PROMETHEUS - Grade and Discuss

[JarodRussell]

Sci wrote:

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Very disappointed. The film is dramatically arbitrary, full of characters who make irrational or even self-destructive choices for no discernible reason other than that it's necessary for the plot to unfold.

*looks up who wrote the script*
Ah!

[Admiral2]

Pauln6 wrote:

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Yes - test the air throughout the entire complex by sampling to make sure there are no atmospheric black spots, harmful chemicals, or pathogens. You might test the air on animal subjects in laboratory conditions long before you would expose a human volunteer. I am assuming that they had equipment that checked for airborn pathogens and found none so I'll give a pass there - but assuming that there would be no pathogens in any other chamber would be grossly negligent. By the time you'd detected them, you would already be exposed.

I can get behind the smart ass archaeologist doing it. It's that everybody else, including the biologist and MD also did it that was so stupid. Did they all think that alien bacteria would always kill instantly so there obviously wasn't any?

No, what they were probably thinking was "We can breathe, we can save suit air and we're going to decontaminate in the ship later anyway" so they did it...and thus saved us from five extra minutes of dialogue about airborne pathogens, "parts per million" and atmospheric testing devices.

My issue with the geologist and biologist was that they took no samples and contributed nothing to the trip.

Nobody but Shaw and David got any kind of samples, which was impressive considering how quickly things went downhill after they entered the Space Jockey ship.

How did they get lost? It was his own drones that mapped the complex. Everybody was on the same comms system and the ship monitored their locations. They should have got the message about the storm too but asked for no assistance? If they'd been delayed taking samples on the way out I might have forgiven them. I can only assume they must have switched comms off so they could have a shag. It could have been a glitch in the system I suppose but if so it was poorly represented in the narrative.

The drones hadn't completed the map at the time they got lost, and the storm was messing with the comms before it completely enveloped the complex, and they didn't collect samples on the way out because their imperative was getting outta Dodge. Would you stop to collect rocks and mud if you thought you'd be attacked by a rabid pit bull at any second?

[YellowSubmarine]

Just got to watch this. Had to wait a week since all the good seats at the theatre up to yesterday were taken.

Dac wrote:

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Just came back from it. It was solid, I really really enjoyed it BUT - there was nothing here that made my chest thump and brain race. This film did not get me excited, which is a little bit of a shame.

That's about how I felt. I was a bit disappointed. The first two Alien films took you in at the start and then spit you out, even if you tried to watch it without paying too much attention, they would still keep you at the edge of your seat until the end. Even Alien 4 got me excited quite a bit in a number of scenes (the number 1 through 7 scene, Brad Dourif vs. the Alien to name a few). Prometheus didn't do a lot for me. It was a great film, but not as exciting as I expected.

The thing that I felt most disappointed about is the fact that they

killed off Meredith Vickers.

The whole thing was just a giant set up for a one big confrontation between her and Elizabeth. And I don't understand why they didn't use the opportunity. Sure, the film would have been longer, but it would have been worth it.

It was kinda sad that no character shined with anything that didn't feel a bit forced. No character ever felt complete. No one to even begin to challenge Ripley. It's a shame. David went furthest for me.

Vickers and Shaw felt as if they cut off their defining scenes from the script. Vickers got away by dying, Shaw got away by the two bad things running in each other's ways. And that's it?

I would have liked it more even if it ended with Shaw and Vickers ending up together in the small emergency spacecraft with two years to leave and hate each other.

Still, Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace and Charlize Theron were all fabulous.

I might watch it again since I have a feeling that I somehow missed something really great somewhere, and I might catch in on a second viewing.

[Pauln6]

Admiral2 wrote:

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No, what they were probably thinking was "We can breathe, we can save suit air and we're going to decontaminate in the ship later anyway" so they did it...and thus saved us from five extra minutes of dialogue about airborne pathogens, "parts per million" and atmospheric testing devices.

Lol - did you SEE their decontamination procedure? Given the choice of roasting or having a time-limited visit on my first day, I think I'd keep my helmet on until after we'd tested our impetuous volunteer.

Plus later dialogue suggested that they didn't screen them after they came back. Rapace suggested they run bloodwork only after one of them started showing symptoms. It's a bit late to quarantine at that stage.

Given how inane some of the dialogue was, I think I'd have been more than happy to cut some of drivel out and add in a bit of common sense science.

[Briquettes]

A-

I thought it was a pretty good movie. The effects were beautiful, Charlize Theron was beautiful, and Michael Fassbender stole the show.

Sure, there were some problems. Most of the characters did stupid things and the Charlie character annoyed me so much that I was hoping he'd die the minute he stepped off the ship. Still can't say I was disappointed, though. Then again I never really thought Alien was the masterpiece everyone makes it out to be.

[cbspock]

Nightowl1701 wrote:

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She was NOT walking around like nothing happened, she was staggering and clutching her belly and popping one painkiller after another. She barely made it back into her spacesuit. When the shit hit the fan, she was going on adrenalin, the painkillers and sheer willpower. No idea how long she was lying there after the ship crashed (obviously long enough for her suit air to almost run out, so we'll say a few hours). No doubt once she and David took off in the other Jockey vessel, she would have had to put David back together enough for him to pilot the ship and put her in cryosleep, because she wouldn't survive the trip otherwise.

"I guess it's because I'm a human being, and you're just a robot." She likely figured it was Weyland prodding David to do his experiments (or David explained it to her in a deleted scene). David, being "just a robot," was just following his master's orders and bore no personal responsibility. Bit of the same condescending attitude Holloway showed him, when you think about it.

The movie still sucked. She staggered a little but had no problem running and jumping when the plot called for it. The movie looked great the characters and plot were stupid. She pretty quickly forgot David was the one who wanted to freeze her to take the alien home ala Burke from Aliens.


-chris

[Flavius]

I'd like to take my 12 year old son who loves SCI-FI - are the Aliens anything like the ones from 'Alien'? - he couldn't go in case.

[Sci]

Flavius wrote:

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I'd like to take my 12 year old son who loves SCI-FI - are the Aliens anything like the ones from 'Alien'? - he couldn't go in case.

It depends on the individual, obviously, but this has an R rating. If you don't want your son seeing Alien, you definitely don't want him seeing Prometheus; it doesn't want for gore or scary stuff.

[Saul]

Flavius wrote:

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I'd like to take my 12 year old son who loves SCI-FI - are the Aliens anything like the ones from 'Alien'? - he couldn't go in case.

Parts are graphic but it's nowhere near as scary as anything from Alien or Aliens. I think at 12 he could handle it.

[Nightowl1701]

cbspock wrote:

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She pretty quickly forgot David was the one who wanted to freeze her to take the alien home ala Burke from Aliens.

She'd literally gone straight from the surgery to discovering Wayland (with David being nice and putting a coat over her), then less than a minute later learning "One of [the Engineers] is still alive - and we're going to meet him." Yeah, I'd be pretty distracted myself at that point.

And again, that scene made it pretty clear that Wayland, not David, was the one pulling the strings and calling all the shots. And she considered David a mere machine with no free will of his own who HAD to follow his creator's orders. She accepted David's aid at the film's end because 1) she had no choice if she was gonna live (and vice versa with David) and 2) She was now David's master and he had to follow HER orders.

[Nightowl1701]

Food for thought:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1446714/...read/200177706

[WarsTrek1993]

I actually enjoyed it! I'm a fan of the first two Alien movies, and I thought this film made up for the godawful third and fourth movies.

I'm in the minority for this, but I say the Aliens are as scary now as they were in the earlier movies!

[SalvorHardin]

Armond's review

"Ridley Scott Hiccups Alien Fumes in Prometheus"

http://cityarts.info/2012/06/07/a-noxious-burp/

[BillJ]

I do think it felt more like a reboot than an actual prequel.

[YellowSubmarine]

Nightowl1701 wrote:

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Food for thought:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1446714/...read/200177706

It's exactly the feeling I got from the

first words with the space jockey. He was calm and ready to hear what the humans had to say, and Shaw's insistence on the first question was obviously a foreshadowing for the fact that the question is important. Then he went into a mad rage when we heard what selfish thing we had to ask. The rest seems to follow from there.

But I still think that the whole premise is a bit... over the top. I'd much if prefer a story depicting sentient beings to have them acting rationally and reasonably, which the whole premise implies they didn't. Instead there is a lot of symbolism that works pretty well, but doesn't feel to have a tangible reason for being there in the first place. For starters, the whole attitude of the Engineers appears to be pretty racist – meeting the Wayland moron or having your emissary killed by a few Roman morons doesn't translate to exterminating the entire race. Especially when you have obvious disagreement in front of you. And the surviving Engineer going after the one who disagreed? Way to go fella, that's totally unbecoming for a godlike creature.

The whole notion that a sentient alien jumps and starts killing en masse doesn't work well for me, no matter how much symbolism you put to tie it together. Unless there's a very good reason for it, but it has to be either depicted or hinted at. Otherwise it's just another version of “hey, aliens want to come and kill us all”. You didn't need to make them sentient to go there, the original killing machines did it well enough.

The endangering their installation part works, but going to Earth? You are afraid we might come again, pal? Why don't you just pull a self-destruct trick out of your hat if you're that much into self-sacrifice? Instead you waited for us to self-destruct you! All the humans that were crawling over your military base and had watched Star Trek knew better.

Gods always seem to have an awful lot of issues.

And I agree that it felt like there was an awful lot of cutting. Sometimes everything felt so rushed as if an hour had been cut in the middle. I think the Director's cut will definitely be better. Unfortunately, that won't be shown in cinemas, so I'd miss the spectacular visuals in the good version.