Prometheus Review Thread (Spoilers)

[BouCoupDinkyDau]

Yikes. Avatar more than once? I was blown away by my (3D) viewing of it, but by the next day the newness had worn off and I realized how paper thin the whole affair had been.

Now if you could get rid of all the smurfs and the humans (basically all of the characters), I'd absolutely LOVE to have a tour of the planet. The world building in that movie was excellent! I also really liked the realistic spaceship design with it's huge reflective solar panel.

[Barbossa]

Originally Posted by willbfree

What a whiny rant from that guy!

[Show spoiler]In his complaint that the characters did not act like a competent science team, he completely failed to notice that although this was in name a science mission, it was mostly a vanity project pushed through by the president of the company, who ignored his board (and the protest of his own daughter, who seemed to be a major board member) and put together the mission without regard for such things as whether the people he chose would actually be able to do their jobs. All the president of the company cared about was getting his butt to the planet - the details (selection of geologist, for example!) was just window dressing to conceal his purely personal reason for going.

Nitpickers are so annoying, especially when they are so busy nitpicking that they miss major portions of the story.

And as for what Giger thought about the squishy, organic-like buttons? Well since Giger has said that the ship should appear to have been grown, he'd probably be all for it - if indeed Giger did not suggest them himself, which he may have.

Was using the sound from a flute as a computer log-on a bit precious? Sure. But not liking it isn't a reason to mock it.

The guy is full of himself. I hope he burned a few professional bridges with that epic rant.

My only problem was with the flute - it just seemed ridiculous. I was fine with the squishy buttons though.

[Kaiju]

I'm not sure if it has been brought up yet but this bit has been bugging me...

[Show spoiler]Has anyone wondered how the hell David was able to communicate with Shaw at the end even though his head was torn off? Even if he's able to still use his arms on his body, what is he speaking into in order to communicate with her? Eh? Eh? I mean, his body is at least 6 feet away. Eh? Eh?

I never wondered this until seeing it for a second time and it's been bugging me since.

[Prox]

Originally Posted by Barbossa

My only problem was with the flute - it just seemed ridiculous. I was fine with the squishy buttons though.

From a security standpoint (which would be a BIG concern on a ship creating bioweapons), it actually makes a lot of sense. Having the knowledge that there are other intelligent lifeforms in the galaxy, you would want to make your systems difficult to impossible for anyone but you to operate. Thus, you want different types of inputs. Only having buttons would allow any physical being the potential to use your ship (and therefore its weapons). Adding in the requirement of a respiratory system beefs up your security. It's like the way some of our most secure systems require both a passcode and biometrics.

Of course, David is able to operate the ship's controls because he is designed to mirror humans, who in turn are almost exactly the same as engineers.

[mars396]

Mehhhhh

It was OK.

Maybe I’d go so far as to call it good.


It is not the RIDLEY SCOTT MASTERPIECE!!!! I wanted (and quite frankly was expecting), but not a total disaster, either.

[Show spoiler]I really enjoyed the first hour (minus the birth of all life on Earth scene, which was infuriating): Slow, and quiet; David wandering the ship caring for the sleeping crew, the waking, the landing, exploring the Pyramid – all terrific. The two idiots left behind, stranded in the Pyramid until the storm passes was awesome – that alone would have made a truly terrific film. The Hammerpede (“Cobra” Alien) is the only new creature design that worked: It looked like a chestbuster, it acted like the creatures from the previous films, it even bled acid, so for that moment, this really looked like this movie was heading into greatness. But, then, unfortunately, the movie takes an extreme nose-dive.

What I hated:

Old Man Weyland. Why cast a young actor, only to cover him in prosthetics !??!?!? I was expecting a magical fountain of youth moment, when the Engineers make him young and handsome again. Why else would they have made such an insane casting choice; surely there are dozens of appropriately aged actors looking for work. And why have him come all the way to LV-223, just to get killed off in 2.5 seconds ?!?!?!? Remove his entire character from the movie, and lose nothing. Oh wait, (gasp!) he is Charlize Theron’s father ???? (soap opera da da dummmm!) …..yawn……

Space Jockey is now just a spacesuit. I H.A.T.E. revisionist writing like this. For 33 years, the Space Jockey was a complete and total mystery: “Looks like he’s grown right out of the chair” How exciting it was to see a truly alien alien, not just a stuntman in a rubber suit, or an actor painted a weird color and wearing contacts. But now, we know the truth. And the truth SUCKS.

Mohawked Geologist Creature. That whole scene was so random and superfluous. Another one of those remove-it-and-lose-nothing moments. It was much better, dramatically, not knowing what happened to him.

Which brings me to Da Rules. Alien, Aliens (even Alien3 and the AvP movies!) had RULES to its made up xenobiology. This one just seems to make up whatever crap it wants to. Sometimes the black spacegoo kills you instantly, disassembling your parts, other times it puts worms in your eyes and makes you into a zombie. Sharing bodily fluids with another person puts a baby squid inside of her, which grows up to be a giant land Octopus ?!?!??! huh ?

Which brings me to the Engineer vs Octopus/face hugger fight. That was just heart-breaking to watch. When the Land Octopus showed its underside, with all kinds of extra mouths, I honestly felt like I was watching a SyFy Channel mockbuster from The Asylum. Then we get the pre-credits Engineer-burster. Wow . . . . that was THE WORST scene I have seen in any Alien movie, it felt straight out of AvP. I wanted to see the “Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson” credit with some hard metal rock playing. Unfortunately, for so many people, how a movie ends is their total memory of the experience, and I must agree, that once the Dragon Tatoo girl entered the lifeboat, the movie became total garbage. What a shame.

There was much to like in this film, but much to hate, as well. Such a hybrid of a movie.

[Col. Zombie]

Originally Posted by raygendreau

Scott makes no secret of his unhappiness with religion.

Yet, at the same time, he seems to treat them respectfully.

[KarmaNL]

Why hasn't anyone thought of making a collected volume book full of ridleygrams? That would be nice to see

[FunkJames]

Originally Posted by ariakon

Walked out of the movie in love, went online and was summarily called an 'idiot' by lots and lots of fan commentators. Go see more science-fiction, they tell me. B-bu-but I love science-fiction, I tell them, Cordwainer Smith and Ray Bradbury and Gregory Benford are some of my favorite authors. You're an idiot, they tell me.

It's amazing how I've graduated High School and college (in English Literature, no less!) And yet people can still bully me into feeling bad for having different tastes in things. I don't know, am I a half-wit for loving Prometheus? I thought it was quite good, and at the very least, tried to be something meaningful.

They're just jealous. I too love science fiction, I haven't read about it or anything, but I've taken astronomy and gotten degrees myself, still I was nervous about saying anything about this movie originally. Ignore them!

[Underworld54]

Originally Posted by khan1670

Eh?? Well I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that

[Show spoiler] the scene is suppose to be Earth far in the past and the Engineer knows exactly what he's doing. The goo he ingests basically breaks down his body and he falls into the water. Basically it's supposed to infer that the breakdown of his genetic material eventually leads to us popping up on Earth. This is why the Engineers and humans both have the same DNA structure.

My buddy who I saw it with questioned me about this very same question and I gave him this very same answer. He usually picks up on this stuff. I'm glad I was able to enlighten him with the correct theory.

[mars396]

Originally Posted by Elandyll

the tech level of the "Humans" shown is far higher than that of the first Alien movie it seems (Holographic Interface, etc.).

Prometheus was a scientific survey vessel. Nostromo was basically a Tractor Trailer. Of course, the Science Vessel would have the all the high-tech equipment for scientific study. Why would a Space Truck need anything like that ?????

[groove93]

Originally Posted by mars396

Mehhhhh

It was OK.

Maybe I’d go so far as to call it good.


It is not the RIDLEY SCOTT MASTERPIECE!!!! I wanted (and quite frankly was expecting), but not a total disaster, either.

[Show spoiler]I really enjoyed the first hour (minus the birth of all life on Earth scene, which was infuriating): Slow, and quiet; David wandering the ship caring for the sleeping crew, the waking, the landing, exploring the Pyramid – all terrific. The two idiots left behind, stranded in the Pyramid until the storm passes was awesome – that alone would have made a truly terrific film. The Hammerpede (“Cobra” Alien) is the only new creature design that worked: It looked like a chestbuster, it acted like the creatures from the previous films, it even bled acid, so for that moment, this really looked like this movie was heading into greatness. But, then, unfortunately, the movie takes an extreme nose-dive.

What I hated:

Old Man Weyland. Why cast a young actor, only to cover him in prosthetics !??!?!? I was expecting a magical fountain of youth moment, when the Engineers make him young and handsome again. Why else would they have made such an insane casting choice; surely there are dozens of appropriately aged actors looking for work. And why have him come all the way to LV-223, just to get killed off in 2.5 seconds ?!?!?!? Remove his entire character from the movie, and lose nothing. Oh wait, (gasp!) he is Charlize Theron’s father ???? (soap opera da da dummmm!) …..yawn……

Space Jockey is now just a spacesuit. I H.A.T.E. revisionist writing like this. For 33 years, the Space Jockey was a complete and total mystery: “Looks like he’s grown right out of the chair” How exciting it was to see a truly alien alien, not just a stuntman in a rubber suit, or an actor painted a weird color and wearing contacts. But now, we know the truth. And the truth SUCKS.

Mohawked Geologist Creature. That whole scene was so random and superfluous. Another one of those remove-it-and-lose-nothing moments. It was much better, dramatically, not knowing what happened to him.

Which brings me to Da Rules. Alien, Aliens (even Alien3 and the AvP movies!) had RULES to its made up xenobiology. This one just seems to make up whatever crap it wants to. Sometimes the black spacegoo kills you instantly, disassembling your parts, other times it puts worms in your eyes and makes you into a zombie. Sharing bodily fluids with another person puts a baby squid inside of her, which grows up to be a giant land Octopus ?!?!??! huh ?

Which brings me to the Engineer vs Octopus/face hugger fight. That was just heart-breaking to watch. When the Land Octopus showed its underside, with all kinds of extra mouths, I honestly felt like I was watching a SyFy Channel mockbuster from The Asylum. Then we get the pre-credits Engineer-burster. Wow . . . . that was THE WORST scene I have seen in any Alien movie, it felt straight out of AvP. I wanted to see the “Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson” credit with some hard metal rock playing. Unfortunately, for so many people, how a movie ends is their total memory of the experience, and I must agree, that once the Dragon Tatoo girl entered the lifeboat, the movie became total garbage. What a shame.

There was much to like in this film, but much to hate, as well. Such a hybrid of a movie.

[Show spoiler]As for your point about rules, James Cameron broke them with Aliens. He introduced the Queen, coupled with the fact that it's the only film in the series where the Alien's "cap" is removed from it's head.

[mars396]

Originally Posted by wormraper

no after credit stuff. you're good to leave when the credits roll

Actually, one would be better off leaving as Shaw enters the lifeboat, so as not to have to endure the worst parts of this movie

[Show spoiler]the Land Octopus vs Engineer fight and the Engineer-burster

[raygendreau]

Originally Posted by greg_achen

Interesting. So while not exactly an official confirmation that the Trilobite was genetically her "child," it seems that might be Scott's intent after all. So either the creature at the end is the ancestor of the xenomorph as a self sustaining species like we see in Alien and Aliens as a result of Shaw being impregnated by Holloway's mutant s-p-e-r-m OR it's a completely unique creature that's related yet independent of the classic xenomorphs. Until I am told otherwise, I prefer to think it's the former. It makes that last shot that much more cool thinking we are seeing the origin of one the best movie monsters of all time.

SIDE NOTE: I can't believe Blu-ray.com is censoring the word s-p-e-r-m.

You might be interested in how Lindelof revised the medpod scene from the 'traditional' alien lifecycle that Spaghts had written:

[Show spoiler]"We spoke with co-writer Damon Lindelof about the genesis of that sequence and why it works so well at creeping the hell out of everyone.

Lindelof was quick to praise the sequence, but he almost as quickly shifted the credit to his co-writer. "The first thing, it's one of my favorite scenes in the movie, certainly on an action level. It's the most frightening and disturbing scene in the movie by far," he said. "The second thing, this was Jon Spaihts' idea."

Spaihts wrote the initial draft of "Prometheus," which tied the story closer to the other films in the universe, as apparent in the scene's original version. "In Jon's draft, essentially Shaw gets a facehugger on her and gets implanted with a xenomorph, a traditional chest burster, so she used the med-pod to essentially extract this thing from her chest," Lindelof said.

So when he took a crack at the scene, Lindelof decided to relocate the foreign body to Shaw's abdomen. "I thought it was an amazing sequence, but I said, 'I think this scene is going to be even more upsetting and disturbing if it plays into the fertility and sexual aspects of the "Alien" universe,' " he said. "So things were rejiggered so that Holloway eventually impregnates Shaw, who is infertile, with his now enhanced or corrupted, depending on which way you look at it — I won't confirm either here — DNA, so this is literally a fetus. It's a child. The fact that she is pregnant was what I brought to it, and that was my story contribution to that sequence."

(MTV interview) http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/168...ry-scene.jhtml

[raygendreau]

Originally Posted by TheMan

I'm not sure if it has been brought up yet but this bit has been bugging me...

[Show spoiler]Has anyone wondered how the hell David was able to communicate with Shaw at the end even though his head was torn off? Even if he's able to still use his arms on his body, what is he speaking into in order to communicate with her? Eh? Eh? I mean, his body is at least 6 feet away. Eh? Eh?

I never wondered this until seeing it for a second time and it's been bugging me since.

The transceiver was in the suit a few feet away. They made a point of showing a blinking red light indicating voice activation of the transmitter when he was talking. Technically its called (VOX).

[avecha]

So is Alien: Origin trying to cash in on Prometheus??
Stupid DTV crap.

[raygendreau]

So, according to Lindelof, there is an english translation of the dialogue David had with the Engineer. It will be discussed in his commentary on the DVD/BD.

"Yes. David's dialogue with the Engineer has an English translation, but Ridley felt very strongly about not subtitling it. I spoke at length about this on my DVD commentary" (MTV email exchange previously posted)

[HandyDandy]

The dialogue is as follows....

"What was will be...What is will be no more...This shall be the season of evil"
"Prepare yourself....The birth of a new world awaits to be seeded"

[InCali]

Originally Posted by besi

Visual Effects Supervisor on "Moon"

http://www.gavinrothery.com/my-blog/...rometheus.html

" the Alien ship start-up sequence was ****ing RIDICULOUS. You play a little flute and push some hard boiled eggs. Bingo bongo, where in the universe would you like to go today? I'd love to hear what Giger thought when he saw that in there, bet he was pissing himself."

his view on Alien

http://www.gavinrothery.com/my-blog/...t-so-good.html

And you'd prefer they turn the key, hit the gas, pop the clutch and maybe get a jump start if the engine won't turn over? Maybe have some people get out and push? Who knows what a Voice/DNA/??? activation control device might look like in god knows how many years? I could just hear someone crossing the country in a covered wagon being shown a picture of the interior of a space station and saying the same thing....oh yeah....Fassbender's hair really is a 1/4" too short.

[InCali]

Originally Posted by InCali

And you'd prefer they turn the key, hit the gas, pop the clutch and maybe get a jump start if the engine won't turn over? Maybe have some people get out and push? Who knows what a Voice/DNA/??? activation control device might look like in god knows how many years? I could just hear someone crossing the country in a covered wagon being show a picture of the interior of a space station and saying the same thing....oh yeah....Fassbender's hair really is a 1/4" too short.

As far as the complaining goes, you really can't win. People want answers dammmit!!! They don't like those questions hanging out there dammmit!!! We find out about origin of the space jockey and the answer SUCKS!!!! Dammmit!!!

[Dr Locked Her]

I liked it mainly for it's ambiguity, today's audience has been conditioned to have roadmaps drawn for them in the stories to guide them through it ala the theatrical version of Bladerunner with Ford's narration (lesson learned Ridley?), same thing for the Shawshank Redemption (was Freeman's narration really necessary?) or just unsubtle dialoge thrown in to keep you posted.

Some have been griping about the unanswered questions the film left. But they seem to forget a certain sci-fi classic in 1968 that boggled heads all over the world and left a zillion questions unanswered. I'm sure you all know what film I'm talking about. If not, then I'll just leave it ambiguous.

The film certainly has it's flaws, characters are not very well drawn out, lapses in logic as to the actions by some of the characters. But all in all, I think it's one of the better sci-fi films to come out since the first Matrix and I hope a sequel will materialize.

BTW, word has it on few other sites that a Director's Cut will come out on video that's about 30 min longer. Anybody know if that's been confirmed?