Alien is Dark and Prometheus is not too dark

Well, the film is three hours and the trailers are 2 minutes, so Scott is keeping possibly the Dark Stuff under the radar for the when the film comes out...

It looks nice and clean, like a typical Hollywood product.

It is like judging a book by it's cover...too early, yeah, it is not rustic like Alien...I see the contrast..truckers for Alien but Prometheus I can understand, new ship and what not, so i am not bothered by it....I trust Scott.

I too think all this is the 'light side of the moon' so to speak. Makes sense assuming that this factor may be juxtaposed with the darker flip-side of this story.

I would imagine there is still more Post Production still being done, so, there is still much we have not seen...and Scott has kept under the radar and off the screen for reason..

Alien being dark did add something and made it more suspenseful, not knowing what you were looking at. So that will be lost but I think Scott will make up for it in other areas. Cain1977 - where did you hear it was going to be three hours?? I would absolutely love that but I can't see it being that long, I think will be around two hours hopefully two and a half hours.

The nostromo was a mining tug and everything that goes with that premise was in alien and its subsequent sequels. You cant blame ridley for trying a new approach to this franchise i mean who wants to repeat themselves that often. i'm glad it has a new look it stands to reason that Archaeologist's and scientists on a voyage of discovery would be travelling in completely different ways to a mining crew its just common sense and logic. we have tug boats for sailors and trawler men, and liners and classy yachts for science vessels thinking of the Archaeologist's that were looking for the titanic in that film very hi tech and clean.

Of course, Prometheus is not a conversion, but has been shot in native 3D. It was undoubtedly a challenge, because so many of the scenes are in darkened environments, and that is sometimes an issue in 3D. Damon Lindelof, the writer of the Prometheus screenplay talked about the lighting issues. “When Ridley decided to film in 3D, he understood [lighting] was going to be one of the profound challenges and I think one of the things that was important to him was, in terms of the constructions of the sets, that the movie was shot on sound stages in Pinewood. Just these humongous, expansive sets. Everything is built. If you’re building a ship, he just built the ship…..I’ve never been on the set of a movie that’s actually shooting 3D before. Anytime you walk into video village there are essentially five massive video screens. You walk in, get a pair of glasses and you can see the shot and suddenly you understood, even on the production design level – the movie was designed by this guy Arthur Max who did Fight Club – ‘Oh my god, they actually designed this movie for 3D.’ “

arthur max also did seven and the last 6 films ridley made he's a great production designer think of the sets for kingdom of heaven the largest sets ever constructed for a film i think.

Has nobody at this point at, oh I don't know, like [b]NASA[/b]...figured out that for strictly 3D releases they should re-color time and up the brightness and contrast ala phtotoshop (albeit with fancier tools) quota OF said releases? I mean...I can't be the only one who's thought of this.

you can do that in avid i think a photoshop tool for film and video.

Yeah I believe thats doable in Photoshop or something related to that?

Everything has be more brightly lit and/or stop-adjusted properly when filming in 3D, to compensate for brightness losses inherent to any 3D theatrical presentation. For 2D presentation of material filmed in 3D, lighting compensation can be performed digitally in post.

My take: 1979 vs. 2012 He can put grand vistas of whole continents in the frame and wow an audience and then go to a tight psychologically unnerving scene at his whim now. Ridley's idea to go the opposite direction of starwars. Space isn't as safe as starwars made it seem. Dark, dank, and claustrophobic. Had to keep it like that to get the effect he wanted with the resources available to him at the time. The nostromo vs. the prometheus...the most kick ass state of the art research vessels/naval warships/military aircraft on the water and in the air at the same time as 30-40 year old dated designs like old crappy freighters, fishing boats and planes today. There's an 80's dot matrix printer next to a months old computer in an office where I work.

Too many people are slaves to continuity, and if the filmmakers were concerned about linking films in the same story arc, perhaps any of it would matter, but they have told you repeatedly that Prometheus, while in the same universe as the other films, is not necessarily directly related to those films. The science and tech are a big part of this statement. Why do people insist otherwise? I have a feeling Prometheus is going to be brilliant, and yet leave all sorts of people disappointed because of some imagined expectations. Let it be what it wants to be. And if they are linked, as science fiction goes, you can't make this film while ignoring all of the technology science and extrapolation that we now have thirty years later. At best, you would look misguided or campy, so instead, they toss out most of the things confining them and allow themselves to make a film that has different technology, different science, and speaks to a modern audience. So, instead of digging at continuity, and questioning how various things fit with the timeline of Ripley's story, you best check it in at the door and accept that some of the things happening in the Prometheus narrative have no bearing and no rational link to your sense of continuity. Just enjoy the film.