I liked the film, but ya, a mess in some area's and to cliche'd in other area's.. So the ship is starting to slowly roll towards you..thats ok just run directly in front of the roll..don't even think about running to the side to get our of the way! WTF
I've never really heard it argued that Alien's characters worked because they were "likeable". They worked because they felt incredibly real and authentic. It really felt like you were a fly on the wall watching a bunch of real-life grunts and blue collar guys going about their job. Sadly, as much as I enjoyed Prometheus, it's characters come across more like your typical, fake movie types.
Yeah. I was screaming the same thing during that scene. Yet, characters in movies do this all the time.
For some reason, I want to invest more of myself I this movie than I would almost any other. As I've read the comments here and elsewhere, I think there's much more going on. This universe is much bigger than we're realizing. The events of LV223 and 426 are going to pan out to be separate incidents, and I think we're going to find the Engineers to be a far more advanced and prolific civilization.
But I'm sure that training didn't include horny snake aliens, horny squid aliens, giant humanoid aliens bent on genocide, oily black multipurpose ooze, two seperate corporate agendas and freak weather on an alien moon. The notion that any non-Vulcan scientist can go through all this and still do his job in a methodical manner is asinine. I issue the same challenge to you that I issued to Pauln6: I defy you to collect samples in a methodial manner while you're being pursued by rabid pit bulls.
If we were being pursued by rapid put bulls, Prometheus teaches us that my friend the biologist would try to play fetch with them, while my other friend the archeologist/physician/crusader would somehow get pregnant with a little rapid pit bull puppy, get an abortion and never mention that to anyone, even though said puppy would still be very much alive right next door. When people are under a lot of pressure, they get nervous, they make mistakes, but they don't get completely insane.
The polarization of opinions isn't atypical of Trek fans at all in my experience. Some people liked Trek XI and some people absolutely hated that they rebooted the timeline and created an alternate universe. Some people think DS9 was gods gift to Trek on TV and others think TNG and the original series rules. I wish some Trek fans of other sci-fi could sit back and relax and understand that in order for the genre to be commercially successful and survive it has to stick to some type of formula today because of the cost of making films. IMO, Prometheus was cerebral enough to make it a great film for hardcore sci-fi fans and Aliens purists but also the film is exciting and interesting enough for any member of the general public. I hope it does well at the box office so we can have more films like it in the near future.
It's not so much a case of likeable as human. I could relate to the characters in Alien, even though most of them were dicks; your work to rule engineers, your whiny Lambert, your officious jobsworth Ripley...but they felt real. Idris Elba felt real towards the end, as did his two pilots oddly. Vickers had her moments but in the end didn't seem to serve any purpose to the narrative. Shaw was annoying, her boyfriend was annoying, the world's stupidest biologist was annoying, the geologist Guy Pearce brought back from Lockout with him was annoying, Guy Pearce was annoying... Fassbender was pretty much the only character worth investing in. And however stupid it is, a blue collar space trucker sticking his face in an egg is still not as stupid as a trained biologist who can't recognise hostile behaviour...a trained biologist who, let's not forgget, ran for it at the first sign of something about half an hour earlier!
The other thing I've noticed is that Trek fans (or, sci-fi fans in general), at least from what I've experienced on this BBS, don't really subscribe to the "Ancient Alien" theories and seem to have a hard time being tolerant of others who do. Which is surprising, considering Star Trek is all about broadening horizons and seeking out new life forms. However, the concept of aliens in real life (or any other paranormal phenomena) seems to be quite humorous and borderline absurd to some. Never quite understood the dichotomy. Perhaps it's just the "anti's" who speak the loudest on such matters, with the "pro's" keeping silent for fear of being ridiculed.
Prometheus will make a bit more at the cinema in other territories and with rental, Bluray and DVD sales a good bit more. I think we'll get 'Attack of the Xenomorphs' and 'Revenge of the Space Jockeys'. I hope so - I really enjoyed the first part and really have to believe that its stupidity will be explained away. And before you scoff - 90% of my problems with Trek XI were explained away to my satisfaction by posters on this site, so it could happen...
Kill me. I could never even remotely envision ST09 and Prometheus being mentioned in the same breath. The latter is actually good while the former is shit.
XI = 11 actually, but mostly agreed. They may both be sci-fi but not the same type of movie which I would find difficult to compare.
I think he meant the "09" to refer to the year it was released. And I agree - I enjoyed both films but they are vastly different. Prometheus is definitely science fiction (I'd even consider it an attempt to do "hard" SF) while ST is more of a typical action-adventure that happens to be set in outer space.
Yeah I've noticed that in a few comments as well, and I don't really understand it. The Ancient Alien thing may be ridiculous as hell in the real world, but that doesn't mean it can't still make for a cool "what if" idea in a scifi movie. And plus this movie thankfully wasn't trying to use the existing Ancient Alien mythology (like a certain awful Indiana Jones sequel), but instead came up with a whole new one-- one that's frankly a whole lot cooler and more interesting.
In terms of comparisons, Star Trek XI made $257 million in the US alone and $350 million worldwide.I'm not sure if Prometheus has a chance to do that well but no doubt will become a cult hit with sci-fi fans. Star Trek by film - box office totals
Well from the critical and fan reviews that Prometheus is getting, it seems like the opposite is true. And this is from someone who loved Prometheus.
This film has succeeded in a big way already regardless of box office. It has people talking from both sides of the fence. And they're talking a lot.
I'm actually kind of bummed that they chose "David" for the name of the android. Ash and Bishop both had "SH" in their names, which I always thought stood for "Synthetic Human". Would have been a nice bit of continuity if they followed that pattern, but that's just me...