Throbbing Member
The biggest plot hole for me was that Spoiler: Shaw decided to fly to another planet on an alien ship with none of the food, water, basic needs required to survive a trip longer than a couple of days. What was she going to do, wing it by trying to eat the aliens?
They should start the sequel by having Shaw die of starvation in the first 10 minutes.
Unless she was going to hide out in the engineer's hypersleep pod thingie. Even so, it's fucking stupid.
Gilded Member
^^For me, that's where suspension of disbelief comes in. Food is never really something that is discussed in movies like this, nor is going to the bathroom. How many movies actually make mention of a lot of natural things that people must do rather frequently? I mean, I understand your point; she does only have enough food that will fit in her pack. At the same time, we don't know that there's enough fuel to even go anywhere. Maybe after 2k years all the wires in that ship corroded. If you really want to break it down, I'm sure you could find a reason that none of the entire movie should have taken place, but, as I said, that's where suspension of disbelief comes in.
Throbbing Member
There's suspension of disbelief, Spoiler: like when the engineers created life by gazumping evolution, and there's "let's fly around the cosmos in an alien ship full of monsters with no supplies to meet our makers". Suspension has to hold up to at least a little scrutiny- it only really works if there's nothing so obviously contradictory it crumbles all plausibility.
Also, in Alien, all characters were eating dinner during the chest busting scene, no?
That said, this movie was so full of holes anyway you could stuck in in the fridge and call it cheese. As a big dumb horror movie it was fantastic, though, and it looked great.
Last edited by DF118; 06-12-2012 at 03:06 PM.
Administrator
Just a general disclaimer -
The movie has been out for almost two weeks (one week before the US in the UK), so not every post has to have spoiler tags.
Anyway, Spoiler: I don't think we'll see a follow-up to the Xeno at the end of the movie, mostly because as David told Elizabeth, there was more than one ship on the planet, so it wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility that the Xeno finds another ship, infects the pilot or crew, flies off, crashes on LV-426 and is found at the beginning of Alien. But that's just me. I don't think we'll see anything else involving the Xenos should a sequel come out of this.
Vertiginous Member
Spoiler: Well there's the thing, the Engineers aren't really alien, they're supposed to be our ancestors. They'll have more or less the same survival requirements as Shaw, so the ship should be stocked with anything she'll need. Just a question of finding it.Originally Posted by DF118
The Enhancer
Nobody on Star Trek took a shit for half a century.
Active Member
Nick Naylor: Cigarettes in space?
Jeff Megall: It's the final frontier, Nick.
Nick Naylor: But wouldn't they blow up in an all oxygen environment?
Jeff Megall: Probably. But it's an easy fix. One line of dialogue. 'Thank God we invented the... you know, whatever device.'
Active Member
i assume if we see a sequel she will use the pod. thats the first thing i thought of when she flew away.
Active Member
this drove me completely crazy. you could have written the scene any # of ways so the two of them get fucked up by the snake creature WITHOUT making them look like irresponsible fools in the process. the same goal would have been met.
oh, and the notion to take off your helmet so easily. sure, it's breathable air, but it's an alien planet, who knows what other life threatening things could be in it? obviously they wrote that in bc the actors need to be seen, but still.
things like these always take me out of the movie.
Active Member
also, does anyone want to explain all the pertinent details from the ARG/viral stuff thats been going around for the past few months? i know they did alot, and i dont have the time to sift through all of it.
Stubby Member
The stupid thing that took me out of the movie to contemplate basic physics laws was Spoiler: Shaw's baby alien growing after she had it removed, gaining an immense amount of mass out of thin air, apparently. Was it eating equipment? It got on my nerves, probably more than it should...
Throbbing Member
Oh, don't worry: you're not the only bothered by miracle-grow baby beast, and it's hardly the film's only bridge-too-far as far as realistic science goes. It's science fiction in name only, really.
Hairy Member
Saw it last Saturday...
Yep, some definite flaws (mostly stupid characters) but man I loved it. This was a definite Alien prequel but it felt like it was part 1 of something bigger or a shit ton of stuff was cut out to amp up the pacing to almost chaotic. I guess time will tell...
Just ordered the Prometheus: The Art of the Film Book. That's one thing nobody can argue about is that this movie is GORGEOUS... and it looks like there was a TON of unused concepts and designs for this film even closely relating to unused plot points...
LIKE... SPOILERS:
AND:
Throbbing Member
But, the same thing happened in Alien. Maybe the Nostromo had rats in the rafters.
Administrator
She might not need it at all if she end up landing on lv-426 (the actual planet from Alien), which is supposedly not far away
Stubby Member
Well then, the xenomorph shits on our puny law of mass conservation. At least they're consistent in it.
Last edited by Nyx; 06-13-2012 at 04:57 AM. Reason: quote
Vertiginous Member
In the novelisation, the chestburster raided their fridge before shedding skin; presumably that was a script element which was excised for pacing, and keeping the creature more mysterious. It's still rather eyebrow-raising growth from a few snacks, but hey, the embryonic xenomorph comes to term in just a few hours.
Another element which didn't make it into the film was that the alien would have a short lifespan - that over the course of the film it would become increasingly blackened, as if its body was being bruised just by living. Giger talked about that in an interview, I think it's on the Quadrilogy/Anthology sets.
The theory being, the alien has an extreme boom-bust lifecycle, that it grows up ridiculously quickly but lives fairly briefly too.
FATUM NOS IUNGET
Thought this was pretty funny.
The Enhancer
Why else do you think they had a cat?
Gilded Member
Defending the cat again, eh?
The Enhancer
SPACE RATS. I'm vindicated.
Gilded Member
You're dead to me.
So what's the story with that quadropus? I've been under the impression it was a mutated sperm, but then why was there only one?
Active Member
Some interesting opinions here regarding what constitutes a plot hole
SPOILERS OF DOOM
Her jetting off with possibly no food or supplies at the end is not a plot hole. It's a good question to ask how she will sustain herself, but it's not a plot hole. If it had said "3 weeks later" and she was still alive, and at some point they had said there was definitely no food on board, then it would be a plot hole
leave britney alone
Gilded Member
For real, but what I would probably consider a plot hole is the idea that the entire planet was populated by a dude drinking Self-Destructo Juice. Aside from the fact that I don't think it could happen that way, that leaves the question of why they would do this, coupled with the idea of why they'd go back to destroy everyone. Perhaps there are reasons for this that were excised from the final cut, but that those don't help people that don't look into it that deeply.Some interesting opinions here regarding what constitutes a plot hole
SPOILERS OF DOOM
...If it had said "3 weeks later" and she was still alive, and at some point they had said there was definitely no food on board, then it would be a plot hole
Active Member
I felt that this was one of the weakest points of the story. I assumed that the Engineers created humanity, but it was suggested that they're responsible for all life on Earth -microbes, dinosaurs, etc- and not just humans. Why?!
Also, my mental image was a bit more scientific, using DNA and shit, not just this random black-goo drinking crap. I know, the juice could have been pre-programmed to do specific things to that specific guy's body, but movies are a fucking visual medium, SHOW us what happens, we shouldn't have to come up with a PLAUSIBLE explanation for everything.
Throbbing Member
I'm guessing there were panels in the walls of the ship that David would instruct Shaw on how to open. Hidden snack cupboards, and whatnot.Some interesting opinions here regarding what constitutes a plot hole
SPOILERS OF DOOM
Her jetting off with possibly no food or supplies at the end is not a plot hole. It's a good question to ask how she will sustain herself, but it's not a plot hole. If it had said "3 weeks later" and she was still alive, and at some point they had said there was definitely no food on board, then it would be a plot hole
SPOILERS BELOW:
My questions: In the 2000 years since the demise of the space jockey crew, why didn't other space jockeys visit LV-223, hop aboard the ship(s), and complete the original mission of cleaning Earth, or, even use the arsenal of weapons on any other planets? Did the engineers declare it a quarantine site? Also, why didn't the space jockey wake up in the past 2000 years and leave? Was his hibernation controlled by a switch on the outside of his pod, and he couldn't wake up or get out by himself?
Throbbing Member
Spaceboy, maybe they didn't explain the black goo because it wasn't the central point of the movie. Maybe they didn't feel like they had to sit you down and explain everything for you and dissipate the mystery for anyone that wants to think about it. Maybe they come from the school that understands that pseudo-scientific technobabble, even when visual rather than a guy sitting you down and saying 'Ok, here's the deal...', is anathema to a gripping narrative.
'Ugh, they've got Triscuits but nothing to put on them! What the hell kind of barbarians are these people?!'
Last edited by Corvus T. Cosmonaut; 06-13-2012 at 04:28 PM.
Vertiginous Member
I'd be more bothered if they'd created just humans. Our ancestry is one of the most well-represented examples of evolution in the fossil record. Now if they'd engineered turtles, megamouth sharks or McDonalds' chicken nuggets, that would make sense.
Does raise the big issue of the Engineer race having existed for around 600 million years in a state of advanced tech, though.
Administrator
Geez, did you guys nitpick as much over the series finale of Battlestar Galactica?
The Enhancer
Gah! Don't get them started!
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