General Prometheus (Spoilers)

[Lego_Man]

Anyone else seen this? What do you think? I'll just copypasta my initial email to DK from the day after the movie:


> I loved Fassbender, though he got less cool as the movie progressed.
>
> Visuals were fucking cool...art direction, setting...everything. And the Prometheans looked awesome - they had that whole ripped Titan/Greek God look which worked beautifully. The whole movie was way more sexualised too actually...going back to the HR Gieger roots of the first two, both in the art/architecture, and a lot of phallic rape and shit going on (the penis worms, vagina monster at the end, which then goes immediately limp post orgasm down the Promethean's throat (seriously it does, watch it again). Then obviously the whole unholy impregnation of Shaw and the gratuitous close-ups of her crotch/belly.
>
> The tension was built up fairly well during the first half despite some developing plot holes.
>
> The number of characters was ridiculous though - most of them appeared to only exist as cannon fodder in order that they could get killed. They failed to explain most of them at all, even the fairly important black guy who needed to be fleshed out way more given his role at the end.
>
> The ginger was the worst character ever - token psycho who just yelled negative shit for the sake of it. At the beginning you assumed he might be a military style mercenary escort who could provide some interesting clashes, then it just turns out he's a dropsacks scientist whose sole role is to fuck up so he can be killed (along with another jabroni). On the whole everyone was just way too easily scared and intimidated into completely irrational acts, despite supposedly being skilled professionals. Given that we know the mission was Weyland's last shot at life, youd think theyd have realised that one of the main risks would be the team going to shit mentally...so that would have been planned for.
>
> A bit of other shit I didn't get:
>
> - what the hell was that central chamber, and why were all the alien corpses piled up trying to get IN there (given a lot of the black shit was stored in there)
> - still unsure about the nature of the black goo discovered later. They seemed to focus on the "black vein effect" quite a lot which would imply it was the same thing as what the Promethean ingested at the beginning to kill himself. I'm guessing it may have been a mutagen that in small doses causes mutation, but in large doses just rips your body and DNA apart (a la the dude at the beginning).
> - why did the alien pop out of the Promethean at the end fully formed? Might have been better to be more subtle and just show the chestbursting head (or even nothing) just to leave the audience hanging a bit.
>
> The caesarean scene was pretty cool for its innovation and shock value (pussburster rather than chestburster), but totally ruined by the fact that NOONE REACTED TO IT AT ALL.
>
> I'm guessing the taking off of helmets was shoehorned into the plot so that they'd have an excuse to have more "personal" view of character interaction on the planet. Still a little clumsy though.
>
> Would need to see again as obviously there may be a few dialogue points that ive missed that may help explain some parts.

 

[tajhay]

i watched it when it came out...lotta shit to discuss...ill come back here later on when im free. lots of good analysis on the movie and plots on the net.

 

[wallacenz]

i saw it. interesting topic but, like you, i think the characters lacked depth (probably because, as you said, there were too many)

i didnt care about any of them, the android was the most interesting character but probably because he got the most air time.
the movie lacked the tension of a movie like "alien" and the action of a movie like "aliens", falling in the middle with a resounding MEH

 

[tajhay]

Question:
Was David the only android?
Ridley Scott said 'there could be two'.

Anyone go deep into the links between Jesus/Christianity and the movie?

 

[wallacenz]

Question:
Was David the only android?
Ridley Scott said 'there could be two'.

Anyone go deep into the links between Jesus/Christianity and the movie?

charlize theron was maybe the 2nd but she screwed the captain to prove she wasnt. it was scenes like that, many of which seemed like a rushed afterthought, that made this movie mediocre. noone had mentioned she may be an android prior to that and then she disproves it straight away. the writers should be shot.

didnt think about jesus, the premise of the movie sort of made jesus an irrelevant myth. they did seem to make an effort not to discredit religion saying "..but who made them"

im not sure how the star map idea worked. who was passing this info to cavemen?

as you can see from my posts, im all about suspension of disbelief in a fantasy movie. but they have to make an effort to make it make sense.

im also an alien / aliens fan. the engineer was dead in the pilot seat in alien with the hole in his chest, yet thats obviously not the case in this movie. is this just bad continuity or a whole different site from the one in alien?. too many questions, too many plot holes and too much bad characterisation and storyline for me

 

[Lego_Man]

All the pseudo religious stuff being jammed down the audience's throats i felt was a little facile at times.

 

[Lego_Man]

as you can see from my posts, im all about suspension of disbelief in a fantasy movie. but they have to make an effort to make it make sense.

Precisely why i disliked the last Star Trek movie.

im also an alien / aliens fan. the engineer was dead in the pilot seat in alien with the hole in his chest, yet thats obviously not the case in this movie. is this just bad continuity or a whole different site from the one in alien?. too many questions, too many plot holes and too much bad characterisation and storyline for me

Apparently the last word from Scott was that the movie was a "reboot" rather than a proper prequel. Though they made this confusing by giving so many references/parallels that seemed to tie in with subsequent events from the other movies...only not.

 

[Mixmasterreece]

 

[olek_skillgannon]

through the whole movie i was waiting for a lone wolf predator to de cloak and start kicking ass...but that never eventuated

 

[Sup42]

The Engineers were boringly stereo typical.

Totally Eugenic white male stereo typing ( Lego mans Greek gods ) boringly predictable that the creators of the Human race are Bald headed members of the Aryan brotherhood. Where were the female figures ( the first scene would have been an opportunity to turn the Adam and Eve story on its head....had the Engineer in that scene been obviously female )

Why would there raw genetic material introduced into the evolutionary schema produce hairy Lucy Hominids on earth in there earlier / purer genetic forms then latterly become Caucasians in earths environment akin to Riddley Scotts Romper Stomper Gods...

Its akin to portrayals of Christ as a Doobie brother or God as Santa clause in this day an age of western empire......Christ was a dark skinned desert living Jew in all probability.....and So god the father is unlikely to be lily white if he is in his image

Sorry just taking the Piss because i can.

But Riddley Scott could have caused shock Value and created a whole new spin on Evolution had the engineers been More ape like or More less obviously white humanoid.....

A suggestion i would have is to have created a race that looks like the Easter Island statues , because it is non ethnocentric ( those statues are haunting in their Angular features ) and the whole Easter Island Mystery would have enriched the Ancient earth / Alien worlds connection.

As for the lack of depth in the characters, thats the point of Alien Movies.

The bad ass space insects are the Stars of the show , and unknown actors are intentionally insect food......it makes it more real not having a "Film Star in space to detract with their screen presence"one Sigourney is all you need to create a balance....where it falls flat in this film is that the Audience is 'space bug hardened ' and it's impossible to recreate the Horror of the " in space no one can hear you scream " genius of the Alien films.

The Android with the T.E. Lawrence fixation was a nice touch....Peter O'Toole was one of the most psychopathic charismatic screen actors ever, so a Robot look alike of Lawrence of Arabia was kinky in a good way.

Over all the Film posed more Questions than it Answered and it was too bitsy with its borrowings from Alien while trying to be a new direction film.


Scott would have been better off going all out Alien plot with the Engineers and no new 'Space octopus' carry ons.....

Or avoiding 'Alien' content all together.

But then what do we know , Scotts a genius ( i didn't like Blade runner till the third time i saw it over a ten year span )......that's what sets him apart for mine.....Prometheus if nothing else was thought provoking and visually high quality.