Author Topic: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie) ***SPOILERS***  (Read 36507 times)

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Offline skydivingninja

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #140 on: June 10, 2012, 01:48:28 PM »
So I just saw it.  My thoughts in spoiler tags:

The first half of the movie was pretty good.  Yeah there were some stupid decisions ("Hey let's play with the cobra facehugger!") but it was well-acted and well-paced.  The point where it lost me was when David decided to slip Holloway some black goo.  Was it just because he could?  Was it human testing?  Was it revenge for him acting like a douche?  I took it as the third, but there was little plausible reason for him to do that.  Other problems included the pointless redhead bearded guy coming back to attack everyone (did nothing for the plot whatsoever), the big "reveal" that Weyland was on board the whole time was really predictable, and the fact that no one seemed surprised that A. Weyland was walking around all of a sudden, and B. that Shaw just took a fucking squid out of her stomach.  But I think my biggest issue is this: if you have a villain, and that villain is intelligent enough to, say, create life on earth, and then you make it want to kill all of us, your viewers will probably want to know why, and why use a convoluted bioweapon other than to give your popular creation an origin story (black goo + human = octopus.  Octopus + Engineer = Xenomorph apparently).  When those questions are unanswered, it leaves people a bit unsatisfied with the ending unless all they wanted to see was an Alien on screen again.  All that said, there were some great actors who took what they were given and made it really work (Theron, Fassbender, and Elba), and the first half of the movie was pretty good.  It just lost me halfway and made me think "this movie sure is long" which isn't a good thing for a 2 hour movie.  A 2.6329/5

Offline njdtfan

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #141 on: June 10, 2012, 01:49:43 PM »
Look at the big picture. prometheus is a great flick. To be honest, it is a tuff position for Scott. he did not want it to be an exact prequal to the Alien gig, yet, he opened the book. To be honest, I thought it was a great movie. Again, rock in a hard place. For those that followed the first 2 Alien movies, it does set up some things, yet for those that havent seen them.......... well again opens a sequal. remember, the 2 best Alien movies are over 25 years old. Most youngins, unless prompted have probably not seen those 2. I recently took a film study cousre)for the heck of it cause (I already have my degrees etc). just thought it would be intersting to see how the younger generation looks at movies. I brought up the Alien movies, and the younger generation was like whats that( BTW I am 45). It is funny. and I know i am going off track, but i guess to each there own. If you want to see Madascar 3, go ahead. You want to Avengers go ahead. The beauty of it all is it is film. We are fortunate enough to see these great movies. Believe it or not it shapes us. That said, after i put my sons to sleep tonite, I am watching again, my favorite film ever, Silence of The Lambs. Yeah, and over 20 year old. yet, if you have never seen it, it will make your balls jump out of your pants. just sayin
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Offline mrjazzguitar

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #142 on: June 10, 2012, 01:52:16 PM »
Hear is my thoughts on the movie:


I´m sorry but i suck immensly at reviewing movies and will instead redirect to this other review that i found on IMDB.com that pretty much sums up my feelings on the movie:





Author: michael-albertsen from Denmark
*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I'm really sorry, but this a major disappointment.

No, I didn't expect miracles or something close to the original Alien. I've been following Scott for 30 years - and it's clear that he has been on the decline since Gladiator and Black Hawk Down.

I liked a few of his later movies like A Good Year - but most have been rather flat and uninspired.

One thing I've noticed, is that he's gotten increasingly complacent with his own "point of view" in terms of historical facts and how things work in reality. It's like he has a complete disregard for plausible motivations or factual information about how things work.

Case in point - there's a scene in the movie where a certain character has to have an operation performed on her body - and it involves slicing directly through the skin and muscle-tissue of her abdomen. After the procedure, she's simply "stitched together" by metal clips in like 3 seconds - and with a bit of local anesthetic, she continues to move and jump about with some moaning. Ehm, you CAN'T have any kind of normal movement with your muscle tissue completely severed - and there was absolutely no healing involved. Just one of a series of ridiculous events.

The plot is entirely juvenile and cliché stuff with "profound" questions like who created us. For some reason, the beings who created us also want to kill us - and it seems to involve incredibly elaborate genetic engineering that also happened to kill most of them in their remote "lab facility". They're CLEARLY much more powerful than we are - and they could just bomb the hell out of us, or do it in a thousand simpler ways. But no, they seem to want to utilize excessively elaborate and dangerous genetic modification or infestation - that they can't even control.

They also like to record recent events with some kind of holographic recorder device that is unable to render clear images, only some cool ghostly images that I bet Scott loved to play with. But they're quite flexible in how they let you play recordings of their security procedure - so you can access their systems without effort.

Characters are void of personality and growth, they're REALLY stupid - and they like to freak out for no reason, and they like to stay calm and playful when there IS a reason - like when encountering a nasty looking cobra-worm - an alien - for the first time in history.

Among these faceless people - we have some willing to gleefully commit suicide by ramming an alien ship, because they like their captain, and they're required to do so because he "can't fly worth a damn" - despite him being the primary pilot hired by a billionaire to do nothing but fly the ship.

We have a religious scientist who concludes that she's found our creators, based on: "It's what I choose to believe".

Then we have the very same religious scientist look at an alien "head" they brought back - and she notices some strange growth on it. She then spends 2 seconds thinking and concludes that this is obviously some kind of "foreign cells" (impressive deduction, I must say) - and she decides to stimulate the cells with electricity - just to see what happens. No research - no caution - no nothing.

We have people who decide to open the door to their ship, seemingly with no thought process, despite having just faced complete chaos by extremely hostile alien forces - because one of their crew mates seems to be lying in front of the door. This while other crew mates have just been taken over by some kind of alien infestation.

Then we have the boyfriend of said religious scientist (a douche) who decides that the air in an alien environment is safe to breathe because his device tells him it is - and he immediately removes his helmet. A classic Hollywood scientist moment, and clearly there's no need to worry about biological contaminants in a place like that.

This movie is FULL of this kind of utterly implausible behavior and random decisions.

It has a couple of "for effect" gore scenes - but Scott manages to include ZERO tension along with them. As a result, they're mildly disgusting - but they have no lasting effect whatsoever.

The "aliens" that are a part of this movie all look like plastic - because of overly smooth and pale skin. They look like Lovecraft creatures without a much-needed paint-job.

We have a horribly predictable, pointless and wasted twist involving Guy Pearce and a certain other cast member.

We have an android, well-acted by Fassbender, who seems to be fully random in his decisions and motivations. Few actions made sense in any context - not to me anyway.

The music was overwrought and didn't fit with the mood of the film, and it seemed like one theme being repeated endlessly. A surprise, given Scott's usual flair for good music.

I think Lindelof is a complete and total hack - who only got the job because he was the "yes-man" who could match Scott's ego. This is pretty obvious in interviews - where Lindelof always manages to publicly kiss Scott's behind.

1 Star for Fassbender's performance.

1 Star for the amazingly detailed visuals.

1 Star for how the above combine to form the excellent beginning.

Now, it's just a matter of leaning back - musing over a thousand different people coming up with a thousand different explanations - each being the "correct" interpretation of this deep and thought-provoking masterpiece.


This review NAILED it.

Oh and Charlize Theron is ridiculously hot throughout, but the movie sucked.

Offline skydivingninja

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #143 on: June 10, 2012, 02:18:03 PM »
Charlize Theron in incredibly hot throughout everything.

Offline njdtfan

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #144 on: June 10, 2012, 02:29:59 PM »
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Offline Sigz

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #145 on: June 10, 2012, 03:29:59 PM »
Hear is my thoughts on the movie:


I´m sorry but i suck immensly at reviewing movies and will instead redirect to this other review that i found on IMDB.com that pretty much sums up my feelings on the movie:





Author: michael-albertsen from Denmark
*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I'm really sorry, but this a major disappointment.

No, I didn't expect miracles or something close to the original Alien. I've been following Scott for 30 years - and it's clear that he has been on the decline since Gladiator and Black Hawk Down.

I liked a few of his later movies like A Good Year - but most have been rather flat and uninspired.

One thing I've noticed, is that he's gotten increasingly complacent with his own "point of view" in terms of historical facts and how things work in reality. It's like he has a complete disregard for plausible motivations or factual information about how things work.

Case in point - there's a scene in the movie where a certain character has to have an operation performed on her body - and it involves slicing directly through the skin and muscle-tissue of her abdomen. After the procedure, she's simply "stitched together" by metal clips in like 3 seconds - and with a bit of local anesthetic, she continues to move and jump about with some moaning. Ehm, you CAN'T have any kind of normal movement with your muscle tissue completely severed - and there was absolutely no healing involved. Just one of a series of ridiculous events.

The plot is entirely juvenile and cliché stuff with "profound" questions like who created us. For some reason, the beings who created us also want to kill us - and it seems to involve incredibly elaborate genetic engineering that also happened to kill most of them in their remote "lab facility". They're CLEARLY much more powerful than we are - and they could just bomb the hell out of us, or do it in a thousand simpler ways. But no, they seem to want to utilize excessively elaborate and dangerous genetic modification or infestation - that they can't even control.

They also like to record recent events with some kind of holographic recorder device that is unable to render clear images, only some cool ghostly images that I bet Scott loved to play with. But they're quite flexible in how they let you play recordings of their security procedure - so you can access their systems without effort.

Characters are void of personality and growth, they're REALLY stupid - and they like to freak out for no reason, and they like to stay calm and playful when there IS a reason - like when encountering a nasty looking cobra-worm - an alien - for the first time in history.

Among these faceless people - we have some willing to gleefully commit suicide by ramming an alien ship, because they like their captain, and they're required to do so because he "can't fly worth a damn" - despite him being the primary pilot hired by a billionaire to do nothing but fly the ship.

We have a religious scientist who concludes that she's found our creators, based on: "It's what I choose to believe".

Then we have the very same religious scientist look at an alien "head" they brought back - and she notices some strange growth on it. She then spends 2 seconds thinking and concludes that this is obviously some kind of "foreign cells" (impressive deduction, I must say) - and she decides to stimulate the cells with electricity - just to see what happens. No research - no caution - no nothing.

We have people who decide to open the door to their ship, seemingly with no thought process, despite having just faced complete chaos by extremely hostile alien forces - because one of their crew mates seems to be lying in front of the door. This while other crew mates have just been taken over by some kind of alien infestation.

Then we have the boyfriend of said religious scientist (a douche) who decides that the air in an alien environment is safe to breathe because his device tells him it is - and he immediately removes his helmet. A classic Hollywood scientist moment, and clearly there's no need to worry about biological contaminants in a place like that.

This movie is FULL of this kind of utterly implausible behavior and random decisions.

It has a couple of "for effect" gore scenes - but Scott manages to include ZERO tension along with them. As a result, they're mildly disgusting - but they have no lasting effect whatsoever.

The "aliens" that are a part of this movie all look like plastic - because of overly smooth and pale skin. They look like Lovecraft creatures without a much-needed paint-job.

We have a horribly predictable, pointless and wasted twist involving Guy Pearce and a certain other cast member.

We have an android, well-acted by Fassbender, who seems to be fully random in his decisions and motivations. Few actions made sense in any context - not to me anyway.

The music was overwrought and didn't fit with the mood of the film, and it seemed like one theme being repeated endlessly. A surprise, given Scott's usual flair for good music.

I think Lindelof is a complete and total hack - who only got the job because he was the "yes-man" who could match Scott's ego. This is pretty obvious in interviews - where Lindelof always manages to publicly kiss Scott's behind.

1 Star for Fassbender's performance.

1 Star for the amazingly detailed visuals.

1 Star for how the above combine to form the excellent beginning.

Now, it's just a matter of leaning back - musing over a thousand different people coming up with a thousand different explanations - each being the "correct" interpretation of this deep and thought-provoking masterpiece.


Sweet merciful mother of nitpicking batman. Not that I disagree with everything you said (because I don't), but many of these either 1) have explanations, or 2) have almost no consequence on the actual story. Case in point - whether she was careless with the head or reckless and blew it up is irrelevant, either one would have given the same result: that their DNA was human.
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Offline MrBoom_shack-a-lack

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #146 on: June 10, 2012, 04:19:25 PM »
Yeah i know that review is kind of messy written but he has alot of good points! :lol Let me put it like this: I was extremely excited for this movie and to then find out that the movie is full of this amazingly stupid and shallow characters made me rage! To be honest the plotholes didn´t bug as much as the characters. What was even the purpose of Charlize´s character Meredith? other than to have the typical hidden agenda!? The way they choose her to die just made me laugh so hard, perfect way of getting rid of a annoying character! But i still enjoyd watching it though, weird right!  :)
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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #147 on: June 10, 2012, 05:09:15 PM »
The "Yes, father"-scene was possibly the worst scene in the entire movie.

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #148 on: June 10, 2012, 05:21:50 PM »
The "Yes, father"-scene was possibly the worst scene in the entire movie.
This x Infinity + 1. That line was fucking awful.
I felt its length in quite a few places.

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Offline skydivingninja

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #149 on: June 10, 2012, 06:11:10 PM »
The "Yes, father"-scene was possibly the worst scene in the entire movie.
This x Infinity + 1. That line was fucking awful.

I can agree with this.

Offline Heretic

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #150 on: June 10, 2012, 08:17:16 PM »
The "Yes, father"-scene was possibly the worst scene in the entire movie.

I liked the "a king has his reign, and then he dies" line, but otherwise, yes, it was the worst scene overall.

Offline GuineaPig

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #151 on: June 10, 2012, 08:41:00 PM »
I don't know if any of you others saw it when it circulated the internet, but there was an early "draft" or idea going around, which I thought would have made a better movie probably. Maybe a bit closer to Alien, but that isn't really a problem.
And there's really no reason to spoil it because it's far from how the movie ended up, but still, the early idea was this:

Earth. Year 2058.

    Archaeological digs in Africa reveal alien artifacts that suggest humans were genetically engineered by an advanced alien race (space jockeys). These “Alien Gods” also terraformed Earth in order to make it habitable for their human creations. Amongst finds are coordinates to the Alien Gods’ home-world, to Paradise. Months later, the Weyland Corp launch the spaceship Prometheus and its crew, into deep space to make first contact. Thanks to faster than light travel, a few years later the Prometheus enters the Zeta Riticuli star system. Humans are greeted by their makers, then transported further into space to a scary yet fascinating world. The Alien Gods are proud of their “children”, their first creation to reach such levels of intelligence.

    As a reward they share bits of their astonishing bio-based technologies with the humans. But for one crew member of the Prometheus it’s not enough. In a treacherous act he steals the “bio-source code” to Terraforming, a technology at the origin of all Gods’ power, that could make humans equal to the gods. The Alien Gods may be scientists, but are also ruthless conquerors, destroyers of worlds who will not accept humans as equals. They unleash on the escaping human crew their favorite bio-weapon, a creature used to “clean up” worlds before colonization. But something goes wrong in the process and humans manage to turn the bio-weapon against their makers. Giving birth to a smarter, nastier, bigger breed of gut-eating creatures. Creatures that will be the demise of Paradise. What’s left of the Prometheus crew manages to escape the doomed planet.

On their trail a survivor is an Alien God in very familiar ship with one ultimate mission: Bring the wrath of the Gods to Earth.



I thought that would have made a great movie.

The first paragraph is just the plot of 2001.
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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #152 on: June 10, 2012, 08:49:56 PM »
Eh, only on the surface. The aliens in 2001 didn't genetically engineer anything, they didn't teraform earth, and (most importantly) they didn't really interact with the humans who followed their beacon, besides Dave and HAL. Not to mention that a large portion of the plot revolves around HAL, and has nothing to do with aliens.
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Offline GuineaPig

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #153 on: June 10, 2012, 09:18:10 PM »
Eh, only on the surface. The aliens in 2001 didn't genetically engineer anything, they didn't teraform earth, and (most importantly) they didn't really interact with the humans who followed their beacon, besides Dave and HAL. Not to mention that a large portion of the plot revolves around HAL, and has nothing to do with aliens.

The monoliths provided the ability to use tools, and later, to progress beyond them.  There was definitely engineering.
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Offline The King in Crimson

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #154 on: June 10, 2012, 09:22:30 PM »
Yeah, but the monoliths didn't create humanity, merely influenced it.

Offline countoftuscany42

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #155 on: June 10, 2012, 11:44:05 PM »
I enjoyed the movie, but would need to see it again to really understand everything.  I feel like too much was left out and characters didnt totally make sense, but i still like it as a film.
however I did read this article: https://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html#cutid1, which really helped explain aspects of the film, particularly regarding the religious overtones throughout. i would recommend everyone who saw the movie to read it.

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #156 on: June 10, 2012, 11:53:31 PM »
The "Yes, father"-scene was possibly the worst scene in the entire movie.
This x Infinity + 1. That line was fucking awful.

I can agree with this.

Yep, I'm on board with that too.  Other than that, I enjoyed it more than I was expecting to.

Offline Progmetty

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #157 on: June 11, 2012, 03:23:17 AM »
8 minutes into the first Alien movie, seeing it for the first time ever. I had to stop and come by to note how much I'm enjoying the contrast between what 70's movie makers envisioned as futuristic equipment and devices inside a space ship and what we do now, truly hilarious :lol
70's idea of futuristic equipment was really highly dependent on having plenty of different colored small light bulbs and also the sounds the 70's futuristic devices make are priceless.
It's a daring mission to watch this movie with the mind set that it's events are happening after the movie I went to see yesterday, especially with the very modern and current hair styles and lingo of Prometheus and on the other side the 70's beards and ABBA hair styles heh
T'is gonna be fun.
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Offline Progmetty

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #158 on: June 11, 2012, 06:47:41 AM »
Done, well that was basically Jaws in outer space. It was fun but had none of the depth of Prometheus.
I'm glad Hollywood finally knows that we understand when you send one of the crew to do something alone it means you're getting him killed, the original Alien movie was a reminder of this predictable dilemma.
« Last Edit: June 11, 2012, 06:58:57 AM by Progmetty »
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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #159 on: June 11, 2012, 07:24:24 AM »
Are you saying that Prometheus is better than Alien?  :o

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #160 on: June 11, 2012, 07:26:52 AM »
"Deeper" does not necessarily make a film better.  With Prometheus, I think it hindered it more than it helped. 

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #161 on: June 11, 2012, 07:30:06 AM »
"Deeper" does not necessarily make a film better.  With Prometheus, I think it hindered it more than it helped.

Someone should reaaally tell Damon Lindelof this.  It's apparently his life's work to inject the philosophical musings of a freshman university student into various works of science fiction.
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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #162 on: June 11, 2012, 08:13:36 AM »
Done, well that was basically Jaws in outer space. It was fun but had none of the depth of Prometheus.
I'm glad Hollywood finally knows that we understand when you send one of the crew to do something alone it means you're getting him killed, the original Alien movie was a reminder of this predictable dilemma.

You do realize that Alien is universally recognized as one of the greatest works in horror/Sci-fi, right? And that Prometheus will be forgotten in a very short amount of time?

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie) ***SPOILERS***
« Reply #163 on: June 11, 2012, 08:43:04 AM »
No I do not realize that Prometheus will be forgotten in a very short amount of time.
Yes I do realize Alien is universally recognized as one of the greatest works in horror/Sci-fi. I think it's basically just due to it being one of the pioneer movies in that area.
And:
"Deeper" does not necessarily make a film better. 

This.

Are you saying that Prometheus is better than Alien?  :o

I've certainly enjoyed Prometheus more but that's for a number of obvious factors, some of them technological and some format related. I really saw 80% of the events in Alien coming a few minutes before it happened but that's because I have the accumulative experience of similar "format" movies that has been made since 1979, I'm pretty sure if I saw it at it's opening year I would have been stunned and amazed.
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Offline bosk1

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie) ***SPOILERS***
« Reply #164 on: June 11, 2012, 09:04:45 AM »
First off, I edited the thread title to include a spoiler alert.  It's a movie thread for a movie that is now out.  If people honestly don't know the thread will contain spoilers, they should have their Internet privileges revoked.

Anyhow, saw it on Friday.  And let me just say, I liked the film. I didn't love it. But I liked it. Let me also say right up front that Scott was in a difficult position. It is a given that the film was going to evoke a lot of imagery from Alien, and that certain things were going to happen certain ways. Just inevitable. He handed that as well as could possibly be expected, I think. And, yeah, pretty much every big event in the film was predictable. With Scott directing, that predictability was tolerable. With anyone else directing, it would have been a boring mess.  But let's face facts:  Most of us, myself included, would have seen it even if it were horrible.

All that being said, even putting aside my theological issues with the movie and how stupid the whole "superior aliens from far, far away created us" myth is, it was a fun 3/5 movie that I would see again just to be able to fill in some of the gaps in my own mind for certain issues. That's my overall impression. I few specifics, positive and negative:

1. So, the premise basically centers around the fact that the engineers essentially created what appears to be a weaponized virus that re-engineers the DNA of whatever it infects to creae mutated parasitic life forms that multiply rapidly and destroy all non-virus-based life forms. Pretty cool, interesting, and frightening premise. So far, I'm on board. The fact that they were basically in a military bunker added to the effect. Perhaps it was just my military background kicking in, but when the Prometheus first found the bunkers and was landing, my first thought was, "those look like either munitions bunkers or burial mounds." Turns out I was essentially correct on both counts.

2. Despite the coolness of #1 above, Scott made some gaffes in the genetics area. Namely, the Engineers are NOT a complete, 100% genetic match with humans. If they were, they wouldn't be so different from us. It would have been such a simple thing to say they are almost a complete match. Small detail, but it is attention to the small details that often takes a good movie and makes it great. This was small, but at the same time, glaring, IMO.

3. Why did the Engineer in the beginning drink the virus in the first place? And why did it have the effect on him that it did? I think that scene was meant to imply that his DNA basically spread around to create life here on earth. But it just didn't seem to make sense to me. First off, the virus doesn't shatter DNA elsewhere in the film. It modifies it. Second, if that's how they were going to create life, surely there were better ways to spread Engineer DNA than a suicide mission. Third, I thought the cave painting were supposed to indicate that humans lived side-by-side with Engineers for a time. Maybe this is to set up that humans are essentially descended from a virus, which is why the Engineers ultimately decide to destroy us? Maybe it's to set up the chilling premise that humans actually share a genetic kinship with the xenomorphs and other nasty creatures produced by the virus? Those would be interesting twists, I suppose. But I'm not really sure Scott had something like this in mind. It may simply be a throwaway scene that has no real point other than to make us ask questions there are no answers to.

4. Why did Shaw have to become inpregnated? I mean, yeah, it goes back to what was perhaps one of the most frightening aspects of the whole Alien series: these terrifying, creepy monsters start out inside of us!!! But that whole sequence of events just didn't work for me. It just didn't. It felt dumb and contrived from start to finish. If it was just to set up the xenomorph at the end, it could have been handled differently (and better). For instance, we could have merely had a chest burster pop out of the scientists who were in the bunker rather than simply have one disappear and the other turn into zombie scientist.

5. Why a xenomorph at the end? Yeah, there were millions of geek-gasms across the country this past weekend from everyone who saw the original Alien movies. It was worth it for that alone. But, again, Scott did it wrong. First off, mature xenomorphs don't pop out of their hosts. Second, they don't look like a kid in a pterodactyl suit.

6. The falling Engineer ship. Oh, the falling Engineer ship... Okay, let's set this up. Large, tall object is falling along a certain line and will crush the puny protagonists underneath if they can't somehow manage to escape. Rather than take a few steps to the right or left, which would be an easy escape, the protagonist instead chooses the futile exercise of running as fast as possible (but not fast enough) down the same line that is the path of the falling object. If I have done even a mediocre job of explaining the problem properly, you should be having the exact same reaction I had when seeing this scene, which is: "Wait, this seems familiar--Is this...?--Did he just...?--THIS IS BUGS BUNNY! I HAVE SEEN THIS EXACT SAME GAG IN EVERY SINGLE BUGS BUNNY CARTOON SINCE THE DAWN OF TIME!" And as much as I adore Bugs Bunny, I don't want Bugs Bunny in my Ridley Scott alien sci-fi horror thriller, thanks.  I was legitimately expecting to see a cutaway scene any moment of Wile E. Coyote receiving a package from Acme, which is not the reaction a movie set in the Alien universe is supposed to evoke.

Those are some of my questions/beefs. Still a decent movie. I will see the sequel(s) and likely see this one again, just because.
« Last Edit: June 11, 2012, 09:26:17 AM by bosk1 »
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Offline Zantera

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie) ***SPOILERS***
« Reply #165 on: June 11, 2012, 09:31:05 AM »
3. From what I understood it was indeed an engineer who drank the black liquid in order to sacrifice himself to create life. Didn't necessarily have to be on earth, but just showing how the whole terraforming-process starts. As from what I understood the black liquid broke down the DNA and altered it, changing it. The results seemed to be different, Holloway got killed before we got to see any true effects, the other scientist came back crazy, and the engineer in the beginning probably died from it.

5. I agree it was a bit weird. The fact that the Xenomorph looked differently felt logical to me since it came out of an Engineer, and not a human being, just like how in Alien 3, the alien is drastically different due to coming from a dog.
As for how the Xenomorph was created, we do have the whole: Alien Queen > Eggs > Facehugger > Chestburster > Full grown Xenomorph, would have made more sense if the Xenomorph at the end was a Queen.

6. Yeah, I agree with this. That was actually one of the more silly scenes, it's the same in all movies where something huge is falling, in all cases the characters run forward instead of running to the sides.  :lol

Offline bosk1

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie) ***SPOILERS***
« Reply #166 on: June 11, 2012, 09:46:02 AM »
3. From what I understood it was indeed an engineer who drank the black liquid in order to sacrifice himself to create life. Didn't necessarily have to be on earth, but just showing how the whole terraforming-process starts. As from what I understood the black liquid broke down the DNA and altered it, changing it. The results seemed to be different, Holloway got killed before we got to see any true effects, the other scientist came back crazy, and the engineer in the beginning probably died from it.

I suppose.  And I guess it does fit the allusion to the Greek Prometheus myth (although, is Prometheus meant to symbolize humanity, the Engineers, or certain specific human or nonhuman individuals?  Interesting to ponder).  I don't consider this scene to be a knock on the whole film.  I'm just not sure how it fits.

5. I agree it was a bit weird. The fact that the Xenomorph looked differently felt logical to me since it came out of an Engineer, and not a human being, just like how in Alien 3, the alien is drastically different due to coming from a dog.
As for how the Xenomorph was created, we do have the whole: Alien Queen > Eggs > Facehugger > Chestburster > Full grown Xenomorph, would have made more sense if the Xenomorph at the end was a Queen.

But see, this is where I have a problem with #2.  Yeah, the DNA is ever so slightly different.  Exactly.  So Shaw shouldn't have said it was a 100% match.  Anyway...

I have mixed feelings about the life cycle part of it.  I've been pissed for years about how some of the sequels have deviated.  But then again, that specific life cycle was something that was in Cameron's script.  If you watch the extended version of Alien, and you find out what happened to Dallas, it's clear that Scott didn't necessarily intend on that being a rigid formula since the drone in Alien apparently also had the ability to lay eggs.

6. Yeah, I agree with this. That was actually one of the more silly scenes, it's the same in all movies where something huge is falling, in all cases the characters run forward instead of running to the sides.  :lol

Without giving specifics, I laid out the general sequence of events for my secretary a few minutes ago and asked her if she has ever seen that before.  Without even a pause, she says, "Yeah.  Roadrunner cartoons."  That pretty much says it all.
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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie) ***SPOILERS***
« Reply #167 on: June 11, 2012, 09:53:04 AM »
I thought the myth of Prometheus was not that he CREATED humanity, but brought fire to humanity.  Or am I mixing up my mythology here?

Offline bosk1

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie) ***SPOILERS***
« Reply #168 on: June 11, 2012, 09:56:33 AM »
Quote from: wikipedia (because even though it would be better to cite a primary source, I'm lazy)
Prometheus (Greek: Προμηθεύς) is a Titan, culture hero, and trickster figure who in Greek mythology is credited with the creation of man from clay and the theft of fire for human use, an act that enabled progress and civilization.
"The Supreme Court of the United States has descended from the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie."

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie) ***SPOILERS***
« Reply #169 on: June 11, 2012, 09:57:39 AM »
Ah, I figured I got that wrong. :facepalm:

Offline bosk1

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie) ***SPOILERS***
« Reply #170 on: June 11, 2012, 10:01:49 AM »
Well, since it was both, doesn't that technically mean you were right?
"The Supreme Court of the United States has descended from the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie."

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie) ***SPOILERS***
« Reply #171 on: June 11, 2012, 10:02:36 AM »
Partially, maybe. :lol

Offline MykeHavoc

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie coming in 2012)
« Reply #172 on: June 11, 2012, 10:19:01 AM »
Done, well that was basically Jaws in outer space. It was fun but had none of the depth of Prometheus.

Are you aware that a lot of the curiosities you would have pondered for years were no longer there due to Prometheus?

Offline Heretic

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie) ***SPOILERS***
« Reply #173 on: June 11, 2012, 10:27:08 AM »
Done, well that was basically Jaws in outer space. It was fun but had none of the depth of Prometheus.
I'm glad Hollywood finally knows that we understand when you send one of the crew to do something alone it means you're getting him killed, the original Alien movie was a reminder of this predictable dilemma.

You do realize that Alien is universally recognized as one of the greatest works in horror/Sci-fi, right? And that Prometheus will be forgotten in a very short amount of time?

Haha, there's no way Prometheus will be forgotten in a short amount of time. It's a fairly original and fresh sci-fi movie in a time where many sci-fi movies all fall to the same cliches; that's one of the biggest praises it has gotten so far. It's also a good addition to the Alien universe and opens up the door for more, which is awesome. I didn't like Alien 3 at all (neither did a lot of people), but it still gets talked about because of its ties into the Alien universe... Prometheus won't be forgotten, and I feel like in time people will love it even more. Alien got a lot of terrible reviews and comments when it first came out.

@Bosk, I would have preferred the DNA to be a tad different as well. Seeing as the xenomorph at the end was a tad different than the ones that come out of humans, it should mean the genetic makeup is a tad different, but... maybe that will be explained with a sequel.

Also, Scott confirmed that the "2000 years" reference in the movie (among all of the other Christian allegories) was intentional; read about it here: https://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html

Offline Zantera

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Re: Prometheus (Ridley Scott's new movie) ***SPOILERS***
« Reply #174 on: June 11, 2012, 10:53:09 AM »
I wouldn't go as far as saying that Prometheus will forgotten, but I don't see it getting the same status that Alien or Aliens has.
Personally I quite like Alien 3 though, while it has some issues (like how noticeable it is with the rewrites), I still loved it how they didn't have any weapons in the movie, so it was certainly more back to horror than action. Resurrection is not really what I would call a "good" movie, but I enjoy it. It's a movie I can watch casually and enjoy, without being blown away.

Apart from Weyland Corporation and the Xenomorph at the end, Prometheus really doesn't qualify as an Alien prequel to me. It takes place in the same universe, but very little of what happens in Prometheus is important as for what happens in the Alien-movies. Just some cool and fun easter eggs here and there, like the big painting of a Xenomorph.
While I think Prometheus was a great movie (despite some plotholes), it doesn't really bring much new to the table. It's certainly one of the better sci-fi's I've seen lately, but I would rank it below the first 3 Alien movies.