Are these Scientists?

mgyr

MemberOvomorphJune 07, 20121485 Views14 Replies

I have seen it this morning... an after-midnight screening. I was grateful for the opportunity, because I saw it with sci-fi fanatics and not popcorn munchers. Truly an impressive film... while it definitely has flaws. What critics said about the dialogue - it's true. At the same time what they said about Fassbender's character and performance - it is also true. I don't feel strength in me to post a full review, but there is certainly one aspect of the film that bothered or puzzled me the most, so I'd like to share and discuss it. OK, I am a scientist - so think to have some authority here. The characters as portrayed in the film are not scientists. They are scum of the earth bred for a single purpose: to irritate and disrupt. In reality, science is devotion and submission... these characters show no sign of it. Science is continuous questioning, doubting everything... they show no sign of it, either. They walk into a trap with such naivity and childish stupidity. Even a soldier should be smarter. I do not think these pseudo-scientists in the film ever read a book, or concentrated on an enigmatic phenomenon for more than 20 seconds. How come they were selected for a mega-expensive mission to represent Humanity? What was interesting about the film - it obviously used cliches from the original Alien (1979). This is not necessarily bad... actually quite OK. It had the least relation to Aliens (1986), but it had a surprisingly strong connection to Alien vs. Predator (2004), so strong, that it is the exact same genre, similar storyline, similar air... I was stunned by such a strong relation and parallelism. Especially as most Alien fanatics do not rate the AvP films so highly. I think given the date and circumstances, the first AvP film is pretty good and watchable. And the scientists there looked more like scientists, for sure! As I said the movie had the least connection to Aliens, but could have been derived from there, if someone took away all the weapons from the squad and told them to pretend they were scientists :-)

Drakeequation
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June 07, 2012

Yes, it did strike me as odd that a geologist and biologist would have no interest in taking samples (from the artificial cave structure for the geologist or the dead alien carcasses littered about for the biologist) that could lead to some of the biggest discoveries in their respective fields. Furthermore, it is strange that they acted like children (taking off helmets, touching new species of animal, having no strict protocols on behavior, etc...) when they entered a completely new and potentially dangerous environment to do their research.

nysalor
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June 07, 2012

'Due to budget overuns on our trillion dollar mission, Prometheus crew are all work experience placements from the Sheffield Labour Exchange.' Seen it twice now. The more I see and absorb, the more I'm feeling that while Prom has some Alien links, its true inspiration and coding lies in American horror films, and that it deals with these tropes in a pretty unimaginitive way. And while it claims to ask 'big questions', it sets up such awkward and distorted binaries that all we get is banality. The Shaw character suffers because of this. She is a scientist without apparent science. Equally importantly I can't work out if she is intended as a Christian or an anti-Christian. Her crucifix fetish is important in the film, even to the extent of that embarrassing 'I have it in my belt' scene with David. However, it seems to be more a symbol of her connection to her father. Her belief that life was created and guided by Aliens is hardly conventional Christianity, many would see it as anti-Christian. Nor is there any moral crisis regarding her pregnancy or its subsequent abortion. Mind you, there's not much sign of her grieving for the loss of her partner either. I'm not sure how far we can take any analysis when we are dealing with such a poor script and chainsaw edit. I notice Hollaway has a cross tattooed on his arm, but I haven't absorbed his lines yet. Christmas (at least its sentimental trappings) is celebrated by Janek, not Shaw or Halloway. I guess it's introduced to raise the trope of virgin birth far from home. The 'miracle' of the barren woman bearing a child is actually a demonic birth! And the object of her faith, her quest? "We were wrong, we were so wrong". I realise all this is fragmentary and a mere beginning. I hope others can add to it.

dammitimadoctor
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June 07, 2012

Agree with your points but, oh there was so much more wrong than just this. 1. Who signs on for an inter-stellar mystery tour? Really, they jumped on a spaceship, didn't know what they were doing, where they were going, put themselves willingly into 'cryostasis'......oh, don't worry, we'll tell you when you get there!....Give me a f****ng break. 2. Their uniform childish naivete was just cringe worthy. It wasn't a clever way of getting them infected, it was just....awe for f***s sake. Give me a f*****g break.

nysalor
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June 07, 2012

Even for Rude Mechanicals, Fifield and Milburn were pretty damned rude.

ShinobiX9X
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June 07, 2012

I just think they were not pretty happy about the true reasons they were there. and just stepping back is no more option. so they just go along doing a bad job.

rubinis
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June 07, 2012

Definetly they are not scientists. They doesn't have even the natural human curiosity

Kane77
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June 07, 2012

you are right. I too thought that IMMIDEATLEY. And the bad thing is, this behaviour doesnt help the plot EITHER. Its Tomb Raiders in space. I too thought in the first hour this reminded my more of ALIENS than Alien, taken ´scientists´for marines.

ShinobiX9X
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June 07, 2012

The first scientists leaving europe for the new world, weren't the conventional type either. Only a few crazy ppl dare to go to the unknown. In their case for something very different than they expected it to be.

Hadley's Hope
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June 07, 2012

[i]"I notice Hollaway has a cross tattooed on his arm, but I haven't absorbed his lines yet." [/i] He's not quite as overtly into the 'belief' as Shaw, but at one point, just prior to removing his helmet he tells her 'don't be a skeptic' and while he;s drunk and whining to David about not finding their super beings alive, he makes a remark about being 'abandoned' so I think his faith was in crisis compared to Shaw's.

dannyblaqvideos
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June 08, 2012

[SPOILER ALERT] I disagree, I think you overlooked the character intentions. Without giving too much away, they are not there to explore and make the find of a lifetime. only 2 people are. A Trillionare hired some folks to complete his objective and that happens with control. You don't take the best and brightest along for this ride, you take people that will do what you say, when you say it, so you can get your goal accomplished. This is a Weyland Industries mission, not NASA. This is not for the greater good, this is for private answers. We already know from 1979 'Alien' you don't send top scientists, you send a mining crew to do your dirty work. Top scientists would question everything and explore and follow protocal. Weyland Industries doesn't work like that. This is the Haliburton of space. I would have liked a bit more dialogue but I think the behavior of the characters acted as predicted by Weyland.

pol III
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June 08, 2012

I thought the movie was good, but I did also find the behavior of these "scientists" inexplicable. What are the odds of getting some of the most off-the-rails scientists ever all on one ship? Even though it's a movie, I still find it very hard to buy that these people are portraying real scientists. For example, in the scene in which the archeologists are briefing the crew, the scientists (biologist and geologist) are completely uninterested (they would make terrible students, but seriously...). The biologist responds to Shaw's theory with a knee-jerk line about Darwinian theory or something that is akin to a logical non-sequitur. There are hundreds of more appropriate statements (or more likely, questions) a scientist would respond with at that point. They are portrayed as being ignorant, which is what happens when someone (the scriptwriter?) confuses skepticism (appropriate) with ignorance (inappropriate). It happens quite often on TV and in movies, actually, but this is supposed to be SCI-fi. I loved the movie, but I think I would just like to see sci-fi as a genre that helps educate audiences about what science is an what it is not, and this movie contributes to the misunderstanding.

shivasaur
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June 08, 2012

There were numerous procedural points of poor mission control that were a total turn off for me. If they had the ability to scan the interior of the alien structures with flying laser drones, why would they put people in harm's way for initial entry? Especially when they have a suspicion that the biology of the creatures was similar to our own, there's no way any sane person would break the seal on their helmet on the basis of gas sensors. I laughed when they ran through decontamination with their helmets on, shielding the potentially infected areas. Of course for the purposes of a horror movie you have to have a human face reacting to the creepy crawlies. I just wish it had been portrayed more naturally; Perhaps some stranding event would have depleted their oxygen supplies and forced them to rely on the alien facilities' atmosphere. I'm really dissatisfied when I watch a sci-fi movie and think that I could have written a more convincing story. I'm not that good at screenplays.

Ridley's Alien
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June 09, 2012

The film realy portrayed the so-called scientists in poor light. They really behaved like kids send to a adventure park, not scientists on a trillion dollar mission. Especially the way Milburn behaved when the cobralien came, was simply foolish. The only character which behaved true to his nature was David as an android. The movie was toutd as sci-fi , but ended up as idioit-flies.

Symmetricon
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June 11, 2012

Here at my thoughts. I am not a scientist, but my wife is, she is a geologist and works for BP. I have met many of her friends and in my opinion, some seem to be lacking in what I consider common sense. Compound that with the fact that they are faced with thit the reality of the true existence of alien life who appears to have created us. To me it would be altogeth overwhelming. In fact I would think that most would be hysterical.....