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[Oveja Negra]

Ok, at last, I watched it last night. Considering how elitist GAF usually is, I had the impression that the movie was not going to suck (as so many claim it to be). I wasn't wrong. Prometheus is very entertaining, have some great moments that have you at the edge of your seat and from a visual point of view, is pretty much perfect, though...

... it's not Alien; but damn it... how in the hell can you top that beyond amazing movie?

Despite what I just said, Prometheus isn't great when it comes to reveal more of the alien universe. The dialogues, overall, feel rushed, giving me the impression that the writing was made at the last stage, just before the beginning of the shooting.

Many times I wonder why some guys of the caliber of Scott make that mistake. You know, I think beauty and perfection is in the details, and you can see that in movies like Prometheus they think about everything, except the details, the details about the story, I mean. It's like they just forget that at the end of the day first and foremost, a movie is a story, and hence, you should put all your efforts in making it great, fantastic, coherent, catchy and by all means... you should try to avoid as many cliches as possible.

This had the potential to be another milestone in Scott filmography. It ended being a very entertaining movie with some extremely nice moments here and there, but nothing more.

Now I'm very curious to see how it will turn out that new Blade Runner movie.

 

[Sub_Level]

Now I'm very curious to see how it will turn out that new Blade Runner movie.

I have a feeling we'll get Prometheus 2 before a new Blade Runner.

 

[Freshmaker]

I'll just get down straight to my biggest issue with Prometheus: Is Ridley Scott just a creationist apologist? It's kind of telling that he made 2 biggest idiots in the film the Biologist and the Geologist. Those are really the 2 disciplines of science that would give his "aliens created man" concept a very hard time. The geological record on Earth tells us quite a convincing story about where man evolved from. There was no counter for that in the movie. And any biologists watching this were probably either laughing their asses off, or crying. So these engineers's DNA are 99% identical to humans? Well, so are chimpanzees. Did the engineers create those here on earth too? What about the other great apes?

I don't see them excusing intelligent design in this movie. It seemed to me that the message was even if intelligent life guided the development of life on a planet, it doesn't mean they are somehow superior or have any answers or real purpose for their creations.

 

[Liquidsnake]

Ok, at last, I watched it last night. Considering how elitist GAF usually is, I had the impression that the movie was not going to suck (as so many claim it to be). I wasn't wrong. Prometheus is very entertaining, have some great moments that have you at the edge of your seat and from a visual point of view, is pretty much perfect, though...

... it's not Alien; but damn it... how in the hell can you top that beyond amazing movie?

Despite what I just said, Prometheus isn't great when it comes to reveal more of the alien universe. The dialogues, overall, feel rushed, giving me the impression that the writing was made at the last stage, just before the beginning of the shooting.

Many times I wonder why some guys of the caliber of Scott make that mistake. You know, I think beauty and perfection is in the details, and you can see that in movies like Prometheus they think about everything, except the details, the details about the story, I mean. It's like they just forget that at the end of the day first and foremost, a movie is a story, and hence, you should put all your efforts in making it great, fantastic, coherent, catchy and by all means... you should try to avoid as many cliches as possible.

This had the potential to be another milestone in Scott filmography. It ended being a very entertaining movie with some extremely nice moments here and there, but nothing more.

Now I'm very curious to see how it will turn out that new Blade Runner movie.

Agree 100%. I just don't like the very next scene after the self surgery, everyone was acting weird, like it never happened.

 

[Oveja Negra]

I have a feeling we'll get Prometheus 2 before a new Blade Runner.

Really? I haven't being following the news about the new Blade Runner movie very closely.

Agree 100%. I just don't like the very next scene after the self surgery, everyone was acting weird, like it never happened.

Haha, now you mention it, yeah... it's like there are tons of frames missing just after the self surgery.

 

[sfedai0]

Agree 100%. I just don't like the very next scene after the self surgery, everyone was acting weird, like it never happened.

Ok, I just watched the movie and while the cinematography was great, god the writing was terrible. I had to rewatch that scene multiple times because the way it played out post "C-section", everyone was nonchalant about it....even the fucking girl who gave birth to the alien???? That's when the movie felt like it was being fast forwarded. No mention of the fucking ALIEN that was just birthed?? Then the Engineer becomes a raging, mindless killing machine. The whole thing felt so heavy handed and rushed towards the end.

 

[TheLegendOfMart]

So this is how they create human-like beings? I thought it would've been more complex than simply drinking oil and disintegrating...besides, if this is the case, they're setting the stage of evolution, not straight up "creation" of humans. Right?

That was my take on it, rather than creating humanoids, they were using their own broken down DNA to kickstart life that would eventually evolve into humanoid creatures in their own image, like the primordial soup theories.

 

[Tom_Cody]

That was my take on it, rather than creating humanoids, they were using their own broken down DNA to kickstart life that would eventually evolve into humanoid creatures in their own image, like the primordial soup theories.

That's my take as well.

The murals depict multiple returns by the engineers in the time of man and it is also possible that the returned after the initial seeding to nudge along more advanced forms of evolution and probably even specially to create man. Thematically speaking, all that really matters is that it is shown that they can do this and that it involves sacrifice inherently.

 

[Raydeen]

Prometheus was one of those films that should have gone into the draw...then brought out 6 months later and all the problems would leap out to the writers and solutions would appear. Can't wait to read the original Spaights version, so much of it is obviously screams ALIEN as it is, you can almost see the cut 'n paste joins where Lindelof's thought process kicks in.

 

[The Elite]

Interesting to see that a lot of the reaction post NA release/clusterfuck have been mostly positive. I think a lot of people will turn around on this film. It has problems but it's a pretty good sci fi flick.

 

[MYE]

I really enjoyed this movie

 

[Woz]

Interesting to see that a lot of the reaction post NA release/clusterfuck have been mostly positive. I think a lot of people will turn around on this film. It has problems but it's a pretty good sci fi flick.

Uhm... Italian here and the reaction from friends was that the story/script is a complete mess.

 

[Erigu]

rather than creating humanoids, they were using their own broken down DNA to kickstart life that would eventually evolve into humanoid creatures in their own image

Natural selection lol
Either it's a gigantic coincidence, or the Engineers tampered with mankind's evolution and the question then becomes "why go through all that trouble for so long when they could simply clone themselves?"

 

[The Elite]

Uhm... Italian here and the reaction from friends was that the story/script is a complete mess.

Well, a lot... not all.

 

[MNC]

Cant we get a language expert to translate what the engineer said, just like was done with david? Because that turned out to be correct.

 

[drugstore_cowboy]

I quite enjoyed the movie, avoided the hype and any spoilers, not bad but not great by any means.

 

[JJD]

When the bluray is releasing guys? Are we going to get an extended cut or not?

 

[big_z]

Well the oil also does a bunch of other stuff like make worms into monsters, make people into zombies, make women give birth to facehuggers after they have sex with oil infected men. I mean, I liked the movie but the science didn't make any sense.

100% match!

the oil could be biological or nano machines. either way the stuff is designed to reconstruct dna into different forms. since the planet was a military research outpost odds are each pod contained slightly different versions of the oil. the engineers make the stuff, test it, shelve it and move on to the next variation. very much like how disease research is done.

When the bluray is releasing guys? Are we going to get an extended cut or not?

no extended cut with this version of the bluray that version might come later but this one has a ton of missing scenes.

 

[Joel Was Right]

The more I think about this film, the more annoyed I become at how poorly the idea was executed. I like many others read that blog post that commented on the themes and symbology within the film, and it was only through that prism did I see the rich quality of story underneath it all. It was criminal to showcase these themes more clearly because a sequel cannot effectively retell the story we saw in the original without actually remaking this one

 

[ZoddGutts]

I doubt an extended cut can fix this mess of a script. Terrible.

 

[zoukka]

The more I think about this film, the more annoyed I become at how poorly the idea was executed. I like many others read that blog post that commented on the themes and symbology within the film, and it was only through that prism did I see the rich quality of story underneath it all. It was criminal to showcase these themes more clearly because a sequel cannot effectively retell the story we saw in the original without actually remaking this one

The movie is what it is. The things in the blog post were there in the movie to be seen by everyone. Some could. Some could not.

Maybe a rewatch will help you.

 

[Smashing Drive]

I liked it better than Avatar but not by much

 

[symphonask]

There's a quick summarization of the Spaihts/Lindelof commentary up online. Can't paste because my phone messes up the formating.

http://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/index.php?topic=45642.0

There's seems to be quite a bit of material that wasn't filmed.

 

[JB1981]

There's a quick summarization of the Spaihts/Lindelof commentary up online. Can't paste because my phone messes up the formating.

http://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/index.php?topic=45642.0

There's seems to be quite a bit of material that wasn't filmed.

Spaihts script sounds so much better

 

[jett]

There's a quick summarization of the Spaihts/Lindelof commentary up online. Can't paste because my phone messes up the formating.

http://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/index.php?topic=45642.0

There's seems to be quite a bit of material that wasn't filmed.

What a surprise, Lindelof's changes were all for the worse.

 

[FUBAR McDangles]

There's a quick summarization of the Spaihts/Lindelof commentary up online. Can't paste because my phone messes up the formating.

http://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/index.php?topic=45642.0

There's seems to be quite a bit of material that wasn't filmed.

Interesting parts to me:

-There was a scene were Milburn discovers a little worm and talks about how important this discovery is. Lindelof mentions that this would have kinda explained why he was so excited about his later encounter with the Hammerpede.

-In Spaihts version of the story, Holloway awakens a Facehugger while he is exploring the pyramid. He is implanted with an Alien, the “classic model”. The “Alien” burst out of Holloway during the love scene between Shaw and Holloway.

-In the earlier draft by Jon Spaihts, a kind of classic chestburster is extracted from Shaw’s body during the med pod scene. The chestburster is then expelled from the pod and Shaw stays in there while it heals her. As she wakes up, she can see the monster grow up. Eight hours later the monster is full size and she’s watching it kill people through the glass.

-In Spaihts’ draft, the last Engineer died in the pilot’s chair. He had been infected and was carrying a Chestburster. It emerged from him while the Juggernaut was flying which caused the Juggernaut to falter on its path, allowing the Magellan ship to ram it. Shaw manages to eject from the ship just before the ramming took place. Then the Alien that just emerged from the Engineer comes out of the Juggernaut and the final action scene is Shaw being hunted by this creature.

I think all would have benefited the final film at least a little bit.

 

[nomis]

There's a quick summarization of the Spaihts/Lindelof commentary up online. Can't paste because my phone messes up the formating.

http://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/index.php?topic=45642.0

There's seems to be quite a bit of material that wasn't filmed.

So Lindelof just replaced "facehugger'd" with "black goo'd", but the problem is the lifecycle beyond the facehugger is simple and well explored, whereas the results of being "infected by goo" are utterly nebulous. Ridley told him "make it less like Alien", but he had to keep every story beat where someone was infected with a foreign body, so he just played mad libs. Sure, the result is something more NEW, but it's unnecessarily convoluted.

Condensing Holloway's infection by accident and Shaw's infection by David on purpose into a single action by David seems like more efficient storytelling. Except this causes David's body of knowledge to jump from "facehugger on Shaw will impregnate her" to "a little bit of black goo in Holloway will infect him, then they MUST have sex, then Shaw will be impregnated". Unless Lindelof intentionally reduced David's "intentional impregnation" motives to simply curious mischief with black goo. If the former is true, then Lindelof truly didn't realize that making these changes at the end of the line without tracing it back to change David's impetus would make him seem omniscient.

 

[Nappuccino]

What a surprise, Lindelof's changes were all for the worse.

Ridley should re-make prometheus and just go back a few drafts.

 

[The Elite]

What a surprise, Lindelof's changes were all for the worse.

Sounds like you're just blaming Lindelof. Any changes made were done because Scott wanted it to be less like Alien. If you dislike the film I think it's fair to blame both of them for the issues.

While I like Prometheus, the original script sounds far more entertaining. Like someone mentioned earlier, the black goo was just swapped in for the facehugger which was a big mistake.

 

[Smashing Drive]

it seems like a good story but they didn't show the right parts.

the whole sequence where the ship was rolling over on the lady for like 5 minutes did nothing for me.

 

[Aurongel]

In Spaihts version of the story, Holloway awakens a Facehugger while he is exploring the pyramid. He is implanted with an Alien, the “classic model”. The “Alien” burst out of Holloway during the love scene between Shaw and Holloway.

This would have made the movie for me.

 

[maharg]

Sounds like you're just blaming Lindelof. Any changes made were done because Scott wanted it to be less like Alien. If you dislike the film I think it's fair to blame both of them for the issues.

While I like Prometheus, the original script sounds far more entertaining. Like someone mentioned earlier, the black goo was just swapped in for the facehugger which was a big mistake.

A competent scriptwriter might have been able to make Scott's desired changes not suck. Lindelof did not succeed in that, so I personally do blame Lindelof.

 

[THE-Pink-Dagger]

Spaiths' version is basically a rehash or remake of Alien, we've seen it several times before, and it really was the obvious prequel with the chestburster causing the Derelict to crash down, leading to the events in Alien.

Sounds fucking boring yeah, it might sound cool but it's been done to death, the chestbursting, the Aliens, the facehuggers, come on already.

Scott thought that it was too much of an Alien prequel and wanted something different and that's why he called in Lindelof, the Engineer stuff is way more interesting than seeing an Alien rehash.

 

[Marco1]

A competent scriptwriter might have been able to make Scott's desired changes not suck. Lindelof did not succeed in that, so I personally do blame Lindelof.

I agree 100%.
This movie proved to me that Ridley is getting to old and lindelof is a hack.
This should have been the movie of the decade and it sucked.

 

[maharg]

Lindelof didn't add the Engineers. And having familiar elements isn't a bad thing so long as the story was expansive. It doesn't seem like any of the engineer story was actually changed much.

 

[THE-Pink-Dagger]

Dat hyperbole, some of you clearly have no idea of what constitutes a bad movie.

A bad movie is Transformers 3, The Mummy Returns, that kind of shit.

 

[maharg]

No one expected Transformers 3 or the Mummy Returns to be good, nor were they made by people generally believed to be competent filmmakers.

 

[THE-Pink-Dagger]

Lindelof didn't add the Engineers. And having familiar elements isn't a bad thing so long as the story was expansive. It doesn't seem like any of the engineer story was actually changed much.

He put the focus on it, Spaihts' script was 80 % Alien, 20 % Engineer, Scott didnt like that, he wanted something new, Lindelof did 80% Engineer, 20% Alien.

I can't believe that some are saying they would have wanted to see a straight-up Alien prequel with stuff so overdone with the AVP movies that it isn't even interesting anymore. I do like some ideas from Spaihts' version, but the Alien filiation seems forced and too obvious "wow David stumbles upon a cargo full of eggs, are we making a remake?"

 

[JB1981]

This would have made the movie for me.

Yea would have been great

 

[Sub_Level]

Saw it for the fourth time last night with my parents.

Everything is pretty good up until the medpod abortion. Then the script just goes to shit.

3rd act of Alien - Prep the escape pod and self destruct the Nostromo
"4th act" of Alien - Creature actually survived and is on board the escape pod

3rd act of Aliens - Have to rescue Newt from the Hive before the colony blows up
"4th act" of Aliens - Queen actually survived and is on board the Sulaco

3rd act of Prometheus - Crazy Fifield, Weyland, FATHER, rolling horeshoe, nobody caring about the abortion, killing off Janek and Vickers, engineer decision to destroy Earth, head rip, Shaw going everywhere
"4th act" of Prometheus - giant facehugger, engineer actually survived, oxygen running out, David can pilot the horseshoe, xenomorph is born

 

[Verendus]

Question:

In the trailer, there's a scene where it seems like an Engineer is towering over Shaw whilst she's backing up against a wall and screaming, and it's not in the theatrical cut. In the trailer, Shaw is still in those white under garments I believe. How would this fit in the movie exactly? Considering we only meet the Engineer after the surgery and Shaw suiting up. Not to mention, the Engineer never actually comes onto that ship.

 

[nhlducks35]

Question:

In the trailer, there's a scene where it seems like an Engineer is towering over Shaw whilst she's backing up against a wall and screaming, and it's not in the theatrical cut. In the trailer, Shaw is still in those white under garments I believe. How would this fit in the movie exactly? Considering we only meet the Engineer after the surgery and Shaw suiting up. Not to mention, the Engineer never actually comes onto that ship.

She was in her suit

 

[Verendus]

She was in her suit

So, where would it fit in so to speak? In the final battle? I was really looking forward to that particular moment to see how exactly it would happen, and what would be the result. Shame it never meant much.

 

[alphaNoid]

Dat hyperbole, some of you clearly have no idea of what constitutes a bad movie.

A bad movie is Transformers 3, The Mummy Returns, that kind of shit.

True, however I know what a 'good' movie is. Prometheus is not a good movie.. this coming from a guy who's favorite film of all time is Aliens. Don't let the shiny pretty CG of and vast beautiful photography glaze your eyes.. this movie is riddled with terrible characters, a stupid script and most important ... some of the worst pacing, due to high school level editing.

Biggest letdown in cinema history for me. I would have let this film slide so much and defend it until the end of light.. but, but .. it just isn't good. Its a beautiful, shiny film with good Sci Fi setting and great photography ... all ruined by being a hollow, hard to swallow shit core. I saw this movie with 6 other guys, and when the credits rolled at all looked at one another and sort of laughed. We all knew it was crap, and thats no hyperbole.

edit. Also, go Team Spaihts!

 

[Tedesco!]

True, however I know what a 'good' movie is. Prometheus is not a good movie.. this coming from a guy who's favorite film of all time is Aliens. Don't let the shiny pretty CG of and vast beautiful photography glaze your eyes.. this movie is riddled with terrible characters, a stupid script and most important ... some of the worst pacing, due to high school level editing.

Wait, are we talking about Avatar or Prometheus?

 

[ZoddGutts]

It would hold true for both, more so to Prometheus.

 

[NaM]

No one expected Transformers 3 or the Mummy Returns to be good, nor were they made by people generally believed to be competent filmmakers.

BOOM.

 

[Zabka]

There's a quick summarization of the Spaihts/Lindelof commentary up online. Can't paste because my phone messes up the formating.

http://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/index.php?topic=45642.0

There's seems to be quite a bit of material that wasn't filmed.

Spaihts' version sounds like a bit too much of a retread. I'm glad they moved away from that.

 

[1cmanny1]

I didn't like this movie; it looked lovely but had too many holes. It is a shame though, it had great potential.

 

[Nappuccino]

Spaihts' version sounds like a bit too much of a retread. I'm glad they moved away from that.

I will take retread over unsatifying clusterfuck though. I mean, there's so much potential, but if they just kept it simpler it would have been just fine.