Prometheus

[ark_ader]

Just saw it today and it was worth the wait. Awesome.

I will not supply any spoilers, but I will say the trailers shown do not totally relate to the film.

It is one of those films (something expected of Ridley Scott) that will make you watch it over and over again.  I find myself watching Blade Runner and seeing something new every time.

The same can be said for this film.  There is too much going on for you to take it all in, which means you will most likely have to go to another screening to get the full benefit.

The general consensus is that the film is a 6 out of 10.  I give it more like 8.5 out of 10.  If not 10 out of 10 if there is a Director cut.

What I found most interesting was that even though the film is set in the future, some things never change.

I saw in standard 2D, as find 3D is too distracting and expensive.  

Find a good cinema with excellent sound, IMAX would be a good idea, as the visuals are amazing.  

The ending is excellent!

[trekking95]

What I found most interesting was that even though the film is set in the future, some things never change.

I saw in standard 2D, as find 3D is too distracting and expensive.  

Find a good cinema with excellent sound, IMAX would be a good idea, as the visuals are amazing.  

#1 Like still using machine guns and wearing huge air tanks on their space suits? 

#2 Or Imax 3D? Its better than 3D or Imax.

I won't see it though. Its like when I go to the theater when the Avengers is there I would not see anything else.
It will not do as well as it could because of that.

[SNAAKE]

sold

[emphatic]

I saw it last night. 4/5 from me. Really beautiful but lacks the grit that makes it feel extraordinary. Fine acting from everyone, although IMHO, some characters are lifted from any generic sci-fi movie. Also, why is it that when any spaceship about to land on an uncharted planet (or moon in this case) always land exactly where there's something going on? When you've seen the whole film, you can ask yourself how different it would have ended if they had landed at another part of that moon...

[shmokes]

10 out of 10 if there is a Director cut.

That's funny. I find director's cuts to be almost universally inferior to the theatrical release. Almost without fail the material that ended up on the cutting room floor ended up there for a good reason. And I don't know, perhaps the director is too emotionally attached to the material to make dispassionate decisions about whether it really ought to be resurrected. In any case, deleted scenes pretty much invariably fit poorly with the rest of the movie for one reason or another, or at the very least they are superfluous, adding nothing but length. The Han Solo-Jabba the Hut scene in the Star Wars re-releases is a prime example.

As an aside, the same applies to books. Oftentimes famous authors will release an "author's edition" for a 20-year anniversary or something. It'll be an early work from before the author was famous, when the author had no say over the editor. The new version is always inferior.

[Le Chuck]

^ have you read The Gunslinger author's addition next to the original by King? Marked improvement allowing better flow and tie in to the rest of the series. Directors cut of Aliens is a better film too adding character development and pace.

I can't wait to see this movie.

[ark_ader]

Ah jeez, is this out?  There goes my Saturday night.  I've done absolutely everything I can to avoid watching trailers or reading about this one.  Finally got nailed when I was stuck on the front row of Avengers last weekend. 

Relieved to hear that it's nothing like the trailers. 

I think US release is on the 8th.  We got it early due to the Jubilee 4 day weekend.

I am going to watch it again this Sunday evening.

[shmokes]

^ have you read The Gunslinger author's addition next to the original by King? Marked improvement allowing better flow and tie in to the rest of the series. Directors cut of Aliens is a better film too adding character development and pace.

I can't wait to see this movie.

Coincidentally, Rotten Tomatoes linked to this article today that gives a list of movies that were improved by director's cuts.

[ark_ader]

Watched it again last night.  Awesome.

Noticed much more content the second time around.

[danny_galaga]

Just back from seeing it. First off, I must say not to worry too much about 3D. I don't normally bother, but this is something special. In the end, I would have been happy with 2D. I noticed a lot of 20-30 somethings there, which is interesting since they are too young to remember the original coming out, hell I'm 42 and I'M too young! SO nice to see so many latter day fans. How much so I don't know, because I was wearing my
                            
                                 USCSS
                             NOSTROMO

T-shirt, but I didn't get a nod from anyone. As to the movie, it was great, but not mind-blowing. I love the mix of actors, all of them very talented but not hollywood heavyweights. I always get a kick out of seeing Idris Elba (the wire, Luther). A very under rated pommie actor. Noomi Rapace (girl with the dragon tattoo, sherlock holmes) is great, but no replacement for Sigourney.

Now you've seen it and are looking at the spoiler, did you get goosebumps when the navigators seat came up out of the floor? And when the ship crashed into a very familiar position? Even though you knew it would? And were you a bit disappointed when the continuity was wrecked by the navigator then coming after Shaw, and thus not fitting in with being discovered in the original movie? Yes, it could be a different ship, but I think they decided the error was worth the extra scare

I give it 4/5. I am now going to eat dinner and watch the original. It's been at least a year...

edit: watched the original again. Still my favourite. Prometheus now 3.5/5 in retrospect...

my score for recent movies you may have seen:

  5/5 - The Way Back, The Kings Speech, Michael Clayton, In Bruges, Gran Torino, Mary and Max

4.5/5 - Taken, Iron Man, Reign Over Me, Watchmen, The girl with the dragon tattoo

  4/5 - True Grit, Traitor, Bedtime Stories, Sunshine, pineapple express

3.5/5 - 300, Max Payne, You dont mess with the Zohan, Yes Man

  3/5 - That new Indiana Jones flick, Disturbia, That new TMNT flick,

2.5/5 - Angels and Demons

  2/5 - The Love Guru. Note: My 2 is probably someone elses 1. Just leaving room for worse!

[Green Giant]

Ah jeez, is this out?  There goes my Saturday night.  I've done absolutely everything I can to avoid watching trailers or reading about this one.  Finally got nailed when I was stuck on the front row of Avengers last weekend. 

Relieved to hear that it's nothing like the trailers. 

I think US release is on the 8th.  We got it early due to the Jubilee 4 day weekend.

I am going to watch it again this Sunday evening.

Are you telling me that on top of tempting Obama to have his own jubilee ceremony, the limey brits got to watch the movie earlier too???

What the hell.

[koz319]

In response to Danny Galaga's spoiler:

In the beginning of Prometheus, the computers show they are traveling to a moon called lv-223 .  The moon/planet from Alien/Aliens was lv-426.   I couldn't remember the name/number exactly when I saw Prometheus in the theater, but it seemed different, and sure enough Wikipedia verified it was a different planet.  Still got the chills though when the chair came up out of the floor

[ark_ader]

I give it 4/5. I am now going to eat dinner and watch the original. It's been at least a year...

Just bought Alien Quadrilogy on Blue Ray for £10 today.

Looks the business via projector with surround sound.

Have to wait till Christmas for Prometheus. 

[danny_galaga]

In response to Danny Galaga's spoiler:

In the beginning of Prometheus, the computers show they are traveling to a moon called lv-223 .  The moon/planet from Alien/Aliens was lv-426.   I couldn't remember the name/number exactly when I saw Prometheus in the theater, but it seemed different, and sure enough Wikipedia verified it was a different planet.  Still got the chills though when the chair came up out of the floor

Yeah, thought about it and even without you noticing the different designation numbers, realised it is a different planet. It also gives room perhaps for a trilogy, where the third 'prequel' leads up to the original Alien movie

I watched Alien when I got home from seeing Prometheus. Alien is still my favourite (",)

[dre-w]

So what was the deal with the beginning of the movie..?  I thought that engineer dude was just goin out for a cup of tea and a morning swim 

[selfie]

I figured it had to be a different planet too. There were too many continuity errors for it to be the same but it was annoyingly close enough to be considered the same planet.

The engineer at the start I guessed was "creating life on earth..."

The medical pod thingie was for Weyland. Speaking of whom why could the not have got Lance Henrkisen?

[dre-w]

So by one of the engineers killing himself..  they created life on earth?  Accidently perhaps?  I just don't get how they knew that drinking that stuff would kill them and create another species.  I figured they were implying that it had something to do with life on Earth (hence the waterfall so I was pretty sure it was Earth) but then it was never really explained so it's kinda ridiculous to assume that the human race came as a result from that..  b/c it showed the DNA strands inside him being ripped apart and destroyed.  Idk maybe I sound like an idiot b/c I'm not that familiar with how science works   

[ChadTower]

I'm glad to see somebody liked this movie.  People in the theater where I saw it were actually laughing at it MST3K style.  There were probably 20 people in the theater on a friday night and a couple of them actually got up and walked out.  This movie was boring for massive stretches, completely absurd even for scifi in others, and I wish I hadn't spent $22 and two hours on it.

[ChadTower]

Maybe my issue now is movie prices.  If I have to pay $25 to see a movie (more if it's 3D) on "date night with the wife" then there isn't a whole lot of room for bleh.  It has to be a good movie.  If the movie sucks it starts to really grate on me by about an hour in.  The last Harry Potter movie was excruciating that way because my whole family had to see it on opening day in IMAX 3D.  When it wasn't any good all I could think was "this stupid movie cost me fifty dollars!"

The effects for Prometheus were pretty good.  If they wanted Niles Crane as the robot they should have actually written the check for David Hyde Pierce.  After about the 15th scifi cliche in a row, with no original content in between, I was really wishing I had waited for the cinema pub to pick this up so I could at least have a beer.

[rooter]

So by one of the engineers killing himself..  they created life on earth?  Accidently perhaps?  I just don't get how they knew that drinking that stuff would kill them and create another species.  I figured they were implying that it had something to do with life on Earth (hence the waterfall so I was pretty sure it was Earth) but then it was never really explained so it's kinda ridiculous to assume that the human race came as a result from that..  b/c it showed the DNA strands inside him being ripped apart and destroyed.  Idk maybe I sound like an idiot b/c I'm not that familiar with how science works   

This should answer all of your questions.

Maybe people just don't swear much in the future.  I did hear someone scream the F bomb once though.

Who shines a flash light at a hologram!?

[knave]

Saw it Saturday, Great flick. It's been over 20 years since I saw the first two, so I missed a few things. Still enjoyed the whole thing.

[dre-w]

This should answer all of your questions.

..this just made me dislike the film even more.  The article suggests that in order to understand the movie I have to read these theories and "Fix that image in your mind", "If you parallel that idea", & "So, imagine" ..isn't the movie supposed to help do this for me?  Thanks though for the link I appreciate it.  I read up to the part where he starts suggesting Jesus was a engineer or something before I X'd the hell out of that window.  Honestly, did anyone even come to that conclusion while watching this movie..?  "Oh yeh this part of the movie totally just made me think Jesus was one of them!"

[shmokes]

I went to a chiropractor and he was chatting about how he believes that Jesus was a chiropractor, and when they talk about him healing people with the laying on of hands he was actually doing chiropractic work. This chiropractor also believed that he could cure asthma and cancer with chiropractic work. Gotta admit, though, I felt damned good after visiting his office--better than any other chiropractor I've ever seen. Quackier than the rest, too, but that don't bother me none. 

[Flake]

Just saw it last night....and I liked it.  Agree with some earlier comments that it was slow at times but overall I enjoyed it. 

I read that blog that was posted trying to explain everything and I must say that if the bloggers point of view is accurate (and he claims his positions are influenced by Ridley Scott's own comments) then it does detract from the movie for me. 

The 3 big unknowns is why the Engineers want to eradicate the human species, how the Engineers were killed off in their facility, and why the black goo had different effects on different people...though I suppose the black goo potentially had the same impact on both scientist you just never get to know how it will end up with lover boy because he gets torched.  Upon leaving the movie I thought those were the big open ended questions to be potentially answered in a sequel.  And if they do a Prometheus 2 and end up trying to tie this in with the crucifixion I'll be pissed.

I suppose the reasons for wanting to kill off the humans could be as simple as we were an experiment that went wrong and they simply want to provide a testing ground for a new species (the aliens).  Similar to the concept that whatever killed off the Engineers on LV-223 was an experiment gone bad.

Overall, I certainly enjoyed the movie.  But depending on how they explore the unknowns through additional movies that may alter my opinion.

[knave]

..this just made me dislike the film even more. 

I never seem to read much into things...I thought the article was interesting but I take it with a grain of salt, I mean it sounds pretty fanatical to me. There's nothing in the movie to suggest Jesus was an engineer. The events 2000 or so years ago that trigered the fall of the instalation are still a mystery.  I do think that the aliens just got out and kicked some engineer ass. Can an alien survive 2000 years...While not in stasis...I doubt it. Simple awnswers.

[dre-w]

Yeh my point exactly.. Shouldn't have to read up on anything to understand the first 5 mins of a movie.. I was just hoping for a simple answer, maybe something I missed.  But no, guess I was expected to have already known the titan mythology or whatev the artile states that the film is repeatedly hinting at

[Flake]

I found a comment on an article speculating how this film and the first Alien film tie in together.  I thought it was interesting and probably on point.

"At the end of the film, David tells Shaw that there were many space craft left on the planet (LV-233). Earlier, as we witnessed the Engineers' recordings, something horrible was set had been set loose, sending the Engineers running for their ships to escape the planet. Most of them not making it, their bodies piled up by hangar doors.  My guess is that one of the Engineers had escaped successfully escaped LV-233 in a ship, only to be killed by a a chest burster, which caused him to crash on LV-426, the planet Ripley, Dallas and the rest of the crew of the Nostromo, would later find him.  So in a way, I can now see how Ridley Scott means that this is not a prequel. LV-426 takes on a story line of it's own. Shaw heading to the Engineers planet never has to come in contact, nor have anything to do with, what happens on LV-426." 

Sorry, this might have been apparent to some but I didnt really put two and two together.

[Flake]

http://www.hitfix.com/motion-captured/prometheus-second-look-digging-deep-into-spoilers-and-questions

Attempts to answer the unanswered questions.

[ChadTower]

It's a freakin' movie.  If I have to dig deeper, study theories, or otherwise analyze it in order for it to be any good then it is obvious it wasn't any good.   

[Flake]

It's a freakin' movie.  If I have to dig deeper, study theories, or otherwise analyze it in order for it to be any good then it is obvious it wasn't any good.   

Uhh....yea....how do you explain the thousand peices of supposed classical art (paintings, sculptures, music, etc.) that do just that?  Not that I'm a huge fan of that stuff but to suggest a movie sucks because it makes you think is just ludicrous.  In this case I'm just looking to see what others think to see if there are similar conclusions out there.  And in this case I'm sharing their thoughts here.  If you dont want to read it then dont.  Pretty simple.  Go watch Transformers if thats your cup of tea.

[dre-w]

That's just the thing, it doesn't make me think..  It makes me have to research crap.. It's not that I don't have an imagination, I get it when the movie leaves the viewer wondering what happens, but this isn't what were talking about here.  Vague scenes were shown and leave it open to almost any flippin theory in the world..  The more I hear people making up excuses for this movie the more I hate it..  It's like saying I can make a movie full of plot holes and no explanations throughout, just as long as someone writes up an article explaining my nonsense.  All I need is dazzling scenery & special effects to fool people into thinking it's good.  And yes, visually, it was.  Storywise.. what story?  Were practically writing it for them

[knave]

To me a movie doesn't have to explain everything to be good, and a bunch of nerds arguing about what was left out doesn't affect my enjoyment of said film.

[CheffoJeffo]

To me a movie doesn't have to explain everything to be good, and a bunch of nerds arguing about what was left out doesn't affect my enjoyment of said film.

QFT

[dre-w]

..sigh  It doesnt need to explain everything, but there's kinda something wrong when it didn't explain ANYTHING.  You're missing the point.. 2 people in here literally had to post links just to make sense of the movie..  I'm just not into these "choose your own adventure" films is all I'm sayin.  I mean, besides the most important making sense part, there were plenty of other things this film also lacked.. (action, suspension of disbelief, continuity, R-rating, etc..)

Shmokes did you see this yet??  I want hear what this guy has to say.  I like reading his reviews lol

[Ond]

Or, you know, it was just a mistake and continuity error.  Nah... couldn't be.

 

(If you'll recall, there were all kinds of conspiracy theories about Deckard in Blade Runner because an actor flubbed a line in the beginning.  it was redubbed during Final Cut.  Oops.)

Which line?  You mean the "six replicants" yeah?  That wasn't so much a flubb as a budget constraint.  Six were originally planned for.  I have the shooting script, Bryant's "Don't be an ---uvula---, Deckard.  I got five skin jobs walking the streets. " Originally read "six" skin jobs, six has been crossed out and "five" pencilled in. I know you're a bit of a PKD fan Jim - just a titbit of useless trivia.  The errors in that (original) film have almost as much cult coverage as the film itself.

As to Prometheus, this is copping a slamming as a turkey just about everywhere I look.  What a shame, what great films Alien and Blade Runner were, it all seemed downhill for R Scott after Black Rain, maybe Hollywood producers write cheques that are just too damn big for Scott to care about a decent screenplay.  I worked in Television and Film in the 80's, he was the hero of lighting guys I knew back then for his awesome atmospheric effects and probably still is.

 

[Xiaou2]

I saw it, and it was ok.  I think in many ways I might have enjoyed it more, had I not seen the previous films, which gave you ideas / clues into what was going to happen.  That predictability just didnt make for a great movie.

 The first movie was typical horror and suspense.  You have no idea what was happening.  The next was pure kick-Butt awesome action.  The other worthless films dont even count.

 I agree with a lot of what dre-w says.  It was far too open to interpretation... but also, after hearing the things that the director intended... and or what people think he intended... it also makes me like the movie less.

 Ive seen worse movies for sure..  and maybe Im just spoiled from a time period where movies made were actually so good that you enjoyed watching them over and over again... but overall, its not that good of a movie, Imo. I certainly dont have any real desire to see it again.

[Ond]

Yes, I've read way too much PKD, and yes I am dreading the new Total Rekall movie with every fiber of my being.

Just got done reading Flow My Tears the Policeman Said, at the ending I was "WTF? so the guy's alternate universe where he's a nobody is all because the police general's sister took drugs...which somehow altered everyones reality? Only PKD could dream up that wierd ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---.  

I just checked the Total Recall 2012 trailer, it looks like its just a word for word copy of the other version with upgraded effects.  The only fairly close PKD book-film adaption I can think of is A Scanner Darkly, although the book was still much better.

[ChadTower]

Uhh....yea....how do you explain the thousand peices of supposed classical art (paintings, sculptures, music, etc.) that do just that?  Not that I'm a huge fan of that stuff but to suggest a movie sucks because it makes you think is just ludicrous.  In this case I'm just looking to see what others think to see if there are similar conclusions out there.  And in this case I'm sharing their thoughts here.  If you dont want to read it then dont.  Pretty simple.  Go watch Transformers if thats your cup of tea.

Prometheus is not a piece of classical art.  It's a pop culture movie.  If people are still discussing Promethus in 40 years, like 2001:  A Space Odyssey, then we can begin considering it within that framework.

[Le Chuck]

Uhh....yea....how do you explain the thousand peices of supposed classical art (paintings, sculptures, music, etc.) that do just that?  Not that I'm a huge fan of that stuff but to suggest a movie sucks because it makes you think is just ludicrous.  In this case I'm just looking to see what others think to see if there are similar conclusions out there.  And in this case I'm sharing their thoughts here.  If you dont want to read it then dont.  Pretty simple.  Go watch Transformers if thats your cup of tea.

Prometheus is not a piece of classical art.  It's a pop culture movie.  If people are still discussing Promethus in 40 years, like 2001:  A Space Odyssey, then we can begin considering it within that framework.

Heaven forbid we critique the new along the side old.  Let's put a moratorium on analysis until something is at least removed by a generation.  That right Chad?   

[shmokes]

I haven't seen Prometheus. But 2001: A Space Odyssey is a terrible film. Most fans, I secretly suspect, like it purely out of social pressure to do so. In short, even having not seen Prometheus, and being only a lukewarm Ridley Scott fan, I find it difficult to belief that it's not a superior film.