Prometheus (Alien prequel)

[orbekler]

Setting up for a potential sequel is not an excuse for a weak story.

I agree, but I'd like to remind you that even Sir Scott has to bow to the box office, and that will be the only real parameter that will decide.

Sorry, I really wanted to come out of the theater raving about a great movie, but it didn't happen, and scenes like this are the reason. As with Star Trek and other popular franchises, fans will try every argument to justify the bad decisions of the film makers, but in the end it's still a poor decision.

Scenes like that?
Well, it was already in the International Trailer (and others too), months before the film release, you could have sniffed better *.

And for fans you're right, but for myself I just love the first episode of Alien, stop.
That's why I was happy that Space Jockey story had a develompment (weak, in this case, or at least subjectively to you).
But... what about hte sequels of Alien, are they really any better than Prometheus???

And Da Vinci Code is hardly an example of a well-done film. It was merely okay at best.

I agree, indeed to me was a ridiculous film, never said it's a well-done one.

Obviously, but which audience? Given the films lofty aspirations, and Scott's often stated admiration for the philosophical power of sci-fi, thinking sci-fi fans are right to be a little annoyed - even whilst excepting the limitations of such an endeavour as a commercial project.

There is a dissonance which runs through this whole project between the film as a work of art and the film as a commodity, between what a film maker might like to do, and what a studio will permit him to. The result is a film which can be at once far-reaching and disappointing.

The same audience we were talking about just few posts before, I guess...

The compromise between real inspiration and dictated rules from film studios was there even during the 70's and 80's (think of the director's cut of Blade Runner), but now pressure from production is even higher.

I think that a bit of "shock" if not a disappointment was the non-elephantine feature.
For decades fans developed stories about this creature, and for sure this aspect is the first to clash with Scott's one (though many other disappointments may follow).

This is the first Scott movie I recall which didn't knock me out. Bladerunner, Blackhawk Down, Alien, all excellent. I'm surprised he botched this one. The little promo videos going around youtube were very well-made, expecially the one about David (who turns out to be the best thing in this film).

Alien, Blade Runner, stop.
Not to speak of the historical crap of Gladiators (though entertaining, I admit).

*Edit: I don't want to be misunderstood: I'm speaking of sniffing the movie plot, not about the powder!

 

[TMac3000]

Noomi Rapace not sexy?

Oh, she's cute, don't get me wrong But she's a little short in the upper department, if you know what I mean:lol:

It wouldn't have bothered me if she hadn't spent a long portion of the movie nearly naked, like they were trying to say "Hey, look how hot this woman is!" I was thinking, "Um, try this scene with Charleze Theron, and you might get my attention"

 

[Cras]

Oh, she's cute, don't get me wrong But she's a little short in the upper department, if you know what I mean:lol:

It wouldn't have bothered me if she hadn't spent a long portion of the movie nearly naked, like they were trying to say "Hey, look how hot this woman is!" I was thinking, "Um, try this scene with Charleze Theron, and you might get my attention"

Good point. :thumbup:

 

[Suzy]

I saw Prometheus today in 3d. It was visually awesome, though I did note the many problems that others have with some of the scenes (the DIY caesarian, the suicide flight and the end scenes were a bit silly) and pacing. I loved David and the Engineer characters, and the scenes with David activating the alien spaceship's hologram controls, and the Engineer getting ready to fly away were my favorites - these had some of the awe and wonder I was wanting to experience. Even if the Engineers were humanoid aliens, they were still cool-looking and creepy.

 

[80mileshigh]

I loved David and the Engineer characters, and the scenes with David activating the alien spaceship's hologram controls, and the Engineer getting ready to fly away were my favorites - these had some of the awe and wonder I was wanting to experience.

These holographic records were tantalising – the hypothesis we're given is satisfyingly vague in this instance and I've enjoyed thinking about it. But there's a missed opportunity here too: if the ship Prometheus had been presented as a little less advanced then the special effects used for the aliens could have really stood apart as evocative of superior technology. As it was it just continued the barrage of dazzling graphics.

 

[Ragtag]

Just saw it and I think they really missed an opportunity to tie it into "Alien" in a big way. All it would have taken was the removal of a couple of very quick shots. Instead they used those shots to try to tie it to the rest of the films. I did like the whole reentry and landing as it was very reminiscent of "Alien".

 

[80mileshigh]

This list of the film's plot-holes is pretty funny:

http://www.juliansanchez.com/2012/06/11/whats-wrong-with-prometheus-a-partial-list/

The sophisticated alien computer has a sort of flute-like control mechanism, apparently used exclusively to turn the system on, at which point it’s operated by buttons. Which is like having a remote control for your TV, except for the power button, which takes the form of a flute. Why don’t they just have an on button? Or an entirely flute-based control system?

 

[orbekler]

...Star Trekkie???
http://screencrush.com/prometheus-photo/

 

[garyw]

This list of the film's plot-holes is pretty funny:

http://www.juliansanchez.com/2012/06/11/whats-wrong-with-prometheus-a-partial-list/

I did think that too and the control chair that the guy almost needed a ladder to climb up to and is away from the flute/buttons bit....

 

[Ragtag]

The flute thing could have just been that guy's quirky security device to access the system. Nothing says that all ships and or consoles needed the flute to access them. In fact David seemed to have no problem accessing other systems without it. As far as the pilots chair being away from the other console. Big whoop. It's not like other SciFi ships have all their consoles massed into one spot. The side console looked like some sort of navigation/ coarse plotter that brought up the big display which just happen to surround the pilots seat. Maybe it was some sort of HUD. Set the course with the nav computer and get into the stasis pods. Then pilot them gets into his modified stasis pod that allows him to pilot the ship for certain parts of the trip. I guess what I'm trying to say is that for many of the rips on the movie I and others can come up with explanations based on nothing more then speculation of what was shown in the movie. One I can't come up with is a reason that the advanced race had such crappy holograms. Maybe they needed 3d glasses to see them properly.:lol:

---------- Post added at 07:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:04 AM ----------

This list of the film's plot-holes is pretty funny:

http://www.juliansanchez.com/2012/06/11/whats-wrong-with-prometheus-a-partial-list/

I looked at that and don't see any plot holes. The only thing I see is lack of understanding where none was given. I don't think that the flute really had anything to do with the plot of the story so hole could it be a hole? To paraphrase "Princess Bride" I don't think those words mean what that writer thinks they do.
I thought the flute was a pretty neat security device. Some upstart from a race that you kick started comes in and tries to steal your ship and tech so have the key simple and right in front of them but it doesn't look like a key so it's ignored as an artifact left on the console.

I admit that the movie left lots of questions and dangling bits but I don't consider them as plot holes or even bad writing. There was just lots of stuff that needed lots of explaining which just didn't happen.

It was a slasher movie dressed up in a SciFi party dress. Not to many slasher movies go into any great detail other than a bunch of unsuspecting morons get slashed. This one came across to me as a bunch of sheltered Earth academics finding a treasure map and finding out that there be unfriendly natives on the island. It also had the side plot with Waylen using the academics to his ends. One plot point that was explained was that Waylen's cabin was a fully functional lifeboat with over two years of life support. Quite a coincidence that they were two years out. Quite a coincidence that in "Alien" the crew was considered expendable. I figure Waylen was going to get his life extension and leave with David who had sabotaged the Prometheus. The only thing he didn't count on was his daughter being there but I don't think he cared as much for her as he cared for himself so she was as expendable as the rest. Of course he also didn't figure on the aliens being unfriendly because after all the paraphrase "Mars Attack". Any highly advanced race would be by it nature a benign one.

 

[Ark]

I saw it and largely enjoyed it, despite the plot holes and science holes big enough to drive the Titanic through. The movie couldn't quite decide if it wanted to be a discovery/exploration movie or another space horror Alien movie, and if they had moved the slider a bit more in either direction it would have been a completely different movie. They tried to do some profound and interesting things that were above it's own station in life as space horror. The big questions couldn't really be resolved while people are being slaughtered by different types of hostile aliens. A lot of the setup from the first act didn't really pay off because they dug themselves into the violence and drama for the whole final act.

That stuff said, I still liked a lot of things about it:

-The visual stuff was all great. I loved the whole sequence with the 3-d map on the bridge that was being filled in by the remote scouts, it looked exactly how I would expect a system like that to look. The set design was all very cool, Prometheus had a little bit of that old oil rig spaceship look of Alien and the HR Gieger stuff was interesting as ever.

-I liked the whole benevolent alien creators thing being completely turned on it's head, even though there was no final justification for their desire to genocide us. It puts us on the other end of the "created something bad and want to put it back in the box" equation of countless other movies.

-Charleze Theron's character, despite being the token slimy Alien corporate character, was the smartest person in the movie. While everyone else is wrapped up in the science and discovery crap, she was the one connecting the dots and making the pragmatic decisions. And flame-throwering the infected guy was just badass.

-The android character was the most interesting person in the movie, by far. He has good moments where his true machinelike nature comes through the human facade that you gradually get used to. Liked his response to the "Why are you wearing a suit?" question. His behavior wasn't really rationalized, though, except through the "try harder" line.

-This movie took the vague rape/birth symbolism of Alien and turned it up to 11. The whole automated surgery machine scene was freakin WILD and had the best, most uncomfortable body horror I've seen in years. Holy crap, that was nuts.

Overall I enjoyed it a lot, but was also a little disappointed. The trailers gave away the entire movie, and I spent the whole time knowing what was going to happen to the ship and the crew in the end. The movie could have been a lot better if they had gone straightforward space horror OR straightforward 2001-style awe and discovery, but not both. It also would have been better as a standalone, where they didn't have to shoehorn in the continuity to Alien. It seemed like that angle held the filmmakers back from what they really wanted to express.

Anyway, it's great to have real space sci-fi in theaters again, even if they confuse 500 billion kilometers with 35 light-years. We get one strong space sci-fi movie per year, maybe, and it could have been a lot worse than this. I hope it does well, and doesn't tank bad enough to put every other studio off from making these movies. Even if it wasn't perfect, at least they TRIED, and I can tell a lot more thought and passion went into this movie than any rom-com or Sandler movie.

 

[theshhh]

On one of the trailers, a part of it looked like horrror >_<

 

[Ghostrider]

Any highly advanced race would be by it nature a benign one.

Why should it be so? Historically, the most advanced civilizations on Earth have never been benign, they have been quite violent but just more methodical and organized in their viciousness. There is absolutely no logical reason a "highly advanced" (in what?) race should be "benign", especially towards creatures they have absolutely nothing in common with.

 

[Ragtag]

-I liked the whole benevolent alien creators thing being completely turned on it's head, even though there was no final justification for their desire to genocide us. It puts us on the other end of the "created something bad and want to put it back in the box" equation of countless other movies.

I agree with pretty much all you said. I told my son, who didn't like it, that I could have made it a better movie by taking out two very quick shots and adding one shot or discovery.

I'm pulling this right out of my backside so.....
I noticed that the alien that "seeded" the planet at the start was different than the one they found in stasis. The one in stasis was grayer, had gills and some other thing on his neck. The head in the helmet was like the seed alien. Two different aliens and two different views about life. The room with the head seemed like a temple of some sort. The dome had a head carved into the top so the whole works was a temple/religious facility. The aliens running and dead all over the place were the seeders that were fighting with the gill guys. It was basically a war between two groups. One was seeding life and the other one that was correcting that "mistake".

How I would have tied it into the whole Alien myth better would have been the removal of the two quick shots of the "queen" alien relief on the temple wall. David said there were other ships and maybe "temple" aliens. I would have leveraged the alien "monster" in the end which was very much like the ones from the other movies buy having it attack some temple aliens in one of the other ships. I would have had that ship taking off at the end be temple aliens trying to escape and then show it crashing on the planet where the first movie "Alien" took place. It would have established that we were in fact the start/creators of the whole alien monsters thing. How? well the black goop mutated the little worms into big nasty ones that killed but didn't impregnate the guy. It turned two of the scientists into raving monsters but not monster aliens. It also enable the infected scientist to impregnate the sterile woman which grew the creature that impregnated the temple alien and hatched forth the monster alien we all know and love.

But that is not how it was planned. Scott said in an interview that the ship at the end was David and Shaw going off to seek answers and that the next movie will be more of a be careful what you seek type movie along the lines of "Prometheus". He said he wanted these new movies to stand on their own and move in a different direction then the first ones.

---------- Post added at 05:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:26 AM ----------

Why should it be so? Historically, the most advanced civilizations on Earth have never been benign, they have been quite violent but just more methodical and organized in their viciousness. There is absolutely no logical reason a "highly advanced" (in what?) race should be "benign", especially towards creatures they have absolutely nothing in common with.

No kidding! I've always argued that with people that think aliens would be our "space brothers". Heck, I read an article not too long ago that said we should start solving global climate change because any advanced aliens that come here would be more "one with nature and earth" because of the advanced tech and might not take kindly to our fracking up our planet. Which also was the whole idea behind the recent "The day the Earth Stood Still" movie.

I have friends that would love to have aliens land in front of them while I said I'd run the other way as fast as I could. Why? Well mainly based on the stories from people that claim abduction. They claim stories of torture, invasive procedures and pretty much a lack of caring how we feel from aliens.

 

[RisingFury]

They claim stories of torture, invasive procedures and pretty much a lack of caring how we feel from aliens.

Yea, I don't know what's wrong with people, but a lot of them sure would love an alien anal probe...

 

[Ghostrider]

I have friends that would love to have aliens land in front of them while I said I'd run the other way as fast as I could.

A smart alien would avoid landing in front of anyone on Earth - he could easily end up beaten to death for "stealing" a parking place.

 

[T.Neo]

Well mainly based on the stories from people that claim abduction.

The stories that depict, out of all the infinite possibilities of life, aliens that are merely weird-looking humans? Sounds more like a psychosocial phenomenon than a physical one to me, and accordingly probably not one to base actual interactions with extraterrestrial peoples on.

 

[RisingFury]

HOLY S***! IT'S AN ALIEN!!!

 

[Andy44]

Stories about aliens and abduction usually anthropomorphize the aliens because a distorted human creature taps into our primal fears. Same thing with sasquatch and the yeti; a creature that looks kind of like us but is not really human is on the short list of things that really creep us out. Japanese almost-life-like robots also raise the hairs on the backs of our necks. There is a name for this phenomenon: [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley"]Uncanny valley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

For those of us who are skeptical of alien abduction stories, dismissing them as nightmares, this makes perfect sense, of course. A nightmare is a dream about what you fear the most: a quasi-human creature which treats us as if we are lab animals and visits horrors upon us with no remorse. We do it to other animals and even other ethnic groups, after all.

That said, human bodies evolved the way they did for a reason. It's not unreasonable to assume that aliens who are also intelligent tool-users will have followed a similar evolutionary course and wind up with two arms and two legs.

And that they will treat us in the same cold-blooded manner as we sometimes do. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll treat us like pets instead.

 

[Mister Kite]

Furthermore, in the movie, there not looking like humans.
We look like them, which is sort of kinda like logical, right?
Being our seeding engineers and all.