Prometheus

Johnstantine

Skibbidy Boo Bop
Truder said:
Hey Johnstantine, would you say it's worth seeing this movie in IMAX 3D?

I enjoyed it. Unlike most people on this forum, I don't have high standards for visuals and whatnot. I came out of it enjoying what I saw, and that included the 3D. That part you see in the trailer when David opens up the star map was just awesome in 3D. I loved it.
 
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hellrasinbrasin

Guest
I read a new interview with Lindelof and Spaihts today and it pretty much validated where I thought they where going with the last scene. http://www.prometheus-movie.com/news/223
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
NightCrawler said:
The major reviews are surfacing, Ebert gave it a 4/4

Oh yeah? :guts:

Good sign anyway, though I've noticed Ebert has been pretty free with the 4 stars in his old age (Spider-Man 2, Iron Man, Avatar, and others I can't recall off the top of my head). Basically, if it's a big ambitious movie (bonus if it's set in Chicago =) these day it's getting a 4/4, and this is right up his alley. By comparison, he gave The Godfather Part II three stars back in the day. Harsh.
 

NightCrawler

Aeons gone, vast, mad and deathless
Griffith said:

Man, i felt the same when i first saw it. It is still my 2nd favorite Batman movie.

Actually, thinking of it, i believe Prometheus and TDK suffer from the same flaws. Prometheus will be way more dividing among people, that's for sure.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
NightCrawler said:
Man, i felt the same when i first saw it. It is still my 2nd favorite Batman movie.

Same here.

NightCrawler said:
Actually, thinking of it, i believe Prometheus and TDK suffer from the same flaws. Prometheus will be way more dividing among people, that's for sure.

I'm hoping to see it with my dad this weekend.
 

Scorpio

Courtesy of Grail's doodling.
Saw it this morning. Admittedly, I have yet to see any Alien movies... But I really liked Prometheus. I thought it was very impressive visually (and that was without IMAX or 3-D) which I felt was complimented greatly by the soundtrack, which was awesome. There were a few weak spots, but the only thing that stuck out to me as bad was the character of Charlie Holloway. Maybe I'm confusing the intentions for the character, but I just didn't like him, and I felt the acting for him wasn't very good. I'll hold on saying anything else for fear of spoiling something.

But yeah. For what it's worth I really enjoyed experiencing this movie.

Also, it's been on my watch list for an eternity but this movie definitely piqued my interest in Alien and Aliens. Though apparently I should stop there and ignore the two after?
 
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hellrasinbrasin

Guest
Scorpio said:
For what it's worth I really enjoyed experiencing this movie.

That's been the consensus among a lot of people who saw it last week myself included. I'm looking forward to what the adm have to say about the film after they see it.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
hellrasinbrasin said:
That's been the consensus among a lot of people who saw it last week myself included. I'm looking forward to what the adm have to say about the film after they see it.
I'll try to see it this weekend, but I have family coming in town. Might not get a chance.

If me and Griff have both seen it by the time we record on Sunday, then I'll try to get it on the podcast. Trouble is, Aaz hasn't seen it yet.
 
Scorpio said:
Saw it this morning. Admittedly, I have yet to see any Alien movies...

whaa.. that would be an interesting perspective walking into Prometheus indeed..

Scorpio said:
Also, it's been on my watch list for an eternity but this movie definitely piqued my interest in Alien and Aliens. Though apparently I should stop there and ignore the two after?

Just do yourself a favor and watch all of them, in order, immediately.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
I'm planning on seeing it this weekend. I've really been looking forward to it, so I hope I enjoy it, but if not...meh, no biggie.

Scorpio said:
Though apparently I should stop there and ignore the two after?

There are some on the board who recommend watching Alien3, but I can't bring myself to do the same. In the end, it's up to you, though. (Whether you decide to watch Alien3 or not, I still can't recommend watching Alien Resurrection).
 

Johnstantine

Skibbidy Boo Bop
Alien and Aliens are the only ones you need to watch. Alien 3 is decent, but, ya know, it still sucks compared to the other two.

As for me, I'll be seeing Prometheus again on Friday with my pops.
 
Watched it last night. Got to the movies an hour n a half before the show and still got no center seats pppsshh. Mixed emotions for me. I like the use of 3D where it's not spears or bullets flying at you. Story board and characters - there is where the problem lies. Visually pretty good. Will post more later.
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
I saw it last night as well in glorious imax 3d, which I highly recommend, because honestly that was the most redeeming part of the whole thing. I hate to admit how incredibly disappointed I am. The movie looks amazing, every frame was a visual feast, but jesus the script was so bad. Scenes felt rushed, pacing was weird, characters underdeveloped, too many ideas packed in for no reason. Just a mess. I don't even think much of it makes sense, even more so when trying to connect it to Alien.

On the plus Fassy was really good, of course, and as I said the visuals were great. Trust me on this and see it in 3d and even imax if you can. Its literally the most redeeming aspect, and it certainly won't detract from your experience.
 
Over the past few weeks I've been reading interviews and spoilers, etc. and what I understand from it all is that this is sort of like a long trailer for the next one/ the sequel they're thinking of calling Paradise where all your questions may be answered. Then again, RC did say in an interview that the Space Jockey in Alien could be thousands of years old. The time difference between the events of Prometheus and Alien is about 80/90 years.
 

Johnstantine

Skibbidy Boo Bop
Ok, since the world has seen the movie, I'll go ahead and post how I really felt about it.

Gripes:
First off, this movie had more dumbasses in it than AvP and AvP2 combined. Seriously, Scott, those two cronies weren't worth it. They were just throwaways, so I felt absolutely nothing for them. Their screen time could have been more appropriated towards a second gripe of mine: Idris Elba. His character, Janek, was sort of hard to understand. I couldn't tell if he didn't just like the two dumbasses, or what. I was pretty confused about where is loyalties lied (until the end, of course). I really liked the character and wanted more of him.


Cons:
-The 3D was "ok" at best. After seeing so many movies actually converted to 3D, it was hard to tell the difference. Avatar still looks a hell of a lot better, and it's getting close to three years old.
-Not enough about the Engineers. I was expecting a lot more. I was unaware that they were trying to go for a trilogy with the franchise, so it was sort of a let down when I actually heard that news.
-Charlize Theron was a horrible character. Referring early to the two dumbasses, I'd have to say she takes the cake when she didn't just walk to the side and get crushed by the fucking ship. It was definitely my biggest groan-moment of the movie (thankfully, there were few).

Pros:
-From what we DID see of the engineers and their race, I really enjoyed. The opening scene itself looked fucking beautiful. I thought it was super cool.
-Idris Elba. He did a fantastic fucking job with his character. In fact, I thought him and his crew were the only ones who did a decent job of acting except for...
-Micheal Fassbender. He's one of my favorite actors, and he really shines in this movie (not quite as much as he did in Inglourious Basterds, though). I really felt for him because he didn't know any better, although I would dare to say he was much more evil than good until the very end. I thought it was a nice throwback to what he and Shaw had talked about: being free after Weyland was dead. He sort of became a good guy (if there even were any), so that was nice. Kind of like an Ash/Bishop mix, I guess.
-The cinematography looked great.

Mixed feelings:
-The big one is why was the engineer such a douche? And what the fuck did David even say to him? I wanted the answer, but I didn't receive it. It's probably the only part of the movie that actually pissed me off. I mean, it was cool seeing the dude, but I wanted something a little more than what we got.
-For some reason, I didn't see so many characters at the beginning of the movie. But then, just like in Lost, more just sprout up. I wasn't sure if they were in cryo along with Weyland or not. Really confusing, but not enough of a big deal to detract from the overall story. It's not like they really mattered.
-The religious connotations were pretty flat. This movie didn't really do a good job of getting to the point of its own philosophy; from what I gathered, the idea was that "yes, life came from elsewhere, but it doesn't matter as long as you believe in what you believe. I guess it's more of a personal take on life itself, and not trying to answer THE ultimate question that so many movies set out to do. There's a lot of religious subtext in the movie, but no definitive idea of what they were going for--which sucks.

My idea of
why the Engineers were going back to earth?

This was the big one for me. It never touches on WHY they wanted to go back, and that's what really pissed me off. I'm not sure if it's because humankind was starting to prosper, and they didn't like it, or what. It's very vague and confusing, and just led me to feeling the need to throw someone out of a window. I know all of the canisters in the cargo room contained that black matter. Lindelof definitely did his research on the Jockeys. In the comics, the Jockeys (Engineers) actually created the Xenomorph, and would launch eggs down to the planets of their enemies. After they hatched, well, you get where it's going.

So, I guess those canisters were kind of like the eggs? I guess? I really don't fucking know because there are no fucking answers in the movie.

In the end, I really did enjoy the movie. The strong points had me by the balls, while the weaker ones made me groan. I wouldn't, by ANY means, call this Scott's return to Sci-fi. It doesn't have the same feel that Alien and Blade Runner had. You can tell he's seasoned and stuck with the same style he's been directing in for the past decade or so.

hellrasinbrasin said:
... The moment David lifts the Urn from The Ampule Chamber aboard The Prometheus is the instant the Urns in the Ampule Chamber / Lab begin to break down a sort of security measure I guess.

When their in the chamber, Shaw says something about the atmosphere changing. Once that happens, you see the black liquid start coming out of a few of them. It's brief, but it's there.
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
Yea that's all well and good but the thing that ruined most of that was how fucking stupid everyone was. For example,
as soon as they begin examining the engineers head they decide to shoot electricity through it to the point where it explodes? I just didn't buy that these "scientists" immediately jumped to trying to animate the head so quickly. Like slow the fuck down guys, seriously. And that goes for just about every single character in almost every single scene. Taking off their helmets just because there was oxygen? Then they bitch about being contaminated later and make it a big deal? Then you got the two clowns toying around with the proto-facehugger. And lets not forget Shaws boyfriend who after one expedition on the first day into the alien base is so pissed off and let down that he gets drunk and whines like a bitch. This is the dude who spent his entire life looking at cave paintings? and he acts like that after one trip? These have got be some of the worst, most incredibly stupid and unbelievable characters I've ever witnessed being passed off as top of the line scientists. Also Charlize Theron's character ended up being completely pointless.

Fuck the writing was terrible.
 

Johnstantine

Skibbidy Boo Bop
Oburi said:
Yea that's all well and good but the thing that ruined most of that was how fucking stupid everyone was. For example,
as soon as they begin examining the engineers head they decide to shoot electricity through it to the point where it explodes? I just didn't buy that these "scientists" immediately jumped to trying to animate the head so quickly. Like slow the fuck down guys, seriously. And that goes for just about every single character in almost every single scene. Taking off their helmets just because there was oxygen? Then they bitch about being contaminated later and make it a big deal? Then you got the two clowns toying around with the proto-facehugger. And lets not forget Shaws boyfriend who after one expedition on the first day into the alien base is so pissed off and let down that he gets drunk and whines like a bitch. This is the dude who spent his entire life looking at cave paintings? and he acts like that after one trip? These have got be some of the worst, most incredibly stupid and unbelievable characters I've ever witnessed being passed off as top of the line scientists. Also Charlize Theron's character ended up being completely pointless.

Fuck the writing was terrible.

Yeah, I don't even know what the fuck Shaw's profession was. Wasn't she a geologist or something? And Charlize Theron's character seriously was worthless. SO fucking stupid. OH LAWD THA SHIPSA FALLIN MASSA! IMMA NOT BE MOVIN FROM THIS'ERE STRAIGHT LINE!"
 
Johnstantine said:
Yeah, I don't even know what the fuck Shaw's profession was. Wasn't she a geologist or something? And Charlize Theron's character seriously was worthless. SO fucking stupid. OH LAWD THA SHIPSA FALLIN MASSA! IMMA NOT BE MOVIN FROM THIS'ERE STRAIGHT LINE!"

Hahaha! Maybe that's why her dad didn't want her to take over Weyland Corp! :ganishka:
 

Scorpio

Courtesy of Grail's doodling.
It is interesting how almost every character has a deeper underlying theme, except the movie tries to bake the cake without finishing the batter.
You already mentioned the, erm, interesting stance on religion the movie takes. Or rather, the almost complete lack of it besides, "hey, this is important maybe!" But I'm pretty sure the point for Theron's character was as a comparison between humanity and David, and how their father, the selfish representation of humanity?, looked at each of them. There were some throwaway moments that I thought were supposed to be a lot deeper than they were, where she complained about being cast aside as well as the numerous instances where she seemed to loathe David.

I would be really curious to see a version where these ideas were actually fleshed out, because unless I'm grasping at straws it could have been really fascinating. Instead it's just an enjoyable movie albeit with some stale and annoying characters.
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
I feel like there needs to be a directors cut, which I know obviously can't fix how fucking stupid some of the scenes are but it could at least help with some of the pacing issues. I think it would need to be on the scale of the Kingdom of Heaven though, with a whole hour of additional or extended scenes that flesh out ... everything after the first half hour, which is where I thought things started to get really crazy. For example,
I really, really loved the earlier scenes where David is walking around the ship alone while everyone was asleep. I even thought to myself "this is exactly how I want this movie to be", (loved the 2001 reference). But as soon as the action got going with the two guys poking at the cobra-alien scenes just began to switch way too fast. It really felt like scenes were shortened or missing altogether. One minute the ships captain is burning the zombie crew member in the deployment area and next he's apparently in Shaw's room as she's suiting up and telling her all this stuff about how they need to leave because the whole engineer base is a giant weapon site? And just how many people were on the Prometheus anyway? You see the group in the briefing room earlier but later you see more and more random people popping up or getting killed. That was a big no no for me. In a movie like this you need to know about how many people are around to you know, create tension. I swear there were at least two nameless guys that came out of nowhere and were killed by the zombie dude. I wasn't even sure if there were more people on the Prometheus before the suicide crash at the end.

Man, I'm sure there are some things that I just didn't pick up on that can be explained but I still feel like I could just ramble on all day about things that this movie just didn't do quite right. It's not exactly bad, just unfulfilling and confusing in areas that it shouldn't be.
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
I think the best thing that defines my thoughts is the "less is more" approach. Alien did this perfectly. Prometheus is the complete opposite. Way too many ideas jam packed in with too little time.
 

NightCrawler

Aeons gone, vast, mad and deathless
Interesting analysis on the
actions of the Engineers towards Earth

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1446714/board/nest/200177706?p=1
 
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