PROMETHEUS - Grade and Discuss

[Professor Zoom]

beamMe wrote:

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The beauty of it all is: you don't have to watch the film again.

Its true. I will enjoy not spending my money on the blu ray.

[AvBaur]

I finally got around to seeing 'Prometheus' tonight. (It hasn't been out in Germany for very long.)

Well... let's start with what works: Visually, this movie is amazing. The production design, the visual effects, and the cinematography are completely stunning and unlike anything I've seen before, and the sets and landscapes are often literally breathtaking. Technically, 'Prometheus' is a marvel. And the cast isn't too bad, either - Michael Fassbender in particular is very convincing as a morally ambiguous android.


It's just a crying shame that all this technical excellence and these good actors work in service of such a terrible screenplay. It's not even that it lacks fascinating ideas or doesn't ask interesting questions, but that it just doesn't put any of its (too) many ideas to good use or provide compelling answers to its questions. But that wasn't even my biggest problem. I probably could have done without the answers if the characters had worked for me at all. However, almost nothing they did seemed even remotely like something real scientists (or real human beings, for that matter) would do, none of their reactions seemed genuine and believable. It's telling when the emotionless robot is the only compelling character in the movie...


All in all, I'd say this was one of the most frustrating experiences I've ever had with a movie. On the one hand, I was constantly marvelling at the technical achievements and the dense, creepy atmosphere, and on the other hand, I was extremely annoyed and utterly frustrated by the characters and the half-baked ideas and story developments. Still, while I think the movie is ultimately a failure, it's certainly a very interesting failure and I don't regret having seen it.

[JarodRussell]

Got Alien and Aliens on glorious blu ray. Amazing films. And it's funny how many influences of both films (not only in the story) can be seen in Prometheus, and yet Prometheus doesn't really seem to fit in there.

It the basic late prequel problem perhaps. Prometheus, for example, looks a lot more high tech than Nostromo or Sulaco, yet these are supposed to be almost a century after it. And then there's issues like the size of the Space Jockey (it's MUCH larger in Alien) or that the thing is "fossilized".

Unless they come up with something smart, I don't see how these films could ever be really connected.


Compared to Alien, Prometheus feels much faster, clearer, cleaner, by the numbers. It's a lot less scary and has less impact than Alien because of that.

[NrobbieC]

Overall Prometheus was a good film.
Yes, the actors (apart from Fassbender) varied from wooden to awful and the script was dire. But it's very impressive visually, and Michael Fassbender was epic.
A sequel still has potential.

[137th Gebirg]

^^^ Agreed. I'm looking forward to its release.

[lurok]

[lurok]

So I watched this again on blu-ray. Still didn't make any more sense.

[ichab]

To each his own. I loved it in the theaters and enjoyed it again on Blu-Ray.

[stj]

The opening sequence lost me. You know, the one where some guy with too much electrolysis walks around in a robe and loin cloth. Whose DNA turns out to look like a ladder, although space-filling models and their two-dimensional images show rather clearly that DNA is not really ladder shaped.

I still hung on but when the archaeologist used her miniaturized instant archaeological ruins dater to announce within minutes that the cave was over 35 000 yrs old, my willing suspension of disbelief wasn't just a horse put down for a broken leg, it was a pot of glue. Maybe I missed something but it was completely unwatchable for in-your-face idiocy.

[The Mirrorball Man]

stj wrote:

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The opening sequence lost me. You know, the one where some guy with too much electrolysis walks around in a robe and loin cloth. Whose DNA turns out to look like a ladder, although space-filling models and their two-dimensional images show rather clearly that DNA is not really ladder shaped.

I still hung on but when the archaeologist used her miniaturized instant archaeological ruins dater to announce within minutes that the cave was over 35 000 yrs old, my willing suspension of disbelief wasn't just a horse put down for a broken leg, it was a pot of glue. Maybe I missed something but it was completely unwatchable for in-your-face idiocy.

Your suspension of disbelief doesn't sound very willing. I'd stick with documentaries if I were you. There were much more distressing things about Prometheus.

[Starbreaker]

If you go into the mindset of hating this movie, you're going to hate it. All the arguing in the world can't convince somebody to like something they're intent on hating. I mean, nitpicking picking effects in the first minutes... whatever.

My Blu-ray came in the mail yesterday. Amazon had a great deal on Cyber Monday. I got the 3D version in anticipation of getting a 3DTV this coming summer. There are over 4 hours of extras on the special features disk. They're mostly great. There are a couple of vignettes that I found useless, but I still set down and watched everything in one sweep.

The deleted scenes are interesting. They're actually finished shots that were trimmed from the movie. No animatics or grainy video.

I'm watching the movie right now. I plan on listening to the commentaries and then using the second screen app later. This release is jam-packed with stuff, which I really love.

I think I gave the movie a B+ equivalent when I saw it in theaters because of some of the stuff I really didn't understand, but except for the idiot scientist who started poking at the alien snake, the movie makes more sense to me now.

The picture and audio on the Blu-ray are great. Highly recommended from me.

[137th Gebirg]

^^^ Good to hear, and is what I was hoping would be the case. I'll be getting mine soon.

[Professor Zoom]

Starbreaker wrote:

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If you go into the mindset of hating this movie, you're going to hate it. All the arguing in the world can't convince somebody to like something they're intent on hating. I mean, nitpicking picking effects in the first minutes... whatever.

But what if you go to the movie thinking, hey, this is going to be great? And it turns out: the movie is a piece of shit?

I really wanted to like the movie... I really did...

[Pingfah]

I would think the majority of people going into a Ridley Scott sci-fi movie would be expecting it to be great, I certainly was as well.

[Professor Zoom]

Pingfah wrote:

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I would think the majority of people going into a Ridley Scott sci-fi movie would be expecting it to be great, I certainly was as well.

Exactly. If you were disappointed, who knows WHEN that might happen... it could be at the beginning, it could be in the middle... who knows...? But because someone was disappointed, doesn't mean they went in HOPING to hate it...