Prometheus (Sci-Fi horror related)
edith head
5,106 Posts
This movie was absolutely nuts and also much better/enjoyable than I expected it to be. I'm not really understanding the mixed reviews, maybe because this doesn't have as wide of appeal/audience as other summer blockbusters like Avengers?
As far as pace and gratification, it is somewhere in between the quiet & paranoid first Alien and the actiony sequel Aliens. Wayyy more visually striking and gorgeous than either of them though.
Comments
Spoiler
http://i.imgur.com/2qTqS.png
Yes
Thanks for spoiling it.
Edit my quote out.
SPOILERZ BELOW
I think they just tried to cram way too much into 2 hours. I love subtlety and intrigue, but this was just on some LOST level of vagueness (and no surpise that Damon Lindelof was the co-writer.) There were also way too many liberties taken with the script in service of putting everyone in danger -- not the least of which was the totally incompetent crew of space hipsters that's never met each other prior to a 2 year nap. Mohawk geologist dude with the auto-mapping gizmos somehow getting lost? The biologist trying to cuddle with the alien cobra worm? Nobody seeming to give a shit that Shaw just gave birth to a squid? Oooh, black goo! Let's take off our helmets and touch it!
David was awesome-- an android with an obsession for Lawrence of Arabia and a knack for passive-aggressive zingers is exactly the type of character I want in my sci-fi... at least until the 2nd act, when anything interesting we've learned about him and what might really be going on in his head is ignored in favor of turning him into a puppet antagonist.
Vickers, the other most compelling character, was also a wasted opportunity. Especially given the "twist". Killing her off the way they did just felt cheap and pointless. Seeing her come to grips with the consequences of her father's legacy, and begrudgingly allying with Shaw and David('s head) would have been interesting. But nope, she suddenly forgets how to run sideways. Yet another convenient moment of character idiocy by the writers.
Rapace did a good job with Shaw, but her character just wasn't that interesting to me. Apparently her faith and all the Christian symbolism all falls into the larger mythos of the Engineers: Scott has actually said in an interview that the reason they hate us is because we killed one of their emissaries who was attempting to save us from our own sins.... about 2000 years ago, during the height of the Roman Empire. Yup: we crucified space Jesus.... which is actually a pretty cool idea, but are we really supposed to try and suss that out from Shaw's need to always have a cross around her neck?
And I'm still not clear on what exactly the black goo was supposed to be: biological weapon or primordial soup for seeding planets with life? Both?? I read somebody's theory that it reacts to psychic energy, like the goo in Ghostbusters 2, which kind of makes sense. But it's all still way too vague, especially for a movie that won't see a sequel for another 3 or 4 years. Somebody should've told Lindelof he wasn't writing for TV.
The first Alien was on some new shit compared to its landscape? In 79 that HR Giger steez expanded the language.
Is this flick upping the ante in this landscape? That would be crazy, but it does has 5 films to reference.
I basically cosign everything residentgiant said. Great movie, but to vague and too many horror movie idiots making dumb mistakes so they can get killed. I can understand they are a little wishy washy used to seeing the pretty flowers on Earth, but once they find a pile of dead giant humanoids with exploded chest they should be on guard a little more. They are scientist after all, not camp counselors.
I don't think Vickers was hiding her father, I don't think she even know he was on the ship. (??)
I think the way she died was fine, she's the kind of person that grew up rich and never had to do much hard other than long hours in the board room so it makes sense she wouldn't know what to do in a major shit storm. And the odds of out running a massive crash like that are at best 50/50 so it came out right.
I think the captain and his 2 deck mates where pretty cool and I wish the deck mates got a little more time other than the Asian guy just standing there starring. They did sacrifice themselves to save earth after all so they clearly had a lot of character.
Obviously David was well done. Very enjoyable on many levels
They said they left things vague for a squeal which I'm kind of fine with as long as they get to it and actually explain stuff. Plus the space jockeys are the only ones that can really explain it anyhow so you can't really have expected the human to figure out everything and explain it in detail.
The goo seems to be some kind of zombie super virus. Where everyone would just kill each other on an exposed planet. And it's possible that the worms were native to the planet and mutated because of the virus. Hard to know since there was an exomorph like image on one of the cavern walls.
Also in case you didn't know that is not the same planet as the first Alien which has confused a lot of people with the ending and why space jockey didn't get back to his ship to die. I like that idea that a number of these incidents happened and nobody knew.
I hope Shaw busts a cap on some space jockeys. That would make sense how we get so many exomorphs if she unleashes tons of goo and worms on the space jockeys.
This irked the hell out of me.
I'm not a sci-fi dude - the only Aliens movie I saw was Resurrection and that was only because of my undying love for Jean-Pierre Jeunet - but I thought it was pretty enjoyable. It kinda felt like there were a lot of plot holes but I just chalked it up to not knowing the Alien movies, but then I read a pretty scathing review where the critic compared it to a Michael Bay movie that tried to pretend it was smarter than just a typical Michael Bay movie. The critic seemed to know the series and sounded pretty disappointed.
Anyways, it looked really cool and I prefer to call it Stringer Bell In Space. "You're a robot too?" No 40-degree day for him!
Yea, if this was the first Alien film ever we'd all go nuts and couldn't wait for a sequal instead it's "why didn't they explain it more". I'm the same way. Sci-Fi nerds want all the answers to plug into their wookipedia page.
i'm guessing you havent seen Young Adult.
I think you pretty much summed up why this is getting mixed reviews. The comparisons are inevitable and expectations were realllllly high for this one. Also, this movie was pretty darkly funny at times. Maybe that is disappointing to Alien purists since the others were very heavy and serious.
Stray SPOILER observations :
I thought Michael Fassbender made an excellent android servant. The part where he asked annoying hotshot scientist guy how far he would go to find answers before poisoning him with that foreign alien substance was good drama.
As for the horror aspect, I jumped in my seat a number of times. The atmospheric build up to such moments were effective, namely the creepy dark caves littered with the super humanoid bodies and the recorded hologram ledgers. One of the reasons why I love the Aliens franchise so much is that each revolves around solving a mystery and plays on anticipation and on the fear of the unknown, both for the characters and the audience. We're all trying to figure out these fucked up clues together and i love that.
Surgery machine was soooo creepy and original. That scene will stay in my mind for a while.
I enjoyed that this movie stayed true to the extremely sexual nature of the aliens invading by mouth and HR Giger's phallus shaped alien cockpit looked as freaky as it did in the first one.
Ha! For real, that kind of irked me a bit. I understand he spent 2 years researching the root of human language and it's relation to the Engineers, but how did he magically know how to open up the doors/helmet/ship, etc.?
I think a lot of the criticism is over the top (that ship falling was hundreds of feet tall - that's like running sideways from a skyscraper falling on you). Never once did anything jump out and take me out of the movie. Overall, I thought it was good and the visuals were crazy.
I definitely left with a few questions though. Why did David poison the Dr. and why would he intentionally let Shaw suffer and die giving birth to the alien?
Whoever called the worms being infected with the black goop made a good call. I knew there was a reason we were shown them under Shaw's boot, but totally missed the connection.
Also this ^
I'm glad this line of thinking is emerging, because I originally thought that the worms came out of the black goo, and therefore the black goo that the Engineer poisons himself with at the start was a different black goo and this made it confusing.
the next question is - where did the worms come from?
because the other character right next to her did exactly that? i am shocked about the general positivity in this thread, soulstrut is usually one of the harsher places i read people discuss films. i enjoyed the experience of watching it but if you try to be critical on any level it falls apart because of the weakass script. closer to plan9 from outer space than Alien. it is EXACTLY what i would expect if you told me "hey they are making an Alien prequel, written by Damon Lindelof!". that is not a compliment.
You said it wasn't art...so now we're gonna rip you apart
One was squashed and the other only survived because a rock gave her room to live. Neither ran sideways (I saw it a few hours ago). This thread is both pro and con about it, which is living to the SS we know and (mostly) love.
Harsh. I understand this movie has divided folks across the board, but one of the better things I took away from it was the fact that so many questions WEREN'T directly answered and left people to ponder things outside of the movie.
That review I discussed earlier in this thread focuses on those questions. Again, I enjoyed the movie without having any Alien knowledge and thought it looked super neato, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't walk out like "Hmmm..."
http://www.slashfilm.com/prometheus-review-big-small-beginnings-small-beginnings/
That was like reading the diary of a scorned nerd. At the end of the day, it's a science fiction movie and I enjoyed the 2 hours I spent watching it. If people want to find some sort of hyper-existentialism in the subtext, by all means.
The fact of who made this and the franchise it's a part of invokes all kinds of criticism. And that's fine, but thinking back to the other Alien movies, they weren't exactly "deep". It was a lady fighting a fucking alien. I don't know why this movie was expected to be a sci-fi Citizen Kane?
7/10: File under TOO HYPE
i thought he knew how to control the ship by mimicking the recorded hologram ledgers after they were played back to him. i figured since he's a robot his memory retention is pretty photographic as well.
I think cause David is an android with a purpose to serve "father" and father's interests. David has no conscience and has pretty much one objective and the Dr. happened to be the lab rat. I am not sure David knew that he was actually poisoning him, but was conducting an experiment and has no issue with ethics to find answers like a human scientist would
David needed to contain Shaw because she was contaminated and posed a risk to the crew. He isn't programmed to feel guilt or sympathy, it was a logical measure to take.
It fits her character that she had lived a privileged life and never been in any danger and wouldn't know what to do. When faced with imminent danger some people think through what they need to do to survive and some people freak and make it worse for themselves.
Example, my friend and I were in a large bar when a huge full on wall to wall bar fight broke out. She just kept backing up and was actually backing into another section of fighting. Once I realize how out of control everything was getting I quickly looked for a exit, put my arm around her and bum rushed us to the back fire exit and into the alley and then to the main street. Meanwhile lots of other people were still inside waiting for chairs and bottles to hit them in the head not knowing what to do. They had the same options and couldn't make a clear decision. Also that ship was massive and debris was raining everywhere so running like crazy and hoping for the best was about all you could do.
Also, I don't expect a movie about aliens mouth raping people only to have another alien explode out of them to be deep on any level. In fact I've always been and Alien fan and seen them all and I had no idea that Scott was going for a whole "male rape" thing until I started reading about this movie.
As stated he's a robot that had been doing his homework and is quick to figure stuff out. Hell humans figure out those games like Myst and it's all just symbols that you have to find a pattern and solve puzzles.
I think David's behavior sets up the ongoing issue that some of the androids still have character flaws/faulty prgramming and him being programmed to make figuring out all the alien stuff top priority trumped any "be kind to humans" protocol. Being programmed to get all the answers as top priority could be considered for the greater good in his processor.