Prometheus (Post-release)

Nwerke said:

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Incidentally, there's an annoying line of dialogue from Holloway as they first approach the temple, asking Fifield if he can tell whether it's artificial, and he says 'no idea but I can tell you it is hollow'. It's FRICKING OBVIOUSLY artificial. But some of the concept art is basically a naturalistic hill with a head on top. So I guess this line is a holdover.

I thought so as well, as was the line the captain delivered later calling it a pyramid, which is in the very early concept art.

Jeyl said:

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So a gigantic explosion plus a heavy collision on the ground that doesn't shake things up on the inside (David's head doesn't move) and doesn't leave a scratch on the hull somehow renders the ship completely useless. That's like having a bullet proof vest successfully stop a bullet from entering your chest, but your heart still got ruptured from the shot.

Terrible analogy. Nwerke already responded to that one, but if you missed the fact that the ship was very much a mess inside, clearly damaged, and that everything, including David had moved, that goes right to what we have been pointing out about some of the hair brained criticisms we are seeing. Especially considering many of the people who are pointing out some of the true flaws, however minor, are the same people making the most bone headed accusations that really indicate they were truly not paying any attention to the film. It makes for an interesting social study, and goes to show that there are huge differences in how people watch films.

Kerr Avon said:

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Except Alien is considered a horror classic. I guarantee only those who are Scott apologists will consider this bungled mess a classic years from now.

blipper said:

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Alien and Blade Runner *are* two perfect Ridley Scott films. There. I said it.

blipper said:

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I am genuinely interested to hear what "clunkers a plenty" appear in both those movies. I can barely think of any minor clunker let alone the level of WTF? that pulls you out repeatedly as in Prometheus.

How about the fact that the egg room in the derelict ship could not have possibly been inside the ship based on the movements of the characters, or when Ash somehow magically appears inside the Mother control room when he clearly was not there before, and there was no sound from the very loud door opening to let him in, simply done for the sake of a big scare when he startles Ripley. Or Brett's magical "tracking device" that he just slaps together from some parts laying around as a convenient plot device, or the fact that they needed giant tanks of COOLANT for some reason to run the shuttle, the fact that steam was blowing everywhere when the self destruct mechanism was running, the fact that there was a SELF DESTRUCT mechanism on a mining tug, the silliness of having a harpoon gun in the shuttlecraft, flamethrowers, et cetera, et cetera...

I could go on and on, and I could make a list like that of dozens of "flaws" in practically any of my favorite sci-fi films, including Blade Runner (the stupidity of that voice over!). I can easily come up with logical solutions to these apparent plot and logic holes (and have), but I don't need to because it is not necessary to enjoy the brilliance of one of my all time favorite films. Alien is just a "B" sci-fi horror film at it's core, with plenty of mistakes, but it was brilliantly done and I love it. The same with Blade Runner, and now Prometheus.

Seems reaction to Scott's sci-fi films each follow the same pattern, and no doubt in my mind Prometheus will be considered a classic in years to come. It took nearly 20 years for people to come around to seeing Blade Runner as such.

Nwerke said:

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kit Rae "I invite anyone to watch the movie again and pay attention to the scene just before Fifield and Milburn's supposed "lost" scene, and who they talk to literally seconds later, then ask yourself again if you think they were lost?"
I did, but...yeah, they were lost. "....naaah...ship's good" "Yeah - ship is good" <flee>

Well, I don't want to nitpick and write out all the elapsed time in detail, but we are only taking about a span of a few minutes here, and people have made a huge debate over it. Based on the hologram layout and scale, it was only about a ten minute walk to the outside, 5 minutes at a run, and another 2 in the vehicles. Fifield and Milburn had a four minute lead, walking. As I watched the hologram in the film, from the temple/ampule room I counted two rooms the whole party had passed through and what looked like two side passages along the main hall where they came in. Shaw and co had 15 minutes to get back, which they did. The captain then asks where Fifield and Milburn are. In the span 9 minutes or so they had to get to the outside they could have only missed one or two of those two turns, and probably just barely missed the others running out by one hallway and a few hundred feet.

So maybe 2-3 minutes of being "lost" (one poster here said they were lost for 30 minutes and how could no one one the ship have known?). That's not exactly what I would call lost, but the two were not very bright, and written as such. The captain rolls his eyes (idiots) upon hearing they did not come back with the others and is immediately on the comm to them delivering the line "Between the static electricity and the wind speed, there aint no safe way to come and get you. The temperature is dropping, so get your helmets on and stay warm until the storm passes."

This has nothing to do with them being lost, but the captain said something about "enough static to fry your suit" as Shaw was packing the head .There were no shots of the hologram in the entire evacuation scene, but the monitors the captain and the crew are looking at indicate the storm front that had just hit them and was playing havoc with the electronics, most likely the hologram transmission as well. The captain also delivers the line later to Fifield "the signal has been coming in sporadically since the storm hit". The film is packed with tons of detail like this.

Mola Rob said:

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Really any movie can be dissected to an amazing degree. I love Aliens but there are some really dumb moments that I have chosen to ignore.

Ferro telling Spunkmeyer to ignore the alien goo he just stuck his hand in after they left the dropship ramp open for god knows how long on a planet that possibly contains very hostile life forms.

The plans of the complex that either doesn’t contain details on the area above the ceiling or that no one bothered to look at too closely.


Burke releasing not one but two very fast facehuggers from the tubes without getting the head squeeze. What did he use, a long pole?

The number of aliens seems to exceed the number of colonists. Were there twins?

The fact that Hudson just won’t shut the hell up.

The APC that’s clearly bigger on the inside than the outside.

I guess it just depends on how closely you want to look at a particular movie.

1. Ferro didn't know about the Alien goo, She just needed him to get to his pilot seat so they could go, Spunkmeyer never got the chance to tell her why he was delayed

2. the rafters probably weren't in the plans as there would really be no need for them to be

3.Burke could have placed both containers upright then pushed them over at the same time and ran out of the room...The falling containers would disorient the Facehuggers enough, along with the push of the water, and give him enough time to close the door

4. there were over 150 colonists... I don't think we seen that many

5. no, Hudson never shuts up

6. and yes, the APC is bigger on the inside

The same criticisms of the Prometheus crew can be directed to most of the Nostromo crew. Like Brett and Parker graduated top of the class at Starfleet, show me the money, Lambert, over the moon about exploring an Alien vehicle, Why me?, Dallas showed great courage and level headedness in his final moments, I wanna get the hell outta here. That leaves Ripley and Ash, hmmmm.
That seemed to go over fairly well though.

How could i forget Kane? His actions speak for themselves.

Some interesting snippets from reviews.

“It is depressing to watch an expensive, crafty movie that never soars beyond its cold desire to score the big bucks.”

"empty bag of tricks whose production values and expensive trickery cannot disguise imaginative poverty"

"There is very little involvement with the characters themselves ... A generally good cast in cardboard roles."

"Still, a lot of people are going to resent being put through the mill for a silly movie. And in a way, I agree with them. If only it were as sophisticated as it looks. I'm getting a little tired of movies that honor genre conventions with such humility that they're unwilling to expand upon them. Couldn't the film have stretched a little? Couldn't it have explored the psychology of its characters or maybe nosed into their relationships? The worst of it is that the film keeps falling back on the hoariest monster-movie cliches, for no apparent reason other than to do them homage."

"Has the usual number of inconsistencies, improbabilities and outright absurdities characteristic of the sci-fi and horror genres. What is interesting, though, is its hostile critical reception, despite the excellent visual values, direction that is no more hokey than usual in such films, dialogue that (when it is decipherable) is par for the course."

"The price paid for the excitement, and it's a small one, is that there is very little involvement with the characters themselves"

"Forget Plot and characters, nuance and social signifiicance; these sci-fi movies overwhelm you with production values alone -- sets, props, lighting and photography: the spectacle of the fanciful turned convincing"

“There’s nothing terribly complex or original about the movie, but it is distinguished by its clever and innovative use of B-movie staples in a hi-tech setting.”

"Though it is not the seminal science-fiction film one wants from him, it's executed with a good deal of no-nonsense verve. The members of the cast... the roles might have been written by a computer.

"It does not sound like anything new...voracious alien who is defeated at last moment...Script has more loose ends than the Pittsburgh Steelers.

"In outline, this tale....sounds just plain silly, and the story line here is no more sophisticated than dozens of Star Trek and Outer Limits TV shows."

"Skulking about in space suits that a 19th-century futurist might have dreamed up --chivalric armor topped by a Jules Verne bubble"

"sets and special effects are well done, but these things no longer surprise or tantalize us as they once did"

"What is missing is wit, imagination and the vaguest hint of human feeling. Luckily for the creators, such ingredients are not really essential at the nation's box offices, especially during the sunstroke season."

"An overblown B-movie... technically impressive but awfully portentous and as difficult to sit through as a Black Mass sung in Latin"

"(the film) is an extremely small, rather decent movie of its modest kind, set inside a large, extremely fancy physical production. Don't race to it expecting wit or metaphysical pretentions"

"Since the movie's generally good actors all play equally bland technicians, it is hard to make an emotional investment...Indeed, the film's characters are so lifeless that one begins to wonder whether they might not be parodies of space-age bureaucrats. If so, the satire is far too flat to be its own reward."

"you wonder if the director's lost his mind"

Those are all for the original Alien, by the way