PROMETHEUS - Grade and Discuss

[Warped9]

One thing thats bloody apparent, to me anyway. These xenomorphs, no matter what form they take, are weapons of terror as much as anything else. They don't just kill like most wild predators might kill. It's their method of killing. Sure they can tear you apart or massacre you in any number of ways, but their preferred way is truly repulsive and terrifying.

 

[Mooch]

The main things I was wondering about: just what is that black goo? Does it have a specific purpose/function? And what are the motivations of the Engineers (in particular, why is the one that's still alive such a violent, aggressive asshole)?

I'm glad someone else is wondering about that besides me. It seems to cause heads to explode, turn people into zombies, and also cause them to have crazy mutated babies. It's a multipurpose goo. it also seems to have given rise to the entire human race (or was that a different kind of goo?)
It also seems likely that it mutated the worms that were in the room with the head statue to turn into the snake creatures.

I am also wondering what the purpose of that room was. If it was a storage facility for the bottles of goo, why was there so much more on the ship? And why were they activated by opening the door? And why we're all the dead aliens trying to get into that room? And why was the big head there? And why did the mural on the ceiling change after thy entered the room?

And the biggest question: why were all the ancient pictures On Earth directing them to that planet?

 

[Warped9]

I'm wondering if the big alien simply assumed the humans were just another form of xenomorph and thus just attacked them by reflex.

 

[Mooch]

I'm wondering if the big alien simply assumed the humans were just another form of xenomorph and thus just attacked them by reflex.

If you go by the prologue, I guess technically we are

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I can see a lot of the flaws mentioned here but I was really captivated by the visuals, atmosphere, mystery and so on that i didn't notice so much while watching. I think I need a rewatch to give an honest appraisal. Mind you I liked Alien 3 so what do I know? I was not disappointed seeing it in IMAX 3D, enjoyed the ride.

A couple of thoughts:

Liz Shaw, heh, must be written by a Who fan

Sadly the cheap jack Dark Shadows TV show had better old man makeup.

 

[banzaiduck]

There are essentially three types of films out there:

1. Those that make me want to masturbate.
2. Those that make me want to watch them again.
3. Those that make me want to take a shit.

Sadly, this film fell under the third category.

BANZAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Tiberius]

I wasn't impressed.

And what was up with that stupidly convoluted plot to get her pregnant with the alien squid?

He gets some of the goo, then puts it into the guy's cup so he drinks it and gets infected, then he has to shag his girlfriend to get her infected so it can grow? I mean, bloody hell! That's hardly a reliable plan of action!
.

The pregnancy was never David's plan, it was just something that happened. A "fortunate" coincidence for David.
His plan was to see what the goo would do to a human but then Charlie got himself roasted.

Yes. Entirely TOO fortunate for me to buy it!

 

[zakkrusz]

D, maybe C- at best.

Cool universe and tech, decent characters, as one would expect from an Alien-verse show, but it does not deliver in the story department, in fact the story is a f***ing convoluted and frustrating mess of dropped plot-lines and unanswered questions that makes zero sense.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

The main things I was wondering about: just what is that black goo? Does it have a specific purpose/function? And what are the motivations of the Engineers (in particular, why is the one that's still alive such a violent, aggressive asshole)?

I'm glad someone else is wondering about that besides me. It seems to cause heads to explode, turn people into zombies, and also cause them to have crazy mutated babies. It's a multipurpose goo. it also seems to have given rise to the entire human race (or was that a different kind of goo?)
It also seems likely that it mutated the worms that were in the room with the head statue to turn into the snake creatures.

I am also wondering what the purpose of that room was. If it was a storage facility for the bottles of goo, why was there so much more on the ship? And why were they activated by opening the door? And why we're all the dead aliens trying to get into that room? And why was the big head there? And why did the mural on the ceiling change after thy entered the room?

And the biggest question: why were all the ancient pictures On Earth directing them to that planet?

I assume the goo was nanotechnology - miniature Von Neumann machines - that could be programmed to kick off life on a barren planet in order to terraform it. As for the Genesis device, the goo could also function as a weapon. Perhaps the pictures were a warning to "avoid this world". If they were a trap, perhaps they were intended as a test. I think maybe we failed. The lesson is when performing xenoarcheology, leave the robots and the flakes in the ship.

 

[Warped9]

It's pretty clear to me that Weyland saw the crew as simply hired help to be used as fodder. As frightening as the aliens and xenomorphs are the extreme corporate mindset in play here was equally chilling. David was simply acting on Weyland's orders, or more specifically his programming, and everyone else aboard was expendable as long as Weyland got what he wanted.

 

[sojournaut]

Overall I think a B or B+ is a fair grade for Prometheus. I feel like the story is being maligned a bit unfairly. The optimism and adventure of exploration is not a very popular topic to tackle, especially on the big screen, and the film kind of had to mesh that quality of science fiction effectively with its franchise reputation/DNA for suspense and horror. The downside - as I think others have touched on - is that it ends up doing neither very well. Still, I appreciated the effort very much and the overall mix is at least entertaining to watch.

I think the best part of the film

Spoiler: spoiler

was when the Space Jockey was awakened and seeing him interact with David. There was so much in that moment - something like love and hate, wrapped in the irony of David being a false human altogether.

On the other hand, I think I'm also just pumped to see decent sci-fi again, and to see the theaters full of interested people.

 

[Pauln6]

Weill i just watched Stakeland last night. The pace was languid but the story was by no means formulaic and, apart from the narrator who I thought was likely to survive until the end at least, I had no idea what was going to happen to the supporting characters throughout the movie. There wasn't a huge amount of dialogue but they managed to sketch their characters without that (much as they did in Alien and Aliens). If the pace of Prometheus had been a little slower early on, maybe with a few natural disasters injuring or killing people while Holloway (the only person who took his helmet off) germinates due to David taking the opportunity to carry out his experiment, if David had just said, to Shaw, you're infected, I'm freezing you, and did so early on, if somebody else freed her later to check her out after bad sh~t happened to the others once the genie was out of the box, and if a few more of the characters worked together, leaving the injured Shaw on the ship while Vickers sided against her father, I think that would have mixed it up a bit and left us wondering exactly who was the hero and who was going to suvive.

 

[SalvorHardin]

I wasn't impressed.

And what was up with that stupidly convoluted plot to get her pregnant with the alien squid?

He gets some of the goo, then puts it into the guy's cup so he drinks it and gets infected, then he has to shag his girlfriend to get her infected so it can grow? I mean, bloody hell! That's hardly a reliable plan of action!
.

The pregnancy was never David's plan, it was just something that happened. A "fortunate" coincidence for David.
His plan was to see what the goo would do to a human but then Charlie got himself roasted.

Yes. Entirely TOO fortunate for me to buy it!

How is a guy having sex with his girlfriend when they finally get some alone time after 2 years in the freezer and the excitement of a big discovery "TOO fortunate"?

Lingering questions:

-What was the point of the first scene? Was the alien killing himself as some form of sacrifice to appease the aliens in the flying saucer?

From what I understood the Engineer sacrificed himself drinking the goo to provide the dna building blocks for human life to emerge. Part of the Engineers' seeding, life creation process

-David's infecting Holloway. I didn't get why he did that? Was it merely scientific curiosity? Or was another attempt to bring an alien back to Earth like we have seen in the other films? Or did he not just like the dude?

Trying to see what the goo does, what effect it has on humans, to see if it could be used on Weyland to "fix" him.

-Why did that squid thing produce a xenomorph? We've never seen that before. It was almost like they realized they should throw a xenomorph in there and it just felt tacked on. Even though I had wanted to see a xenomorph, or more.

It was an early form of facehugger perhaps. A version the Engineers will perfect into the small one we know in the sequels, if there are any.

 

[Trekker4747]

I do think the old-man make up on Pearce was horrendous. I kept looking at him like, "Why the fuck is he in old-man makeup? Are we going to see a younger version of him or something?" I mean it was like TNG's "Second Season" bad. It was just distracting whenever we saw him. Certainly they could've just simply found an older actor to use to play the part and not needed any make-up at all (or at least less severe makle-up.)

 

[Gepard]

the old-man make up on Tennant (?)

Guy Pierce. Though David Tennant would have been awesome.

Oh, I saw Prometheus at the opening midnight showing. Thought it was really dumb. A lot of what the people who are praising it see as open-ended, thought-provoking questions are just unexplained and/or inconsistent character motivation.

There were scattered bouts of laughter from the audience I saw it with during several "serious" scenes, most notably Shaw clutching at David and screaming for him to "TAKE THIS THING OUT OF [HER!]". Not, perhaps, the reaction you want from your super-serious deep-thinker of an expensive sci-fi film.

 

[Roshi]

Guy Pearce, not Tennant.

 

[Tiberius]

The pregnancy was never David's plan, it was just something that happened. A "fortunate" coincidence for David.
His plan was to see what the goo would do to a human but then Charlie got himself roasted.

Yes. Entirely TOO fortunate for me to buy it!

How is a guy having sex with his girlfriend when they finally get some alone time after 2 years in the freezer and the excitement of a big discovery "TOO fortunate"?

Because it is convenient that THAT was the only way to get her pregnant so that squid thing to grow so it could defeat the engineer at the end of the movie.

Think about it - that squid was required to save her. But IF she hadn't gotten pregnant (due to condom use or something), and IF she hadn't had sex, and IF David hadn't contaminated his drink before the guy shagged her, and IF he hadn't brought back a sample of that liquid and IF they hadn't found the canisters, then there would have been no squiddy to save her, and she would have died!

Way too many IFs there.

 

[Trekker4747]

Pearce, thanks.

I did think the surgery scene was wonderful and gruesome but the machine was clunkyly introduced. "Hey, cool! You have one of those automated surgery machines!"

"Yeah, it's neat. But don't worry about it you'll never see it again."

I also found it funny that she asks it for a C-Section/Abortion and says it can't do one then she basically says, "Oh! Well... I have an abnormal growth in my abdomen, can you remove it?" And the machine's like, "Oh, totally!"

The two dumb guys stuck in the chamber too were just...

Dude, how stupid do you have to be to see a snake-like creature and be "Oh, cute! I'm going to touch it even after it snapped at me!"

Anyway, The Cinema Snob and his friends review their midnight screening and mostly give the movie a positive one.

LINK

I think it's funny when Brad says the movie should have been called, Dude, Don't Touch That.

The lack of proper quarantine procedures or any sense of "there could be dangerous shit here" stuck me as odd too. But in spite of the many of the flaws and plot holes in this movie I did really enjoy it purely on visuals.

Way too many IFs there.

Tell that to anyone who's been luckily rescued or saved by something random in a situation where they normally would have died.

 

[DarKush]

SalvorHardin, thanks for your responses. That sacrifice explanation makes a lot of sense. About the squid possibly being a proto-facehugger, another thought occurred to me. Maybe the space jockey had already been infected and the xenomorph had been gestating for a long time. And now that the space jockey was dying it burst out of him to save itself.

We have seen infected people in frenzied states in other Alien films, so maybe that was part of what was driving the space jockey's violence toward the humans?

I didn't put in my first post, but I do agree with others who had an issue with Guy Pearce's makeup. It wasn't done well and I was expecting them to de-age him at some point in the film. I agree with those who felt getting a real old guy would've been better. And I also had issues with the quarantine procedures, or lack thereof, however I let that one go as I watched the film.

And it was pretty stupid for that one dude to want to took that alien snake especially when it was rearing up, looking ready to strike. And also after they had found all of those space jockey corpses. They didn't know what had killed them, it could've been the serpents.

I also didn't get why no weapons were allowed. Granted you didn't want trigger happy people, but shouldn't the crew have been picked to weed out those kinds of people? And why not have something to defend yourself in case you did run into some problem? I liked how it was done in AVP where Alexa Woods stated no weapons, they agreed with her, but then just ignored her. Or how it was done, in a similar fashion, in Aliens.

 

[roliver]

I don't totally buy the idea that these beings spawned us.

What I don't get is why anyone in the movie would think we were created by the Engineers. Granted, they proved this with DNA once they arrived, but prior to the launch of a trillion dollar mission to deep space, what lead anyone to this idea?

I don't recally anything in the cave painting that would even remotely suggest or imply that these creatures created us. Certainly an implication that we were visited by aliens, but anything else is a stretch. Did I miss something?

I just can't fathom Weyland pinning his hopes on finding a way to stop his death based on a few cave paintings.

And I could go on and on about mankind's mission to meet sentient alien life for the first time--one believed to possibly be our creators--being crewed by a bunch of wreckless idiots. But I won't.

This movie might take the plot hole crown away from Star Trek (2009).