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[Net_Wrecker]

I'm super LTTP, and would have made a new thread... but this just got bumped today.

So, I've never seen Alien. Or Aliens. Okay, any of them. (Well, I've seen the Predators anyway).

but that's not the point, I'm just setting the stage - consider this an opportunity, because I went into Prometheus totally blind.

I'm sure this has been beaten to death here, but this thread is massive...

Anyway, so... why do people hate this movie?

1. The characters are paper thin idiots who don't act like like real people + the editing that moves from scene to scene with no regard for what just happened makes it a frustrating watch. They do things they shouldn't, and don't do things they should in a movie attempting to be smart.

2. Go watch Alien and Aliens.

 

[John Harker]

Terrible characters, terrible pacing, and terrible editing. Even if you don't know much about the Alien franchise Prometheus is a mess and hard to stomach. You've got scientists on a multi trillion dollar mission to explore possible alien life on an unknown star system making dumb shit decisions. After 2.5 years of space travel they happen to stumble upon the ruins by accident? "Guys look for anything out of the ordinary" ... "Oh look, temples.. HERP DERP!" Scientists taking helmets off in would be poisonous air? Space Jesus? Geologist with mapping pups gets lost (with Biologist) after a few turns? Biologist and Geologist who both were so terrified at the sight of a long dead alien body, suddenly want to reach out and pet an alien life form that looks like a snake ready to attack? Black goo? Shaw has an alien life form ripped from her stomach and stumbles into a room where nobody seems to give a shit at all? Also, one of the scientists that she punched in the face before running to get a c section is in the room she stumbles into and doesn't say anything or react at all? Weyland? What the hell was his purpose.. to come on screen for 5 minutes then die? Captn and crew high five each other and are all excited to die in 10 seconds to ram the alien ship? Vickers narrowly escapes only to die 1 minute later on the planet running in a straight line as the ship rolls towards her? Shaw gets to the lifeboat, grabs and axe and David comm's her to tell her that the Engineer is coming close to her!!! oh my god.. this is it!! finally some awesome scene.. HEEEEEEEEEERREE WE GOOOO! ...
...

...

*queue scene
Engineer pushes open a door, takes 2 steps, 10ms later the he's near her, shaw hits a button on the wall opening the doors to the space kraken vagina squid thingy (which just happened to be there still because nobody noticed Shaw had it ripped from her body earlier in the movie) Engineer dies via space kraken vagina squid thingy mouth rape device.

*queue all sorts of footage of Shaw climbing, jumping all over the place after just having her stomach ripped open. (c sections and stomach surgery requires 1-6 weeks recovery in the real world)

*david and shaw flying into the clouds to meet space jesus's family.

Some of the people on the sheep, my understanding, were paid by Weyland and knew the real agenda of the mission. They didn't care about Shaw or the rest, so who cares she was all bloody? The Captain and everyone else were fighting a possessed space monster in the cargo hold, everyone else on the ship was working with Weyland, waking him up, getting him ready. I agree it was ODD no one react, but it hardly destroyed the movie for me.

edit:
I mention the no seeing Aliens thing so people can feel free discuss why the story doesnt make sense in that world, and that I didn't hate it because it didn't "fit" for me - I know I need to see it, and I will, we don't need to talk me into it heh

 

[John Harker]

The ship crushing VIckers, admittedly, was kind of lame. Her arc didn't really get to go anywhere

 

[StuBurns]

I've watched the removed scenes, there are a couple I think are very worthy of having made the film, both the Janek and Vickers scene in her room about the emotional stress of having killed someone, and the extended version of the final confrontation are pretty good, the latter very good actually. The film never gives you the hint that the Engineers are at all interested in what humanity has produced, but that scene actually shows one of them at least showing an interest, if not enjoying the work of humans. It's almost his reward, and I think as a race it adds something to them.

I think the film is bloated as it is, and lot could have been removed, and some of these slower moments put back in.

 

[Erigu]

I've watched the removed scenes, there are a couple I think are very worthy of having made the film, both the Janek and Vickers scene in her room about the emotional stress of having killed someone, and the extended version of the final confrontation are pretty good, the latter very good actually.

For the former, I think they probably wanted the film to follow Shaw's POV and that left no room for that particular scene.

 

[StuBurns]

For the former, I think they probably wanted the film to follow Shaw's POV and that left no room for that particular scene.

They leave it many times. I think once she knows she's pregnant, there's no room for that scene, but I think you could have it before that.

 

[Erigu]

They leave it many times.

I know, I was talking about that particular segment of the film: from when she faints after Charlie's death to when she wakes up and hears the good news. Maybe they wanted the audience to "stay with her" at that point, and in the end, that left no room for that one scene with Vickers.

 

[NervousXtian]

Terrible characters, terrible pacing, and terrible editing. Even if you don't know much about the Alien franchise Prometheus is a mess and hard to stomach. You've got scientists on a multi trillion dollar mission to explore possible alien life on an unknown star system making dumb shit decisions. After 2.5 years of space travel they happen to stumble upon the ruins by accident? "Guys look for anything out of the ordinary" ... "Oh look, temples.. HERP DERP!" Scientists taking helmets off in would be poisonous air? Space Jesus? Geologist with mapping pups gets lost (with Biologist) after a few turns? Biologist and Geologist who both were so terrified at the sight of a long dead alien body, suddenly want to reach out and pet an alien life form that looks like a snake ready to attack? Black goo? Shaw has an alien life form ripped from her stomach and stumbles into a room where nobody seems to give a shit at all? Also, one of the scientists that she punched in the face before running to get a c section is in the room she stumbles into and doesn't say anything or react at all? Weyland? What the hell was his purpose.. to come on screen for 5 minutes then die? Captn and crew high five each other and are all excited to die in 10 seconds to ram the alien ship? Vickers narrowly escapes only to die 1 minute later on the planet running in a straight line as the ship rolls towards her? Shaw gets to the lifeboat, grabs and axe and David comm's her to tell her that the Engineer is coming close to her!!! oh my god.. this is it!! finally some awesome scene.. HEEEEEEEEEERREE WE GOOOO! ...
...

...

*queue scene
Engineer pushes open a door, takes 2 steps, 10ms later the he's near her, shaw hits a button on the wall opening the doors to the space kraken vagina squid thingy (which just happened to be there still because nobody noticed Shaw had it ripped from her body earlier in the movie) Engineer dies via space kraken vagina squid thingy mouth rape device.

*queue all sorts of footage of Shaw climbing, jumping all over the place after just having her stomach ripped open. (c sections and stomach surgery requires 1-6 weeks recovery in the real world)

*david and shaw flying into the clouds to meet space jesus's family.

*queue goblin shark xenomorph blasphemous creature as some kind of fan 'fuck ya!" moment..

Audiences laughs, crys....

Fin.

After waiting quite some time to finally see this, caught it on HBO HD last night.

Wife kept saying everything looked like it was from Mass Effect.. which was funny.

..yet you pretty much summed up all my issues with the movie.

There were just too many moments where you went, seriously, wtf? The 2 guys getting lost. Everything after the emergency squid removal, the sub-plots of Weyland and Vickers that weren't fleshed out at all.

..and this movie basically putting At the Mountains of Madness on the backburner.. which this movie should have just stolen more from honestly.

It's not that it left too many questions, it's just so much stupid shit happened.

 

[Ovid]

After waiting quite some time to finally see this, caught it on HBO HD last night.

Wife kept saying everything looked like it was from Mass Effect.. which was funny.

..yet you pretty much summed up all my issues with the movie.

There were just too many moments where you went, seriously, wtf? The 2 guys getting lost. Everything after the emergency squid removal, the sub-plots of Weyland and Vickers that weren't fleshed out at all.

..and this movie basically putting At the Mountains of Madness on the backburner.. which this movie should have just stolen more from honestly.

It's not that it left too many questions, it's just so much stupid shit happened.

I watched it on HBO as well. This was the third time I saw the film. Unfortunately, It gets worse with each viewing.

Can someone tell me how/why David's head is in the same place even when the ship is going down? Shouldn't it have been rolling around in there?

Also, how did Shaw's suit automatically fill up with oxygen again when she exited the jettisoned ship?

This movie fails on so many levels. It fell apart about 1/4 of the way through.

 

[inm8num2]

I watched it on HBO as well. This was the third time I saw the film. Unfortunately, It gets worse with each viewing.

Can someone tell me how/why David's head is in the same place even when the ship is going down? Shouldn't it have been rolling around in there?

Also, how did Shaw's suit automatically fill up with oxygen again when she exited the jettisoned ship?

This movie fails on so many levels. It fell apart about 1/4 of the way through.

"The audience doesn't need to know."

 

[gofreak]

I watched it on HBO as well. This was the third time I saw the film. Unfortunately, It gets worse with each viewing.

Can someone tell me how/why David's head is in the same place even when the ship is going down? Shouldn't it have been rolling around in there?

Maybe those ships have really good inertia negation

 

[CrankyJay]

Just saw it on HBO...surgery scene was the best part of the film for me.

 

[GentlemanCrow]

This film still ticks me off. I only saw it once, every time I think about it new waves of hatred ripple over me. How hard was it to connect it with the few strands that link it to Alien? Instead those strands simply don't?

It's beyond lazy/careless/stupid.

Production of hacks.

 

[xxracerxx]

fuck

Fuck

FUCK.

No other movie in the past 4 years has made the wife and I rage like this "film," god damn was this a train wreck to the tenth degree. It made no sense!!!

 

[javadots]

The black bars in the official thread are getting ridiculous, and those who have seen the film know that there is ALOT to discuss. Consider this a haven to discuss your theories without the need for spoiler tags.

So, why the fuck wasn't this film set on the same planet as Alien(s)? Eh?!

I think that's where they're going to go for the next movie. The Aliens planet. They had to discover the origin of the Aliens, which is in another planet.

 

[javadots]

Why are people having so much trouble understanding this movie? Am I missing something here? Wtf.

 

[xxracerxx]

Why are people having so much trouble understanding this movie? Am I missing something here? Wtf.

Because it is a mess of stupid. I understood it just fine, still makes it a fucking mess.

 

[javadots]

fuck

Fuck

FUCK.

No other movie in the past 4 years has made the wife and I rage like this "film," god damn was this a train wreck to the tenth degree. It made no sense!!!

How did it not make sense?!

 

[Commander Jameson]

I think that's where they're going to go for the next movie. The Aliens planet. They had to discover the origin of the Aliens, which is in another planet.

Just to note, the planetoid in Alien(s) was LV-426. If Shaw and David are going anywhere, they'll be going to the alien homeworld, not LV-426.

 

[Dead Man]

fuck

Fuck

FUCK.

No other movie in the past 4 years has made the wife and I rage like this "film," god damn was this a train wreck to the tenth degree. It made no sense!!!

We feel your pain. Truly a wasted production.

 

[Angry Fork]

How did it not make sense?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x1YuvUQFJ0

 

[javadots]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x1YuvUQFJ0

I don't care for people trying to rationalize about science fiction work.

 

[Dead Man]

I don't care for people trying to rationalize about science fiction work.

Heh.

Edit: Wait, you were serious?

 

[Angry Fork]

I don't care for people trying to rationalize about science fiction work.

The criticisms are of the movies internal logic, the plot, and actions of various characters that don't make sense or are just really dumb. It has nothing to do with comparing the movie to real life.

If a Spiderman movie had Spiderman flying around to save people, it wouldn't make sense because that's not what his ability is supposed to be. You can't say "well Spiderman is fake so who cares".

 

[javadots]

The criticisms are of the movies internal logic, the plot, and actions of various characters that don't make sense or are just really dumb. It has nothing to do with comparing the movie to real life.

If a Spiderman movie had Spiderman flying around to save people, it wouldn't make sense because that's not what his ability is supposed to be. You can't say "well Spiderman is fake so who cares".

Oh you could so say that!

 

[javadots]

Heh.

Edit: Wait, you were serious?

 

[Evolved1]

How did it not make sense?!

Do you have any understanding of biology and evolution, our evolutionary history? If so, the DNA of humans and engineers being the same makes no fucking sense. It's offensively dumb, actually.

 

[Erigu]

I don't care for people trying to rationalize about science fiction work.

You're making about as much sense as the movie, there.

 

[TheLegendOfMart]

Do you have any understanding of biology and evolution, our evolutionary history? If so, the DNA of humans and engineers being the same makes no fucking sense. It's offensively dumb, actually.

It's not the same which is why we arent 9-10 feet tall and stacked.

 

[Synth_floyd]

The TED talk trailer and the David trailers were so much better than the actual movie. Ugh, what could have been.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb7gspHxZiI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWmbqH_z7jM

 

[Harlock]

This video show how the cuts caused the dumb moments and plots holes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8f9-Mf47L0

 

[Synth_floyd]

Anyway, as bad as Prometheus was, I think most of the fault lies with the script. The visuals were good, the performance from Fassbender was good, the concept itself was okay. If they come up with a good script then I think the sequel could work. Lindelof is not working on the sequel so there is hope.

 

[Erigu]

This video show how the cuts caused the dumb moments and plots holes:

I'd say the dumb moments and plot holes were caused by a director and writer who completely failed to think their story through. The editing process might have made things even worse, sure, but...

 

[Ovid]

Anyway, as bad as Prometheus was, I think most of the fault lies with the script. The visuals were good, the performance from Fassbender was good, the concept itself was okay. If they come up with a good script then I think the sequel could work. Lindelof is not working on the sequel so there is hope.

The first act was great. It feel apart in acts 2 & 3.

Horrible, horrible script.

 

[fastford58]

I watch this again the other day and actually enjoyed it much more the second time. Maybe it is because my expectations weren't high the second time around.

 

[strobogo]

I watched the blu-ray (which looks amazing) with the writer commentary. Linddelof's "well, if you hated this scene, sorry" was so passive aggressive and he said it at least 10-times during the thing.

 

[glaurung]

Since I had some downtime recently, I decided to watch the entire movie again, this time with the director's commentaries.

Basically all I heard instead of the trivial explanations were utterances like: "It felt like a good idea at the time." and "We thought it would look really cool, but it does not really mean anything."

All in all, listening to the commentary tracks somehow lowered my opinion of the movie even more. Either they were trolling, full steam ahead, or they just decided to create bullshit because they literally had oodles of monies.

 

[MNC]

Silly stuff, but: i recently read somewhere that a prometheus sequel comic was planned, 'lessening the chances for an actual movie sequel coming out'. What kind of crazy talk is this? A movie sequel was confirmed, right?

 

[Samk]

I'm going to throw out an unsolicited interpretation of this movie because I'm bored.

This movie is a movie about origins. The movie is archeology, the search for answers in the past. As we move on with the film, we meet characters and philosophies that define them. We interact with David, whom parallels what humans are to those who created them. We see that in this search for answers, all kinds of ethics are abused. The answer becomes more important than the people around him.

The hot chick survives because she remains optimistic about the past. She never stops searching and she doesn't allow others to infector (or impregnate) her.

I think the movie is sort of smart and that it gets boiled down to the sci-fi components that detract from the parable that the director tries to create.

There my wrong opinion about one of my favorite movies.