'Prometheus' offers oozing sci-fi spectacle, early reviews say...

[hscope]

Re: 'Prometheus' offers oozing sci-fi spectacle, early reviews say...

Finally managed to catch this tonight, on Imax. For a silly formula horror movie, I thought it was very, very enjoyable.

[SteveLilley]

Re: 'Prometheus' offers oozing sci-fi spectacle, early reviews say...

Add to that, the way it actually played out was so staid. I've seen Idris Elba be a pretty smooth cat, but there was no authenticity to that scene with Theron. Instead it felt like Ridley said "screw it" and printed the rehearsal take.

I'm inclined to agree. I mean, I think Elba absolutely did the most he could with what he had to work with. But he did not have much to work with at all.

My memory is foggy on this one too, but I'm thinking the visuals were knocked out when the two were killed by the snake/worm, black goo, so no one had any idea what happened as they were going back in to find them.

I'm willing to go with this explanation. Mohawk Scientist's helmet did melt, so I'd be fine taking it this way. They didn't have a "they're confirmed dead" so much as a "they're confirmed to be super lost to the point where they're not even on radar anymore."

like the concept that the xenomorph was actually birthed by Noomi Rapace. Oh well.

As it is basically the centerpiece of the movie, I'm willing to assume that there's something awesome here with the way they did it that I'm just not seeing right now.

I think it's all going to hinge on the explanation of "what exactly happens when someone eats the black goo", versus "what happens when it genetically mixes with something else." The "on the surface" explanation of Black Goo + Alcohol = Eye Fish + Sexy Time = Squid Birth is just too muddled for me at the moment.

And I agree on Fassbender. It's ironic that in playing a robot, he gave the most authentic performance in the film.

He's also the only one that doesn't have some kind of hidden agenda. Or a moral barometer, it seems.

I didn't hate the film and I'm curious to see what the director's cut looks like.

Yeah, I definitely didn't hate it. I dunno. I'm sure my opinion will change over time. I'm definitely buying the Blu-ray, if only because Charlie De Lazurieka's special editions are always pretty terrific. I'm sure I'll come around.

[Southern_land]

Re: 'Prometheus' offers oozing sci-fi spectacle, early reviews say...

Just saw it and was sadly underwhelmed. this was supposed to be my big movie of 2012

For big patches of the movie my suspension of disbelief was disenaged and i was thinking WTF. The scientist who'd just had an adhoc c-section, then immediately goes on to perform like an olympic athlete with only staples stitching her together. Ok maybe if there'd been some neo-magic sci fi explanation I could accept it.
And speaking of her.... "you have two minutes of oxygen left" after she ecapes the crash of the U-craft, next minute (well thirty seconds apparently) she's scrambling into the detached escape pod and the voice intoning "a minute and a half left" yet the giant alien space craft is a dot in the distance.

the robot who thought by studying 100s of hmaun langauges he should be able to understand the engineers when their only linkage to mainstream humanity was genetic. Honestly they needed a 2001 moment with the rasied up homosaps dancing around a puddle in pre Saharan Africa (except that would raise the inevitable comparisons)

there were no real scares, as the heir apparent to Alien shouldn't there have been? The bit that got me was the C section, not scarey though, just unsettling

the scout drone thingy finding life at the end of the tunnel... ok what did it find? An engineer. Well no there was only one still alive and it was in stasis. An alien, well no, they were still in the egg chambers. So i'm assuming it detected a plot device ambling along.

maybe i'm too harsh, it was an ok movie, I'm sure Paul Anderson woud have been proud to have written and directed it, but I wanted epic and it failed to deliver

[Signal30]

Re: 'Prometheus' offers oozing sci-fi spectacle, early reviews say...

maybe i'm too harsh, it was an ok movie, I'm sure Paul Anderson woud have been proud to have written and directed it, but I wanted epic and it failed to deliver

I prefer Event Horizon to this...at least it was consistent with its nonsense. And a li'l smarter, too.

[Dr. Gonzo]

Re: 'Prometheus' offers oozing sci-fi spectacle, early reviews say...

If anybody wanted to know what David said to the "Engineer" you have your self an answer... a pretty predictable answer.

'This man is here because he does not want to die. He believes you can give him more life'.

as per:
http://www.slashfilm.com/david-engin...s/#more-129948

[SNAFU]

Re: 'Prometheus' offers oozing sci-fi spectacle, early reviews say...

I prefer Event Horizon to this...at least it was consistent with its nonsense. And a li'l smarter, too.

Yep.

[tuukka]

Re: 'Prometheus' offers oozing sci-fi spectacle, early reviews say...

I loved this all the way throughout. Amazing visuals, grand scope, great direction and some *hard* scifi concepts. Acting is also top-notch, particularly by Fassbender, who apparently can do no wrong at this point.

Storywise, my only problem is that the scientists are sometimes rather unscientist-like in their approach to situations. And the film would probably be even better if completely removed from the Alien mythos. But then again, I was positively surprised how fresh it all felt despite all the nods to original film.

Curiously, I notice that this is a film that demands you to pay attention. Most of the story-complaints in this thread were clearly and logically addressed in the film. (I don't want to delve deeper into them unless someone absolutely demands me to, as it would make this post 3-5 times longer).

Most of the characters are just faces - 17 characters is a lot to keep track of. But I think the key characters were interesting and likable (when needed): Fassbender, Rapace, Elba, Theron and Pearce. The only misstep character-wise is Marshall-Green's Holloway, who has a big role and is inconsistently written.

It's a film filled with iconic images, and iconic moments - The c-section being probably the most memorable. That sequence alone made Elisabeth Shaw worthy of Ellen Ripley's shoes.

What can say? I love great directing. This film has a LOT of great directing.

Loved the ending, too (I don't mean the VERY ending, which was nice enough homage). Unfortunately the underwhelming domestic B.O probably means we will never see the planned sequel. So I will never get to see Miss C-section and The Head In The Bag again. That was an unlikely partnership I would have wanted to see in further adventures.

Well, can't always win. At least we get the sequel to Blade Runner.

[Signal30]

Re: 'Prometheus' offers oozing sci-fi spectacle, early reviews say...

Unfortunately the underwhelming domestic B.O probably means we will never see the planned sequel. So I will never get to see Miss C-section and The Head In The Bag again. That was an unlikely partnership I would have wanted to see in further adventures.

Well, can't always win. At least we get the sequel to Blade Runner.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the two franchises will end up overlapping.

[Mr. Earth]

Re: 'Prometheus' offers oozing sci-fi spectacle, early reviews say...

My memory is foggy on this one - when does the rest of the crew find out they've been killed? When they all get back to the "Big Giant Head" room? I'd be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that by the time they find the two dead bodies, crazy stuff is happening, but I honestly don't remember.

I think there's some throw away line about the storm and it's after effects causing intermittent transmission problems. I think once they remember to check on them (by foot), they find the one guy and then get distracted by the attack.

That's a staple of all the ALIEN movies, though. All crews only have like one android. And most of the androids go crazy at some point. Except Bishop, who was a BOSS.

Just going off of what we see in this one and others, it seems like even when they're expecting trouble of some kind (ALIENS), it's still protocol to take one android. Which in my own humble opinion is a terrible waste of resources, but I'm not a future trillionaire businessman so what do I know.

This makes sense if you believe the main goal of all operations, right from Alien I, was to bring back the alien lifeform and get it past quarantine. The easiest way to do that would be to bring it back inside a human body. The androids couldn't do that.

Damon Lindelof said his contributions were stripping out the "ALIEN prequel" parts of the script. So I'd say it went wrong at right about the Act 2 climax, where it suddenly and bizarrely diverges from this path it was merrily traveling down for the first long while

I agree completely here except that I think it had problems in Act 1 and, in particular, with the writing and dialogue. I was very disappointed. It's only slightly better than the mashup of Alien Vs. Predator and that's probably only due to the acting and the bigger budget.

In one the movies, I think Alien 3 where the Aliens nearly fly, it is discovered that the Alien lifeform can mutate to its surroundings to ensure it's survival. That's why it looks like a spaceship in Alien 1 and is smaller in Alien 3, etc. I think that gives them a pass in Prometheus as far as the thing mutating from creature to creature and from environment to environment.

As for the probe getting a life form every so often, I might be completely wrong, but I took it that the sleep thing the Engineer was in would power up every so often which kept the guy alive (although that hardly makes sense either). But then again, I believe Ripley survived a frozen sleep pod at the beginning of Alien 2, so maybe there is a way.

Anyway, Promotheus lost me early on when they decide to take their helmets off so they can breathe, then immediately announce that it's -12 degrees, but nobody even appears cold let alone freezing to death. Then there's all that heavy handed exposition, which is fine when sci-fi flicks are explaining their mission or whatever, but then you have the surgery thing explained and you just know that's going to be a THING at some point later. There were a couple more of these heavy handed foreshadowings that I can't recall.

Then there were weird explanations for things that didn't even make sense like all children want their parents dead. I get that this was coming from an android who might have lost something in translation, but what? And Shaw appears to be the only one that balks at that statement? I guess it's trying to explain why the Engineer tries to kill the humans, but even that makes little sense.

I know it's a different movie and it's not supposed to be a "prequel" but I think the main thing it's missing from the first 3 or 4 aliens is the sense that the characters owned their environment. Especially in Alien, you REALLY felt like this crew knew each, knew their ship, that they've been in space forever, and you felt like you could see the grime on the walls from daily living and work. Obviously this was a virgin expedition so it wouldn't exactly be the same, but still, that intangible feeling that the Alien movies were so good at was definitely missing from this one. To me, it's what sets apart Alien from most other Sci-Fi flicks. It feels very real even though it's dealing with something that isn't.

I really wanted to like this movie and was really hoping that it would try to do something deep, but it just couldn't pull it off.

[Mr. Earth]

Re: 'Prometheus' offers oozing sci-fi spectacle, early reviews say...

The more I think about this movie, the more p.o.'ed I get. But some things mentioned as holes or flaws weren't, but then again, some others haven't been mentioned at all. Spoilers ahead.

When Shaw nearly gets crushed by the spaceship, she's told she has two minutes of oxygen in her suit. They previously said you could go two minutes without a suit, so she has 4 minutes to find shelter. Luckily, she is able to run to the lifeboat in about 75 seconds. From what I was looking at, it appeared that the spaceship wasn't too far behind her when she got to the spaceship, but from the other perspective (looking at the lifeboat from the ship) it looked like it was miles away. So, let's just say she ran a Usain Bolt-like half mile in about 90 seconds...whatever.

Anyway, that means the Engineer also had 2 minutes to find her without oxygen, assuming he had the same lung function as a normal human, but how he knew she was still alive and where she was is beyond me.

Another stupid thing is why would Charlize Theron design a lifeboat that would sustain her for two years when they she knew they were two years from any rescue? Maybe they were just saying two years as an approximation, but even so, wouldn't you want to design the thing for four years in case something delayed your rescue. In fact, the writers could have had her say "Two years and a day." which would have given her character more depth and some sense of humor, but nah.

And then, if it is designed for two years or even a little longer, the prospect of having additional people in there with you would certainly screw up your survival chances. At one point the two co-pilots(?) were just going to hop in there with her and she's completely non-reactive. Where's the flamethrower telling them to back off? Instead the guys just say, "Nah, let's just kill ourselves instead."

And then the alien. I can deal with the organism changing shape because it's been established in the canon that the organism is special because it mutates/adapts/evolves (whatever) into what gives it the ultimate chance at survival. That's actually what makes the thing so special and why a military might want it. It's evolution doesn't take billions of years, it happens generationally. Okay, fine. But then it seems like the first Xenomorph alien that we know and love (assuming that was the first one that came out of the Engineer) should have been a female or more specifically, the Queen. Which means it should have had wings, but it didn't.

As it is, since this thing is so determined to not be a prequel, you have a young male xenophobe (born in its 2nd stage of life for some reason) and then somewhere else in the galaxy, you'll have another xenophobe born as a first stage worm that shoots out of another Engineer's chest that apparently will be the female Queen. Which also means that humans will probably somehow have to be involved in that transaction because we saw the Prometheus xenomorph needed internal transfer from organism to human, sexual transfer from human to human, and then the facef*** transfer to Engineer in order to exist in that xenophobe form.

From a writing perspective, just one of the many flaws is the lack of any suspense, as others mentioned. Sure the ticking clock might be cliche, but Alien, in a somewhat humorous way, actually had two literal ticking clocks to deal with. The closest thing this movie had to one was the countdown for the Prometheus to hit the Engineer ship (resolved without a hitch) and the lack of oxygen (resolved with 30 seconds to spare). Yawn.

What kills me the most about this flick, and I know I'm not alone, is that it could've been a straight up prequel and been pretty awesome. All they needed to do was have the Prometheus fail in its attempt at blowing up the Engineer ship. This leaves Shaw alone in the lifeboat with her "child" waiting for rescue for about two years. Maybe somehow she has the Android head to keep her company. And maybe this is how the corporation gets an inkling of what the xenophobes are when they find her frozen lifeless body, a dead alien and an android head. Maybe Shaw even kills herself embracing the alien love child. Which would obviously be depressing and change the whole Christian faith thing, but eh. She could even find compassion for child, kind of like Ripley felt when she had her weird alien baby, and give herself to him willingly, then we could have seen another worm explode out of her and a brand new SUPER DUPER alien life form.

At any rate, just as the Engineer flying away in his ship looks like he's home free to destroy the Earth, the alien pops out of his chest and the ship crashes on the Alien 1/2 moon.

What's funny about this craptacular flick is that, in a way, it's apparently one of the most, if not the most, anti-Christian mainstream movies of all time. But it's so convoluted nobody even cares. I guess it could be argued that it has an out because they could say God created the Engineers which then created man. But then the idea is that God was so upset with his Engineers that he decided to press the reset button and start over with Christ? But then again, he didn't press reset because humans lived before Christ and God didn't do a very good job of wiping out all the Engineers or their artifacts, which clearly even the Engineers believed he is powerful enough to do or else they wouldn't be so concerned about the whole thing.

Nothing in this movie makes any sense.

[Mr. Earth]

Re: 'Prometheus' offers oozing sci-fi spectacle, early reviews say...

The best thing about this movie is that the android has the Weyland logo in his fingerprints.

[ABerat]

Re: 'Prometheus' offers oozing sci-fi spectacle, early reviews say...

I was under the impression the engineers had marked humans for termination because two thousand years ago we crucified Brian.