Thanks for the Spaihts link. Light on ideas but a very much more the traditional "Alien" story and prequel as we all suspected it would be. More definitely a one act though,and less interesting for that, despite the beams of light at the end. It makes me suspect that they must have really worked out whats going to happen for the other two films for the changes to been drafted so differently with the inclusion of Lindelofs rewriting. I guess we will have to wait three years to find out. Isn't Star Wars VII out the same time??? Damn this forum is going to be busy!
Prometheus (Post-release)
- Thread starter Vivek
- Start date
Kit Rae
Sr Member
Spaith's wrote some great scenes in his script, and he really fleshed out Shaw and Holloway's research. The scenes where she recreates the Engineers iris were really interesting. Too bad at least a little but of that did not make it into the final film. I like his med pod scene better than what was in the finished film too, but overall his script is just a somewhat boring rehash of everything that has been done before in an alien film. The characters are very generic. Even David was just Ash rehashed, with a bit more time to do the company's bidding.
It's interesting that just about everything Lindeloff was blamed for was written by Spaiths.
It's interesting that just about everything Lindeloff was blamed for was written by Spaiths.
I outright reject the review from wegotthiscovered. We may be nothing more than an experiment for the Engineers, but we aren't cattle for the aliens. That is just silly, mainly for the reasons cutthumb pointed out above.
Jedi2016
Sr Member
I had a feeling that might happen. I've been waiting for a while now to see if we'd get a look at Spaiths' script.
Yeah, I wouldn't even consider that. It was stated pretty clearly in the film itself, that the Engineers nurtured us along, until something happened that made them want to destroy us. Spaiths' script was even more clear on that point.
The biggest problem I see with the WGTC theory is that it's still trying to link back to Alien. People seem to think that the third film (assuming it ever gets made) will end with the scene that everyone thought Prometheus was going to end with.. the death of the Space Jockey and the crash of the derelict on LV-426, and the transmission of the signal that would bring Nostromo.
No, NO, NO.
Lindelhof said it best.. I'm tired of seeing prequels where I already know how it's going to end. Prometheus went off in an entirely different direction, and I for one would be perfectly happy to never see anything else even remotely linking back to Alien. Ever. No more xenos, no more ultramorphs, no more facehuggers, no more eggs, no nothing. Let's see something new for a change. By all accounts, that's the way SRS wants to go with it from here. More power to him.
Ironic considering that Prometheus is still a prequel and we know how it was going end.
Discovery of the Space Jockeys = No one will be coming back from this mission to speak of their discovery.
Engineers want to destroy Earth = Earth will be safe since it still exists in ALIEN
Engineer gets orally raped by a multi-legged monster = alien bursting out of it's chest
Kinda annoying they cut/changed a lot of the explanatory stuff that the final movie got ripped on for -
- The crew didn't get told the mission because they were just salvage guys bought by triple pay for their silence.
- Millburn and Fifield weren't scientists, and actually got ripped on by Janek for being idiots
- Holloway was much more rounded and wasn't a sulky kid disappointed by finding dead engineers.
- Weyland's reason for funding the mission and Shaw and Holloway's research much better explained.
- Helmets not removed.
Having said that I prefer the direction Lindhoff and Scott went. The script is kind of 'meh' and Lindhoff/Fassbender's David was much more interesting than Spaight's Ash rip off.
I still don't understand why so much of the stuff above was cut, though. Prometheus would have been a better movie if a lot of Spaight's set up had been retained.
- The crew didn't get told the mission because they were just salvage guys bought by triple pay for their silence.
- Millburn and Fifield weren't scientists, and actually got ripped on by Janek for being idiots
- Holloway was much more rounded and wasn't a sulky kid disappointed by finding dead engineers.
- Weyland's reason for funding the mission and Shaw and Holloway's research much better explained.
- Helmets not removed.
Having said that I prefer the direction Lindhoff and Scott went. The script is kind of 'meh' and Lindhoff/Fassbender's David was much more interesting than Spaight's Ash rip off.
I still don't understand why so much of the stuff above was cut, though. Prometheus would have been a better movie if a lot of Spaight's set up had been retained.
Kit Rae
Sr Member
All of that explanatory stuff may have remained in Lindeloff's script too, and just ended up on the cutting room floor. I suppose it is a fine line between dumbing the film down by explaining too much that should be obvious, and supplying too little. None of it was really necessary for the film, as most of those points were addressed or explained anyway for those paying close attention, but a lot of it well written stuff that definitely would not have hurt the film.
Like these lines.
DAVID
Your hypothesis is...bold. The
audacity of it. Your climate data’s
undeniable: the Holocene Epoch was
engineered. Dr. Watts, your genetic
studies are equally conclusive. Pulses
of cultural change are harder to
prove, but even there your case is
strong. I believe in your “Engineers.”
________________
WATTS
The air here will kill you, so keep an
eye on your supply and watch your
seals. Pathogen tests are clean.
_______________
VICKERS
Mr. Weyland believes. That’s enough.
She walks them toward the door. Interview’s over.
VICKERS (CONT’D)
Now we’re out of communication, you
can tell the crew what we’re doing.
WATTS
They don’t know? They volunteered.
VICKERS
They volunteered blind. Classified
job, triple pay.
________________
HOLLOWAY
I think all our mythologies are race memories
of the Engineers. Horus the
Sun God. Prometheus bringing fire from
heaven. A pillar of fire, a pillar of
smoke. The Engineers are the gods.
Kamarov stiffens, smelling blasphemy.
KAMAROV
The mythology gods maybe. God is God.
______________
They raise cups and drink. Even the crew moved by the moment.
But Janek smiles crookedly and toasts again.
JANEK
To Milburn and Fifield. The first
human beings to freak out, get lost,
and sleep in their suits in the ruins
of an alien civilization.
I disagree that that stuff wasn't needed. It's the lack of context for a lot of actions and situations in the movie that led to it being ripped a new a-hole all over the internet.
The apparent idiocacy of the crew, scientists and Weyland lead to a huge number of people believing that the film's genuine mysteries and questions were stupid and ill-thought out too.
The apparent idiocacy of the crew, scientists and Weyland lead to a huge number of people believing that the film's genuine mysteries and questions were stupid and ill-thought out too.
I think that might be taking it one step too far. If you have NO elements from the ALIEN franchise then why even bother to link them. However, I would be COMPLETELY happy to never see them try to answer why the craft crashed on LV-426. There really is no need. Our imaginations can answer that for us. We don't need to be spoonfed.
While we do know a few of those things, we DON'T know how it will end and there is a lot of story there to tell as long as you aren't doing a Revenge of the Sith/A New Hope thing which creates the most boring and contrived story ever. Yes, we do know that no one is coming back from this mission, but I think the end in which Shaw (I want to call her Watts now :lol) decides to go further into space instead of back creates an entire new storyline that is interesting and different because she doesn't NEED to return. In regard to the Engineers wanting to destroy the earth; well that was started and stopped all in the course of one movie. Don't see how that truly limits anything. Instead it opens even more questions and possibilities.
I agree. As much as I liked Prometheus, a lot of the pieces from the deleted scenes SHOULD have been in the film, or either other pieces that were in the film should not have been. There was no real reason to leave out so much that helped explain character motivation. Leaving their actions a mystery didn't add to the movie or make it more of a thinker's movie... it just made it confusing and frustrating. Nor did explaining their motivations limit the scope or appeal of the movie. I think there SHOULD be a directors cut that includes most of the cut scenes from the DVD which would give us a more complete and satisfying story.
Kit Rae
Sr Member
It's been stated by me and others here many times, but lots of us had no problem at all following the story or understanding the characters motivations. I guess everyone watches films differently.
I understand why Ridley left out and left in what he did, and why he says the release film is the final cut and he has no desire to mess with it again. That said, I like long films, and I also would have liked a few of those extra scenes left in. A lot of it was just good character stuff, even if repetitive. A lot of Spaith's tech stuff that was left out was just good sci-fi too.
I understand why Ridley left out and left in what he did, and why he says the release film is the final cut and he has no desire to mess with it again. That said, I like long films, and I also would have liked a few of those extra scenes left in. A lot of it was just good character stuff, even if repetitive. A lot of Spaith's tech stuff that was left out was just good sci-fi too.
crabra comander
Master Member
I can follow the story just fine. I don't have problems with any of the Engineer plot or David's oblique motivations.
There are, however, huge gaps of logic caused by trying to retrofit Spaights' Magellan salvage crew with Lindhoff's Prometheus Scientific exploration team. That's bad, incomplete writing, not reasonable 'fill in the gaps yourself' plotting.
How could a crack scientific team be so utterly inept? How does a geologist get lost in a cave? (that's electronically mapped and supervised from the ship?) What professional scientist goes on a four year round trip knowing nothing of the mission? What kind of geologist is 'in it for the money' like a cheap gangster? An astro biologist who runs scared from dead aliens?
I've seen floundering explanations on other boards suggesting that Vickers deliberately hired a team of idiots to screw up the mission. When you are forced to make such ridiculous assumptions, there's something wrong with the movie.
Kit Rae
Sr Member
All of that is fleshed out in Spaith's script. The same details may have remained in Lindeloff's rewrite, and simply been cut out in editing. No one will know until that script is released. Well, in fact, we know from the deleted scenes that a lot of those character details were in his rewrite.
But, it's all laid out plainly in the finished film too, and those points have been discussed ad nauseam in this thread.
But, it's all laid out plainly in the finished film too, and those points have been discussed ad nauseam in this thread.
Yeah, I'd like to see that stuff attempted to be explained here, but I'm not reading through 80 pages to find it :lol
I ducked out of this thread fairly early, because everything got really repetitive between the likers and the haters pretty quickly. I liked the film a lot, but I've yet to see anyone, anywhere, in all the commentaries I've read, give a convincing case that the solutions to the situations I outlined above, are actually onscreen.
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