Prometheus

[onthewall2983]

The Engineer really reminded me of the monsters in I Am Legend.

[thelastdisciple]

I was actually reminded of Tool music videos upon seeing one of those Engineer guys.

[Torgo]

I just can't believe that this guy is the sacrificial engineer from the beginning. Uhhh-wuhhhhhh....?

The marvels of modern makeup, ladies and gentlemen. If only they had done half as good of a makeup job on Weyland's character *cough*.

[Goldfoot]

Another question:

I was confused by the Holograms. What were they-a record of the last events that took place in a certain location? What made them appear?

They appear to be security camera type recordings of what happened, though only the last minutes; like a "black box", if you will. David had studied languages and knew what to push, and he activated the recordings to see what happened.

This:

Seriously.

So the goal of a scientific mission, with scientists, is not to touch anything?

[thelastdisciple]

So the goal of a scientific mission, with scientists, is not to touch anything?

I think the point of that little graphic was to poke fun at David's childlike behavior because at a glance he seemed a bit impulsive as if he was stupid enough to touch a stove-top element and get burned all in the name of curiosity and you know what they often say kills the cat, sure he's an android and can probably assess a situation faster than any human can and he isn't as susceptible to harm but still.

I think it's obvious enough that contact is something vital to a scientists ability to study a subject further but I would personally want to make damn sure there would be a ton of precautionary measures in place especially with something unknown that could be corrosive or hell knows.

[Findus]

Nice to see Ridley Scott designed the Engineers off of Trent.

A few days ago I was searching for wallpaper and found this piece, which is either fan-made or concept art:

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5...7o1_r1_500.jpg

The nostrils are not quite right, but the rest bears some resemblance to Trent.

Speaking of concept art, here's some Prometheus creature work by Ivan Manzella:

http://conceptartworld.com/?p=14141

http://www.krop.com/ivanmanzella/

[Fixer808]

How did I not see this?! Someone really needs to photoshop a grey t-shirt, black leather jeans and killer sideburns onto him.

Bam, uncanny:

[Lutz]

Yeah but anyone who has no neck totes looks like Trent.

[Findus]

I just thought of a nice tie-in product..... a shower head and hose that looks like a hammerpede.

[aggroculture]

So I finally saw it last night, 3d. I enjoyed it a lot, a lot to chew on. I definitely give it two thumbs up overall.

But yes, flaws, which I think a careful, less rushed process could have ironed out.

The music for me was the biggest flaw: way too bombastic and intrusive; something a little more brooding, ominous and understated, and dare I say it, Reznorian, would have been better. The original Alien was a somewhat humble, understated film, but this was a little too much of everything.

The biggest plothole for me was the living, sleeping engineer. What was he doing there? Just chilling, sleeping for 2000 years, and then when they wake him up he just beats up some humans and continues with his mission? Hmm. Also was a bit disappointed that the engineers we saw were just military brutes, though maybe those were just the soldiers.

Calling Noomi's character "Elizabeth." Seriously? At one point I heard someone call her Lisbeth. Come on.

Weyland: a vain attempt on Scott's part to put himself into the movie.

There were too many characters: in Alien/s we got to know and care for the characters: here they were reduced to props for the story. Charlize Theron's character for example: pointless. I was hoping for some development there, some redemption, but no. It's like Scott just put her there to stip her of her power, which was lame. Also the father/daughter part was also pointless. Also, if she didn't want to take back samples (her burning of Holloway for example) what did she think she was there for? I also intensely disliked the Holloway character: bad unbelievable character (more thug than scientist), bad actor too. What was the point of making him an asshole, and thus less deserving of sympathy for what David does to him? The characters needed less back story: seriously who cares about Shaw's infancy? What I like about Alien is that you have no idea who these people are, it's besides the point. And the Shaw/Holloway relationship was unconvincing and unnecessary.

The editing could have been a little better. The first half was too slow, and the second half too fast. Did they really need to return to the same room three times? Once would have been enough.

And yes, the script: in the first half it felt very drafty, with overly blunt statements and expositions. Better would have been to give these people small talk and let the details leak out casually.

Other details: That operation? Kind of absurd that she has that and then is ready to run around right after, but OK whatevs. "Punk" and "hippy" (how about geology and biology?) both stupid characters and not developed enough to even be comic relief. I certainly would have liked more xenos, the xenos we know and love, not these tentacled thingys. There was plenty of room for that here. Finally the xeno at the end was a little too much this: http://www.scifiscoop.com/wp-content...alien_dog2.jpg

[owinn]

^^^
It's almost as though this movie SHOULD have been like the Matrix sequels... I think everyone kind of wants to hate those. The difference is that everyone wants to actively LIKE Prometheus, hell there's a lot to like but it does have this certain comparison with being steeped in mythology much like The Matrix movies were but poorly paced and full of stunted dialogue and WTF moments.

I think the problem here was (and what Scott himself has always said) story first - chractersation is a second thought. I read that one of the most important aspects of story driven gaming these days is the characters, if you're going to be sitting down for hours at a time you need to be friends with these people you're hanging out with and get under their skin... perhaps this is not particularly all that important to Ridley Scott, though it is important to me.

[onthewall2983]

[Lutz]

It's almost as though this movie SHOULD have been like the Matrix sequels... I think everyone kind of wants to hate those. The difference is that everyone wants to actively LIKE Prometheus...

I think the two (three!) movies suffer from the exact opposite problems. The Matrix sequels were a brilliant story with great characters done with exceptionally poor execution where Prometheus has an exceptionally poor story and characters with brilliant execution.

Either way it almost has the same result.

[Findus]

I first watched it in 2D, then watched it in IMAX 3D yesterday. I'm done with 3D. I'll probably catch another 2D showing soon, which will also serve as a palate cleanser to the 3D experience. The IMAX audio is better, but I was not the least bit disappointed with the audio of the 2D presentation. Picture quality is more important to me, and I dislike having the glasses between my eyes and the screen.

One thing I noticed on the second viewing, and maybe it was my ears playing tricks on me, but it sounded like Janek pronounced his name with a J sound instead of a Y sound. It's the scene where they're outside the garage door and they need in.

[Vertigo]

I think the two (three!) movies suffer from the exact opposite problems. The Matrix sequels were a brilliant story with great characters done with exceptionally poor execution where Prometheus has an exceptionally poor story and characters with brilliant execution.

Either way it almost has the same result.

I don't know that I'd agree with that assessment of the Matrix films. They're all at least as well made as Prometheus - outside of a few dodgy effects in Reloaded, every frame pulsates with extraordinary production and plausibility despite portraying something totally otherworldly. I think one of the main problems was a shoddy script and editing for Reloaded, which resulted in critical chunks of exposition delivered in cough-and-you'll-miss-it snippets (and sometimes not even represented visually, just conveyed in dialogue), and ridiculous amounts of screentime dedicated to fairly simple operations. And for a lot of people, the story didn't develop along the avenues they wanted it to, and the series concluded in a way that they found unsatisfying (not me, I think Revolutions is an incredible film).

So it probably is a decent parallel with Prometheus in that it's a set of fertile concepts delivered via a suspect script in a top-notch production.
Though some of Prometheus' end-product creature designs fell far short of the mark in my opinion, so maybe that muddies the latter part of the comparison...

[Deadpool]

I finally saw it again the other night and loved it the 2nd time around. I didn't want it to end. It was a bit more of an emotional experience: I must say, I really enjoy the scenes between Holloway and Shaw. There's a tenderness between them that provides welcome gravitas for certain scenes (Charlie's death/sacrifice, Shaw putting on his ring, Shaw alone/remorseful at the end of the movie). Charlie is definitely a bit of a jerk, but I still like him - which I think probably has a lot to do with Logan Marshall Green. Knowing what to expect, and thinking about many of the observations posted here really made it an active viewing experience - every scene felt necessary. That said, I'm dying for the blu-ray, and have a feeling there's some good stuff that was left on the cutting room floor (the "Elder" Engineer anyone???).

Now that I've seen it more than once, I think my biggest question is what the hell is going on with that Xenomorph "altar"?

And does anyone have any theories on the October 2012 date seen at the very end of the credits?

The biggest plothole for me was the living, sleeping engineer. What was he doing there? Just chilling, sleeping for 2000 years, and then when they wake him up he just beats up some humans and continues with his mission? Hmm.

As we saw, the Engineers were running from something. As we also saw, their corpses were piled up in a mound. They were outmatched somehow. Thus, I think at least one Engineer (maybe four total?) managed to acknowledge the threat in time to put himself in hypersleep and be saved. The way I see it, they were in the midst of planning their return to Earth for its destruction when their bioweapon got out of hand and massacred all of them.

Calling Noomi's character "Elizabeth." Seriously? At one point I heard someone call her Lisbeth. Come on.

Coincidence at best. Fassbender's accent made "Elizabeth" sound like "Lisbeth." I highly doubt Noomi's role as Salander had anything to do with the Shaw character whatsoever, even subconsciously. The characters were already established when Lindelof came to work on Spaight's script, at which point I doubt Rapace was much more than a flicker of a casting idea. This bit from the essay posted by orestes sheds some very interesting light on the name:

Consider the scene where David tells Shaw that she's pregnant, and tell me that's not a riff on the Annunciation. The calm, graciously angelic android delivering the news, the pious mother who insists she can't possibly be pregnant, the wry declaration that it's no ordinary child... yeah, we've seen this before.

'And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.'

A barren woman called Elizabeth, made pregnant by 'God'? Subtle, Ridley.

[Self.Destructive.Pattern]

This had me laughing for a while.

http://bigthink.com/against-the-new-...future-science

[orestes]

Guys, you can go easy on the spoiler tags now.

[owinn]

I really hate the fact I've seen the Fifield concepts now. Those were SO much better than Yoga Zombie.

What do you guys want to see in a sequel? Perhaps 'The Search for Prometheus' or do we really want Shaw to be Lindelof and Scott's nod to Machiko Noguchi in the AvP comics? Because thats exactly what went through my mind when she hotwired that Juggernaut and flew off to kick some Engineer ass at the end.

[Vertigo]

I really hate the fact I've seen the Fifield concepts now. Those were SO much better than Yoga Zombie.

What do you guys want to see in a sequel? Perhaps 'The Search for Prometheus' or do we really want Shaw to be Lindelof and Scott's nod to Machiko Noguchi in the AvP comics? Because thats exactly what went through my mind when she hotwired that Juggernaut and flew off to kick some Engineer ass at the end.

3+ metre high, super-elegant Giger-style xenomorphs burst from Engineers. Some rumours suggested we'd be seeing them in Prometheus.

Aside from that little bit of fanboy wishlisting though, I'm hoping it will be a film with more of a focused vision, in which we're made privy to the antagonists' motivations, given a clear adversary, and aren't left with the story wide open with the expectation of another sequel. Some mystery is fine, but only in elements which aren't strictly pertinent to the film's focus (Alien managed this balance perfectly).

[Sutekh]

The biggest plothole for me was the living, sleeping engineer. What was he doing there? Just chilling, sleeping for 2000 years, and then when they wake him up he just beats up some humans and continues with his mission? Hmm.

He was sleeping because an outbreak had killed the rest of the crew - rather than starve to death he put himself on ice and waited for someone to come and disturb him. As for why he was aggressive... if a fly landed on your nose and woke you up, would you try to make contact or just swat it away?


PS the name of Noomi's character could be a Doctor Who reference. I'd say more but I'm pretty sure my virginity will grow back

[Self.Destructive.Pattern]

and flew off to kick some Engineer ass at the end.

Ha! How do you expect that to happen when she is pretty much unarmed, is flying around with a headless Android, and might be going to a planet that is filled with them? Hmm...

[Fixer808]

Meet up with these guys on the way, duh:

[Conrad Lienert]

I don't know if this article has been posted here yet or not. But it's a great read...

http://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comme..._and_analysed/

[Findus]

Ha! How do you expect that to happen when she is pretty much unarmed, is flying around with a headless Android, and might be going to a planet that is filled with them? Hmm...

But, is she unarmed? There's certainly the possibility that her ship is also stocked with a payload of full canisters. I get what you mean though. Owinn mentioned Shaw going to the Engineers' homeworld to kick some ass, but I have the impression she's still on a quest for knowledge and answers, not revenge. Going to their world with a ship that might be full of bioweapons could certainly bring about some mayhem, though, even if it were accidental. I imagine the cast would consist of more Earthing-humanoids than just Shaw and David.... perhaps quasi-Earthly-looking humanoids that were not born on Earth, but born on the Engineers' world. Perhaps servants to the Engineers. They would have to speak something like the Proto-Indo-European language if David is going to communicate with them. Or maybe they'll speak something else entirely. Not sure what different types of humanoids, beings, and creatures we'll see in the next films, aside from the jockeys.
It would be challenging to write a story with only Shaw and David in the speaking roles, along with anyone that David might speak with. Although, a sci-fi film set on another planet that features a very stark cast comes to mind: Robinson Crusoe on Mars.
Perhaps Shaw and David will encounter tribes of humans who have been taken from Earth and relocated on the Engineers' world, and they speak some form of Earth-based language (most likely English, to reduce subtitles for the English-speaking markets).

Maybe David's head is easily reattachable. Speaking of android heads, I was at Barnes & Noble last week and saw a new release in the science section that caught my attention and made me smile. The book is How to Build an Android: The True Story of Philip K. Dick's Robotic Resurrection, by David Dufty.
Part of the description:
"In late January 2006, a young robotocist on the way to Google headquarters lost an overnight bag on a flight somewhere between Dallas and Las Vegas. In it was a fully functional head of the android replica of Philip K. Dick, cult science-fiction writer and counterculture guru. It has never been recovered."
Both the author of the book and the creator of the head happen to be named David, which is either coincidental with the character's name in Prometheus, or it's quite possible that Peter Weyland named him after roboticist David Hanson.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Build-Andr...ds=david+dufty

[Sallos]

I don't know if this article has been posted here yet or not. But it's a great read...

http://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comme..._and_analysed/

"Prometheus was chained to a rock and condemned to have his liver ripped out and eaten every day by an eagle. (His liver magically grew back, in case you were wondering.)"

I've read this to many times now, and i've got to say that Prometheus liver didn't magically grew back, like the human liver it regenerates, why else would the eagle feed of his liver? to keep the constant torture.

[Lutz]

Or it could be a reference to that modern literature gem about creation THE MODERN PROMETHEUS.

I totes feel like a broken record for the amount of times I've said it now BUT is the ending really a set up for a sequel or just Shaw coming full circle in her failure to realise that it was her religion which was the root of the engineers deciding to wipe out humans? And also for the audience to go back and find the answers to her questions are already in the movie.

I don't think the ending to the movie is any more a callout for a sequel than the open ending of Blade Runner.

[aggroculture]

To me it's an obvious "After the break: Their World."

He was sleeping because an outbreak had killed the rest of the crew - rather than starve to death he put himself on ice and waited for someone to come and disturb him. As for why he was aggressive... if a fly landed on your nose and woke you up, would you try to make contact or just swat it away?

OK but I still don't understand what's different now: why can he fly away now, but he couldn't before? It's not like the infection/threat has gone away.

[owinn]

Ha! How do you expect that to happen when she is pretty much unarmed, is flying around with a headless Android, and might be going to a planet that is filled with them? Hmm...

In interviews with Rapace she says Shaw becomes a warrior towards the end of the movie - she's not going to be able to just turn up at the front door of the Engineers homeworld and politely ask for answers and then fly home, especially considering the prior knowledge that they want us dead. If there is no ass kicking in the next movie it's going to be pretty shit.

[Findus]

I'd like to see a distant prequel to Prometheus that involves alternate-history, along the lines of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

The film could be Jesus Christ: Alien Emissary.
Or maybe The Last Temptation of Space Jesus.
Or The Passion of the Engineer.
Or The Greatest Alien Story Ever Told.