PROMETHEUS - Grade and Discuss

[Jono]

I gave it the movie a B, pretty entertaining but not completely satisfying.

It looked good and the acting was mostly fine. I enjoyed the nods to the franchise within the movie, but I would have liked more explicit answers. I went in not knowing if this was meant to be a one off or a new series so I'm not sure much I should be concerned about that issue otherwise I probably would have rated it a bit lower.

One thing I didn't quite get (well, there was more than one but I'll focus on this one) was how it went from "Yay, Creators!" to "No, Destroyers!". Shaw seemed to leap from the former to the latter without much explanation, or least much I can readily recall.

 

[Gepard]

 

[Saul]

http://www.gavinrothery.com/my-blog/2012/6/11/so-what-was-wrong-with-prometheus.html

Quite a good review.

None of the characters got any kind of development.

None? At all? We find out Shaw's father died. We find out she cannot have children. There are two examples of how her character was developed.

That's not development. That's just the character's background details. If we discover she likes the color Blue that's not development.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I said this very thing when I saw it with a friend yesterday.

 

[Daneel]

Yeah, it was quite unfortunate for Vickers that she suffered from the apparent inability to make a 90° turn and run that way instead.

 

[Gepard]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsCspJFaCMs&feature=channel&list=UL[/yt]

 

[Infern0]

B+

I really liked it, lots of unanswered questions but a decent sci-fi flick

 

[Trekker4747]

http://www.geekosystem.com/ndgt-prometheus-bad-math/

Scott is turning into Lucas.

First the whole prequel thing and now this.

Yes, because the only thing wrong with the SW prequels was a single throwaway line that got a number wrong!

I was thinking of the OT. There's no line in the prequels that "got a number wrong" in the sense of the Prometheus math mistake.

And I didn't say Scott was Lucas. I said he's turning into Lucas. This process takes time.

I'm still pretty sure that line in Prometheus wasn't to be taken literally and was just her throwing a number out there that "sounded good" and better than "200 trillion miles."

On the falling/rolling ship thing the actual best way to run would be at a 45-degree angle to the direction the thing was rolling. This way you gain distance from it both from its direction of travel and sideways.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Yes, because the only thing wrong with the SW prequels was a single throwaway line that got a number wrong!

I was thinking of the OT. There's no line in the prequels that "got a number wrong" in the sense of the Prometheus math mistake.

And I didn't say Scott was Lucas. I said he's turning into Lucas. This process takes time.

I'm still pretty sure that line in Prometheus wasn't to be taken literally and was just her throwing a number out there that "sounded good" and better than "200 trillion mikes."

On the falling/rolling ship thing the actual best way to run would be at a 45-degree angle to the direction the thing was rolling. This way you gain distance from it both from its direction of travel and sideways.

"If I wanted to get laid why would I take myself where there's 200 trillion Mikes?"

 

[RoJoHen]

None of the characters got any kind of development.

None? At all? We find out Shaw's father died. We find out she cannot have children. There are two examples of how her character was developed.

That's not development. That's just the character's background details. If we discover she likes the color Blue that's not development.

Thank you, I agree. Background information is not development. Development means that the characters grow and change as a result of the events of the film. I mean, I suppose Shaw changed a bit from believing that we would meet our gods to discovering that our creators were just aliens with bioengineered weapons, but she still wants to find them and meet them.

 

[PsychoPere]

Another thing... several people have questioned why Weyland apparently ordered David to infect Halloway. The thing is, why do so many assume that Weyland had anything to do with it in the first place? It's pretty clear to me from David's conversation with Halloway about their various creators, that David has some sort of pseudo-emotional resentment of humanity, and his creator in particular. (Note how he flinches when Weyland later dismisses him as having no soul, and it's kind'a hard to not accept this resentment as genuine.) I'm fairly sure that a number of David's actions are the result of a personal agenda that Weyland is most likely completely un-aware of.

Assuming there's a connection does make sense, though. David recovers the cylinder from the cavern, then speaks to Weyland onboard the ship, then goes off and infects Holloway after being told to "try harder." In one of the many interviews I've read with Lindelof over the last few days, he said that "try harder" translates for an android as "try a different way until you get results." He also suggested, though did not outright state, that Weyland may have explicitly told David to find out what would happen if a human were infected with what David had discovered.

Also, just a small correction - the bit about a soul happens during the briefing near the beginning of the film, rather than "later."

In any event, I think you're right about there being some resentment, though I think it's also coupled with contempt for humanity. He resents that he'll never have a soul as his creator conceives of one, but at the same time he realizes that he is probably superior to humans in many other ways. I think he sees a potential in himself for something more than what he has been doing, but has to wait until Weyland has died in order to fully explore that potential ("all children want their parents to die"). David already understands quite well that getting an answer to your question ("why did you create us?") may be wholly unsatisfying ("because we could"), and so views the Prometheus mission to find humanity's creators to be a pointless exercise.

 

[TremblingBluStar]

I was thinking of the OT. There's no line in the prequels that "got a number wrong" in the sense of the Prometheus math mistake.

What number of any consequence was wrong in the OT?

I'm not saying details aren't important - but if it doesn't affect the plot... well, then it's not important.

And I didn't say Scott was Lucas. I said he's turning into Lucas. This process takes time.

You do realize the man is 75 years old, right? He'll be dust before he ever reaches the lack of storytelling talent Lucas possesses.

Thank you, I agree. Background information is not development. Development means that the characters grow and change as a result of the events of the film. I mean, I suppose Shaw changed a bit from believing that we would meet our gods to discovering that our creators were just aliens with bioengineered weapons, but she still wants to find them and meet them.

True. I got that wrong.

Either way, I don't see how it can be claimed there was no character development. First off, there were only two survivors, both of whom were clearly changed by their experience. Yes, Shaw still wants to find the Engineers, but not for the reason she wanted at the beginning.

I see her having a similar character arc as Ripley, who we didn't see change much by the end of the first Alien, but in the second film she was clearly affected and changed by the first film.

 

[PsychoPere]

That's like the eighth time that link has been posted now.

(But it is an interesting read nonetheless.)

 

[Dream]

That's like the eighth time that link has been posted now.

(But it is an interesting read nonetheless.)

Haha, sorry.

Just saw the movie yesterday, liked it. Will post my thoughts a little later.

 

[davejames]

Some thoughts on the film from the production designer and VFX supervisor on Moon:

http://www.gavinrothery.com/my-blog/2012/6/11/so-what-was-wrong-with-prometheus.html

The guy makes a lot of very good points (especially about the crew basically acting like a bunch of kids on a field trip ), and there's no disputing that the writing doesn't really hold up well under scrutiny...... but what can I say? Despite the many flaws, the movie still works for me.

 

[Set Harth]

You do realize the man is 75 years old, right? He'll be dust before he ever reaches the lack of storytelling talent Lucas possesses.

We can rebuild him. We have the technology.

The science in this whole film is total bullshit. At one point Vickers says they're half a billion miles away from Earth. Although it fluctuates, that's pretty much Earth to Jupiter. Miss Vickers is leading this mission.

 

[DarthTom]

The guy makes a lot of very good points (especially about the crew basically acting like a bunch of kids on a field trip ), and there's no disputing that the writing doesn't really hold up well under scrutiny...... but what can I say? Despite the many flaws, the movie still works for me.

IMO there is nothing worse than overly picky sci-fi fans. Star Trek XI can also be nitpicked to death. I remember some of the complaints:

*Red matter that looked like red thick paint.
*Why would you build a Starship on planet earth v. in orbit?
*The character 'Nero,' - yea another poorly written Trek bad guy.
*Here we go again with another time travel paradox to solve plot problems
*Giant space drills - yea like you need a giant drill when you have anti-matter that can destroy an entire sector. Why bother?
*If you're oging to skydive to a space drill, wouldn't it be smart to bring a parachute along?

I could keep going.

I still loved the movie. And I still enjoyed Prometheus.

 

[BillJ]

*If you're going to skydive to a space drill, wouldn't it be smart to bring a parachute along?

They did have parachutes...

 

[DarthTom]

*If you're going to skydive to a space drill, wouldn't it be smart to bring a parachute along?

They did have parachutes...

And backup parachutes.

 

[Warped9]

That's the problem. This movie provided absolutely no answers.

You attributed this quote to me and I never said this.

I did say something along the lines of not everything is peeled out in big bright letters.