Film: Ridley Scott's Prometheus (2012)

[stewie]

[Brinkman]

I came across a Ridley interview that reminded me of him coming out and saying Deckard was a replicant(and how that was at best only hinted at in the film). Get ready to scratch your head.

Kerble and Kerble.

Prometheus alludes to this premise almost explicitly: the head they retrieve is "around 2000 years old" and, if you recall, Jesus Christ is suggested by the fact that the crew awakes from hypersleep on Christmas day. There's also the various crucifixes and [hamfisted] crisis-of-faith subplot.

Keeping all this in mind during my most recent re-watching of Alien3, with it's own religious "Brotherhood" subplot, Scott seems to have created a Prometheus/Alien/Alien3 story-arc where before there was none. It certainly enriched the plot of Alien3 to it's benefit and I'm curious if Scott was aware he was creating this subtextual reference to Fincher's installment while making Prometheus.

[placeholder]

I liked the production design a lot. The title sequence was a nice throwback to Alien, although the CGI "creator" looked really stupid.

The Xian stuff driving the movie was trite and overdone, and none of the threads resolved into anything interesting—not even interesting ambiguity. The writing was atrocious.

The ship's crew was a poor excuse for a ragtag bunch, esp compared to the one in Aliens. I only mention this because it seems like the writers/Scott were going for an action-movie dynamic with the crew "types."

The surgery scene with the medical pod thing was tense and great, but only because I was able to tune out how stupid it was that they could only make gender-specific future-automatic-doctor pods.

Any potential tension—I'm thinking specifically about Coldplay getting infected with the alien juice and the main chick, uh, getting infected with the alien juice—was done away with too quickly for the respective payoffs to be particularly effective (although, like I said, that surgery scene was probably the best part of the actual movie).

The CGI monsters looked cheesy, as I expected. And the Alien alien appearing at the end made me think of this:



Just barely NOT CRAP, in large part because I went into the movie with the lowest possible expectations.

[Zorg]

I liked the production design a lot. The title sequence was a nice throwback to Alien, although the CGI "creator" looked really stupid.

The Xian stuff driving the movie was trite and overdone, and none of the threads resolved into anything interesting—not even interesting ambiguity. The writing was atrocious.

The ship's crew was a poor excuse for a ragtag bunch, esp compared to the one in Aliens. I only mention this because it seems like the writers/Scott were going for an action-movie dynamic with the crew "types."

The surgery scene with the medical pod thing was tense and great, but only because I was able to tune out how stupid it was that they could only make gender-specific future-automatic-doctor pods.

Any potential tension—I'm thinking specifically about Coldplay getting infected with the alien juice and the main chick, uh, getting infected with the alien juice—was done away with too quickly for the respective payoffs to be particularly effective (although, like I said, that surgery scene was probably the best part of the actual movie).

The CGI monsters looked cheesy, as I expected. And the Alien alien appearing at the end made me think of this:

Just barely NOT CRAP, in large part because I went into the movie with the lowest possible expectations.

I agree with this pretty much 100%, though I probably lean towards CRAP. Any discussion of whether 3D is good or bad is ridiculous considering the horrendous writing and the CGI sandstorm from The Mummy making an appearance. So many impossibly stupid ideas and bad performances wrapped in some beautiful designs and effects.

[chumpchange]

I was so thankful that some douchebag screenwriter's idea of a talented archaeologist caught the creature fever and had to be torched.

Noomi Rapace's acting was appropriate for the aforementioned dingleberry of a boyfriend. I would be bored with his bullshit too.

Otherwise, it looked amazing, which I expected from Ridley Scott.

And despite the loaf of bread that was the "origin/creator" plotline (of which I would never expect a Nobel for biology) it told a story that had me thinking of the possibilites of the sequel, before it was half over.

Not crap with a full helping of waffles.

[numberthirty]

Now that most folks have seen it, did anyone feel like the film made a film version of At The Mountains Of Madness pointless?

[Mr. Chimp]

I still liked it.

[Boombats]

Should I take some stale LSD and go see this by myself tonight?

[numberthirty]

Should I take some stale LSD and go see this by myself tonight?

How much do you love Alien?

[Boombats]

Should I take some stale LSD and go see this by myself tonight?

How much do you love Alien?

If Sigourney isn't in it, I don't consider it canonical, so whatever. But yeah I fucking love that movie.

[Frank Decent]

Should I take some stale LSD and go see this by myself tonight?

Anything you can take to keep you from thinking should allow you to enjoy this movie.

[Boombats]

Ouch. Can anyone rank this with AVP 1 and 2?

[numberthirty]

Ouch. Can anyone rank this with AVP 1 and 2?

Distant third.

[Boombats]

Ouch. Can anyone rank this with AVP 1 and 2?

Distant third.

Come on now, it can't be that bad. AVP2 was such shit. Except for the part where the kid dies at the beginning, that was harsh/rad.

[numberthirty]

Ouch. Can anyone rank this with AVP 1 and 2?

Distant third.

Come on now, it can't be that bad. AVP2 was such shit. Except for the part where the kid dies at the beginning, that was harsh/rad.

Go see it. AVP2 was like No Country For Old Men compared to Prometheus.

[Jeramaya]

I hated Prometheus with a serious passion, probably based on my love for Alien, the fact that the director of Alien was returning to sci-fi (a genre he once did well with), and that there seemed to be at least a marginal hint of promise leading up to it. Also, being awake didn't help.

AVP1 was...meh. Stupid, yes, but ultimately just boring.

AVP2, on the other hand, was abortion-inducing from the get go. Wait, that made it sound hopeful. What I meant to write is that it had no chance. There was no reason for it to exist, let alone be good. And it wasn't. Boy, was it not. I couldn't sit through more than 1/2 of it, despite my tolerance for crap movies when hungover.

Prometheus had occasional pretty pictures and, based on what I've read in this thread, that seems to be all it had, even for the people who voted "not crap."

It's your money. It's your time. Shit, it's your LSD. Good luck.

[Sock OR Muffin?]

[Brinkman]

Going to see it again tonight. This time with the lady and not in 3D.

I think she is going to hate it, but not as much as she hated Tree of Life.

So funny, how much she hated Tree of Life. "I give you my son." Now that was stupid.

[connor]

I liked it. The Engineers were scarier than the Xenomorph/"alien" has been in a long, long time. Wish that whole last scene of him chasing her around in the lifeboat took up a bit more time.

C-section thing was creative and made me squirm without being too gory. Way to go.

[MrFood]

Ok I laughed, but then... what? What point is being made here? That David touches a lot of things in the movie? Is that bad cinema etiquette? Really, I'm asking; is the fact that a dude touches lots of things in a movie a legitimate thing to mock?