PROMETHEUS - Grade and Discuss

[Sci]

Looks like Lindelof is getting some twitter love for Prometheus

It never ceases to amuse me how batshit insane sci-fi nerds can be. I'm impressed by Lindelof's restraint with dealing with them.

Yeah. I mean, I was disappointed in Prometheus -- I felt that characters behaved in arbitrary ways for the purposes of moving the plot along rather than because that was natural for them. But it wasn't a bad movie, either -- it needed revision, but it wasn't total trash.

 

[sidious618]

Even if it was a bad movie the comments Lindelof is getting are totally inappropriate.

 

[Trekker4747]

Still torn between really good and really bad, although I'm leaning more towards bad now.

Soooo.... no in-between?

 

[Pauln6]

Just watching Aliens. The characters feel so much more rounded and there's some genuinely humerous dialogue including some that the scientists in Prometheus should have known:

"Nobody touch nuthin!"

Wise words indeed.

 

[Trekker4747]

Really, if you have to be told to not touch the the snake-like creature with a vagina for a mouth that just snapped at you and not to treat it like it's a puppy? You deserve to die.

 

[Warped9]

The characters in Alien have appeal because they seem very much like us, like everyman. Few of the characters in Prometheus have that appeal. Too many act like losers you likely wouldn't care to know. At first I was wary of the Captain, but I still saw something in him that clicked for me. The two ship's officers were amusing in a commonplace way. Most of the scientists other than Elizabeth Shaw were assholes. I don't care how nice looking she is because Vickers was a bitch I couldn't stand. Weyland was another asshole.

David was somewhat charming and amusing in a Data like way, but as things progressed he made me uneasy and creeped me out.

Character wise all that may have been intentional. We're not supposed to like these people. Elizabeth Shaw represents the human we like to think of ourselves as. She was the most noble and most reminiscent of the classic scientist/explorer. Most of the rest were more like what a lot of us can be like even if we don't see ourselves that way. We certainly don't like to think of ourselves that way.

Really, if you have to be told to not touch the the snake-like creature with a vagina for a mouth that just snapped at you and not to treat it like it's a puppy? You deserve to die.

True.

 

[Trekker4747]

Really, what the fuck was wrong with that guy?! Were the air levels in his suit just too low and he was high due to low oxygen levels? Why was he all cooing over that damn thing?

 

[Sci]

Really, what the fuck was wrong with that guy?! Were the air levels in his suit just too low and he was high due to low oxygen levels? Why was he all cooing over that damn thing?

You know, I could almost excuse it, except for the point where the "wings" popped out of the snake-creature's sides. In the animal world, that's always a very clear threat display, and he should have immediately sought to back away from the creature.

 

[Trekker4747]

Really, what the fuck was wrong with that guy?! Were the air levels in his suit just too low and he was high due to low oxygen levels? Why was he all cooing over that damn thing?

You know, I could almost excuse it, except for the point where the "wings" popped out of the snake-creature's sides. In the animal world, that's always a very clear threat display, and he should have immediately sought to back away from the creature.

Eh.... maybe. But, still, why would you dick around with an alien snake-like creature and continue to mess with it after it made an aggressive movie? Especially treat the thing like it's a damn puppy?

 

[Warped9]

Really, what the fuck was wrong with that guy?! Were the air levels in his suit just too low and he was high due to low oxygen levels? Why was he all cooing over that damn thing?

You know, I could almost excuse it, except for the point where the "wings" popped out of the snake-creature's sides. In the animal world, that's always a very clear threat display, and he should have immediately sought to back away from the creature.

Eh.... maybe. But, still, why would you dick around with an alien snake-like creature and continue to mess with it after it made an aggressive movie? Especially treat the thing like it's a damn puppy?

Maybe his oxygen levels were low...compounded with him being an idiot in the first place.

 

[sidious618]

Just watching Aliens. The characters feel so much more rounded and there's some genuinely humerous dialogue including some that the scientists in Prometheus should have known:

"Nobody touch nuthin!"

Wise words indeed.

Aliens was awful. It took all that was good about the original and made it look absurd instead of terrifying. The aliens died way too easily, the dialogue was often atrocious, and the ending with Ripley in the robot thingy was laughable. There was no sense of mystery as there was in Alien and, now, Prometheus.

 

[Admiral2]

Just watching Aliens. The characters feel so much more rounded and there's some genuinely humerous dialogue including some that the scientists in Prometheus should have known:

"Nobody touch nuthin!"

Wise words indeed.

Glad you like it. Now go back and watch ALIEN which, according to its writer, had characters that were deliberately not super well-rounded because his only concern was how they reacted to the monster that got thrown at them, and that was the movie Scott shot...and it's considered the seminal movie of the sci-fi-horror genre.

And Prometheus was created in that same vein. It's not perfect, but no way in hell is it worse than Aliens.

 

[Sci]

Just watching Aliens. The characters feel so much more rounded and there's some genuinely humerous dialogue including some that the scientists in Prometheus should have known:

"Nobody touch nuthin!"

Wise words indeed.

Glad you like it. Now go back and watch ALIEN which, according to its writer, had characters that were deliberately not super well-rounded because his only concern was how they reacted to the monster that got thrown at them, and that was the movie Scott shot...and it's considered the seminal movie of the sci-fi-horror genre.

And Prometheus was created in that same vein. It's not perfect, but no way in hell is it worse than Aliens.

The problem is that you can justify the former: They're working-class people who may not be well-educated and certainly aren't in a profession that should have trained them to deal with contact with new life-forms.

But the crew of the Prometheus consisted of highly-educated, well-trained scientists. They should have already been well-trained in how to explore and gather data in a manner that's both rational and safe.

Just a few of the problems with the film's portrayal of the scientists aboard the Prometheus:

• When presented with evidence of prehistoric contact with extraterrestrial life, Shaw and Halloway arbitrarily decide that this means the aliens must have created Humans. Only, there's absolutely no evidence to support this hypothesis;
• When presented with evidence that the Space Jockeys and Humans have nearly identical DNA, they continue to stick the "alien progenitors" hypothesis instead of exploring numerous alternate hypotheses, including the possibility that the Space Jockeys are an offshoot of Humans rather than the other way around;
• When encountering apparent liquid water that should have frozen into a solidified state, they make no effort to investigate;
• They make no effort to set up a a mobile lab in order to investigate specimens without risking contamination of the ship;
• They make no effort to set up an effective quarantine area aboard the ship which an easily be accessed from the exterior;
• When presented with evidence that Halloway is ill, they immediately jump to some weird notion that he's going to be "possessed" rather than exploring numerous alternate possibilities;
• Upon returning to the ship after Halloway's death, Shaw does not immediately place herself in quarantine lest she's been infected;
• In the course of trying to find the Space Jockeys and convince them to save him from death, Weyland, for no particular reason, instructs David to infect Halloway with the Space Jockey Black Oil -- a decision that makes no sense, since it risks exposing the rest of the crew to a potentially lethal alien infection, thus jeopardizing Weyland's chances of returning to Earth if he were to obtain form of age rejuvenation;
• When Milburn and Fifield are trapped in the alien structure during the storm, Captain Janek does not treat it like the prolonged emergency situation it is: he for no reason assumes that the probe's detection of alien life must have been a glitch rather than a legitimate sensor reading (in spite of their stated mission to local alien life);
• Why does Captain Janek leave the bridge unmanned when he knows Milburn and Fifield are still trapped in the alien structure? This is a prolonged emergency situation; if he wanted to get laid, he should have at least orders an officer of the watch to man the bridge;
• Why did Shaw not immediately inform the rest of the crew of David's attempt to prevent her from obtaining emergency surgery to remove the parasite? Why did she not immediately inform the crew of the parasite's presence aboard Prometheus?
• Why did the crew open up the airlock to Fifield's possessed body, when they'd already established that contact with the alien biome carried extreme risk of infect, and when they'd already come to the conclusion that bodily possession was a potential threat?
• Why did Shaw ban the presence of any weapons on the mission? She should have known full well that a first contact mission carried the risk of needing to engage in self-defense, if only against animal life rather than sentients;
• Why did Weyland insist on seeing the Space Jockey even after it had been very firmly established that the Space Jockey structure was full of dangerous biological weapons?
• Why did the Space Jockeys contact early Humanity and give them a map to one of their weapons depos?
• How the hell did the Space Jockey Parasite grow to such a huge size? There was nothing for it to eat! There was no organic material in the medical suite for it to metabolize, and no way for it to have obtained such a size. Where did all that mass come from?

 

[Maestro]

Still torn between really good and really bad, although I'm leaning more towards bad now.

Soooo.... no in-between?

No. And I'm finding it a bit frustrating.

 

[DWF]

The movie is a bit of a mess, there's clearly some cut scenes that explains alot of what's going on. The Prometheus is an even more advanced ship than the Nostromo was in Alien. And what's worse is that the alien jockey in Alien turns out to be from a race of humans and they're the ones who started humanity. The movie wasn't all that thirlling either for that matter. And as it's been pointed the fim is filled with stupid people.

 

[roliver]

The movie is a bit of a mess, there's clearly some cut scenes that explains alot of what's going on.

I wouldn't make any such conclusion on a project touched by the magical hand of Damon Lindelof. He's not really fond of explaining the magic prose that flows effortlessly from his fertile imagination.

I only hope Benedict Cumberbatch can somehow save "Star Trek 2." It's going to take some seriously good acting to distract me from whatever mess Lindelhof has cooked up for that movie.

 

[Daneel]

According to this interview, Ridley Scott is indeed planning an extended cut for the DVD, with (possibly) around 20 minutes of footage that didn't make it to the theatrical version. I hope that these additional scenes can help clear up the more muddled aspects of the film. Scott's director's cuts of Blade Runner and (from what I've heard) Kingdom of Heaven are generally regarded as superior edits, so I don't think it's unreasonable to think that he can put together a better version of Prometheus.

I still think one of my biggest gripes is the magic, all-purpose black goo. Just what is it exactly? It seems like it can do anything the plot requires it to do, which is kind of frustrating.

 

[DWF]

The movie is a bit of a mess, there's clearly some cut scenes that explains alot of what's going on.

I wouldn't make any such conclusion on a project touched by the magical hand of Damon Lindelof. He's not really fond of explaining the magic prose that flows effortlessly from his fertile imagination.

I only hope Benedict Cumberbatch can somehow save "Star Trek 2." It's going to take some seriously good acting to distract me from whatever mess Lindelhof has cooked up for that movie.

Well when Janek came in and told Shaw that they were leaving and what the moon really was, I got the impression that there was a cut scene or two that showed how he learned all that.

 

[Mr Light]

That was an excellent movie! I'm glad I knew going in there wouldn't be xenomorphs all over the place or I might have been disappointed the way others were apparently. It was very engrossing throughout, with a wonderful mystery, interesting characters (particularly David), great visuals and tension...

The surgery scene was probably the most gruesome thing I have ever seen in a movie. I was literally cringing against the back of my seat the entire time!

They missed an opportunity for a really classic bit of dialogue there, though. When she runs up to the surgery pod and screams "I need a Caesarian!" she should have screamed "I NEED AN ABORTION!!!". Now *that* would have been quotable for posterity.

Spoiler: ending

I really hope we get a sequel of Ellie and David's Head traveling to the Engineer Homeworld. Even if there's no xenomorphs at all!

So, do you think that we witnessed the first ever origin of the xenomorphs from the movie, or does that happen any time an Engineer is infected? We know they vary in appearance depending on what creature they gestate in, but this was from an infected human who impregnated a woman who removed the fetus which then implanted in an Engineer, so that's probably never happened before...

My theory on why the Engineers created life on Earth then returned to destroy it... they started out noble, creating life on planets all over. Then one of their "children" rose up and went to war with them. So now as a precaution they're killing all their children with bio-weapons to prevent any future uprisings.

 

[Agenda]

The movie definitely could have used a few improvements to the script/plot.

As to the concept, I could accept the SJ's seeding life on primordial earth and still being around after hundreds of millions of years. It was a stretch, but I could accept it. Barely.

But them looking almost exactly like us was a bridge too far for me.

Instead of looking like a bunch of Borg on steroids, the Engineers should have had a dark god, lovecraftian vibe.