Prometheus

[Pyro Tramp]

Ok so these are my thoughts on the much awaited "prequel" to the Alien saga.

I'll try to refrain from direct spoilers but consider this as a spoiler alert in case anything can be gleaned.

First of all, I had probably unreasonably high expectations, it's was a solid marketing campaign and a great cast. Almost inevitably, it didn't live up to expectations but that's not to say it was bad, in fact a second viewing may help me see it with adjusted preconceptions. The cast, as mentioned, were all great, Fassbender, Rapace and Theron in particular; the others were all ancillary and pretty much fodder. The film would have instantly benefited from less characters and more focus on the main ones, much like Alien and Aliens, they worked so well based on the individuality of the characters. Many in Prometheus are interchangeable and irrelevant to proceedings. Idris Elba is particularly wasted as the Captain who seems to serve only to deliver a chunk of exposition about the nature of the exploration and take the suicide mission we see (sadly) in the trailer. Though, without his character being developed his decision doesn't hold the weight other characters sacrifices in the series have had.

It's a consistent complaint, the lack of characterisation which seems to be mainly due to the characters being spread too thin and also lazy writing. One of the most frustrating elements was the twists they introduce towards the end, instead of being game changers or altering the dynamic and momentum of the film, they don't. It leaves the film feeling very A to B, without a middle. The film is continuing situation of cause and no effect. A lot of things happen but we never see any reactions to it or the effects. Fassbender's android David continues in a tradition of the Alien films but also Scott's Blade Runner. At points, he seems very much the focus, with a Pinnochio relationship between him and his creater/'Father'. Yet the discussion is never explored to it's full potential, likewise, David's motivations seem very uneven and at times his decisions seem confusing considering his 'mission'. The interplay between company characters David and Theron's character served an interesting element, the conspiracy/shady company element another long standing feature, however this neither develops into much more than a few lines.

It's a shame small things seem to have such a big impact on my experience but the structure of the plot itself didn't do the film any favours. There's never any escalating tension or build of dread and fear as the pace treads fairly leisurely. And without the depth of philosophical discourse that there was the potential for, i.e. David getting more chance for reflection or defined goals that would compliment the over arching theme of creation of life; it felt empty. In terms of incorporation into the Alien saga, the final scene is very indicative of it's place in canon and as a direct prequel; however it feels shoe horned somewhat. The genetic evolution of the zenomorphs doesn't seem to really make sense based in what we've seen and what they show, likewise some of the behaviour of the 'virus' - why does one infected character fall apart and another become a super freak? What happened to the character who had a facehugger attached? He just disappeared, when you'd expect that to be a Kane-esque change in equilibrium. And if someone can explain if the projected holographs from 1000s of years ago was anything other than lazy writing to get them to go/learn/do what was needed.

It's seems like a negative review but it's not a bad film. It looks and sounds incredible in LieMax and it's got some great performances particularly Fassbender, which is what's come to be expected of him now. There's a nice throwback to quarantine procedures on the original and pragmatism but yet again, this action yields no effect. It's worth seeing, maybe a second viewing will alleviate a lot of my gripes. That said, it's a shame the development of characters couldn't have been more of a focus.

3_5

[TheUsualSuspect]

I flat out refuse to see movies in LieMax. Real thing or nothing for me.

[Masterman]

5, I loved this movie. I didn't really have high exPectations for this so this was a real treat for me, must see.

[Pyro Tramp]

I flat out refuse to see movies in LieMax. Real thing or nothing for me.

Real thing means going to London. I have a moral opposition to the whole thing but my mate insisted based on the sound

[Used Future]

Saw this yesterday, and give it a preliminary 3.5 that may well turn into a 4 on further viewings.

Agree it's a disappointingly unfocused affair in terms of the needless peripheral cast, but Rapace, Theron and especially Fassbender are all fine. Unfortunately the film doesn't have the same lean, bleak atmosphere of remote isolation and hopelessness that Alien has. This is as much down to the gleaming hi-tech 'new' production design, and old-hat back story (Stargate, Contact, Mission To Mars, Close Encounters, 2001: A Space Odyssey) as it is to the overblown cast. It never really decides on whether to be a straight up horror or cerebral musing on the nature of what or who makes us human (themes closer to Blade Runner than Alien). As such the film is a little uneven, and dare I say cliched in places, with some plot twists practically telegraphed via a neon sign.

So why the decent score then? Well, it does deliver plenty of knockout suspense that had me gripping my seat for dear life - in particular a new take on alien birth that evokes fond memories of the defibrillator scene from Casino Royale(2006). Fassbender is simply brilliant as the Peter O'Toole obsessed android whose motivations/programming and paradoxical significance remain a fascinating conundrum throughout. Whilst the film is so technically outstanding as to clearly be the work of a master craftsman, and one of only a handful of directors who could pull such a disparate melange into something remarkably coherent -even poignant. I guess I'm still smarting from the overall lack of xenomorph blasting action to fully comprehend that Promethius is an altogether different animal, and quite possibly a classic one.

[TheUsualSuspect]

I just have to drive about 45 mins to Toronto to get my Imax fix. The general consensus about the film seems to be "it's good, but disappointing at the same time".

[Pyro Tramp]

Saw this yesterday, and give it a preliminary 3.5 that may well turn into a 4 on further viewings.

Agree it's a disappointingly unfocused affair in terms of the needless peripheral cast, but Rapace, Theron and especially Fassbender are all fine. Unfortunately the film doesn't have the same lean, bleak atmosphere of remote isolation and hopelessness that Alien has. This is as much down to the gleaming hi-tech 'new' production design, and old-hat back story (Stargate, Contact, Mission To Mars, Close Encounters, 2001: A Space Odyssey) as it is to the overblown cast. It never really decides on whether to be a straight up horror or cerebral musing on the nature of what or who makes us human (themes closer to Blade Runner than Alien). As such the film is a little uneven, and dare I say cliched in places, with some plot twists practically telegraphed via a neon sign.

So why the decent score then? Well, it does deliver plenty of knockout suspense that had me gripping my seat for dear life - in particular a new take on alien birth that evokes fond memories of the defibrillator scene from Casino Royale(2006). Fassbender is simply brilliant as the Peter O'Toole obsessed android whose motivations/programming and paradoxical significance remain a fascinating conundrum throughout. Whilst the film is so technically outstanding as to clearly be the work of a master craftsman, and one of only a handful of directors who could pull such a disparate melange into something remarkably coherent -even poignant. I guess I'm still smarting from the overall lack of xenomorph blasting action to fully comprehend that Promethius is an altogether different animal, and quite possibly a classic one.

Pretty much agree with all of that, save last sentence. I can live without the xenomorph blasting and wasn't expecting it at all, don't think that's a factor, the downfall was it's indecision on what it wants to be or say and plot holes. Definitely be keen to see the Directors Cut, there's clearly extra material somewhere to round some things out.

[Sedai]

I guess I'm still smarting from the overall lack of xenomorph blasting action to fully comprehend that Prometheus is an altogether different animal, and quite possibly a classic one.

I like this comment, and am glad this new installment doesn't follow too closely in the footsteps of Aliens...I for one did not want another shoot-em-up action piece like Aliens, as much as I enjoy Aliens when I do watch it.

[Used Future]

Yeah. Every time I see a new addition to the Alien franchise/universe I'm secretly longing for the glory days of the first two films, even though I know the series needs to evolve in order to survive. I guess I'm saying that whilst I miss Sigourney Weaver, the lived in production design, and the sound of those pulse rifles. I still think Scott has delivered the best entry since Cameron's outing, and a film with it's own unique flavour; even if some of the ingredients taste blandly familiar. I already want to see it again, and am sure those empty pangs of sadness I'm currently feeling will soon fade once I realise how good Prometheus actually is.

[The Prestige]

We've just seen it.

I've got the biggest smile on my face, and just did a cartwheel outside The Picturehouse.

Ok, so some of you may know, having vowed never to see a film in 3D again, my girlfriend wanted to see Prometheus in 3D, as she had never seen a film in 3D before.

So we're standing in line, 20 mins before the film starts (we're never usually that early, it's just the film was delayed) with our 3'fookin'D glasses in our hands. When we finally get seated, the opening credits were already running and the film looks worse with the glasses on :/

So we decided to watch it without the glasses, and all our neighbours and twitching "it's not in 3D, is it?"

After the finishing credits have rolled, we go down to the foyer and join the queue of 200 people waiting for the money back and I have the largest smile imaginable on my face.

So, I gave my girlfriend what she wanted, I got EXACTLY what I wanted, that is seeing this film in 2D, the way it should be...and I got to do it for free :)

For Elizabeth Shaw, proof there is a god..and he's looking after us all..at least if we're acting out of selflessness, generousity and love (well at least that's what the girlfriend says!)

[Monkeypunch]

I got EXACTLY what I wanted, that is seeing this film in 2D, the way it should be...and I got to do it for free :)


But wasn't the entire film SHOT in 3d? I read that is was definitely not a conversion after the fact.

I'm going thursday night to a midnight showing (3d IMAX) with my girl who's just a big fan of the Aliens series as I am, if not more. I'm excited, but not expecting a full on Alien prequel. Will be a fun night at the cinema, either way.

[Pyro Tramp]

We've just seen it.

I've got the biggest smile on my face, and just did a cartwheel outside The Picturehouse.

Ok, so some of you may know, having vowed never to see a film in 3D again, my girlfriend wanted to see Prometheus in 3D, as she had never seen a film in 3D before.

So we're standing in line, 20 mins before the film starts (we're never usually that early, it's just the film was delayed) with our 3'fookin'D glasses in our hands. When we finally get seated, the opening credits were already running and the film looks worse with the glasses on :/

So we decided to watch it without the glasses, and all our neighbours and twitching "it's not in 3D, is it?"

After the finishing credits have rolled, we go down to the foyer and join the queue of 200 people waiting for the money back and I have the largest smile imaginable on my face.

So, I gave my girlfriend what she wanted, I got EXACTLY what I wanted, that is seeing this film in 2D, the way it should be...and I got to do it for free :)

For Elizabeth Shaw, proof there is a god..and he's looking after us all..at least if we're acting out of selflessness, generousity and love (well at least that's what the girlfriend says!)

My parents said they saw it in 3D but watched with their glasses off. Confused :/

[The Prestige]

But wasn't the entire film SHOT in 3d? I read that is was definitely not a conversion after the fact.

I'm going thursday night to a midnight showing (3d IMAX) with my girl who's just a big fan of the Aliens series as I am, if not more. I'm excited, but not expecting a full on Alien prequel. Will be a fun night at the cinema, either way.

Well, yeah, I guess I should rectify what I said there. It probably was shot in 3D, and Ridley probably feels that should be the best way to view the film, but since I can't stand digital '3D', it wouldn't have been the best option and would have made it that much difficult for me to immerse myself in it.


My parents said they saw it in 3D but watched with their glasses off. Confused :/

Lol, that means one of two possible things:

A) They simply couldn't stand the whole 3D effect thingy and decided to watch it normally, which would be difficult though since I tried that with The Final Destination a few years back, but found it uncomfortable on my eyes so stuck those stupid glasses on.

B) They had a similar situation to myself in which the supposed 3D screening was not actually 3D, in which case, refundees :D

[Pyro Tramp]

Well, yeah, I guess I should rectify what I said there. It probably was shot in 3D, and Ridley probably feels that should be the best way to view the film, but since I can't stand digital '3D', it wouldn't have been the best option and would have made it that much difficult for me to immerse myself in it.



Lol, that means one of two possible things:

A) They simply couldn't stand the whole 3D effect thingy and decided to watch it normally, which would be difficult though since I tried that with The Final Destination a few years back, but found it uncomfortable on my eyes so stuck those stupid glasses on.

B) They had a similar situation to myself in which the supposed 3D screening was not actually 3D, in which case, refundees :D


I think it was the latter as apparently looked fine without glasses. So in your case they actually showed the 2D version? I thought you just meant the 3D wasn't prevalent in many scenes so glasses were redundant for most of it

[The Prestige]

Saw this yesterday, and give it a preliminary 3.5 that may well turn into a 4 on further viewings.

Agree it's a disappointingly unfocused affair in terms of the needless peripheral cast, but Rapace, Theron and especially Fassbender are all fine. Unfortunately the film doesn't have the same lean, bleak atmosphere of remote isolation and hopelessness that Alien has. This is as much down to the gleaming hi-tech 'new' production design, and old-hat back story (Stargate, Contact, Mission To Mars, Close Encounters, 2001: A Space Odyssey) as it is to the overblown cast. It never really decides on whether to be a straight up horror or cerebral musing on the nature of what or who makes us human (themes closer to Blade Runner than Alien). As such the film is a little uneven, and dare I say cliched in places, with some plot twists practically telegraphed via a neon sign.

So why the decent score then? Well, it does deliver plenty of knockout suspense that had me gripping my seat for dear life - in particular a new take on alien birth that evokes fond memories of the defibrillator scene from Casino Royale(2006). Fassbender is simply brilliant as the Peter O'Toole obsessed android whose motivations/programming and paradoxical significance remain a fascinating conundrum throughout. Whilst the film is so technically outstanding as to clearly be the work of a master craftsman, and one of only a handful of directors who could pull such a disparate melange into something remarkably coherent -even poignant. I guess I'm still smarting from the overall lack of xenomorph blasting action to fully comprehend that Promethius is an altogether different animal, and quite possibly a classic one.


Couldn't agree more with your comments. I know we were warned not to, but going in, I still couldn't shake the fact that this was a potential prequel to Alien rather than a film set in the Alien universe.



I think my biggest problem with the film is similar to the issues I had with Inception in that there are moments of unintentional confusion. Unless I missed something, why the hell did David spike that Hollaway's drink?? I mean, was there a logical reason for that?

The film just doesn't have a singular focus and seems all over the place at the worst of times, plus the creation turning on makers theme could have been explored better, imo. But this is a Ridley Scott film, and what his film lacks in plot coherency he makes up with vision, and it's his brilliant vision as well as the two leads that make the film really good.

There are moments of great tension, especially Shaw's cesarean sequence, probably the film's highlight as far as frights/entertainment goes. It was a unique take on the whole chest burster thing.

Fassy is almost too good. I don't even have to say much, but with the exception of Rapace, he sticks out too much. That's not to say he's purposefully chewing up the scenery, but his David is probably the most interesting, thoughtful and frightening android I have ever seen on film. Not exaggerating. There were specific lines he'd say, and the way he'd say it would literally make my skin crawl. That robotic moral ambiguity combined with the almost fascist physical ideals makes for an arrestingly compelling character.

I may go and watch the film again in a few weeks, it deserves another one. I imagine there is a director's cut too, which might help clear up the issues I have with it. Otherwise, very solid filmmaking and a respectable film on it's on. I give it 3 and a half stars out of 5 for now.

Scott's production designs are second to none

[Masterman]

I agree with you there Prestige, the whole drink spikeing thing confused me. I also have a problem that's been baffling me.?

We hear the captain say that this is a planet for the engineer's to test there creation, a lab to experiment of some kind, but my question is if it's not there planet then why were all the drawings on earth pointing there?

[The Prestige]

Because we were being warned about it. The crew basically misinterpreted it as an invitation, whereas instead it was a warning. I think

[Masterman]

Because we were being warned about it. The crew basically misinterpreted it as an invitation, whereas instead it was a warning. I think

A warning from who?? The engineer's??.

[Pyro Tramp]

I agree with Masterman, the whole star map / set up was contrived. The paintings made no sense in the scheme of things unless it just wasn't made very clear. It's like cavemen drawing pictures of nuclear power plants. Obviously, they imply that engineers have continued to visit Earth but why would the primitive civilizations see the stars they've come from after having it explained they were impossible to see by the human eye. One theory I did like was that the prologue engineer was 'prometheus' stealing 'fire' (i.e. creation) from the gods and that's why they want to destroy it but it doesn't corroborate with their continued visits. Just too many things don't add up or make sense after one viewing to the point I feel like dropping my rating. Visuals and Fassbender are only saving grace

[Masterman]

I agree with Masterman, the whole star map / set up was contrived. The paintings made no sense in the scheme of things unless it just wasn't made very clear. It's like cavemen drawing pictures of nuclear power plants. Obviously, they imply that engineers have continued to visit Earth but why would the primitive civilizations see the stars they've come from after having it explained they were impossible to see by the human eye. One theory I did like was that the prologue engineer was 'prometheus' stealing 'fire' (i.e. creation) from the gods and that's why they want to destroy it but it doesn't corroborate with their continued visits. Just too many things don't add up or make sense after one viewing to the point I feel like dropping my rating. Visuals and Fassbender are only saving grace

i feel the same way now, tho i loved the movie it left to many questions that no one seems to know the answers to. My head has been working the rounds trying to make sense of a few things that i think just dont add up and my rating of the movie has dropped now.

If the drawings where a warning from the Engineer's then why would they warn us about a plan they have??

Why does the Engineer plan on coming to earth to destroy us still even after there creation has wiped them all out??

Why create us then try to destroy us??

What actually destroyed the Engineer's, because all we see is that snake thing untill the squid is born?

[Pyro Tramp]

i feel the same way now, tho i loved the movie it left to many questions that no one seems to know the answers to. My head has been working the rounds trying to make sense of a few things that i think just dont add up and my rating of the movie has dropped now.

If the drawings where a warning from the Engineer's then why would they warn us about a plan they have??

Why does the Engineer plan on coming to earth to destroy us still even after there creation has wiped them all out??

Why create us then try to destroy us??

What actually destroyed the Engineer's, because all we see is that snake thing untill the squid is born?


Why warn a civilization of something that they had no technology of possibly reaching at the time?

Why did the engineers all run to a holdall containing bio weapons?

Why did Rapace think if one engineer killed everyone and ran off to wipe out Earth, going to the a planet full of them would be more successful?

[Used Future]

Ok I have some thoughts on the various niggles people are having...


I believe the engineers created 'us' i.e. humans on the planet/moon Shaw and co visit, and that the cave paintings are simply pointing to the gods. Not a warning or invitation, just the true knowledge of where we come from.

Interestingly the events of Prometheus do not take place on LV426 (we see this on a star map in the film), but a sister moon probably in a neighboring system. I assume this system is were the engineers conduct all of their 'experiments' as it's mentioned that the base Shaw and co visit is one of a few similar installations. I have a theory that whatever the engineers were running from is either their own creators who have now decided to exterminate them for meddling with the gene pool. Or simply some form of indigenous life that swallowed the black goo and went postal before dying off.

Why create humans to destroy us? Well I guess we're just like lab rats to them, and they figure we've gotten out of hand. One of the best scenes in Prometheus is when the Engineer picks David up and tears him apart on realising what he is - This may also further cement the decision to destroy mankind.

David is a Weyland Enterprises creation and hence a company employee. I believe he spikes the drink to see if the black goo is a possible cure for his decrepit boss - just a theory that one. The more interesting question for me would be - is David bound by Asimov's law of robotics? (something Bishop mentions at the beginning of Aliens when told of how Ash turned murderous in the original film). I believe David is a prototype android and as such is 'a little twitchy' - to quote Bishop again. This may also explain why he is able to potentially harm a human being. Incidentally Fassbender is great in the film, but I think Ian Holm is ten times creepier in Alien.

Why does Shaw decide to go the Engineer's home planet? Yeah, this one's a little goofy considering she just learned a royal lesson in curiosity killed the cat-ness. My only explanation is that she's just a born truth and knowledge seeker who probably wants to find out what created the engineers, and why they in turn created us.

My question is this. If Prometheus is not set on LV426 then is Shaw the space jockey we see in Alien? Or is it just a different engineer from one of the other installations?

The final monster we see at the end of Prometheus is some kind of prototype alien that hasn't yet evolved into what we see in the original films. So how does it become the alien? Perhaps it wanders over to the installation and sucks up some of the black goo. Just a thought.

[Masterman]

The Alien we see burst out the Engineer at the end is pretty close to the Aliens in the other movie, maybe they just evolve a little (black goop, could be) , Nice thoughts aswell above.

[Masterman]

Just found these explanations online, some are abit wacky so are good.





- When the humans (after millions of years of evolution) travel across
space and enter the control room of the alien spaceship and wake up
the pre-human, then guess what? *That's a signal that human life on
earth has evolved to the point that it could then sustain alien life.
In other words Earth is now ripe - brimming with billions of humans
who can now be incubators for the aliens. The control panel lights up
and the 3-d starmap shows Earth in red - Earth is now the next
destination for the alien's progress.

- David is asked by one of the crew what the place is they are
entering and he says "It's a cargo hold". **We are also told and see
that there are thousands of pods. *From previous frames in the film,
it seems to suggest that the pods are full of little worm like
creatures whose intermediate stage is the white thing in the black
soup that got the biologist guy wearing glasses. *If the pods are full
of worms then that's probably enough to take over the whole of Earth.

- David says 'in order to create life you must destroy it first'.
This simply means that most of human life on Earth is now going to
perish when the aliens get there and colonise it, i.e. the aliens will
flourish and multipy, the humans will die. *The alien's plan is to use most of the population as incubators and subjugate the remainder for the next stages.

The confusion in the film, stems from the fact that the captain
thinks that the pre-humans created the aliens as some kind of weapon
or biological experiment. **If you turn this around, i.e. aliens
creating pre-humans, it all makes sense.

[Pyro Tramp]

Ok I have some thoughts on the various niggles people are having...


I believe the engineers created 'us' i.e. humans on the planet/moon Shaw and co visit, and that the cave paintings are simply pointing to the gods. Not a warning or invitation, just the true knowledge of where we come from.

Interestingly the events of Prometheus do not take place on LV426 (we see this on a star map in the film), but a sister moon probably in a neighboring system. I assume this system is were the engineers conduct all of their 'experiments' as it's mentioned that the base Shaw and co visit is one of a few similar installations. I have a theory that whatever the engineers were running from is either their own creators who have now decided to exterminate them for meddling with the gene pool. Or simply some form of indigenous life that swallowed the black goo and went postal before dying off.

Why create humans to destroy us? Well I guess we're just like lab rats to them, and they figure we've gotten out of hand. One of the best scenes in Prometheus is when the Engineer picks David up and tears him apart on realising what he is - This may also further cement the decision to destroy mankind.

David is a Weyland Enterprises creation and hence a company employee. I believe he spikes the drink to see if the black goo is a possible cure for his decrepit boss - just a theory that one. The more interesting question for me would be - is David bound by Asimov's law of robotics? (something Bishop mentions at the beginning of Aliens when told of how Ash turned murderous in the original film). I believe David is a prototype android and as such is 'a little twitchy' - to quote Bishop again. This may also explain why he is able to potentially harm a human being. Incidentally Fassbender is great in the film, but I think Ian Holm is ten times creepier in Alien.

Why does Shaw decide to go the Engineer's home planet? Yeah, this one's a little goofy considering she just learned a royal lesson in curiosity killed the cat-ness. My only explanation is that she's just a born truth and knowledge seeker who probably wants to find out what created the engineers, and why they in turn created us.

My question is this. If Prometheus is not set on LV426 then is Shaw the space jockey we see in Alien? Or is it just a different engineer from one of the other installations?

The final monster we see at the end of Prometheus is some kind of prototype alien that hasn't yet evolved into what we see in the original films. So how does it become the alien? Perhaps it wanders over to the installation and sucks up some of the black goo. Just a thought.


I thought the whole point of the prologue was showing us how life on Earth was created. Either way, my main issue with the maps was how would the primitive societies painting them KNOW of the stars considering it's explained they're not even viewable by eye. And why take pains to even draw them as the societies had no means of reaching them? I'm sure if you try hard there's a reason but it's still contrived for my money. I thought it was explained that the bio-weapon/black goo got out of control and killed the engineers but the storage of it seems odd as there's a cargo hold then the Face Room, not really primed for delivery.

Anyway, it's said the engineers decided to destroy us about 2000 years ago before they were wiped up, which cancels out the we've become too advanced theory, much as that would answer a few questions. Maybe it was the coming of Christ they were worried about :p

You think that's why David was destroyed? I thought that was pretty open but potentially something he'd said. I'd have liked that scene to play out a bit longer as i'm sure whatever David said to the Engineer would have outlined his true motives a lot more clearly.

I think David spiking the drinking is a lot simpler, just to see what would happen. I like that almost dangerous curiousity about him, though would have liked to have it emphasised a bit more than ambiguity as it remains unclear. What undermines this most though is why he never seems interest in what happens to her and what was growing inside, considering this curious streak. Just another example of all cause and no effect in the script. I think he's not bound by Asimov's laws, yet seems more advanced than Bishop or Ash in his seeming ability to learn and have curiosity and experiment opposed to being bound by restriction or a strict order/mission. There's the scene where Bishop is mesmerised by the facehuggers, yet he never seems to have that childlike obsession of David.

I think the film would have been a lot better if it was the LV-whatever planet the others were set on and neatly dovetailed, i.e. that was a Queen born who layed the eggs. The only thing about that alien evolving into the one we know is that there was a muriel on the wall which seemed to depict the typical xenomorph, so it seems they were originally aware of the species. I suppose, considering Alien, the spaceship with the eggs on, was a similar ship designed to unload a bio-weapon, only this time it was the organic pods opposed to the Engineer designed jars. So the engineers obviously seem to have a way of producing the eggs and aware of their potential.

[B-card]

I literally just came out of the theater 2 hours ago and I am slightly disappointed. So many inconsistencies with Alien(I know I shouldn't look at it as an Alien Prequel but it is). When I read the initial synopsis I loved the idea of the whole creators thing as this always had fascinated me but when I watched the film pretty much nothing got answered. They start something good and you say Oo this could be cool and they don't go back to it and then the film finished. All in all very well made in terms of CGI it was placed wisely they don't stick it that much in your face(things like that fascinate me). Michael Fassbender's role was probably the best and he played it very well, he deffintely had the looks and the proper expression of a robot everyone elses performance was rather mediocre but still Noomie Rapace was quite good reminded me of Ripley quite a lot

[Arch Stanton]

I saw this last night and, as a stand-alone movie, it is quite a mess. An entertaining (and often impressive) mess, but a mess just the same. You've been outlining some of the plot puzzles above, and I have little to add to them except for one about Guy Pearce, because it supports a subsequent point:

Why have a young man (badly) made up to play an old man if you never get round to showing him as a young man? Are there no elderly male actors around any more? Max von Sydow, anyone? The more I think about it, the more it seems that the only reason is because Pearce will appear in flash-back scenes in subsequent films. This links to my main complaint about Prometheus.

So many themes and plot-points are introduced but then not really dealt with that the only conclusion is: Prometheus cannot be fully understood as a stand-alone movie. It is the first instalment in a series. I don't know about you, but that kind of thing annoys the hell out of me. You pay your money to see a film and then, at the end, realise you're going to have to a) shell out for the "director's cut" DVD and b) shell out for another couple of movies (and DVDs) over the next four or five years. Personally, it makes me feel less like a film-goer and more like the victim of an elaborate marketing scam.

[Pyro Tramp]

Hey, it's written by the same guy as Lost, makes sense

[The Prestige]

Why have a young man (badly) made up to play an old man if you never get round to showing him as a young man? Are there no elderly male actors around any more? Max von Sydow, anyone? The more I think about it, the more it seems that the only reason is because Pearce will appear in flash-back scenes in subsequent films. This links to my main complaint about Prometheus.




Exactly. Doesn't make sense unless it's for the reasons you stated. But even then it doesn't make sense since most films would just have an older actor play the eldery version and keep the younger one in flashbacks or whatever. Pretty odd stuff. Anyways, Guy was wasted. I liked him in the viral video conference we saw, they should have flashed backed to those scenes or something.

I think David spiking the drinking is a lot simpler, just to see what would happen. I like that almost dangerous curiousity about him, though would have liked to have it emphasised a bit more than ambiguity as it remains unclear. What undermines this most though is why he never seems interest in what happens to her and what was growing inside, considering this curious streak. .

This is why the spiking scene seems redundant. Why spike the guy and not follow up on the consequences? I can only assume he was a bit put off after Hollaway began to break down so thought it wouldn't be useful.




My question is this. If Prometheus is not set on LV426 then is Shaw the space jockey we see in Alien? Or is it just a different engineer from one of the other installations?

There is almost absolutely nothing to suggest that Shaw is the space jockey the crew in Alien encounter. What made me ask that question???

[Arch Stanton]

[QUOTE=The Prestige;817748]Exactly. Doesn't make sense unless it's for the reasons you stated. But even then it doesn't make sense since most films would just have an older actor play the eldery version and keep the younger one in flashbacks or whatever. Pretty odd stuff. Anyways, Guy was wasted. I liked him in the viral video conference we saw, they should have flashed backed to those scenes or something.

I suspect we'll be seeing the young Pearce when we learn more about David, exactly why he was created and what the hell he was up to during Prometheus. He (David) clearly has a hidden agenda in the movie. But it remains hidden.

[The Prestige]

I suspect we'll be seeing the young Pearce when we learn more about David, exactly why he was created and what the hell he was up to during Prometheus. He (David) clearly has a hidden agenda in the movie. But it remains hidden.

Problem is, we'll have to wait 2-3 years to learn more. And that's why i'm starting to feel like this film is a little bit of a cheat, too many unanswered questions that we'll have to wait ages for. Still a good film, but some these niggles are winding me up now.

[Arch Stanton]

Problem is, we'll have to wait 2-3 years to learn more. And that's why i'm starting to feel like this film is a little bit of a cheat, too many unanswered questions that we'll have to wait ages for. Still a good film, but some these niggles are winding me up now.

Agreed.

[wintertriangles]

He spiked the drink because he was curious, it wasn't malevolent. Sorry if that was already answered, just started reading

[Cream]

An awesome movie! It will take years before another marvellous alien movie comes out.

[AKA23]

I've never seen any of the "Alien" movies and typically don't like horror movies or movies with a lot of blood and gore. Would I still enjoy this, or should I give it a pass?

[Tyler1]

Prometheus (2012)

The story centers on a team of explorers who lands their spacecraft on a planet far away from Earth, hoping to discover the answer to the existence of the human race. Of course, that is just an excuse for Scott to re-enter the universe of Alien, in a bid to make a 'prequel' that would hopefully explain the origins of arguably the most feared screen monster ever created.

The result is a befuddled attempt to juggle three narrative threads that not only lack clarity, but don't quite fit well with each other. Is this a story about the origins of the Alien? Or is it a story about the 'Space Jockey' - a large man-like creature whose exoskeleton appeared in Alien? Or is it a story of Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace), whose quest to explore the origins of mankind turns into the kind of nightmare that foreshadows Ripley's traumatic experience in Alien?

There is just too much of travelling back and forth the crew's spacecraft and the mysterious tomb-like cavern that the explorers hope to find answers from. As a result, whatever suspense that could be generated dissipates as both environments, however strange or fascinating, becomes more familiar and less claustrophobic.

And it was claustrophobia and the unfamiliar that made Alien such a nerve-wreckingly horrifying experience.


Verdict: 3.5/5 (Highly entertaining but flawed and a disappointment)

[BumbleBee]

Just got back from the viewing of this. For those who are interested in another opinion of the film my review can be found HERE (http://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?t=22335&page=4).

In short though, I think it was an entertaining film which lacked a lot of what has already been mentioned. Especially the clarity of certain things (in the plot and in character development) which just kept coming up as the movie progressed, promising something that was certainly going to be short of perfect.

[The Prestige]

Yeah, way too many promises. Honestly, I don't mind a bit of show and no tell, but Ridley took the piss.

[Arch Stanton]

An amusingly scathing blog review of the film. A bit unfair, but still funny.

Prometheus review (http://digitaldigging.net/prometheus-an-archaeological-perspective/)

Be warned, though: tons of spoilers.

[nebbit]

For some reason am balking at seeing this :eek: just don't like SiFi movies with saliva dripping monsters whose only motivation is to eat humans :goof:

[Justin]

Yeah, this was a letdown, but I still found it really enjoyable as well as beautiful to look at. Certainly could've been a lot worse.

I also thought this was pretty on-point (spoiler warning): http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html#cutid1

Pretty insightful and clears up a lot of symbolism and covers some other various topics.

[Powderfinger]

Yeah, this was a letdown

Don't say that, I happened seen it yet ;) Though, Ridley Scott has done great, GREAT Films! :)

[Sedai]

I really enjoyed this. I had heard some complaints about script issues with Lindelhoff, and I guess I can't argue with some of them, but I still found the flick to be thought-provoking, well paced and the art direction was stellar. I watched the other Alien films this weekend as well, and they all have issues with timing or logic if you look hard enough (especially Aliens). I feel like they set up rules in one film and then break them in the next, but, whatever. The pacing of Prometheus was a bit less organic than Aliens, but it had more in common with Alien with the slow building of tension, which I found to be pretty damn effective.

Oh, what the hell: 4

Not as strong as I had hoped, but pretty close on most levels.

[Used Future]

There is almost absolutely nothing to suggest that Shaw is the space jockey the crew in Alien encounter. What made me ask that question???

Hehe. You're right it is a wacky theory considering the space jockey in Alien is way bigger than a human, and fossilsed.

Oddly though we never see the date at the beginning of Alien.

I just think it depends on how crazy you want to get with finding a cool way to wrap up Shaw's journey, and her subsequent significance on the Alien time line. After all who's to say the Engineers don't 'modify' her in some way before sending her crashing through a worm hole?

Not really that crazy when you consider the goofy crap they thought up to justify the Star Trek re-boot.

I was really just throwing stuff out there though. ;)

[The Prestige]

Hehe. You're right it is a wacky theory considering the space jockey in Alien is way bigger than a human, and fossilsed.

Oddly though we never see the date at the beginning of Alien.

I just think it depends on how crazy you want to get with finding a cool way to wrap up Shaw's journey, and her subsequent significance on the Alien time line. After all who's to say the Engineers don't 'modify' her in some way before sending her crashing through a worm hole?

Not really that crazy when you consider the goofy crap they thought up to justify the Star Trek re-boot.

I was really just throwing stuff out there though. ;)

Heh, well I guess a lot of things seem possible in Alien world right now, I was just curious as to how something like that would pop up in your head. I'm a bit annoyed though because now you've got me thinking all sorts of crazy **** :D.

I'll tell you what, though. If the subsequent sequels turn out to support that theory, I'll actually send you a bottle of whisky or some crap.

[wintertriangles]

Just found out the guy who wrote this wrote Lost as well. No wonder it was completely vague and merely brushed over all themes.

[linespalsy]

I felt like I was watching two different movies simultaneously. On the one hand there was a visceral thriller that was consistently impressive. It had a thin but convoluted plot that was just there to provide some familiar background noise to a perfectly realized alien world. Our on-screen watcher/avatar was suitably "more human than human", just like the brilliant crew who created the images. That movie hit me on an instinctual level, and it didn't matter that character motivations were opaque or contradictory -- it might have even helped.

The other movie had fan service moments and rote plot-twists (WMD's! It's not the "real" planet!) and other story-slots left empty for further dumb explanations in sequels and spin-offs. It was branded merchandise parasitically attached to any actual life in the movie. It was written by some tv hack and should have been aborted in a particularly grotesque fashion.

[Powdered Water]

You know, I've been trying to come up with something to say about what I saw on Saturday night without being totally rude and just downright mean towards the film. I'll go with what lines just said.

linespalsy :up:

[Sedai]

Yeah, I can't agree. Each, to his own! The more I think about it, the more I like it.

[apophis]

Saw it yesterday at the IMAX. Was really looking forward to it, came away a bit disappointed, but not terribly so. Space, ships, planets, etc. all look incredible on the IMAX screen. I was actually a bit disappointed when that part of the movie ended!

[Gabriella Lynn]

Aww you guys are lame, ok not really. I can understand why so many people were dissapointed with Prometheus but putting all the thoughts aside that it was supposed to be just as good as Alien it still seemed like an awesome movie. There were a ton of mistakes but the ships were awesome, the acting was good, and we got at least a little bit of insight that the original never gave us.

And isn't there supposed to be a second prequal?

[Sedai]

I definitely got the feeling there would be more films. ;) I liked it a lot.

[Powdered Water]

And I didn't, not like it, just didn't like, like it. It's a low 3. Almost a 2.5 for me.

I guess I stupidly thought that this was just a prequel. Not a trilogy of prequels.

[Gabriella Lynn]

I didn't even know there was gonna be more than this one prequel which I think is stupid. It's like when a girl tells a story.

[Gabriella Lynn]

ok, maybe just how I tell a story. lol

[filmgirlinterrupted]

The movie succeeded in its wide scope and tense atmosphere, it was visually stunning and I was wildly impressed with the opening sequence.

But everything else was sloppy. Very weak character development (I didn't care about anybody in the crew), poor writing (sorry, Damon), and too many elements that distracted from what could have been a very compelling story.

I think Ridley Scott tried to do too much with this movie. Mid-life crisis, perhaps?

Anyway, I was pretty disappointed with "Prometheus" 2.5

[wintertriangles]

Disappointment of the year, it seems.

[Monkeypunch]

Loved this. Still talking about it, still THINKING about it, and want to see it a second time. I hate that all the complaints I've read about it on various sites is that it forces the viewer to do the "Heavy Lifting" OF THINKING instead of just giving you answers. I like that it's making me do a bit of work, actually. The conversations with my GF about the movie and what it means have been just as fun as seeing the movie itself.

[wintertriangles]

I hate that all the complaints I've read about it on various sites is that it forces the viewer to do the "Heavy Lifting" OF THINKING instead of just giving you answers. I like that it's making me do a bit of work, actually. The conversations with my GF about the movie and what it means have been just as fun as seeing the movie itself.I love thinking about movies. However, when there's hardly a theme in the film that was even addressed, it's quite difficult to bother. All we got out of it was that we were probably created by some white people, who may or may not have been created by the christian god. That's not a theme, that's a (vague) jumping off point.

[akatemple]

I guess I stupidly thought that this was just a prequel. Not a trilogy of prequels.

Your kidding right?!?!

[Powdered Water]

Your kidding right?!?!

No, not kidding at all.

[mark f]

I think Ridley Scott tried to do too much with this movie. Mid-life crisis, perhaps?

I think that Ridley Scott is about 75.

[filmgirlinterrupted]

I think that Ridley Scott is about 75.

So his mid-life crisis actually occurred around "Thelma and Louise," then? :p

[Pyro Tramp]

When was the last genuinely good Ridley Scott film?

I'm a bit put off by the amount of coverage the prequel sequel is getting, makes this seem more and more like a gimmick filled with hookum they'll try and "explain"/retcon in a sequel. Seems almost correlation between slatings and confusion to discussion of sequel filling in gaps. Meh. I'm a bitter cynic.

[The Prestige]

American Gangster was good. But besides that, this has been his best effort in quite some time.

I think had it been very clear from the beginning that this was meant to be the start of a trilogy or series or whatever then sequel prequel talk would have been alright, but yeah, we're kinda been robbed, mate.

[Arch Stanton]

I love thinking about movies. However, when there's hardly a theme in the film that was even addressed, it's quite difficult to bother.

Exactly. There's a difference between a film that makes you think and one that's such an incoherent, incomplete mish-mash that you end up desperately trying to put together pieces that don't fit. The latter type of film is simply playing its audience for suckers.

[Gabriella Lynn]

I thought American Gangster was great. I'm kind of bias though cuz I love Denzel Washington.

[Sedai]

Loved this. Still talking about it, still THINKING about it, and want to see it a second time. I hate that all the complaints I've read about it on various sites is that it forces the viewer to do the "Heavy Lifting" OF THINKING instead of just giving you answers. I like that it's making me do a bit of work, actually. The conversations with my GF about the movie and what it means have been just as fun as seeing the movie itself.

Right there with you, Monkey. My friends, my GF and I have all been having a blast talking about the film. Plenty to chew on there, IMO.

[linespalsy]

When was the last genuinely good Ridley Scott film?

My previous comment was harsher than I intended. I thought Prometheus was a fantastic thriller, only I didn't want to understate or ignore the fact that a lot of stuff that was presented as climactic or central to the script was completely peripheral and uninteresting to me. I guess it's unavoidable to when there's 130 million dollars and a merchandisable cosmology on the line.

I really like Ridley Scott in general, too. Off the top of my head I can't think of any movies by him that I've taken a strong disliking to, and the only ones I haven't seen are Legend and Someone to Watch Over Me.

[apophis]

Seems to me that the problem with a lot of movies coming out lately is they are trying to cram too much stuff into a movie that's a couple of hours long. You end up with herky jerky story movement, lack of character developement, and a dis-satisfied audience.

Alien was terrific because it was so frickin' simple, the terror was there, but other than the exploding chest, most of it was implied. Same with Aliens.

I think a lot of the disappointment with Prometheus is because the fan base was expecting to see Alien. I liked the movie, but not for the storyline, I just love sci-fi, space movies, and it didn't disappoint in that aspect. I didn't like the frenetic pace needed to get all the story information into the allotted time.

The pace of a movie is something that I am appreciating more and more.

[jeev7882]

★★★★ 1/2 (out of 5)

Prometheus is a brilliant visual sci-fi marvel. Ridley Scott has given us an epic film that survives independent of the Alien movies even if it is somewhat of a prequel to the series. The look of the film is arresting from the onset. The opening sequence, presumably on Earth, sweeps through a massive lake and waterfall, up the cliff face and to a single living being. The being is human-like, but not quite human. He drinks something that causes him to decompose rapidly. Eventually, his DNA ends up in the water where it seems to recombine and, again, presumably, become human DNA.

While many films presumptuously try to take God or Darwin’s side, Prometheus side steps the issue by not trying to give us an answer. At the heart of the movie is a faith vs. science discussion between Elizabeth and her boyfriend, Charlie. They’re both scientists searching for our origins, but for very different reasons. After finding proof that we are descended from some alien beings, Charlie states it as a proof for Darwinism. After all, we evolved from them. Elizabeth is quick to point out they don’t know who made the alien beings.

There are a slew of characters surrounding these two on their quest. The Weyland Corporation shells out a trillion dollar spacecraft to aid in their mission as well as an android named David. In yet another amazing performance by Michael Fassenbender, David is one of the most interesting androids you’ll ever see. Fassendbender doesn’t make the mistake of playing him as too robotic in his movements. After all, it is 2093. No, David is somewhat distant in his knowledge of what it means to be human on the inside, and in his dark humor delivery of words. He’s not like the Terminator. David learns fast. So fast in fact that he can learn almost anything from alien language to human motivation. It’s his motivations that are a big secret throughout the film.

Weyland employee Meredith Vickers’ motivations are more transparent. She’s the boss. She’s in control and she makes sure people know it. Charlize Theron gives Vickers compassion. This type of role often seems to be the one dimensional cold hearted bitch, but what separates Vickers is that she’s logical. She sees a contaminated member of the crew trying to board and without thinking burns them to a crisp with a flamethrower. Between Meredith and Elizabeth there’s plenty of girl power on the ship.

Not to be completely outdone, the ship’s pilot provides a very much needed nonscientific member to the mission. He’s the “coolest” character, and for how little screen time he has, it’s quite amazing how much we see his character evolve. He may not understand fully why things unravel as they come undone, but he understands his role in the process.

The most interesting scenes are in a pyramid on an alien planet capable of sustaining life. There’s a great sense of tension and discovery in the pyramid. We don’t know what we’re going to find or how we’re going to find it. We find holographic recordings from the past that give us a peek into what happened in the pyramid and David unlocks even more of it’s mysteries in a visually arresting scene where he explores one of the rooms by himself.

The visuals are what sell Prometheus. These are the best effects since Minority Report, and the cleanest since Jurassic Park. The 3D is also the best ever easily outdoing Avatar or Transformers 3. There’s no darkness or loss of contrast or color due to the 3D, and the depth of field is enhanced flawlessly without resorting to the “jump out at you” 3D effects. Whether the film is quietly taking us on a spaceship to another planet or delving into a horror nightmare in the third act of the film, the look is never sacrificed.

Prometheus is easily my favorite movie so far this year. Due to it’s highly philosophical nature, it’s not quite as mainstream as 20th Century Fox may have wanted it to be, but it is one that will please true sci-fi audiences for years to come.

[jeev7882]

Exactly. There's a difference between a film that makes you think and one that's such an incoherent, incomplete mish-mash that you end up desperately trying to put together pieces that don't fit. The latter type of film is simply playing its audience for suckers.

I completely agree Arch. We do disagree on which side of the fence Prometheus is on though. I think it does a good job of addressing it's theme of faith without blurting out what the viewer should believe. That would defeat the purpose because it wouldn't let us grow and have our beliefs (and Dr. Shaw's belief's) challenged in the process.

While I loved Prometheus, I completely acknowledge the numerous logical holes or "characters doing something absurdly stupid" moments in the film. I do think it still succeeds in making you think and surrounding Dr. Shaw with people that think differently than her in a variety of ways.

[Tyler1]

This is what happens when you want to appease your loyal fans while trying to earn the approval of new audience- a movie that thinks its too smart for a summer blockbuster.

[akatemple]

Madagascar 3 beat Prometheus at the box office, I need a hug. :facepalm:

[Sedai]

But, it's a far more mainstream and family oriented flick...I would have bet cash Madagascar would be in front this weekend.

[Gabriella Lynn]

Madagascar movies are cute too!

[Justin]

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/what-is-going-on-in-prometheus-a-universe-of-questions-answers-and-theories/

On top of that, there is apparently additional material coming to the DVD/BR (not unusual for Scott): http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/24147/-prometheus-disc-has-30-mins-more

[azza18]

I thought the whole point of the prologue was showing us how life on Earth was created. Either way, my main issue with the maps was how would the primitive societies painting them KNOW of the stars considering it's explained they're not even viewable by eye. And why take pains to even draw them as the societies had no means of reaching them? I'm sure if you try hard there's a reason but it's still contrived for my money. I thought it was explained that the bio-weapon/black goo got out of control and killed the engineers but the storage of it seems odd as there's a cargo hold then the Face Room, not really primed for delivery.

Anyway, it's said the engineers decided to destroy us about 2000 years ago before they were wiped up, which cancels out the we've become too advanced theory, much as that would answer a few questions. Maybe it was the coming of Christ they were worried about :p

You think that's why David was destroyed? I thought that was pretty open but potentially something he'd said. I'd have liked that scene to play out a bit longer as i'm sure whatever David said to the Engineer would have outlined his true motives a lot more clearly.

I think David spiking the drinking is a lot simpler, just to see what would happen. I like that almost dangerous curiousity about him, though would have liked to have it emphasised a bit more than ambiguity as it remains unclear. What undermines this most though is why he never seems interest in what happens to her and what was growing inside, considering this curious streak. Just another example of all cause and no effect in the script. I think he's not bound by Asimov's laws, yet seems more advanced than Bishop or Ash in his seeming ability to learn and have curiosity and experiment opposed to being bound by restriction or a strict order/mission. There's the scene where Bishop is mesmerised by the facehuggers, yet he never seems to have that childlike obsession of David.

I think the film would have been a lot better if it was the LV-whatever planet the others were set on and neatly dovetailed, i.e. that was a Queen born who layed the eggs. The only thing about that alien evolving into the one we know is that there was a muriel on the wall which seemed to depict the typical xenomorph, so it seems they were originally aware of the species. I suppose, considering Alien, the spaceship with the eggs on, was a similar ship designed to unload a bio-weapon, only this time it was the organic pods opposed to the Engineer designed jars. So the engineers obviously seem to have a way of producing the eggs and aware of their potential.



The impression i got was that the cave paintings were showing the engineers pointing to the star map almost to say "this is where we, your creators come from, hence this is where you are from" The ancient civilizations saw them as their creators, but as religion started to grow (and i think in the context of the film, particularly Christianity) people started to believe that god created us, and we forgot or lost sight of who are true creators were - the engineers, and as such, they got kind of angry, and wanted to destroy us for forgetting them. Just an idea.

[Gabriella Lynn]

Didn't he like redistribute a "newer" version of Alien in 2003? Or are you using sarcasm?

[Gabriella Lynn]

Haha like "I gave you life, and I can take it away" kind of thing? lol

[Justin]

Didn't he like redistribute a "newer" version of Alien in 2003? Or are you using sarcasm?

I said it was not unusual....meaning it has happened many, many times before. "Blade Runner" is just one example.

[Gabriella Lynn]

I said it was not unusual....meaning it has happened many, many times before. "Blade Runner" is just one example.


Okie dokie lol, I wasn't sure cuz I didn't even know until recently when I watched Alien again that he did that on a regular basis.

[Yoda]

I'm seeing this today, but I've got a big cache of spoiler-filled links, interviews, and analytical pieces that I've been saving for consumption afterwards. My old man wrote something on it, too, that I also haven't read, but which I'm sure is good. ;)

The Politics of Ridley Scott's Blockbuster Film Prometheus (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jerrybowyer/2012/06/13/the-politics-of-ridley-scotts-blockbuster-film-prometheus/).

[Sedai]

It would be good if it wasn't written by that Jerry Bowyer guy! ;)

KIDDING! ;)

Reading now...

(EDIT) - The article is spoiler free until your pop says SPOILERS AHEAD! So you are safe reading up until then.

[lundy1026]

I so glad to hear positive reviews on the film. I've been trying to get my bf to see this with me and we just havn't had the time yet. (Been a busy summer) My friend who saw it told me she was terribly dissappointed so I was feeling kind of gloomy about it... but now that I read such positive reviews I'm getting all pumped again! :)

[Sedai]

GREAT article. Thanks for the link, Chris!

[Austruck]

I have a feeling I have managed to be the only person on the planet to see this movie with absolutely NO spoilers in advance. All I knew/saw were the TV ads, which were about 30 seconds long, with pretty much no dialogue, and conveyed ambiance but not plot.

I didn't even know it was supposed to be an Alien prequel. Seriously. I didn't have a clue.

Until the very end of the movie, when I said loudly, "AHA!" To which my daughter said, "Yeah, didn't you know it was a prequel?" Um, no. Should I have? LOL

This naivete probably explains why my thoughts during the movie were along these lines all too often: "Geez, this is like a ripoff of both Alien AND 2001: A Space Odyssey!"

Seriously, same main opening scenes -- a crew in a ship that's traveled quite far, all waking up from hypersleep, being cranky and witty and catty to each other, then sitting around a table eating "breakfasts" of various sorts. Oh, and there's a milky-headed robot who sounds like HAL and acts like Ash and Bishop ... one who doesn't seem to care if he kills humans during the first part of the flick, but then at the end saves Shaw's life and talks her out of returning to Earth. If he has definable motives and an agenda, it felt as if they kept changing and shifting.

I really hated Pearce's bad "old man" makeup. They can put a man on the moon -- literally and CGI -- but they still can't make good old-guy makeup for a movie? Please.

The part I found the most vexing was all of Shaw's activity post-major-abdominal self-surgery. Adrenaline rush be damned, there is no way you can sever the amount of abdominal muscles she did and then bounce around like that, climbing walls, leaping over chasms in a single bound, without bleeding out from that hastily stapled wound.

Seriously, the woman's going to die in space from an infection. What a letdown that would be after all that, huh?

Also, she jumped on this ship with a bare amount of supplies. What's she going to be eating during the long trip? What if the hypersleep chamber thingies aren't working or don't "fit" her properly or something?

Yes, I tend to think practical. So sue me. To me, these sorts of questions (in a movie like this) are almost more vexing than the philosophical ones (which were barely asked).

---

Speaking of which: So, why does David insist on taking away Shaw's cross necklace (something I haven't seen asked here at all)? Does he make connections with the 2,000-year-old man (apologies to Mel Brooks) and the "Christ" thing and is afraid the necklace will offend someone they find? It seems now like such a random act, with only symbolic significance for us as viewers: Shaw is being asked to put her faith aside for the time being ... and of course, later, she gets the necklace back, symbolizing her embracing her faith again... a faith we never really see defined all that well.

It was obvious from the beginning that we were meant to identify mainly with Shaw (she's the only one whose childhood we see in flashback, with poignant memories and sadnesses), but frankly, I found David and the ship's captain the two most engaging characters. Theron was great as Vickers, but I found I really wanted a better, more thorough father-daughter scene than what we got (her simply uttering "Father" at the end of a sentence before leaving the room). Of course, the fact that we're told that David is the closest thing to a son that Weyland's ever had smarts with Vickers, David's almost-sister/sibling.

More later. Still processing things, but I tend to nitpit the details because if those are wrong, then the larger philosophies tend to annoy me because I wonder why a decent writer couldn't piece together details of a story properly.

----
In a trilogy, no one piece stands *completely* alone, but at least they tend to feel as if they build on each other. Shaw's decision at the end seems slightly random -- why wouldn't she go back to Earth to tell everyone what she's found, if only as warning rather than scientific knowledge? Won't they simply send out some other crew later and ... oh wait, never mind.

This first installment in a proposed trilogy felt as if it randomly left out key pieces of a puzzle that we'll realize still has a few pieces that went missing somewhere along the line. And I personally dislike putting together a jigsaw puzzle only to end up with a handful of key pieces missing after all that work.

It was gorgeous. It was great fun. It got me thinking a little bit. But the annoying details will win the day for me every time. If it makes me think, "Shame on you, writer. You got paid a ton of money for this, and nobody pointed out these glaring issues with your STORYLINE?"... then I give it fewer stars.

Don't know how to do the popcorn things, but 3.5 stars outta 5 for me.

[Sedai]

To be fair, I thought Austruck would actually rate this a lot lower than she did. She's a writer, and the issues I found with the film all fell in Lindelhoff's lap. I really enjoyed the rest of the film, but a few instances had me cringing at the writing.

[Austruck]

I did enjoy it, Seds, and I still think my 3.5/5 is about right. But I wonder now, having read through this thread, how much of that is because I was so totally spoiler-free going into it. Aside from the occasional thought of "Gee, this is ANOTHER ripoff scene from Alien!" I found it a ton of strangely scary fun.

And I was literally trying to talk Yoda out of seeing it just hours beforehand, afraid it would be too gory or creepy. The surgery scene was outrageous but didn't totally do me in as I might have feared. Perhaps all that telescoping for any scary scene helped me and kept me from being sneaked-up on. (Again, though, having seen the Alien movies, it was ridiculous how easy it was to see the deaths coming. I must've said "REDSHIRT!" ten times. LOL)

[donniedarko]

(straight from Movie Tab II)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a3/Prometheusposterfixed.jpg/220px-Prometheusposterfixed.jpg

I never saw any movie from the Alien franchise, I never read a full review for this film, or even watched a preview, so I came in here blind as a bat. There were two things that really stuck out for me in this movie. The first was the wonderful CGI that I haven't seen worked so well in a long time. It beats the hell out of The Avengers special effects. Secondly was Michael Fassbenders performance of the robot David. While he can not feel or show emotion he can have the same characteristics of Hal 9000. A confident robot who needs his way, and does what ever he needs to do, to get it. One big negative was the lack luster performance of Charlize Theron, the few times she showed emotion it was very unrealistic and made her look like an amateur theater actress compared to the rest of the cast. It was a very good sci-fi but nowhere near perfect, it had mistakes that could be caught by someone watching there very first movie. None the less it's enjoyable and phsycologocal and will mostly likely leave a mark in the 2012 in film genre.
3.5

Anyone else have thoughts on Thernons performance? I thought it was one of the worse I saw in a long time

[TheUsualSuspect]

Prometheus is an eye-gasm of visual flare. I dug the art direction and cinematography, the story on the other hand....is somewhere in the middle.

As for all the questions:

The scene in which David spikes the drink is after he speaks to Weyland and tells Theron "Try Harder" which tells me that he was under orders to test this substance on a human. We all know Weyland was looking for a cure for death. David asks Holloway how far would he go for answers, when Holloway responded with as far as he could, David took that as an "okay".

I completely agree with the concern of the anwers in this film being kept for sequels. It's a shame they went this route.

Anyone else think Theron was also an Android?

[donniedarko]

Anyone else think Theron was also an Android?

Spoiler Alert:
I thought so far a good part of the movie but she showed to much emotion in the confession of who her father is, and she wouldn't call him father. It sure felt like she was though

[Gabriella Lynn]

I so glad to hear positive reviews on the film. I've been trying to get my bf to see this with me and we just havn't had the time yet. (Been a busy summer) My friend who saw it told me she was terribly dissappointed so I was feeling kind of gloomy about it... but now that I read such positive reviews I'm getting all pumped again! :)


Does your bf not like those movies? My boyfriend and I went opening night lol.

[TheUsualSuspect]

My girlfriend was most upset at the fact that Holloway's ring fit Shaw. :p

[Gabriella Lynn]

Yeah, I thought that was stupid too because she so obviously is like 5'4 or maybe shorter and that guy was way bigger so no way could the ring fit.

Unless she has serious man hands, or he has girly wimpy hands which everyone knows what people say about small hands.......

[TheUsualSuspect]

Also, is it just me, or did anyone get a SUPERMAN vibe from the score?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBcOrV7qOWA

Starts at 6:50.

[Cenydd Ros]

I'm not going to get all deep, philosophical, poetic or otherwise about Prometheus. I'll just say this - meh. I am done with anything coming out from the studios. Big budget films suck. So disgusted I want to puke. Done. Done with all the pukes. I will never go to the theater again (save for art house theaters) - done. They can all rot.

[Cenydd Ros]

To be fair - production value was awesome - effing gorgeous. Production design and art department were beyond great. Acting, great. Noomi Rapace is a goddess, her body might be the best production deisgn of the movie. Wooff woofff! Directing was subperb. BUT story was a hunk of sh-t. Eff Damon Lindelof sideways. And eff Fox.

[Cenydd Ros]

I will never go to see another studio movie again in the theater. Thanks, Fox. Done with the BS.

[Cenydd Ros]

I mean it - I will never again bother with a studio movie - indie only. The studios will be luckly if I watch their crap on DVD.

[Cenydd Ros]

Avengers and Batman III? - Netfix, if I even bother. Eff you to Hollywood and the no talent sh-ts that ruin art. I hate you.

[planet news]

t h u g l i f e

[Kaiser_Arena]

That article was absolutely awesome. Whilst I didn't go anywhere near as deep and clever as that, I did come away from Promethesus thinking about the stuff the female characters go through to and the themes explored (life giving/death/horror/abandonment/indepedence etc.). Having not seen Alien in absolutely ages, I was reminded of feeling a similiar way. I think it is aiming at something kind of personal/psychological even in the over arching story.

Gotta say though, despite really enjoying the themes and clever philosophical bits of Prometheus, I thought it was desperately lacking. The plot was so poor, it was just a vehicle for offloading bits of information. No really captivating storyline for me. Amazing visuals though.

(Apologies if this is the incorrect way to reply, I'm a bit new, and just clicked reply to the post I was reffering to - with the cool article link)

[EndlessScream]

Spoiler Alert:
I thought so far a good part of the movie but she showed to much emotion in the confession of who her father is, and she wouldn't call him father. It sure felt like she was though

well sir, in alien ressurection the android show us much more emotion than theron in this movie. so its quite possible she's an android. did u see her expression when *beep* holloway? ;)

[Gabriella Lynn]

well sir, in alien ressurection the android show us much more emotion than theron in this movie. so its quite possible she's an android. did u see her expression when *beep* holloway? ;)

You guys are silly. I don't see how you guys could think she was an android. She showed emotion when she killed holloway, she hesitated and looked scared. She Also showed anger, an emotion, when talking to her father, and she showed fright throughout. IMO, I always think that captains are kind of cold appearing because they have their team to think of. If they show weakness, mutiny. The android in the movie I don't think showed any emotion, he had the same facial expression."]She showed emotion when she killed holloway, she hesitated and looked scared. She Also showed anger, an emotion, when talking to her father, and she showed fright throughout. IMO, I always think that captains are kind of cold appearing because they have their team to think of. If they show weakness, mutiny. The android in the movie I don't think showed any emotion, he had the same facial expression.

[Sedai]

Yeah, I thought that was stupid too because she so obviously is like 5'4 or maybe shorter and that guy was way bigger so no way could the ring fit.

Unless she has serious man hands, or he has girly wimpy hands which everyone knows what people say about small hands.......

I'm 6'5" tall and my fingers are thinner than my GFs, and she is a trim and fit person; she just has kind of short wide fingers. Have not ever seen a tall, skinny person? In fact, I would think shorter, stouter people would almost always have a larger ring size...

Just asked the people here at work. The shorter women here all have a larger ring size than I do.

Who knew?? ;)

Meanwhile: Here are a couple more articles RE: Prometheus

What was that about? (http://m.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jun/08/prometheus-ten-key-questions?cat=film&type=article)

Everything Explained! (www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/uswn1/prometheus_everything_explained_and_analysed/)

Make sure to don your tinfoil hat for the second one. ;)

[Gabriella Lynn]

Oh no I was kidding about the second part, I have hands almost as big as my boyfriend, and my mom has huge hands too. just long fingers, not very thin.

[will111]

i watched this movie it does not revile any thing to me !!!!!!!!!

i feell bore in the movie !!!!!

i personaly dont like the movie!!!!!!!

[Pyro Tramp]

i watched this movie it does not revile any thing to me !!!!!!!!!

i feell bore in the movie !!!!!

i personaly dont like the movie!!!!!!!


No need to shout.

[Yoda]

He wanted to make sure the people in the back of the thread could hear him.

[Sedai]

Did you see it yet, Chris?

[Pyro Tramp]

I'm 6'5" tall and my fingers are thinner than my GFs, and she is a trim and fit person; she just has kind of short wide fingers. Have not ever seen a tall, skinny person? In fact, I would think shorter, stouter people would almost always have a larger ring size...

Just asked the people here at work. The shorter women here all have a larger ring size than I do.

Who knew?? ;)

Meanwhile: Here are a couple more articles RE: Prometheus

What was that about? (http://m.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jun/08/prometheus-ten-key-questions?cat=film&type=article)

Everything Explained! (www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/uswn1/prometheus_everything_explained_and_analysed/)

Make sure to don your tinfoil hat for the second one. ;)


I can jump on board a lot heavy analytical readings of film, however I think in this case the audience is left to do the work writers didn't. Ambiguity is great when in sparks personal interpretations ala Mulholland Dr but I can't help but feel a lot of these readings are stretching to things that were never considered. Which is cool but I don't think credit is due to the film, more some great analytical minds than can glean meaning from contrivances.

[wintertriangles]

I can jump on board a lot heavy analytical readings of film, however I think in this case the audience is left to do the work writers didn't. Ambiguity is great when in sparks personal interpretations ala Mulholland Dr but I can't help but feel a lot of these readings are stretching to things that were never considered. Which is cool but I don't think credit is due to the film, more some great analytical minds than can glean meaning from contrivances.This is why the artist's word can only be taken halfway. Though I cannot understand when people try to search for things that clearly are not there as if they're plain as day.

[Justin]

I'll agree with that. Prometheus, as a whole, is a vastly imperfect film with plenty of glaring plot holes that the writers failed to explain. Yet I still feel as though there's a lot to the film that still can be uncovered. Scott's uncut version will likely (I sincerely hope so, anyway) answer some of the problems that were in the theatrical.

[John McClane]

If they make another one I have a feeling I'll like this film a lot more.

[Pyro Tramp]

Another one will undoubtedly cover a lot of the holes they hadn't realised existed and retcon and confuse the internal logic even more. But i'm a cynic

[Yoda]

Did you see it yet, Chris?
I did. Sorry for the delay; I'm trying to figure out if I should write a review or just some random thoughts, though my interpretation is the same as my old man's in the article I linked to before, with some added bits and pieces I've either thought of or picked up from other people.

It's tricky, because the things the film makes you want to say all have to do with plot, speculation, and spoilers. Seems like it would be hard to review without giving a lot away. Either way, I'm gonna try to wrap up an essay first and then look at writing something. :)

Need to make my way through this thread, too!

[Justin]

Avengers and Batman III? - Netfix, if I even bother. Eff you to Hollywood and the no talent sh-ts that ruin art. I hate you.

I don't think that's the answer. Hollywood, independent cinema and art house are all in dialogue, really. They've been influencing one another for years now. There's good and bad in both areas. Hollywood is a machine, so you can't really blame it for only wanting to produce films for money. It's what it does.

[Yoda]

Good call, on the "dialogue" and influencing one another. Hollywood's elaborate delivery mechanism may have some lame side effects, but it also spurs even indie films; a lot of them get funded because the people investing in them realize there's a chance they get picked up by Fox Searchlight and become the next Juno, or what have you.

[Justin]

Exactly.

Look at the technology that's being used in Hollywood right now; e.g. the Red Camera. People like Soderbergh who work within the system and outside of it are promoting cheap, new technology that makes it possible for new, upcoming filmmakers to shoot and finish a film. Even editing programs like Final Cut Pro (The Coens used it for No Country for Old Men) are enabling young directors to do more with little. There are a thousand examples of this, one of the best being a film done entirely with $20 (it's on Netflix, I forget the name). Now Hollywood saw this and realized you don't need a lot of money to make a movie. It all comes together pretty well.

No one likes a soulless product. But if the ends justify the means, like another Aronofsky or someone like Nolan coming along, then it's worth it, right? Those two began as mostly independent filmmakers and now they're making big-budget films with a lot of artistic merit. I see your bitterness towards Hollywood and I understand it, but it's not all bad, right?

[Yoda]

Dunno if that's addressed to me or not; I assume not. If so, heck, I have way less bitterness towards the Hollywood machine than most people here.

But yeah, it goes even further than all that; huge-grossing films are one of the reasons home video has become the industry that it has. And home video is how a lot of these smaller or mid-range films are able to turn a profit, too. People want to carve up the system and leave out the parts they have no use for, but it's all pretty densely intertwined.

Not that I'd begrudge anyone for saying Transformers: Dark of the Moon is bad or anything, but a) you don't have to watch it, so it doesn't hurt you much and b) other people like it, and their like of other things is one of the reasons we have great access to the things we like. So rock on, Michael Bay.

[Justin]

No, not you. Sorry Yoda.

[wintertriangles]

b) other people like it, and their like of other things is one of the reasons we have great access to the things we like.Can you explain this?

[Yoda]

It's a summation of the other things I said:

Hollywood's elaborate delivery mechanism may have some lame side effects, but it also spurs even indie films; a lot of them get funded because the people investing in them realize there's a chance they get picked up by Fox Searchlight and become the next Juno, or what have you.
and
...huge-grossing films are one of the reasons home video has become the industry that it has. And home video is how a lot of these smaller or mid-range films are able to turn a profit, too.
Mass-market films create economies of scale that make niche films more viable and easier to gain access to over time.

[Completely Overrated]

I absolutely loved Prometheus, though I know I'm definitely in the minority there.

[Justin]

Not really, I liked it quite a bit. There are a few others who just might have been a little disappointed.

[TheUsualSuspect]

One of the problems I have with the film is that Scott leads you to believe, in so many ways, that he will make the connections to the original Alien. Yet he never does. This is the reason I really hate the last scene. It felt like his hands were tied and he "had" to include it for the fans of the original.

I knew going in that it was a separate story and not an "Alien" film, but he makes way too many leads to the original alien and to not make those connections and to wait for a sequel to do so really frustrates me.

They could have simply set it on the same planet/moon and it would have satisfied a lot of people. Why they chose not to, I don't get.

[dadgumblah]

I loved Prometheus. Even if it turns out not to make too many more connections to the Alien films (if further Prometheus installments come), I still like it and enjoy it for what it is.

[AnneBarlow]

I loved the movie. A lot.

I cant get why some people say its not an Alien prequel. For me it was a straight prequel!

Am looking forward to the sequel- fo shizzle! x

[linespalsy]

Saw this a second time a couple weeks ago (missed father's day and wanted to do something with my old man). Knowing what was going to happen kind of ruined the suspense, which was a big bonus on the first viewing, but on the other hand I was more attentive to things that were impressive but didn't quite register the first time. Those holographic scenes were brilliant and I imagine would have made it worth seeing this in 3-D. dumb story/plot stuff was still there, but all-in-all it was the most exhilarating cinema I've seen this year (new or old).

[TheUsualSuspect]

The holographic stuff with the world was neat and would be in 3-D. The holographic images of the Engineers running for their lives is poor screenwriting.

[linespalsy]

Poor from a plot standpoint but still neat.

IMO.

[TheUsualSuspect]

Remember that guy with the weird voice that did the Star Wars prequel reviews? He's at it again, this time in a different format.

Spoilers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x1YuvUQFJ0

[Ruthless Critic]

Hello all,
If you were waiting something in line with the Aliens movies I guess you were disappointed. The tension was not as good and the aliens were not as bad.

[Ricomu]

I went into Prometheus without knowing it was part of the Alien series. Actually, some one said "it's an Alien movie," before I went in, but I didn't make the connection. "Duh, it's an alien movie."

Going in with no expectations. I was really surprised and excited by the new approach to the Alien world. I liked it.

[Jim Garten]

Saw it last night on BR at home - have to say I was highly impressed; great effects good story, a worthy prequel to Alien & a return to form for Ridley Scott

[PeterVincent]

Love the movie. Love the cast. Ignore the haters.

Prometheus is a good movie.

[wintertriangles]

Love the movie. Love the cast. Ignore the haters.

Prometheus is a good movie.Oh. Can't argue with that.:rolleyes:

[Kimmie]

I think it's worth watching. Average film though in my opinion :)

[Rebelwithacause]

anyone care to explain the opening sequence to me please? what was the stuff the Alien was suppose to be drinking before he fell apart and into the waterfall? i presume thats where they are telling us or dna came from?

THought the film was watchable, no real surprises, dont really know why scott bothered making it, either do a prequel or dont. No real tension, good acting, Fassbender is always good. didnt have the fright of Alien but was better than Aliens,A3 and A4 in my humble opinion

[wintertriangles]

Creation of life on earth, and some sacrificial liquid that incited the creation process

Thought the film was watchable, no real surprises, dont really know why scott bothered making it, either do a prequel or dont. No real tension, good acting, Fassbender is always good. Seconded

[Nausicaä]

Apart from a few dodgy bits of dialogue and a few edits that looked rather odd, I thought it was an excellent addition to the series and looked absolutely beautiful on blu-ray, and those holographic parts looked stunning.

[Powdered Water]

Saw this again recently as well and still feel about the same way. I'll be interested to see these all in a row as trilogies tend to stand much better together than alone nowadays. Anyway, after seeing it again I still think my 3 is pretty right on. Yes, there was a lot of good stuff, but there was a LOT of pretty over-the-top stuff too which has all been pointed out in this thread already. And when we're looking at this film in the long run I think it goes down as what it is; probably the weakest link in a trilogy.

[SpaceBiscuit]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ic1butxj4c
either do a prequel or dont.
no way
Prequels are predictable... like The Thing 2011
i'm glad we got this

honestly everything in Prometheus was a surprise for me, besides what was shown in the trailers. I didn't know who would live or die or anything. and it had an awesome science fiction ending I never saw coming. All great science fiction should end in a crazy bizarre set up.
plus i really dug the characters :)

[TheUsualSuspect]

honestly everything in Prometheus was a surprise for me, besides what was shown in the trailers. I didn't know who would live or die or anything. and it had an awesome science fiction ending I never saw coming. All great science fiction should end in a crazy bizarre set up.
plus i really dug the characters :)

Pretty much had the opposite reaction to you.

Knew who would die, knew how it would end and nothing really felt fresh or original. It was kinda stale.

But it looks gorgeous.

[SpaceBiscuit]

You couldn't have known unless you saw spoilers :p
or predicted that ending set up :p

all the fake "leaked" script I saw early on had Vickers as the only survivor..or Shaw and Vickers being trapped on the planet together with giant xenos rising in the distance..or everyone dying etc

when I was watching the film I totally thought she was going to remove the helmet and commit suicide !!

[TheUsualSuspect]

No, it's pretty generic to have the lead female be the lone survivor....just look at ALIEN.

[SpaceBiscuit]

No, it's pretty generic to have the lead female be the lone survivor....just look at ALIEN.
The SETUP destination was not generic
and I don't believe for A SECOND you expected her to say that at the end :p

also you can call literally every film generic that way, because there are only two human sexes.. haha

[TheUsualSuspect]

How was she not suppose to make it to the end? She is basically Prometheus' version of Ripley.

Are you pulling my leg, or do you seriously believe that?

[SpaceBiscuit]

She didn't act anything like Ripley. Ripley was all about self preservation and quarantine. If anything Vickers acted like Ripley.

Shaw is all about discovery, and you ignored the question ;)
You didn't expect her to make that choice at the end, did you?

Don't act like you predicted that. I didn't think "you know who" would survive either
especially since we saw him decapitated in some stills.

I thought Weyland or Holloway would turn into the Space Jockey. Vickers would return home, and Shaw was going to die.

also Ripley was supposed to die in Alien until the studio changed Scott's ending plans. She dies in #3.
and a bunch of clones of her die in #4. So Ripley dies many times.

[SpaceBiscuit]

Also David lives
so not a lone survivor :)

I guess we could count Jonesy the cat too for Alien

[TheUsualSuspect]

The only thing I did not expect, was her to bring David with her on her journey to discover their home planet.

I expected everyone to die, except her.

Once I saw the giant "facehugger" on the Engineer, I figured it would create something. I actually hated that part, it felt too forced.

I was surprised by a few things: Mainly the stupidity of the characters.

I don't care how many times Ripley dies in the other films. That has nothing to do with the point I originally made. All you're saying with that comment is that Shaw will eventually die in the inevitable sequels.

She did act like Ripley when the poo hit the fan.

[SpaceBiscuit]

She acted nothing like Ripley.

Ripley was all about self preservation, while Shaw risks her life to find things out. And of course you realized a facehugger would birth something.. Watch the Final Battle deleted scene. It gives a lot more to it.

The characters were no more unintelligent than those from the Alien films. It's easy to say that in RETROSPECT.

Glad you finally admitted to not predicting the ending though. I knew you didn't. :p

One thing I need in a science fiction is a crazy unexpected ending primes setup for the sequel. And that is exactly what Prometheus and all god science fictions deliver on.

I think Final Battle may be my favourite scene in the film
basically a 6 minute stalking/cat and mouse thing in the Lifepod
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrEYrWNBiSM

a shame it got deleted
I feel the entire scene has the tension of the first ALIEN.

[Powderfinger]

I just watched it and what did I take out of it? Faith

3.5

[TheUsualSuspect]

Glad you finally admitted to not predicting the ending though. I knew you didn't. :p


Huh? You're not reading it correctly. The only thing I DID NOT EXPECT was her bringing David with her. That was it. How is that not expecting the entire ending? :rolleyes:

[lundy1026]

I really liked it... I don't think I posted yet on this thread. I watched it sometime last month after putting it off for so long. The only reason I put it off was because close friends of mine who saw it in theaters said they were so dissapointed and that it wasnt worth seeing... but on a boring day with nothing better to do I watched it and I really loved it. Then I had to watch the original right after!! lol, I mean, the original is still the best but Prometheus was a pretty good intoduction. There was a few things I wish they had added at the end to make a better transition into the original, but it was still good as a movie itself.

[Exist]

^ I'd written of Prometheus, but not directly on this page. I much agree, good flick. It did well in the loose ends from the original; I believe many people were either unsure of, or dissappointed in the way it shifted the premise, into the cerebral epic unknown of unknowns. I personally dug it, bleek enough to appeal to the likes of me. I'd recommend it to most. During the promotion, much talk from the director/producers went into continuing with this prequel along a fresh and rebirth-like re-opening in the series, but when considering its not entire success, this might be unlikely. When I seriously think about this film, it brings to a shrill the point of the alien series, only adding a more familiar face.

[Lucas]

This film really dissapointed me. I remember when we first got some trailers for it. It..looked..insane. Ridley Scott making a triumphant return to sci-fi I thought, how cool is that. The movie was just a slightly above average sci-fi action flick. I am very worried for Blade Runner. Very worried. Ridley Scott has lost it.

[wintertriangles]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ic1butxj4cThis is the worst commentary I've seen on something in a long time

[Guaporense]

It's a 3_5 movie. I had high expectations for it but it's nothing really great.

[Guaporense]

This is the worst commentary I've seen on something in a long time

I sent them an email asking them to review Nausicaa. :D

[Guaporense]

This film really dissapointed me. I remember when we first got some trailers for it. It..looked..insane. Ridley Scott making a triumphant return to sci-fi I thought, how cool is that. The movie was just a slightly above average sci-fi action flick. I am very worried for Blade Runner. Very worried. Ridley Scott has lost it.

That's normal. It's statistics: it's like hoping for the next movie Spielberg directs to be as good as A.I. or Schindler's List, while there is a 5% chance of that happening that's not enough for you to expect anything great. That's why I am not worried about Miyazaki retiring, for instance, because I know that the probability of him making a movie as good as Princess Mononoke now is less than 5%.

[BlueLion]

This movie sucked.

[Lucas]

^I agree. But I'm especially worried about a Blade Runner sequel because it's not necessary whatsoever. It would in a way tarnish that film's legacy, kind of like what Prometheus did to Alien(1979). BR is a cult classic, and it's obvious that if Scott releases a new BR film it will be catered to general audiences and will end up being some sorta generic summer blockbuster in the vein of that piece of crap Total Recall film. I can't think of any BR fan who actually wants a sequel or prequel.

[The Rodent]

^^ Blade Runner already has two sequels... Soldier with Kurt Russell and Prometheus.

If you check certain details, they're connected to Blade Runner.

[The Rodent]

^^ Blade Runner already has two sequels... Soldier with Kurt Russell and Prometheus.

If you check certain details, they're connected to Blade Runner.

[Lucas]

^Lol wut. So if Prometheus takes place in the same universe as BR, then it takes place in the same universe as Alien. WTF. Ridley Scott just needs to stop, he's messing up his legacy and ruining the image of his classics.

[Guaporense]

Like Asimov, who tried to unify all his fictional universes into a single fictional world, now Scott is tying everything together, from the 2nd century AD of Gladiator to the year 2019 of Blade Runner and the 22nd century of Alien and Prometheus. :)

[Lucas]

^ I'm gonna be outright and say it. That's an awful,awful idea by Mr. Scott. Maybe for somebody like Tarantino it could work, all the films existing in the same canon and all. But come on though. I'm supposed to believe that Blade Runner is now basically a prequel to Prometheus. Huh?

[wintertriangles]

Pretty sure Isaac Asimov is far more qualified to do such a thing.

[The Rodent]

It's what I heard anyways. There's the connections that Soldier was originally written as a sequel to Blade Runner anyway... and even though it hasn't really officially been tied, it has been said it takes place in the same universe. The genetic Soldiers in Soldier are a branch of the Replicant family but using Humans and genetic testing instead of fully automated Robots.

But Prometheus has apparently been tied to Blade Runner through similar means. David, the droid in Prometheus... has been said to stem directly from the Replicants in Blade Runner with David in turn being a precursor to Ash and Bishop.

There's also a few shots in Prometheus with background props and stuff that directly mirror Blade Runner too.

With Prometheus officially tied to Alien and with Soldier tied to Blade Runner... and each of them being written as side stories, it's fully probable they all tie together somehow.

The way Hollywood works these days, the marketing received from such an idea is too rich to pass up.

[Guaporense]

Pretty sure Isaac Asimov is far more qualified to do such a thing.

It didn't work for Asimov though. :D

[The Rodent]

http://www.slashfilm.com/is-prometheus-set-in-the-blade-runner-universe/

Get that. According to Prometheus, Eldon Tyrell was the mentor of Peter Weyland.

There are also shots in Alien that mirror Blade Runner too.

[Lucas]

Well. I just died on the inside a little bit. So if replicants were the early versions of the androids we see see in Alien/Prometheus, then how come all androids have that stupid white milky blood rather than human looking blood in BR? So wait, does this also mean that those crappy AVP films are also canon, as well as Aliens and Alien 3? Smh Ridley Scott is very similar to George Lucas. He craps on his own franchises.

[doubledenim]

I re-watched this for the first time since the theater run. Did a search on the meaning behind the movie and got directed to a reddit.

barring what I may have misunderstood/ misinterpreted...Scott implied that Jesus was created by the Engineers and decided to destroy us after he was crucified. There were other ideas brought up as well...the goo being affected differently by each host...LV-223 = Leviticus 22.3...

The person that wrote that did a great job, but I think it's a wee much to swallow. It seems to ask a lot for the average moviegoer to connect all these dots...from a massive summer tentpole. :shrug:

[Iroquois]

Well. I just died on the inside a little bit. So if replicants were the early versions of the androids we see see in Alien/Prometheus, then how come all androids have that stupid white milky blood rather than human looking blood in BR? So wait, does this also mean that those crappy AVP films are also canon, as well as Aliens and Alien 3? Smh Ridley Scott is very similar to George Lucas. He craps on his own franchises.

Presumably, it's because the scientists realised the folly of making fake humans that were indistinguishable from actual humans and so their new designs deliberately used fake-looking white blood so as to help humans distinguish between the two types. Kind of like how Agent Smith tells Morpheus that the first version of the Matrix was a perfect world but none of the humans accepted it because it was too perfect for them.

[doubledenim]

This is the reddit I was referring to, which was lifted from the article referenced.


This post goes way in depth to Prometheus and explains some of the deeper themes of the film as well as some stuff I completely overlooked while watching the film.

NOTE: I did NOT write this post, I just found it on the web.

Link: http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html#cutid1

Prometheus contains such a huge amount of mythic resonance that it effectively obscures a more conventional plot. I'd like to draw your attention to the use of motifs and callbacks in the film that not only enrich it, but offer possible hints as to what was going on in otherwise confusing scenes.

Let's begin with the eponymous titan himself, Prometheus. He was a wise and benevolent entity who created mankind in the first place, forming the first humans from clay. The Gods were more or less okay with that, until Prometheus gave them fire. This was a big no-no, as fire was supposed to be the exclusive property of the Gods. As punishment, Prometheus was chained to a rock and condemned to have his liver ripped out and eaten every day by an eagle. (His liver magically grew back, in case you were wondering.)

Fix that image in your mind, please: the giver of life, with his abdomen torn open. We'll be coming back to it many times in the course of this article.

The ethos of the titan Prometheus is one of willing and necessary sacrifice for life's sake. That's a pattern we see replicated throughout the ancient world. J G Frazer wrote his lengthy anthropological study, The Golden Bough, around the idea of the Dying God - a lifegiver who voluntarily dies for the sake of the people. It was incumbent upon the King to die at the right and proper time, because that was what heaven demanded, and fertility would not ensue if he did not do his royal duty of dying.

Now, consider the opening sequence of Prometheus. We fly over a spectacular vista, which may or may not be primordial Earth. According to Ridley Scott, it doesn't matter. A lone Engineer at the top of a waterfall goes through a strange ritual, drinking from a cup of black goo that causes his body to disintegrate into the building blocks of life. We see the fragments of his body falling into the river, twirling and spiralling into DNA helices.

Ridley Scott has this to say about the scene: 'That could be a planet anywhere. All he’s doing is acting as a gardener in space. And the plant life, in fact, is the disintegration of himself. If you parallel that idea with other sacrificial elements in history – which are clearly illustrated with the Mayans and the Incas – he would live for one year as a prince, and at the end of that year, he would be taken and donated to the gods in hopes of improving what might happen next year, be it with crops or weather, etcetera.'

Can we find a God in human history who creates plant life through his own death, and who is associated with a river? It's not difficult to find several, but the most obvious candidate is Osiris, the epitome of all the Frazerian 'Dying Gods'.

And we wouldn't be amiss in seeing the first of the movie's many Christian allegories in this scene, either. The Engineer removes his cloak before the ceremony, and hesitates before drinking the cupful of genetic solvent; he may well have been thinking 'If it be Thy will, let this cup pass from me.'

So, we know something about the Engineers, a founding principle laid down in the very first scene: acceptance of death, up to and including self-sacrifice, is right and proper in the creation of life. Prometheus, Osiris, John Barleycorn, and of course the Jesus of Christianity are all supposed to embody this same principle. It is held up as one of the most enduring human concepts of what it means to be 'good'.

Seen in this light, the perplexing obscurity of the rest of the film yields to an examination of the interwoven themes of sacrifice, creation, and preservation of life. We also discover, through hints, exactly what the nature of the clash between the Engineers and humanity entailed.

The crew of the Prometheus discover an ancient chamber, presided over by a brooding solemn face, in which urns of the same black substance are kept. A mural on the wall presents an image which, if you did as I asked earlier on, you will recognise instantly: the lifegiver with his abdomen torn open. Go and look at it here to refresh your memory. Note the serenity on the Engineer's face here.

And there's another mural there, one which shows a familiar xenomorph-like figure. This is the Destroyer who mirrors the Creator, I think - the avatar of supremely selfish life, devouring and destroying others purely to preserve itself. As Ash puts it: 'a survivor, unclouded by conscience, remorse or delusions of morality.'

Through Shaw and Holloway's investigations, we learn that the Engineers not only created human life, they supervised our development. (How else are we to explain the numerous images of Engineers in primitive art, complete with star diagram showing us the way to find them?) We have to assume, then, that for a good few hundred thousand years, they were pretty happy with us. They could have destroyed us at any time, but instead, they effectively invited us over; the big pointy finger seems to be saying 'Hey, guys, when you're grown up enough to develop space travel, come see us.' Until something changed, something which not only messed up our relationship with them but caused their installation on LV-223 to be almost entirely wiped out.

From the Engineers' perspective, so long as humans retained that notion of self-sacrifice as central, we weren't entirely beyond redemption. But we went and screwed it all up, and the film hints at when, if not why: the Engineers at the base died two thousand years ago. That suggests that the event that turned them against us and led to the huge piles of dead Engineers lying about was one and the same event. We did something very, very bad, and somehow the consequences of that dreadful act accompanied the Engineers back to LV-223 and massacred them.

If you have uneasy suspicions about what 'a bad thing approximately 2,000 years ago' might be, then let me reassure you that you are right. An astonishing excerpt from the Movies.com interview with Ridley Scott:

Movies.com: We had heard it was scripted that the Engineers were targeting our planet for destruction because we had crucified one of their representatives, and that Jesus Christ might have been an alien. Was that ever considered?

Ridley Scott: We definitely did, and then we thought it was a little too on the nose. But if you look at it as an “our children are misbehaving down there” scenario, there are moments where it looks like we’ve gone out of control, running around with armor and skirts, which of course would be the Roman Empire. And they were given a long run. A thousand years before their disintegration actually started to happen. And you can say, "Let's send down one more of our emissaries to see if he can stop it." Guess what? They crucified him.

Yeah. The reason the Engineers don't like us any more is that they made us a Space Jesus, and we broke him. Reader, that's not me pulling wild ideas out of my arse. That's RIDLEY SCOTT.

So, imagine poor crucified Jesus, a fresh spear wound in his side. Oh, hey, there's the 'lifegiver with his abdomen torn open' motif again. That's three times now: Prometheus, Engineer mural, Jesus Christ. And I don't think I have to mention the 'sacrifice in the interest of giving life' bit again, do I? Everyone on the same page? Good.

So how did our (in the context of the film) terrible murderous act of crucifixion end up wiping out all but one of the Engineers back on LV-223? Presumably through the black slime, which evidently models its behaviour on the user's mental state. Create unselfishly, accepting self-destruction as the cost, and the black stuff engenders fertile life. But expose the potent black slimy stuff to the thoughts and emotions of flawed humanity, and 'the sleep of reason produces monsters'. We never see the threat that the Engineers were fleeing from, we never see them killed other than accidentally (decapitation by door), and we see no remaining trace of whatever killed them. Either it left a long time ago, or it reverted to inert black slime, waiting for a human mind to reactivate it.

The black slime reacts to the nature and intent of the being that wields it, and the humans in the film didn't even know that they WERE wielding it. That's why it remained completely inert in David's presence, and why he needed a human proxy in order to use the stuff to create anything. The black goo could read no emotion or intent from him, because he was an android.

Shaw's comment when the urn chamber is entered - 'we've changed the atmosphere in the room' - is deceptively informative. The psychic atmosphere has changed, because humans - tainted, Space Jesus-killing humans - are present. The slime begins to engender new life, drawing not from a self-sacrificing Engineer but from human hunger for knowledge, for more life, for more everything. Little wonder, then, that it takes serpent-like form. The symbolism of a corrupting serpent, turning men into beasts, is pretty unmistakeable.

Refusal to accept death is anathema to the Engineers. Right from the first scene, we learned their code of willing self-sacrifice in accord with a greater purpose. When the severed Engineer head is temporarily brought back to life, its expression registers horror and disgust. Cinemagoers are confused when the head explodes, because it's not clear why it should have done so. Perhaps the Engineer wanted to die again, to undo the tainted human agenda of new life without sacrifice.



Does anyone buy this? It seems a stretch to infer all this.

[Yoda]

Oh, absolutely. Heck, the quote included from Scott basically confirms it, anyway. The broad themes are downright explicit. I'm less sure of the more granular, specific stuff, though.

[Chriskey2015]

prometheus---- its ok, i rate it 5/10 movie

[rambond]

Does anyone agree that this film gives a different and better meaning after each viewing?
I saw it three times and i think every time i was liking it more...and u need to definitely watch the unrated director s cut for that

[Siddon]

Does anyone agree that this film gives a different and better meaning after each viewing?
I saw it three times and i think every time i was liking it more...and u need to definitely watch the unrated director s cut for that


This was the best 3D IMAX experience I ever had

[John W Constantine]

I like that it was okay to pet the space cobra because he was curious and a scientist.

[hownos]

This movie screwed up the Alien franchise.

[FilmBuff]

This movie screwed up the Alien franchise.

More than Alien3?

[hownos]

More than Alien3?

alien3 sort of made sense