6/18/2012 3:27:11 PM

Quote :

"I think if it was meant to be Earth, they would have made a point to choose a geographical landmark that was somewhat recognizable. FWIW, Ridley Scott has said that it may or may not be Earth and that it's not really important."

To me that seems like a cop out (by Ridley Scott, not you) because "it's earth" is essentially what the movie was pushing but it makes zero sense externally. If it wasn't earth why the hell did they show it, immediately preceding introduction of the ancient aliens theory reveal?

I do have to say I was impressed with the speed in which this movie confuses you.

[Edited on June 18, 2012 at 3:33 PM. Reason : .]

6/18/2012 3:32:33 PM

I really enjoyed the first hour of the movie or so. Then it just seemed like they said "whelp, time for people to start dying", and it turned into a B-horror/slasher movie (albeit with consistently amazing visuals). Outside of David, none of the character's actions made any sense. The plot just went full retard and it was all a bunch of poorly written excuses to kill off all the characters. If it wasn't for the production values, the whole movie would have felt right at home on the Sci-Fi channel or direct to DVD. Really really disappointing.

6/18/2012 3:55:56 PM

Really and john hurt picking up the egg made a whole bunch of scence to u?

6/18/2012 4:04:53 PM

Quote :

"I really enjoyed the first hour of the movie or so. Then it just seemed like they said "whelp, time for people to start dying", and it turned into a B-horror/slasher movie (albeit with consistently amazing visuals)"

Are you talking about Alien or Prometheus?

Quote :

"none of the character's actions made any sense"

whereas Dallas demanding safety protocol be sent straight to hell to bring a crewmember into a secured living area while he has a fucking alien sucking on his face makes total sense. or people being like "hey dude, we know you just had this alien thing with a tube down your throat, but come have dinner with us all right now and don't stay quarantined"

[Edited on June 18, 2012 at 4:08 PM. Reason : .]

6/18/2012 4:06:19 PM

Quote :

"Then it just seemed like they said "whelp, time for people to start dying", and it turned into a B-horror/slasher movie"

x 1 million. the movie was enjoyable basically up to the point where the 2 guys got left behind during the sandstorm. the plot fell flat on its face after that.

6/18/2012 4:07:41 PM

Quote :

"whereas Dallas demanding safety protocol be sent straight to hell to bring a crewmember into a secured living area while he has a fucking alien sucking on his face makes total sense. or people being like "hey dude, we know you just had this alien thing with a tube down your throat, but come have dinner with us all right now and don't stay quarantined""

Whereas in Alien this very thing you're complaining about was a major source of tension and beautifully handled in the script and acting, nothing of the sort happened in Prometheus. Even with a similar happening (hardaway getting flamed) it never gets used in a meaningful way.

In Alien it didn't make sense and was called out for not making sense. You're making our argument for us.

6/18/2012 4:22:25 PM

Quote :

"To me that seems like a cop out (by Ridley Scott, not you) because "it's earth" is essentially what the movie was pushing but it makes zero sense externally. If it wasn't earth why the hell did they show it, immediately preceding introduction of the ancient aliens theory reveal?"

It doesn't matter if it is earth or not. It is merely showing how the Engineers bring life to a planet.

And I'm with goalielax on comparing these criticisms to criticisms of Alien. You people aren't using a level playing field.

Here's another one from Alien. That damn alien bursts out of the guy's chest and chills there for at least 10-20 seconds. Meanwhile everyone just stares at it...NOBODY thinks to shut the door? GTFO. It was dumb and illogical but without it the whole movie was basically over.

6/18/2012 4:47:48 PM

If you're honestly suggesting that

"being too shocked by an alien bursting out of someone's chest to remember to shut the door even though why in the fuck would I want to be trapped in the same room as this thing anyway"

to the shit that is in Prometheus you're being ridiculous. What happened in Alien was believable consistent with the story presented. Shit like "guy who makes the 3d map that shows their position in real-time gets lost" and "biologist who is a total pussy regarding dead aliens goes all petting zoo with space snake dong" and "black goo makes tentacle alien which goes facehugger on 12 foot albino which creates something that vaguely resembles a xenomorph which may or may not be related in any way to any of the other Alien movies" make no damned sense in the context that is presented by the movie itself.

6/18/2012 4:53:46 PM

^hahaha, I'm not saying that stuff didn't bothered me (especially the bit about the geologist, who was doing the mapping, getting lost ). I'm just pointing out that everyone's precious Alien doesn't get off scott free. And given how tiny that thing was, I would have thought one of the crew would have had the professionalism to do the right thing.

6/18/2012 4:57:01 PM

The only reason I defended Alien is because it's brought up like "hey Alien sucked, so why are you surprised Prometheus sucked?" as a defense? for Prometheus.

It's an insult to Alien (which far from a perfect movie I thought had horrid pacing and unnecessary exposition but at least it's good at being a slasher film in space). It's part of what made Prometheus so completely disappointing, not actually being a prequel in spirit or any other way.

[Edited on June 18, 2012 at 5:03 PM. Reason : )]

6/18/2012 5:03:01 PM

The difference is the motivations and actions of the characters in Alien made sense. The way they all ended up getting killed also made sense, and followed a logical story arch. A space mining ship gets ordered by their company to investigate a distress signal. They find a bunch of alien vaginas which impregnates one of them. Eventually, a giant penis with teeth is "born" and ends up violently raping the entire crew to death. One chick survives by fucking the dick with a harpoon gun. The end. Even the singular plot twist made sense, which was the company actually knowing about the aliens and wanting to use them as a bio-weapon.

I mean, it's not perfect, but at least it was logically consistent from start to finish. Prometheus started off with "oooooh, ancient alien space gods", and turned into Friday the 13th complete with the retarded teenage kids (the "scientists") and Jason Voorhees (the engineer).

6/18/2012 5:07:20 PM

Need a little help here. In Alien weren't the characters glorified tow truck operators? No telling how run of the mill people might act when confronted with a crisis for which they are not prepared. I could maybe see one of them bugging out and just wanting to be with their cat... some people have very irrational bonds with their pets.

In this one they were trained scientists... I guess I could be wrong since they kept their secrets but I'd think dealing with potentially hostile alien species would be one of many things they prepared for. And the point of the biologist is that he wasn't internally consistent.

Moot points anyway. Maybe we should make a thread to nitpick the Alien franchise.

[Edited on June 18, 2012 at 6:48 PM. Reason : -]

6/18/2012 6:47:58 PM

Ppl just hatin

6/18/2012 8:02:52 PM

Hatin' utterly stupid writing, yes.

6/18/2012 8:49:04 PM

Quote :

"Overall the reviews are good. People are doing too much of an apples and oranges comparison to Alien/Aliens, which as its been stated were more "horror" leaning than this film."

I've noticed that the majority of the reviews are critical of the plot/writing. (there's Ebert's 4 stars, but he explicitly contradicts himself, so fuck his credibility)
I've noticed the primary (if not sole) point of contention in this thread is the plot/writing.

6/19/2012 4:22:48 AM

I've noticed that most people who hated Prometheus are huge Alien fanboys. Just relax, it's only a movie, and hopefully part of a new series of movies. I enjoyed it. It had it's plot holes, but what movie doesn't? It raised a lot of questions which will hopefully be answered in the next one.

Prometheus made 10x more than Alien on it's initial weekend opening, and has already surpassed Alien's Domestic Total Gross.

6/19/2012 9:13:25 AM

It made tons of money, that seals it, it was a great movie.

6/19/2012 9:28:22 AM

I think it was to point out that your favorite movie in the world didn't start out very big

6/19/2012 9:30:54 AM

You don't even read a fucking thing I've said do you? I've repeatedly said that Alien isn't the best movie, that its plot is simplistic, that its pacing is horrid. I'm even the one in this thread to point out how critically panned Alien was at the start. It's not my favorite movie. Prometheus is a shiny turd.

[Edited on June 19, 2012 at 9:38 AM. Reason : .]

6/19/2012 9:37:05 AM

I'm sorry I hurt your feelings, and yes - I read very little of what you write.

You're way too bitter for 9am in the morning

6/19/2012 9:58:19 AM

Quote :

"hey Alien sucked"

woah woah woah - I never sail alien sucked. I'm simply parsing the shit out of it since that seems to be the modus operandi around these parts and showing that it is not without fault of its own

6/19/2012 10:51:19 AM

Alien Resurrection was the best one if we're not including the AvP films.

6/19/2012 11:53:39 AM

Quote :

"woah woah woah - I never sail alien sucked. I'm simply parsing the shit out of it since that seems to be the modus operandi around these parts and showing that it is not without fault of its own"

No movie is without fault. Many movies have far less faults than Prometheus.

6/19/2012 1:01:48 PM

The reason the guy went after the cat in Alien was to make sure it wouldn't throw off their sensors. So to avoid false signals it makes sense that someone would chase after the cat.

6/19/2012 2:07:53 PM

^ Bingo.

I'm still fixated on what appear to be comparatively better decisions and analysis by a tugboat crew as opposed to a dedicated scientific exploration crew. But this all goes back to how they were written...

6/19/2012 10:20:09 PM

yes, because god forbid you accidentally kill a cat when it is one of two living things you could possibly pick up.

sorry, but going for the cat alone was complete b-movie horror shtick. the only thing that made it not totally a stereotype is that is was a white guy instead of buxom blond/token black guy getting aced

[Edited on June 19, 2012 at 10:54 PM. Reason : .]

6/19/2012 10:52:53 PM

Well shit, the cat surprised them at first and then even if the guy grabbed one of those flame throwers he still had to chase it down to torch it. The Alien surprised him so I could still see him getting chomped even if he had a weapon, especially seeing he was some redneck wrench monkey instead of a military type.

6/19/2012 11:05:33 PM

Going back for the cat was fucking stupid both times it happened in the movie. The only good thing it did was set up for the 2nd movie when Ripley calls the cat a shithead and tells it it's staying the fuck home.

6/20/2012 12:24:07 AM

I'm glad i am not the only one who thought this movie was garbage...and it started out so promising


Also C. Tharon(sp?) cant do a push up to save her life

6/20/2012 10:16:52 PM

Finally saw it last night.....

First, I'm glad I went in with tempered expectations after reading red baron 22's bitching and whining all over this thread. I mean...it was a disappointing flick. Disappointing because of what it could have been, but also disappointing in general.

And that's not to say I didn't enjoy it...because I did. It was entertaining and suspenseful in parts. But there was a lot of those times during the movie where I feel like directors/writers just go, "fuck it...lets do this and get to the next part."

I don't mind the whole "path to get to the Alien". I mean...it was a little ridiculous, but it makes sense in the part-human DNA and all that jazz. And I'm not going to go back and read through this thread, but have they completely explained the black liquid? I'm guessing that it was some sort of alien egg/amoeba that needed to be fertilized?

I wish they had explained more why it made the two guys (Holloway and the other dude) change into what they were...those ridiculously strong dudes that were trying to kill the crew (well Holloway got lit up before that happened to him).

I can see how people were upset that all this shit was going (woman having alien ripped from stomach, dudes dying left and right) and the crew didn't really react...but at the same time, shit was happening left and right and I felt like there was no time to dwell on the shit that just happened.

Also thought the ending with the scientist and David was a little cheesy and I wish they could have made the monstrous face-hugger look more like the mini-face-hugger. That thing looked like something out of Men in Black.

6/21/2012 10:23:16 AM

To expect something that is almost exactly what you wanted from the previous Alien movies is retarded.

There is nothing that requires what happened in this movie to follow everyone's pre-conceived notions about the previous alien movies or the alien life cycle that we already know about. I had absolutely no problem with what happened. Just wanted some more explanation.

6/22/2012 5:15:34 PM

Big things have small beginnings...

I found it enjoyable, if inferior to Alien and Aliens...

but hey maybe the next one will be better.

6/23/2012 1:03:52 AM

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/06/21/prometheus-questions-engineer-david/?hpt=hp_t3

In short:

Quote :

"According to the doctor, the line of alien dialog David speaks in the film “serviceably” translates as “This man is here because he does not want to die. He believes you can give him more life.” The “Man” in question is, of course, Guy Pearce’s expedition-financing Peter Weyland and, as that is pretty much a recitation of the businessman’s already established plan, it doesn’t come as a big surprise nor resolve the issue of our big white buddy’s subsequent freak-out."

6/23/2012 2:03:49 PM

http://www.the-editing-room.com/prometheus.html

if posted earlier, sorry.

6/24/2012 10:38:46 PM

Absolutely 110% spot on.

6/25/2012 1:00:55 AM

that was funny as hell, and points out most of the stupid things that I was also saying.

6/25/2012 2:45:40 AM

I can forgive a lot of plot holes, but running directly away from a giant rolling spaceship vs a 90° angle was some bugs bunny shit.

6/25/2012 11:28:11 AM

^ I don't understand why people are so caught up on that.

1) It's the heat of the moment, you're going off pure instinct there. It's not thought out.

2) 90 degrees is only slightly smarter. Sooner or later it's going to stop rolling and will likely fall, and likely at 90 degrees to one side or the other given the size and shape of the thing. At that point, you're still likely going to be under it. It would be much smarter to run at approx. 45 degrees imo. Then you just have to worry about it changing course.

3) The same people who would have instantly started running at the perfect angle away have probably never run from a giant spaceship that just crashed done toward them on an alien planet after they had just been "ejected" in an escape pod which had a pretty rough landing itself.

6/25/2012 11:43:49 AM

I'm guessing avoiding danger in the most efficient (highest probability of survival) is actually something animals have instinctually. A tree is falling toward you. Your first inclination will be to run backwards?

6/25/2012 12:44:54 PM

^ yet I see road kill almost every day.

I think you're make a helluva assumption there. Fear can make be think/behave very irrationally. Some people freeze in a moment like that, some would run at 45 degree angle and just look in awe as such a massive object moved passed them, others... others may run right in-line with it. Some me recall a hoolahoop from their childhood and remember that they never roll in a straight line indefinitely. It may go straight for a bit, but it wall for to it's side sooner or later.

6/25/2012 5:37:34 PM

....what?

6/25/2012 8:54:16 PM

as a casual sci-fi watcher, did not enjoy

6/25/2012 9:45:04 PM

^^^
I wasn't arguing that every organism in the world has a 100% success rate at avoiding danger. I was just countering your point that animals don't have instinctual heuristics for determining the most likely avenue for avoiding danger.

Quote :

"Fear can make be think/behave very irrationally."

I'm not saying that they stop to work out the math for the most optimum way to avoid danger. Flight response isn't rational. I'm saying that determining the more optimum "away" when "running away" is instinctual. Granted, there might be some threats which our ancestors weren't sufficiently exposed to and we could even instinctually be misled in those cases, but 'tall object falling towards me' is pretty much a no-brainer.

It's nit-picky, but it's nonsensical and only served the purpose to kill off the character that was invented to provide nothing real to the plot anyway. It seemed contrived for the story not emergent from the story, like pretty much everything in the movie.

6/26/2012 10:25:25 AM

So I watched that scene in the movie and paid extra close attention to it just because you guys bitched about it and...

It looked to me like the ship was falling at an angle...not straight. Because the ship itself was curved. The two ladies looked like they were trying to run diagonally away and not just straight. Should they have gone at more of a right angle? Sure. But I also think a direct right angle is not the best to way to run...because you still want to get away from the closest part...so a sharper diagonal direction makes sense. They could have done a better job with it....but it wasn't as bad as you're making it out to be.

6/26/2012 10:32:49 AM

In actuality the *most optimum* path depends heavily on
-how far away the object is
-how fast is it coming toward you
-how fast you can move

Perpendicular to its direction is the most optimum path *if* you can get there before it reaches you. At the moment I'm not sure whether any other path would even be viable because if it's moving so quickly that you can't make it the shortest possible difference how in the hell are you going to outrun it at all to make up the distance? I'm sure we could figure it out with some math and I think it's likely that a slightly non-orthogonal path would be optimum in this case but I don't feel like doing the math.

It really is a bullshit argument; the movie sucks for a lot more reasons than "they killed off a useless character in a vaguely non-nonsensical way".

6/26/2012 11:19:21 AM

Goddamn you guys are dorks

6/26/2012 11:22:53 AM

what have I started here

6/26/2012 11:26:42 AM

If Ken and I can't see this together, I hope he can at least see it by himself while it is still in the theater.

6/26/2012 2:22:07 PM

I love how most of the users that have seen it more than once were the ones that "hated" it.

6/26/2012 4:27:17 PM