Prometheus

[VKhaun]

So I finally just watched this, and I have to say I don't get what all the hate was about. It was a great Sci-Fi movie. The plot was naturally fast moving and the things that articles and people refer to as 'questions' or 'left unexplained' always occurred at perfectly natural times like when their biologist was man down or when they were all running to get back before the storm. No one explores anything, certainly not a structure, one tiny step at a time analyzing everything. Of course they go past things in the hallway, ITS A HALLWAY, they naturally want to look into rooms first and get a general feel for the area.

The only thing I didn't like was after Shaw's little operation. I felt like she went forward from that in an unrealistic way. If you want to say she was a fighter, survivalist, strong... driven... I get all that for the major plot but some of the things that came directly after made no sense. The whole conversation while the guy was being pampered was just really out of place. She should not have given two shits about him or any of that and just wanted a shower and a good twelve hours in a bed. It was just completely forced so that she could find out info that compelled her to stay up and go back with them. They should have seen the awkwardness of that transition at the storyboard phase and moved her finding out to BEFORE the whole medical issue came about.

Aside from that one or two scenes the whole movie paced well, kept me interested, and was cool as shit.

It also had an excellent real world ending where the characters themselves got an ending rather than the whole fiction being wrapped up cleanly like most movies. The ones who survive the movie do so moving forward with clear purpose that takes them away from everything else going on both physically and mentally, but the setting itself is still active with everything the movie touched on still expanding outward.

I give it five space suit bongs, out of five.





The reason I blog post is actually Zavon's repost of a reddit post in another thread. They mentioned MMO players messing up MMO's by demanding mistakes be repeated so they can hate the new games all over again for the same reasons. I immediately thought to myself that this was human nature and not special for MMO's but I couldn't think of an example. Sci-Fi and Horror movies now present me with a good one.

We constantly expect movies to 'make sense' but then we always hate those stupid scenes where someone happens to be an expert on the thing at hand and explains everything. The fake science. The nerd cliches. Prometheus was an MMO done right and the articles and reviews i'd seen of it were a reddit subsection of self destructive idiots who want every movie to be another Blade or Deep Blue Sea where the world is small and everything is nice and neat.

[Zoobi]

Don't be hatin' on my blade yo. Haven't seen it yet so I skipped most of your post, but I'm glad we got a positive review out of someone.

[Alex Mars]

The movie sucked because it can be summed up as "stupid people doing stupid things".

[Bragi]

The movie sucked because it can be summed up as "stupid people doing stupid things".

So... just like every other suspense/thriller/horror movie ever since the beginning of storytelling?

I thought it was a good movie. My objection to the movie came from the pre-release hype of Ridley Scott saying that it wasn't a prequel for Alien. If Prometheus wasn't a prequel for Alien, then I am clearly the Queen of England.

[Draconian]

I haven't watched it yet but plan to because.. regardless of the quality of the story, I just effing love the way Ridley Scott shoots movies. I love the tone, the look, the feel... even if they're so-so movies as a whole, I love watching em!

[Valec]

The movie sucked because it can be summed up as "stupid people doing stupid things".

Pretty much.

So... just like every other suspense/thriller/horror movie ever since the beginning of storytelling?

I thought it was a good movie. My objection to the movie came from the pre-release hype of Ridley Scott saying that it wasn't a prequel for Alien. If Prometheus wasn't a prequel for Alien, then I am clearly the Queen of England.

Riiiiight.. but not the other Alien movies. So you'll have to forgive everybody when they get disappointed at this 'classic' sort of story.

It was an entertaining movie in it's own right. I'm not an Alien fanboy so honestly, I didn't mind it that much. However it was pretty that obvious anybody who was really into the franchise would be pissed after watching Prometheus.

[Boxy Brown]

I said it in the other thread, I'll say it in this one. I liked Prometheus.

It's no Casablanca, but I don't understand how it got such a negative vibe going.

[Bragi]

Riiiiight.. but not the other Alien movies. So you'll have to forgive everybody when they get disappointed at this 'classic' sort of story.

As your contention is that the rest of the Aliens franchise does not consist of "stupid people doing stupid things," allow me to demonstrate with a brief case study of Aliens (James Cameron 1986). The entirety of Aliens is a series of moronic decisions until there's only the core group of semi-intelligent people remaining:

They send just one platoon to a planet that has gone mysteriously dark. I'm not saying send the whole army, but certainly send more than 16 or so people.

Once they've seen the damage caused by the aliens in the facility, which surprises and alarms them, instead of returning to base to assess what to do next, they continue on without a plan.

Once they cross from the facility into the nest, again, instead of falling back and coming up with a plan they instead bag up all of their ammo and continue into hostile territory without weapons to defend themselves with.

They let a woman with no military background and about as much experience with the aliens as they all now have take charge after the incompetent lieutenant is killed.

They leave the back of the drop ship open and post one unarmed sentry to guard it.

They've all seen how easily the aliens are able to climb up walls and hide, yet they only barricade the door. No one thinks to check above the ceiling tiles (or below the floor grating, for that matter) to make sure that there aren't any access points there as well.

They don't immediately blast the facehuggers that are still alive in those specimen jars.

They keep Paul Reiser alive. Period.

They let Newt fall into the sewer in extremely weak fashion. Watch that scene again and try your hardest not to say, "fuck it, just leave her, she clearly doesn't want to live."

When Ripley confronts the alien queen, she lobs grenades and the flamethrower at everything except the queen herself. Unless of course you count the egg sack. Do you know what that's like? That's like shooting the goddamn alien queen in the egg sack, but leaving the alien queen herself intact. Why not lob that last grenade straight at her chest or head? Why not lob the first grenade at her chest or head?

Ripley knows the queen is coming after her, barely escaping when Bishop brings the drop ship around, and when they get back onboard the mothership, don't do a quick visual inspection to, y'know, make sure the queen didn't latch on just like what happened to Ripley at the end of the first movie.

And I assume you've seen Aliens 3 and 4.

Now, I understand the reasoning behind all of this stupidity--if people in these movies were competent, there would be no drama because as soon as you find clear and convincing evidence that the entire colony is toast anyway, you obviously just fly back up to the ship and commence with the orbital bombardment. But then the movie would only be 20 minutes long.

[ofrm1]

I remember this one summary line when browsing reviews of this movie on rottentomatoes:

"Questions go unanswered, shocking occurences go unquestioned, and supposedly intelligent people do stupid things."

This movie was directed by a genius and written by a 6th grader. That said, even Ridley Scott can't hide the horrible writing in this movie.

It's not a prequel because it's a tangent from the story. Prometheus takes place on LV-223. Alien and aliens takes place on LV-426. Prometheus will likely further deviate from the alien storyline because of this.

And I assume you've seen Aliens 3 and 4.

rofl

[Valec]

As your contention is that the rest of the Aliens franchise does not consist of "stupid people doing stupid things," allow me to demonstrate with a brief case study of Aliens (James Cameron 1986). The entirety of Aliens is a series of moronic decisions until there's only the core group of semi-intelligent people remaining:

They send just one platoon to a planet that has gone mysteriously dark. I'm not saying send the whole army, but certainly send more than 16 or so people.

Once they've seen the damage caused by the aliens in the facility, which surprises and alarms them, instead of returning to base to assess what to do next, they continue on without a plan.

Once they cross from the facility into the nest, again, instead of falling back and coming up with a plan they instead bag up all of their ammo and continue into hostile territory without weapons to defend themselves with.

They let a woman with no military background and about as much experience with the aliens as they all now have take charge after the incompetent lieutenant is killed.

They leave the back of the drop ship open and post one unarmed sentry to guard it.

They've all seen how easily the aliens are able to climb up walls and hide, yet they only barricade the door. No one thinks to check above the ceiling tiles (or below the floor grating, for that matter) to make sure that there aren't any access points there as well.

They don't immediately blast the facehuggers that are still alive in those specimen jars.

They keep Paul Reiser alive. Period.

They let Newt fall into the sewer in extremely weak fashion. Watch that scene again and try your hardest not to say, "fuck it, just leave her, she clearly doesn't want to live."

When Ripley confronts the alien queen, she lobs grenades and the flamethrower at everything except the queen herself. Unless of course you count the egg sack. Do you know what that's like? That's like shooting the goddamn alien queen in the egg sack, but leaving the alien queen herself intact. Why not lob that last grenade straight at her chest or head? Why not lob the first grenade at her chest or head?

Ripley knows the queen is coming after her, barely escaping when Bishop brings the drop ship around, and when they get back onboard the mothership, don't do a quick visual inspection to, y'know, make sure the queen didn't latch on just like what happened to Ripley at the end of the first movie.

And I assume you've seen Aliens 3 and 4.

Now, I understand the reasoning behind all of this stupidity--if people in these movies were competent, there would be no drama because as soon as you find clear and convincing evidence that the entire colony is toast anyway, you obviously just fly back up to the ship and commence with the orbital bombardment. But then the movie would only be 20 minutes long.

Yet Prometheus is so much worse in this regard that it's extremely easy to forget those failings in Alien/Aliens. Because, in comparison, the other two movies are perfect, while Prometheus is just another sci-fi flick.

I want to stress that in no way do I consider myself an actual fan of the franchise. But I really feel like it's pretty obvious how much worse Prometheus was.

[Bragi]

It's really not that obvious.

[Marou]

I remember this one summary line when browsing reviews of this movie on rottentomatoes:

"Questions go unanswered, shocking occurences go unquestioned, and supposedly intelligent people do stupid things."

That sums it up perfectly. It had great production values, visuals, and pacing, with a shockingly bad plot.

[Sillywilly]

Prometheus finally came out on DVD here. I was disappointed. Honestly I was disappointed the moment I heard it was a part of the Aliens universe. I was hoping for something unique that would have a creative story about the origins of man, etc. It was pretty much your typical run of the mill aliens are popping out of my stomach flick. I tried not to hold my pre-disappointment against it. For what it was it wasn't any worse than most sci-fi flicks, which is in fact, supposedly intelligent people doing incredibly dumbassed things.

However anyone in denial that this was NOT an Aliens prequel is smoking crack. I mean for god sake, if not for one of the main ending sequences in this movie there would have been no alien flicks period. (lore wise). It's like saying a movie about Sauron first forging the one ring isn't a prequel to the Lord of the Rings.

[draybook]

Prometheus sucked.