Prometheus Fan Reviews
UPDATE (June 8): Prometheus has landed in the US and we’re ready to take in all of the reactions and reviews from the biggest movie market in the world.
Feel free to leave a reply below to tell us what you think of the movie.
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check out our PrometheusForum User Reviews thread!
PROMETHEUS REVIEW
I will keep this spoiler free and comment on the simple stuff; the need to know basics.
3D
The 3D blew me away like no other 3D film has. It wasn’t there as a gimmick but rather to suck you into the depth of field. The 3D made the film so gorgeous to look at. I am telling you this; after watching it in 3D and after the DVD comes out you will miss the 3D aspect to the film. This is the ONLY film that 3D has worked wonder IMO.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Ridley Scott is the kind of man who liked to be behind the camera but allowing the films cinematographer to take over is a wise decision. He did a wonderful and breathtaking job at it. Each shot in this film truly felt like a timeless painting. You can pause at each and every scene and you could then turn it into a poster. That’s just how good it looked. I’m now a big fan of the guy who worked behind the camera for this film. And a bonus for me is that the camera isn’t shaky and all over the place like most films nowadays. The camera remains still and the picture remains wide and open so you can take in the scenery and HORROR of the scenes.
CGI
This is a great example of how CGI and practical can coexist. Together for the first time on screen IMO the CGI and practical effects seem embraced and in a loving marriage of one another. The CGI looks so real you’d think it was practical. In fact its hard to tell what is practical and CGI in this film
SETS
One word? EPIC. Truly epic. Each and every set is just truly breathtaking to look at even though some pass before our very eyes without truly examining them. And again the use of CGI truly does wonders in adding to the experience. I did however notice a very Gigerish feel to one of them
MUSIC
There have been doubts about this. I for one wasn’t too keen on the soundtrack but I got to say you can’t ask for better. Each tune and theme fits absolutely perfect with each and every scene. When the HORROR begins to happen the music is not needed due to the level of intensity of the action but the music helps or Helped me because the music felt like a cold shiver down the back of my spine. Very creepy, hauntingly beautiful music in this film.
ACTING
The acting was perfect and good in this film. I was doubtful about the actor playing Holloway due to leaked scenes but he was pitch perfect in this film. I did not just care for one actor/actress I cared for each and every other actor present in the film. Michael Fassbender has given a truly startling but emotional performance.
DIRECTION
Ridley Scott has made some of the most outstanding films of the last 30 or so years. His strength is in visuals and this is by far his best directional work since blade runner.
CREATURES
Without going into spoiler territory I will say this; the creatures apart from the biomechanoid ones are truly fresh and original in the world of scifi. They look like creatures you’d find here on earth. They are fascinating but yet deadly and blood curling.
SPACE JOCKEY
Is the space jockey smaller or larger than the one in alien? A question we have all asked for months now. Well I’m afraid I cant go into details but you know that tall bald headed dude in the trailers? He ain’t what you think
PACING
The pacing was just right. The beginning leaves you with wonder and awe and leaves you with a ‘WTF just happened?’ expression (in a good way). Ridley scott did what Kubrik and Tree of life did but Ridley did it better. Think of the creation scenes from tree of life and the alien influence monoloth scene from 2001: and then give it steroids and you have the opening scene from prometheus.
The first act of the film is all about discovery, characters, mood, brilliant slow camera work, exploration and big ideas.
The 2nd Act is about contact with something beyond our limits of understanding and things become very unsettling and unnerving. Ridley Scott builds the atmosphere and pace up to boiling point.
This is what this film felt like, a kettle slowly boiling to pressure point.
The final act is just all out chaos. People die (all 17 of them) in very quick order and each death is so brutal and different from each other it adds to the tension. There is explosions and flame throwers involved and many very frightening creatures. The action unfolds very quickly. In fact the final act didn’t last very long but due to the pacing and tremendous direction from Ridley Scott it feels that these very quick sequence of events last hours. You will literally BE ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT. Then the ending. Jesus I am trying hard not to reveal but it gives you a very big treat.
And when I say big I literally mean BIG.
I understood the backstory and it even tells us about their gods and xenomorphs but you have to be an alien fanboy like me to understand it. I may be wrong as this was my first screening. I need to analyse this film on DVD to understand everything.
REACTIONS
I was too glued to the screen to notice others but I did a few times hear people whimpering and there is not one but a FEW very shocking shocking scenes that made some people gasp and there were 2 screams. My GF gripped my hand and hid her face in my shoulder 4 times. Leaving the cinema many people including a few university noobs and an old couple were discussing the theme of the film and discussing the possibilities of the ancient astronaut theory. The film did its job. It truly did
FINAL THOUGHTS
Every single plot has been done to death when it comes to scifi. I myself thought the other day, “This film shares similarities with 2001: a space odysey, ATMOM, Stargate and Mission to mars and a small flashback scene from AVP’ but I was wrong. When nothing is original anymore Prometheus proves that with the right crew, cast and with a little nudge in the right direction then something original can be done. This film IS the best science fiction film of the decade and even longer. This film will be talked about for a long time. All of the other blockbuster films this year are only a shadow to this film. Since 2009 I waited like an impatient bitch for this film and since January 2012 I have thought about hardly anything else. My quest has been answered and was it worth it? Did it live up to the hype? In my opinion yes it did, for me anyway. People on the forum have complained that it isn’t the ben hur of science fiction. But it’s better than any scifi film thats came out in this century and its the best film thats came out so far this year.
As a life long fan of the Alien series I will rank Prometheus as an ever worthy instalment of the Alien franchise even if it doesn’t have any links to what happens in Alien. This isn’t a spoiler but lets say the events in Prometheus never happened: the events in Alien would still happen. Ridley Scott belongs in the SCI-FI genre and I hope he stays there till retirement. It’s a great film and I wasn’t disappointed with it. I had doubts due to the negative reviews but look on the bright side, there’s been more positive reviews than negative. So go and see the film and make up your own minds.
Overall Prometheus is a grand entry to the alien universe. The alien universe has been in trouble since 1986 (I don’t regard Aliens equal to Alien as it turned this monstrous alien into a simple creature instead of ALIEN to what we’ve ever seen before). The Bluray of Prometheus will look great next to my Alien Bluray DVD.
So Ignore the negative reviews and even the good one’s including mine (too late suckas) and go see the film. It’s better than any film released in 2012 so far. Plus you get to see a return to form by the man who redefined the genre.
SCORE
A perfect 9/10
Excellent review!! I am travelling to the UK from Spain to see this movie @ iMax southbank. I cannot wait!!
Great review, thanks for keeping it real
A good review- I don’t necessarily agree with it myself. I enjoyed the film but some aspects were just plain stupid (no spoilers but there were many parts that simply made no sense and for me the characters often acted unrealistically. It also felt like they jumped to a lot of conclusions very quickly and on the whole did not act like the highly trained professionals who would have been hired for a trillion dollar space mission. Instead we were served a bunch of ridiculous cliches: Fifield and Milburn being the main offenders.
Also I was wondering how can you have a “perfect 9/10″?
I was reviewing the technical aspects rather than the film itself.
Well, finally a character in the Alien francise had it right “Something is moving to the east. Lets go west….. arent we”
The movie has got impressive visuals and fx, this alone makes it worth watching several times.
The story is unthreaded without reason of anything.
Things that are too stupid that shoudnt have been there:
-Who would go into a spaceship for a 2 1/2 year trip , wake up and not know what the trip is for or why they were hired? (TERRIBLE)
-In only 2 seconds without explanation she convinces them to not let the alien spaceship leave kill themselves and crash against it!
-The old Peter Wayland appears out of nowhere with terrible makeup
-The Tentacle alien has got teeth and killer pussys! (too much)
-Music sometimes is like disneys the Lion King
- The Alien in the very last scene that resembles Gigers Xenomorph just made it look like another alien franchise film.
I would have loved to see the Scott’s “Earth of the future”, we see nothing but a cave.
This is a strange movie…..not an Alien movie and yet it borrows so much from the original in terms of snippets of music, sounds, dialogue, scenes amd of course the space lockeys and derelict ship design.
For me the movie suffered from the following:
Inappropriate music ( almost a star trek theme ) at moments where tension should be building. Tension as a result was dissapated.
The characters were thin and as a result I cared little for any of them.
It did not answer the questions posed by Alien and therefore must be viewed as the re-start of a franchise…a cash cow
It fell between two stalls and as a result did not know what it was…amn adventure movie ( hence the music ) or a Sci Fi Horror which it attempted to pitch at with the modern version of the Kane Chestburster scens ( Noomi in the Medi centre ).
Its a bit dissengenuous to say its not an Alien movie when you know damn well it is that because you have included so much from the original (including nods to Ron Cobb and Chris Foss and who could forget Giger )
It was a no win for Ridley whom I greatly admire from his foirst move The Duellists, but this is a paint ny numbers movie based on the Alien concept that will do doubt spawn as Ripley says….another two movies before we get to Alien.
Let the Franchise Roll.
Ridley….please leave Blade Runner be.
As a non Alien movie 7 out of ten ( too many stupid scenes that lack authenticity due to poor dialogue from ill defined characters and otherwise and just daft ) and as an Alien Universe movie 5 out of 10 so an overall dissapointing 6 out of 10. Hope and Wished for better.
Ridley, C+ Must try harder when you know the world loves Alien and expects great things.
I found the pacing to be too frenetic, and the instant scientific off-the-cuff conclusions of the main characters made the whole movie seem rushed with few dynamics. I too, found the score to be odd and sometimes too uplifting… Dare I say, Cameron-like? Too bad that scott doesn’t see a director’s cut in the future (yet). If this movie took the time for us to care about the characters, it could be spectacular. I really enjoyed the movie, but long for the slower pacing of yesteryear… It seems like Hollywood is legitimizing Michael Bay by feeding our ever shorter attention spans.
The art direction is impressive, absolutely, but the motivations of the characters are extremely foggy–and there are literally hundreds of unanswered questions. And then you realize the whole movie is a giant cock tease for a sequel. But why set up a sequel when you haven’t even established a decent plot? Or a decent protagonist? Or a descent antagonist? By the end of the film you don’t care about Elizabeth Shaw because she doesn’t offer enough character to care about. You also don’t really fear the “Engineers” because their motivations are completely muddled. (Do they create life? Do they destroy life? Seems they do both for no reason whatsoever.) Finally, it’s just not fair to assume your audience can tag along with whatever twist and turn you write into a story. Like, “oh, it’s science fiction, we can do anything–and no explanation is necessary!” That’s not good story telling. That’s laziness.
Agreed…
PROMETHEUS: LIFE WILL FIND ITS WAY THROUGH UNLESS YOU USE A CONDOM…
For such a powerful idea they had in their hands, Scott and his gang came short in the development and finessing.
Scott had warned about Prometheus being just a movie and not a science class but he lost the subtlety he used to be a master of: and when the expectations for something are so big, chances are for subjective disappointment.
Technically impeccable; even a bit too slick, stylized and not gritty enough
Could have been a much darker, less showing, more mysterious movie; epic had they waited to reveal the maker and not come back to the ship so many times
The end calls for a bit of a sell-out movie and it doesn’t answer the most important question: ‘Why are we here?’ The opportunity of making epic was this movie, not its sequel. Now that you’ve shown the engineer’s deadly military secrets you will have to go into their planet and show what never should be shown: the Predator planet in AVSP.
Having devoured Von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods one can only hope they would have mentioned the scientists beliefs (explained their thesis –The Bible references to the Sons of God were completely dismissed even though Rapace’s character is a firm Christian believer; the fact that most of the biggest ancient civilization’s remains speak of the promise of the Gods to come back after a couple of millennia to live among us is not even hinted). We are never told they believe the Gods were astronauts that put us here.
David’s line: “Sometimes you need to destroy in order to create” is a very poetical and strong one. Maybe they should have elaborated more about it. Maybe the engineers’ goal in life is to create, generally, and see what the outcome of that creation is in each different planet and then decide what to do with the result. Fine, but that should have been said in Prometheus; not in a potential sequel that might never see the day of light; again, a very good chance lost for making epic.
Fassbender’s cyborg character is, at times, too human: he can ‘like’ something (Lawrence of Arabia) but he cannot fathom the notion of ‘wanting’ something and yet he is programmed to accomplish Weyland’s dream at whatever cost or can smile with a hint of evil.
Peter Weyland is introduced too soon and the whole trip to the pyramid with him is a pantomime. It would have been different if they would have captured the one engineer alive and then make him meet Weyland inside the Prometheus vessel. That would have been a good time to introduce Weyland himself too.
The engineers are such a superior species and yet so primitive. They had a very good chance to revolutionize everything we’ve always known (thought we knew) about Aliens: the fact that they might not be more than advanced super humans that still need to be dressed and don’t walk around in diapers and monk cloaks. It ifs fine that even though they’re quite limey (like every other alien out there in the history of sci-fi movies) their vessel is made of metal for the most part. We are made of flesh and bone and yet our war ships are made of the same materials. It’s just a convention, but the fact that they need a flute to power up such an advanced piece of technology is just a joke.
And the premise of the expedition and trigger of the movie: top scientists in their fields commit to be put to sleep for endless months in a spaceship traveling through space without knowing the purpose of the trip only to find out about it when they get there? They could be frozen for their organs to be sold in the black market for all they know. Please.
Where is all the chaos the engineers were running away from? How come the ship sat there for 2000 years after whatever it was happened and when the Prometheus crew arrives it looks freshly cleaned and ready to leave somewhere? Were there no other engineers sporadically coming to check in on their military station? It’s been 2000 years, and the corpses are still lying dead with other 4 or 5 ships of the same kind ready to go where? For what purpose?
Dallas, you Pessimistic ape. Get a life. Honestly.
You clearly did not understand that Prometheus is not an Alien prequel but set in the same universe and partially explains who the Engineers are. As such this renders your comments null and void and vacuous.
You shouldn’t bother trying harder as you will still fail.
GAL
I personally did not realy notice the 3d aspect of the movie , say like i did with avatar which made you aware of the height in the tree sequence . I think prometheus was filmed in 3d but was more for all the 2d cinemas . Where as avatar was fimed for 3d and obviously converted to 2d because it concentrates on sceens to make you “oohh” and “arrr” with the flying and floating islands etc .
Great review!
The Alien is a by product. A bio weapon. An off shoot of the bigger picture. My opinion. I am anticipating viewing Ridley Scott’s work of art. Which has ties to his 1979 work. But this organism the Alien is but a small part of a bigger scheme.Thank you Now-A-Prometheus-fanboy.
I saw the origional Alien when I was 12 in the theatre. I tell you I had nightmares for a long time. And I have not had that kind of experience since. Nothing much shocked me after that night. And I have not found a blend of tech and atmosphere to match since as well.
nice reviw, thanks
Hi guys,jus back from a midnight screening of prometheus here in N.Ireland and I’ve gotta say…I’m pumped!!! Amazing! The 2 year wait for this film+constant mention of it in nearly every conversation I’ve had therein have finally bin fulfilled. Great review by Now-A-Prometheus-fanboy and I’ve gotta say I agree with 99% of what he has written but if I’m being a completely honest fan I’ve got 2 small(+I mean miniscule) issues:
1) The pacing of the film IMO feels slitely rushed. Important plot points/themes are either briskly covered, or mentioned/shown and not touched upon subsequently
2) It’s Obvious Mr Lindelof’s paws have been behind the screenplay, ie. a few of our burning questions are answered but alot are…and we are left with a lot of questions( some of which I desperately hope we see answers to in a Prometheus sequel!)
As I’ve said, apart from these minor gripes( which sum viewers will no doubt diss me for) I’ve got to agree with Now-A-Prometheus-fanboy’s review…from start to fanboy pleasing finish this film is EPIC! Well done Sir Ridley!
I can’t stop reading your review!!!!! OMG It seems that Ridley Scott is back!!!
The film is worth the wait. Although I think I anticipated too much. The film is not as complicated as I originally thought it would be.
It’s a simple straight foward scifi horror film. I love how the film begins with Hard Science Fiction, then goes all 2001: a space oddysey on us with the space scenes and then goes thriller and then horror.
So there’s 3 genres all mixed into one movie.
Great movie. I’ll be seeing it again
I’ll give it a 10/10
watched it last night and it didnt disappoint! gory, not really scary, well acted especially michael fassbender. not really an alien movie, but it was a good stand alone. i hope to see it again tomorrow after work
IMDB.com is trending around 9/10 starts atm.
I find their rating system to be in sync with my tastes, so I’m hoping for a great movie. Can’t wait!
Some questions
Why did x destroy [insert name] when he talked to him in ancient tongue?
he unknowingly said
“You momma so fat I mistook her ass for a crater on the moon’
X took that to heart cause he loves his momma and dont like no fools dissin her
My guess would be, that he notices David was an artificial “being” created by the humans his race created. Since they were planning on destroying humanity with this “disease”, he probably got overwhelmed by the abomination of having the creatures they created and plotted to destroy, there, billion of miles away from the planet they planted them, where he was put into a deep slumber, waking him up and having a creation of their own communicating with him in his own speech.
I agree, but from the opening scene I got the sense that the engineer who ‘seeded’ earth was some kind of outcast, and was committing suicide. The disintegrating agent/bio weapon was meant to work completely, but since he did it at the waterfall his DNA happened to survive by mistake. It eventually spread across the world creating man. When you jump back to “x” and [insert name], I think “X” didn’t care one iota about [insert name] and company because they are inferior and a mistake. (philosophically, We have no purpose: we were not created with/for any purpose)
IMO
I imagine Prometheus represents an education about the strengths and weaknesses of Damon Lindelof, with relation to his background and experience (Lost).
Lindelof is beneficial when you use him to punch up a script to provide a FEW good unanswered questions. You should probably bring him in as a consultant, and let him go when he’s provided a few things like this.
Lindelof is a liability when you let him stick around too long, because he will turn the entire script into unanswered questions. Any answers provided are “just so” answers. At the end of the day, the unanswered questions are so numerous that they become plot holes. The self-contained story is outweighed by the unknown, and you’re left with very little intellectual payoff after your time investment.
David stated in an interview that the most disappointing scene in cinema is when the Architect tells Neo everything. I haven’t seen the film yet, but I’ll walk out happy if every single question isn’t answered. Part of why Alien worked so well is the mystery in the first act, and I don’t want that mystery gone. I want Prometheus to shed just enough light for understanding and keep the mystery in Alien.
Did you mean Damon (not David)?
I’m with a little mystery. Bigger elements of mystery and bigger possibilities here and there.
My point is that you have to have a self-contained core story that makes sense on it’s own.
They simply took the lazy, “Lost” route with this film: Introduce a ton of questions, provide no answers whatsoever, with no real resolution to the main arc.
If they had bothered to explain why the Engineers (who apparently created life on Earth and left invitations to come find them) suddenly want to wipe out life on Earth – that would have provided a cohesive, self-contained story AND still left enough open-ended questions.
As it is, it’s simply not good story structure. It’s just a series of events happening.
An example of sci-fi films that provided a self-contained plot, and still had enough of the broader questions: Alien, Bladerunner, The Matrix, 2001, The Empire Strikes Back.
It’s still a good film. But I hate this current trend on open-ended storytelling. High style and low substance.
saw it yesterday, truly agree with BrianC there. The movie suffers from too many scenes that strained to be explain more.
The movie would be great if it runs for 3 hours.
Exactly my view. One hour missing. That’s my feeling after yesterday’s movie visit.
Overall nice, but in the end lacking coherent story telling. The Architects’ story and reasoning should have been addressed since all actions in the last third seem unrelated and random.
C’mon Ridley, you can do better…
Couldn´t agree with you more!
I went to the midnight showing buzzing with excitement. But sadly i came out disappointed. I really didn’t like the way it didn’t answer a single question raised in the film. I felt it was a excellently made film. But just seemed to be a set up to a sequel. It lacked depth and left me frustrated. Just one answer to the many question raised would have been nice. I’ll be going to see the sequel in the hope it ties everything together neatly. If they can do that then I’ll be ecstatic as i think the SJ story has amazing potential as a stand alone and/or new installment to Alien.
Sorry if most of you disagree
Hi to all . Sorry to say i kind of agree to anothermouse with some of his points . Very entertaining and gory film . The characters ? Hmmmmmmmm ? The hero woman thing again and bad robot and don’t forget must have a black guy . Guy pearce as peter weyland was kinda dissapointing but nessecary to the plot but i liked him more in the TED talk . The visuals is a one up man ship on avatar which was a one upmanship on minority report , making riddles the king LOL . The hidden faces in rocks /clouds and such if you notice them is a bit cheesy and the nods to many sc-fi films is way to cheesy . The black doing the blonde is very porn too ! On the hole a entertaining film but could have been better . So to finish , a good film but it ain’t NO BladeRunner .
Dude what year are you living in? What is the problem with the blond doing the black man and why is that considered porn in your eyes? Finally WTF kind of comment is “must have a black guy” in a movie? I personally like a diverse cast that represents the global nature of well …THE EARTH
Well, less PC more down to earth mate. Still, a must have black and asian. Otherwise, completely shallow and not-too-believable acting especially towards the end of the movie. Compare it to Apone character acting in Aliens…
As for the ‘porn’ scene, well, that was purely a PC piece. Absolutely unrelated, not moving story anywhere, just a cotton filling.
Alas.
Well anothermouse the love seen a you put it was so integral and important to the script as the whole film evolved around it as you put it ?and what’s more you are saying there is NO porn where a black guy does a blonde any where on the entire internet ? (just 99% of it which is typical porn (hence my porn reference) . Also wht not 2 black crew members or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 etc. (see where i am going with your problem ) . If you did some research the orginal alien HAD to have a black crew member for the critics because of racism . I am not racist and was just pointing out the obligatory issue with prometheus . Yes i agree is does represent earth but if that is YOUR problem where are every other ethnic crew member ?The question of where i live its called ” REALITY” . Think before you type dude .
Hmmmm!! The film is a mixed bag but mostly great. Acting, cinematography, CGI and effects all superb. The story kept me tranfixed to the screen for the whole time and the story is not completely revealed by the trailers. It’s original and not neccesarily a lead in to the Alien flicks. However there are too few monster moments and the ending is disappointing. If Ridley attempted to tell the back story of the space jockey which he claimed was his inspiration then Prometheus needs a sequel. Shaw even says as much.
Planning to go back for a second helping though!!
PS Perhaps the greatest disappointment is how the film handles the much touted ‘grand philosophy’ theme. It’s basically Von Daniken – actually it is Von Daniken!! If you want a bit of philosophy in your sci-fi let me recommend Sunshine by Danny Boyle!
Just got back from the cinema all i have to say is Scott Lindelof and Spaights have STAR WARS prequeled ALIEN and ALIENS what i HOT MESS of a film !
Yes, it’s “The Phantom Alien”.
A writer brought on “punch up” the script should have excised the first 2 scenes and jumped straight to the Prometheus. Superfluous characters like those played by Charlize Theron and Guy Pierce can be excised too. At this point a writer can begin constructing a plot based around the motivations of Fassbinders character.
Instead we get a mess of a film with forced characterisation, perfunctory dialogue and thin plot. The only fix for this was to employ a writer with talent and ability, neither attributes evident in anything written by Damon Lindleof.
** SPOILERS **
The scene between Idris Elba and Noomi Rapace was painfully scripted, the almost gleeful willingness of the pilots to sacrifice themselves a narrative travesty. The scene between Rapace and Fassbinder with “you’re a robot” was more vomit inducing than any of the movies gorier moments could hope for; a slice of cinematic cheese equivalent to the writer and composer rubbing smegma into the audiences faces.
The pacing of the film is way off, at the one point where we get some tension it’s off to meet Guy Pierce, the tension is relieved and the film falls to pieces. The acting with the exception of the geologist guy was excellent but the script is a complete turd. Then there’s this???
What an embarrassment this film turned out to be for everyone involved.
“A writer brought on “punch up” the script should have excised the first 2 scenes and jumped straight to the Prometheus.”
Thats funny, almost everybody says that the first scene with the sacrifice SJ was awesome.
Was it a little to thinky for you?
Compromising character development and narrative in favor of action or vfx orientated set pieces is a hallmark of shitty movies. The inclusion of the beginning of time sequence really is uneconomical in terms of budget and narrative, it concerns something which is explained later and is therefore entirely redundant.
But perhaps movies involving narrative structure and characterisation are too thinky for you? So I’ll just paraphrase Weyland: “Troll harder”!
I agree man. In almost every respect.
I don’t really see what’s all that great about the Movie as there are so many holes in it that spoil it in my opinion.
If you were putting together a trillion dollar mission would you put together what comes across as a bunch of idiots in the scene when they get told the mission. They all come across as very unprofessional and the captain is a complete mess throughout the movie. The scene comes to mind where the two guys left behind are calling him for help and he acts as if he couldn’t care less. Wouldn’t happen in reality, plus they don’t all get on as a team, no one would risk a trillion dollar mission on those people.
Then the scene where the scientist goes to stroke the alien snake calling it ‘baby’ non stop until the blindingly obvious happens where he gets attacked. I thought i was watching a sic-fi parody at that stage.
Also if you’ve arrived on an alien planet where it appears they have been wiped out by something, possibly a disease which one person even assumes, then why would you all remove your masks. Their inside a damp humid cave where there’s goo everywhere and dead bodies. No real scientist would go around breathing that air and opening doors for new unanalysed air to rush over your face.
Those points among more i can think of just shows what a poorly thought out movie it turned out to be which is a shame because the main plot is really good.
your review nailed it….to the bullseye.
The whole crew setup is the main joke of the movie…..sloopy and unprofessional. If we were to explore a new planet with suspected live forms living there. I dont think we will drive straight to their doorways and barge right in to their living rooms……
If the movie wants to address the serious tone of human creation, a better scientic approach would make more sense…..
The story does not answer to the alien prequel story, that is fine….but when the story does not answer any sort of question raised IN THE MOVIE….that i think is weak story telling at the fullest.
Yeap. I agree with both of you.
Well before you read this, be warned. This review is going to spoil key aspects of Prometheus. So please if you live stateside, or anywhere in the world where this is not playing in theatres yet, avoid this review. Actually you may want to avoid the internet altogether for the time being.
READ ON AT YOUR OWN RISK
This creature above. Do not get your hopes up for it appearing in Prometheus in a form that is recognisable. Unless… Well I won’t spoil that. It spoils itself!
So, I have not long come back from seeing Prometheus in the best presentation I could, in IMAX no less.
Right off the bat I can tell you that the 3D adds nothing to the story of this film, (even though it was shot with the best native 3D camera systems available) It is not a patch on the 3D that was accomplished in AVATAR. Not in the least. There are a few sequences that kinda work in 3D. However I was watching the whole time waiting for the wow 3D. It never really happened though. Although, it is my sad duty to report that the 3D in Prometheus is the least of its problems.
The narrative of Prometheus could be written in one sentence. The problems with it would take a novel.
Let me explain. I have followed this movie from its inception as a two part Alien prequel, right through to it morphing into a stand alone feature set in the same universe as the original Alien and Aliens. Now after all the speculation and hype surrounding this movie, which reached fever pitch with the launch of the initial teaser trailer. I can confirm to you, that this is indeed a stand alone film it is NOT an Alien prequel. Now I have no problem with this. I like original stories from visionary directors known to flourish within certain genres. The problem here, is three fold…
1, The fan base of the Alien saga have taken it upon themselves to hype this film up beyond all reason, much like The Phantom Menace. Actually that is a good comparison in terms of mismatched narratives and alternate tones of story.
2, The studio, 20th Century Fox have taken it upon themselves to sell this movie as a lie. Most of the shots from the trailer are alternate takes and dialogue, the tone of the trailer is misleading and sets it up to be an Alien prequel. It is NOT!
3, there is no ending, this is a set up movie with a completely implausible ending. I will get to that later.
Also of note, is that Prometheus is not scary at all or even tense to watch.
Now having just seen it in its best form (IMAX – Uncut), I can not say it is a bad bad film. However I would not recommned seeing it in 3D. As I was not impressed even at IMAX, your standard theatres 3D will not be anywhere near as effective. So IMAX it or do not bother with the 3D.
The story, you must all be aware about it by now, its about a ship sent out to discover the origins of man after several cave paintings from all over the world are found with a star system configuration pointing to one location. Now after a third act twist that takes place this makes no sense whatsoever. Spoiler… it turns out that is not the “engineers home world” but rather, a military outpost where they store biological weapons. Sigh. Why fucking point it out at all ? Considering that it is even mentioned in the movie that this planet LV-223 is in the middle of nowhere and was apparently not wanted to be found. So again, if they did not want this stuff messed with AT ALL, then why point it out all over the fucking Earth then ? WTF!
That is the basic level of attention to detail that Prometheus suffers. Its all cosmetic. The story comes from the guy behind LOST. There is a major hint at the problems therein.
There is no character development, its style over substance, Apart from a few key players. Michael Fassbender’s David owns this movie, luckily he is a major player and gets a lot of screen time, its a fantastically creepy and agenda driven performance (dum dum daaaaahh). Truly great. Idris Elba gives a strong performance too, along with both Rappace and Theron. Also of note is Guy Pearce who gives a strong performance as Peter Weyland in some pretty decent make up prosthetics.
Now I am going to get to the meat and potatoes of the problems with this film. On a grand scale it makes zero sense. It looks really pretty. It has all the ingredients of a science fiction movie. However the best way to describe Prometheus I think is that it is basically hollow.
I think that Event Horizon has a deeper story than Prometheus. Event Horizon while a similar movie, is actually far more effective. It is an absolute tragedy to compare that movie to this and say well I have to admit Event Horizon was more effective, that pisses me off no end. To turn the Alien universe, and make it feel more like an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation on a much bigger budget. From the opening moments… SPOILERS!!!… The beginning of time (on earth ? it never actually makes it clear) with a guy that looks 95% human, also known as one of the Engineers. He drinks from a metallic cup next to a fountain and starts to disintegrate, falls over the cliff and rots in the water. (cue titles)
PROMETHEUS.
WTF ?
Erm, WTF IS THIS ???????
I sat there watching it after seeing that guy that looks like a bald Carrot Top
“SHUDDER”
I started to worry.
For what reason did that happen ? Its DNA apparently starts to reform in the water, why ? The start of a new ecosystem ? It does not explain! Not that any movie needs to explain itself, ALIEN itself works best because there was an air of mystery and mythology surrounding it with big questions left unanswered. However those questions were clear (who is that guy in the chair ?) in this its less clear what the fuck is going on. Which brings us to the problems with Prometheus which attempts the same, it does not work. It tries however, but what it does try to explain with respect to the ancient race of Engineer’s one of which was fossilised in that big chair in the original Alien, it destroys. Completely. Who wanted those creatures to be….SPOILER! Humans that look like Carrot Top after a serious binge on radiotherapy ?.
Seriously, it is not great. The creatures in Prometheus of which there are very few, which are only briefly seen, look like they belong to another universe. H R Gigar must not have had any input in the design of them, as they hold no likeness at all to that which is to come, apart from one half arsed attempt in the last minute of the movie.
Now I will not spoil the major events of Prometheus, as that is not fair, all I would say is, imagine the most obvious ending you could think of, pulled off in extremely poor CGI quality. Yes it truly is the one you are thinking of, and yes its that kind of bad. I never imagined they would do that, it was to obvious, it is too cheesy. However it happened anyway.
Also when you get to that part it will confuse you further because what appears looks far inferior (and different) to a similar design.
Here are my major problems with the movie.
There is no self contained story. It ends but there is no ending. Now how and why would that happen, well somewhere along the line I would imagine that when the original straight up Alien prequel was pitched it was given a franchise story arc, however Ridley Scott and Damon Lindelof decided to go a new route, however rather than just go completely off centre they decided to skirt around the edges and keep certain elements of this two part story. Meaning that there is no ending, its all set up. Its like they skipped the Matrix and went straight into Reloaded. I have not seen an ending this bad since The Matrix Reloaded either, and aptly enough, Alien vs Predator. I would not be surprised if it was actually a last minute addition due to the fact that it was tracking strong and they are ensured a franchise. However, that is the problem, there is no really satisfying experience to be had with Prometheus because it is not a self contained story and everything is left unanswered and that which you watched was just okay but that which it did answer, was NOT. I would see another, but only because I feel that I have watched something incomplete.
That for me is a bad movie going experience, paying for a film that could not be even considered a singular instalment in a franchise. Its just insulting really. I wanted a story not a chapter of one. Also making it coherent would have been nice. Less chopping and editing would have worked wonders I think.
When you see Prometheus, and lets face it most of you will, go in with your expectations seriously low. You may come through it with a greater feeling of satisfaction that way, although I was not expecting a masterpiece, but I was expecting a coherent narrative mixed with a compelling premise (the premise is great) the exploration is great. Everything else is just, things happening on the screen.
Fassbender owns the movie. There will be another, I can not see this flopping. The trailers were to strong. However that is the downfall, the trailers mis-sold this movie. It is not the intense experience you were expecting, there is nothing scary whatsoever at all. There are no tense moments bar one, which I won’t spoil as the trailers already have. What aliens there are, are so completely removed from the Alien universe (the universe its set in by the way) that it makes its setting redundant. I think the trailers showed near enough all of the creatures including the amount of running time they have in the movie.
However, my biggest problem is this, and its simple. Where was the fucking awe and wonder ?
Hopefully the next one will be better. However with source material like this, it may be difficult.
Very disappointed. Should have been great not okay.
However it is worth it for the performance from Michael Fassbender.
It is a shame that I have focussed this review on the negative aspects, however it is best to crush your expectations now, this is no classic sci fi movie, even if the premise is fantastic. The execution is not.
Finally I want to make it clear that I am able to understand how editing works, and I am telling you this movie has been trimmed down from a much longer running time, which has effected the narrative to the point of breaking it, as for all the controversy surrounding its rating. It got an R however the version I saw was uncut anyway, and I am telling you that the studios have trimmed out the gore in certain scenes. It is noticeable too. I guarantee you all there will be an extended directors cut as Ridley Scott always does that with his films. That is the version I want to see, I never want to see the theatrical version of Prometheus again. It is severely compromised. I would bet my house that Ridley has a much longer and far more graphic version of this film. I will await the Blu Ray.
5 Snake Vaginas Out of 10.
In Space Fox Can’t hear you cry!
Upon further reflection, after some time before writing this review and now adding this edit, I really come down on the side of it being a true disaster of a movie in all levels except the visual and cosmetic.
So I reduce my initial score to…
2 Snake Vaginas Out of 10.
It is a bad film, save for Fassbender its a disaster, especially in the creature department, or lack thereof.
Great read and i agree with everything you said anyone who pretends this movie is good is in complete denial , i loved ALIEN and am gutted as this will taint my view of it forever , i wish i could erase PROMETHEUS from my memory !
“…i loved ALIEN…”
I doubt that pulse rifle.
“It is not a patch on the 3D that was accomplished in AVATAR…”
Ah.
So cameron boys hate it.
This movie must be better then I think it is.
Prometheus…. 4/5 for sci fi movie. 2.5/5 for creature feature movie… feel lost & confused ever since…
Prometheus…. 4/5 for sci fi movie. 2.5/5 for creature feature movie… feel lost & confused ever since… they rushed all the creature attacks far too much
‘A king has his reign’. Perhaps Sir Ridley should reflect upon this. Only marginally better than Aliens V Predator, considerably worse that Alien Resurrenction and even more worse than Event Horizon. Massive hot steaming mess, total embarassment, if Ridley wanted to spurn the very fan-base of his first movie he couldn’t have done a better job.
“even more worse?” Thanks for telling me what your opinion is worth, toddler.
Prometheus is worse than Alien Resurrection?!
Um, no.
Prometheus was just okay. Not great, not horrible.
Alien Resurrection was a true piece of shit.
Further to my prev comment, a considered critical review from yours truly.
.Expectations high but a severe let-down on many different levels. It was uninspired, predicatable and derivative, and on a basic level a poorly-told story. First, there were no real surprises; everything we knew before is really what transpired – team goes to pyramid and finds unfriendly aliens, spaceship crashes, Noomi does self-Cesaerean, head explodes etc. An averagely intelligent fan could have pieced together the plot before viewing (in fact, the leaked synopsis I read was actually a better story)
The plot wasn’t really developed/explained (what was infecting the crewe, what was the point of the massive head, what happened to Fifield, why, why, why?). Characterisation was generally poor, except for David. Many of the sequences were repetitious of what was done before in the original film – ie the scene with the snake (same as the one with John Hurt in the original), the scene with Noomi Rapace (John Hurt in orig) and the scene with david (Ash in orig)- and felt rushed through.
The events lacked plausiblity/realism – ie they just happen to land by the pyramid, noomi takes off in an Alien ship at the end (imagine Sigourney doing this in the original?), the underwhelmed response of the actors to the snake-creature (I recall the expression ‘baby’ being used and jokes being quipped – compare with the John Hurst scene in the original), the crewe adopting wholly implausible attitudes of self-sacrifice (would a co-pilot really smile benignly when asked to accompany the captain to certain death?), Noomi leaping about just minutes after going through severe physical trauma etc.
While the special effects were good, there was little attention given IMO to building atmosphere/drama/suspense, building tension and the craft of telling the story.There was little real sense of excitement or drama, and the opening sequence felt more appropriate to the BBC’s Coast than a sci-fi horror.
It didn’t really feel connected to the original in any way. I can forgive it being concerned with different themes but, as it is attached to the first film, one would have thought it would have at least tried to recreate an equivalent atmosphere and quality. It just didn’t have the same atmosphere of brooding menace or dark authenticity –
The musical score was also inapproprate (too optimistic frontier Hollywoody rather than trademark dark/mysterious Ridley) – compare the score when John Hurt climbs into the Alien chamber with what we have here.
Also, the control room was not as ‘Alieny’ (or indeed as large) as in the original – an Alien control room should have a feeling of being utterly incomprehensible to the human mind, not simply a more gothy version of what we humans would do. A prime example of where less is more, where the unknown/unstated says more. The concept of an extraterrestrial here was more like a Klingon in Star Trek. Also, the Engineer was just a big cgi-generated bald guy, not very terrifying or mysterious really.
Some good points for- the revelation about Meredith Vickers, Guy Pierce’s performance and Michael Fassbender’s performance as David. It was also watchable as films go, if only for the sets.
As a whole though, it was to me an unrealistic Hollywood blockbuster rather than the nectar we’ve come to expect from Ridley Scott, more like the Matrix and to me has definately tarnished our view of the original.. In the Alien franchise, I would put it just after Alien Resurrection probably – OK, it wasn’t as bad as AVP. Scott has either spent too much time in Hollywood or he’s, shall I say, not the director he once was.
Ridley may argue in his defence that it is not an Alien Prequel, but the fact that it leans so heavily on motifs from the first film and has exploited the fan-base makes this invalid IMO.
Big sets do not a movie make, sorry fanboys.
Did you even see the movie or are you just repeating everything
SnakeVagina_isNotYourFriendStupid_HowIsThisEvenFunnyInAHorrorMovie? said?
Or are you probably just the same guy.
I assure you I’m actually quite a different person!
“Or are you probably just the same guy” – my thoughts exactly.
All these long rants seem like angry people who expected something else entirely anyway. I”m really happy about the unanswered questions, that’s what I was hoping for. A lot is left up for interpretation, and it will be exciting to see what will be answered and how if we get a sequel.
“if we get a sequel” Is that all you people think about nowadays?
There are many good films that leave a lot “left up” for interpretation, this one was not one of those…
Our makers pointing us out to one of their military bases???
This is just a lazy review from someone who wanted one think and got something else so is having a tantrum. Watch the film again with an open mind this time and look for the clues, see my comments below and have a nice day
You’re certainly right on that one, I definitely did get something other than what I wanted and am in the process of kicking the floor and punching the air as we speak!
Relax dude, it’s a movie. A very, very entertaining one in my opinion. There are more clues and answers than you think.
The black “goo” was infecting the crew, just as it destroyed the prologue engineer’s dna allowing us to be created, it affected the maggots in a different way, when imbibed it mutated another human in a different way, when the infection was passed during intercourse it affected a different change, when infected by the blood, another change and the final one, another change. Not hard to understand really, evolution through different mixings of dna would not bring about the same result.
The self sacrifice of Stringer Bell (or whatever his name was in this) was completely plausible, he was the only character who had no interest in the search for his maker, he had ‘faith’ in God (he played hyms on that accordion before you whine that his belief wasn’t explicitly explained) so in death he would be welcomed in paradise. He also had no agenda until the opportunity to save his race appeared. Every other character was either working for a corporation or following some narcissistic desire to please themselves, regardless of the danger others would be put in on the journey.
I agree about the co-pilots though entirely, they served no purpose at all. Neither did that guy with the gun who had about one line.
It saddens me to say that I agree with the negative reviews – this film will only be ‘entertaining’ if you enter the theatre with expectations somewhat lower than a gnat’s genitalia, and I say this as a fan of the original.
The problem with what you say is that it’s just what you read into the film / made up, it wasn’t made clear that this was the case RE the zombie states / infections / pregnancies which affect the Crewe. At best this gives a muddled / confused picture and is plain bad storytelling.
I think this movie will mainly appeal to fans of mainstream action-blockbusters, but will be a sore disappointment to fans of the first Alien who may not unreasonably have been expecting something in a similar vein of psychological intensity, suspensefulness and quality.
Haters gonna hate
Personally, it was not what I was expecting, but I did not come away dissapointed.
I would say “we are being set up for something grander in the future”
Don’t lay all your eggs in one basket, as the going says. Plus, you all know this movie is going to make a killing at the box office. Sequel for sure.
One thing to say about ridley, he doesn’t do many sequels, if any at all. However, saying that, I heard from on the grapevine about something called Blade runner????
So, he’s sitting in his Scott Free office, rubbing his hands together.
He delivered for me personally, can’t say that for everyone else.
n.b, I have been an alien fan since I first saw it, done a bunch of fan films set in the alien universe (well, aliens and the colonial marines) so I may be super biased about this movie.
I loved it, and from reading some of the reviews here, other people loved it too.
Good on ya Ridley.
Thanks all and peace out.
P.S
reg: I would say “we are being set up for something grander in the future”
Isn’t that what people were saying about LOST?
Just been to see film, for what it’s worth this is how I rate it.
Visuals 9
Plot 2
Script 1
Acting 4 (but then, with a script as moronic as this……………)
Suspense 2
Flute playing 0
Monsters 2
And as for the ending, WTF.
You read the script? lmao
for all you know the script was better than the actual film itself
In Alien, there were a small number of characters that I felt I understood and to an extent, cared about.
In Alien, the score was other-worldly, atmospheric and perfectly fitted the tone of the movie.
In Alien, the creature was ground-breaking and unforgettable.
In Prometheus………
In normal posts people say something.
In this one…
120 days waiting for … WTF!! next time please show less in the trailers F@**#ing FOX!
Do you expect FOX to wipe your butt and tuck you into bed to?
Heres a hint, dont look at trailers then numbnutts.
No Rob, trailers are only to see what’s the film is all about and not the whole film in shortcut. If you gather all trailers that have been out all this time you have a whole picture of Prometheus without any surprises. I expected more secrets to be unveiled. Look at the Batman Rises trailers, they don’t show you the whole picture just a taste of what to expect and I thought Prometheus had more in storage for us.
Your expectations are killing your enjoyment as you project them in overlay.
I fully expect this movie to be like Kingdom of Heaven:
Best seen as the Directors cut and not the theatrical version.
That is all.
I must start by saying that this film is fantastic, visuals, acting, production and yes script. I feel people have missed the point. In Alien everyone was dead within 24 hours, the same is with this film. The spaceship at the beginng is differ from the constants in this film, indicating different substance that the ‘engineer’ took to the substance in the ampules. What humans and the ‘engineers’ have in common is we are both used to create another organism, engineers to create humans and humans to become “EGG’S” which creates the “Alien”. Engineers through time must have visited earth for the different sivilisations to have there image of the stars that shaw and holloway find. When they visit they take humans with them and then turned in to eggs (think Alien when Dallas is turning into an egg to produce the facehugger) that explains the ship in alien populated with “EGG’S” in Alien. The engineers worked out what was happening or an alien was created by accident and they all got killed trying to get to earth to destroy us to stop it spreading. Prometheus is definitely part 1 of 2, the engineers are just worker drones for the “GODS” if want for a better word. And hopfully we will see.
WRG, did you see the same film as me? Your insight into the film’s meaning and its connection with Alien was not apparent in the version I saw. Indeed I would go so far to suggest that you may be reading a little too much into what you saw!! Actually, way too much!! In fact, your interpretation is completely imagined and not a little bonkers!!
Isn’t that the point !!
The point of what?
The point of good Sci-Fi. To make you think.
Agreed. To make you think. NOT to present an alternative, wildly speculative narrative without any sound basis as to its content. For instance, the engineers taking humans with them and turning them into eggs??? Where did that come from?? But I suppose there’s thinking and then there’s thinking!!
that happens when you have a movie like prometheus……..your imagination can go wild….
The two long negative reviews were spot on.
I felt the 3D was poor and added nothing to the movie.
You are not going to lose out by watching it in 2D.
The film has no tension and is not scary at all. Only the autopsy scene was a little sqeamish.
The trailer is misleading. It looks like the characters are being tortured, but they are not. Also one trailer shows something bursting from the space jockey….however this scene was not in the movie. Neither was the trailer music.
Ridley said something about scaring people by hanging them upside down. The trailer also suggested this, but this is not in the movie.
The film was supposed to reveal how the space jockey got that hole in the chest when he was sat in that chair. This was not explained in the movie.
Nobody seemed scared at seeing the alien creatures….they seemed to want to go and stroke them.
Although the opening scene with the creature falling into the water looked good, the significance of it was not made clear.
The ending was ok I thought, but was a bit obvious. Possibly it was tacked on in haste.
The sets looked very studio like…plastic feeling about them. The big head was not explained at all.
I disagree to some who say it is not connected to Alien because it obviously is – the space jockeys, a sample of the original Alien music, the Giger sets, the egg chamber homage etc.
I think the final version suffered from the cuts made to make it appeal to a wider audience. The end result of a movie that seems disjointed and rushed.
This seemed more like the Quantum of Solace of the Alien franchise. The trailer promised so much, but the final delivery was full of holes, nothing scary and zero tension..
Just got back from seeing this this morning , I went to see it with fairly low expectations after reading alot of negative reveiws and I have to say they are all spot on and then some.
Even veiwed as a stand alone film its very poor and if you were to compare it to Alien itself it beggers beleif that Premetheus was created by the same director ,after the travisty that was Robin Hood I thought Ridley would redeam him self with this film but alas no , I can sum my reaction up in the last 10 minutes of the film when I A…nearly walked out in not only disgust but B….also boardom and what on earth was that last CGI Zeno scene all about it looked so silly as to be laughable….what a dissapointing film.
Just came home after watching the movie. Its a good movie although illogical one. If you just shut of your brain and enjoy the ride, the movie serves it purpose, although not scaring the shit out of you….
Wasted time and money watching this. Have always been an Alien fan, and feel completely cheated. What a MORONIC script! The author should be taken out to a field and shot in the back of the head. The directing’s great, Ridley does deserve credit for that, but what’s the use when the script is this bad? The fact that he shot a film with such a script makes him look like an idiot. And the surgical removal scene? Ridley said he wanted to scare us, not make us puke with disgust. I could barely hold on to my lunch.
***SPOILERS ALERT***
I went to the movie today here in Amsterdam, and although it was pleasing to watch I went home with an empty mind. I remember the movie by heart now and understand every little piece of ghe trailers, sneaky that they reversed some scenes in the trailers!
CGI was great overall, some downpoints but overall a solid 8 out of 10.
I sincerely like the beginning of the movie, that was soo freaking beautiful! My theory is that is how Ridley wants us to belief how life came to stand on earth. The engineer was ok I guess. Not that amazing as I hoped for.. But it was nice to see that particular engineer break down and become one with nature, also showed me that they do know pain so they do feel, looking back on the scene of the big ass ridiculious facehugger. In that scene it looked like the engineer knew what was coming and showed nonfear whatsoever, telling me that it has not been the first time somethig like that happened before. Especially since the wall mural looks exactly like the what many call “proto xenomorph”, too me it just like a mixture between a puppy and a raptor and it was already fully grown (looking at the mural that is) out of the body, like what the hell? So yeah they probably knew this or created even this species before.
Also liked Holloway, great moment when he walked on the opening door and just got flamed by Vickers.. that was just awesome.
So these engineers were already on the way to earth, but why?! Ridley are you kidding us here? Really?! Like what we got to smart, too powerfull? I think one engineer would be able to takeover a whole continent, we are puny come on! Oh and where are the other space jockeys in the other alien movies.. It makes no sense at all.. soo many battleships on a small moon and than where are the rest.. did Shaw kill them? Yeah right.. Many things don’t make sense in the movie from my view, it was like “oh yeah those tittie buttons look kinda cool let’s do that..”. How can a sophisticated and powerful species be so caveman like.. would at least expected more from that. Why would the be so violent as well, why Ridley why?!
It feels like no freaking question has been fully answered and only more quesions popped up..
It could have been such a good movie because it had all the ingredients for me, the recipe was just all badly mixed up and that really left me with an empty mind.
David.. amazing haha, douchebag + cool guy at once. Doesn’t everyone want to kill there parents, how did he come up with those feelings those thoughts?.. Only bad partnof David was when his head came off.. cool job though by the engineer “hey son, David smiles, AND NOW I’M GONNA RIP YOUR HEAD OFF!! BRAAAH”. Seriously?.. Jeesz..
It really looks like I’m making this movie look bad and I truly apoligize, that is not what I want at all. And because I’m typing on a phone everthing is in bits and pieces. Look, it’s a decent to good movie overall, but again it just lacks the recipe.
Funny though that those worms were in the cave, maggots right? So how did they come there.. which became those freaky snake like things with alien acid..
What else.. oh that scotish woman lied! She doesn’t die after 28 minutes, which gives me the thought that everybody lied about everything, which eventually they did..
3D didn’t at that much I think, I wasn’t taken into the movie by it. Which was again a downside..
So yeah I’m sleapy and don’t have the puff to type more.
The Dark Knight Rises trailer which came before the movie was better to be honest..
Sorry for the spoilers, sorry for the hate. Trust me I love Ridley, have been there since the beginning. And I do love prometheus somehow in a weird way, kinda have mixed feelings.
If you are going to watch it, go to in IMAX!! It will blow you away, just don’t get high hopes with the story though.. sit back, relax and enjoy another Ridley Scott movie..
Peace out
I’m so glad I’m not the only person who noticed that mural looked like a xenomorph!!! Honestly that fact makes the ending look kinda retarded. Why are we supposed to be shocked by it appearing if they must have already seen it before?
Ultra disappointed, the worst sifi movie I’ve seen in years…aside from the fancy special effects, the movie is empty at best. A trillion dollar operation, but they hire a bunch of idiots for staff. No wonder Weyland was bought by wal mart in Alien resurrection (Roll on the cut backs!!!). The movie will only leave you with a trillion questions which FOX did it on purpose so they could milk the hell out it with sequels and maybe video games. Absolutely nothing in this movie made sense at all. Horrible experience!!!
0/5 STARS
Ps: I beg you, please don’t waste your money on this movie.
Just came back from watching this film
I was blown away by the Special effects and the practical effects. Its about time we have a summer blockbuster thats not completely CGI. Some creepy moments as well as some great action
I might go and see this again at the cinemas. loved it
I’d give it an 8/10
I went to see it on Friday – and all of the negative reviews on this thread are spot on. Briefly, it starts strongly, intriguing, visually impressive and right through the scenes with David prowling the corridors as the crew sleeps (best scenes in the film IMHO) I’m thinking those who have been negative about this are wrong…
And then the crew wake up – and are revealed as thin, inconsequential, paper thin cliches who only exist in C-movie land… I was prepared to forgive that if the film put them through the ringer, if it suprised me, if it was tense or exciting, or even horrific, and it is patently none of these.
It is a fractured, hacked together dogs dinner killed at inception by a truly embarrasingly bad script (dialogue, characters, structure, plot, story – the lot – everything that should be right with a screenplay is wrong wrong wrong) that seems the work of an amateur and begs the question of how a major studio like Fox ever approved it.
As this gets progressively work, lurching from one piece of plot to the next, mistaking this for suspense and intrigue, you sit there praying that something – anything – will happen to surprise us or horrify us or make us care – and it never does.
By the end of the film, Ridley Scott is paying homage to Paul Anderson and his AVP films with that final shot, when at the start he was quoting Kubrick and 2001.
Yes, that’s how far down we go from the promising opening to the appalling ending.
Save you money – and wait for a DVD, or even TV. It recalls those AVP films more than you would like or expect – and believe it or not – is actually poorer than the first one.
To say I was bitterly disappointed is an understatement.
Prometheus charts the journey from pre-humanity until the most important discovery in our existence. From the kick off it is clear that what we are witnessing here is not simply a “haunted house in space” film like the first Alien, or a “bugs get destroyed by one-liners” film like the second but something much larger. This time Scott is painting on a much larger canvas and one which draws comparisons in a far larger degree to 2001 and Blade Runner than anything the Alien universe has offered before.
Whether or not is manages to hit all that marks sufficiently is kind of by the by, it would not only be stupid but hilarious for a film to question the reasons for our existence, the importance of knowing our maker, the existential paradoxes of life in general, the possibilities of evolution via technology and what actually makes us human then wrap it all up in a nice package by giving us an answer. That kind of arrogance is beyond even Ridley “Of course I know exactly everything about everything” Scott’s over-inflated self belief so I can’t figure what is wrong with the people complaining about this film “not making sense” or other such silly bickering when all it requires is a modicum of interaction from the viewer to accept what is being ruminated on in the film. It’s just not the kind of film you can treat as a firework show.
Having said that thought the film does suffer because, for all it’s heavy and ambitious themes it still had to deliver the goods blockbuster wise just to justify its budget. So, we get several incredibly (almost Bay level) silly action sections which are lacking tension due to, seemingly Ridley just phoning them in as a necessary evil to get the film made while he focussed on the thematics. Several star trek red shirt-type characters and, well you know, that 3D shite.
Overall though, despite some characters being almost non-existent the performances of Rapace, Fassbender and Idris Elba (I’m still unsure if his was the most important character intentional or he just added a level of humanity and charisma to it just by being a good actor) keep the ship afloat. The thematic elements leave much to ponder on and ultimately it is a ballsy, intelligent film that dared to tread unfamiliar ground without fearing a backlash from fans of Pointless explosions W.S Anderson and his filthy ilk.
Ok, all this Prometheus stuff is well and good, but let’s get down to business. Time to get BladeRunnerForum up and running.
SPOILERS – My Take on Prometheus – SPOILERS:
Likes:
Some of the performances were excellent – stand up and take a bow Mr. Fassbender. Also good work from Rapace, Elba and Theron.
Holloway – not the douche he looked in the trailers. His character was a nice surprise.
Stunning visuals. RS never lets you down in this department.
FX – superb with the exception of maybe Pearce’s old man makeover. Wasn’t convinced by that.
Generally the first 30 – 45 mins. Great set up, intro to characters, atmosphere and pace.
Dislikes:
Second half of film. Far too rushed with some just downright badly edited sequneces. Like they realised halfway through the movie that they had to cram in almost all of the plot into the last hour.
Underdeveloped characters. Fifield, Millburn were wasted opportunities to create some interesting characters.
Vickers death – lame. Waste of good opportunity to give her a proper character moment.
Thought the score was out of place. Too epic in places where it should have been tense or eerie.
Total lack of tension or suspense.
Creature designs. Wasn’t too pushed about any of them
Overall it seemed like the opening episode of a new franchise. Raised more questions than it answered. Definitely not a prequel in my mind.
Some things I would have done:
Found a different reason for the crew putting into space ( like the discovery of a life supporting planet ) and then had them discover on the planet that the engineers seeded life on Earth. I think it would have provided a decent mid movie twist. And for Godsake keep the twist out of the trailers and synopsis releases.
Also create some characters that are more than the customary red shirts and give the audience some time with them before you kill them all off!
Finally decide what the hell kind of film I want to make – epic sci-fi, horror, action etc and let that determine the pace and atmosphere.
Overall I give it a slightly disappointed 3 out of 5 stars but I do think it deserves a second viewing.
You may now proceed to rip this post apart should you wish to. I merely offer my opinion and I expected alot more from this.
Review ratings between 0 out of 10 and 8 out of 10,
And reviewers either loving the 3D or hating it.
I wonder how many people who didn’t like the 3D have ocular dissonance IE: wear spectacles as this can have a huge bearing on your enjoyment of 3D.
This was shot on RED 3D at 48 fps as is the Hobbit, you are looking at format standard at the moment. (go and watch the prod diaries on PJ facebook for a primer on how that works people.)
Basically I see everyone who expected another “Alien” film crest fallen, remember Ridley said ‘this is not an Alien film’
Otherwise generally people paying to see what THEY wanted, not what Ridley made, i just don’t know how you can go to a film with this much predisposition, its retarded! you will be disappointed if you set yourself up like this.
Excuse me Roccoco, but this movie was shot at regular 24 frames per second!
Apart from that I do fully agree.
Enjoy cinema as what it is, an entertaining artform.
“remember Ridley said ‘this is not an Alien film”
How can you guys say this is not an Alien movie when it is about a race discovered in Alien, features sets (and space ships) from the original movie and features monsters squirming about in people’s abdomen’s? That have acid for blood?
Of course it’s an Alien film! Scott might not like anyone to connect them, but come on!
You can expect to see an ‘ALIEN’ style film all you want: ALIEN ‘haunted house in space’ or ALIENS ‘Vietnam war in space’ but tonally this is not an ALIEN style film.
Form does not equate substance.
Ridley is a lot more sophisticated than he was back in 1979-1983 and has a much larger budget.
If you see Arnold Schwarzenegger walking down the street do you get disappointed that he’s not shooting Columbian drug runners out of the trees like in Commando?
Before you fire from the hip at Roccoco you’d best do your homework:
https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=Prometheus+shot+at+48+fps%3F&hl=en&rlz=1C1CHKB_en-GBNZ421NZ421&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=WXnOT-bqB-6TiQfbrIX1Cw&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CEcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1309&bih=739
the first photo on the page from the day 1 teaser.
For those who like to research and be informed:
Camera
Red Epic, Zeiss Ultra Prime and Angenieux Optimo Lenses
Laboratory
Company 3 (digital intermediate)
Fluent Image, London, UK
Film negative format (mm/video inches)
Redcode RAW
Cinematographic process
Digital Intermediate (master format)
Redcode RAW (5K) (dual-strip 3-D) (source format)
Printed film format
35 mm (anamorphic) (Fuji Eterna-CP 3514DI)
70 mm (horizontal) (IMAX DMR blow-up) (dual-strip 3-D) (Kodak Vision 2383)
D-Cinema (also 3-D version)
Aspect ratio
2.35 : 1
http://www.red.com/products/epic
That is all.
OK Roccoco!
All of what you have posted is correct!
But first, as far as I know no cinema is and will present this movie at 48fps. And the screencap of that slate, for me seem to be from actionscene-shootings that are often shot with several higher framerates to have the possibilities to do some slomo-shots in post.
I would be cheering out if you could post any quote or source that confirms the entire film was shot at 48fps and is projected with that in some cinemas.
Thank you for that.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>(SPOILERS AHEAD!)<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
First up, I should mention that I usually enjoy films that don't lead you by the hand and let the audience think for themselves, but there's a big difference between using ambiguity to challenge the audience to think and then using it just to cover up plot holes and sadly Prometheus belongs to the latter.
Prometheus really is a schizophrenic movie that doesn't really know want it wants to be. In the first act it puts forward the biggest of philosophical questions about creation, science and religion, before shying away from these themes in the 2nd and 3rd acts without really dealing with them in any meaningful or intelligent way, as it tries to live up to expectations of being an "ALIEN prequel."
The characters in Prometheus are a real mixed bag. Most of them are just Mc characters waiting to become fast food, but even the central characters are undercooked to the point that its hard to build up any attachment. This means their deaths and actions have very little emotional impact. Another issue is that these people are supposed to be on a trillion dollar mission to search out the origins of humanity, there all supposed to be professionals, yet they behave like a bunch of teens from a B slasher movie. The most annoying aspect though is the way the characters act so emotionally detached from whats going on around them. For example, the causal reactions the flight crew have towards Janek ahead of a suicide run against the juggernaut is totally surreal. Another example is when no one seems to care one bit that Shaw's just preformed a c-section on herself and given birth to alien monstrosity. These kind of character reactions just left me perplexed.
On a more positive note, Michael Fassbender as the android "David" is excellent. His introduction in the film as he wanders around the ship, entertaining himself "Wall-E" style and developing a fixation on Peter O'Tool's "Lawrence of Arabia" is a highlight and totally engaging. As for comparisons to other portrayals of artificial humans, he never quite reaches the dizzying heights of Rutger Hauer's "Roy Batty" from Blade Runner, but still makes a worthy successor to Ian Holme's "Ash" (ALIEN) and Lance Henriksen "Bishop." (ALIENS)
As for Noomi Rapace, I had high expectations in her character "Elizabeth Shaw," but ended up somewhat underwhelmed. To be fair, Rapace is not helped out much by the script, especially when trying to convince as the scientist conflicted by her religious beliefs. Nor does the implausibility of Shaw's actions help either, like preforming heroic feats after a c-section, or her ludicrous desire to seek out the engineers home-world just to set up the sequel. Fortunately, when the proverbial hits the fan, she does at least manage to engage with the raw emotion of her performance. Inevitably though (fairly or not) Shaw will be compared to Ripley and in truth she's not even close to being as iconic, but maybe the inevitable sequel will help evolve the character in this regard.
As for the rest – Logan Marshall Green as "Holloway" (Shaw's token love interest) is passable in the role. Charlize Theron as company ice queen "Vickers" and Idris Elba's salty ships captain "Janek" had potential, but are sadly underused. And why Guy Pearce was even cast in the role of "old man Weyland" is beyond me.
That brings me to the editing which is undeniably one of the films biggest flaws. The pacing feels rushed and character scenes are left underdeveloped. Scenes that needed time to breath to generate atmosphere flyby in a blink of an eye. While plot elements are poorly introduced as the film jumps erratically from one plot devise to another. Then we come to the tacked on nudge and a wink fan service of a final scene which feels like an insult 33 years in the making.
The real crying shame here though is Ridley Scott, the man who gave us one of the most suspenseful films ever made with "ALIEN," seems to have little to no idea of how to build suspense and mystery in Prometheus. As a result the film isn't the least bit scary or atmospheric. However, it does at least deliver more on visceral side of things, although anyone use to a healthy diet of horror films will find most of these scenes to be fairly tame.
As for Marc Streitenfeld score, its wonderful when evoking a sense of awe during the more grandiose moments, but sadly guilty of overwhelming the horror and character driven elements.
Visually, Prometheus is a masterpiece, with everything from the cinematography, sets, to the special effects being top draw, giving proof (if any were needed) of Ridley Scott's ability to paint with light and craft an awe-inspiring film world. Its shame then, that for all the visuals draw you in, the plot and characterisation pull you back out again.
In conclusion, Prometheus isn't a bad film, but neither is it a particularly good one (the script and editing see to that) although it's stunning visuals and Fassbender's performance do manage to save it from mediocrity. Still, considering the potential, I can't help but feel disappointed.
6/10
I think you are spot on with your review. Really was a disappointment. Don’t get me wrong I wasn’t expecting another ‘Alien’ but was expecting something better than this.
Thats a fair review.
I agree that its schizophrenic.
Ridley needs to either be all the way arty and hope the success comes, like the Cohen brothers, or be pop and appeal to 13 year olds like his asshole brother.
Its just beyond his skills to do both at the same time.
He never did both at the same time.
His greatest achievements were his art movies, that sometimes became popular long after the little kids finally grew up.
In fact I’d go so far as to say that its pretty rare that anybody is able to do both.
I’m trying to think of many/any good examples of that.
Abrams or whedon can make movies that are just smart enough not to be specifically insulting, but they are kinda winky in that you can tell that they ARE intelligent, and are very deftly making something stupid on purpose.
Spielberg is also crafty like that.
Apparently thats good enough for popularity with 13 year olds and most normal people alike, although I still find it insulting and I have no use for their movies.
But thats just not Ridley’s skill.
Trying to do both is only making a lesser version of either one.
Its to heady for popcorn entertainment, and too stupid to be taken as seriously as it wants to be.
Hi all. Just got back from seeing the film.
*SPOILERS AHEAD – YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED*
I’ve got to say that as I’ve read all of these reviews I mainly agree with the negative ones.
If I’d never seen an ALIEN film before then this may have been more bearable. On the face of things it was a beautiful looking movie and had a decent amount of action and for what it was, it was OK.
However, it made no sense. Started well but then suddenly just flew in to so many plots points. In ALIEN there was one main creature, (barring the facehugger) and you new the threat. Here we have SJ, ass-flower snake, infected crew going mental, cuddles and proto-alien.
It also seemed that none of the crew cared what happened. The suicide mission has been mentioned countless times but also, no one else seemed to care when one crew member fried another! No-one mentioned a thing about the c-section, it just happened! No-one seemed to react or care at all.
At the end, I was thinking “this seems like the end but this is an ‘ALIEN’ film so we’ll think we’re safe and then something will go wrong”. But no, it just ended and everyone flew away…aaahh, how sweet.
Also, the proto-xeno raises questions that didn’t really need to be there. It is implied that this is a new thing. if so then why is there a statue of it in the ‘Head’ chamber? Is this the 1st xeno? I doubt it. It just felt really cheesy like the end of the 1st AVP.
Ridley has said there won’t be a Directors Cut but I really hope he’s telling lies. I just felt that the whole thing was rushed. I didn’t care about the characters and I wished I did.
Also, from an ALIEN fan boy view. Why oh why couldn’t the space jockey of looked like how we envisaged it? Rather than just a helmet, it should have been bigger too!
However, Fassbenders performance was awesome and there we’re plenty of cool elements. I’ll buy it on Bluray when it comes out just to experience it again and try and piece it together. I just hope there’s a Directors cut.
Also, there was a rumour that a sequel could be directed by Cameron. I’m not sure that would be a good idea now, it may turn in to AVATAR meats ALIENS meets PHANTOM MENACE.
It was obviously always going to be difficult for this to live up to expectations. If I wasn’t a fanboy I’d give this a 7/10.
As much as it pains me, as I’d hoped for so much, I’m afraid as a fanboy of the series I have to give it a 5/10 (this may go up in time, but immediate reaction is not favourable)
Ugh, why is every complaint about plot holes less about plot holes and more about it’s relation to Alien? No one cared about Shaws’ c-Section because for the most part no one knew. Can you tell me when she announced it everyone? David didn’t care? Surprise, he made it very plainly clear that all he really cared about was Weyland. This may shed a little light on the movie for ya: Weyland only cared about prolonging his own life. He told David to try harder so he infected Halloway (and inadvertently Shaw). Weyland was practically on his death bed, so no time for detailed analysis of the black goo… simply feed a little to someone and see if it is beneficial or not. Shaw gets pregant, and now he’s simply curious. Weyland Vickers and David are the only ones who really know she’s pregnant, and they only care about the answers she may provide, not her. Also, you’re complaing that an inhabital planet/moon/whatever has more than one lifeform? If it didn’t you’d be on here bitching about how unrealistic it is for a life sustaining environment to only have one life form. Yes, you’re a fanboy. you got that part right. That makes your opinion irrelevent to anyone but possibly other fanboys.
Well said Fry…
I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and would give it a 9.5 out of 10. Visually it’s a masterpiece. I thought the opening sequence was incredibly beautiful and the the first engineer utterly fascinating. I’ve enjoyed all the Alien movies but I always try to approach any film without preconceived notions otherwise you’re in your head doing comparative analysis instead of totally in the moment and with whatever is unfolding in front of you.
I find most of the reviews here overwrought to the point of nausea. Yes, his approach to the some of the support crew characters was puzzling (but consistent with past films) and my pet peeve… the use of what look like 12v lighted toggle switches on the Prometheus control board (check your local auto store to see what I mean), but all of this is minimal when taken in context to the overall film. It is simply a beautifully created and executed film with nuance, incredible detail and visual genius that makes me want to go back this minute to see it again.
Greetings from Serbia! We saw it here finally!.. I have waited this for a long time… big time ALIEN and Sci Fi fan… and… what a disappointment…
Dont get me wrong, this is a must see. It looks beautiful, effects are almost perfect. First half of the movie – great, I could even say epic… and then second part comes… plot holes, unnecessary dialogs… terrible ending…
Fassbender was brilliant… Rapace also… The rest, very bad and shallow. All this reminded me of Star Wars prequels and Matrix sequels.
After all, I will go and see it once more, give it another chance, but this time with my mind focused only on visual effects. Story is allready ruined.
Good movie for Sci Fi genre, very bad for ALIEN franchise.
6/10
so is that score based on it being bad for the aliens movies lmao ( as far as im concerned the MOMENT you mention another film in a review fails the entire review……..basing it on what it isnt instead of what it is is fucked) or is your score based on how good it is for a sci fi movie ?
well… for a sci fi movie it is pretty good. Looks great, story is not that bad if you compare it with modern sci fi movies, but not that good either. But from the beginning it tries to connect with Alien and it is definitely a prequel. And it fails. So, nothing revolutionary, not classic for sure, but fun summer blockbuster.
Shit sandwich
^^
The mind of a tween.
I think that’s a reference to the film This Is Spinal Tap, where their album ‘Shark Sandwich’ gets a two word review ‘Shit Sandwich’…
So I don’t think it’s a tween.
The tall bold dickhead was not very convincing. R. Scott you can do much, much better. Maybe pay Giger some hard cash next time, so he can deliver proper creatures!
Why do 13 year olds always think that famous people are personally scouring the internet for their opinions?
Weird.
Right…
And how did you find the movie, brick?
Open Letter to Ridley Scott
RE: Prometheus
First off let me say. Prometheus is not what i expected.
I feel like i can’t explain this to you… but i will try my best.
I’m writing this just having scene your new prequel to ALIEN.
It’s 2am going on 3am and i am trying to peace it all together, and somehow get out a year’s worth of this built up hype/weight off my shoulders in the process.
And if you could indulge me (your audence), i would like to start at the beginning and try keep it to the point and not wonder off to much and tell you my story…
A L I E N… in a wired way is a movie that has been imprinted onto my DNA.
And it has and continues to have a huge influence in my creative outlets.
It is terrifying and unique and believe me i could go on and on about it.
I had been following this movie (Prometheus) for a year, through fan blogs and online news articles witch got me foaming at the mouth and quite literally excited for life…
Really…… excited for LIFE…
Knowing that they where making a prequel to one of my favourite movies of all time A L I E N was making me feel butterflies in my stomach and excited enough to have me be creative in my own life.
I began to write and create a prototype album called O D Y S S E Y – Future/Space/Dead/Sound
about my own space ship (Odyssey) and my adventures in the universe Ridley Scott had created…
I know that sounds crazy, but in my mind it was a way of getting out my excitement.
In a way Odyssey was my vision of what Prometheus was going to be.
Believe it.
Throughout that year of 2011 I even began emailing and writing to Scott Free Productions asking to be apart of the adventure they were about to embark on.
I often would write and ask if i could voulinteer myself, that they didn’t have to pay me a cent and i would get my own way to them. That i would quite literally be at there disposal to clean there bathrooms… and i would of done anything for them.
The fan inside just wanted to be involved some how, and I Would of dropped everything.
(yes this actually happened)
Of course…i didn’t get a reply. And if i was them i probably wouldn’t of replied also.
But i did this and would have given them 110% of myself. for no price. that how much love i have for this movie and how much of a fan i really am.
(cut to)
Month after month… Week after week…Trailer after Trailer…
Witch brings me to this date 6/6/2012 – 9:15 Advance IMAX screening of Prometheus.
Let me say this, i liked your movie but i also hated it.
And part of me dosent want to sit here and write a list of things i didn’t like about your movie and wank myself off into another universe of bullshit for you to read and i think that would make me just another asshole…
But i feel i have to get it off my chest somehow so thats exactly what I’m going to do… (sorry)
I know what your argument is. Prometheus is a completely different stand alone movie to ALIEN but with DNA carried over from it. witch is exactly correct. And i can here a voice though the internet and out of my computer screen from you staying “OPEN MY FUCKING MIND”
But that said….
You give me tooo epic… way too epic man… and thats where you lose me in this genre.
After 30 years away from this movie and as me a fan, this angle of approach seams cheep to me for you to explore.
Part of me feels like you have taken the George Lucas road with movie and distorted any kind of mystery this film once had.
(please note for the record, i don’t like star wars)
I would of been VERRY happy if you delivered another “A L I E N” movie (like you where originally going to do)…in the world of prometheus… a slow build…to utter chaos, And i think thats what people (us fans) wanted. In a way you did do that but in this wired hollywood way where it didn’t make sense to me.
The genius of ALIEN was first it was Smart…
and second, its confined story in space that made you ultra aware and locked into the story to see what the crew are all going to discuss with each other and to plan along with you the next logical step…
Your characters where awesome, but way undermined and sometimes stupid, and some lines where actually cringe worthy.
just a few straight up qualms i had with your movie if you don’t mind a simple fan boy having a rant…
Most of the blame was in your score choice… Terrible.
It was in no way terrifying.
And to not have some kind of symphony play like in ALIEN was just disapointing.
I feel you could have even used the score for the original ALIEN and it would of worked and have been a thousand times better than the one you chose to use.
Hey lets casually go into the cave on another planet two years away from our own planet and take our helmets off and walk around (with no weapons), find a room full of biohazards (still keeping our helmet off) and check shit out…
I would not take my helmet off on another planet even if i was a cocky as shit scientist.
Incredibly hollywood thing to do to see the actors faces is my only conclusion.
Why would you do that when your space suites are so fucking cool on…
Also why have them alternative versions of a full metal body space suite… and to not use them at all..?
Milburn and Fifield that got left behind… who both left before the other guys because they where too scared to be in the cave to begin with… end up looking around more than the other guys that wanted to look around… how dose that work?
If they where as scared as they said they where and as scared as i would of been to leave in the first place, wouldn’t they wait near the caves opening and not look around even deeper….. it’s just stupid.
And why would David obviously spike Holloway’s Drink just before he was going to give it to him? wouldn’t he have done that beforehand… I think everyone (the audence) knew what he was doing. To me David is not that stupid.
And why would the captain leave the bridge unattended with two people stranded on the planet.
What the fuck… And maybe be a little bit more concerned rather than amused by it.
Captain Janek has so much potential to be more fucking awesome.
Don’t get me wrong… I Fucking Love Guy Pearce, but i think you know where i am heading with this.
But that all said in my fan boy rant…
Vickers was awesome and so was David. He was amazing and my favourate Character, and i could have watched a 10 hour movie just on his two years waiting for the crew to awake.
and your Prometheus Space Ship and its Set’s…. Incredible.
Maybe some of the blame lies in the fact that you actually made this movie too quickly, from go to show the turn around was crazy quick…. you think in 30 years you would have had enough time to actually think about all the rad shit you are going to do.
I feel like you should of stuck with your original idea of making just a straight up alien prequel… But hey that just a fan boy talking.
Let me tell you this…
I give you a open invitation for my time. Someone who is obsessed with this movie franchise. (Excluding AvP)
I would love to sit down with you and talk with you, Before you make another prequel sequel that is gonna make me quite literately sad.
But that will most definitely never happen.
What would i know rite.
In closing i want to say this.
If you had given me one camera and access to even a quarter of the sets that you threw out after your filming and one space suite. i would have made a more terrifying movie 10 times what Prometheus is. I know thats a fucking bold statement to make. But that how strongly i feel about what i just saw. And that would be exactly what the fans (me) wanted.
Jesse Hawkins.
you know its just a movie right……?
its not alien wa wa wa…. the score wasnt like alien wa wa wa……. scott never let me do the music wa wa wa……… massive alien fan wa wa wa …….
try reviewing prometheus next time yeah……. and yeah im sure you and your movie would be awesome lmao…….. but we already have an alien movie , and its not filmed in your kitchen with the lights off
hahahah awesome
A person who posts an almost 1,500 word diatribe in an online forum can offer “a(n) open invitation for my time.” What an honor! And to think Ridley could share that valuable offer with porn, cheetos, and pestering neighborhood animals… and whatever other worthless things you’ve manged to master instead of grammar.
You know, these negative reviews baffle me. I thought it was spectacular.
Sound – 10/10
Visuals – 10/10
Plot – 8/10
Monsters – 8/10
Characters – 7.5/10
Ending – 7.5/
Music – 9/10
I thought it was honestly an amazing movie on its OWN. If you go into this expecting Alien, then you’re stupid.
and 3D – 9/10 – better than avatar.
I completely agree.
This movie Prometheus is really amazing!
Can’t wait to watch Prometheus because of this!
thats a really good point actually…..the more of ”these” kind of reviews i read , the more i look forward to watching it
I confess I was dissapointed after seeing the movie last night. Theres no doubt it is an amazing spectacle, but the story lacked, and there were some silly moments.
I can accept it as a 3/5 movie, but Ridley will need to give me more in the sequel.
Here’s my review of Prometheus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsCspJFaCMs
Midnight showing in Fargo, ND… theater was packed!
There was grass on earth prior to the engineer sacrifice so not ALL life stemmed from that incident.
Not sure why they “made” us then visited multiple times to say hello(?), then put thwarted plans in place to destroy us some 2k years ago.
The Xeno at the end was almost cute…which was odd.
Why would anyone in their right mind approach an alien snake looking thing as if they were looking at a stray kitten? That part of the movie sucked because of that.
Just saw it. I loved it. Not sure what everyone’s complaining about and I’m not going to bother writing a review so everyone can nitpick at it. The further away it gets, the better.
Do not want to insult you, but some movie goers expect a sound story that has a logic that set’s the frame for the movie, not just ‘wait for a sequel’ kind of logic.
Visuals et all, over the top. Story and logic, not really there.
Overall, OK movie. But is OK movie all we wanted? I guess not.
Agreed.,…I knew it would not be ALIEN….but wanted something more. I left a little confused. I do not need everything spelled out for me…hate movie like that…but the is it ALIEN is it not ALIEN has just given me a headache.
Im not insulted. I’m also not on any mission to convince anyone of anything. I realize the reactions are so polarized becos everyone loves ALIEN and had certain expectations for Prometheus. However, I enjoyed it and loved that it deviated from ALIEN. Seems that anyone who likes it is considered dull or something, especially viewing the drubbing people get for saying so. Into it!
what sequel! Shaw and a robot head in an Alien ship – thats a plot that will stink worse than this – please noooooo!
Engineers in suits = SJ’s – what an afterthought – it was obvious in Alien the SJ’s chest was burst – not a suit..
cliche ridden rubbish…
Girl who cant get pregnant does…
I am your father luke(vickers)….
heroic captian goes down with ship…
no sequel please – just remake/reboot the original and get JJ Abrahms to do it!
Awesome review buddy. Where does it state Shaw can’t pregnant exactly? Did you even watch this movie?
I did and I remember that the chick scientist cannot get pregnant. To paraphrase your question, were you paying attention to the movie or to your GF?
fry – I was obviously still awake at this point in the borefest while you snoozed off…
Shaw and Charlie discuss her not being able to create – and then they have a go practising…
Clearly stated that Shaw could not “create”…..AKA not have children.
U must have selected hearing else your mind was wandering some where else, shaw clearly said….”for not having a baby?”to holloway after he made the statement. And her looks of distress after what holloway said, and holloway quickly console her saying that’s not what he meant. that was one of the scenes that show rapace good acting…….
And you are really “not great” for paying attention some where else
I went to the Midnight showing last night. All I can say about Prometheus is WOW! I can’t even stop thinking about it. Honestly will go down as one of my top 5 sci-fi movies i think. Even though i knew it some parts in the movie were coming i got stressed right he fuck out during certain scenes and was sweating no lies. The girl beside me grabbed my arm like three times during the movie and said she couldn’t take it. She apologized up and down. I just laughed i thought it was cute. I had anxiety at some points & i was on the edge of my seat the whole fucking time. I haven’t had a movie do that to me since i was a little kid i think. Definitely some high stress tense moments. Half the theater stayed for the credits and everyone just sat there and were talking about it. People didn’t want to leave. And Everyone clapped at the end.
I can’t even talk about what I just saw. So many things racing through my mind. Seriously LOVED IT! It’s a must see in IMAX I can’t even imagine seeing it any other way. The 3D was perfect, astonishingly beautiful in some parts and subtle when it needed to be. Lived up to all my expectations and more. That art department needs to win an Oscar. And so does Noomi and Michael because they stole the show! Especially Michael. Actually i think the whole casting was brilliant. Vickers is a total bitch I loved it!
I have read some reviews that have been extremely negative and I really don’t get the hate and I think anyone that hated this movie needs to check themselves. I mean from the very beginning Ridley said himself this was going to be a two part story at the very least. So what all your questions weren’t answered? I mean really some just sound like a bunch of cry babies who want be spoon feed everything. Or a bunch of 90′s children who are upset that their AVP movies got cast aside to the rubbish pile (where they belong) because Mr. Scott took back his franchise by the horns. I feel some people made up their mind about the film before even seeing it. I found the film to be and WILL be a true classic in years to come. I thought it was bloody fantastic! will be going to see it again & again & again.
Bravo Ridley Scott you delivered a bloody fantastic film! Bring on the part 2 & 3 because they can’t come soon enough.
Well, glad you liked it. Some people not that much and accusing them of being AvP crybabies is a tad too much.
On the contrary, I suspect you being an AvP crybaby putting looks over substance. Nobody says it is a bad looking movie, rather shaky in the story and logic department. Promises too much, delivers little. And to add insult to injury, last third is as rushed as they go.
“On the contrary, I suspect you being an AvP crybaby putting looks over substance.”
Wait. What? So your saying AVP movies have substance. You lost me there bro. Hahahahahahaha.
There’s nothing wrong with the story in my opinion, the pace was fine and people were disappointed because in their own minds they set it up to be something else. That’s not Sir Ridley’s fault. As for logic it’s science FICTION. Who said everything has to make sense. Not gonna try to convince anyone they have to like it. What matters is I did and so will a lot of other people. Can’t please everybody.
Peace!
Saw a midnight showing. Do not want to spoil anything. Visually it is awesome. Ridley can still do this genre. 3D is the best by far….and I hate 3D normally.
My gripes….and there are a lot. The screenplay needs major work. Loss of continuity sometimes. Lots of things started but never completed (just like LOST), while the bulk of the soundtrack is good, some very wrong cues used in certain places. The tech is all wrong. As a “fanboy” it seems out of place in the same world that ALIEN takes place in. I know tech has changed since 79….but touch screens….Ridley, really? So overused!!
To me this whole thing feels like a….do I dare say….PRE MAKE……
It;s not a bad movie….just as a major ALIEN fan, I left a little confused. I know it is not an ALIEN movie, and I never expected it to be….but with SO much ALIEN visual elements, it leaves more questions than answers.
Worth seeing on the big screen, if nothing more than for the MASSIVE Giger inspired sets and the 3D elements.
B-
A monumental disappointment. Up there with the Star Wars prequels, the X-Files movie and, of course, Lost. It’s not a spoiler to say that none of the fundamental questions posed by the trailer or marketing materials for Prometheus are answered. Worse, as an insult to the viewers, these questions are re-asked at the end of the film to entice them to spend their money on the next installment of a potential franchise.
In the way that Lost became merely a commercial for itself (all tease, all promise, no pay-off), Prometheus reveals Lindelof’s involvement by simply being a 2-hour commercial for a sequel. Lindelof is fundamentally an advertising genius posing as a storyteller. But it’s not the lack of answers that hurt most. Early reviews prepared me to leave without resolution. What really hurt was its tone-deaf script, logical incoherence, lack of suspense, and sluggish feel. I thought, at the very least, I could get off on this movie aesthetically but it breaks no new ground there and feels oddly devoid of passion visually. There are a million choices that go into a movie to make it feel real, which will then make it interesting. But nothing that happens in Prometheus feels real (even by sci-fi standards). There aren’t any real people in this film. The characters never come to life. The action barely arrives. Everything feels television-thin. There’s no depth to soak in. Just hack work and expensive-looking cinematography.
There’s something dangerous about artists who once had a traumatic experience in the industry in their earlier, art-film periods and lived to fight another day. George Lucas and both Scott brothers seem to almost resent their fans and the early, experimental years of their own legacies. All three now make bloodless work on a grand scale that seems to have forgotten the cadences of good, human storytelling.
And I wish Lindeloff would stop hurting my feelings.
In the end, Prometheus is a metaphor for itself. My friend and I who went both wished we had never gone and felt an urgent need to warn others not to make the same mistake. Rapace says it best: “WE WERE SO WRONG!”
I agree man.
All the people who gave this movie a bad review are a bunch whiners and crybabies.This movie was awsome and I cant wait for the second one nuff said.
All the people who gave this movie a bad review are a bunch whiners and crybabies.This movie was awsome and I cant wait for the second one nuff said.
Just got back from the theater. Before I go on to explain my dismay might I add a disclaimer.
I went into this movie with a clear head, and an open mind. I expected this movie to be completely different in both tone and atmosphere from the seminal films that put Riddles on the map in this genre. I expected no answers, and I was fine with that. In many cases I love movies that do not give answers because that is the mark of a film using psychology either against you or for you. Psychology is the key to tension in a film. It builds suspense. In a word you can say that it is the tantamount tool used in movies across many genres to create any specific mood for a film.
I might also add that I was not hoping for tie-ins to the Alien franchise. I wanted this film to carry it’s weight by playing on the mind, and simply being a “different” film as Ridley claimed was one of his goals, along with the “scare the shit out of you” comment made by the acclaimed director in his brief interviews addressing the film. This film did none of those things. It was for all intensive purposes very haphazard in it’s development as a story. Very chopped together from start to finish. Some people call this editing, I call it, as many others have, “poor character development and lack of continuity”. These things can happen by accident and make a great film. This is not one of them.
I can say that is was a fantastic premise for the film, and with further development, had the potential to be what it claims it is, but again, it is not.
When reading reviews about the movie before seeing it, promoters of the film were calling it “gory”. I did not find it to be at all gory. The remarks made by previous posters that had negative things to say about that particular issue are dead on. Many of the scenes that are to be taken as “gory”, i felt were more comical than anything. I do not wish to write a spoiler review but i cannot help but address one scene that an earlier poster already covered, “the Shaw self Cesarian”. I almost started laughing as i just could not take it seriously. I have had MAJOR invasive surgery before, and i can tell you, once your stomach muscles are freshly severed, you aren’t going anywhere without a wheel chair.
you cannot walk, you cannot support your own weight without help. So….to see her character up and about literally seconds after the operation, i was literally giggling inside. There was no “marvel of medical science that repaired her muscle tissue so that she may move about as anyone else, in that scene”.
Just cut open, remove squid, staples in stomach, then on her feet to run down the hall, and later hurdle over obstacles. Let me tell you first hand, it is laughable to say the least. You would be in agony to the point of shock, and useless in a hospital bed, or should i say “med lab”.
I do not think I should talk about acting, because for the most part, it just sucked. Like some of you, i have been around since the beginning of Ridley’s tantamount films. I was there for Alien, then Bladerunner, I was just short of seeing “The Duelists”, I am a long time fan of Ridley’s work and Alien is my bed time story. When I cannot sleep, I put on Alien and drift off to that failiar dark place with it’s sincerely creepy minimalistic score. It puts me right to sleep…..ahhhhhhh. I never tire of watching it. Nor do i tire from the second film, as i was still young enough to bypass it’s flaws and still be creeped out and fascinated with it’s pace, it’s tone, and it’s action. But back to business, we are not here to compare “Prometheus” with those films. T hat was not the directors intent and it is not mine.
If this movie had been a stand-alone film and had no ties whatsoever to the Alien universe, i would maybe feel a bit different about it. Too bad that it does.
I have to give credit to the opening sequence. I thought it was haunting and beautiful, but alas…the show must go on.
The previous reviews addressing the “cliche’s” in the film are also spot on. There were several scenes which blatantly borrowed the same context as movies in the Alien franchise. Maybe they thought these scenes were needed for the newer generations that are not as intimately familiar with the older Alien films to bring them off. I found them to be re-hashed “cliche’s” like many of you felt about them.
In the end…disappointing. Very. Mr. Scott – if you by any chance stumble upon this review which I doubt very highly, I am a script writer and had a script for the 5th Alien movie you were talking to Cameron about some years ago, and the premise was the Space Jockey, the very thing you said in your interview rekindled your interest and motivation to make this film.I would have loved to work on this movie for you, but hey, I want to write AND direct, after all, if you want something done right you have to do it yourself.
Gotta give credit to the 3d mechanics of the film. The 3d in this film was something i had been waiting for. It was not used as a “gimmick”, and to do so would have detracted from what depth the film DID have. It was smooth, practical, and not overdone in the least. Props on that.
With that ladies and gents, i leave you to your own thoughts. The movie was not complicated, it did not pose “mind blowing” or even at the core, “horrifying”
sequences of terror, nor did it really employ any real sense of tragedy, or should i say, intense identification with the loss of any particular character.
Bishop, ETA? oh, one last thing…..i just have to. Wayland in space as the aged old man came off as being overly pretentious with the dialogue, and feel of the scene’s he was in. If i had a go at that same scene, he would have rose from his space crypt, everyone left speechless, like he was fucking Emperor Palpatine, with Dark side music and all, as he rose strong, not broken, with no dialogue, marching past the crew, towards his fate.
I too am a longtime fan of Ridley’s. Let’s face it, all films are derivative and cliched. That’s a copout. The real question is did Ridley open new storytelling ground? He did. The next question is will it go someplace? We’ll see.
You have to admit that the company was planning on exploiting the biotech for its weapons applications and stumbled upon a far superior race’s bioweapons arsenal. That isn’t worth a little acknowledgement? I think it is.
Spoiler Alert!
I will admit that Vickers getting squashed like a bug was a bit cliched — but I also enjoyed it immensely.
You aren’t the least bit curious to find out where Shaw and David go …?
Because I sure as hell am.
Your statements are all valid, and i agree for the most part, but we are here to review the film that is out now…not what’s coming down the road.
Good review, but what stood out to me was your indication of a certain “laughable” scene. I get that you have had surgery, but place yourself in her position. You’re stuck in a pod with that ugly treacherous creature so you shoot yourself up with morphine or whatever and get the hell out of dodge as soon as you can. If not, you’d be laughing while you die.
agreed, this guy couldn’t move an inch to fetch a remote, therefore someone struggling for their life couldn’t possibly do any better. and for someone with no Alien pretensions, you sure bring it up a lot. and your Weyland triumph-scene would be completely lame. Everyone on her would laugh at you.
Fetching a remote = no problem, your moving your arm, not your body. Moving your entire body upright on your own 2 feet = impossible, Especially on Morphine. Have you ever been on Morphine? I have, and I was on it for 8 days, in a hospital bed. I think the scene could have worked if Shaw had “crawled” her way out of that room instead.
As far as my interpretation of the Wayland scene. Are you a film major? Have you even studied film in the traditional sense of the word? Who are you to say what a crowd’s reaction would have been to a scene like that. What would be better, the hobbled old man with bad make-up gibbering about theology, or someone with some strength to search out his convictions (that did’nt need make-up)? As in, oh i don’t know, lets say, an actual older gentleman? Let’s face it, Wayland is a bad dude, and im quite sure that a scene like that would carry his character further than gramps did in the film we saw. I was half joking about it, but the more i think about it, i think it would have been a “win” for his character. If you have read half of the actual scripts i have read, you would laugh your ass off at many of the writers who have brought you films you love. Many, many changes are made to scripts before they are finalized and ready for interpretation. This is one of those scenes i thought should have been re-written for a more menacing man.
Oh, and i WAS struggling for my life. Only it was real.
No, you are right, the adrenaline rush of the obvious can propel and individual to do incredible things. I certainly think she could have done everything she did in the scene, but I think the scene would be better served with her “crawling in agony” out of that pod, and then the room itself. Morphine is not a cure-all for pain. If you are moving around, you better have something far more powerful, but hey, it;s sci-fi, so anything goes right? The believable isn’t important.
Actually, I think that was plausible.
She had a transverse incision (side to side).
If she had a midline incision (up and down, cuts all the abdominals) I would agree with you.
I can understand your logic here, however, the surgery that i had was Trans-abdominal. Trans-abdominal / left adrenalectomy to be precise, with an incision 14 inches in width. In the film, her incision was (what looked like), around 11-12 inches across, just above the pelvis line. Traditional C-sections do not generally require an incision that large, in fact, about half of that width, and are lower and closer to the pubic bone. My wife had one. However, under the circumstances, Shaw was not having a normal baby, requiring a larger incision. I find her actions plausible for the pod scene, NOT afterward. An incision that large, no matter how you look at it, destroys the ability to move, stand, much less run and jump, under the influence of painkillers (wobbly, wobbly), Without being in extreme, debilitating pain. Abdominal muscles are abdominal muscles, it does not matter whether you cut them in a transverse fashion, or vertical fashion, your movement is still impaired to the point of not being able to stand on your own accord. I just think that the scene would have been better served, especially for “tension and shock value”, if she was crawling in pain instead of sprinting down the hall and then later performing Olympic hurdles, I don’t care how dire the situation was, with an incision like the one in the film, your upper bodies ability to perform would be severely undermined and your abdominal muscles would be UN-responsive. That is BASIC medical fact, doesn’t matter how you cut the cake. 11 inches across the lower abdomen….I am sorry, I do not think her actions (as they were presented) were believable at all. It certainly did nothing to make me squeamish, or more importantly, feel for the character.
Oh I understand what you’re saying.
The scene is plausible in that it takes place 77 years from now. That’s a long time for all sorts of pain management and healing discoveries.
For example, nanotechnology in whatever the machine sprayed on her.
You cut anybody like that in 2012, and they’re not going anywhere for a minute.
Yeah, she wasn’t even constantly injecting herself with pain killers! Definitely the most unrealistic movie about find aliens on a strange planet ever made. You know that guy at a party who relates a singular thing in his life to EVERYTHING in yours? You’re that guy.
I’m a fan of this movie. Sadly, at no time did I feel as viscerally frightened as I did in 1979 in the premiere of ‘Alien’. But, I was rivited by the unfolding story. I think it is fascinating that a whole new universe of stories was possible to pursue from this begining. Frankly, I had my doubts. But not anymore. I can’t wait for the next one. Though I do wonder now that USCSS ‘Prometheus’ is destroyed how the series will be named …
Has anyone else noticed that the original ‘Alien’ and now expanded by this movie is tied by Scott cleverly to the Betty and Barney Hill Close Encounter of the Fourth Kind Abduction 1961? It is. Google ‘betty barney hill star map’ and it’s the same one as the Engineers’ archeo-picto-pecto-graphic star maps Shaw and Holloway discovered around the globe. That is clever.
Movie: 8/10
Pros: Story, atmosphere, Fassbender, Repace, creatures, effects, 3D, music.
Cons: Trailers gave away too much, not enough gore, Ridley’s “scare the shit out of you” didn’t happen.
Ambiguity: The beginning and ending of this movie give you the dots to connect yourself. I love that they don’t come out and tell you because that would be too easy, no fun and nothing to talk about.
Acting: I don’t believe anyone sucked, as I’ve come to read on these reviews. Fassbender and Repace rocked, everyone else was okay, but nobody was horrible.
Dialogue: I’ve read everything from pretentious to lame. What? There wasn’t any dialogue that after it was over I thought didn’t fit or was too campy.
C Section: I read that people found it ridiculous and laughable that a character could get up after the operation. First off, it’s a movie. You do know that right? I know not everything is grounded in reality and you should leave your mind open because it’s a science fiction piece. That being said, I won’t use it as my main excuse. I will say, look at the frakin thing she was in there with. She shot herself up with multiple anesthetics and had to get out of that chamber to avoid that thing. I would be scared as hell and even in pain, would want to leave asap.
HUGE SPOILER:
David is the reason we have the Xenomorphs. He deliberately placed terraforming/disintegration/death goo in Holloway’s drink, who then had intercourse, so the fetus inside of Repace was the mold for a specific tentacled creature that mated with the creator of human kind (creation + creation = creation) to form the Xenomorph. Awesome!
My feeling is the film was “okay”. Not great. Not horrible.
I remember walking out of Alien 3 in shock at how bad it was. I walked out of Prometheus not in shock, but with indifference. It was passable, but certainly not a home run.
If I had to rank the series now:
1) Alien
2) Aliens
3) Prometheus
4) Alien 3
The other films are pure garbage.
Something happens to great directors as they get older: They get so secretive with their scripts, that they isolate themselves from the feedback of others that is a necessary part of good writing. And nobody tells a great director, “NO”.
By the way, the comparisons to The Phantom Menace are WAY over the top.
Prometheus was an okay film.
The Phantom Menace was not.
Really. There is no annoying kid piloting a spaceship. There is no Jar Jar Binks.
If there are things to be pulled from a comparison, I might suggest:
- The trailers for both were ultimately PERFECT, and the movies were not.
- When creating a highly-anticipated film, go the Pixar approach and take years on the script, have focus groups, etc.
Personally I would put Alien 3 before Prometheus. Alien 3 (the Assembly Cut) is a fantastic film and makes sense of the mess that was the theatrical release. However, I can see that in tone it is very anti-Hollywood and the very opposite of Aliens and that that caused a lot of disappointment. It’s talky and very sweary in a British sort of way and the cast were largely unknown outside of UK. Lots of pitch black humour including a great encounter involving a pair of scissors. The plot and characterisation come together in the Assembly cut and the film does have the best exclamation of ‘Fuck!’ in the history of cinema!!
On the other hand, Prometheus is, for me, very similar to Alien Ressurection in that the script, pacing and editing were way off yet underneath was a cracking story waiting to be realised.
I’ve seen the Assembly Cut of Alien 3. It is better than the theatrical version. But that’s just lipstick on a pig.
The killing blow to me was how 2 full-blown alien eggs magically showed up on the Sulaco. It made no sense. The killing of Newt/Hicks and the gross reduction of the Bishop character were complete cop-outs. There was nothing really new, and no mystery to Alien 3.
Prometheus made sense – as long as you can accept that the black goo is sort of a fertilizer of DNA / evolution.
Another way to put it is this:
Roger Ebert said of Alien 3 “it’s the best looking bad movie.”
Prometheus is “the best looking okay movie”.
I think we’ll agree to disagree. And whilst I agree with you re the eggs magically appearing on the Sulaco, it’s a device which I suppose we all accepted in order for the xenomorph to reappear. However, it is interesting that you chose to highlight the slaughter of Hicks and Newt and the reduction of Bishop in your analysis of it as a cop-out. That’s the anti-Hollywood bit I was talking about and it set the scene for its hugely downbeat tone. It left Ripley totally isolated and even when she befriended the medic he was dispatched soon after. In Alien 3 Ripley was the alien in more than one sense and that was brilliant!
The film ripped up expectations and rejected the ending of Aliens and left no room for heroics. How isn’t that new from previous Alien flicks??
Having Newt and Hicks die *during the opening credits* was not brilliant or new, it screamed of what it was: a cheap, redactive cop-out from a studio that wanted to save a few bucks. It actually reminded me of Iron Eagle 2′s intro… there’s a helluva reference!
If you want to kill off main characters for shock/surprise value – I’m fine with that. Do it some way into the film. Not in the opening credits!
I can respect that you like Alien 3 – it does have a vocal minority of defenders. It certainly has a few good elements: great acting and atmosphere, and the iconic scene with the Alien/Ripley up close shot.
But if we were to grade this film, Fincher’s 2 years of work on it brought it up from maybe a 33% to a 53%. It’s still an F. But like Ebert said, it’s the best looking F.
Fincher did go on to do Seven and Fight Club – so who knows – maybe without the adversity he experienced on this film, we wouldn’t have the awesomeness of those two films.
I think I posted elsewhere, but since Fincher himself hates this film, I think there’s a universe where Fox offers him a chance to re-do it from scratch. That would be a helluva thing.
Well said Mother. I too thought that the assembly cut, or even the release film Alien3 was in some sense of the word..spectacular. Unknown actors make a film characters more believable for me, because there is no direct identification with the actor, which distracts in cases like this from well, their character. I thought the acting was superb, the tone gritty and dark.
The score for Alien 3 was superior in many ways for me as it did not employ an orchestral soundtrack, or what orchestral pieces were in the film were used sparingly. The rest of the score was dark, minimal, and foreboding.
It is important to note that Alien 3 had 3 directors. The first 2 i will not mention, nor will i address why they ultimately were canned from the project…so…in comes Fincher as our 3rd director on the project, who had half of a script to work with, and 3 months from post-production, could not change anything set wise, because they were already built. With 3 months to go he had to finish a script, develop characterization, work AROUND the sets he could not change, not to mention he had never directed a full length motion picture. I think he did a fantastic job given his situation.
Some memorable things about Alien 3. Acting…impressive to say the least. Sets…grim and believable. In the release version….the chestbursting dog was just amazing, even with a rod puppet i will never forget the shivering, slimy, placebo-blood dripping young xeno rising from the floor…you could almost feel the birth pains. Dialogue…fantastic.
The only things i did not like about the movie…the mixture of rod-puppet digital composition vs the suit we saw were noticeably different in size in some scenes. Some unrealistic decision making by the rag tag team of prisoners.
The cliche christ pose-dive into the furnace by Weavers character was not only poorly executed, but the fx were shoddy at best.
Other than that i loved the film. The actors combined with a talented first time director made this film enjoyable for me. The sepia tone setting of broken down, lice infested industrial setting was genius compared to the visions of the first 2 directors, and yes, some of the most memorable dialogue in the franchise, with the best f’ word lines in the franchise:)
At last!! An Alien 3 soul mate who understands the subtleties and nuances of the film. Respect!!!
Alien 3 assembly cut is amazing…way better than Prometheus bar none.
Ya this about sums it up for me…
“somehow in a weird way, kinda have mixed feelings.”
I just saw it in IMAX. A few people golf-clapped politely as the credits rolled.
So I slapped my hands together and was kinda like..wtf? “That’s it?”
I really really wanted it to be great, and there were aspects that were. But man,
that script? that pacing? the zero character development? Every crew member had their own agenda and I could care very little about any of them. Real military or science expedition would never behave so unprofessionally as these jokers. The score wtf was that? What was with the Star Trek theme during inappropriate scenes? I half expected the Engineer to play the “Close Encounter” theme music on his flute.
I guess I want to say the words, “this really wasn’t very good,” but I’ve spent so much time invested in Prometheus prior to the film, I can’t get myself to say it.
Typing it was the best i could do.
It would have been nice if they took another 2-3 years to work on a rock-solid script with this film:
http://nofilmschool.com/2012/03/indie-filmmakers-learn-pixars-story-development/
This.
The two eggs didn’t ‘just magically appear’ on the Sulaco in Alien 3…..they were laid by the queen when she stowed away in the undercarriage of the 2nd drop-ship. I thought everyone understood that – how could anyone go 20 years without figuring that out?
Well since Aliens made a point to show the Queen removing her, ahem, vagina to go after Ripley, it makes it unclear how she’d get those eggs to the ship.
Take another look at Aliens. Where exactly did the eggs “fit” in the queen’s body between the time she ripped off her egg sac and the time she stowed away on the drop ship.
The only other explanation is that Bishop could have somehow gone and got them somehow – while Ripley was getting Newt.
Both are equally lame.
Unless of course you choose to accept my personally preferred theory:
Alien 3 and subsequent films are just dreams Ripley is having in hypersleep. They’re all still asleep on the Sulaco.
That just takes away so much of the pain.
I think there’s room for a world where 20th Century Fox apologizes to David Fincher, and offers him free reign to re-do Alien 3 from scratch.
To paraphrase what Fincher himself said: The only way to do a director’s cut of Alien 3 is to burn the negative and start over.
I should source that:
I seem to remember at one point hearing Fincher say something to the effect that, ‘The only way to do a director’s cut of Alien 3 is to burn the negative and start over.’ I know he mentioned once that, during the L.A. riots in ’92, when some of the fires and vandalism was getting pretty close to one of the labs where the negative for Alien 3 was stored, he kept hoping that it would get burned to the ground.
http://alienseries.blogspot.com/2012/04/finding-fincher.html
I don’t think you paid attention to the film very well. When the queen escaped from the egg chamber in the atmospheric processor she tore the egg gestator away from her body to escape. At that point she was auto-sterilized. There was no contact with her in-transit to ‘Sulaco.’ Did you even watch the movie? Newt was impregnated in the atmospheric processor and Ripley was impregnated by Burke in the infirmary treatment room while Newt was asleep. There were 3 facehuggers put into the infirmary treatment room just be sure Burke got what he wanted.
Forgot to say. I think Fincher screwed up with a dues ex machina discontinuity following Aliens with a very weak story. ‘Alien (cubed)’ was not a good movie at all. Even the French directors of ‘The City of Lost Children’ — which was very good — couldn’t save the franchise with ‘Alien Resurrection’ which was abysmal. Truly bad, bad, bad.
I put the ranking this way:
1st ‘Alien’
2nd ‘Prometheus’
3rd ‘Aliens’
4th ‘AvP’
5th ‘AvP Requiem’
6th ‘Alien (cubed)’
7th ‘Alien Resurrection’
I’m pretty sure you’re joking about that theory.
If not, there are actual eggs shown on the Sulaco in Alien 3. So the question has always been how they got there.
Sad but true (as in my opinion) it´s neither as great as Alien nor as good as Aliens. But it looks better than the 3rd and is less cheesy than Resurrection.
And it´s a total cliffhanger all over for only showing us how a (very much indicated) part II could be. Lacks substance which obstructs it from being a solid stand alone title. But it´s still fun.
The novelization by Alan Dean Foster clearly states that the eggs were ‘left behind’ by the queen in Bishops junkheap speech…….”they were with us all the way.”
I agree its hard to see where the eggs would be stored within the skeletal-like thinness of the Queen’s body, but remember the movie diverted away from both the novel, and the original screenplay as it was shot. In the novel, the Alien bursts out of a cow-like creature that is indigenous to the planet and is therefore much larger than the ‘dog-alien’ we ended up with.
I shall be interested to read the novel of Prometheus when available and complete my understanding of the movie’s subtleties and nuances.
Here is my video review, complete with skits and parodies of both Prometheus and Alien. Hope you enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOknlDAh_u4
Hilarious! Thank you for that.
saw the movie yesterday. o.k cinemetography is great. special effects great. story (while a bit confusing having left out key statements) is generally formulaic. you know everybody except for one is going to die (aliens v predators) from the outset.
but what bothers me most about the movie is the fact that the crew starts sniping at each other from the outset. in real life (and what we are accustomed to seeing) are well-trained astronauts and well-planned missions. everybody is on the same page. in this film nobody (except for the leads seemd to know what’s going on. so the question is — why did they come on the trip. and to have a psycopath among the crew is insane.
would like to see one of these movies where only a couple of actors die but most survive and make the trip meaningful.
also, the plot gets really confusing when dr. shaw stars sceaming thet there won’t be an earth to go back to (imoplying that the “engineers’ intended to use their secret weapon to wipe out earth’s population)(why earth, aren’t there other populated planets. why are we the ones always picked on) but the fact is they didn’t. they apparently decided not to. then, to top it off, this nitwit decides to go to the engineer’s planet to find out why. this after the surviving enginner tried to kill everyone on earth’s ship. reallly smart.
last, dr. shaw undergoes surgery which by anyone’s measure is “major” hey, no problem. fifteen minutes after the surgery is over she’s hopping around like a bunny rabbit. anyone else would have been laid up for a month. but, it is, after all, a movie.
you’d think the admittedly brilliant producers and directors, given the time it took to make this movie could have come up with a better story line.
Thanks for your review. I know a lot of people compared this to Alien but this is the first I’m seeing someone comparing it to AVP. I almost puked a little.
The crew was only told about the mission while arriving to the planet. I believe the mission was as top-secret as you could get and they selected the appropriate people for the job. Some did not handle the pressure well.
The psychopath you’re describing, I believe is the man who was infected and came back to attack the crew? That was the menacing goo changing him into a monster.
The reason Dr. Shaw mentioned Earth is because David told her so. The reason David knows this is because he witnessed the hologram showing where the Engineers planned to go, and Earth was left for him to look at. Something happened that stopped the Engineers from completing their mission. A ton of bodies were piled up at one of the doors, implying something was chasing them and ended up killing them.
Why was Earth chosen? The opening scene indicates the Engineers created life, and something happened 2,000 years prior that made them decide to wipe it out. Earth was destined for greatness but we did something to piss them off.
The reason Dr. Shaw and David decide to go to their home planet, besides setting up a great story for a sequel, is to find out why they want Earth destroyed. It’s that knowledge that’s eating away at her. Plus think about it; if they go home with the information they have, Weyland Corp would of course want to know why as well, revisit the planet in the movie and bad things would start happening again.
The C Section is the most highly debated thing in the movie. There are 3 explanations: The first is the shots she kept injecting herself with over and over. The second is the med lab is a sophisticated piece of technology. The third, like you mentioned, is it’s just a movie.
How Prometheus should have been done!
First scene:
While a dissolving Engineer looks great, makes no sense and isn’t scientific (bad even as science-fiction).
They should have met some chimps or pre-humans and enhanced their DNA, resulting in some kind of physical and behavioral change. They could have come back again 30-40 000 years ago, with these encounters resulting in cave paintings and artifacts. Make Engineers less evolved, after all, they mutate too with time.
Shaw finding the cave paintings:
Why would the Engineers show humans, where their bio weapons are?
David on Prometheus…
Ok, but flip-flops? Getting surprised by arriving at the destination?
Wake-up from hyper sleep and breakfast…
Who TF cares about Fifield and Millburn?
Holographic mission briefing…
No thanks, too fussy. Vickers’ shoes, WTF, this is a spaceship, be practical.
Landing…
If you’re smart, you realize you found an airfield. Also, it was too easy to find.
Entering the pyramid…
Taking off the helmets? Very smart.
Where are all the creatures, which busted out of the Engineers? Ok, it was 2000 years ago, but then show some dead ones.
Lots of writing on the walls? Would like some translation. What’s written on the giant head?
What was that green rock supposed to be?
Why not bring a stronger lamp, so we can see better?
No one sees David bringing back a vase to the ship.
How can two go missing with maps and constant radio communication?
Why is there a holographic tale about the Engineers?
Analyzing the head:
So it just blows up? Isn’t something busting out? Makes no sense that an alien infection blows up a head. How does it connect to the lifecycle? Would Holloway have blown up? So explosive bodies impregnate other bodies which give birth to huggers, which impregnate third bodies, which give birth to aliens? Makes no sense.
David opening the sample…
Proper way is not to use gloves and break it open.
David infecting Holloway…
Why not just use human cells, eggs?
Shaw and Holloway…
Infertility in 2093?
Millburn and Fifield
Stay put, idiots!
Janek and Vickers
Good one, but the pyramid sucks.
Millburn’s death scene:
On an alien planet, in an alien spaceship full of dead bodies, you want to play with a thing looking like a snake? Are you kidding me? That thing should have just jumped a cautious Millburn, before he can play dumb. Maybe something should have bred from his body too.
Back in the pyramid:
Why did Holloway go back after seeing a worm in his own eye?
Again no creatures, at least one should have busted out of Millburn. That snake should have laid an egg.
Why are the urns leaking, again?
Holloway’s change:
Here something like the egg-morphing from Alien Director’s cut should have been introduced, with Shaw not even getting pregnant. So they take him in the ship, put him in the med pod, where the egg morphing goes on.
Shaw gives birth:
Why does David do all of it? Makes no sense. Was that his plan, and why would Weyland order this crap?
Shaw beats up two and then few meters further gives birth. Those two don’t even care about the whole beating or Shaw after that.
Med-pod is not calibrated for women, LOL.
She is able to move after a C-section and with only staples holding her together?
She tells no one, that she gave birth to a monster?
Fifield comes back:
What sense does this make? How did he become a super strong homicidal maniac? Instead of a man killing the crew, a creature should kill them.
Shaw and Weyland:
Again, no one cares, she just gave birth to a monster, is bloody…
Shaw and Janek:
Shaw again doesn’t tell Janek, that a monster is on the ship.
Waking up the Engineer:
Did Weyland really expect getting immortality?
Where is the flame thrower now?
Is the Engineer’s biggest problem, they didn’t wipe out humanity? What about taking a shit first.
Shaw escaping:
She moves well, considering her recent surgery.
Crash:
Escape pod sucks. It lands? How, it’s a coffin.
No damage to the Derelict?
Vickers and Shaw are like dumb chicks in B movies, who run along the road in front of the car, instead of getting out of the way.
David and Shaw leaving the planet:
Not only does Weyland corp. know Prometheus’ destination, Shaw also leaves the Derelict ship with lots of DNA there and an alien. She also leaves a broadcast, which only makes people more curious. I guess there has to be one or more sequel.
They should have destroyed the whole site with a nuke. Also could use more survivors.
Creatures:
Shaw’s baby:
It looks good, while it’s taken out of her, but when it starts moving it looks like a fake squid. It shouldn’t have been so squid-like. The thing killing Millburn looks better and it could have grown Anaconda size. The grown up squid is too big and it’s “face” looks cheap and crap. Makes no sense, that it would grow that big.
New alien:
Too big, the Engineer’s body had no place for something that big. It’s pointy, cycling time-trial helmet head looks shit, something shorter, rounder would have been better. Also give it metallic teeth and some transparency or color-design.
Other:
Crew is too big, we don’t even get to know them before they die.
I don’t even know why I feel like responding to your review, but I will.
The dissolving on the Engineer is an original and unique concept. Just because you don’t like it don’t reconstruct the scene as to how it should have played out. The Engineers’ DNA mixed with water on Earth resulted in us as humans forming.
The Engineers were showing the humans where they came from, with the hopes that when they were more evolved they would come and find their creator. At some point we as a race pissed them off and they stopped coming, then left their base planet
When your’re 2 years alone on a ship, the destination can be surprisng.
“Who TF cares about Fifield and Millburn?” Later on in your review you said there was too many crew members to care about, they gave you two right away.
“Holographic mission briefing…No thanks, too fussy. Vickers’ shoes, WTF, this is a spaceship, be practical.” Are you really arguing the shoes of these people? She spent a trillion dollars, she can wear whatever she wants.
Landing…they were smart, they did find an airfield. Of course it was easy to find, they had coordinates.
Entering the pyramid…
“Where are all the creatures, which busted out of the Engineers?”
It doesn’t say all the creatures busted out of the Engineers, and they showed a pile of dead bodies.
“Lots of writing on the walls? Would like some translation. What’s written on the giant head?”
Sorry not everything can be spelled out for you. Maybe they’ll mention it in the sequel, maybe it’s left for you to wonder. Holloway suggests it’s a tomb.
“What was that green rock supposed to be?”
“Why not bring a stronger lamp, so we can see better?”
Wow what a nit picky guy you are.
“No one sees David bringing back a vase to the ship.”
He put it in a bag. There was a sandstorm.
“How can two go missing with maps and constant radio communication?”
They were geologists and left without their group. They were stupid.
“Why is there a holographic tale about the Engineers?”
To explain the plot, because some people need a little guidance.
“Analyzing the head:
So it just blows up? Isn’t something busting out? Makes no sense that an alien infection blows up a head. How does it connect to the lifecycle? Would Holloway have blown up? So explosive bodies impregnate other bodies which give birth to huggers, which impregnate third bodies, which give birth to aliens? Makes no sense.”
Again, all of this makes no sense to YOU. A lot of mysterious are left to our imagination. The current thesis is that it was doing all it could to release it’s own DNA to effectively kill the humans, but it was too late.
“David opening the sample…Proper way is not to use gloves and break it open.”
He’s a robot, it doesn’t matter. Notice how the goo is effected by humans entering the atmosphere in the temple. David is a robot therefore it does not effect him.
“David infecting Holloway…Why not just use human cells, eggs?”
Did you miss the whole important conversation about creators and creation?
“Shaw and Holloway…Infertility in 2093?”
Yeah, and there will probably be stupidity too.
Millburn’s death scene: Can’t disagree with you here sir.
“Back in the pyramid: Why did Holloway go back after seeing a worm in his own eye?”
He was part of the rescue mission.
“Again no creatures, at least one should have busted out of Millburn. That snake should have laid an egg.”
This is what is so important, the fact that The Engineers created humans, who created a robot, who placed the original life giver’s blood into a human, who fertilized an alien baby, the original Facehugger. The facehugger impregnanted an Engineer, thus the Xenomorph was born.
“Why are the urns leaking, again?” They react to whatever is in the atmosphere.
“Holloway’s change:
Here something like the egg-morphing from Alien Director’s cut should have been introduced, with Shaw not even getting pregnant. So they take him in the ship, put him in the med pod, where the egg morphing goes on.”
I think they tried to be just a little different than Alien. This is how. Sorry You did not like it.
“Shaw gives birth:
Why does David do all of it? Makes no sense. Was that his plan, and why would Weyland order this crap?”
Holloway was experimented on because he verbally gave David permission, saying he would do Anything and Everything to get his answers.
“Shaw beats up two and then few meters further gives birth. Those two don’t even care about the whole beating or Shaw after that.
She is able to move after a C-section and with only staples holding her together?”
Hotly debated question. It’s a movie. Believe it or don’t.
“She tells no one, that she gave birth to a monster?” The first person she sees while escaping with her life is the supposed dead Weyland. She tried to warn them, they don’r care.
“Fifield comes back:
What sense does this make? How did he become a super strong homicidal maniac? Instead of a man killing the crew, a creature should kill them.”
It’s a story man. The goo reacts to different people/things in different ways. He got a face full of goo and turned into a monster himself.
“Waking up the Engineer:
Did Weyland really expect getting immortality?”
Yes.
“Where is the flame thrower now?”
He had a gun.
“Is the Engineer’s biggest problem, they didn’t wipe out humanity? What about taking a shit first.”
Yes, because nobody wants to see an alien take a shit.
“Shaw escaping:
She moves well, considering her recent surgery.”
Yuuup.
“Crash:
Escape pod sucks. It lands? How, it’s a coffin.”
It’s set for 2 years to sustain itself.
“No damage to the Derelict?”
I saw damage. The thing crashed back down.
“Vickers and Shaw are like dumb chicks in B movies, who run along the road in front of the car, instead of getting out of the way.”
One of them did, one didn’t. Oh well.
“David and Shaw leaving the planet:
Not only does Weyland corp. know Prometheus’ destination, Shaw also leaves the Derelict ship with lots of DNA there and an alien. She also leaves a broadcast, which only makes people more curious. I guess there has to be one or more sequel.”
Yes she does, because they want a sequel and more will be explained. Why are you nit picking so much?
“They should have destroyed the whole site with a nuke. Also could use more survivors.”
No. Nuking it would kill the chances of a sequel where a rescue team comes down and gets infected bringing together this trilogy and the original Alien Saga.
“Creatures:
Shaw’s baby:
It looks good, while it’s taken out of her, but when it starts moving it looks like a fake squid. It shouldn’t have been so squid-like. The thing killing Millburn looks better and it could have grown Anaconda size. The grown up squid is too big and it’s “face” looks cheap and crap. Makes no sense, that it would grow that big.”
So you complain about the creature effects and it’s design? This is the Alien Universe. The facehugger we know and love has squid like features and this is the origin of those.
“New alien:
Too big, the Engineer’s body had no place for something that big. It’s pointy, cycling time-trial helmet head looks shit, something shorter, rounder would have been better. Also give it metallic teeth and some transparency or color-design.”
Again, you’re picking apart the design of a creature you had no hand in creating. You do know that the facehugger creates an Alien based on whatever it breeds with. The normal is the Xeno-Human which we all can recognize. Alien 3 had Xeno-Ox. This is Xeno-Engineer, and of course it’s bigger than a human, these things stand 8 feet tall. The Xeno we know has no color-design.
Things should be at least a little plausible and common sense and logic should prevail. If not, it becomes retarded, made for people with IQ of 70.
I agree – definitely sack Lindelof. Poor, poor script. If you’re going to set a story in the Alien universe then let’s have more aliens. Too many missed opportunities. Some examples..
Let’s have some teaser chestbusters in the caves. Their effects have been noted by the Laurel and Hardy scientists.They were there so where are they?? Or some fossilised remains?? Or eggs??
And how about a wee cheeky chestbuster emerging from Rafe Spall after he swallowed the alien snake?
And let’s have Holloway and the geologist turning into something squid-like after they were exposed to the black goo. After all it worked for Shaw.
So many missed opportunities. The film didn’t need to be gratuious in featuring aliens but more acknowledgement of them in their own universe would have made for a much more satisfying film.
What the hell, if Sir Ridley is reading this I’m willing to write a draft sequel (or rescript the original) for free!!!
Sacked? That’s far, far too kind – my recommendation would be more in line with breaking on the wheel. A truly execrable film.
If Sir Ridley is at all concerned about posterity, which he clearly isn’t, he should formally withdraw Prometheus, including the title which was suggested to him by Rothman, and re-make a decent honest, straightforward Alien Prequel. Sure, it could be about different ideas, themes but it should remain faithful to the spirit, tone and quality of the original, otherwise it doesn’t really belong in the same universe and is just riding on the first movie’s reputation and exploiting the fan-base.
It’s obvious that, despite protestations to the contrary, Fox put pressure on Ridley to make a teenage blockbuster movie to maximise profit margins – a slap in the face to fans of the original. I wonder how much input he really had – is this the same Ridley or is it just a clever facsimile?
If Ridley doesn’t feel inspired to do it, he should pass the baton on to someone else with the vision to match the quality of the original films.
putain de merde!
Alien proposed a realistic future that followed the generally accepted rules of logic.
This movie does not.
Which makes it not only a poor Alien movie, but just a poor movie.
I suspected that a lot of the initial hatred for this movie may have been at least partly cameron vs Ridley fanboys.
And being a Ridley guy I defended it as much as I honestly could before seeing it.
But it turns out that even if it was partly that, that they were right.
Its not a zero out of 10 movie like some people are saying, but in the end its about as good and reminds me a lot of resurrection.
Nice enough looking, but an utter failure as a narrative.
Almost all of the major flaws (and MAJOR THEY ARE) are with the writing.
Ridleys biggest failure here is in not recognizing that.
I dont know if he even can anymore, or ever could.
But then somebody should have pulled him aside and said something.
Everybody else around him shares a piece of the blame for that.
WOW. You and I did’t see the same movie. Or there’s an intelligence differential gradient that’s insurmountable. ‘Prometheus’ was seamless in its adherence to its mythology and logical structure. It was a bit rushed and disjointed because the additional 25 or so minutes that will be put back into the extended version to be released, my guess, 10.11.12 will return the finished film to its intended integrity. I can’t wait to hear the conversation between David’s head and the Engineer before he rushes to try and kill Shaw on the ‘Prometheus Life Boat.’
Your post reads like major sour grapes …
BTW: what’s a fanboy? Sounds ridiculous. Y’all need to get out into the sun more.
There must be an intelligence differential indeed.
BTW, why would we care about David talking to the Engineer, since they didn’t give subtitles for the first time either.
I think that might actually be one of the better questions the film left open: What did David say?
- Did he ask the Engineer to give Weyland more life, as the movie suggests?
- Did he ask Shaw’s question/s?
- Did he ask something else? Something self-serving? Something that would deliberately piss off the Engineer?
It would be a reasonable to assume David just started playing his own game at some point during the film, so if that’s the case, it could be anything.
Let’s compile a list of things that don’t matter as much as people think they do.
1) The helmets coming off. This merely informs us that the Engineers have terraformed the planet to some extent. It literally plays no other role in the events.
2) No one cares about Shaw’s operation/condition. Tell me who is alive that cares about her at this point, and why they would care. There’s your answer.
3) What does David say? It doesn’t matter. The Engineers decided 2k years ago to kill all humans. I honestly doubt a few sentences would impact that decision one way or the other
4) “insignificant character acts in a way that I don’t feel is realistic.” Sounds like someone is attaching significance to something they deem insignificant. Who cares why the co-pilots agree to go down with the ship.
5) The temples/planet are found too soon. Yes, because we need the movie to be twice as long so we can watch them orbiting the planet in silence, looking for life. Try wrapping your head around how a story works. Them finding the temple is more important than how they find it.
The people who dislike this film are a very weird bunch as most of their comments totally puzzle me. Why such films like Avengers, Avatar etc etc get glowing reviews and are highly overated with shocking dialogue, ham acting and in the case of Avengers third rate sfx compared to the stunning Prometheus.
My only niggle is the length, as many have stated, its 45 plus minutes too short. Since it was rated R I disagree with the shorter version being preferred (KOH again and look how superb the long cut of that is).
I will be going back for a third viewing and will again marvel at the best sfx, 3D, set design, cinematography film this year. The acting is very good with Fassbender Rapace and Theron all superb.
Cannot wait for Paradise to arrive.
I give Avatar a 6 as a movie, Avengers a 7, Prometheus a 3.
Weird bunch? You mean people with common sense and logical thinking, who like things that at least are a little plausible and not retarded?
Retarded? Your ratings tell me you should stick to more films aimed at kids and leave adults to watch the bigger films. Anonymous and should stay so.
Yean, you mean like Avengers were the Loki controlled scientist conveniently leaves a back door to shut down the impenetrable portal. Or the overpowered and now controllable Hulk.
Every move has its plot holes, Prometheus suffers from one dimensional characters and to short a run time for the story it was trying to tell. Also, they only give hints to the ultimate question in preparation for the sequel. This is a thinking mans movie in a world when people need to be spoon fed what they are seeing.
The movie was OK, overall, but I get the feeling that it’s the kind of movie that the more you watch it, the more glaring its failings become.
I’m not gonna review it. but I’m gonna compile a list of questions:
1. If the Engineers are so advanced that they can create any kind of life using some magical black goo in a matter of hours, why is it that they chose to create us, a race very similar to them, by going the excruciatingly long way of 3.7 billions years of evolution? Isn’t this a little bit overkill? Were they expecting to be around billions of years to see the results? If we’re such a long term project, we must be very important to them, but that is apparently not the case.
2. Ancient civilizations point to a constellation in the sky. Why? Did the Engineers periodically checked in with us? If so, what made them suddenly decide that we need to be exterminated? Why destroy their own 3.7 billion years project?
3. Ancient civilizations point to a constellation in the sky. Not only Prometheus visits the right star, solar system, planet, and satellite, but she even lands exactly where the action is, without even scanning shit from space. This is ridiculous.
4. A team of scientists is assembled to go on a trillion dollar mission and they behave like a bunch of mercenaries that “are not paid enough for this shit”, not to mention they have no idea what they sign up for until actually reaching their destination.
5. Idris Elba is an amazing actor, too bad he was given a bland character to play. Also, the two pilots were extremely happy to sacrifice themselves – fortunately that idiotic scene was like 10 seconds long.
6. In this movie, NO CHARACTER SAYS WHAT NEEDS TO BE SAID. Like, “Jesus fucking Christ, I just had a squid-like alien cut out from my womb”, or “how the fuck are you still alive, Mr. Weyland?”
7. Rocket scientists unequip their helmets simply because the air appears to be breathable. No concern about contamination – that can go both ways, I might add, and no concern for the fact that the proportion of gases in the “breathable air” can change anytime.
And many others, but I’m too tired to write them all right now.
That was great. Laughed about the pilots and #6.
As great as that operation scene was, the flow into the next scene was so awkward and hamfisted. Perhaps something got edited out there, because it didn’t work there…
1) Really? How many movies were you expecting to see in 2 hours?
2) See 1
3) You’re 100% correct. This movie should been been ten years long, and shown them orbiting the planet for days before finding any signs of life. That would make a much more enjoyable movie.
4) Guess what, only shaw really ever lives long enough to discover the actual nature of their visit. Everyone else dies long before. Not sure how you missed that. It’s also stated that only a few were picked by Vickers. Who knows what the logic was in picking the rest, but it’s pretty safe to say the scientific method was not a primary concern.
5) YAY a complain about the behavior of something that is admittedly insignificant!
6) That is because that would the dumbest thing they could possibly say. Or do you just say whatever brain vomit drips from your mouth?
7) YAY, ANOTHER complaint about something essentially insignificant. I’ll take your complaint seriously when you tell me how it negatively impacted the plot.
Fry I think your brain is fried? Are you just a lonely net troll? Ever heard of opinions? Like your asshole? We all have one…
All of his points are valid. Some are nit pick and some are true plot holes.
Have you ever heard of building tension?
If in Alien, they would have removed their helmets for example, it would have completely taken out the fact that the area might be hostile. Taken your helmet off is in a movie like this, tension killer. Period. Its like ah ok, im in a room full of unknown things, Alien planet, air ‘might’ be breathable so yeah, lets take it off!! Pssssttttt
This movie has more terrible writing, acting and plot holes then Star Crash…look it up….
actually ridley scott wanted the atmosphere inside the derelict in alien to be breathable oxygen…….
and there is no question about IF the air MIGHT be breathable , david confirms the atmosphere is completely clean, as does holloway AND ford….who actually says that the air is cleaner than earth …. so i dont get your point ?
@Buzzfunk: dude, I recognize that unique nickname of yours anywhere.. your name’s Sascha, you’re German, and you’re on Twitter as @sonic******, right? Should I keep going? Small internet, huh? I’m a follower and fan of your work, and I’ve watched you go from “Loved the movie even with some flaws”, like you said to Jon Spaihts, to bashing it (and this site) every chance you get. Looks like you keep changing your mind to be as cool as your podcast friends who hated the movie. Busted! What a shame..
Fry. Come on brother.
This is supposed to be intelligent sci-fi. It should stand up to scrutiny. A lot of it simply doesn’t.
It doesn’t mean it’s a bad film. I liked it, and I think most people who take the time to articulate the flaws did too.
Just saw it in New Jersey. Have to agree with you all:
Script- awful.
Editing- amateurish in places.
Music- shockingly bad.
And yet, as uneven as it was, I thoroughly enjoyed it and welcome it into the Alien universe. Watching Alien again and realising that Ash knows everything that transpired here, makes the original even more credible.
So what happens now Shaw and David have flown off? The company will have everything downloaded and recorded. Surely they must send another expedition immediately (if not already on its way). With old man Weyland out of the way all delusions of ‘finding god’ can be dispenced with and its search for bioweapons can begin in earnest.
Have to agree with you all? You mean with some as not everyone dislikes Prometheus just people who have a different opinion than you along with some others.
No need for you to visit this site again or comment as you dislike it so much.
Avatar 1.5, Avengers 2, Prometheus 10. Beyond doubt.
1) ****
2) real3D
3) Excellent
4) Music was pitch perfect and synergistic. I especially liked the resprise of key ‘Alien’ score passages.
5) 1 being not scary at all and 10 being very frightening = 5
6) Same ick/gore factor but being desensitized by ‘Alien’ I never felt like covering my eyes as I did 1979.
7) Quite uneven but Fassbender far and away was the standout star — his performance was excellent.
8) Second to ‘Alien’ all others below.
9) Not at all. I was surprised by the sequencing in the film. I was most surprised by the transit sequence of David’s soliary existence. Reminded me of ‘Silent Running’ in a weird way. Weyland’s Holo Introduction of Shaw and Holloway surprised me, pleasantly.
10) Will follow with that. Rather lengthy. One thing I notice with most postings here is the shocking lack of knowledge of SF lore Ridley is referencing in the film that no one seems to be aware of. It’s rather like Scott casting pearls before swine.
heres my review of prometheus but first…..
as a kid i really loved the movie E.T but when it finished and i had not even been shown where he was from or even what his fucking intentions for being on earth were,how many times had his race visited earth in the past and why was his neck so long???? i felt cheated ……. the movie had plot holes the size of texas……
the same feelings were felt at the end of the british movie paul , i laughed my ass off throughout that movie but at the end of the movie ……. when paul the alien invited the crazy little old lady onto his spaceship and they flew away into the night…….i realised i had just been sold an hour and a half trailer for a sequel…….dont even get me started on lord of the rings…ending the 1st movie with frodo and sam staring off towards mount doom……….yeah……..the writers twitter accounts were busy that day i can tell you.
lazy writing is also big in a movie i fucking hate called predator….waaaaaaaaaay to much mystery behind that creature……like……were does it come from? whats its real name? the reasons why god actually hates us and wants us all dead? who cut arnies hair? exactly what kind of power supply is his shoulder gun using? ….and dont even get me started on the script…seriously its like watching a chuck norris movie with arnie instead of chuck…….and why at the end when arnies getting all cammo’d up with his campire and he screams…..why the fuck doesnt the predator just zone in on his heat sig and blast him? plot hole plot hole plot hole……i wish hollywood would buck the fuck up and make a sci fi /high fantasy movie that was based on 100% fact……no bullshit, no fucking faster than light travel…….no more fucking 80years in the future bullshit medical robots that can perform surgery that no man could…..no more fucking high fantasy creatures that hold mystery and methods that could exceed our own understanding of them…….i dont want to see it hollywood……stop giving me creatures that scare the living shite out of me …..please.
i just want world war 2 movies and more films like trainspotting…….PLEASE….
were the fuck is my ghostbusters sequel explaining the origins of slimer??? were all the ghosts are coming from? and who created those goddam dogs……they didnt even explain how exactly those dogs turned from stone to living flesh……am i just supposed to use any information i have on transmutation and apply it to that scene??? lazy writing and couldnt anybody think of something more scary than a fucking marshmallow man……they could of used like a giant ghost or something…..like…the movie is called fucking ”GHOSTBUSTERS” and they actually bust a god….i mean i know there are ghosts in it but i feel like i was tricked by the marketing and it was actually really cool untill the whole zool thing with weaver…the pace of the movie tottally changed and ruined it in my oppinion, it didnt know if it wanted to be a comedy, a horror movie, a movie about gods ….. or was it trying to be about a bunch of guys living in a firestation..there was so much going on that i kinda got lost in all the different plot devices and plot holes regarding things that were touched on but left out for a possible sequel……..like…….exactly who was that old librairian at the start of the movie…and did she actually stack those books????? ..again lazy writing.
im so sick and tired of these lame movie makers taking fucking liberty’s with the sci-fi fantasy genre……
next time ridley scott………when your thinking about the sequel….i have 2 words that i KNOW the haters want………..shake-spear………..OK!!!!!!
anyways im off to watch the matrix…….but i have to remind myself every goddam time i watch it……”ITS A MOVIE NOT A SCIENCE CLASS!!!!” well except for that part with morpheus explaining people being battery’s , thats quite sciency………..but the kung fu is waaaaaaaaaaaaay over the top….like please…i do kung fu and the shit they do is stupid, but anyways like i said…….science class is a waitin!!!
Well said.
Awesome post!!!
Macatae hit the target. Beyond doubt.
Nice movie.
I don’t get the part why David infected Charlie with that dark liquid though.
David infected Charlie because Weyland told him to “try harder”. The purpose of the whole mission was to discover the creator, to rebuild Weyland to cheat death. There were no live Engineers around at the time, so he got the DNA black goo and asked Charlie point blank, what he would sacrifice to meet the creator, his answer is anything and everything.
Bravo Sycore.
Can someone explain me
Why did the engineer at the beginning
?
Thanks
What did he do? He had sex with a planet.
A trillion dollar expedition in the hands of those morons? Our creators pointing us out to a military post? Come on Lindelof!
The movie takes place in 2094. Anything can happen and everything. In sci-fi movies it is a frequent feature. Without doubt.
Even in movies, we would like an alternate reality, that doesn’t involve retards, plot holes, stupidity, implausible stuff and cheap creatures.
Look around and take a deep breath! Our life is full of retards, plot holes and stupidity.
You want an alternate reality? Oh, yeah, where you are employed and paid by Scott.
You are full of hatred. So apparent…
Disapointing. You know you’re in trouble when the charcater with the most believable character is the robot. Had H-U-G-E potential but turned into a B-movie-monster-fest half way through. Visually inspired though. It’s nice to see the finally of a sci-fi not involving a big American city being ripped to shreds.
In 1979 Alien was intentionally made to be a B-movie. Such is life.
The most believable character is the robot, you say. Isn’t it because he is the least human character at the same time? Maybe it’s not easy to face the fact that the others are so human. Not easy to look into the mirror offered by the movie.
I loved Prometheus … a fantastic story, beautiful cinematography, and great attention to detail.
I don’t want to compare it to the Alien movies (which I also love) but because some people same to be bringing Alien up a lot, I will say this … And this is all just my own humble opinion so don’t throw a wobbly and go manic on me if you disagree
The movie is not as dark literally nor in an ‘in your face’ way as Alien … If that is what you are hoping for I think you will be disappointed. While there is underlying suspense, it is not to the same intense degree as Alien. Prometheus is more visual and thought provoking. Alien is scary, suspenseful and WOW! When it came out I don’t think there had been anything quite like it …. After seeing Alien for the first time I felt I had been assaulted (in a good way) with the fantastic effects and the idea of this type of Alien … I was totally fascinated by all aspects of *the* Alien … I loved the characters of the crew (personalities and quirks) and it was cool discovering one character was an android, and I was especially in awe of the character Ripley.
Prometheus, is a quality film and I would treat it separate from Alien movies. I enjoyed the effects, totally loved the look of the ‘Engineers’ and I was in awe of the landscapes. The initial ‘engineer’ is portrayed with an unearthly quality (Raphael like)… Later ‘engineers’ slightly darker, intimidating, and a changed more menacing physique. This movie leaves me thinking more about what is being told … for me the crew characters (apart from David) are fairly low key … we only get to know them briefly, not in an in-depth way but we can glean tiny bits of their character; some more immediately and obviously from dialogue and some more subtly from behaviour or background. I do not mean to detract from the actors, they are all excellent and play their roles beautifully … I think is it all part of a story being told and they do not need to be high octane characters. Apart from David, no one stood out more than another for most of the movie … that is, until close to the end … Shaw’s character only impresses me from a certain point on, which is close to and at the end of the movie (maybe this is intentional). The quality of filming is excellent and the discussion about various interpretations of the movie have been constant since seeing it 4 days ago … the possibilities of what is to come is exciting.
“Big things have small beginnings”
Good review.
just seen the movie and i came a bit disappointed …not the cenarios or the awesome 3D…the story is pretty lame to say the least.I came out of the movie with the feeling that just had seen a 1º episode of a serie…the script is too superficial and has too many holes (for example why does the enginner persues Shawn if there are other ships?…an advanced civilization where a crio chamber leaves a guy sleeping 2000 years!?….why 4 crio chambers in a spaceship bridge if just one can pilot the ship!?…where did the enginner got the oxigen (same DNA, remenber) when went to meet shawn?…and last ,but not least: a menace comes about the engineers and they flee, not to a escape route, but to a dead end chamber!?…i could be here all day pointing holes in the script of a movie that should not be a sci-fi version of the series LOST (Shawn and David are now oficially lost in space lol) but a worthy RS sci-fi movie explaining or dealing with the space jockey origin…this is what happens when a great director picks up a series scrip writter
If you posted this in your first language you might not come across like a moron. Here’s a hint though, next time you want to stick an “i” in the middle of a word use a “y” instead. Otherwise, it’s a good thing you started by telling us you were disappointed because practically no sentence makes any sense after that. What on earth does “for example why does the enginner persues Shawn if there are other ships” even mean? Also, look up the definition of “plot hole.” None of those things are plot holes, or even accurate. But really, learn to at least spell what you’re criticizing. And “where did the enginner got the oxigen,” seriously… are mentally handicapped? Were you even watching the movie? This is what happens when underage kids get into movies without parental supervision.
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i’ve been posting my Star Trek The Next Gen xover idea. not deliberate probably, but the traveler in that series arrives at critical points in human evolution, here’s the theory:
the long waiting engineer at the end has actually traveled back in time to prevent the spread of the high evolutionary ooze. he thwarts tyrell corp, i mean weyland corp plan of using david to infect a crew member who was sexually active and left to warn earth of pending peril.
when the Prometheus was sacrificed the engineer was a little ticked, as david warned, and well, let’s just say look what happens when you do things in anger. although that sacrifice created the first engineer/alien/ human that is referred to as the xenothingee or whatever.
The film was amazing!
i just hope they didn’t dig themselves a hole they can’t get out of. If Paradise or whatever the sequel will be called answers what the Engineers were running from and the other five thousand questions Promethius fires up at us, the potential is incredible.
I’m predicting it will manage to answer enough to make the finale a must, but they better have their ducks in order. If not it’ll be another phantom menace, or just as bad, matrix revolutions.
I think they clearly have an endgame in mind, as was hinted at in the movie, but many are not going to like it. cough*2000yearsago*cough. Part of the problem with Prometheus was what they took out of it in order to set up the sequel. It lead to the characters doing some stupid stuff just to set it up. Still it was a enjoyable film that made you think, and I would happily buy a ticket for Prometheus: Paradise even though I know where it is going.
Awesome review. I couldnt have worded it better myself. Although I have seen the movie already, I could watch it for a year straight! And I cant wait for the deleted scenes on the DVD! I applaud 1,000 times for Ridley Scotts accomploshments ;-P
If the Blurray does not have an extended cut of this film but just deleted scenes, I won’t buy it till a director’s cut is available.
Good grief you people think that with the release of the blu ray and some deleted scenes that this farce of a movie will turn into something worthwhile to own and watch , seriously you people are stupid , I believe that Scott and his team should come out and apologise to us all for wasting so much money and destroying the myth that he could be the only true director of a sequel to ALIEN.
Stop trying to make excuses for the film-it was rubbish cos it is rubbish-Period.
Jafa
Well said…Prometheus had soooo… much potential.
Well except for calling people stupid.
In Prometheus the alien should of died in the chair because in Alien when they go in the spaceship he’s sitting on the chair
Two different spaceships, two different moons, two different Engineers…
This film should have stayed a true prequel or trilogy to the original franchise. This film was terrible and a huge letdown for any true fan of the original franchise. Little to no back story of the Weyland Company, cliche dialogue, poor character development, little suspense/horror, and poor pacing throughout the film. An overly pretentious script/story reworked by the worst scriptwriter in TV history, Damon Lindelof. Ridley Scott and Fox blew it!
Prometheus = Epic Fail
With these numbers…
Source: IMDB – Prometheus
Budget
$130,000,000
Opening Weekend
$51,050,101 (USA) (10 June 2012)
Gross
$108,452,350 (USA) (24 June 2012)
+
$224,989,539 (Worldwide) (21 June 2012)
How much you want to bet that the sequel doesn’t pull in those kind of numbers?
Nothing. I can’t tell. You can’t tell. Time will tell.
Prometheus crossed $100 million last week and it is the first film in the Alien saga that reached this number. Globally the film grossed over 200 million, and this number makes it the highest grossing film in the series at the international level.
I can only repeat myself: facts are facts. And I’m not speaking about taste and quality.
true but your not taking into account inflation, this is 2012, not the 1970&80s Mr. Economics. Films today cost more to make and so the stakes are higher for the studios to market the film in such a way to ensure a good return. Prometheus used a very good viral and online campaign to get folks into the theater to see this shit movie.
facts are facts…and I am speaking about taste and quality.
You give me names Mr Anonymous? Did you pay 70s-80s ticket price for watching Prometheus? Did you watch it in 70s-80s picture quality in 2D? Can we compare the decades? Do you live in the eighties? Man, there are so many cultural and social differences between them, we can’t list them. Build a time machine, take the film back and check the results. And then write everywhere you can that the movie is shit… 200 times a day. But if you stay in the past, it won’t be a problem. You won’t be missed. And now I’m talking about taste…
Yes your a fucking dumbass….but you knew that
Ah kids eh , let them stay up past 9pm and give them access to a computer …….. Bless
your right facts are facts…..well done
clap yourself a pat on the head 
however you should also be aware that your oppinion does not translate as fact……ile let you think about that for a second …………….
DOES NOT …..translate as fact…….
taste and quality are personal oppinions that also do not translate as fact………….keeping up?………ok good
however the global takings for this movie are not based on either personal oppinion or taste…….but FACTS……….got that?
do you and your girlfriends sign in to forums under anonymous tags so you can talk to adults as if you have any fucking clue as to what your actually saying, seriously you sound like your about 12……”this movie is shit” ….tehehehehe…..:/
like seriously if your gonna try and have an oppinion at least put some fucking effort into it…
yeah these big shot hollywood producers trying to trick me into spending my money on a movie they spent money making…..and then to add insult to injury they tried putting even more of their money into a viral campaign so i would spend the same EXACT ammount of money seeing the movie …… im sick of hollowood spending 100million+ on movies that im only gonna have to spend 20bucks to watch….whats that like 4trips to starbucks , a couple of bigmac meals……yeah you all got ripped so hard lmao….
heres some advice…….you need to get a grip.
they did trick you….your just to fucking stupid to figure it. cheers:)
dude’s right….the movie was terrible. I suppose you two enjoy films like Transformers and Battleship. By the way, this wasn’t an Alien film anyway.
( prometheusfire08 im posting anonymous so i can swear and insult people without getting banned tehehehehe )
prometheus is more alien than any of the other movies in the franchise…….. Your just to stupid to figure THAT out !!!
Lmao transformers was almost as bad as the spiderman trilogy that came out not to long ago and battleship? No i dont think ile be endorsing rhiannas “acting” carreer thankyou
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After sufficient time has gone by, and after reading these comments on the movie, I am humbly corrected…
It turns out there are now at least three people who liked this movie.
However, finding out why they liked it might require getting the prescriptions of their cinema-watching beer-goggles and a diagnosis from their psychiatrists.
Looks like I have more work ahead kiddos…
enough said…….
Ha! thats exactly what i was thinking.
Prometheus is nicely entertaining and makes perfect sense when your brain aint working normally or is altered by a foreign chemical substance.
it also explains all the denial by the tiny tiny minority of people who fit said description.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I really appreciate your efforts and
I will be waiting for your next write ups thank you once again.
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Some random thoughts, which I will explain in detail:
1. The engineers were not our creators, nore were they the owners of the black goo.
2. The black goo is made by another species who also created the engineers and forced them to sacrifice themselves to create real life.
3. Something happens and the gods die or leave. At this point the engineers start to become autonome and develop themselves to an advanced species.
4. 2000 years ago they decide to wipeout humans
because we killed space jesus?
because we became too advanced that they started to fear us?
because we found out that there is another GOD than the engineers?
because we have a real soul unlike the space jockeys who are driven only by mathematical logic?
-1.+ 2. Facts:
There are two different ship designs. The one we see in the beginning and the Juggernaut later. I think the first ship is fundamentaly different which leads to the conclusion that it doesent belong to the engineers species. I think they, the owners of the rounded ufo like ship, are the real Gods the creators of life. They made the engineers which are like David a creation for a purpose. The purpose is to have a perfect being leading to real life but with a soul, like we humans.
Like Weyland concludes that David has everything we want but yet he hasnt a soul. The engineers are perfect (pale skin – tall – powerfull – intelligent(technology)) but dont have a soul.
The goo is the creation of the real gods to seed life on any planet with the aide of the engineers superior DNA.
3. The engineer in the beginning is pure, he has no technology and is dressed in a robe. The real gods left him on the planet and he has to fulfill his purpose to seed life.
The engineer later is a fusion of technology and biology. He is melted with his tools (space suite – navigation seat). I presume that at some point the gods left the engineers. Maybe because they fulfilled their purpose or the gods species died or was killed by the engineers ( Davids hint at Shaw doesnt all children want their parnets dead?)
The whole father and son story of Weyland and David leads me to this conclusion. The gods are the fathers/creators of the engineers, they are like Weyland and David. The engineers have to follow the gods agenda but when the gods die they start to head into a different direction. Like David after Welyand dies.
This direction seems to be evil. Like the whole temple on the moon is simply the selfworshipping of the enginners (giant head). They start to use the goo for their own purpose to destroy life or to create monsters (xenomorph) which they find to be a more advanced lifeform than the humans. Maybe they see humans as a senseless creation because they fail to understand the purpose of real life and they hate humans for having a real soul.
4. They clearly want to wipe us out that is repeated in the movie several times. So there should be no speculation about that unless the hole movie was a joke.
some random thoughts about why they wanted to kill us:
-They hate us, because we dont accepted the engineers as our creators and we have something they never had, a soul. We belive in the real gods and killed space jesus?
-The engineers simply wanted to replace us with xenomorphs which they found to be a perfect lifeform from their POV. After the gods had died they started to clear the universe from the real gods creation.
I think the engineers are evil. Shaw says “we were so wrong!” I think that means they are not the gods nore are they creators, they are destroyers. After that she puts her cross on, meaning that she beliefs in the true god/s.
The endineers never understood why the real gods wanted to create humans? It´s for me definite that we humas have something they dont have.
It´s clear for me in the scene where the engineer is waked up from cryosleep and touches Davids head nicely like seeing himself in David a creation without a soul or something lacking.
Thats a key scene for me.
Maybe just the fact that David was also created for a purpose like himself to serve the humans? For that reason he kills the humans with a deep hatred for the creation of the real gods.
—
Conclusion:
I see a deep meaning of creator and created or father and son relationship.
There is the realation of God and engineer – humans and David – Weyland and Vickers
The engineers replaced the gods, humans will replace the engineers and maybe Androids will replace humans finally?
That could be the message of the film!?!?
When the King dies his reign ends!
Maybe we are preparing our own death with the creation of Artificial Intelligence (hints to 2001) Like the engineers prepared theirselves death by trying to create xenomorphs?
At the other hand there is so much room for orher speculations and there are so much plotholes in my theory.
Thats on one hand the strong point of the film on the other hand it is its biggest weakness.
The plot could be anything from Space Jesus to engineers beeing dark angels to aegyptian mythology to the bibel etc etc.
Its like putting everything in a mixer and letting the audience do the work of guessing whats in it.
When the audience starts to make his own story/plot, I think thats the point when a film clearly fails.
If that was the purpose, then the trailer would be eneugh for people speculating for years.
Can somebody tell me what the message of prometheus is? I dont want to know what this and that means I can guess that for myself. But what binds the hints to mythology and religion together?
Whats the purpose? Whats the massage of the film?
I think there is no real plot. The film was planned as a equation with multiple solutions.
But sadly every solution can be disproved easily. When they didnt wanted to kill us 2000 years ago my plot would make sense perfectly but thats the weakness of my plot. And why should they show us their science lab or weapon facility? They come to earth every now and then and say “look here do we create monsters”.
And please dont say the characters were wrong or want to misslead us. Thats also the point why any explanation on the net makes any sense. They all presume that nearly everything shown or said means something different thant in the movie itself.
I give the film 5 out of 10 for making me think and for having great visuals and atmosphere. The plot could mean anything and when I look at some awkward situations in the film I begin to believe they didnt realy care if anything made sense.
Prometheus is like a great looking sportscar without any engine. Its a hollow box.
Prometheus could be epic but it failed and its Riddley who is to blame.
Could be.
You’ve got some interesting theories.
Here’s my theory:
lindelof is a terrible writer who desperately contradicts himself in every way possible to confuse and distract from that.
I’ve know people who just act like that in real life all the time.
Although those are some snazzy theories you’ve got,
(a shame you didn’t right the screenplay instead),
I doubt that any of those things were intentional concepts by lindelof.
His only concept is distraction.
BTW:
Thats quite a read,
but worth it.
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