Ridley Scott Prometheus: NOT the Alien Prequel Details

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!

That scene with Dallas was the first i ever saw back in the day, it was played on TV for a preview show, still love watching it. It is rather a long scene though and fairly essential.

We know next to nothing about the Engineers apart from them being capable of violence possibly even toward one another and they are carrying weapons, internal security is not a stretch, Earthlings use holograms eg Wayland why not them?

I can only think that the Engineers are running from a "spill" more than a creature, nothing for the cameras to pick up and why would they reveal them so early anyway?

Im still not seeing where big cuts would be made to fit in everyones ideas, yeah cut the goofy pilots, gives you about 40 secs to play with. Scotts attitude may change by the BRay release and we might see more than just deleted scenes. Lots of questions left behind, as there should be.
 
Got my Prometheus art of the film today and it's a nice hard cover book for like $26 dollars just wish they had more concept pics of the exterior of the actual Prometheus ship but I think theres enough to start making some basic shapes for a model.
 
After all of the "leaks" and scans showing up online I'm starting to wonder if I'll actually see anything new when I get the book tomorrow.
 
I got the art of Prometheus book today as well. I was more surprised at how the book kept giving me the idea they were trying to make an epic Alien prequel without actually making an epic Alien prequel. I was very confused; they had some great ideas but didn't expound on the ones that really made Alien pop as a film. I won't say I was disappointed in Prometheus exactly. I went in with low expectations. Visually, it is hands down one of the best movies I have ever seen. The blending of CGI and real world was near seamless and the 3D was the best I have seen so far. If other movies follow it in CGI and 3D, I can see hope for 3D actually becoming more than a temporary flash. I had no idea how many people made up the crew of the Prometheus though; nor did I care, and I certainly didn't care when they died. The only people with any personality or depth were David and Vickers and that was from their lack of personality. Overall, I think it tried to do too much; it set out to be epic, and that is never a good idea. Also....I am really tired of their always being one survivor who can take an incredible beating and then running around like they are fine. That is getting old. It is perfectly acceptable to kill the whole crew if it is dramatically sound. IMHO. Strangely enough, I did like the questions (and the specific lack of answers) around the Engineers. I agree it is nothing like the first movie, but overall it held my interest. I do like the very first idea postulated in '79, which was the derelict was a crashed bomber from an interstellar war. I think it would have been better to leave out that whole genesis of the human race thing, and frankly, why the hell would "Space Gods" tell primitives the location of a weapons storage depot? That's like me giving a 4 year old the combination to my gun safe and hoping they just never figure it out.

Charlie
 
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.

That's how I felt. Who rushes out again and again?

This guy comes back to the ship and kills half the deck crew and there was a complete disconnect with everyone else. So much disconnect that it felt like three different crews on three different ships almost the whole time.

Strangest storytelling ever for Ridley.
 
Finally saw the art book today. Tons of amazing work was omitted but overall a good read. None of Neville's stuff is in there which is quite odd... They also miscredit me for the Deacon design -that was done by Ivan Manzella. Those cheesy storyboards at the end are mine and are a little embarrassing -they were banged out fast for the pitch.

I think it's worth it just for the Ridleygrams however.

-S
 
Finally saw the art book today. Tons of amazing work was omitted but overall a good read. None of Neville's stuff is in there which is quite odd... They also miscredit me for the Deacon design -that was done by Ivan Manzella. Those cheesy storyboards at the end are mine and are a little embarrassing -they were banged out fast for the pitch.

I think it's worth it just for the Ridleygrams however.

-S

One thing I was hoping to see in the book, and have not seen any of, is weapon design. Was there any weapon design done? if so, is there any way to see it??
 
Finally saw the art book today. Tons of amazing work was omitted but overall a good read. None of Neville's stuff is in there which is quite odd... They also miscredit me for the Deacon design -that was done by Ivan Manzella. Those cheesy storyboards at the end are mine and are a little embarrassing -they were banged out fast for the pitch.

I think it's worth it just for the Ridleygrams however.

-S

I got to the Deacon section just after praising your work on the other thread, then thought 'hmmm', lol. :p I can't pretend I'm a fan of that one.

I guess it is pretty usual to have to omit a lot of art, the publishers want to shift as many copies as they can. Personally I'd queue up to buy a twelve-kilo multi-volume 2000-page monster edition but I realise they'd sell about five of them. As film art books go this is a great one. Oh, and you've got nothing to wince over. Just the opposite.
 
One thing I was hoping to see in the book, and have not seen any of, is weapon design. Was there any weapon design done? if so, is there any way to see it??

Hello, all!

Sorry to butt in on an old and probably long settled subject, but, just in case...

Prometheus - Internet Movie Firearms Database - Guns in Movies, TV and Video Games

There was no need for weapons design. Alas, I would say.

BTW, I must confess I did not like the film. Now that all the deleted scenes are out, I wonder what on earth made Sir Ridley Scott take those out. It would have made the storytelling so much better.

Going to buy the DVD anway, so I can hate it a little more. ;-)

Cheers!
 
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