• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

P R O M E T H E U S |OT| Ridley Scott goes back to Building Better Worlds

Status
Not open for further replies.
There are some plot holes and the final scene was totally unnecessary and nearly pointless, but other than that I really dug it. Elba, rapace, fassbender all really delivered. Film gives a surprising amount to chew on and the questions it left up in the air are really fun to contemplate. Some would rather view that as unintentional and see the film as a mess of non answers, which I guess is okay. The very concept of the film was destined to disappoint somebody, I'm just glad I'm not part of that audience and can see it for what it is.
 
a bunch of spoilers about stuff i liked, didn't like, etc

you probably shouldn't read if you haven't seen it

i think the movie raised a lot of questions, left a lot unexplained/underexplained, and had some convenient plotholes, but given that it's a movie about aliens and space and takes place in a universe where aliens can grow to gargantuan sizes with relatively little food intake, i'm willing to suspend the vast majority of my disbelief.

stuff i liked:
fassbender was awesome, easily the best part of the movie.

i think that janek's death carried some weight to it, it was the copilots' that were kind of pointless. like they have maybe a couple lines of dialogue, all about the same thing? i thought that scene was actually good, but i don't think it really has to be some grand emotional moment or anything. it's just a big thing smashing into another big thing.

i actually kind of liked all the weird alien bioweapons and the ridiculous questions they raised: what is the relationship between the black ooze stuff, the baby facehugger looking things, xenomorphs, etc?

i can get that the squid things seem to be some kind of xenomorph offshoot or something. if they take the form of whatever they infect then who knows if they infected some weird squid aliens. it's probably pointless to dwell on an evolutionary mythology that only a few people know the real story behind.

stuff i didn't like:

vickers' death totally wasted, they had a great opportunity for a fantastic moment that bloodthirsty audiences would cheer for, and she basically just gets run over by a big wheel.

not sure why fifield comes back as some kind of invincible killing machine, that seemed like a weirdly convenient way to get rid of most of the crew.

confusing stuff that i feel like nobody liked but i'm ok with:

i'm actually kind of ok with the fact that nobody seemed to care that there's an alien squid baby just hangin out in the medical thing. that was in vickers' quarters, so i assume most people are not allowed in there. vickers and david are distracted by weyland. david obviously knew and just didn't say anything. i think the chronology is a little screwy, but i am willing to chalk it up to like uh, space confusion or somethin.
 
Really good movie, I thoroughly enjoyed it as a huge Alien fan. My buddy had never seen any of the Alien films so he got none of the hints or anything, but he still enjoyed it.

Although, I will say that I have never been in a movie audience like the one I was with. When the movie ended and the lights came on, with the(I think?) Piano music playing, the audience simply sat there for a full minute, everyone looking at the screen and expecting more. I heard one person say "What the fuck?" but otherwise every single person was silent. I'm really not sure if that was good or bad, to be honest.

Good movie, I want to watch it again. Maybe not in 3D though.
 
Demoncarnotaur said:
Yeah, the fucking trailers and posters really took away any surprise from this movie, but I still enjoyed the hell out of it, especially the mythos it built up.

I agree with everything except that the prologue hurt the film, I thought it was a really cool sequence that was a blast to watch while opening the film in a unique way. Anyways, Im glad I am not the only would who enjoyed this movie, flawed as it is at points.
Click to expand...

Here's what I didn't like about the intro scene: it spoils stuff later in the film.

We know what the engineers look like, so the suspense when the helmet was being opened was shot since we knew what was in it. And it ruined the suspense about what would happen to that guy that had the goo dripped in his wine by David, since we saw what it does. Both scenes would play better without the prologue included; plus, I didn't feel it added anything to the film.
 
Haha wow, just reading the last page I am already getting a headache from people not understanding very basic shit and blaming the movie for it. Seriously, I hope somebody more passionate than me steps in soon to make a FAQ, because, wow....just wow. I can't deal with this, I'll come back later.
 
GhaleonEB said:
Here's what I didn't like about the intro scene: it spoils stuff later in the film.

We know what the engineers look like, so the suspense when the helmet was being opened was shot since we knew what was in it. And it ruined the suspense about what would happen to that guy that had the goo dripped in his wine by David, since we saw what it does. Both scenes would play better without the prologue included; plus, I didn't feel it added anything to the film.
Click to expand...

I had no problem with the scene until I read this post. Now I agree with you.

The opening scene was pretty damn awesome, but now that you mention it, the movie could have done without it.

Although seeing that beast of a white-hulk-man standing on the waterfall pretty much had me on my feet to start a long work out. It got me pumped for the movie.
 
Ended up purchasing just ticket for Reald 3d at $9.5 after $3 coupon. decided the XD Reald 3d premium is probably not worth it. 10am tomorrow.
 
Just got back from the film and I'm going to throw my hat in with the haters. Cliche ridden plot, thin characters, and just kind of empty. Super bummed by the whole thing.
 
Disappointment of the year, methinks.

Visually, the movie was great, but the pacing was off, the dialogue was a mixed bag, created too many questions instead of answering them, and it screws up the
whole Xenomorph life cycle.

The 3d looked very nice, but it didn't benefit the movie in any way aside from making the pretty landscapes look prettier.
 
Man, that was beautiful.

The writing kinda sucks but it was hard to care because it looked so good.

e: the more I think about it the worse it gets. Goddamn it.
 
GhaleonEB said:
Yeah, I'm pissed about the trailers, the US one in particular.

Hell, the damn poster shows
the ship collision at the end
.

Fox totally fucked it up, ruined almost every interesting/surprising moment in the film.
Click to expand...

Maybe if they had put more interesting and surprising moments in the actual movie, they wouldn't have had to put all the film's best moments in the trailer. I don't see a way to effectively market the movie without ruining a lot of stuff.

God bless the people who marketed Cabin In The Woods for not spoiling much of anything, but at the same time I can't help thinking that it would have done much better at the box office if they had done more to indicate that it wasn't actually an uber-generic by-the-numbers slasher film.
 
TUROK said:
Disappointment of the year, methinks.

Visually, the movie was great, but the pacing was off, the dialogue was a mixed bag, created too many questions instead of answering them, and it screws up the whole
Xenomorph life cycle
.

The 3d looked very nice, but it didn't benefit the movie in any way aside from making the pretty landscapes look prettier.
Click to expand...

You should tag that.
 
Oh wow. People are seriously bitching about this being a bad film?
/smh

In an era of nothing but absolute dogshit movies, we get this greatness. One of the best movies i've ever seen.
 
Well, it was alright. Better than I expected. Certainly not the GREATEST SCI-FI MOVIE EVER that people were hyping it up to be, but I never expected it to be. Decent and enjoyable, but a bit convoluted and underdeveloped in certain aspects.

The movie cut out at perhaps the worst possible moment, though. Massive spoilers:
When Shaw is getting the thing cut out of her. It slices her open, reaches in to pull it out, we're about to see what horrible creature comes out, then-- screen cuts out. About ten minutes later, they finally get it up and running again, and it's skipped a few minutes to the part where zombie dude is killing everyone. Man, can you imagine if they'd let it keep going from there? Everyone would've been confused as hell by the giant squid at the end.

Fortunately, everyone booed loud enough that they rewound a bit and fixed it.

Also fortunately, free ticket for another movie!

Also, a plot hole that bugged me:

The first time they head out, they bring the two buggies and the truck. At some point, the two guys, the biologist and the geologist, decide to head back, but get lost and don't actually make their way back to the ship. Later, when everyone else is making their way back, they somehow fail to notice that there are still two buggies and one truck, and thus those two guys couldn't have gone back to the ship. Then they're shocked when they learn that they didn't make it to the ship.

I mean, I guess they were in a rush, but surely someone in the van might have noticed that it was more roomy by two people on the way back.

But my biggest complaint:

The black goo just doesn't make any sense. There are no consistent rules or anything.

- If it sits, it congeals into weird snake creatures... but only sometimes?
- If a Promethean ingests it, he disintegrates and creates human life?
- If a human ingests it, he gets real sick and dies, and then comes back as a superpowered zombie?
- If a woman is impregnated by a male in the previous situation, she gives birth to a weird squid thing? One that can grow to a ridiculous size without sustenance?
- If the giant squid thing shoves itself down a Promethean's throat, a Xenomorph pops out?

It just seemed like they were making up the rules of how this goop worked as they went, depending on what was most convenient for the story at the moment.

And on top of that, it just felt like there were far too many threats. All those, plus the Promethean, plus potentially David. It felt like one or two more developed threats would've been far better.

Oh, and on the topic of David, like what the fuck was with that. He's all subtly sinister throughout the movie, intentionally poisons Holloway, and then they just kinda drop that after the Promethean rips his head off.

Kinda wish I'd seen it in 3D. There were a lot of scenes that made me think, "Man, this would've looked cool in 3D." Oh well. Don't really care enough to see it a second time.


Oh, and did anyone else get kind of a Metroid vibe from certain parts of the movie? It's almost certainly unintentional, and more likely just because Metroid was heavily inspired by the Alien franchise in the first place (and even more likely just because I frequently have Metroid on the brain). But exploring the vast underground caverns that are also the ruins of an alien civilization, that 3D map, and I'm not the only one who noticed how much Charlize Theron looks like Samus in that blue outfit.
 
TwiztidElf said:
Oh wow. People are seriously bitching about this being a bad film?
/smh

In an era of nothing but absolute dogshit movies, we get this greatness. One of the best movies i've ever seen.
Click to expand...

Uh, you're right that most movies are dogshit, but this isn't the exception either.
 
KevinCow said:
But my biggest complaint:

The black goo just doesn't make any sense. There are no consistent rules or anything.

- If it sits, it congeals into weird snake creatures... but only sometimes?
- If a Promethean ingests it, he disintegrates and creates human life?
- If a human ingests it, he gets real sick and dies, and then comes back as a superpowered zombie?
- If a woman is impregnated by a male in the previous situation, she gives birth to a weird squid thing? One that can grow to a ridiculous size without sustenance?
- If the giant squid thing shoves itself down a Promethean's throat, a Xenomorph pops out?

It just seemed like they were making up the rules of how this goop worked as they went, depending on what was most convenient for the story at the moment.

And on top of that, it just felt like there were far too many threats. All those, plus the Promethean, plus potentially David. It felt like one or two more developed threats would've been far better.

Oh, and on the topic of David, like what the fuck was with that. He's all subtly sinister throughout the movie, intentionally poisons Holloway, and then they just kinda drop that after the Promethean rips his head off.
Click to expand...
I agree completely with this, but calling the Engineers Prometheans isn't exactly correct. Just a nitpick.
 
KevinCow said:
Oh, and did anyone else get kind of a Metroid vibe from certain parts of the movie? It's almost certainly unintentional, and more likely just because Metroid was heavily inspired by the Alien franchise in the first place (and even more likely just because I frequently have Metroid on the brain). But exploring the vast underground caverns that are also the ruins of an alien civilization, that 3D map, and I'm not the only one who noticed how much Charlize Theron looks like Samus in that blue outfit.
Click to expand...

The exploration stuff + Charlize Theron wearing tight clothing were so good.
 
Gonna be crazy and say that I absolutely loved this movie. I prefer it to alien and aliens, which I watched last month or so for the first time and was meh on. Pretty much the only issue I had with this was the nonstop score that reminded me of a Superman trailer. Will argue more tomorrow <3
 
Movie was pretty bad. Posted my details in the unmarked spoiler thread, but the story, character decisions, the ending... Just terrible. High production value though, and a couple of cool scenes. There have been worse movies, but this is nowhere near the hype
 
Just came back from the theatre. Saw it in 3D. Really enjoyed it, although I concede that some of the points others have brought up I would like to see addressed.
 
2.5/5. Horrible musical score. Gorgeous visuals. Really disjointed and full of holes. Honestly it felt like 1/3 of the movie was cut out.
 
KevinCow said:
my biggest complaint:

The black goo just doesn't make any sense. There are no consistent rules or anything.

- If it sits, it congeals into weird snake creatures... but only sometimes?
- If a Promethean ingests it, he disintegrates and creates human life?
- If a human ingests it, he gets real sick and dies, and then comes back as a superpowered zombie?
- If a woman is impregnated by a male in the previous situation, she gives birth to a weird squid thing? One that can grow to a ridiculous size without sustenance?
- If the giant squid thing shoves itself down a Promethean's throat, a Xenomorph pops out?

It just seemed like they were making up the rules of how this goop worked as they went, depending on what was most convenient for the story at the moment.
Click to expand...
Now you know how I feel about Lost!
 
Solo said:
Point number 1 is the only one I could possibly concede to Prometheus. Point number 2? Alien and especially Aliens did it much better. And point number 3? Doesn't exist in Prometheus. There is no reaction to anything from anyone. It's all just another day for the characters.
Click to expand...

lol na
 
TwiztidElf said:
Oh wow. People are seriously bitching about this being a bad film?
/smh

In an era of nothing but absolute dogshit movies, we get this greatness. One of the best movies i've ever seen.
Click to expand...
For me it's atleast one of the best sci-fi movies I've seen. But yeah, the bitching is truly immense. It's a worse movie than Event Horizon or Riddick? Seriously can't do anything but laugh. There are definitely a few plotholes but people are also complaining just for the sake of complaining, refusing to fill in even the smallest blanks themselves, and calling the movie clicheéd but also complaining when it deviates from what would otherwise be cliché (which it does a lot).
 
KevinCow said:
The black goo just doesn't make any sense. There are no consistent rules or anything.

- If it sits, it congeals into weird snake creatures... but only sometimes?
- If a Promethean ingests it, he disintegrates and creates human life?
- If a human ingests it, he gets real sick and dies, and then comes back as a superpowered zombie?
- If a woman is impregnated by a male in the previous situation, she gives birth to a weird squid thing? One that can grow to a ridiculous size without sustenance?
- If the giant squid thing shoves itself down a Promethean's throat, a Xenomorph pops out?
Click to expand...

You got a few things mixed up.

The goo doesn't turn into snakes. It got on the worms that were crawling around and morphed them.

The guy who ingested a dot of it was reacting just like the Engineer on Earth did, just far slower since he ingested far less than the engineer did. He wasn't the one who came back to the ship. The guy who came back to the ship was the one geologist who got left behind and messed with the goo.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Ridley Scott says Hollywood is “drowning in mediocrity”
2 3
112
999
Men_in_Boxes replied
Keanu Reeves goes through his entire action film career with Scott Adkins
15
410
OmegaSupreme replied
RIP Scott Adams
2
61
613
negator2vc replied
Xzbit goes to Russia
25
1K
Porcile replied
Whose back to work??
44
511
Tomorrow replied
Top Bottom