PROMETHEUS - Grade and Discuss

[Roshi]

Grading and Discussion Thread
P R O M E T H E U S​

Spoilers will follow!
Ok folks, this is it, the time has finally come and Ridley Scott's Prometheus is finally out now (well except that tiny little country called USA... )

Have at it, Ladies and Gentlemen! Tell us what you think of the movie.

I've just seen the movie and I return to see it in 90 minutes...

I'll only say this for now:
This is not, I repeat, this is not a prequel to Alien. It is a movie that tkaes place before Alien. There's a huge gap between the ending of Prometheus and the beginning of Alien.

 

[Admiral2]

Grading and Discussion Thread

P R O M E T H E U S​

Spoilers will follow!
Ok folks, this is it, the time has finally come and Ridley Scott's Prometheus is finally out now (well except that tiny little country called USA... )

Have at it, Ladies and Gentlemen! Tell us what you think of the movie.

I've just seen the movie and I return to see it in 90 minutes...

I'll only say this for now:
This is not, I repeat, this is not a prequel to Alien. It is a movie that tkaes place before Alien. There's a huge gap between the ending of Prometheus and the beginning of Alien.

Well that sucks.

But I already know from Alien that Ridley Scott's good at this sci-fi thing, so I'll watch it anyway when it's out in my tiny little country.

 

[scnj]

Ridley Scott used to be good at sci-fi. We can't say for certain yet that he still is, his sensibilities as a director have changed a lot since 1982.

 

[Admiral2]

Ridley Scott used to be good at sci-fi. We can't say for certain yet that he still is, his sensibilities as a director have changed a lot since 1982.

I don't think the important things have changed. One of the great things about Alien was the manic attention to detail, and Prometheus looks like he's retained at least that.

 

[DarthTom]

I'll only say this for now:
This is not, I repeat, this is not a prequel to Alien. It is a movie that tkaes place before Alien. There's a huge gap between the ending of Prometheus and the beginning of Alien.

From what I've read - and I haven't heard a lot about this movie - it is in essence Ancient Aliens premise meets sci-fi gore in terms of a theme.

 

[Shurik]

It opens here in 2 weeks. Out of everything that came out and will come out this year, this is probably the one I'm most anticipating. Ridley Scott + Alien universe + great cast equals win.

 

[davejames]

Early reviews are looking good, although Variety's complaint about the loud, ever-present orchestral score kind of concerns me a bit.

I was really hoping this would have the same quiet, documentary-style feel as Alien, but instead it sounds like more of a modern, flashy scifi movie...

 

[137th Gebirg]

This is not, I repeat, this is not a prequel to Alien. It is a movie that tkaes place before Alien. There's a huge gap between the ending of Prometheus and the beginning of Alien.

Hang on - how is this not a prequel to Alien? It takes place in the same universe (or, at least, it appears to), it references different aspects and set pieces that were in Alien (space jockey, derelict ship, etc.) Time gap? So what? How many years had taken place between Enterprise and TOS Trek? 80+ years? Or between TOS and TNG? Over 100? I haven't seen it yet myself but the logic here doesn't track.

 

[Admiral2]

This is not, I repeat, this is not a prequel to Alien. It is a movie that tkaes place before Alien. There's a huge gap between the ending of Prometheus and the beginning of Alien.

Hang on - how is this not a prequel to Alien? It takes place in the same universe (or, at least, it appears to), it references different aspects and set pieces that were in Alien (space jockey, derelict ship, etc.) Time gap? So what? How many years had taken place between Enterprise and TOS Trek? 80+ years? Or between TOS and TNG? Over 100? I haven't seen it yet myself but the logic here doesn't track.

He may be basing it solely on the non-appearance of that specific alien.

 

[Roshi]

This is not, I repeat, this is not a prequel to Alien. It is a movie that tkaes place before Alien. There's a huge gap between the ending of Prometheus and the beginning of Alien.

Hang on - how is this not a prequel to Alien? It takes place in the same universe (or, at least, it appears to), it references different aspects and set pieces that were in Alien (space jockey, derelict ship, etc.) Time gap? So what? How many years had taken place between Enterprise and TOS Trek? 80+ years? Or between TOS and TNG? Over 100? I haven't seen it yet myself but the logic here doesn't track.

I meant that movie does not directly lead to Alien.

Spoiler: Plot points

First of all it does not take place on LV 426 but on LV 223. We're meant to believe that planet is nearby.
Secondly, Shaw leaves the planet with another spaceship since both Prometheus and the Engineer's ship are destroyed. David says there are *many* ships like that one.
And finally, at the very end of the movie, the creature "chestbusting" is far from being like the Xenomorph. But we're "getting there!"

In short, a few things still need to be told before the events of the original movie.

 

[StarTrek1701]

Just read the plot description in Wikipedia.

Wow. That sucks.

 

[Roshi]

That wikipedia article really oversimplifies the plot.
Go and see the movie and make your own judgement.

 

[137th Gebirg]

This is not, I repeat, this is not a prequel to Alien. It is a movie that tkaes place before Alien. There's a huge gap between the ending of Prometheus and the beginning of Alien.

Hang on - how is this not a prequel to Alien? It takes place in the same universe (or, at least, it appears to), it references different aspects and set pieces that were in Alien (space jockey, derelict ship, etc.) Time gap? So what? How many years had taken place between Enterprise and TOS Trek? 80+ years? Or between TOS and TNG? Over 100? I haven't seen it yet myself but the logic here doesn't track.

I meant that movie does not directly lead to Alien.

Spoiler: Plot points

First of all it does not take place on LV 426 but on LV 223. We're meant to believe that planet is nearby.
Secondly, Shaw leaves the planet with another spaceship since both Prometheus and the Engineer's ship are destroyed. David says there are *many* ships like that one.
And finally, at the very end of the movie, the creature "chestbusting" is far from being like the Xenomorph. But we're "getting there!"

In short, a few things still need to be told before the events of the original movie.

Gotcha. Thx for the clarification. It seems clear that they're setting up for another movie. I suspect that will likely fill in some, if not all, the remaining blanks.

 

[Set Harth]

This is not, I repeat, this is not a prequel to Alien. It is a movie that tkaes place before Alien.

By that logic TPM isn't a Star Wars prequel.

( On a related note, I'd like to give a shout-out to Ridley Scott for almost completely killing my enthusiasm for this project a while back when he denied it was an Alien prequel. )

 

[Roshi]

TPM is not a prequel to A New Hope...

 

[137th Gebirg]

TPM is not a prequel to A New Hope...

Heh...that may be more philosophical than literal.

 

[Set Harth]

TPM is not a prequel to A New Hope...

Yes, it is. It's just not the only one.

That's why it's been called a "Star Wars prequel" from day one and no one ever disputed that. Similarly, the PT is referred to as "the prequels" as opposed to "one prequel and a prequel to that prequel and a prequel to that prequel to the prequel".

If you try to change the definition of prequel so that TPM is not a prequel to ANH, then what exactly is it a prequel to? AOTC? That would mean it's a prequel to a film which came out three years after its own release. Which kind of invalidates the "quel" part.

 

[Roshi]

Jesus, are you really taking literally what I've just written? When Prometheus ends, it does not lead to Alien! Sheesh!
It's not Alien 0, if you prefer that kind of anal(sic)ogy.
Go and see the film and maybe you'll understand what I try to convey.

 

[Set Harth]

I understand what you're saying, I just don't agree with your (re)definition of "prequel".

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

I've just seen it. In my opinion, though it's visually and technically impressive and some of the actors do their best with what they're given, Prometheus is an incoherent mess.

Ridley Scott, who used to be so talented at that kind of thing, seems to have lost all deftness at building dramatic tension. The film is a collection of loosely connected scenes which ultimately fail to coalesce into a coherent whole. It looks and reads like a first draft. Characters are introduced and discarded randomly. Their motivations are all over the place. Some events which should be extremely important have little or no impact and are never referenced again. Even the sci-fi part, the worldbuilding, is haphazard and lacks cohesion. It seems to exist solely to provide a setting for action scenes and to hit a couple of half-baked thematic notes about faith and the meaning of life.

For me, it's as if the movie had been written by people whose total life experience comes from other movies: not once do you believe that you're looking at flesh-and-blood people with decipherable motivations and credible emotions. The Prometheus is full of weird automatons who speak like movie characters and act like movie characters, as if they had escaped from the Jack Slater universe.

Prometheus is not without merits, but as far as I'm concerned, it's a bitter disappointment.