Rule #1 in space exploration: Keep your flippin’ helmet on!
Rule #2 in space exploration: Keep your flippin’ helmet on!
Pregnetheus - With the Alien Baby Removal App - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zHzGYbdcSRI
Just watched it! Someone tell me again why the animosity between humans and robots? Is it, “just because”? Or is it the Cylons-want-autonomy-from-colonials argument all over again?
A train of thought struck me while watching the show:
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the created would nominally want to kill their creators. This was mentioned not only by David, but also by the Cylons in BSG.
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the created are a force of destruction. Albeit, the black goo, even humans (I believe cognitive ability makes us even more dangerous than wild unthinking creatures, or as dangerous as whatever mutant thing the black goo can spawn.)
2.1) even David, created by humans, was the source of havoc on the ship, no matter how much he loved learning about the humanities.
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[spoiler] so the Aliens that we are familiar with, is spawned as a hybrid of Octopod(?)-human-Engineer?[/spoiler]
Oh yeah, [this is non-spoiler since it was mentioned in the 'cast] I don’t think there was any meaning to the Engineer killing David, the created robot, followed by Whelan, his creator. The Engineer wouldn’t have known & I don’t think he gave a crap. Right at the end, where he was fighting the Alien (surprise!), the feeling a got was that the Engineers (or maybe just this one!) were an amoral lot.
… But then, how were the Engineers, who were perceived to be militant, able to create art? Remember the flute playing by the “Dr. Evil egg-shaped” chair?
Lastly, I was vouching (is that the right word?) for Shaw at the end. “She will bring them to the end” heheh [Starbuck quote off]. And the death she’s bringing is more potent than any nuclear weapon!
Finally watched Prometheus yesterday. I really hope there is a sequel. There is so much story left to tell.
I do have one complaint and Losties will agree with me on this. Mr Lindelof can really spin a tale of suspense and intrigue but he really needs to work on presenting the payoff. It’s ok for television to keep the viewer coming back for more but a film, even if it is part of a series, needs closure. Shaw and David were the main focus of the film and their stories dangle at the end. With other Alien film endings, whoever was left had a respite. They defeated or at least abated the immediate threat and got the frak out of Dodge.
Here Shaw and David fly off into the sunset on their way to…? Find the Engineers? Seek revenge? Get answers? All of the above? It’s not satisfying. In the other films, Ripley faces her demons, figuratively and literally. The films end with a foreboding calm.
Lindelof needs to learn from Hitchcock. If you show a knife in Act I, use it by Act III. Weyland shows up in Act I and then the payoff is his reveal in Act III. What was that exactly? What was he hoping for? The gift of life? In the end, to quote Weyland, “There…is nothing…”
I mean I can get all philosophical and say that this is a story about man meddling in the affairs of gods and getting bit. Weyland comes so far driven by Pride and in a moment his frail humanity is defeated. Man is not ready. Or worthy? There is a mingling of forces engaged in survival. Is that the universal purpose of life? To survive?
I posted elsewhere my diaspoointment with the flick. I 'm still not entirely sure why. I think I 'll blu ray it and give it another try. I do agree the story just kind of fizzled for me. I never much cared for the characters or their motivations, so I kind of lost interest early on in the movie.
A telling sign for me was when one character mentions the corporation investing a trillion dollars in the venture. My mind set to work doing present/future value calculations (assuming 6% and 70+ years in the future) . I was far along my calculation when it dawned on me that this movie isn’t too engrossing if this is what I’m doing … /shrug
Again, I hope to watch again and get more out of it a second time around.
Your mileage may vary.
OB
That was awesome!!! 
Just came back after FINALLY seeing it again, this time at the Cinema after AGES it took to get released here.
I agree with some parts that compared to the other Alien movies this one had a wide open ending and that the Wayland reveal really was one of the weak points of this movie. Don’t know how much was in the original script and what Damon Lindelof changed/contributed there.
What Shaw’s plan is with David can be learned from Shaw’s lines. She wants to find the Engineers and get the question answered WHY they changed their mind to (maybe) get to earth and destroy the life that one of them created there. And Wayland wanted the Engineers to save him from Death.
I just watched it for the 2nd time and caught so much more of it. So I think a second movie will make you like(or dislike) the movie more. 
Regarding Waylands investments…don’t disregard inflation or hyperinflation or how much it would cost to reach such a far away planet.
Yeah…you always want to kill your parents…and when David talked to the crew they treated him like a toaster instead of a human-like being.
Like your points, and regarding Nr. 3: yeah, looks like what it put INTO him is the result of your loveable creature.
I meant to comment on this earlier but I forgot until now…
I found the discussion of online curation to be really interesting, especially since part of what I teach my students in the process of doing research and thinking critically about cultural objects is the ways that we acknowledge our debts to others (through citation, allusion to influential ideas, etc) when we elaborate our own theses. The only thing worse (more annoying) than something that has been plagiarized is something where they feel the need to cite common knowledge. Part of the challenge for me is to help them to learn to see where that line is - when one is first studying another culture, everything is new and learned from something else, and so the initial impulse is to give a citation for every single little thing. It takes time and careful reading (and, I hope, the assistance of mentors, professors, etc) to learn what consists of common knowledge in a new field. In that sense, explicit curation can be useful in order to help a student learn the ways ideas develop in a certain field of inquiry and the ways in which they can participate in an ongoing conversation about and consisting of the production of knowledge.
In terms of less “formal” settings - I find that determining the value added by curation is something that people don’t seem to agree on quite yet - you all touched on this (I think Sean brought it up?), but I think that, for the example, the production of an extensive bibliography, even without commentary, is productive and useful beyond a simple list of links. Others might disagree. I don’t know that there is a set standard yet, and it will be interesting to see how this develops over time.
Your conversation also made me think about somethingsI heard on the NPR show On the Media awhile ago about digital curation and ways that we signal it that people might be interested in. Certainly people who work in Library and Information Science work would have more to contribute to the conversation.
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A bit late to this thread, but finally viewed this film. The production values were impressive and I loved the F/X. The script was pretty bad though. It is well said that the Lost writers are good at presenting mysteries but poor at showing any reveals. Some questions in my mind:
Why was the crew so stupid?
The crew was maddeningly stupid. I would have rather seen a hyper competent “trek” like crew being overridden by Wayland corporate interests. This would have made the reveal of Wayland himself on the ship more potent (at last the puppet master emerges etc) and increased the sense of irony.
Why would the engineers create us and then want to destroy us?
I thought about the legend of Prometheus-one of the greek gods brings fire to earth and is punished by being chained to a rock (later freed by Hercules). The Olympian gods though dont take fire back or wipe out humanity. One theory might be that the engineers are not a monolithic society. the ones in the opening scene wear robes and seem religious in the ceremony. The later engineer seems more militant in dress and action. Perhaps there is a religious segment that went out star seeding. In the map we see about a dozen worlds on the target hologram. This implies “there may yet be brothers of man beyond the stars who fight to survive”, to borrow a phrase. So maybe this other group did the whole star seed program in secret. Their ship looks more standard Independance Day UFO, so maybe this is where this faction lives. The militant engineers want to ‘correct’ this stealing of fire via genocide.
What was the black goo?
I kind of thought the black goo in the cup at the beginning was a different black goo-that was more of a DNA unwrapper and the second black goo is more of a mutating goo. Where are ninja turtles when you need them eh? Overall the implication is that the alien engineer tech is strongly based on biological.
One question I will throw out to the forum, what would a trek crew do in this situation? Picard? Kirk? Would make a heck of a trek movie.
One final thought, although the Lost writers are ok, when will we see science fiction writers author movies (other than Phillip K. Dick)?