We don't know why the other ships didn't launch.  We do know that these ships are very well made because their engine will still turn over after being buried underground for thousands of years.  I guess their alien bodies use that same technology because after being decapitated for a couple thousand years this guy's head is still pretty fresh. 

Worst bit of dialogue in the movie:

"Anybody can make life."
"I can't make life." <cries>
"Oh, I'm sorry.  I didn't mean that as a comment on your infertility."

That was freakin' horrible writing. 

[Roman]

now that I think back to the Lindelof interview I get a little more peeved.

Lost was frustrating yet entertaining - but ultimately I feel that the writers wanted to stroke their own manhood over and over.
This hubris came through with flying colours in Prometheus - I can still see Lindelof beating off in a corner like a maniac happy in his content that he stoked the cerebral fires again for those of us who aren't as 'smart' as he is.

Lindelof confirms in the article that the original screenplay author is 'OK' with the re-write - I call BS. I bet that guy is seething now that his potential Xenomorph Summer blockbuster has been relegated to something that needs a sequel to explain what ultimately should have been handled in 2hrs and a $13 movie ticket.

Listen - I am a smart man - but I don't need to weave a web to prove that I am a smart man. Fucking guy is so full of himself.

Quote of the year for me: This is a film I wanted to love and I hate it all the more because of it.

 - Thanks for that one WorkingMike.

[Bullwinkle]

Why have a space jockey, but have him die not in his space gun chair?  

It's not the same guy (or ship or planet) as the one we see in Alien, that's why he doesn't die in the space gun chair.

Well, yeah, it's not the same alien or eggs or anything (although it sure as hell seems to be the same ship, somehow).  My point is what's the point?

I get what you're saying about the vases/eggs.  I don't know why they were different.  I can speculate.  But the Engineer was not on the same planet.  It was not the same ship.  It wasn't intended to be the ship that the Nostromo finds in Alien.  You have an idea now how that ship got into that predicament, but this movie isn't supposed to show explicitly what happened to that ship.

I understand that LV 223 is not LV 426 and therefore it's not the same ship.  My point is that it crash lands in a way that is meant to evoke the scenario we saw in the first movie and why the fuck?!