PROMETHEUS - Grade and Discuss

[DarKush]

Jedi Marso wrote:

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Would anyone else like to see Idris Elba as a Starfleet captain? He was one of my favorite characters in this movie.

He would make a good Starfleet captain. But hopefully he leaves Janek's accent behind.

[Warped9]

sidious618 wrote:

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The more I think about this film, the more I like it. It's definitely odd and it doesn't follow the normal movie structure for a big sci-fi film. I look forward to picking this up on DVD and may even go back to see it in 3-D.

I don't care about 3D, but I agree with your sentiment. I give this an A and it will be in my video library.

The film can stand alone if necessary, but it's also setup for a sequel if desired.

I didn't have any problem following the narrative. And as cute as she may be I had no sympathy whatsoever for Vickers. Nice way for her to go too. Bitch.

I don't totally buy the idea that these beings spawned us. I think there is something else going on there. I do think the idea these xenomorphs are a biological weapon that got away from them is a viable one.

Elizabeth Shaw isn't a Ripley, but she has her own kind of courage and fortitude. I liked her much better than Vickers, too.

I really don't know what I expected other that it wouldn't be a retelling of Alien and Aliens and it wouldn't have the exact same sensibilities. And good on the film for that.

This film heavily suggests if not outright cements the idea that the Nostromo's computers had a directive to be on the watch for any kind of related evidence to what was discovered by the Prometheus expedition. The Space Jockey found in Alien obviously isn't the same one as seen here, but it's obviously a near identical one. That and the creature we see at the end is the real connective prequel tissue to Alien.

I know some have issues with unanswered questions, but I rather like some of that ambiguity. It lends it more mystery and sense of wonder. I don't need to have everything explained and spelled out, particularly if there's a possible sequel in the works.

I find myself wanting to see this again. Of course, I don't really need to add that this film is visually stunning on top of everything else. I've been waiting years for a space adventure to look like this.

[Winged Victory]

DarthPipes wrote:

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What was the movie David was watching in the beginning? I thought it was Bridge over the River Kwai.

The Mighty Monkey of Mim wrote:

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It was Lawrence Of Arabia.

For me, this was the most enjoyable scene of the movie--watching David emulate Peter O'Toole.

I went to the theater with high expectations; I thought it would be more of a suspenseful, horror type movie (yes, some scenes were mildly gross, but nothing to warrant an R rating...).

Fassbender was excellent. And the visuals were great, too. But the plot was a shambles. Glad I saw it on the big screen, but I should have waited for the rental. Meh.

[Snatcher42]

I'm with Guillermo del Toro - this film really owed H.P. Lovecraft a story credit for At the Mountains of Madness. The black goo is analogous to the Shoggoths. It's a tool created by the Engineers to genetically modify whatever it touches, like the worms. It can create life (as in the first scene, which I took to be the origins of life on Earth), or be used as a a bio-weapon to destroy it. But also like At the Mountains of Madness, it became too powerful to control and eventually killed its creators... The details of which are ripe to be explained in a sequel.

[Trekker4747]

Prometheus

My Grade: B

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Saw "Prometheus" tonight and quite enjoyed it. Serving as something as a soft "prequel" to the "Alien" franchise it sort of sets up events/tells stories of stuff always alluded to have happened before the movie series started without being fleshed out. (Similar to how The Thing prequel worked in relation to the Wes Craven The Thing.) Prometheus does this a bit better by not going out of its way to make those nods and such happen and flows in a mostly natural pattern.

A group of archaeologists come across a hidden cave adorned with wall-paintings similar to others spread around the globe and gather than this is a "map" of sorts to a distant planet, years later an exploration team is sent out on a privately funded interstellar sleeper ship. The planet turns out to be mostly earth-like (other than having a slightly higher, but deadly, level of CO2 in the atmosphere.) Our intrepid group of explorers find constructed features on the planet surface, lands, and begins exploring. Then shit starts sort of getting real.

The movie does a great job of building up an atmosphere an air of tension and even a nice sense of science ad mystery, one of the things I enjoyed the most about this movie. Just how interesting it was to see these people do sciencey-stuff without things needing to devolve into a horror or action-movie series fo tropes. (Though there are two obvious pieces of cannon fodder in the movie.)

Also interesting is Michael Fassbender playing Android tasked with caring for the crew during their travel-sleep and aids them during the explorations. Fassbender does a great job at this and even there's times I watched him thinking, "you, know. if they ever did a Star Trek '09 take on "The Next Generation" he'd make a great Data.

The movie has great special effects in it and I saw this in 3D. It's the first movie I've really loved in 3D and thought the 3D did an excellent job of immersing you into the movie world providing you with that "window into the movie" look that "Avatar" did so well a few years ago.

That's about all I have good, solid, interesting movie.

[Warped9]

One thing thats bloody apparent, to me anyway. These xenomorphs, no matter what form they take, are weapons of terror as much as anything else. They don't just kill like most wild predators might kill. It's their method of killing. Sure they can tear you apart or massacre you in any number of ways, but their preferred way is truly repulsive and terrifying.

[Mooch]

Daneel wrote:

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The main things I was wondering about: just what is that black goo? Does it have a specific purpose/function? And what are the motivations of the Engineers (in particular, why is the one that's still alive such a violent, aggressive asshole)?

I'm glad someone else is wondering about that besides me. It seems to cause heads to explode, turn people into zombies, and also cause them to have crazy mutated babies. It's a multipurpose goo. it also seems to have given rise to the entire human race (or was that a different kind of goo?)
It also seems likely that it mutated the worms that were in the room with the head statue to turn into the snake creatures.

I am also wondering what the purpose of that room was. If it was a storage facility for the bottles of goo, why was there so much more on the ship? And why were they activated by opening the door? And why we're all the dead aliens trying to get into that room? And why was the big head there? And why did the mural on the ceiling change after thy entered the room?

And the biggest question: why were all the ancient pictures On Earth directing them to that planet?

[Warped9]

I'm wondering if the big alien simply assumed the humans were just another form of xenomorph and thus just attacked them by reflex.

[Mooch]

Warped9 wrote:

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I'm wondering if the big alien simply assumed the humans were just another form of xenomorph and thus just attacked them by reflex.

If you go by the prologue, I guess technically we are

[Mr. Adventure]

I can see a lot of the flaws mentioned here but I was really captivated by the visuals, atmosphere, mystery and so on that i didn't notice so much while watching. I think I need a rewatch to give an honest appraisal. Mind you I liked Alien 3 so what do I know? I was not disappointed seeing it in IMAX 3D, enjoyed the ride.

A couple of thoughts:

Liz Shaw, heh, must be written by a Who fan

Sadly the cheap jack Dark Shadows TV show had better old man makeup.

[banzaiduck]

There are essentially three types of films out there:

1. Those that make me want to masturbate.
2. Those that make me want to watch them again.
3. Those that make me want to take a shit.

Sadly, this film fell under the third category.

BANZAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tiberius]

SalvorHardin wrote:

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The pregnancy was never David's plan, it was just something that happened. A "fortunate" coincidence for David.
His plan was to see what the goo would do to a human but then Charlie got himself roasted.

Yes. Entirely TOO fortunate for me to buy it!

[zakkrusz]

D, maybe C- at best.

Cool universe and tech, decent characters, as one would expect from an Alien-verse show, but it does not deliver in the story department, in fact the story is a f***ing convoluted and frustrating mess of dropped plot-lines and unanswered questions that makes zero sense.

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Mooch wrote:

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I'm glad someone else is wondering about that besides me. It seems to cause heads to explode, turn people into zombies, and also cause them to have crazy mutated babies. It's a multipurpose goo. it also seems to have given rise to the entire human race (or was that a different kind of goo?)
It also seems likely that it mutated the worms that were in the room with the head statue to turn into the snake creatures.

I am also wondering what the purpose of that room was. If it was a storage facility for the bottles of goo, why was there so much more on the ship? And why were they activated by opening the door? And why we're all the dead aliens trying to get into that room? And why was the big head there? And why did the mural on the ceiling change after thy entered the room?

And the biggest question: why were all the ancient pictures On Earth directing them to that planet?

I assume the goo was nanotechnology - miniature Von Neumann machines - that could be programmed to kick off life on a barren planet in order to terraform it. As for the Genesis device, the goo could also function as a weapon. Perhaps the pictures were a warning to "avoid this world". If they were a trap, perhaps they were intended as a test. I think maybe we failed. The lesson is when performing xenoarcheology, leave the robots and the flakes in the ship.

[Warped9]

It's pretty clear to me that Weyland saw the crew as simply hired help to be used as fodder. As frightening as the aliens and xenomorphs are the extreme corporate mindset in play here was equally chilling. David was simply acting on Weyland's orders, or more specifically his programming, and everyone else aboard was expendable as long as Weyland got what he wanted.