Prometheus

[GROOVE VICTIM]

Lol I was just reading this from a link on another forum. Definitely thought provoking!

[Sal Paradise]

I must say it's sitting very well a couple of days later. Definitely want to see it again.

[silverbull]

Very good film and i want to check it out again. Def think the other sequels will connect it to alien which will make some people complaining bout no connection, satisfied. My fiancee thought it was a very very good film and shes hard to please.

I think the first scene was not earth.

Also did anyone see the very last ending credit where it said wayland industries since 10-11-12 and now theres a website
http://www.whatis101112.com/

[Chris Chase]

I think the first scene was not earth.

That's what I thought as well. The movie is awesome, especially IMAX 3D.

[neon]

Wow. I just saw it tonight. What a crazy movie.

[Sal Paradise]

Got to say I'm actually excited for the upcoming Bladerunner project after seeing Prometheus. Ridley seems to be finding his old form again.

[neon]

Anybody know if the new Blade Runner movie is based on any stories by Philip K. Dick, or did they have to get another writer, since he's no longer with us?

[Chris Conrad]

Anybody know if the new Blade Runner movie is based on any stories by Philip K. Dick, or did they have to get another writer, since he's no longer with us?

http://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/...e-protagonist/

[martino]

Totally worth it for the visual experience IMO. I saw it in IMAX 3D and loved it (visually).

The plot? Well... it's a mess. But it looks so good, you don't really care until it's over and you're discussing it with your friends and everybody's like "yeah... about this or that... WTF?!".

TOTALLY With 138 on this.

SPOILER...
There was zero character depth with any of the characters minus the android (I get that sci-fi's are permitted some forgiveness for this usually). But the douchy scientist who stopped caring about the experiments after a day... really? The other scientist that wants answers to life because of her dad dying... Then there's the old guy (who's a young actor with fake age-spots and wrinkles... REALLY!? what is this, NG Startrek of the 90's?) who wants to live forever (Zzzz). And then there's everyone else.

The android was played amazingly well. Great acting, as should be expected with him. While he was on some lawrence of arabia shit ( a bridge between cultures? i dunno?) I didn't understand his very human streak of fucking over the scientist that was mocking him.

I'll read some of the links to see how badly i misunderstood this movie, but really... It didn't feel all that deep to me, so not sure essays are needed.

edit:
some interesting articles were posted in this thread. Still, the execution was all over the place in my mind.

[D J 1 3 8]

Two articles by people that are as mad as me

ATHEIST U MAD
http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/2012...-anti-science/

some quotes

This is a story that just plain shits on science, and how science works, in ways that openly pander to and reinforce American attitudes of religiosity, anti-science and all-around scientific illiteracy. And its sins go beyond the ludicrous dialogue mistake — called out by Neil de Grasse Tyson — where Charlize Theron’s character describes a voyage of 35 light years as “half a billion miles” from Earth, something the writers could have fixed had they not been too goddamn lazy to use Google.

Throughout the story, characters act without discernible motivation. They behave in such stupid and illogical ways you wonder how they qualified for the job of traveling to an uncharted world on a voyage funded by the biggest corporation on Earth in the first place.

Of all the available geologists, the best guy they could get was an emotionally unstable headcase with scalp tattoos and a glassy stare who practically has “I Am Totally Going to Lose It and Then Be Horribly Killed” written on his forehead from the moment you first see him? And I think it would occur to most of us that when you’re exploring an ancient alien ruin, in which you’ve already found a pile of horribly mutilated bodies, and a freaky snake-like alien critter pops its head out of a pool of green slime and hisses at you menacingly, reaching out to touch it is probably not the smartest idea.

Lindelof takes a postmodern approach in which all ideas are equally likely to be true, and gives Noomi Rapace’s character the most infuriating line any “scientist” in a science fiction movie has ever uttered. When asked to defend her thesis that aliens genetically engineered the human race, which defies the evidence of evolution (here called by the creationist term “Darwinism”), she admits she can’t, “but that’s what I choose to believe.”

whatever profundities the movie is after just get bulldozed by bad writing on all fronts.

The movie wants to be seen as a religious allegory, in the end: we have done something to displease our “gods,” but we know not what. But what we’re left with is a story that does what no well-written science fiction should do: pretend to introduce Big Ideas, then, in a misguided effort to please all and offend none, back away from any intriguing insights or speculation regarding those ideas, so that what remains is gorgeous sound and fury, signifying nothing.

ARCHEOLOGIST U MAD
http://digitaldigging.net/prometheus...l-perspective/

some quotes

But then Noomi expands – she’s says it’s not a map, it’s an invitation. From creatures she calls the engineers. And what they engineered is our species. Nice Biologist implies that rejecting 300 years of evolutionary theory is somewhat mindblowing, rather than the contemptuous bullshit it plainly is, but he would, because he’s nice. When asked how she knows all this world shattering information is correct, she replies;


“I don’t – it’s what I choose to believe.”


Ah – right. Ok. That’s what her Dad said, remember? To shut her up when she asked awkward questions? It’s a classic. It’s right up there with ‘because.’ And because she’s surrounded by the least curious people in the galactic configuration, it’s fine. No one says anything boring like “You know, if you’d have said this before we signed up for this potentially fatal, mysterious mission, we might have thought twice” because they wouldn’t have thought twice. They’d have shrugged, and got on with it. Whatever ‘it’ was.

before they get separated, they all go into the alien spacecraft. On discovering it has a breathable atmosphere, they all take their helmets off, because A) Who cares? and B) Nobody reads H.G. Wells any more. Then they chuck a few orbs in the air, which fly off and map the entire alien space craft, sending the data to the SBS where it is modelled as a 3D hologram. Not one of them suggests that it would have been a good idea to have done that before they strolled in and took their helmets off. It’s almost as if they don’t care.

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

I have to admit that Neil Degrasse Tyson has a great hustle. He set himself up as some anti-Hawking, making science accessible to the hoards upon hoards who couldn't absorb even 1/100th of what he studied in his first year of study. And for what? So folks who reject spirituality based on their own moral (or amoral) leanings can sound more scientific in their status updates? Degrasse Tyson doesn't offer any more conclusions than anyone else. It is, however, interesting to see a black man on, say, Real Time with Bill Maher, smugly checking the homework of equally smug guests in full view of whatever size audience that show has.

Is he stimulating the young to move in the direction of science? Na. He is, however, making it possible for idiots to quote him and sound above it all. Sort of how spiritualists come up with all these new-agey quotes attributed to Einstein but actually sound like some shit Eckhart Tolle or Deepak could've said last week. Complete with new agey vernacular 'n eerthang.
-------

So yeah - sorry y'all. If you're watching Prometheus in this age of shallow, dumbed down POP SCIENCE for DUMMIES, courtesy of the ATHIEST, BECAUSE I CAN'T BE BOTHERED WITH THE TASK OF SELF DISCOVERY crowd, you're missing the point. Reading a bunch of links about people butt-hurt that Ridley Scott didn't validate pedestrian science talk totally misses the point of the film. Again, all it was about was a bunch of folks locked up in a box, traveling to some place thinking they're making a discovery when, in reality, they're just hiding from themselves. They're just as smug as most folks who write these essays, and getting each other killed for it. It's that simple. The reason why the android David was the most interesting character is because he was the SOULLESS character, explained within the first 5min of the film. He was the least conflicted character in the film, so those who are personally conflicted over matters of science, spirituality and morality are drawn to him because he's unambiguous. In a sea of stupid choices made under the duress of gigantic, out of scope encounters, the android stayed on mission until the very end. Of course everyone liked that character.

He was the anchor for folks who think they're smart.

Me, I dug Janek (obviously written for a white character, but Edris Elba was available). Decisive. To the point. Not all caught up in the big picture. Knew what was happening on that moon because he kept his post and minded the view from his perch. Saw the forest in all those trees. Janek was the anchor for folks who know what's right, even if they're not smart enough to follow along with all the real and fake scientists who confuse things by talking big but feeling little. Janek knew that all that shit on that ship was WMD and that they weren't gods but raiders and that they didn't discover shit but an attack outpost. Why? Because he watched over and cared about his crew. Simple, huh?

There was more character development in this film than in Alien, by miles. There were better drawn conclusions. There was finality. Of course characters did dumb shit. Of course they signed up for a mission without knowing anything. Maybe that's corporate life in 2093. Ever met any stupid doctors? Ever met any stupid policy makers? Scott presents a few stupid, nearsighted flawed scientists and pretend scientists are all mad. And that's why they take to the internet. To write essays for other pretend scientists.

[Sal Paradise]

Me, I dug Janek (obviously written for a white character, but Edris Elba was available).

Great commentary. I dug Janek and thought he was grossly underused (I even liked his accent that I have seen others online rail against). Elba had a spark in that film like Fassbender.

I did wonder about many things in the movie while I was watching it, like why the hell did they go wait out the night in the room with all the black urns? But the movie was so engaging, cerebral and stimulating it kept pushing me right past these plot questions. The film kept my suspension of disbelief going because so much of it was working so well. I'm a film fanatic and have been really disillusioned with movies the last 15 years. It's gotten so bad I champion the medium of television over cinema with out pause. This film has stuck with me, demanded me to keep it in my consciousness. Picking apart its seems is denying the over all experience. It reminded me that Movies still have the capability of punching through time & space and creating a bit of magic for two hours.

It's a Magic Trick, it's more fun if you give into the illusion and go along for the ride.

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

I dig this article: http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html#cutid1

It does pose a significant question. If the decision to destroy human life on Earth came 2000 years before, from light years away, is it really the death of Christ that motivated that decision? (Ridley Scott says it was, and that it potentially suggests Christ was an alien. Go figure.)

See - this is where religious folks make the same mistake science folks make when viewing the film. It's allegory. You look within and see, firstly, whatever validates your worldview. Then, if it's good storytelling, your worldview is attacked until you either let it go long enough to appreciate where the story is taking you; or you rail against the story, all the while transfixed on it's telling.

See what I'm sayin'?

[Sal Paradise]

allegory.
See what I'm sayin'?

I mean the thing is friggin called Prometheus. It's named after a Greek Myth. Those are rife with "plotholes". I can't wait to see it again.

[D J 1 3 8]

why are we still talking about this when Dark Night IMAX tix just went on sale?

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

why are we still talking about this when Dark Night IMAX tix just went on sale?

Just to be really real, even as a lifelong Batman fanatic, I may be late to TDKRises, man. After Avengers and Prometheus, I'm a little tuckered out. I'll probably see it opening day, but it better be good. How many gourmet meals can one have in a row?

[Drill Sgt]

I saw it and loved it BUT I (speaking for myself) thought it was a prequel to Aliens. Too much in common. It seemed to connect the dots to me.

[GROOVE VICTIM]

Damn if people want to get nit- picky, re-watch Alien and come up with an excuse as to why Kane and Milburn aren't one in the same. Don't stick your head in the egg man!!!!! Don't stick your hand out to that thing man!!!!!!!!

Character Development? That's been one of those magical terms used by many a bedroom film critic. As if Alien had any. Parker, angry black man who wants to get paid. Lambert, emotional hot mess trying to get her ass home. Ripley, driven to succeed at any cost, a Mcnulty.....Dallas, non-bullshitter running a ship. Kane, Milburn. Ash, company man, no more no less.

Drill Sgt. At the end of the day Prometheus is not a direct Prequel to Alien. Think of it as Episode 1: The Phantom Black Goo. Remember that all events taking place in this film are not on LV-426, but rather LV-223. The ship we see in this film is not the Derelect from Alien. The ending pretty much kills any direct connection to the first film considering the fact that the The Engineer was killed by Shaw's human born Facehugger.

[dj aakmael]

saw it. loved it. going to see it again.

[Chris Chase]

I look at this way:
Did I get bored? No.
Could I follow the story? Yes.
Did the actors deliver solid, believable performances? Yes. (especially Fassbender, Elba, and Rapace)
Was I entertained? Hell yes.

[D J 1 3 8]

despite being wholly entertaining, these questions are the reason why the plot/writing was a hot mess IMO of staggering proportions

[mhd]

they should do a spinoff on geologist and the biologist, where they meet, insult each other but find themselves in a pinch where they have to rely on each other to survive, only to die strange transformative deaths because of their own stupidity then their backstory is revealed that they are not really scientists but got caught up in their own elaborate identity theft scam but go on interstellar trips anyway because they can't reveal the scam and the money is so good

[D J 1 3 8]

they should do a spinoff on geologist and the biologist, where they meet, insult each other but find themselves in a pinch where they have to rely on each other to survive, only to die strange transformative deaths because of their own stupidity then their backstory is revealed that they are not really scientists but got caught up in their own elaborate identity theft scam but go on interstellar trips anyway because they can't reveal the scam and the money is so good

brilliant

[martino]

brilliant

hahaha.

Totally.


Seriously. The more I thought about that movie the more i realized one thing: If you can't tell the simple parts well, I'm not going to sit there and ponder religious and mythical meaning behind everything. She gave herself an (attempted) abortion. Then is wandering around the ship covered in blood. David didn't seem to care what the outcome of her pregnancy was at all. No one else even bothered to notice. That's not a hole in the plot. That's a fundamental flaw to me.

[Sal Paradise]

hahaha.

Totally.


Seriously. The more I thought about that movie the more i realized one thing: If you can't tell the simple parts well, I'm not going to sit there and ponder religious and mythical meaning behind everything. She gave herself an (attempted) abortion. Then is wandering around the ship covered in blood. David didn't seem to care what the outcome of her pregnancy was at all. No one else even bothered to notice. That's not a hole in the plot. That's a fundamental flaw to me.

I don't think any one didn't notice these things. With everything going on I just didn't care, I wasn't going to let stuff like that bring me down. I was lapping it up.