All I know is I felt bad when Brett, Parker and others were lost, you we're rooting for them to beat that mother. They felt real to me, time was spent showing a realistic human side. Around the table while eating, griping about day to day job issues, expressing a sense of humor. Your freaked out while Dallas is crawling around in darkness. Dallas had a real presence as the ships Captain. Real horror when you see that damn thing for two seconds with arms outstreched, Lambert near total breakdown really sold several scenes on a very human base level. And it all still works today.
Prometheus didn't connect at all like that with me.
I didn't feel sympathetic towards the crew. Most of them were annoying and I was just waiting for them to go.
I watched Alien last night...I actually thought Parker was a pretty well rounded character.
Until the scene when he is HOLDING a flamethrower, with a CLEAR chance to kill the Alien, and what does he do? Let me tackle this thing, OOPS...bad idea Alien ***** slapped him and he's dead.
Compared to that, trying to pet a small penis alien is peanuts.
Lambert was in the way.
Couldn't disagree more.
I will be the first to admit, I don't think Alien (or Blade Runner) are quite as great as many here seem to think.
I didn't feel sympathetic towards the crew. Most of them were annoying and I was just waiting for them to go.
Dallas was the ONLY truly likable character in my opinion. The rest just felt like Jerry Springer style white-trash (yes, Parker is black, but you know what I mean).
Lambert was in the way.
Lambert was in the way.
Don't forget the foreign take which is $97,736,717 more than the U.S. for a total $167,219,717.
Alien was 203 million for 1979 and Aliens was 183 million for its total 1986 worldwide gross, so Prometheus will easily get in that range. Considering about 30% of that was for the more expensive 3D ticket, that's not bad at all. Prometheus' profit margin is much different than the others though, but DVD/BR sales are so much more a part of a films gross these days. If the BR/DVD release comes out prior to Christmas, another 30-40 million will easily get tacked on.
Fast investor return is important, but the studio looks at the larger long term picture as well. The series has already earned them well over a billion just in theatrical sales, over 2 billion including home media and licensing.
Dallas, Kane, Parker, Lambert, Brett, Ripley.
If anyone 30 years from now refers to the characters of Prometheus by name instead of "the biologist", "the stoner geologist", "the captain", "pilot #1", "pilot #2", "nurse ratchet", "charlize", etc...
I promise to print out this entire thread and eat it with my soylent green.