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

[CthulhuRises]

Re: "Prometheus" Story

Ridley Scott has mentioned Von Daniken's ancient astronauts as an inspiration for the story, with an alien civilization being responsible for the rise of mankind. Others have speculated upon this idea, going back to Lovecraft, (with Guillermo Del Toro's adaptation of AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS getting dropped due to story similarities); yet, I'd point out that Charles Hoy Fort was an early proponent of this idea.

Simple question to those who've seen the film: Anyone in the film ever mention Charles Fort's name?

At least Charles Fort had a legitimate interest in research and science. Von Daniken was nothing short of a charlatan (and a greedy hotel mogul). His "work" is nothing short of science-fiction.

[fanatic_about_film]

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

I'd love to know HOW and WHY Damon Lindelof got involved with Prometheus.

The story he tells was that his agent called him to say that Ridley Scott would be calling him in the next five minutes to talk about 'something'. And sure enough Ridley did, and they immediately started talking about a prequel to Alien.

So, within this process, why and how did it land On Lindelof's doorstep? Who made the decision let's go with Lindelof? How and why was that decision made?

Did Ridley Scott, just out of the blue, decide that a guy call Damon Lindelof would be a good fit for the piece?

I really want to know this.

[NoirDigits]

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

Lost?

[wcmartell]

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

I read one of Von Daniken's later works, TUPPERWARE OF THE GODS, which explains how ancient astronauts came to Earth and had Tupperware parties with the Mayans and the Egyptians - which explains why stone carvings showing Tupperware bowls exist all over the world.

Reviews seem iffy, but I'm there opening weekend.

- Bill

[Jules]

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

Take two buckets Bill, one to vomit in and one to **** in.

I think the film is going to be just too intense for some people.

[TheConnorNoden]

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

I never quite understood all the hate for Lindelof. Hopefully seeing this later in the week.

[SteveLilley]

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

In other words...directed by Ridley Scott.

Yeah, exactly. Now, I haven't seen PROMETHEUS yet, and I might take a little crap for this, but of all the aspects of ALIEN that should be thought of as "amazing" - I've never considered "story" to be one of them. It's pretty straightforward.

ALIEN has awesome characters, great performances, unique visuals and impeccable direction - but the actual story is basically "What is that thing and why is it killing everyone? Nevermind, most of us are dead now. Balls."

[Biohazard]

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

ALIEN has awesome characters...

I disagree with that. It's the actors that are great. The characters themselves are incredibly flat and generic. Nobody has any personality, no personal goals, no point of view, no identifying traits, etc. It's like watching a bunch of strangers, even after seeing the movie 12 times.

Aliens, on the other hand...

[SteveLilley]

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

At least *some* of that is on the page. I'll give you that the performers outshine the written word in almost every conceivable way, but they all have written character moments. Kane and Parker are dirtbags, Ripley has that awesome scene where she tries to make the decision not to let them back onto the ship, Ash is really interesting once you know he's an android (in retrospect, I mean, especially the decisions he's making early on), etc.

[Takeshiro]

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

The SFX were nice. The "world" was intriguing.

The characters were pretty flat, the whole movie was filled of incoherences and plot holes, and it felt like a bad TV episode at some moments.

Not a great, even a "meh" movie.

[SNAFU]

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

The characters were pretty flat, the whole movie was filled of incoherences and plot holes...

Business as usual.

[YakMan]

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

Awww c'mon...I'll be seein' it this weekend...aren't there at least one 'er two "tears in rain" moments to look forward to???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_saUN4j7Gw

[Republic of Stephen]

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

Prometheus is by far Ridley Scott's worst movie.

The story has nothing new to offer, there's absolutely nothing in the story that you haven't seen before—what was the point of making this movie?

The characters? Well, the human characters aren't very bright, it seems that Weyland Industries uses the same criteria as Walmart when it comes to hiring people. And the "godlike" extra-terrestrial being? ****SPOILER*** He's a bit of a mindless thug, not at all impressive.

The only exception is the synthetic David (Michael Fassbender) who is mesmerizing to watch at times. There's one scene where he's mimicking a scene from Lawrence of Arabia, another where he's riding a bike and shooting hoops at the same time, so much talent, so much potential... unfortunately the writer squanders all that potential by ****SPOILER*** sending him to the exact same fate as the synthetic in Aliens. Seriously, the writer is an absolute wanker who has never had an original thought in his life.


This is how ****ed up this movie is: the humans do the work that machines should be doing, and the machines do the work that human beings should be doing. How on earth did the writer get that backwards—the other Alien movies didn't!!! In Alien, the crew members try to remove the endoparasitoid from Kane's body, but they stop when they realize that it will kill him if they do—it's a judgement call, and it's something only a human being is capable of making, the Nostromo crew didn't rely on an automated machine that cuts people open and tinkers with your insides because no sane person would want to go near anything like that. In Aliens, a salvage crew sends in a probe to investigate Ripley's escape pod. They didn't send in a person because they had no idea what was there. That's being safe, that's being logical and reasonable. The writer is anything but logical when it comes to human behaviour. You don't put humans into unknown and potentially dangerous environments when you can easily send in a probe. Same goes for medicine. Would anyone like to be operated on by an appliance instead of another living breathing human being that appreciates life and knows what pain feels like? Clearly, some jobs are better left for people to do, other's for machines to do, and clearly the writer has no idea which is what. There's a core thoughtlessness to this writer's work that you have to think that the only reason why Ridley Scott found this script acceptable is because he's not really a filmmaker, no, he's a commercial director that has been very lucky that some great script have fallen on his lap. Prometheus wasn't one of them.

[YakMan]

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

Prometheus the Nostromo crew didn't rely on an automated machine that cuts people open and tinkers with your insides because no sane person would want to go near anything like that.

... Would anyone like to be operated on by an appliance instead of another living breathing human being that appreciates life and knows what pain feels like? Clearly, some jobs are better left for people to do, other's for machines to do, and clearly the writer has no idea which is what. .

Errr...ummm...I'm not getting this... Robotic surgery has been widely accepted and performed since 2005...why wouldn't the writer be allowed to present an Automaton practicing AI surgery???

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...4119_mz070.htm

[Why One]

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

Laser eye surgery is automated.

But my impression was that the medical tube was for emergencies only e.g. if there was no available med crew left. Pretty cool idea I thought.