Prometheus trailer

[AevnsGrandpa]

Saw it a week or so ago. Over all I liked it and some of the direct tie in to the original was good but it was a bit of a reach at times.

One question that I would like to have answered is how that very first seen of the "engineer" drinking that stuff, falling into the water and watching his dna fall apart tie in to the rest of the movie? Was he testing "the weapon" or seeding the water for future use?

Jeff

[TheDingo]

how that very first seen of the "engineer" drinking that stuff, falling into the water and watching his dna fall apart tie in to the rest of the movie? Was he testing "the weapon" or seeding the water for future use?

I interpreted this as "seeding" human life on the planet. In the book Prometheus: The Art of the Film there are a bunch of illustrations where a very old "overlord" class of human-like creature is "programming" the "engineer" before the self-sacrifice takes place. ( it appears that the "overlords" are the ones who built and pilot the UFOs, that we see hovering above the waterfall )

[Nektonic]

I liked a lot of what Prometheus had to offer, but I think what bothered me the most is that it took away some of the hard science fiction feel from the Alien films with all the religious space god/ancient astronaut themes. Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection did this as well, as those Alien films are filled with religious and spiritual motifs. Alien and Aliens, with their space truckers, pioneering terraforming colonists, and hard ass marines now feel almost out of place thematically with the rest of the Alien films in a lot of ways. I wish that Prometheus had treated its premise more like the original Alien did.

Also, Ridley Scott has said in interviews that the biomechanoid style Giger Alien (aka: xenomorph) is basically done. He thinks that it isn't scary or interesting anymore. I disagree. Sure if you show it in full light and treat it like dark comedy like they did with Alien Resurrection, then yes, it comes off as kinda silly. If you treat the creature as a character that poses danger to the humans in these films (Alien, Aliens, Alien 3), then it can still be a fearsome creature. Even the great sequel, Aliens, never was able to be as frightening as the original. That doesn't mean it is not good nor that it isn't still a frightening and intense sci-fi horror film. None of the creatures in Prometheus, except maybe that alien cobra snake thing that got in the guy's spacesuit were really even remotely close to being as terrifying, unique, or as conceptually interesting as the original Giger biomechanoid alien. I mean, crab-walking space zombie dude, black goo, and a giant squid-octopus? That is the stuff that is supposed to be the new scary Alienverse monster(s) that will replace the "perfect organism" we saw in the original film, and expanded upon in Aliens and Alien 3?

On a positive note, the space jockeys/engineers were pretty cool. I would have loved to have seen the last engineer suited up in his elephantine space suit/bone armor when he went after Noomi Rapace at the end. Seems like it would have added more menace and been a more memorable scene that way. It would have added a nicer contrast to the engineers, who at the beginning of the film were seeding life and appeared in human form in more normal attire. The switch to them being antagonistic, would have been more powerful to see a small human like Noomi face off against a big biomechanoid armored space god wearing a scary suit and mask. We've waited all these years to see the space jockeys and then we only get a few glimpses of them in their iconic elephantine armor (the hologram scene, the dead fossilized ones in the temple, and the blink and you'll miss it navigation chair sequence near the end).

Best things about the film were the alien planet scenery, design of the Prometheus (now that's a great spaceship design), seeing some of the classic Giger stuff like the Dune pyramid and space jockey stuff done up in state of the art IMAX 3D, Charlize Theron in retro skin-tight space suit (in this film she reminded me of Samus Aran of Metroid), and Michael Fassbender's android David.

I hated the alien that came out of the engineer at the end. It didn't look right, not biomechanical enough like Giger's aesthetic. Also, how did it grow so big while still incubating inside the engineer? In all the Alien movies the creatures emerge from their hosts as smaller forms then grow into the big bad aliens later on. Even Rapace's octo-squid baby followed this method of alien biological development.

Ranking the Alien films:

Alien & Aliens are equal to me. Both get a 10 out of 10. Classics of science fiction. I can still watch these two to this day and they just never get old. Alien does the horror, sense of dread style better, but Aliens is intense and more compelling from a character development sense. The two films together form a nice two-part story arc for Ripley. I find her character arc ending with Aliens, headed back to Earth with Newt, more satisfying than the dark hole of despair she gets dropped into in Alien 3.

Alien 3 = Prometheus. Both films are interesting, ambitious, but ultimately stumble. I'd say they get about a 6.5 out of 10. Still though, there are lots of cool and great moments and some good Alien saga story developments in these two. Prometheus is more fun than the depressingly bleak Alien 3, but Alien 3 has a better character arc and a more purposeful ending. Prometheus starts out on a better note, but loses a lot of its mojo in the final act.

Alien Resurrection had a nice premise, but once the bushy eyebrowed military commander gets his head bitten by an alien, then grabs a piece of his brain and looks at it, the film just never recovers. A 4 out of 10, only because Sigourney Weaver gives it her best shot, and Ron Perlman plays a fun but crude character in this film. Ron Perlman usually always brings something good to any film he appears in though. In the end though, Alien Resurrection, like Prometheus, feels like it was setting up another film, but so far it looks as if neither will get a sequel. Resurrection set up the great premise of Earth being a ruined world, which could have been a great post apocalyptic setting for an Alien film. An Alien 5 should have been the Mad Max or Hardware of the Alien saga. Ripley stranded on a toxic Earth, surrounded by a cast of rugged survivor-types banding together to survive the alien menace.

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

Also, Ridley Scott has said in interviews that the biomechanoid style Giger Alien (aka: xenomorph) is basically done. He thinks that it isn't scary or interesting anymore.

Here's a scary monster, and so I think FF Coppola should be recalled from FX retirement...



As a note, apparently the genitalia of the "Alien: Resurrection"(1997) was digitally removed because The Studio thought it too explicit... apparently they thought that was too scary for the general public...

I think I agree. Pictures with genitalia in full display do seem to send people running around in a frenzy.

[Scott F]

I liked a lot of what Prometheus had to offer…….

Yay, Nektonic finally chimed in.

So what took you so long?

[Gord.T]

I wasn't able to see the movie, but, here's a spoiler link to some of the CGI interests from CGI Society if it interests you as it did me.

[jkc123]

^^Great link. Looks like there will be a sequel after all.

[Nektonic]

Yay, Nektonic finally chimed in.

So what took you so long?

Well, I wanted to see the film a second time before I had a mini-tizzy over it.

Also, I watched Alien Resurrection again, and it wasn't as horrible as I remembered from the previous viewing. My concerns over it still remain. Why did Jean Pierre Jeunet make it so silly? It actually had a nice visual style to it reminiscent of the original Alien's sets and atmosphere. At least beyond the newborn alien at the end and some dodgy CGI work (or at least dated CGI by today's standards). Why? It could have been so much better.

Anyways, Prometheus is a film I am dying to see a director's cut or extended cut of. I hope Ridley Scott gives us the option of both an extended and theatrical cut on the DVD/Blu-ray, and not merely the theatrical cut plus some random deleted scenes as a special feature.

[TheDingo]

ASC Article: Dariusz Wolski, ASC and Ridley Scott Discuss Their Approach to 3-D Digital Capture on the Sci-Fi Thriller Prometheus

[Nektonic]

Looks like they might actually make the sequel.

http://collider.com/prometheus-2-sequel-2014/185603/