Prometheus (Spoilers)

[FaxModem1]

Well, I just saw the film, and was disappointed.

First off, we have Alien monk, who commits ritual suicide in the most painful way possible short of self-immolation. His acidic remains fall in the water of whatever planet that was. Was it supposed to LV-223? Earth? The Space Jockey home planet?

Well, that doesn't matter, because we're in Scotland, and it's now 2085. We've found some new cave drawings. Cool. And they have the same dots as something else. Also cool.

Oh, it's a decade later and we're on the Prometheus, okay.

Who do we meet first? David. A synthetic going about, enjoying his day, improving himself. And he's a bit of a Lawrence of Arabia fanboy. This made me like him immensely. From that point on, I was rooting for David. He's like Data from TNG, only he has to deal with nothing but assholes for the rest of the picture.

He wakes everyone up, and we get a briefing from Guy Pearce in heavy makeup. The scientists are in charge, he says. Charlize Thereon says that she's in charge. Well, that was pointless.

The Geologist is both their geologic expert, and their security man, that's just stupid.

They land, They explore the 'pyramid'. Male scientist decides to be an idiot and take off his suit. David, I love ya, but you're doing the Ian Holm thing and probably will end up decapitated.

Biologist and Geologist fuck off. I immediately start rooting for them for being horror movie genre savvy. I then lose all appreciation for them as they get fucking lost.

They get samples. They return to the ship. Female scientist is an idiot and risks the lives of everyone for a head they could get after the storm passes. David saves both scientists lives. David infects idiot male scientist after scientist is rude and David is told to 'Try Harder'. Again, everyone's an asshole to David.

No one decides to monitor the radio during the night, leaving the biologist and Geologist alone to die because the biologist apparently thinks it's a good idea to go up to an uncatalogued lifeform that you know nothing about and try to pet it. Well, at least he dies, unlike the 'biologist' Julianne Moore from the Lost World.

Action happens, people die. Space Jockeys are apparently out to wipe us out for some reason, and female scientist, the one I really wanted to die, survives. Oh well, David's along for the ride.

This whole thing could have used a re-edit, or a re-write, or something. Having this film focus on just one plot would have done it a lot of good, and that would have been fine. Or if it had stayed self-contained, and hadn't asked so many questions it wasn't going to answer.(This was written by the people who did Lost, don't you know?)

A film solely about David would have been interesting. A film about Shaw(dumb female fundie scientist) losing her faith would have been interesting. A film about a CEO looking for immortality would have been interesting. A film about a crew finding an abandoned alien ship on an alien planet would have been interesting(and the film Alien). All these things together makes a shitty 'Who cares?' jumbled mess.

[TOSDOC]

Humans are the monsters! stories have been done before but I don't think they have yet been paired with chariots of the gods. Maybe they have and I don't know.

Then I'd recommend to you Quatermass and the Pit (aka Five Million Years To Earth) for a perfect example of how to do a script like this correctly. It was also done on an amazing 60's shoestring with remarkable results. I can only dream longingly for a remake with something like Prometheus' visuals today. That would be awesome.

[Galvatron]

Is it just me, or was the space jockey design retconned all to hell? I seem to recall the fossilized space jockey in Alien having a wide open mouth, as if that was actually its face and it died screaming.

Also, I'm trying to keep track of the Cameronisms that Ridley Scott adopted for Prometheus. The whole "building better worlds" thing is from Aliens, not Alien. Also, the name of the company was originally Weylan-Yutani. Cameron changed it to Weyland.

Am I missing anything?

[jollyreaper]

That really does sound like the original Doctor Who concept, before all the timey wimey went wibbly-wobbly. I like a Doctor who is less shouty and Robin Williams with affected madcap silly. I prefer a Doctor who has an air of affable whimsy masking a core of deathly seriousness. He's not blundering into problems, he's not making things worse. He's putting wrongs right, abhors violence and bloodshed and will give you the chance to mend your ways out of courtesy; ignore that mercy at your peril.

I'm going to have to see if the serials are up on YouTube or the torrents.

[Pint0 Xtreme]

Also, the name of the company was originally Weylan-Yutani. Cameron changed it to Weyland.

I believe Weyland-Yutani is the result of the merging of two companies: Weyland and Yutani. I don't think the merger has occurred yet in Prometheus.

[Galvatron]

Also, the name of the company was originally Weylan-Yutani. Cameron changed it to Weyland.

I believe Weyland-Yutani is the result of the merging of two companies: Weyland and Yutani. I don't think the merger has occurred yet in Prometheus.

I know. I mean that the name was originally Weylan (sans the D).

[Pint0 Xtreme]

Also, the name of the company was originally Weylan-Yutani. Cameron changed it to Weyland.

I believe Weyland-Yutani is the result of the merging of two companies: Weyland and Yutani. I don't think the merger has occurred yet in Prometheus.

I know. I mean that the name was originally Weylan (sans the D).

Interesting. This I did not know. To be fair, I think Cameron gave the franchise renewed popularity with Aliens.

[Galvatron]

Am I missing anything?

The LV-xxx naming convention is a Cameronism too. Unless I'm mistaken, LV-426 had no such name in Alien.

[madd0ct0r]

some of you lot really surprise me - it was an awesome film, absolutely awesome.

My favorite part - the surgical intervention pod scene. well done enough the wife's been having nightmares about it for a few nights.

I was a little annoyed by the contamination carelessness, but really has there ever been an Aliens film where Weylan Corp isn't cutting corners and dong a slapdash job? As others have said - the science team clearly weren't picked for their field leading knowledge.

The plotting was tight, with a satisfying mesh of subplots. They all seem contradictory and at odds and all were slowly pulling the film along it's thematic paths.
Not everything is spelled out either, which is a pleasant change. One example would be the creator/created conversation between Halloway and David*. It's obvious enough that David isn't thought of as an equal, and obvious that he does have feelings, have a moral code and deals with being pushed away by setting himself up above humanity (but not his 'father', who seems to command a divine right in David's eyes).
What did David say to the Pilot?

When I asked the wife why she thought the Pilot's reaction was violent her instant reply was 'Because they have no souls.'
For her, the pilots are humanity with the emotions, empathy, sense of wonder and sheer will to live removed (or never developed). She argues that humanity developed the way it did largely by fluke and they wish to destroy us as a 'weaker' experiment.

I was mildly piqued by the ending - a 2nd ship? what? But again she argued this was necessary for the theme to play out - Much as David judged humanity, Ezra must judge the Pilots. The classic development of growing up - to judge your parents and later maybe forgive them. Doesn't David state that all children want to kill their father? The Aliens films are all about childbirth and fertility being twisted by a black horror. This film is about parents and their responsibility for their actions to their children.

fuck. i might actually go see it again and take notes.

*I'm also surprised no one seems to have picked up the use of the name David - the boy touched by god who slew a giant? Sequels will be intresting.

[Rogue 11]

David is the most interesting character both in himself and what he represents.

He is mankinds creation, but the Prometheus crew are treating him like crap. Why should they expect (Or deserve) to be treated by their creators better than they treat their creations?

[Galvatron]

I'm sure this video will provoke some nerd rage, but really: why DID the Engineers leave a starmap to their WMD R&D planet??

[madd0ct0r]

nothing new in that video - just a guy reading questons already asked in a monotone.

[Lonestar]

Alright saw it.

It kind of drives me up the wall with the way they had the personnel set up. Secret mission, gotcha. One trillion dollars? Err, okay. No one on the boat knows each other, and they haven't gone through some kind of protocol or training before they left? What?

They don't spend a few days in orbit maping the planet, maybe leaving a weather satellite so they can't get surprised by foul weather?

We have these scientists who ran around on Earth trying to convince people about the Chariots of the Gods thing, and no one bats an eye at Weyland dumping trillion bucks after they make their pitch?

"They're the same species as us!" They could have changed that to "They're practically the same species as us" or "They are closer to us than chimpanzees are" or "They're technically the same species as us, like a Chihuahua and a Great Dane". It's hard to take that at face value when it's a 12 ft tall bald albino.

[NecronLord]

I'm sure this video will provoke some nerd rage, but really: why DID the Engineers leave a starmap to their WMD R&D planet??

Except... none of the nerds here are actually denying that the film has plot holes you could drive the alien ship through, and the consensus is that it's a pretty poor excuse for a story.

[madd0ct0r]

With my exception. It was so nice to watch a film where you had to think, instead of plot twists that are telegraphed large enough you can see them from orbit.

but yeah. plot holes. still got them.

[Junghalli]

It kind of drives me up the wall with the way they had the personnel set up. Secret mission, gotcha. One trillion dollars? Err, okay. No one on the boat knows each other, and they haven't gone through some kind of protocol or training before they left? What?

I wonder if the crew being dysfunctional wasn't supposed to be some kind of social commentary.

Like, when I was watching the movie I was reminded of a story by Ursula K Le Guin that touched on how important it would be to make sure you've got a crew that works well together for an exploration mission like that.

Which is a pretty hilarious contrast to these guys, where the leaders view their subordinates as pawns to be manipulated and denied information, most of them don't even know what the mission is to begin with, they're on different pages wrt priorities and what they're supposed to be doing out there, some of them have personal issues with each other.

We're looking at a toxic work culture here.

[Skywalker]

One of my gripes about the movie which I don't think anybody has already mentioned is the inefficient life cycle of the protoxenomorphs. The goop infects the human(or engineer, I presume) orally, who has to be male and has to have sex in the few hours between being infected and becoming zombified. Then the female human(or engineer) gives birth to a giant, squid-like chestburster(completely redundant stage), who then infects another host, which finally gives birth to an adult protoxenomorph. What are the chances of that playing out exactly the way it did?

[Skywalker]

One of my gripes about the movie which I don't think anybody has already mentioned is the inefficient life cycle of the protoxenomorphs. The goop infects the human(or engineer, I presume) orally, who has to be male and has to have sex in the few hours between being infected and becoming zombified. Then the female human(or engineer) gives birth to a giant, squid-like chestburster(completely redundant stage), who then infects another host, which finally gives birth to an adult protoxenomorph. What are the chances of that playing out exactly the way it did?

[madd0ct0r]

i read that as the black goo has thousands of possible vectors, all capable of turning other lifeforms into killing machines / baby makers

[Pendleton]

The assumption is of course that Xenomorphs = final product. This clearly isn't the case, as each person infected produces varying results. There is nothing at all to indicate that the only possible result of the black goo is xenos, since a lot of fairly potent bioweapons came out of everything from worms to the human hosts.

Additionally, xenos take on traits of the organism they come from.

[madd0ct0r]

however - there is a xeno mural in the ship (in the same pointing to the stars pose as the pilot ones on earth)

so the xeno form does appear often enough. What about the pile of dead bodies with holes in their heads? head worms?

[The Imperator]

When I saw the Xenomorph shrine thing, I figured that maybe the Engineers were tampering with Xenomorph DNA, and that the goo was the end result.

[madd0ct0r]

or the engineers themselves were 'made' by the xenoforms as a cattle race?

Which puts the engineers seeding life and watching us develop into a fairly horrific viewpoint.

[Skylon]

Am I missing anything?

The LV-xxx naming convention is a Cameronism too. Unless I'm mistaken, LV-426 had no such name in Alien.

It is. In fact, the original novelization of "Alien" I believe referred to LV-426 as "Acheron."

Just saw it, and I was pretty underwhelmed. There were some good performances, especially Michael Fassbender, and some great visuals, but aside from that, the film felt very disjointed. It felt like it lost focus. Was it horror? Was it sci-fi in the vein of 2001? I couldn't tell. I also, don't see why this couldn't have been a more direct tie to "Alien". It would have allowed this film to stand as a one-shot. Instead we're left with the "There are other ships" line. It left me wanting, but not terribly keen on seeing more.

[The Imperator]

or the engineers themselves were 'made' by the xenoforms as a cattle race?

Which puts the engineers seeding life and watching us develop into a fairly horrific viewpoint.

It all makes sense!