[Closed] Prometheus

it's the 3rd best 'Alien' film,

That was my preconception going into the movie, to be honest.

i have just been to see it and as the credits rolled, the girl sat next to my mate turn to him and said- " so was that the predator then? "

a laughed for about an hour 😀

Fabulous.

Fabulous.

Saw it last night, still not quite sure what I made of it. Some bits I like better having thought about them a bit more, some I like a lot less.
A couple of things I really didn't like/don't make much sense to me:

-The behaviour of the people on the expedition- no quarantine, helmets off after 5 mins, no real awe at first alien contact, no fear of the cobra/worm things.
-Why keep Weyland's presence on the ship a secret?
-The murals showing the (original) Giger Aliens- at the end they suggest the form of the creature is the result of a specific chain of mutations, so how/why has it been on the wall for thousands of years?
-The behaviour of the last space jockey when they wake him. I buy he'd hold them in contempt but he's pretty actively trying to finish them all off. Also the behaviour of the zombie guy when he comes back to the ship- he only seems to be there to thin out the crew.
- When Shaw and some of the others are caught out in the storm their suits/helmets aren't even scratched up, despite the Captain telling them it'd shred them (or something).

Also don't really see how it fits in with Holloway pointing out that the place is "just another tomb".

Seemed to just settle into an escape-the-bogeyman flick in the last 3rd. There were a few s****s in the cinema when Shaw was winching David's headless body down.

Missed a few opportunities to be genuinely creepy too. They could really have done something with the scene where the dead guy's helmet cam comes back on line and it's right outside the ship... Instead they just go "Oh, really? Huh..." and go and open the door.

Oh, and I felt a bit cheated by the way the original space jockey just turns out to be a suit with a less interesting/mysterious human in.

Oh, and I felt a bit cheated by the way the original space jockey just turns out to be a suit with a less interesting/mysterious human in.

+1

overall i liked it, Its just nice to see a good scifi horror, the sets,props and spaceships etc were all impressive and it nicely reminded me of the the tension and fear from watching Alien when i was younger

my gripe is why did the spacejockeys have a planet full of ships each filled with 1000s of pods of bioweapons all built with the task of wiping out earth (im assuming this as all the ship they found were headed for earth) about 50 of those urns wouldve been enough to do for the entire plant, talk about
redundancy!

also the ship on Aliens was found on LV426 and the moon they went to on this was called LV223
im guessing that the Aliens ship must have also had a bioweapons outbreak and crashe don the way to earth or whatever their target planet was?

[img] [/img]

oh and im sure it was the biologist who was the the zombie

despite what wikipedia says

(also what biologist wouldnt be interested in an alien and decide to head back to the ship!)

another thing that really pissed me off was

"The human and engineer DNA matches"

but what does that mean? its pseudo scientific bollox!
is it a 100% match?
match to what- the consensus from the human genome project,?
if so is it the same genes under different epigenetic control, HDAC, methylation etc, which would be amazing,but maybe possible
or is it just similar like human to chimp, which no biologist would ever call a match
i cant believe these scientists dedicated enough to go that far would fail to ask these basic questions

ultimately its just very very poor writing, exactly the kind of lazy wishy washy mess that we saw in Lost.............

I found it very entertaining, but Isn't that the whole point?
I'm sure some experts on here could do better though.

I'm sure some experts on here could do better though.

i could ! 😉

i enjoyed the film, ill be getting it on blu ray, im just frustrated its not the perfect film it couldve been, - at least get a real biologist to consult on some of the science

also david learning the engineer language by regressing all human languages,i dont buy that either

[i]i could ![/i]

Crack on then, or you could always try out as a 'film critic'.

-The behaviour of the people on the expedition- no quarantine, helmets off after 5 mins, no real awe at first alien contact, no fear of the cobra/worm things.

no quarantine - same could be said for the space jockeys? although Scott's vision is that the vases of bio weapon's get infected by the impurity of human thought?
no fear of the cobra/worm things - one is scared (the geologist) the other is at awe/ doing his job as a biologist.

-The murals showing the (original) Giger Aliens- at the end they suggest the form of the creature is the result of a specific chain of mutations, so how/why has it been on the wall for thousands of years?

Thanks to one of the complications of space flight, you can only travel (acording to einstein) no faster than the speed of light. Space is very, very big - so it takes a long time to get any where (a fact ignored in this film, and its major flaw in my eyes) - say the moon is approx 50 lights years away from earth, that would mean that it would take 50 years traveling at the speed of light to get there and another 50 years back - thats 100 years gone in just one trip (not taking in to acount being instanly squashed as you acelerate from 0 to 670 616 629 mph instantly). Add to this the fact that the space jockeys sleep pods could withstain life for 1000's of years (like the SJ at the end wakeing up after a 2k year slumber and being right as rain in a few seconds - compare that to how the humans coped with a 2.5year slumber earlier in the film). Also the SJ's may have a much greater life span than ours (imortal?)...

-The behaviour of the last space jockey when they wake him. I buy he'd hold them in contempt but he's pretty actively trying to finish them all off.

Well acording to the few interviews that Ridley Scott has given, he suggestes that 2k years ago was the last visit to earth by a SJ emissary - make the conection? so humanity basically crucified a SJ emissary on earth, and somehow also caused a catastrophe on the moon (also 2k years ago) - The SJ at the end of the film has been asleep for 2k years and wakes to find the cause (humans) of all his mates deaths waking him up and again initiating a new biohazard leak, i think he has a right to be pissed off.

Missed a few opportunities to be genuinely creepy too.

agree - but i'm thinking that this has more to do with the studio that Scott - He wanted it to be an 18 but the studio said it had to be a 15 to get more bums on seats.

Oh, and I felt a bit cheated by the way the original space jockey just turns out to be a suit with a less interesting/mysterious human in.

also agree.

my gripe is why did the spacejockeys have a planet full of ships each filled with 1000s of pods of bioweapons all built with the task of wiping out earth

there was only one SJ ship (That they found).

im guessing that the Aliens ship must have also had a bioweapons outbreak

The SJ on that ship has a burst chest (although alot smaller than the SJ at the end of Prometheus).

there was only one SJ ship (That they found).

We see two in the movie, and David states that there are many more remember

wheres the second? i only remember the underground one which takes off...
there may be more - as stated - but only one going to earth (i cant remeber David stateing that they were all going to earth, just that one?)

Anyway I posted a link a couple pages back which gives a good explanation of the film (far better than i could do), the why's specifically. However it is only one explanation, its prob the closest to Scotts that i've read though (baised on his interviews)- much like the crew of the Prometheus we are left with questions. Personaly its the questions that have made this film for me (and ruined it for others).

wheres the second? i only remember the underground one which takes off...

Wake up at the back, there!
You saw two, the first one that took off, and Prometheus rammed, and the second one that took off that was going to the Engineer's home planet, with David and Elizabeth on board.

duh oh yeah....

Hmm...Ridley Scott is ace, Noomi Rapace, Idris Elba and Charlize Theron are all really, really good actors but they all seem to play cliche riddled characters with accents all over the place.

What killed it for me was the script. The writing was sloppy and all over the place, there's no suspense and the body shock scene is just laughable.

I give it five years before a director's cut appears.

scotts already said the dvd will have an extra 2013 + mins

questions unanswered or just a plot full on holes ?

[i]I thought it was excellent, very thought provoking. I wanted to watch it in 2D but was only showing in 3D and I'm glad that was the case as the 3D visual effects were spectacular IMO. [/i]

My sentiments entirely.

Great film.

I give it five years before a director's cut appears

Scott orginaly stated that there was no directors cut (in interviews before and after the films release) - he's 100% happy with the final film. There are however deleted scenes....
After the general release of the film, and the general confusion around it, Scott has stated that there will be an extended version on the DVD (an option to run in it the menu), which will include the deleted scenes - although Scott has categorically stated that this is not a directors cut, more an extended version (with the scenes he felt were unneeded choped back in).
I think Scott has been pressured into this a little by the studio - He had acknowledged that there were deleted scenes just before the films release, and said that they would inevitably get put on the DVD. But, he did not think these were warrented in the original release, thats why they were deleted.
The questions the film has left unanswered have forced this issue, and its true it could have been better scripted, but this is however a large budget investment for the studio who wanted it aimed at 15yr olds and above - hense the lack of script and additions like the hanger scene.

-The murals showing the (original) Giger Aliens- at the end they suggest the form of the creature is the result of a specific chain of mutations, so how/why has it been on the wall for thousands of years?

Thanks to one of the complications of space flight, you can only travel (acording to einstein) no faster than the speed of light. Space is very, very big - so it takes a long time to get any where (a fact ignored in this film, and its major flaw in my eyes) - say the moon is approx 50 lights years away from earth, that would mean that it would take 50 years traveling at the speed of light to get there and another 50 years back - thats 100 years gone in just one trip (not taking in to acount being instanly squashed as you acelerate from 0 to 670 616 629 mph instantly). Add to this the fact that the space jockeys sleep pods could withstain life for 1000's of years (like the SJ at the end wakeing up after a 2k year slumber and being right as rain in a few seconds - compare that to how the humans coped with a 2.5year slumber earlier in the film). Also the SJ's may have a much greater life span than ours (imortal?)...

OK, but how have they apparently predicted the appearance of a species that only comes into existence right at the end of the film, after a particular sequence of events, thousands of years after the murals were done? And why would it be so prominent, instead of one of the other many mutations that could be up there?

ok - rather than me explain it (badly), read [url= http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html ]this[/url].

Went for the 2nd time last night - I think it's great.

+1 for Monkeyboyjc's link - don't believe half of it but great reading.

good link monkeyboy

but a lot of it is bollox!

so anyone seen those pics of the production yet that show (yet) another figure dressed in cloth that the SJ's worship just before he drinks the black juice and disintegrates into our water?

i'm amazed at the sheer amount of explanation the Director & writer are having to give at every opportunity now with this film - its shows that
a) they didnt write it well
b) people didnt expect what they were going to see
c) the director didnt get it across well
and/or the more likely option for me
d) the studio realized everyone was hyper about the film as it was being made and pushed Scott and Lindhoff to leave it open for either sequels and more prequels and also wanted someone for the geekboys to lust over similar to 7of9 from star trek to ensure some teen fantasy's - and that led to (a) (b) and (c) !

so anyone seen those pics of the production yet that show (yet) another figure dressed in cloth that the SJ's worship just before he drinks the black juice and disintegrates into our water?

This one?
[img] [/img]
its was an alternative opening scene - and didnt go into production.

I managed to avoid all trailers and internet speculation about this film, knowing little more than it was Ridley Scott [s]paying a big tax bill[/s] writing a sort of prequel. I think that was my mistake, since - although I was thoroughly entertained - my head was swimming with unanswered questions at the end. I didn't even know the opening scene was meant to be Earth*

Too ambiguous. 7.5/10

*cue someone telling me it wasn't

The opening scene was one of the more successful elements I thought, the whole panspermia theory has been done before - in 2001 for example, but it was rather sucessful in getting the idea across.

I didn't even know the opening scene was meant to be Earth*

I've now read that Ridley Scott said it wasn't necessarily Earth

After reading this, I really should go and see it.

This would have been a better film in my humble opinion

Finally went to see it last night.

Thought it was alright.

Mrs Peterfile "was expecting better"

ha ha, she's quite the film critic these days 🙂

was good in 3D

(i didn't get the whole "thought provoking" thing though, it was pretty thin on that front IMO)

here is what David said to the SJ when he woke up :
‘This man is here because he does not want to die. He believes you can give him more life’.

personally if i'd just woke up from a 2000 year old sleep i'd want 'i'll go an get the kettle on oh great Engineer, and theres also a few choccie biccies for you too, oh master"

Jesus H this thread grows faster than Jimmy Carrs tax dodging bank balance! 😯

Ps the Predator musical is so much better than the Alien one!!! 😛

That predator thing is brilliant

I saw it yesterday- how hasn't this been done - What the hell we're those bikes all about?

saw it the other week, its good but....

(this is going to sound stupid)

it would have been better if there was no connection to the other alien films. knowing beforehand it was sort of a prequel made you have a preconception of the film.

yeah the predator one is better but it is in the wrong context in this case.

Watched it last night.

Don't think it can be compair it to Alien/s .... different budget, studio expectations and too broad a target market becuase of that. As a summer blockbuster 8 outta 10.... as an "aliens" film far less.

Didnt know beforehand that a Lost writer had anything to do with it.... but came out with that same hollow Lost feeling.... Yeah good to ask questions but answer a few please for the sake of entertainment.

But then again

Emsz said this 3 pages back "8 pages and not one mention of the massive amounts of xtian symbols in the film."

This.

Thinking about it this morning and now having read this thread... is this not what it's all about ??

Those who behave like God, the SJ and Weyland, die. Creating a monster/evil as they do so.

While the one who "only" beleives in God lives to carry on her search for the orgins of life ?

So how religious is Ridley Scott or indeed the Lost writer?

Because religious text will ask more questions than they answer.

So how religious is Ridley Scott or indeed the Lost writer?

From what I've read, RS is anti-religion (he's suggested it's "the root of all evil" or some such before now). I've seen him described both as atheist and agnostic in various places; which is most accurate I'm not sure.

Lindelof, I've no idea.

Yeah, have now read that myself about RS

He was once a altar boy…. It has apparently left a "guilty mark" on him, which has kept him on the straight and narrow but he believes Religion is the biggest cause of evil.

And for Damon Lindelof … he relates to Dr Shaw… but as a writer wants the “final judgment to be in the hands of the audience and in the eye of the beholder”… interesting interview with him here.

www.examiner.com/article/damon-lindelof-q-a-lost-co-creator-talks-origins-of-prometheus-more

Seen it today and loved, the tie in with the previous and open ended ready for another. Great entertainment.

Blimey I've birthed a monster.... Was no-one just entertained like I was?

Heh 🙂

I see that the Blu-ray / DVD release is to have a different beginning and ending with deleted scenes being restored to shore up a poorly edited theatrical release.

Questions Will Be Answered.

........... and a few months later they will release the directors cut
🙁

Ridley Scott has said that there won't be a director's cut, but that trailer kinda suggests that one is in the pipeline.

I see that the Blu-ray / DVD release is to have a different beginning and ending with deleted scenes being restored to shore up a poorly edited theatrical release.

If that is true, it suggests that even someone as powerful as RS has limited control over the theatrical versions of their own films that get released.

i read that at 1st he said no and now he is saying yes. so wait and see i suppose

I see that the Blu-ray / DVD release is to have a different beginning and ending with deleted scenes being restored to shore up a poorly edited theatrical release.

I think it's only the Blu-ray that has the alternative beginning/ending according to the small print. I won't be watching it for a while as it's not on the lovefilm list yet.. grrrr....

Okay, I watched it nearly a month ago on the long haul flight back ...

errmmm ... okay-ish with blurring storyline and not enough actions. Oh and take out that zombie character (the one that got infected) who is knocking at the entrance of their spaceship because there should not be zombie around ... 7/10 🙄

Mostly I liked it...I am interested to see where he decides to take it in the next 2. Mostly.

2 more films !!!

By Toutatis Obelix, that's a terrible thought.

They might as well have filmed The Fonz waterski-ing over a shark in the closing credits of the last one.

I might be mistaken but I think the Fonz is scared of waterski's.

I might be mistaken but I think the Fonz is scared of waterski's.

No, he's afraid of sharks... 😉

Mostly

I see what you did there. (-:

TESCO'S ARE SELLING IT TODAY !!! 😀

Oh and take out that zombie character (the one that got infected) who is knocking at the entrance of their spaceship because there should not be zombie around ..

Why? In the original Alien and the others when got infected it looked like they were dead and then they all seem to recover. They were infected as was the 'zombie' you refer to.

SFX's reviews (of the DVD / BD release and of the extras) are up.

[url= http://www.sfx.co.uk/2012/10/05/prometheus-review-2/ ]Disc review[/url].

[url= http://www.sfx.co.uk/2012/09/29/prometheus-the-extras-review/ ]Extras[/url].

Good link Cougar - cheers.

I found this interesting -

While none of these scenes are outstanding as scenes, they’re revelatory in demonstrating how the director and writers grappled with the film: how much to say, how much to explain, and how much human interest to sprinkle on the cast. Even if Prometheus failed, the Blu-ray says much about how it failed. This story of a disappointing film is stronger and more thought-provoking than Prometheus itself.

I'm still deciding if I want it in my collection.

Indeed.

I do wonder about a Director's Cut, y'know. Whilst Scott has always been against such things, it does seem to have been a problematic movie that might benefit from a bit of time and thought outside of studio pressures.

I'm all for a complex film that takes a couple of viewings to unravel. But Prometheus struck me as confused rather than confusing.

Prometheus for me was a film that had such grand designs that it forgot the basics - one of which is a cohesive story! I don't mind depth and intricacy in a narrative or one that evolves over a series but I do ask that the dots join up.

It seems ridiculous to say given RS’s undoubted ability and experience, but I hope he pulls his socks up for future productions. Perhaps it's harsh to lay it all at his door - I dunno? I’ve said it before - I’ll be mightily hacked off if he doesn’t learn from this, and any Blade Runner follow-up gets a similarly inept re-rendering / addition to the line. I hear Hampton Fancher the original screenplay writer will be involved, which is reassuring.

Watched it Fri night and thought it was superb! Loved it, Alien buldges, Alien creation, great stuff 🙂

Saw this on Empire online earlier -

One particularly eye-opening revelation was the possible appearance of facehuggers, a xenomorphic beastie now so beloved you can even buy plushie versions to sling at unsuspecting housemates/fellow bus passengers/strangers at Prometheus screenings.

"I did have facehuggers in my original draft," says Spaights. "David, as he began to get fascinated by the science of the Engineers, doesn't deliberately contaminate Holloway with a drop of black liquid. Instead, Holloway hubristically removes his helmet in the chamber, is knocked unconscious, facehugged and wakes up not knowing what had been done to him, and stumbles back into the ship."

"In my draft, he returns to his cabin, is embraced by Shaw, who is delighted to see him having feared that he had died, and the two of them make love," he goes on to say. "And it's while they're making love that he bursts and dies. So that lovemaking sequence echoed my original lovemaking sequence where he explodes! It was messy."

That said, David, as it turns out in Spaihts' vision, is much more malevolent than in the final cinematic cut - but in a very precise, scientific way.

"David, fascinated by these creatures, begins delaying the mission and going off the reservation on his own, essentially because he thinks he really belongs with the Engineers," Spaihts explains.

"They're smart enough and sophisticated enough, great enough, to be his peers. He's harboring a deep-seated contempt for his human makers. So at one point Shaw goes to stop him and David ties her up and deliberately exposes her to a facehugger. He caresses an egg open and out comes a facehugger."

"David doesn't smell like a person - his breath isn't moist - so he can handle the thing like a kitten. It doesn't want him; it's not interested. But then he exposes it to her and it goes for her like a shot. He toys with her for a bit and then lets it take her. That, in my draft, was how Shaw was implanted with the parasite that she had to remove with the medpod sequence."

That's right, David would ostensibly be playing with a facehugger like a little kitten, toying with Shaw as he lets it clamp around her mouth. Elsewhere in the interview, Spaihts goes on to describe the different incarnations of xenomorph badness that were considered during the film's production, including one alien with a crab-like shell.

I like that version better.