I liked it quite a bit, but thought that it will suffer because of the amount of “suspense & hype” built up before the release… it would have to give you bars or gold at time of admission to live up to the level of pre-expectation, and the amount of tension that was conveyed in the trailers. There’s really no way that they could have delivered at that level.
I just saw Prometheus yesterday. I enjoyed it. Can’t go as far as to say I loved it.
It’s hard to follow Alien and Aliens and the incredibly awesome Ripley.
Alien was something new when it came out and it continues to take your breath away.
That is a great movie. And that is hard to follow.
Looks like there could be another installment to continue the story in Prometheus, which would really be interesting.
I saw it yesterday too and liked, but not loved it. I’m still trying to piece together what I think happened in terms of the chicken/egg, humans/alien question. I think I have it figured out, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out why the humanoids left Earth to begin with or sent their people there- which would explain all the cave drawings. Thoughts?
I’ve thought about that a bit, and the line from the captain comes to mind when he says they were smart enough not to make weapons in their own back yard. So, maybe they wanted to create life, but were smart enough not to do it in their own back yard. They find earth, create their life, and when it develops to the point where it may become a threat, they take steps to eliminate it. Unfortunately, the weapons get loose, resulting in the infection and death of the engineers in the tomb. (how many sci-fi movies use that premise?) The one that remained in stasis tried to complete the mission when he was revived and realized what was going on.
It’s kind of simple, but seems to me a very plausible explanation.
I guess maybe I’ll be the first to say I loved it, but I wanted to. At some point I got kinda tired of being overly picky about movies and ending up disappointed, so I just walk into the theater ready to believe and like. I find myself much happier that way. Maybe I’m a blue pill kinda guy.
The performances were exceptional, I was especially impressed with Noomi. The cinematography, lighting and Aeriel shots were gorgeous; but Ridley’s work is generally quite lush and visually stimulating. The concept art, designs and sets were a knockout, I really loved the suits (the human ones) and the alien architecture. I was quite impressed with how they continued the theme of bio-technology in this film, the controls and readouts in the alien bridge were fascinating to me, a fitting prequel in my opinion. The music worked well and the film was well paced, it was occasionally predictable but not enough to spoil the story. Those who are familiar with the Alien franchise will gleen more from this than those who walk into the film not knowing it, but I feel they will be entertained as well. There is a minor easter egg at the end of the credits, one that made me chuckle and want to visit the site. Did not see it in 3D so I cannot comment on that element.
Though it is an Alien film, it is much stronger in the scifi genre than the horror genre, it is not as dark and claustrophobic as its predecessors. And it is not as tense or bleak as some of them, in fact it was kind of refreshing and even optimistic in its treatment of humankind, and its desire to understand the universe and explore. While I will not go back to see it again this summer I will add this to my DVD collection, and I will look forward to the audio commentary and extras. Thank you mister Scott for another great looking film, and kudos to the writers for a great treatment of O’Bannon’s and others previous work.
A thought on the ‘infection got loose’ idea: The holographic ‘running engineers’ might have been running from an infected engineer who was trying to get at the vault room but the closing door chopped his head off.
This is really funny, worth the read…
Prometheus in Fifteen minutes -
http://m15m.livejournal.com/23209.html
I really did enjoy the movie, despite the many plot faults. And the 3D was perfect.
My only serious question is, how do we know The Engineers had bad intentions with the black goo and wanted to send it to earth to destroy us all? Maybe they just wanted to create humanity v2.0?
https://twitter.com/DarwinShaw/status/209592956678713345
Sounds like they’ve already planned releasing a director’s cut or extra scenes on the dvd/Bluray:)
Finally saw Prometheus today. Since I’d read/heard so many mixed/mostly bad reactions, I expected not to like it, but, frankly, quite enjoyed it. It seems most of the plot holes are explained in the film itself (the Engineers did not want to created weapons in their own backyard; “it’s Christmas, and I want to open my present,” etc.) and the big questions are BIG. I like Sci-Fi that tries to think big, especially in the context of a big, summer tent pole film (Prometheus feels like the strangest summer tent pole ever, though). I’ve not been a big fan of Ridley Scott’s work in some time, but with this film I have gained a great deal of respect for the man as an artist.
The ultimate moral for me seems to be that not all of our questions are best answered, for we might not like what we find about ourselves, and that there’s a modicum of faith to all of our deep queries that’s worth holding on to. (I have to mull that one for a while, though.) As far as the little question (and this one’s been bugging me): why would the engineers create human beings? Perhaps they meant us to be a super weapon and found us not destructive enough? Too destructive? Is that why they changed their mind?
I saw this yesterday, LOVED the look of the movie, the 3D was making my wallet itch to get a 3D TV for when this one comes out Blu-ray…
Plot was a bit thin I thought with the usual lets run around poking at things until something happens.
LOVED Michael Fassbender, he did very well, it was very interesting to see how most of the people treated him as a tool, not really caring what they said to him. Compared to the Alien series, where the they were treated better (IMHO).
One thing that bothered me was how Elizabeth Shaw was practically running and jumping for the rest of the movie after her autodoc operation.
On the funny side of this was how after using the autodoc she just basically walked out without telling ANYONE WTF was left IN the autodoc… All I could think of was, man, this is the type of person that doesn’t flush the toilet after taking a dump…
It was a beautifully filmed movie, though it left ALOT of questions, will there be another one??
Honestly though, with the whole question of origins, I think this really could have been told without ANY connection to Aliens…
My favorite little glitch in the movie…at the end Shaw is in her suit and lowering the robot down to put him on the new ship…as she’s lowering him down you see the robot’s hair flying in the wind…they pan back up to Shaw in the suit…and her DAMN HAIR IS BLOWING IN THE WIND…how does that happen in the damn suit!!! (ok it’s more funny then anything), but I did enjoy the heck out of this movie…I always enjoy the “why are we here” theories and this was a neat one…though if I was Shaw I’d fly that damned ship back to the host planet and unleash the fury (maybe she does in the sequel and explains how “Alien Nation” is created…and maybe explains why they wanted us as a species toasted before we grew enough to do the same to them… heh)
I saw Prometheus twice: once in 2D, then again in 3D. Here’s some of the best articles & pieces & reviews and interviews I’ve found about it, some of which were recommended by other GWCers. Some provide answers, some new questions, some big laffs…
This first one has the most answers.
http://io9.com/5917448/all-of-your-lingering-prometheus-questions-answered
http://io9.com/5920183/what-exactly-did-david-say-to-[redacted]-in-prometheus
http://io9.com/5919306/another-theory-about-the-meaning-of-prometheus
http://io9.com/5917639/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-design-of-prometheus
http://io9.com/5916778/the-best-part-of-prometheus-isnt-the-aliens
http://keithmartineau.com/blog/2012/06/22/big-things-have-small-beginnings-prometheus-review/
http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html
http://enchantedmitten.blogspot.com/2003/12/reading-previous-entries-in-this-series.html
The writer could not draw attention to the alien in the autodoc by having her announce to the captain or crew about it, because he wanted to have it be a surprise when it reappears later much bigger and hungrier. So he needed to have her (and the audience) distracted with a new revelation, and new dangers; in the hope you would forget about the little bugger in the autodoc. So we could have the ‘tomato surprise’ near the end along with the ‘creation killing it’s creator’ bit which was kind of poetic…
30 minutes of deleted scenes in the DVD?? YAY, just what I was hoping for!!
That was made with pure 100% grade A /win
Good catch, I did not notice it until the second time I saw the film. I have two theories on this-
A) They shot the close up of her talking to David during a frantic day of shooting and she forgot to wear the helmet, and no one noticed until later during editing. So they added the helmet during post-production using CGI, rather than calling Noomi in for a re-shoot.
B) The helmets they use for close ups in a ‘clean’ environment (no water or debris) have no plexi in them, easier for the actors to work in and no reflections/smears/or fogging to interfere with the shot. (The plexi-shimmer is added in later using CGI, like they did in Avatar)
I am leaning toward B, they needed a good clean shot of Noomi interacting with Michael there in the alien ship’s vagina (airlock), and it is easier to light the shot with no plexi on her helmet. So that is why her hair is blowing like that… I pondered A for awhile but decided against it, there are always continuity people on staff to catch those sorts of things and I cannot imagine something like that slipping past them; even if it was a second unit team doing catch-up shots to fill out the days dailies.
Heh…I just got a kick out of catching the glitch in the movie…I guess it’s possible there’s an internal ventilation system in the suit and since she was exerting harder then normal in lowering the robot that the suit was compensating too…I just found it hilarious and I did yell out “WHY IS YOUR HAIR BLOWING IN THE SUIT” in the theater…it did get a chuckle
I wish I had time to see it again though…I’m still waiting for my friend to get back so I can get the Alien movies to re-watch and see if I still hated them like I did some 20 years ago…
I hate to say it, but I just returned from this movie this afternoon and I didn’t much care for it. Somewhat disappointed really. I was really expecting good things but by the second reel I found myself looking at my watch (yes I do still wear one) and kind of squirming in my seat.
I think I’ll wait for BluRay and give it another go with some Grey Goose and ice. Maybe I just “had a bad experience”.
/shrug
OB
I got Prometheus on Bluray the other day. I’ve watched it 3 times already! LOL.
Commentaries… Man, Ridley Scott does pretty bad commentaries doesn’t he? Usually the director ends up having a lot of interesting things to say about plot and such, but all RS does is repeat what we’re seeing on the screen or hearing the actors say. Then he started ranting about how he’s made x number of movies and people shouldn’t be questioning him about how he does things anymore. I had to turn him off.