PROMETHEUS - Grade and Discuss

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Roshi, May 30, 2012.

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Prometheus - Poll

Poll closed May 30, 2013.
  1. A +

    6.9%
  2. A

    11.6%
  3. A -

    13.8%
  4. B +

    18.5%
  5. B

    14.2%
  6. B -

    9.1%
  7. C +

    8.2%
  8. C

    3.4%
  9. C -

    6.5%
  10. D

    5.2%
  11. F

    2.6%
  1. Professor Zoom

    Professor Zoom Admiral Admiral

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    Though, to be fair, he didn't know that. How could he? It's not like it was labeled.
     
  2. Disruptor

    Disruptor Commodore

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    What keeps anyone from going back to that planet? The curiosity of what happened would eventually bring humans there, warning or not.

    Where did Shaw leave her end recording at? We know she didn't go back to the lifeboat or she'd have met Sharky the proto-xenomorph. (Though the idea of it being benign and her taking it with her as a pet is amusing.)
     
  3. Shurik

    Shurik Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    They had a geologist, he could've at least checked where they landed after the landing or take soil samples around the ship or the temple or something. Which boils down to how completely useless the geologist was. They could also scan the landing area before the landing ...

    Fuck this, I'm thinking about it way too much. If Lindeloff didn't care for such small details, why should we?
     
  4. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Paris, yes. Not necessarily the whole planet (which I believe is described as "beautiful" in a line that actually appears in the film). And isn't Paris' condition explainable by the simple fact that the Auriga crashed into it?
     
  5. Saul

    Saul Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Don't remember that line but I do remember the "Earth, what a shit hole" line.
     
  6. Locutus of Bored

    Locutus of Bored Yo, Dawg! I Heard You Like Avatars... In Memoriam

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    No, as Saul said the line was "Earth. Man, what a shithole."

    Unless Paris was relocated to South Africa, that's not where the Auriga crashed. Speaking of which, I think the fact that they were perfectly okay with vaporizing most of the southern part of Africa (not to mention the worldwide after-effects of that massive explosion) doesn't bode well for there being a lot of people alive on Earth.

    [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGSOW1TzYx8[/yt]
     
  7. flcat

    flcat Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Well, maybe it's not so far-fetched having such stupid people on the scientific team. The dude who tried to pet the alien-snake thing reminded me of touchie-feelie nature-lover types who think you can walk up to a bear and pet it and then end up being featured in a volume of Faces of Death.
     
  8. Professor Zoom

    Professor Zoom Admiral Admiral

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    You mean the same dude who ran away from a dead body, that has been dead for 2000 years, that same dude? Maybe if they had been CONSISTENT with the stupidity maybe it wouldn't have been noticeable.
     
  9. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

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    Couldn't it have been transmitted from the suit mic to the lifepod?
     
  10. Locutus of Bored

    Locutus of Bored Yo, Dawg! I Heard You Like Avatars... In Memoriam

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    I don't know anyone who says "We're about to embark on the most important, revolutionary, expensive, time consuming, and dangerous mission in the history of humankind... so let's hire Grizzly Man for one of the key scientific positions."
     
  11. Danny99

    Danny99 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Let me preface this by saying I did not read all 55 pages of posts. I don't think this movie deserves the credit.

    First off, did we really need to have the incredibly graphic scene of Shaw climbing into the pod and been sliced open and pry out what my girlfriend called "Her baby octopus." It was totally a gross scene for the sake of being gross.

    Corporate mission or not, these people take absolutely no precautions during this mission. "Oh, the air is breathable here? And we're on an alien planet that no one has ever set foot on? Let's take our helmets off!" or "Oh look, this alien got his head cut off by a door, let's take it with us on board our ship when we have no idea what could happen!"

    As for Janek's booty call, it was a poorly written scene. Vickers treats the entire crew like shit from the first minute she wakes up and suddenly she's sleeping with the Captain. If you need him off the bridge for ten seconds for the other two nitwits to get pulverized, there has to be at least a thousand different waits to get him off the bridge.

    Weyland's whole theory is just stupid. If a scientist comes to you and says we may have found our Creator on a planet millions of miles away, I don't care how sick I am or how little time I have left, I am not going.

    There is just too many things wrong with this movie. It is just too stupid. If this is what Sci Fi is becoming, I'm afraid.
     
  12. Yminale

    Yminale Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Well get use to it. Sci-Fi is getting dumber not because of Americans. Studies have shown that current Americans are as ignorant of science as previous generations. The problem is most movies need to play well with foreign audiences so good by complex narratives and interesting dialogue (won't translate well) and hello special effects.

    That being said, it's obvious that Prometheus was badly edited to fit a two hour time slot. I'm going to wait for the definitive director's cut before I judge the movie.

    As for the crew, I have my own theory. I don't think they were really "scientists", I think they were mercenaries or corporate security whose job was to deal with our Creators if they got hostile. I also think they at least Weyland and David knew more than they let on. Someone like Weyland could pay to observe the planet from a distance and then sent remote probes. Finally the connection between the Engineers and Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh, I think was suppose to be more explicit. In the epic, Gilgamesh searches for the key of to immortal life from the gods.
     
  13. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

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    I don't think translation issues are that big of an issue.

    Lets take a look at Prometheus. Current Worldwide takings are at US$263m

    Of which ~US$110 is from the N. American Box Office
    The rest being from the rest of the world, of which ~US$45 is from English Language speaking countries.

    So ~US$155 or 60% from English language countries.

    Avengers Assemble is about 52% takings from English speaking countries. So it would appear that the largest percentage of takings come from English speaking countries.

    The Dark Knight is about 65% from English language countries.

    Obviously the N. American box office accounts for most of the takins, but countries like the UK, Australlia generally do healthy takings given their relative size to the US.

    In the UK Prometheus has taken around US$30m, if you factor into population size difference that would equate to around US$130-140m. So thus far it has done better in the UK relative to population size than it has in the US.
     
  14. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Then it did exactly what it was intended to do.
     
  15. Misfit Toy

    Misfit Toy Caped Trek Mod Admiral

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    Earth's scientific community hasn't been represented too well in any of the Alien pictures. Perhaps it is intentional - to imply scientific laziness as a result of corporate greed.
     
  16. roliver

    roliver Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Seriously? Did the crew of Prometheus show any ability to "deal with" a hostile alien race posessing technology far beyond anything we could dream of?

    Let's not forget Shaw's mind-numbingly stupid "no weapons" line as they geared up for there forst foray into the temple.

    The crew was incompetent in both security and science aspects.
     
  17. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

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    Brockville, Ontario, Canada
    A week or so ago I received a copy of Aliens Colonial Marines Technical Manual. It's a bit quaint by today's standards, but it has a lot of interesting tech information in it about the various pieces of hardware and ships we saw in Alien and Aliens as well as some stuff we didn't see.

    But there are two elements of this book that really make it interesting. The first are fictional excerpts of marines recounting their experiences when using some of the hardware described. It's all made up, but it's interesting to read. And often they talk very much like the marines in Aliens expressed themselves.

    The second thing thats interesting are the excepts of scientists analyzing the reports and data they got from Ripley, Bishop and the Sulaco logs. It paints an fascinating and also chilling picture of a corporate minded society were even the scientists are somewhat corrupted by it. They speak of Burke and his cold-blooded intent to get Ripley and Newt impregnated by face-huggers, and they don't sound all that bothered by the idea!

    The other thing that jumps out is how Ash and Burke were both in on some sort of information about the xenomorphs and highly interested in getting hold of a live specimen and hopefully an impregnated host as well. The Nostromo wasn't just responding to a distress beacon, but its computers were on the watch for any kind of signal that could lead to the xenomorphs. It suggests Burke also had a hand in setting up the colony on LV426 and making certain the marine force sent there later (with Ripley) was of nominal size---a reasonable show of force but not as large as perhaps it should have been. And a point was made to put an inexperienced officer in command. WTF!!!

    There is also a lot of excerpts of scientists conjecturing on the nature of the xenomorphs and trying to understand them and how they exist.

    Now I have no idea how any of this could tie-in to Prometheus or if Ridley Scott was even privy to anything in this publication, but a lot of it does seem consistent with what we saw in the first two Alien films. If one accepted the nuggets in this book at face value then it means the events in Prometheus become known back on Earth and/or Shaw eventually finds something that gets some folks back home really interested in finding out more about these xenomorphs.
     
  18. Disruptor

    Disruptor Commodore

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    EU stuff. As flushable as Star Wars EU when new official material comes along.

    I remember Dark Horse's ALIENS comics...their "space jockeys", their post ALIENS story (before ALIEN 3 was released) with Ripley, Hicks and Newt.
     
  19. Nightowl1701

    Nightowl1701 Commodore Commodore

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    I do like how, at the end of that book, the Company figures out the derelict would have been sufficiently out of range of the colony's explosion (behind a ridge) to survive the blast - and they immediately order an expedition sent out there. Which is apparently exactly where next year's video game Aliens: Colonial Marines picks up, with a stop at the abandoned Sulaco on the way...
     
  20. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

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    The long awaited game, it's been what 6 years since it was first announced?