PROMETHEUS - Grade and Discuss

[Mage]

My collection is Alien, Aliens and Prometheus. I'm looking forward to the sequel.

ALIEN: 1979-1986, 2012-?

Alien (1979)
Aliens (1986)
Prometheus (2012)

None of the other films exist for me.

Really?
I mean, ofcourse, each to his own. And although Alien3 and Alien: Resurrection are not as good as the first two, to me personally they are good films on their own merits. All Alien films were made in different eras of cinema, by different directors with their own unique style, while still being part of the overall feel of movies of the era they were made in. In that made sense....

Alien3 really feels like a 90s movie, to me, same goes for Alien Resurrection, but in a different style. I like all of them. Though I will admit, Alien and Aliens are the two I watch the most.

 

[martok2112]

Alien 3 kinda grew on me. I actually enjoy it a lot, after my first viewing, when my mom and I both felt a little let down by it. I liked the dialogue in the film, and the music.

I especially love the extended cut of the movie on DVD/Blu-Ray.
When I backed up my Alien blu-ray collection to HDD, I backed up only the extended/director's cuts of the films.

 

[JD]

Are the Alien vs Predator movies considered part of the Alien series and Predator series, or are they their own thing? I'd kind of assumed it was the latter, but I saw a couple references up thread that made it sound like they were supposed to be part of the series.

 

[Karzak]

I believe the Alien vs. Predator films are their own entity. The only reason they even exist is because someone thought to include an Alien skeleton in the crypt at the end of Predator 2 and it leapfrogged from there.

Also, (and I can't recall which one it was) but the AvP film where Sanaa Lathan takes the Alien skull/head and uses it as a shield was ridiculous. Funny, how the blood melted her arm off!

 

[JWPlatt]

When I backed up my Alien blu-ray collection to HDD, I backed up only the extended/director's cuts of the films.

Heh, your Blu-rays and DVDs have a longer lifetime (mean time between failures) than your hard drive which is likely to fail first. You're wasting time and storage space. Optical is the backup - not magnetic. But just so you know, optical isn't archival quality either; it just takes a little longer to degrade. And then you have format issues where they become obsolete and so it becomes an endless maintenance cycle to migrate your data to a contemporary format before your storage devices and media fail. Good luck.

 

[martok2112]

When I backed up my Alien blu-ray collection to HDD, I backed up only the extended/director's cuts of the films.

Heh, your Blu-rays and DVDs have a longer lifetime (mean time between failures) than your hard drive which is likely to fail first. You're wasting time and storage space. Optical is the backup - not magnetic. But just so you know, optical isn't archival quality either; it just takes a little longer to degrade. And then you have format issues where they become obsolete and so it becomes an endless maintenance cycle to migrate your data to a contemporary format before your storage devices and media fail. Good luck.

I read ya.

Largely, I do the backing up so that if I end up in another extended hospital stay (like I had recently), or if I am away from home for a few days, and want to take my entertainment with me, I have a good deal of it on a small, portable system, instead of porting around a bunch of physical media. (Plus, I like it better than the digital downloads that are usually offered with most blu-rays nowadays.)

 

[sidious618]

Can't believe it's been three years since this film came out. I'm still a huge fan of it. Rewatched it a few times at this point. I see that I originally rated it an A-, but I would definitely give it the A+ now.

 

[JWPlatt]

Oh my.

 

[Shurik]

Two "scientists" see the dead body of an Engineer:
- Fuck this shit, it's scary! Run away!
Two "scientists" see an alien snake that's obviously hostile:
- Let's pet it!

A bunch of "scientists" have a head of a dead Engineer:
- Let's stick electrodes in his brain, because it's a sensible thing to do to a 2000-year old separated head of an alien being we can't possibly understand even if the procedure works! Also, let's not isolate it, because nothing is wrong with not containing said head!

A geologist with a map thingie on his hand gets lost in what looks like a bunch of corridors that go in circles. There's a full 3D map of the facility onboard the ship, but the ship's captain wants to bang Charlize Theron instead of actually worrying about two pretty important crew members.

A horror movie monster-like zombified geologist comes back to the ship. Let's invite him in, maybe our super-advanced medical equipment can unzombify him!

There's lots more, of course. These characters behave like they are in some dumb 80's slasher movie.

 

[Tyberius]

There's a full 3D map of the facility onboard the ship, but the ship's captain wants to bang Charlize Theron instead of actually worrying about two pretty important crew members.

Well, that's actually reasonable.

 

[JWPlatt]

There's lots more, of course.

Yes, there is.

Any list is obliged to include:
- Running in a straight line under a gazillion-ton spacecraft to escape it instead of turning left, or right. I mean, just two or three body rolls on the ground in either direction was apparently enough to avoid something at least 200 yards wide. Okay, there's curvature involved, so maybe 60 feet of effective ground space that will crush you, making it a reasonable 20 feet per body roll.

 

[JD]

Two "scientists" see the dead body of an Engineer:
- Fuck this shit, it's scary! Run away!
Two "scientists" see an alien snake that's obviously hostile:
- Let's pet it!

I already addressed this one, which realy didn't bother me.

A bunch of "scientists" have a head of a dead Engineer:
- Let's stick electrodes in his brain, because it's a sensible thing to do to a 2000-year old separated head of an alien being we can't possibly understand even if the procedure works! Also, let's not isolate it, because nothing is wrong with not containing said head!
[\QUOTE]
Well we did see them scanning it and deciding it was clean, so it makes sense that they weren't concerned at first. Sure maybe they shouldn't just assumed their scanners would pick up everything, but it still seems reasonable to me.

A geologist with a map thingie on his hand gets lost in what looks like a bunch of corridors that go in circles. There's a full 3D map of the facility onboard the ship, but the ship's captain wants to bang Charlize Theron instead of actually worrying about two pretty important crew members.

I'll admit this one does make a bit of sense.

A horror movie monster-like zombified geologist comes back to the ship. Let's invite him in, maybe our super-advanced medical equipment can unzombify him!

They were armed and cautious when they approached him, and they did have some pretty advanced medical equitment on the ship.

There's lots more, of course. These characters behave like they are in some dumb 80's slasher movie.

I won't deny it did have issue, but none of the behavior seemed that unrealistic or unreasonable to me.

 

[Smellmet]

My collection is Alien, Aliens and Prometheus. I'm looking forward to the sequel.

ALIEN: 1979-1986, 2012-?

Alien (1979)
Aliens (1986)
Prometheus (2012)

None of the other films exist for me.

I think 3 & 4 whilst nowhere near as good as the first two still had their moments, Three's production design and overall atmosphere was absolutely amazing, if utterly depressing, I liked the dog-alien, and the Ripley being inpregnated by the chestburster element. Four had some seriously gory twisted shit in it at the end especially with the half human alien. And Ron Perlman, who is always watchable.

One and especially two are absolute cast iron classics though, it was almost impossible to follow them and improve on them really.

Prometheus was a noble effort, an interesting twist on the alien franchise with it's own intrigue but enough link to the previous movies too - visually stunning with again, a great atmosphere and production values. Solid acting, especially Fassbender, who can do no wrong in my view, he is worth watching a film solely because he is in it.

It's just undone with some crappy writing and stupid scenes. Much like Star Trek into Darkness. Hmm...

It's still an entertaining movie though, and I'll watch the sequel at the cinema, no question.

 

[Shurik]

I won't deny it did have issue, but none of the behavior seemed that unrealistic or unreasonable to me.

I guess it's a matter of opinion, but almost every action the characters took in this movie seemed very wrong to me, considering the situation they were in. They have just discovered an alien planet with signs of advanced alien life. They have discovered a dead body of an alien. They've seen the holograms of something bad happening, which resulted in the death of an alien they've found. I don't think they had any security protocols for something like this, since no one, except maybe David and Vickers, knew what they were really doing on this planet. The normal response to everything they found would be extra caution. Taking the helmet off, for example, is not being extra cautious even if the equipment says the air is breathable. Same goes to petting alien snakes, sticking electrodes in alien heads and most of the other stuff the crew did in this film.

 

[feek61]

the ship's captain wants to bang Charlize Theron instead of actually worrying about two pretty important crew members.

Well, she was pretty hot!

 

[Timby]

since no one, except maybe David and Vickers, knew what they were really doing on this planet.

This is a point that a lot of people miss, forgetting that Ridley Scott is an absolute master of telling you one thing and then revealing the truth by showing it to you over time.

Weyland tells the crew at the beginning that they were selected because they were the best in their fields, when really only Holloway and arguably Shaw were even bordering on competent, since they actually found and deciphered the "message." Everyone else was a bunch of warm bodies, what Weyland hoped were just good enough to get him to LV-223, and Weyland figured David and to a lesser extent Meredith would do the rest. And what happened when those nincompoops got to LV-223? Everything went tits-up, because Weyland hired a bunch of jokers instead of a crew that was actually smart enough to say, "Wait a minute, shit's fucked, we need to step back and figure this out or get the fuck out."

The arrogance of man is a huge theme in Prometheus.

 

[Mr Light]

Exactly, they were the desperate losers willing to sign up for an unexplained long-term expedition from a corporation. These were not competent scientists, they were the cover story that the corporation needed to get permission for the expedition.

Hell, even Shaw was a discredited kook that nobody believed, even though she was right.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

since no one, except maybe David and Vickers, knew what they were really doing on this planet.

This is a point that a lot of people miss, forgetting that Ridley Scott is an absolute master of telling you one thing and then revealing the truth by showing it to you over time.

Weyland tells the crew at the beginning that they were selected because they were the best in their fields, when really only Holloway and arguably Shaw were even bordering on competent, since they actually found and deciphered the "message." Everyone else was a bunch of warm bodies, what Weyland hoped were just good enough to get him to LV-223, and Weyland figured David and to a lesser extent Meredith would do the rest. And what happened when those nincompoops got to LV-223? Everything went tits-up, because Weyland hired a bunch of jokers instead of a crew that was actually smart enough to say, "Wait a minute, shit's fucked, we need to step back and figure this out or get the fuck out."

The arrogance of man is a huge theme in Prometheus.

I'm not sure trying to explain away one logical flaw in the film with another equally bad one is really much of an improvement.

What mega-wealthy industrialist, on the last leg of his already extended life, on an unprecedented journey to visit his creator on an alien planet so that they may grant him the key to immortality, populates his experimental vessel with the crew of the SS Minnow?

Arrogance Weyland has in spades, but reckless abandon? Everything about the guy is dedicated to preserving his life at all costs. He's got a one of only eight(?) of its kind medpod on the ship in the middle of a personal extended duration lifeboat meant just for him, and a personal android and medical staff to cater to his every need.

Why then put your life in the hands of a bunch of incompetents on a journey where so many things can so easily go wrong and there's literally no margin of error because you're about to die of extreme old age? Going to meet your gods doesn't mean the air is going to be instantly breathable or free from toxins. It doesn't mean the terrain is going to be stable. It doesn't mean there aren't going to be dangerous creatures roaming about or secret bioweapons caches. It doesn't mean the ship might not have an accident or need repairs on the way to or at the destination. You need competent and professional crew, biologists, geologists, etc. to make sure all that kind of stuff is taken care of so that the real mission: talking to your gods, goes off without a hitch.

What reason would there be not to have a competent crew and scientists there? He's footing the bill, owns and controls the ship, and pays the mercenaries on board, so it's not like they'd tell him he can't go and see the Engineers. Did it just slip his mind? And Vickers'? And all those other people like the doctors who clearly were in on the real mission? Were they all willing to place their lives in the hands of the Skipper, Gilligan, and the Professor?

 

[Warped9]

The bit where Charlize Theron runs in a straight line doesn't make sense on the face of it, but then when someone is in a serious panic it mighn't be hard to see how someone isn't thinking rationally.

 

[Timby]

since no one, except maybe David and Vickers, knew what they were really doing on this planet.

This is a point that a lot of people miss, forgetting that Ridley Scott is an absolute master of telling you one thing and then revealing the truth by showing it to you over time.

Weyland tells the crew at the beginning that they were selected because they were the best in their fields, when really only Holloway and arguably Shaw were even bordering on competent, since they actually found and deciphered the "message." Everyone else was a bunch of warm bodies, what Weyland hoped were just good enough to get him to LV-223, and Weyland figured David and to a lesser extent Meredith would do the rest. And what happened when those nincompoops got to LV-223? Everything went tits-up, because Weyland hired a bunch of jokers instead of a crew that was actually smart enough to say, "Wait a minute, shit's fucked, we need to step back and figure this out or get the fuck out."

The arrogance of man is a huge theme in Prometheus.

I'm not sure trying to explain away one logical flaw in the film with another equally bad one is really much of an improvement.

What mega-wealthy industrialist, on the last leg of his already extended life, on an unprecedented journey to visit his creator on an alien planet so that they may grant him the key to immortality, populates his experimental vessel with the crew of the SS Minnow?

A guy who believes that his creator wants to be found.