Movie: Prometheus

[Killa-Eyez]

Saw it the other day. It supposedly takes place in the Alien universe though I find it a much better film then any of the Alien movies. That, in contradiction of many other Alien lovers who misunderstood the purpose of the movie and said it sucked. The story is centered around the origin of our existence, influenced by the "Ancient Astronaut" theory. It's a story on it's own which I thought it was put together pretty well and showed promise for story development to a possible sequel. The cast was pretty refreshing, seeing Charlize Theron, Noomi Rapace (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Michael Fassbender (Magneto from First Class) all in one movie.

I'd say I agree with IMDB, an 8.0 rating.

Anyone else seen it?

[darkshadow]

I saw it a week ago, still need to write my mini review on it.

[Animeniax]

Is it even out in the U.S.? Saying it's better than Aliens is a bold claim.

And for anyone who doesn't know, Noomi Rapace starred in the original (superior) Swedish version of Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

[Y]

I like the implication that an 8/10 film is "much better" than Alien or Aliens, two of the most revered masterpieces of their respective genres.

[Kraco]

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Spoilers included






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I wouldn't call this better than the original Aliens. This was quite a nice movie, but it would be difficult to better the Alien movies. However, I still think this fits well into the same group. The basic setting of a greedy corporation not caring for individual lives in the background and then hapless, ignorant humans being scared and killed was the same. I also liked the lack of overly blatant narrative devices in this movie. I still haven't got around to buying the Aliens BD box so my memories are quite dim, but I seem to recall the original Aliens also didn't spend too much time explaining anything to the people getting slaughtered. It was well that also extended to the lone sentient alien we saw in this one; he was just as single-minded as the horrors his race developed.

That last sentence also brought me to another thing that pleases me: I was always wondering during the Alien movies what kind of bizarre evolution would have led to the alien species, and this movie gave the perfect answer: They were simply artificially developed as monstrous bioweapons, by the masters of such bioengineering.

What I didn't like about this movie were the pacifist yet selfish treehuggers, but since such people exist all around us, I can't really complain or, the least of all, call it unrealistic. I supposed they also needed to be that way, considering their background.

[Animeniax]

I like the implication that an 8/10 film is "much better" than Alien or Aliens, two of the most revered masterpieces of their respective genres.

Aren't they the same genre?

[Y]

Alien is a horror film and Aliens is an action film, although dithering about genre is really rather pointless. Let's just say instead that Alien and Aliens cultivate a very different atmosphere and both succeed at it tremendously.

[XanBcoo]

I am so confused as to David's motivations in a few scenes. Why did he do what he did to Holloway? The scene was set up as if he knew some information the audience didn't, but ultimately his actions weren't related to his directive.

[Y]

Prometheus is gorgeous, but the designs are uninspired. The film is replete with fantastic actors (especially Fassbender) who are serviced not at all by the wooden, miserable script. If the movie were merely a heavily flawed auteur effort I would cut it more slack, but the naked desire to turn this into a franchise puts that idea away.

That last sentence also brought me to another thing that pleases me: I was always wondering during the Alien movies what kind of bizarre evolution would have led to the alien species, and this movie gave the perfect answer: They were simply artificially developed as monstrous bioweapons, by the masters of such bioengineering.

I don't mean to be insulting but you're kind of stupid for not understanding this the very first time you watched "Alien". It was always very evident that the Space Jockey was hoisted by his own petard, so to speak.

[XanBcoo]

Prometheus is gorgeous, but the designs are uninspired.

Yeah, it was a weird mix of Giger and random Star-Trekky-run of the mill sci-fi imagery. The vaginal/phallic aliens did not mix well at all with the goofy looking Engineers or the crew and mechanics of the Prometheus ship. Made the whole thing feel thrown together.

[Y]

Yeah, it was a weird mix of Giger and random Star-Trekky-run of the mill sci-fi imagery.

Speaking of "Star Trekky" the main musical theme is, if I recall correctly, the theme of Star Trek 5 The Final Frontier.

[Kraco]

I am so confused as to David's motivations in a few scenes. Why did he do what he did to Holloway? The scene was set up as if he knew some information the audience didn't, but ultimately his actions weren't related to his directive.

Wasn't he under orders from the old cadaver? It was indeed set up as if he knew something beforehand, but considering he was basically an AI, you could also say he predicted the outcome but only wanted to prove it. He's clearly not working under Asimov's robotic rules and being devoid of emotions, he could basically do anything to find clues to curing the mummy's old age.

I don't mean to be insulting but you're kind of stupid for not understanding this the very first time you watched "Alien". It was always very evident that the Space Jockey was hoisted by his own petard, so to speak.

The first time? When I watched it for the first time, I was so young I had to find excuses to visit the fridge or whatever during the most thrilling parts of it. Even later I didn't consider it so evident - perhaps because I never really spent any time considering it (the brief appearance of the space jockey in the first movie, that is). There could have been plenty of other explanations, anyway.

[Y]

Wasn't he under orders from the old cadaver? It was indeed set up as if he knew something beforehand, but considering he was basically an AI, you could also say he predicted the outcome but only wanted to prove it. He's clearly not working under Asimov's robotic rules and being devoid of emotions, he could basically do anything to find clues to curing the mummy's old age.

David was experimenting with the black oil (I'm just going to call it this, because it has the same hilariously random and plot-driven effects of the similar substance in X-Files) to try and help Weyland reach his goal of immortality. Why he thought dosing Shaw's husband with that stuff would further this goal is another matter entirely. Did he assume the first alien liquid he found MUST confer immortality? Or was the movie making more hamfisted analogies about science unfettered by morality?

EDIT:

In addition, can anyone explain why the black oil turned the guy into a fucking zombie? When the space jockey eats it, he dissolves and dies. When David doses Shaw's husband with it, he undergoes a slower version of the same process. When the scientist gets a whole faceful of the shit, he suddenly becomes a super powered crabwalking zombie, able to shrug off gunfire like it was nothing. As DS pointed out, it also acts as an evolutionary booster to the worms in the tomb chamber, instead of killing them or turning them into zombies. Is there ANY reason for this to happen except "the plot demands it!"?

[Kraco]

As DS pointed out, it also acts as an evolutionary booster to the worms in the tomb chamber, instead of killing them or turning them into zombies. Is there ANY reason for this to happen except "the plot demands it!"?

DS hasn't pointed out anything but that he saw the movie a week ago...

Anyway, we don't even know what the space jockeys were aiming for with the black oil. It's reasonable to assume they intended to wipe out humans from Earth, possibly along with every other animal, but for all we know, they weren't, after all, as good scientists as they thought (as proven by the fact they got killed by their own creations) and the black oil had effects beyond their calculations. Holloway's infection and Shaw's pregnancy suggests the polymorhic alien initiation actually requires breeding. Holloway himself simply started to rot. His and the zombie warrior's (and possibly the ancient space jockey's at the beginning of the movie if he drank the same shit) variable fates could be caused by slight genetic differences. The snake like aliens arising from the tiny worms should also be a result of the infected worms breeding, following the same logic. So, the snake aliens weren't mutated worms but rudimentary aliens born inside the worms, just like the more humanoid aliens develop inside humans (or space jockeys).

Well, like I said in my first post, I consider this quite a nice movie. It has its obvious problems but all in all it entertained me well and I can see myself buying the BD once it hits the bargain bins.

[darkshadow]

Reference:

[ 08:06:09 ] <Y> but he was still screaming as he hit the ooze
[ 08:06:17 ] <DS> for some reason the black liquid mutated the worms into those things
[ 08:06:17 ] <Y> anyway
[ 08:06:22 ] <DS> so I guess whatever
[ 08:06:25 ] <Y> yeah lmao

[XanBcoo]

There were so many unintentionally comical parts as well.

Engineer head exploding when they jolted it, David's head peeking out of a duffle bag. Comedy gold.

[Y]

Gonna write a post.

Prometheus was a super frustrating movie. I came into the movie determined to appreciate it, no matter whether it was a masterpiece like Alien and Blade Runner, an excellent movie marred by some flaws like Kingdom of Heaven's director's cut, or even just acknowledge the good elements if it looked like the movie had been cut to pieces like the theatrical Kingdom of Heaven. I was unprepared for a shallow, insulting film that retained none of Scott's auteur sensibility (although perhaps after Robin Hood the warning bells should have been tolling).

Prometheus looks great. This is the first and most obvious compliment you can pay a summer blockbuster, but I have to temper my praise even here. The opening scene is replete with stunning vistas of primordial Earth, and is soon followed up by the absolutely mesmerizing routine of the android David (Fassbender) aboard the starship Prometheus. I'm not joking when I say I would watch a 2 hour silent film with only scenes of this type. The star map inside the Engineer's ship is also gorgeous. Later designs just don't have the same inspired, breathtaking sensibility of these early scenes. A vision of Dr Shaw (Rapace) in a dream sequence has a hideous, cheesy looking filter over it (and who dreams in third person?). The murals, sculptures and ships of LV226 cannot match the iconic visions of H R Geiger. The film starts out absolutely mesmerizing and rapidly descends to pedestrian.

The actors do what they can, especially Fassbender who gives a triumphant performance, but they just aren't serviced by a stupid, choppy script. I knew I was in for a disaster when I saw Damon Lindelof's name in the credits - the showrunner of Lost is an expert in repeating simple character beats to the point of obsession and flaunting philosophies he is not nearly smart enough to engage. The film is a treatment of the monomyth by a man with a poor understanding of his primary inspiration Christianity and a dismissive attitude towards other sources such as Eastern mysticism. Heavy-handed symbolism clubs the viewer unconscious by about the halfway point.

Not only does the script do a poor job of approaching its deeper conceits but it is a failure on many very simple levels. Dialogue is often ridiculously banal - the explorers discover a dead alien body, open a door and find the head, and the exchange is literally "A head. Must have been decapitated.", the kind of thing that wouldn't be out of place in Resident Evil 1. Events occur without logic and character motives are nonexistent. Many characters given tons of screentime, such as the corporate representative Ms. Vickers (Theron) literally have no character arc or purpose within the plot, and Theron is flat and hamfisted besides.. Events occur with poor explanation or no justification. The aforementioned alien bioweapon has several different totally random and contradictory effects that cannot be reconciled. The characters race from a storm that will kill them, except then it catches them and the risk become that they will lose the alien head, since none of them are killed or even injured by the storm. The science in the script is as atrocious as the philosophy.

The action set pieces have the requisite sound and fury, but very little fun, and the philosophies are there but no serious examinations or dialogues are conducted. Scott has gone on record stating this was not the result of the movie getting butchered in the editing room so it surpassed my worst case scenario - he actually did just cash in on the prestige of Alien to create a new, profitable franchise with no brains or heart. For shame.

[Kraco]

The characters being what they were with their flawed personalities, half-assed philosophies or even their lack of purpose of existence in the movie were intentional as far as I can see. That was clear as soon as they had woken up and we saw for the first time the sorry excuse for a crew the billionaire cadaver had managed to scrape together. However, that was realistic considering the nature of the mission - or to be more specific the fact practically nobody among them even knew the mission. I can imagine the technology in the whole ship was very new and chances were high they all would have died before waking up, yet they were foolish enough to sign the contract. So, a bad script served them just fine. They were each and every one meant to be doofuses, especially the billionaire himself who was dreaming of eternal life and his pitiful daughter who boarded the ship out of jealousy, imagining her old man was planning one last massive heist and not simply leaving everything to her on a gold platter like he should in her opinion.

I'm not really going to deny your other points.

[Animeniax]

Finally saw this movie. I agree with everything Y said and a lot of what Kraco and others said. Very disappointed in this movie, because like Y I went into this movie determined to giving it every opportunity to blow my mind and expand my horizons. What I got instead was scene after scene of frustration that led to a final big letdown.

Why are movies/shows about scientific explorations always encumbered with crews of miscreants and malcontents who don't follow orders, complain about everything they should or are told to do, and just generally convey the sense that they don't want to be there or to do what is required of them? That was the first element of the movie that made me question how much I was going to enjoy it. Add on all the other issues with the plot, pointless characters, and generally underwhelming underlying motive for the entire mission on Weyland's part, and this was a pretty horrible movie. Looking back, I'm wondering about all the people I know who gave it such high praise, and reevaluating their sensibility for what constitutes intelligent entertainment.

[Animeniax]

I just watched Alien (director's cut I believe) and man what a difference. I felt actual dread and fear, even though I knew what was going to happen for the most part. Weird, but I also realized I've never seen the movie in its entirety before. The horseshoe spaceship is in Alien, something I didn't know while watching Prometheus. Also, the giant spaceman sitting at his gun is also in Alien. The vases aren't there, but there are seed pods instead. Maybe they evolved since the events in Prometheus.

edit: according to this website, http://screenrant.com/prometheus-ali...benk-176223/2/the two planets and two horseshoe spaceships are different. They conjecture that the one in Alien was just one of many piloted by the Engineers that happened to crash on the planet that Ripley's crew lands on, and is not the same one as the ship found in Prometheus.