As of yesterday, this film's made $89 million stateside (likely to crack $100 million by tonight), already in the $100-110 million range overseas. So it's already made its' $150 million budget back and then some. Rock of Ages and That's My Boy are bombing, and it's another week before Brave hits (leaving Madagascar 3 the only other game in town). So barring some unforeseen incident, Ridley will get his sequel. Hopefully he'll put all the answers in that (with the aid of a better screenwriter) and doesn't try to make it a trilogy.
actually those numbers aren't that good. They mean it's breaking even. anything over twice the budget is considered a profit
As of today, 8 days after opening, its at $167 million overall. It will be a financial success, especially after all the ancillary rights are explored.
I would much rather be debating the IDEAS in the movie than poor characterization. THAT is the hallmark of a movie that will last. Look at Blade Runner. It's decisive not because of the ideas or the art but because some people liked it, either they didn't see or agree with certain story telling criticisms, and other people didn't because of poor characterization, poor plotting, etc. I would much rather discuss Tree of Life, something that took risks, with some interesting moments of success and other spectacular failures... But this particular movie seemed to be truly risk averse. Honestly, I really doubt we're going to be talking about this movie in ten years. Money will do that.
So we came from the Space Jockeys and the Xenomorphs come from us. That's kinda the opposite of the word ALIEN. Move over re-imaginings and reboots, we now have re-definitions. C+
I just remembered something I really liked when I went to see Prometheus.... While we were getting our seats, they were playing the soundtrack to Moon. That was probably one of the things I enjoyed about my trip to see Prometheus.
Well, the "story" takes place on a different planet, so it's still unknown where the Xenomorphs in the original Alien came from. Prometheus wasn't entirely clear on the sequence required to produce a Xenomorth - it looked like a multi-stage process - first Holloway was infected by the black goo, then he infected Shaw, then Shaw should've given birth to a space squid, then the squid should've infected some other poor creature and only then the Xenomorph would've been born. Ah, fuck it. If the filmmakers didn't care, why should I?
Just got back from watching this movie. Now i knew it had some ties to the movie Alien, but i didnt realize it would encompass this much of the movie. I liked the whole search for planet to find the Engineers and maybe meet them or learn their history and why they created us etc. Saddly the movie boiled down to a freaken robot that poisoned Holloway which ended up knocking up Shaw with an alien squid thing. Really how did David know any of that would happen unless he read it somewhere. But i didnt want to see a Aliens movie, i wanted to see a space mission movie to meet the creators. Ive never really seem any of the Aliens movies except AVP. So dont know much about its history. O well only cost me 9 bucks, but if they would of cut the aliens part out and went in a different direction this could of been a good movie.
I don't think David did know what would happen. He was more likely improvising compelled by Weyland ordering him to "try harder." What this scene underscores, just as it did in Alien, is that these replicants aren't governed by Asimovian principles.
Which still doesn't explain why they aren't governed by common sense. Releasing an uncontrolled pathogen into the environment of the ship by definition endangers Weyland.
He didn't. He's fueled by his childlike curiosity. "What will happen if I I stick my black goo covered finger into this guys cup?" *All hell breaks loose* David- Ah interesting.
I agree with these posts. Much of the human behavior in this film makes little sense, but not so much in the case of David.
Trash? Nah, that would be more aptly attributed to either AvP: Requiem or Alien: Resurrection with that walking white testicle. BANZAI!!!!!!!!!!!!
This year we've had and we'll get a few more good and entertaining films. Avengers was the one with the big splash and it remains to see how well TDKR will do. But Avengers is the monster success of the year (so far) yet as big as it was and as entertaining as it was (and I quite enjoyed it) after seeing it and gabbing about it for a day or two it was done. There really wasn't anything more to say. Prometheus is different. This is much more the kind of film I'm interested in. I get why it doesn't work for some even though I don't agree. Basically I hear a lot of, "I don't like it because I don't understand why it was done this way." So the question boils done to is it simply a bad film or is it something a lot of people didn't expect? Some folks wanted more of a direct prequel. Some wanted less of a direct prequel. Some wanted to to see the familiar Giger creature. Some wanted something else. So again is it the film's fault or is the basis of criticism based on expectations brought into the theatre? I think it boils down to a lot of people wanting something simpler overall with more straightforward answers and simpler situations. That's not the kind of film Ridley Scott wanted to make. He didn't want to give away all the answers out in the open. He wanted a different viewer experience. He wanted people to think this over and talk about it. I'd say he succeeded.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I can say to this that I think there is a large difference between wanting characters who do not behave in dramatically arbitrary ways, and wanting something "simpler" or wanting something more "straightforward." Something can be complex and not straightforward without being irrational or dramatically arbitrary.
I agree. It was purely the characterisation that annoyed me. The premise is intriguing, the movie was visually striking, the unanswered questions are fine, the android was perfectly portrayed (and could have been more of a catalyst for the dramatic scenes without the need for the other characters to behave so dumb and schlocky) etc. It was just the human characters that were written very very badly.
I would say the biggest criticism, or most recurring, regards the behaviour of the characters. I think it really boils down to them not behaving as expected or more specifically as professionals. Fiction allows us to fashion something of an idealized version of reality, one where we can accept characters that are larger than life or at least certainly better than our real experience. Indeed we almost always expect that from fictional characters. They're often expected to reflect more of who we'd like to be rather than what we're really like. This is certainly true in shows and films depicting cops and lawyers. Cop and lawyers stories rarely depict these worlds in a very realistic way. In the real world there's a lot of mundanity and routine that at best is only hinted at in film and television. For the longest time Westerns painted a very idealized portrait of the Old West and the people who inhabited it. It wasn't until the '60s that we started to get films that began showing the grit and shades of grey of that time. Now we applaud films that shows us more of the reality, but at one time it could be jarring for some audiences. In the real world it's not uncommon for us to question the choices made by governments and business and organizations particularly in regard to seemingly unsuitable individuals posted to positions of great responsibility. I'd say it happens often that people who should know better still make bad choices and do stupid things. When I look at the crew of the Prometheus I find myself thinking, "Who chose these losers? By what standards were they judged by? What idiot is running this operation?" At the core of this, of course, is Peter Weyland's agenda for the mission. He was willing to invest a trillion dollars to what end? He wanted advanced science and technology to prolong his own life. There was no real nobility or ideal in his pursuit. Granted if he'd found what he'd wanted it could have had a spillover effect for others back on Earth, but that wasn't his conscious intent. He was focused solely on prolonging his own existence. The inclusion of Shaw and Holloway gave the expedition a veneer of idealism or nobility of intent: the expedition was to (hopefully) make contact with extraterrestrial intelligence and possibly explore the origins of human life on Earth. That really sounds like a genuine Star Trek story. But Weyland Industries isn't Starfleet and its goal is not simply to seek out new life and new civilizations. And so beyond Shaw and Holloway (who may be decent scientists in their own right though not necessarily suited for such an expedition) why were the other individuals included? None of them looked like the kind of individuals you would really want on such an expedition. Perhaps they were yet again just a way to give the expedition a veneer of noble purpose? Perhaps it didn't matter they were total screw-ups as scientists (and indeed they were)? The same could be said of the choice of Janek and his crew. Janek and his crew were simply meant to be truck drivers and with no expectations beyond that. Who is at fault for why practically everyone dies in this story? I'd say it was Peter Weyland because he was blind to everything else beyond his not wanting to die. He initiated a situation that put completely unsuitable people into a place they had no business being. After spending a trillion dollars for such a monumental venture he went cheap on the hired help. Now that likely wouldn't happen in a Star Trek like story, but it has been known to happen in the real world. And films like Alien and Prometheus are supposedly the SF equivalents of films like The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, Pale Rider, True Grit, Dances With Wolves, Unforgiven, 3:10 To Yuma and Appaloosa. Perhaps a closer equivalent would be a film like Outland from 1981 with Sean Connery, the SF equivalent of High Noon. Now what I posited above is how I could interpret what I saw in the film. That said I hope they use a different writer for the sequel. And hopefully the sequel will address some of the questions in Prometheus: what did things happen the way they did? Perhaps some of those answers might also be in the deleted scenes to be included in the disc release later this year.