Prometheus (2012)

[moviecriticsonline]

I'm sure Fassbender will be nominated for his role in "Prometheus", but we shall see what other Oscar worthy films come out in the next couple months. I heard Daniel Day-Lewis gives a great performance in "Lincoln", so it might be a tough competition.

[raygendreau]

Originally Posted by BouCoupDinkyDau

No it doesn't. It says you shouldn't dismiss either just because you side with one.

If you knew anything about Ridley Scott, you'd know that he considers religion to be one of the greatest evils of the human race.

Ridley says a lot of things about religion. In this interview he is not so critical.

"Are you a believer and what is your vision of heaven and hell?"

My father made me an altar boy because we were with the Protestant "Church of England. I’d go and struggle with the wine with the priest, who’d pour out this ruby-red wine. We’d have a struggle with the communion cup, because I liked the wine, as well."

Silence

"I got fed up and eventually took up tennis instead of going to church. I became an avid tennis player. My parents never knew this for a year. My father said to me, “How can you do this?” I said, “Well, you don’t go to church and neither does mum.” There was this total silence."

"But, the time I spent in church left a mark on me. I am not sure that the mark is a good thing, because it leaves an inherent sense of guilt even when you haven’t done anything wrong. Bizarrely, I still feel guilty. It keeps me on the straight and narrow path, so I think what you learn from religion are the fundamentals of right and wrong. Whether God or Christ has a part in that, the most important thing I got out of religion was right and wrong."

"So, if you could ask your Creator, is there one burning question that you would want answered?"

"Yeah, what’s the weather like? I don’t know. Maybe if I can get my knee back, so I can play tennis again. The sport is a wonderful thing for me. It was my escape. But, my Maker? I wouldn’t know what to ask Him. I have pretty well everything. I’m really enjoying myself."

http://entertainment.inquirer.net/44...de-runner-film

[Gremal]

Originally Posted by IlGialloMondadori

http://www.christianpost.com/news/ri...of-evil-76176/

"And the biggest source of evil is of course religion," Scott said."

Yeah, and Scott goes on in that interview to say, "I'm really intrigued by those eternal questions of creation and belief and faith. I don't care who you are, it's what we all think about. It's in the back of all our minds. Everyone is tearing each other apart in the name of their personal god. And the irony is, by definition, they're probably worshiping the same god." Like I said, you need to look at all his quotes and not cherrypick. There is a much broader context.

[IlGialloMondadori]

Originally Posted by Gremal

Yeah, and Scott goes on in that interview to say, "I'm really intrigued by those eternal questions of creation and belief and faith. I don't care who you are, it's what we all think about. It's in the back of all our minds. Everyone is tearing each other apart in the name of their personal god. And the irony is, by definition, they're probably worshiping the same god." Like I said, you need to look at all his quotes and not cherrypick. There is a much broader context.

It just seems like Ridley is confused. Which might help explain the problems with Prometheus.

[Hawkguy]

Originally Posted by moviecriticsonline

I'm sure Fassbender will be nominated for his role in "Prometheus", but we shall see what other Oscar worthy films come out in the next couple months.

Would probably have a better chance in a supporting category, if there's really a chance at all.

[mayday72]

Originally Posted by Gremal

Link? Proof? I found some of his quotes on the subject and they seemed similar but the context around them proves he has a broader view of religion and faith.



I agree with most of that but take exception with the "cool mix of faith and science presented in a manner that suggested neither one is right on its own." Did we watch the same movie? The scientific capability of the engineers had caused them nothing but disaster. The film clearly showed the scientists and those having faith in technology as self-serving and rapidly succumbing to the horrors of the black goop. The only survivor had faith in God. That's not a mix. It's a very clear statement about faith.

Yes but she was using science in order to find tangible proof for her faith. And in the end intended to continue using science to find out why her faith was not as she believed. To me & it's just IMHO those two factors show a joining of both faith/religon and science. It's not really a statement on who's right or wrong. Just a continuing search for answers.

[deltasun]

Originally Posted by mayday72

Just finished it. What exactly are people are not getting about this movie? It is a rather simple story of man's basic and eternal questions about our existence. Where do I come from? Why am I here? What happens when I die? Unfortunately none of us will have these answers until the inevitable. But this was a rather cool mix of faith & science presented in a manner that suggest neither one is right on it's own. But perhaps the two combined may hold the answers. If God created man who created God? Most people that are disappointed expected a much closer connection with Alien I'm sure. I found the film quite mesmerizing. A flawed but not by much masterpiece.

First off, I really liked this film too. What's great about it are the other questions that are generated after watching it -

[Show spoiler]why did the Engineers want to destroy Earth? Did they leave the markings so that one day when Earthlings have enough knowledge/understanding, they will figure out how to reach out to that station? Is that then the trigger/threshold for the Engineers to say, "they've become smart enough (hit a specific threshold that the Engineers are comfortable with), it's time to destroy that planet?"

On and on...

[deltasun]

Originally Posted by moviecriticsonline

I'm sure Fassbender will be nominated for his role in "Prometheus", but we shall see what other Oscar worthy films come out in the next couple months. I heard Daniel Day-Lewis gives a great performance in "Lincoln", so it might be a tough competition.

I don't think his performance, while solid and engaging, is enough to win an Oscar.

[IlGialloMondadori]

Fassbender is tremendous in Prometheus, as he is in everything, but I'll be very surprised if he was nominated for this.

They should create a new Oscar category - award for Worst Old Man Makeup. Prometheus is a shoo-in.

[raygendreau]

Originally Posted by CoopFilm

Would probably have a better chance in a supporting category, if there's really a chance at all.

Yes. The category he has been talked up about is Best Supporting Actor. Noomi had top billing in Prometheus. That billing may switch in the sequel.

[moviecriticsonline]

Originally Posted by deltasun

I don't think his performance, while solid and engaging, is enough to win an Oscar.

He may not win, but he has a good chance of getting a nomination.

[Gremal]

Originally Posted by deltasun

First off, I really liked this film too. What's great about it are the other questions that are generated after watching it -

[Show spoiler]why did the Engineers want to destroy Earth? Did they leave the markings so that one day when Earthlings have enough knowledge/understanding, they will figure out how to reach out to that station? Is that then the trigger/threshold for the Engineers to say, "they've become smart enough (hit a specific threshold that the Engineers are comfortable with), it's time to destroy that planet?"

On and on...

Well, I'm not gonna put this in a spoiler because the film has been in theaters for months and now home video for several days. Your question about a threshold is answered in the film: they were preparing to destroy Earth about 2000 years ago.

Originally Posted by mayday72

Yes but she was using science in order to find tangible proof for her faith. And in the end intended to continue using science to find out why her faith was not as she believed. To me & it's just IMHO those two factors show a joining of both faith/religon and science. It's not really a statement on who's right or wrong. Just a continuing search for answers.

Your wording is accurate: she was USING science. She never had FAITH in science. She put her faith in a creator. Having worked at a couple scientific instrumentation companies, I've gotten to know several scientists with a similar mentality and spirituality to Shaw. It's worth noting that Darwin was planning to go into the clergy before he became a naturalist and wrote Origin of Species...and my favorite biologist, Gregor Mendel was actually a monk at a monastery when he did the research that basically invented the field of genetics.

[deltasun]

Originally Posted by Gremal

Well, I'm not gonna put this in a spoiler because the film has been in theaters for months and now home video for several days. Your question about a threshold is answered in the film: they were preparing to destroy Earth about 2000 years ago.

...

But my question wasn't when, it was why? Plus, I had more questions.

[willbfree]

Originally Posted by IlGialloMondadori

Only the enlightened can truly get the majestic intricacies and depth of the Prometheus script, as written by the writer of Cowboys and Aliens and the terrible last season of Lost. Ridley can shoot a beautiful looking film, but that film can often turn out to be absolutely terrible, and in no way elegant and nuanced. How about A Good Year? Robin Hood? Hannibal?

So, you're saying that the plot of the movie is that Peter Weyland wants immortality, so he hires the stupidest crew he possibly can and keeps his trip completely secret from everyone. Well, that's a horrible plan, and yes, it does get everyone killed, but it also makes for a bad movie, because in this case, all of the characters are stupid, useless, and at worst, completely unlikable. So how is this better than the script to a teen slasher film again? Because it has characters parrot things like, "Where did we come from?" That's not enough to get me to invest in a meaningful way in any of the characters.

I don't actually see where the trip was secret. I only saw that Weyland staffed the ship with idiots - and this was shown repeatedly, not only in the crews interactions with the various life forms, but in each characters introductions and actions. We saw the geologist was a jerk, had facial tattoos, and a mohawk. We saw the snake-loving techie trying to bond with the jerk. We saw the pilot of the ship more interested in his Christmas tree than in the crew's first meeting after coming out of sleep. We saw the new age male archeologist take off his helmet to be the first one to breathe the fresh air of an alien world. Again and again and again we were shown that this was indeed a crew of idiots.

Then we saw how the only person on the entire ship who was confided in was David. And only reluctantly, Vickers. We were shown that David could master any challenge - alien writing, sure why not. Science experiments - sure why not. He was the only member of the crew that was not an idiot, and was shown to be the only one that the creator of the mission considered worth his time.

How about a medical doctor? No, there's another machine that is trusted more than a person.

I agree the film is terribly flawed, and when watching it again (I'll force myself to), I will pay special attention to everything that was said about the troubles with the board of directors, to see if I am over-reading an explanation of why this mission was crewed by idiots. But it was. Not just dimmer-than-some, but truly dim, socially inept, professionally suspect. That wasn't bad writing, that was clearly a crew selected from the bottom of the barrel.

Would it have been more fun if the crew were all really bright and capable, but had gotten picked off anyway? Sure, it might have been. But then those bright and capable folks would have been called on to do things that only David was called on to do, and that would have made a different movie.

[moviecriticsonline]

[Show spoiler]Why did David give the tainted drink to Charlie Holloway? Did he hate him for a specific reason, or did he just want to know what will happen for kicks if he drank it?

Elizabeth took David with him, but she still had no idea how evil David really is. I guess David was her meal ticket to get off the planet since he knew how to control the alien spaceship.

[IlGialloMondadori]

Originally Posted by deltasun

But my question wasn't when, it was why? Plus, I had more questions.

I believe that the original idea was that Jesus was an emissary of the Engineers, and humans crucified him, which made the Engineers mad, which is exceedingly stupid. Instead, I actually don't think the writers or Ridley really have a firm answer on it right now, and they say that well, humans were kind of big jerks, the Roman empire, conquering people, swords and armour and all that, so they figured they should commit genocide and kill the entire human race.

Doesn't make a great deal of sense, but that's what Ridley has said.

"Movies.com: We had heard it was scripted that the Engineers were targeting our planet for destruction because we had crucified one of their representatives, and that Jesus Christ might have been an alien. Was that ever considered?

Ridley Scott: We definitely did, and then we thought it was a little too on the nose. But if you look at it as an “our children are misbehaving down there” scenario, there are moments where it looks like we’ve gone out of control, running around with armor and skirts, which of course would be the Roman Empire. And they were given a long run. A thousand years before their disintegration actually started to happen. And you can say, “Let’s send down one more of our emissaries to see if he can stop it.” Guess what? They crucified him."

[deltasun]

Originally Posted by willbfree

I don't actually see where the trip was secret. I only saw that Weyland staffed the ship with idiots - and this was shown repeatedly, not only in the crews interactions with the various life forms, but in each characters introductions and actions. We saw the geologist was a jerk, had facial tattoos, and a mohawk. We saw the snake-loving techie trying to bond with the jerk. We saw the pilot of the ship more interested in his Christmas tree than in the crew's first meeting after coming out of sleep. We saw the new age male archeologist take off his helmet to be the first one to breathe the fresh air of an alien world. Again and again and again we were shown that this was indeed a crew of idiots.

Then we saw how the only person on the entire ship who was confided in was David. And only reluctantly, Vickers. We were shown that David could master any challenge - alien writing, sure why not. Science experiments - sure why not. He was the only member of the crew that was not an idiot, and was shown to be the only one that the creator of the mission considered worth his time.

I agree the film is terribly flawed, and when watching it again (I'll force myself to), I will pay special attention to everything that was said about the troubles with the board of directors, to see if I am over-reading an explanation of why this mission was crewed by idiots. But it was. Not just dimmer-than-some, but truly dim, socially inept, professionally suspect. That wasn't bad writing, that was clearly a crew selected from the bottom of the barrel.

Would it have been more fun if the crew were all really bright and capable, but had gotten picked off anyway? Sure, it might have been. But then those bright and capable folks would have been called on to do things that only David was called on to do, and that would have made a different movie.

I would submit that they picked a crappy crew so that while they're tripping on their own shoelaces, David is in the background finding the Engineers for Weyland to meet exclusively. Didn't quite work out that way.

[xSeanZx]

See I had originally thought that the engineers were going to Earth to destroy everything simply to create the human race.... I thought that is what they meant when they were showing that.

I felt like they were searching for a planet to go to and create humans, that is why they cycled through many planets before they chose Earth in that hologram.

[DCW]

Originally Posted by DeanCorso

I have the same problem playing it on my Sony BDP S350 and the firmware is up to date and i can tell you im almost 100% sure its not a problem with the disc because i've tried on another blu-ray player (Sony BDP BX1) and i didnt have any problem with the picture.

So i guess this comes from some blu-ray players having problem with reading the movie....maybe with a lot of feedback of this problem they will make a new firmware update.

I cleaned the disk and let it be for a little bit and tried it again and it worked. So I have no idea but it's working now. It's probably my player. It's just a cheapy, that's all I can afford right now as a starving student.

[IlGialloMondadori]

Originally Posted by moviecriticsonline

[Show spoiler]Why did David give the tainted drink to Charlie Holloway? Did he hate him for a specific reason, or did he just want to know what will happen for kicks if he drank it?

Elizabeth took David with him, but she still had no idea how evil David really is. I guess David was her meal ticket to get off the planet since he knew how to control the alien spaceship.

I think the idea is that Weyland, hiding out in his cryochamber, or maybe just hanging out in the bathroom for a really long time, told David to step up the game and start figuring out if life can really be prolonged. A better plan would have been to take a whole bunch of animals on board in cryosleep, and do some testing on them instead of venturing off across the galaxy and then testing and killing crew members, but, you know, the writing isn't the best in this film. Weyland's plan to extend his life apparently involves hiring the dumbest people possible, building a trillion dollar ship, and charting a course across the galaxy based on some cave paintings and a woman who says she has no proof, but believes it, hoping there will be a magic fountain of life on there.