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

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

    Originally posted by David Palmer View Post
    I kept thinking one was going to emerge any second, but all we got were the snake/squid things who killed the Engineer and turned into a xenomorph... but why didn't that happen to scary guy who decided to pet the snake in chamber? Why didn't his chest burst open?

    That one I can answer.

    The black goop nonsense is essentially a face hugger of sorts. I mean, not literally. But it shares those properties. It's the "Stage 1" of the metamorphosis.

    The "Stage 2" takes the properties of whatever the black goop gets in/around or whatever. So when the black goop in that chamber was all around those worms in the ground, "Stage 2" pops out looking like... a snake. But close enough, I guess.

    Just like in the original movies, where the "Stage 2" of the transformation was the traditional xenomorph, it doesn't actually do any reproducing on its own. So the reason why Rafe Spall's chest didn't explode is because he wasn't killed by anything that could space-sexually-assault him.

    The thing that eventually killed the engineer wasn't the same thing as the snake thing. It was the dumb squid thing that came out of Noomie Rapace. So, evidently, when you go from black goop inside someone to sex to forced and rapid impregnation (soooo dumb), it DOES have the ability to impregnate someone. Which is probably why it looks like a giant tentacled vagina.

    The reason the thing at the end looks more like a traditional xenomorph is because it came out of something that is pretty close to human, only with added God powers or whatever.

    So that snake/worm thing, and the thing at the very end, are for all intents and purposes the same thing. They only look different because they came out of different ZZZZZZzZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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

      I've got one other quick question that's been bothering me. After I saw Prometheus, I went and watched Alien again. You remember in Alien when Dallas and the crew went into the ship? They found the Space Jockey fossilized in the cockpit that we found out in Prometheus was used to pilot the ship.

      Well, the Space Jockey - who we later find out are the Engineers - had his chest burst open, thereby setting up the MO for the rest of the franchise that a xenomorph is born through chest bursting.

      BUT in the Prometheus, the Space Jockey/Engineer is actually killed on the Vickers lifeboat as he was chasing Shaw and we later see in the last shot, the xenomorph bursting through his chest as he lays on the floor. So, how does he wind up back in the cockpit for Dallas and crew to find later?

      That's a pretty big continuity error that I'm surprised they let slip. How hard would it have been to have the Engineer struggling back into the cockpit, trying to take off and having his chest burst open right before his does?
      "No man gives me a crown. I pay the iron price... I will take my crown." -- Balon Greyjoy

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

        Originally posted by David Palmer View Post
        I've got one other quick question that's been bothering me. After I saw Prometheus, I went and watched Alien again. You remember in Alien when Dallas and the crew went into the ship? They found the Space Jockey fossilized in the cockpit that we found out in Prometheus was used to pilot the ship.

        Well, the Space Jockey - who we later find out are the Engineers - had his chest burst open, thereby setting up the MO for the rest of the franchise that a xenomorph is born through chest bursting.

        BUT in the Prometheus, the Space Jockey/Engineer is actually killed on the Vickers lifeboat as he was chasing Shaw and we later see in the last shot, the xenomorph bursting through his chest as he lays on the floor. So, how does he wind up back in the cockpit for Dallas and crew to find later?

        That's a pretty big continuity error that I'm surprised they let slip. How hard would it have been to have the Engineer struggling back into the cockpit, trying to take off and having his chest burst open right before his does?
        It's not a continuity error, because the planet (or moon, or whatever) from PROMETHEUS is not the same one in ALIEN. In PROMETHEUS they establish that they're on LV-2 whatever, and in ALIEN they're on LV-4 something.

        So it's not the same Engineer, it's not the same ship, it's not the same planet.

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

          Originally posted by SteveLilley View Post
          It's not a continuity error, because the planet (or moon, or whatever) from PROMETHEUS is not the same one in ALIEN. In PROMETHEUS they establish that they're on LV-2 whatever, and in ALIEN they're on LV-4 something.

          So it's not the same Engineer, it's not the same ship, it's not the same planet.
          Got it. I saw LV in Prometheus and the rest went by too fast. I thought it was LV-23 something, but whatever... I saw LV and connected it to the same planet in the franchise.


          The thing that eventually killed the engineer wasn't the same thing as the snake thing. It was the dumb squid thing that came out of Noomie Rapace. So, evidently, when you go from black goop inside someone to sex to forced and rapid impregnation (soooo dumb), it DOES have the ability to impregnate someone. Which is probably why it looks like a giant tentacled vagina.
          Dumb takes the word right out of my mouth because I thought I saw the snake orally rape scary glasses guy when it got into his suit. That's why I was expecting his chest to explode. But I think you're right about the black goo and the worms. That does make sense.

          If that is the case that the Snake was Stage 2 then does that mean it is fair to say that Noomi Rapace gave birth to what would become the xenomorph species as we would come to know it?

          Wait a minute, that doesn't make sense since there were carvings of them in the chamber. Oh, well.


          So that snake/worm thing, and the thing at the very end, are for all intents and purposes the same thing. They only look different because they came out of different ZZZZZZzZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
          HA! That's how I'm getting trying to make sense out of what was going on. Like Idris Elba needlessly trying to riff on a Southern accent in the first half of the movie that seemed to disappear as it went on.
          "No man gives me a crown. I pay the iron price... I will take my crown." -- Balon Greyjoy

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

            Originally posted by David Palmer View Post
            Got it. I saw LV in Prometheus and the rest went by too fast. I thought it was LV-23 something, but whatever... I saw LV and connected it to the same planet in the franchise.
            I felt the same way. I had to look it up when I got home to be sure. Especially since it literally might as well be the same planet. The only thing that negates it is the fact that the Engineer gets out of the chair at the end and gets raped by the space vagina. Which is something they did only to, apparently, make it not a direct ALIEN prequel. But that part is the only part they changed. The rest of the movie is basically a prequel to ALIEN until they call "psyche" at the last minute.

            It's like if you decide to build a bookshelf, but at the last minute say "I arbitrarily hate bookshelves now!" and take one of the sides off. It's still a bookshelf, dummy. Just now it sucks.


            Dumb takes the word right out of my mouth because I thought I saw the snake orally rape scary glasses guy when it got into his suit. That's why I was expecting his chest to explode. But I think you're right about the black goo and the worms. That does make sense.
            Yeah. There's a weird shot that just lingers for awhile on those worms, and I was kind of like "WHY AM I WATCHING THIS" before getting it. I feel like that happened a lot in this movie - the exclamation of "I get it, but this is still kind of dumb."

            If that is the case that the Snake was Stage 2 then does that mean it is fair to say that Noomi Rapace gave birth to what would become the xenomorph species as we would come to know it?
            Yeah, the exact logic in this is lost on me. I keep going over the specifics - it's the goo. We know what the goo does. If you're an Engineer, it makes you dissolve in water like Alka-Seltzer. If you're human, it evidently turns you into... an Engineer, I guess? And it gives you a little fish eye worm thing that you can pass on like a sexually transmitted disease, which will cause your partner to give birth to a giant monster squid.

            There's a metaphor in there, somewhere, I'm sure. Exactly what it is I have no idea.

            Wait a minute, that doesn't make sense since there were carvings of them in the chamber. Oh, well.
            The Engineers love H.R. Gieger as much as humans do is how I take it

            It is, without a doubt, very close looking to the xenomorph we know. I mean, we never see exactly what wiped out the Engineers. So I guess it COULD have been the xenomorph. But why make a mural about it? Do you know how much time that takes? A lot. Unless it's a warning. Like all the guys got in the room, and it couldn't get in, so they carved a picture and went to sleep. I guess.

            Also, the best warnings are always the ones you can only see once you've already done the thing they're warning you about. Like "HEY DON'T COME IN THIS ROOM!" is on the wrong side of the door.

            HA! That's how I'm getting trying to make sense out of what was going on. Like Idris Elba needlessly trying to riff on a Southern accent in the first half of the movie that seemed to disappear as it went on.
            Yeah, I really, really love Idris Elba and even I couldn't help but go "Oh, my. He certainly made a choice, didn't he."
            Last edited by SteveLilley; 06-12-2012, 05:40 PM.

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

              Stealing from a Facebook friend - Pro "meh" theus.
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              • Re: 'Prometheus' offers oozing sci-fi spectacle, early reviews say...

                Favorite worst line of the film, "I'm beginning to think you have a hidden agenda."

                Two idiots wander off by themselves with communication helmets on in a completely mapped area and still manage to get lost.

                Then when they don't show up the next day nobody presses REPLAY to find out how the heck they got killed.

                Humans share their DNA composition something like 99% with chimps. Engineers make them as well?

                But here's a fun question: Humans have mastered droid creation and what do they send into a potentially dangerous place? A dozen droids? Nahhh. Wouldn't that also have all that money on the cryogenics?

                I'd like to read the early drafts of the script. See where it went wrong.
                "I talked to a couple of yes men at Metro. To me they said no."


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

                  Yeah, I will admit some of the character stupidity is frustrating, because the fixes would be very easy. You would barely have to alter the story. It's not like major plot points relied on them being idiots, or that they couldn't have died in a slightly different, less stupid way.

                  Also, you can see the Windows 7 task bar on one of the computer screens on the ship.

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

                    Originally posted by C.C.Baxter View Post
                    Two idiots wander off by themselves with communication helmets on in a completely mapped area and still manage to get lost.
                    Well, to be completely fair, it's not like they themselves could see the map. It seems as if the only people capable of actually looking at the 3D map were Idris Elba and anyone in his immediate vicinity.

                    Which is an awful place to put the map. Far away on the ship, where nobody who actually needs it can see it. I wonder if there was a deleted scene showing exactly how they got lost. Like the guy who was in charge of making maps was like "We turn right here" and Rafe Spall was like "I'd like to randomly go down this one corridor over here for a second, please."

                    It's kind of an amazing running theme in PROMETHEUS. Every dumb thing has an explanation, but of course that explanation is also dumb. So it might as well just not have an explanation.

                    I distinctly remember Idris Elba running off to have sex at one point and leaving his post. Was that during them getting killed? I forgot.

                    Then when they don't show up the next day nobody presses REPLAY to find out how the heck they got killed.
                    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.

                    Humans share their DNA composition something like 99% with chimps. Engineers make them as well?
                    Presumably. I think the Engineer from the opening was creating all life on Earth, not just humans. But I'm basing that on nothing, as they never actually talk about that.

                    But here's a fun question: Humans have mastered droid creation and what do they send into a potentially dangerous place? A dozen droids? Nahhh. Wouldn't that also have all that money on the cryogenics?
                    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.

                    Clearly THE TERMINATOR was never a movie in the ALIEN universe, as if it had been Peter Weyland would know how much damage a properly calibrated robot army can do.

                    But then again, Peter Weyland isn't planning on xenomorphs and black goo. He's planning on walking up to God and asking for "No death, please." So maybe it was a tactical decision to only take one android, so the Engineers don't get annoyed somehow by all the non-humans running around. They do seem temperamental. Let's go beyond the fact that the whole plan was a bit of a "Hail Mary" to begin with. Maybe he wasn't taking chances.

                    And yet... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ViF6JRNjTk

                    I'd like to read the early drafts of the script. See where it went wrong.
                    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

                    Originally posted by jboffer View Post
                    Yeah, I will admit some of the character stupidity is frustrating, because the fixes would be very easy.

                    That's the thing that I think gets me the most. PROMETHEUS is like one solid rewrite away from being pretty incredible.

                    -----

                    Fassbender as David, though, was hands down my favorite part of the movie. I love that he's essentially a five year old. If there's a button, or a bright light, or something colorful, he just has to touch it. He can't help himself. And I know he hints at how he's feeling in that one scene with drunk doctor (androids love passive aggressiveness, I guess), but I wanted him to go farther. Like "Hey, guys? I met my makers, and I'm so thoroughly unimpressed. You all have been sleeping for two years. Know what I've been doing? Riding a bike AND shooting baskets. At the same time. So cool it, will ya? Now who wants to watch LAWRENCE OF ARABIA again?"
                    Last edited by SteveLilley; 06-13-2012, 04:28 AM.

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

                      Originally posted by ScriptGal View Post
                      Stealing from a Facebook friend - Pro "meh" theus.
                      Nice.
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                      • Re: 'Prometheus' offers oozing sci-fi spectacle, early reviews say...

                        Originally posted by C.C.Baxter View Post
                        I'd like to read the early drafts of the script. See where it went wrong.
                        Some pointers to the original Spaihts draft can be read in this article -

                        http://io9.com/5917639/10-things-you...-of-prometheus

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

                          Originally posted by sherbetbizarre View Post
                          Some pointers to the original Spaihts draft can be read in this article -

                          http://io9.com/5917639/10-things-you...-of-prometheus
                          That's good stuff -- thanks for sharing.

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

                            Um, holy crap. I was kidding, but I was right:

                            There's an altar to H.R. Giger inside the "Head Room."
                            Says Messing:
                            Another set that I worked on was known as the "Head Room." This was a ceremonial room that contained hundreds of ampules beneath a giant sculpture of an Engineer's head. Julian Caldrow did an amazing job of working out all of the details for this environment and created the set drawings. The final set was built at full scale and was incredible to walk on. I also sculpted an altar area for this set that paid homage to Giger -it is a relief sculpture hanging from the wall and has the impression of an alien form with flowing structures surrounding it. There are a lot of easter eggs in this sculpture - including several hidden Giger motifs that were not used in the original film.

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

                              I distinctly remember Idris Elba running off to have sex at one point and leaving his post. Was that during them getting killed? I forgot.
                              This was another scene that really got to me because of how contrived it was. Literally, it's only purpose was to get Elba off the bridge so that the two idiots in the chamber could be killed without the crew noticing.

                              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.


                              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.
                              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.


                              Presumably. I think the Engineer from the opening was creating all life on Earth, not just humans. But I'm basing that on nothing, as they never actually talk about that.
                              That's what I got out of that scene because right after the Engineer dissolved in the water and you see the DNA helix, you then see a single cell that splits into two. So, I took that as the beginning of life on this planet... if it was this planet, which according to Ridley, could have been any planet, doesn't really matter. His words.


                              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
                              Damn shame here. I understand Ridley wanted to do something different, something high-minded, but his attempt to stray so sharply from the rest of the franchise really hurt the end product. There were some really cool ideas here that could have connected to the other films and even enriched them; like the concept that the xenomorph was actually birthed by Noomi Rapace. Oh well.

                              And I agree on Fassbender. It's ironic that in playing a robot, he gave the most authentic performance in the film. Strange thing, though, for all the vitriol I feel over the lost opportunity, I didn't hate the film and I'm curious to see what the director's cut looks like.
                              "No man gives me a crown. I pay the iron price... I will take my crown." -- Balon Greyjoy

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

                                Originally posted by David Palmer View Post
                                I didn't hate the film and I'm curious to see what the director's cut looks like.
                                I might rent it. Damned if I'm pay twice to get the info I should have been given the first time around. Screw that noise.
                                "Forget it, Jake. It's Hollywood."

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