Ridley Scott Prometheus: NOT the Alien Prequel Details

Stephen Colbert did a funny bit on Prometheus and Neil Degrasse Tysons tweet about it at the start of the show last night.

Neil Degrasse Tyson pointed out this "In the film they travel 35 light years into space, which Charlize Theron's character comments as being about half a billion miles from Earth. But that estimate's a little off. Like, way off. As Tyson points out, half a billion miles from Earth would only put you just past Jupiter.'
 
Well, Theron's character was just Weyland's daughter... if you want to take something from that, it's just a dumb blonde moment of grossly underestimating how far they've traveled. Also... she was simply making a point of being far from home... not being scientifically accurate. But seeing as the rest of the crew were equally dumb... well... doesn't bode well for Weyland... as in two movies, two Weylands set up nearly identical missions, with nearly similar idiotic crews and ends up being killed by what they went looking for. Truly they ARE the space jockeys as they **** up just as much. .)

EDIT: just had the insane thought. It felt like such an obvious thing once I thought of it. Theron's character is Paris Hilton and Prometheus is how Hilton would have hired people to fly this mission. It just feels like the kind of idiocy you witness from those reality tv shows with her and that other airhead rich chick.
 
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I thought Vickers' "half a billion miles" comment was just hyperbole, much like Parker's "you won't need no rocket to fly through space" comment in ALIEN.

In addition all the rest of Vickers' comment is wrong too ("flew half a billion miles away from every man on Earth" when in fact there are several men from Earth right there on the ship with her. :D)

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I think some people are just so negative toward the film that they'll nitpick any perceived flaw, whether it be true or not, just to back up how they feel.
 
I think some people are just so negative toward the film that they'll nitpick any perceived flaw, whether it be true or not, just to back up how they feel.

That is what saddens me about most debates. People care more about being right than learning from others and arriving at a proper conclusion. People will often maintain their stance even when you point out evidence to the contrary.
 
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This is just a minor preference but something I felt after watching that would have made for a more atmospheric moment (and I like that some of the concept art like the above has this) - I would have loved that when Prometheus initially lands near the silos it was either night or very overcast and almost dark. Just seems to set up a suitably eerie mood and with the ship lights and floods marking the smallest of boundaries, you get a feeling of the known and unknown.
 
Excellent, was wondering what the story was with the background in Waylands pre recorded speech, HQ on Mars, nice, this Wayland guy was a big deal.
 
This is just a minor preference but something I felt after watching that would have made for a more atmospheric moment (and I like that some of the concept art like the above has this) - I would have loved that when Prometheus initially lands near the silos it was either night or very overcast and almost dark. Just seems to set up a suitably eerie mood and with the ship lights and floods marking the smallest of boundaries, you get a feeling of the known and unknown.
Would also have made sense with having the mapping then take place there, by sending one in with the probes, then going back to the ship to see the mapping take place... and then go in by morning. Stalling when you know the characters just wants to rush in right away adds suspense and drama. This 1 - we land. 2 - we go in. 3 - we find. 4- we're done - just isn't exciting... pauses and obstacles would bring that.
 
Definitely Carsten - they could ALL be around the holo-table absorbing and commenting and speculating - you could illustrate some good character dynamics and profundity in the situation as well as building tension, instead of everyone pretty much rushing out with scant regard like they'd arrived at the beach after a long drive.
 
Well, the scenario was mentioned by the writer of Moon. And I agree with him completely. It would have been the professional thing to do... and even if the hired hands were utterly unprofessional... it would have created drama between the characters with some wanting to go now and being pissed they had to sit on their ass and wait... and then those who don't just dive in without checking for rocks at the bottom of the cliff.
 
Definitely Carsten - they could ALL be around the holo-table absorbing and commenting and speculating - you could illustrate some good character dynamics and profundity in the situation as well as building tension, instead of everyone pretty much rushing out with scant regard like they'd arrived at the beach after a long drive.

Hahaha, top marks. "I'll get the towels! Go go go!"
 
Not totally disagreeing with you both but, im trying to find things to cut out of the movie to fit in these scenarios of character expansion, how long does it take, just a few lines, a whole scene?. It could be that Scott didnt want us to see any of them in the way that we hold the Nostromo crew.
 
Not totally disagreeing with you both but, im trying to find things to cut out of the movie to fit in these scenarios of character expansion, how long does it take, just a few lines, a whole scene?. It could be that Scott didnt want us to see any of them in the way that we hold the Nostromo crew.

The Vickers/Shaw+Holloway scene regarding "agendas" could have been incorporated into a holo-table ensemble scene, as could the two co-pilots (who were they exactly???) goofing off about their bet, among others.

The fantastic economy in the scene in Alien when Dallas comes in to inform them that they're to deviate from their trip home is perfect in painting characters and anticipation and that's just relying on dialogue/acting. Prometheus had the benefit of a great idea in the revealing holo-map that would have made a great central device to keep cutting back to or play against a similar ensemble scene.

I couldn't help but feel the holo-map was strangely underused, perhaps the reason for it being purely that it would look great in 3d, certainly no-one seemed to take advantage of it except David, scoring some gossip about a life-form detected (a glitch!) - and I'm sure with his handy knowledge of the silo's inner workings he could have come across the Engineer anyway.

And while we're on the subject of holograms - why couldn't David rewind the footage of the Engineer's running and see what they were running from? Why did the footage only show the most questioning brief moment? And why would the Engineers need 'security' cams anyway? Break-ins??? And why is there a recording of them conveniently showing how to work their ship and plotting a course to Earth?
Obviously for convenience of the script!
 
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