nightrider
Sr Member
You're probably right. I do have a tendency to over-think things sometimes. 
Prometheus (Post-release)
- Thread starter Vivek
- Start date
Too Much Garlic
Master Member
Holloway (damn... THAT's his name... can never remember it) ingested it and it was only a small drop. Fifield got soaked in it - he may not have ingested it, but it got all over his skin and could therefore react differently, which is why he mutated, rather than break apart on a cellular level.
Inside out versus outside in.
Knightjar
Sr Member
Forgive me for no doubt repeating points that have already been made but I've been avoiding threads and reviews so as to make up my own mind, and haven't had time to catch up on the past 48 pages. Just saw it at the London IMAX.
As we came out my partner said 'you look really angry'. I hadn't realised until she said it, but that's exactly how I felt. I had really wanted to like this movie and although the trailers had me nervous about what it was going to do with the Alien back-story, I was looking forward to it.
As it turns out, it was exactly as I'd feared, it sets out completely to demystify Alien. The Space Jockey and alien ship were always a wonderfully alien enigma. Revealing that the Space Jockey is
is the equivalent of finding out that
The real shame is that it didn't need to be tied into Alien at all. The underlying Chariots of the Gods concept was perfectly self-contained without being used to undermine the mystery and magic of a classic story.
The characters were unforgivably under-developed. There were so many throw-away people in the crew that you didn't care about any of them. At the climax, the two supporting characters whose sacrifice should have been heroic meant nothing as we had no idea who they were; they'd only had about two lines each for the rest of the movie. Other character elements were jammed in clumsily
The 3D was unnecessary and at times distracting. Just because it's a 3D movie doesn't mean that planets need to hover in front of the starfield; they're so far away that there should be no parallax and so the illusion of scale is shattered. Some movies need 3D - Avatar is flat and rather silly without 3D to transport you to its other world. Other movies use it seamlessly as a cinematic tool - Avengers Assemble used it beautifully and subtlety. With the exception of the opening scenes and the dramatic effect of the ship rotating in relation to the planet, it was pretty much irrelevant in Prometheus.
The final scene was cheap and silly. It might as well have used the Newborn from Resurrection.
And finally just to twist the knife, the damn alien ship flies backwards. I'm sorry, but in my mind, it's always been meant to go with the pointy bits facing forwards!
Having said all that, if I can separate it from my view of Alien, as I have AvP and the last third of Resurrection, I might enjoy it better a second time. I disliked AvP when I first saw it but with subsequent viewings it has grown on me and I can enjoy it as a fun adventure, entirely removed from either of its source universes.
As we came out my partner said 'you look really angry'. I hadn't realised until she said it, but that's exactly how I felt. I had really wanted to like this movie and although the trailers had me nervous about what it was going to do with the Alien back-story, I was looking forward to it.
As it turns out, it was exactly as I'd feared, it sets out completely to demystify Alien. The Space Jockey and alien ship were always a wonderfully alien enigma. Revealing that the Space Jockey is
just a guy in a suit
Santa Claus is just your parents
The real shame is that it didn't need to be tied into Alien at all. The underlying Chariots of the Gods concept was perfectly self-contained without being used to undermine the mystery and magic of a classic story.
The characters were unforgivably under-developed. There were so many throw-away people in the crew that you didn't care about any of them. At the climax, the two supporting characters whose sacrifice should have been heroic meant nothing as we had no idea who they were; they'd only had about two lines each for the rest of the movie. Other character elements were jammed in clumsily
'I can't have kids.' 'Oh look, you're impregnating me.'
The 3D was unnecessary and at times distracting. Just because it's a 3D movie doesn't mean that planets need to hover in front of the starfield; they're so far away that there should be no parallax and so the illusion of scale is shattered. Some movies need 3D - Avatar is flat and rather silly without 3D to transport you to its other world. Other movies use it seamlessly as a cinematic tool - Avengers Assemble used it beautifully and subtlety. With the exception of the opening scenes and the dramatic effect of the ship rotating in relation to the planet, it was pretty much irrelevant in Prometheus.
The final scene was cheap and silly. It might as well have used the Newborn from Resurrection.
And finally just to twist the knife, the damn alien ship flies backwards. I'm sorry, but in my mind, it's always been meant to go with the pointy bits facing forwards!
Having said all that, if I can separate it from my view of Alien, as I have AvP and the last third of Resurrection, I might enjoy it better a second time. I disliked AvP when I first saw it but with subsequent viewings it has grown on me and I can enjoy it as a fun adventure, entirely removed from either of its source universes.
Too Much Garlic
Master Member
I never thought it would fly like that. Always saw those as tail struts.
Knightjar
Sr Member
And we were both perfectly happy in our assumptions. All the more reason it should have been left a mystery!
blipper
Sr Member
I guess it's only reasonable to assume that if Scott could evoke a compelling suggestion from a static sculpture in Alien then he might bring something equally compelling and inventive from them actually moving.
I'm with you Knightjar - I thought the idea of the derelict moving prongs forward seemed fitting with a vessel so peculiar. I definitely think the last shot of the 'juggernaut' - crewed by a human - blasting into space at the end was depressingly much more in line with Star Trek or Star Wars fantasy sci-fi than the much more interesting 'real' based speculative sci-fi of Alien etc.
For what it's worth I always found this guys analysis (before Prometheus) of the derelict/alien really well researched and thought out and it's worth a read if you want to maintain the Alien mindset.
The Genius of the Derelict
Knightjar
Sr Member
Thank you, that sums it up nicely.
Too Much Garlic
Master Member
One thing about that article just reads really strange.
All the other pods where the eggs are have had the blue laser shut off to kill the eggs, but leaving one still on. Could be a malfunction in shutting them all down, could be it had to be done manually and the jockey ran out of time, but had still sent the warning. Clearly, the above is just speculation, but I can see intent in shutting those pods down... or... they just shut down when the derelict crashed. Who knows.
If Nostromo managed to fully decode the message, as mentioned in point 11... then the shuttle would have that in its memory and W-Y would know everything when Ripley returned to civilization. Nice.
Kit Rae
Sr Member
I always assumed the pilot had accidentally become infected while taking the eggs somewhere, then he landed the ship on that moon and set up the warning signal before being killed when the Alien was birthed. The blue barrier/energy field things in the other parts of the cargo bay had simply burnt out of thousands of years.
Nothing in Prometheus has changed that, it just gave a better focus on why the guy would have had these things in his cargo.
Nothing in Prometheus has changed that, it just gave a better focus on why the guy would have had these things in his cargo.
SmilingOtter
Master Member
I always thought the laser was there to warn the crew if something was leaving the hold, not warning the eggs about something coming in...
And add me to the list of folks who thought the ship flew prongs forward.
And add me to the list of folks who thought the ship flew prongs forward.
Except that the alien is now just a suit that some hairless human wears.
:behave
No, I am not going to let this one go.
blipper
Sr Member
lol! Kit are you sure you're not on Scott's payroll? -
POSTER: you know I'm not so sure I like the house being painted red.
KIT: It's much better now
POSTER: I liked the patterns that were there before it was painted over.
KIT: You're just not looking at it in the right way
POSTER: I'm pretty sure I was happy with the patterns before.
KIT: The painter knows what he's doing
POSTER: No, I definitely prefer what the original painter achieved, there was something quite interesting going on before.
KIT: Those things are still there. Under the paint
POSTER: I can barely see any more what's under the new paint. Only the new paint.
KIT: The new paint has improved upon the old paint. It's very clever
POSTER: But the guy's made a bit of a sloppy job on the whole - there's drips here and there and he didn't even bother to finish the porch.
KIT: That 'sloppiness' is in fact a mysterious puzzle for us to ponder
POSTER: Hmmm.. it looks like it was painted by an idiot.
KIT: That's not poor workmanship, it was deliberately painted to look like it was done by an idiot.
POSTER: Eh?
KIT:
------------------------------------------------
POSTER: you know I'm not so sure I like the house being painted red.
KIT: It's much better now
POSTER: I liked the patterns that were there before it was painted over.
KIT: You're just not looking at it in the right way
POSTER: I'm pretty sure I was happy with the patterns before.
KIT: The painter knows what he's doing
POSTER: No, I definitely prefer what the original painter achieved, there was something quite interesting going on before.
KIT: Those things are still there.
Under the paint POSTER: I can barely see any more what's under the new paint. Only the new paint.
KIT: The new paint has improved upon the old paint. It's very clever
POSTER: But the guy's made a bit of a sloppy job on the whole - there's drips here and there and he didn't even bother to finish the porch.
KIT: That 'sloppiness' is in fact a mysterious puzzle for us to ponder
POSTER: Hmmm.. it looks like it was painted by an idiot.
KIT: That's not poor workmanship, it was deliberately painted to look like it was done by an idiot.
POSTER: Eh?
KIT:
------------------------------------------------
AggieChick42
Active Member
You're probably right. I do have a tendency to over-think things sometimes.
Apparently we ALL do lol look at this thread it's a few pages long!
Why do we take this awesome looking creature and just write it off as a suit? Why couldn't it have been an actual biomechanical being who was created for the sole purpose to run the ship? Kind of like a pilot version of Siri. You tell it to go somewhere and it will take care of everything. At least that would have added more to the whole engineers being creators of life and using them for their own goals.
It's disappointing that when the original ALIEN tried to hide the actual alien creature because they didn't want to make it look like just some guy in a suit, they took the most alien looking thing and literally turned it into just some guy in a suit.
It's disappointing that when the original ALIEN tried to hide the actual alien creature because they didn't want to make it look like just some guy in a suit, they took the most alien looking thing and literally turned it into just some guy in a suit.
lol! Kit are you sure you're not on Scott's payroll? -
------------------------------------------------
POSTER: you know I'm not so sure I like the house being painted red.
KIT: It's much better now
POSTER: I liked the patterns that were there before it was painted over.
KIT: You're just not looking at it in the right way
POSTER: I'm pretty sure I was happy with the patterns before.
KIT: The painter knows what he's doing
POSTER: No, I definitely prefer what the original painter achieved, there was something quite interesting going on before.
KIT: Those things are still there.
POSTER: I can barely see any more what's under the new paint. Only the new paint.
KIT: The new paint has improved upon the old paint. It's very clever
POSTER: But the guy's made a bit of a sloppy job on the whole - there's drips here and there and he didn't even bother to finish the porch.
KIT: That 'sloppiness' is in fact a mysterious puzzle for us to ponder
POSTER: Hmmm.. it looks like it was painted by an idiot.
KIT: That's not poor workmanship, it was deliberately painted to look like it was done by an idiot.
POSTER: Eh?
KIT:
------------------------------------------------
Classic, thats it in a nutshell. :lol
Yes. The Space Jockey was creepy and things like that put ALIEN past anything that had come before. It really put the alien into that word again. Giger's unique biomechanical fusion of machines and organic into one being was extremely impactful and disturbing. Here was this strange alien being already with exoskeleton and all, fused into a chair.
So strange.. alien.
Now that has been undone. It's just a suit, helmet and a chair that is effectively a fancy seatbelt.
Last edited:
Kit Rae
Sr Member
lol! Kit are you sure you're not on Scott's payroll?
It was probably not wise of me to point the issues I had with Prometheus, especially that tacked on ending, was it? Not to mention the bone-headed flaws in Alien and Blade Runner that I did earlier in this thread. :facepalm Crap, now I'm fired!:facepalm
Similar threads
