Re: Prometheus (2011)

[mrbasehart]

Well, it's certainly more action-heavy than Alien, but it's not the balls-to-the-wall stuff that's seen in Aliens.  Most of the action is short, sharp, and very nasty.

[Smith Dr John Smith]

Scott saying this isn't an alien movie reminds me of the producers of 28 Day Later saying that movie wasn't a zombie movie.

Oh and whenever I hear the title of this movie all I can think of is this.

[ScottotD]

Scott saying this isn't an alien movie reminds me of the producers of 28 Day Later saying that movie wasn't a zombie movie.

No, I mean I'm hoping it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more ALIEN than ALIENS. 


Also, there's still debate over the rage virus being fatal or not.

[Ben]

What really irritates me are the obvious straw men the movie's defenders are going to march in my direction: "You just hate it because the aliens/xenomorphs aren't in it!" No, I hate it because it fails as a prequel to ALIEN, and on its own terms. I knew long before I purchased my ticket PROMETHEUS was going to be about the space jockeys, and not the xenomorphs. That's no excuse for it to be such a sloppy clusterf***. Major character arcs sputter to a stop or are ditched entirely, too many ideas compete with one another for attention, and most of the dialogue is borderline laughable. One reviewer tried to justify his positive opinion of the movie to me by citing how its "dreamlike logic" and mood papered over the numerous plot holes. If I wanted "dreamlike", I'd watch INLAND EMPIRE again. Sometimes a poor script is just a poor script.

I think the biggest problems here were the conflicting agendas: Ridley Scott clearly wanted to do an original flick, while 20th Century Fox wanted another instalment in one of their most lucrative franchises. By trying to satisfy both, the film ends up becoming neither. Apparently an earlier screenplay draft was much more of a direct ALIEN prequel; it was Scott and Damn Lindelof who came along and said, "Nah, let's make this film its own thing, without entirely being its own thing, because it's a prequel to another thing. But not really. Sort of." This flaky, slipshod creative approach sabotages the whole production from top to bottom, especially at the end, when the protoform xenomorph pops out of the space jockey's chest. The space jockey's location when this happens is in total discontinuity with how the crew of Nostromo discover his remains, so even the movie's pretense at being related to ALIEN is a joke.

When he's at his worst, Ridley Scott's style is surprisingly similar to Tim Burton's. Both directors are inclined to sloppy storytelling in their weakest moments, and both often give the impression of being hyperactive children behind the camera. "Let's do THIS, and then THIS, and then let's try THIS, and oh yeah, THIS will look really cool too..." There were so many occasions when I felt like snapping my fingers in front of Scott's face and saying "Ridley...Ridley, you're losing me. Focus, focus." The entire movie seems written by a tightly-knit cabal of undeniably intelligent, creative people who nonetheless lacked the one person with common sense who could remark "Guys, wait. Hold on a second. We're going off on way too many tangents. We've gotta knuckle down and write a good story first, and then let the rest compose itself." Hell, look at the original ALIEN. It's almost staggering in its simplicity. Seven people, a spaceship, and a monster on the loose. In stark contrast, PROMETHEUS is a busier, more cluttered affair, and it suffers as a result.

The big problem is that the plot can't decide whether it wants to be an original story or even an indirect prequel to ALIEN. The inconsistencies between PROMETHEUS and the 1979 film are so blatantly obvious I have to wonder if Ridley Scott simply didn't give a shit. It's curious; whenever actual elements from ALIEN crop up, Scott seems to switch to the same lazy autopilot mode Spielberg utilized when he directed KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL. But the film's overall look and style is also too good to just believe he didn't care at all. Out of all the movies in the ALIEN universe/franchise, this is the one that comes closest to nailing the original's unique atmosphere of interstellar wonder and cosmic horror. There's one particular scene involving Noomi Rapace that's unbelievably scary as well as gruesome. It's as if Scott's brain keeps moving in fits and starts.

Oddly enough, the tv was showing a rerun of ALIEN last night, probably just to ride the wave of new popularity PROMETHEUS will set in motion. It was sort of bizarre, watching the genuine anger and fury directed towards the faceless, amoral "Company" in that film, especially with PROMETHEUS still fresh in my mind. Now it seems the filmmakers have become the very agents of the monolithic corporate empire they denounced so many years ago. Has Scott joined the ranks of tired, resigned old men, alongside George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, George Romero, John Carpenter, et al?

[ScottotD]

You just hate it because the aliens/xenomorphs aren't in it

[Ben]

You just hate it because the aliens/xenomorphs aren't in it

That's interesting, I didn't know trolls watched science fiction.

[goflyblind]

you know that there are actual spoiler tags, right? rather than making it even more obvious. i guess it's time for me to stay the fuck out of this thread.

[Smith Dr John Smith]

you know that there are actual spoiler tags, right? rather than making it even more obvious. i guess it's time for me to stay the fuck out of this thread.

Yeah i am looking forward to this movie so when I saw that his post was a wall of text I didn't read it because I figured there were spoilers in it.

[Ben]

you know that there are actual spoiler tags, right? rather than making it even more obvious. i guess it's time for me to stay the fuck out of this thread.

There's only one passage where I go into actual "spoilers", and I rendered it into white text, i.e. I DIDN'T EMBLAZON IT IN BRIGHT RED LETTERS. I don't come here often enough to know about the spoiler tag option. There are a million different ways you could have informed me without behaving like an internet jackass.

[Ben]

Maybe you could edit your post to fix it?  The spoiler tags are marked with a radioactivity symbol. Or it's just:

Code Select Expand


[spoiler]TEXT you want spoilered[/spoiler]


Done.

Is everybody willing to let this go now, or is the Spanish Inquisition still dissatisfied?

[Rainbow Dash]

What a disappointment....

The atmosphere and style were great, but the story was a mess, and none of the characters were that well developed.  David made no sense in his many decisions in the film, and then random zombie appears for no reason.... it was just a mess.

[D.B. Barnes]

Sweet spoiler tags, bro.

[Relaxing Dragon]

Yeah, I'm afraid this one was a bit of a let down. The visuals were awe-inspiring, the effects outstanding, and Michale Fassbender knocked it out of the part. But other than that, we had a bunch of weak characters with a script that was relying far too much on clunky exposition, obvious foreshadowing, and that wanted to pay lip service to a lot of "big" questions that it only actually barely touched on.

I'm actually not calling it a bad movie or anything, it's just... not great. Definitely not great.

[Rainbow Dash]

Sweet spoiler tags, bro.

Well son of a....


Hope you didn't read any of it.  Very sorry if you did.

[Sideswipe]

Thanks for that!  I read it, now I can't unread it!