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Nickel
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 4:52 AMHad my 2nd viewing of ‘Prometheus’ last night....I was more than disappointed first time round and felt a bit let down but went to the cinema again for a second viewing and was indeed looking forward to seeing the film again....with different eyes. I had also in the days after my first viewing convinced myself that i’d missed something..... some crucial piece of dialogue....some physical anomaly or clue...that i’d over looked while engorged in the visual splendor of this film....so, as i did the first time i went in with an open mind...again!..and No!....my eyes and brain did not deceive me first time round.
let me say first im not a fan boy....other than loving the first 2 films i don’t populate the Alien universe that much....just kind of orbit it a bit...especially with the run up to this film. i’m a fan of film. first and foremost.
I enjoyed ‘Prometheus’ more second time around. Or should i say i enjoyed, even more, what i enjoyed the first time round....which in short was the first halfi-sh...60-75 mins of the film. I actually think that first hour or so is a fantastic cinematic spectacle....both visually and in the intense way the plot builds using different varients of the story to take us on what is supposed to be a gripping and terrifying journey. In short though it just doesn’t deliver.
instead we get a first half of multiple built up story lines that takes the viewer on an intense and viseral and scary journey that doesn’t go anywhere story lines that are forgotten about and and lost to distraction of lesser and indeed useless points to the film. The Storm. Holloways infection. Fyfields random killing spree....amongst others. all of these distract and detract from the main story which is being presented in front of and to us.
I’ve read and seen on this site that people are being criticized for not ‘Thinking’.....Because they say ‘Prometheus’ makes you ‘think’....i’m not going to lie....it does make you think....In the Larger arguments of Beginning,creation, evolution, life, death, god or the lack there of for some. all are un-answered ambiguous yet challenged issues throughout the movie. i don’t have a problem with any of that...i like having something to think about. But where these people are being criticized for not ‘thinking’ seems to be because (as i have done/am doing) we/I are challenging the questions of...What about the story i was watching??....the one that was un-folding in front of my eyes that was presented to me?...the one that spent the first 50 minutes trying to figure out what happened to the engineers....what they where running scared from...what murdered them? why did they run INTO the chamber (of death) where our story takes place?. I wouldn’t mind if it was a fleeting look....but it wasn’t we the viewer invested ourselves into these opening intriguing moments and followed gladly on what was being given to us....thinking it was all going to come together but doesn’t....Then there’s a storm....‘everyone out’.....lets go back....holloways infected.....everyone out....etc etc. Even Holloways plot line was futile...if Davids motivation was “Try Harder” ....was that it?....Surely most wanted to see what Holloway was mutating into...and what terror he would have brought with him again because thats what we where given, spent time on and built up too.....but no. infect him...kill him. Back to square one David....but again no....distracted by a mapping pod....’i’ll go and have a look at it if you like”...i know Shaw was impregnated by Holloway....but David couldn’t have know they’d sleep together...so again this plot line was left alone and distracted from the main story we’d been watching for an hour. So as far as this ‘Thinking’ thing goes....i shouldn’t have to fill in ALL the multiple blanks of ALL the multiple plot lines of a story that was presented to me built upon as the main reason for being there and then blatantly changed direction into a regular type monster movie and didn’t challenge anymore the story they’d built up.
The second half is still very poor....what we have now is an abandoned main story line in favor of a regular Monster/chase movie....Are the engineers with all their Creative genius and power so easily upset by davids...(possibly insulting) words that they/he turns in to a basic thug type killer.....are they not more highly evolved than that?
i’m not going to go on about this phase of the movie....it’s there to be seen and predictable i’ll leave it at that.
Ultimately ‘Prometheus’ again left me feeling bewildered and disappointed....there was so much i enjoyed about it especially in the first half as i’ve said...i’m not surprised people came out with a real let down feeling and with real questions about the films execution and lack of or cut off narative as opposed to these big unanswered universal questions...that i think we’ve all accepted.....
so anyway...im very happy for those who loved it....understand why others didn’t as much.
you’ll have to make up your own minds....
22 Replies
Westy
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 4:55 AMDidn't you already post this?
Yes that's right, and you still haven't taken my advice to use paragraphs.
Nickel
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 4:59 AM@ westy it was a mistake i'd left the original window when i typed the comment ....and your an arsehole....like most your posts utter tripe.....jesus such a quick response too you must sit on this shit all day and night....poor you
Prometheuser
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 5:18 AMI agree, this movie had so many loose ends I often wonder was it all intentional? It's like every single plot point, character detail was pointless, unexplained. I mean is there any detail of the plot that can be definitively explained and answered? I just don't think the script or editing made the 'keep the audience guessing' approach very convincing.
The first half of the movie was great, up until the two scientists get lost in the Engineer complex, which we all know didn't make any sense.
I don't care about answers to Alien, I wanted this movie to standalone in its own plot. It just didn't do that, for me anyway. And I shouldn't have to sign up to these forums in order to speculate about answers! I want answers when I see the movie!
mertber
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 5:24 AMI think Prometheus is going to be appreciated and considered a classic when the sequel is released & blows the lid off this universe. Because there are still incredibly interesting ideas to be explored, such as the beginning of the film and basically all the trailers, about the different civilizations with no contact whatsoever, in different eras, all having pictograms of the same star map.
And how David breaks all those civilization's languages down to square one, to find the similarities between them, and the starting point of all the languages, which makes him achieve the ability understand the Space Jockey's dialect and hieroglyphs. This suggests that on top of the fact that the Space Jockey's essentially created humans, they re visited again and again lending a helping hand to jump start civilization.
The interesting idea is that, after such nurture, why would they want to destroy them? Why would they leave maps on earth showing where their bio-weapons substitute planet exists? They must of known that if found, and understood, the humans would be at a highly evolved state to do so. And would presumably attempt to go there. So why set it up?
That's just one of many interesting ideas and notions
It's incredibly interesting, and if the Prometheus sequel doesn't end delivering an epic magnum opus, but rather delivers a copout ending without considering these notions, I will bury this movie to the ground, however, as of right now I'm incredibly interested
Nickel
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 5:40 AM@prometheuser...thanks for the comment and contribution man...i'm with you i wasn't intentionally set on a direct 'Alien' movie prequel or notion....just wanted it to stand on its own....which it does to a point...before just becoming not very good in the overall....first half had a few....urggh moments too but where slight in the magnificent gripping story that was unfolding that didn't come to fruition.
@mertber thanks for the post man...like the ideas....but remember my friend if there is a sequel we're only going to get the answers to shaws questions....she's left the planet and prometheus behind...we're not going to find out what happened on the planet in the pyramid that 60 to 70 mins of the film spent time building up to....that was the let down for me...not these bigger universal issues which i'll be happy to follow into the next movie and give me something to think about and look forward too.
Tokyokid
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 5:45 AMhieroglyphs seem so primitive to me. It makes me think they were created by someone other than the engineers, e.g., humans.. I live in Japan where they use Chinese kanji. It has to be the worst and most primitive way to communicate.
ShinobiX9X
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 5:51 AMKanji is the chinese borrowed "letter's" right?
when you think about it, it's very clever, as many chinese ppl who don't understand shit from eachother can use the same writing system and communicate as the single writing works for all the dialects.
anyway, i wondered about something else.
the holograms run the the dumdumroom where 1 is late and decapitated by closing door.
as they go check, the body really is there. i can't remember seeing any engineers bodys in the dumdum room. i must say i hope that is a clue to somwhere.
The movie will need one hell of a sequel (i don't think it'll be an easy job) and indeed will make this movie either great, or fuck it up.
Nickel
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 6:01 AM@shinobix9x... yeah id said that before too man.... i was wondering why they'd run in there where all that dangerous stuff was....was it to use it against the thing,presence or situation they where running panicked from?...who knows we'll never find out....and are we supposed to presume that the pile of engineers bodies with the chestholes in them was that same bunch of engineers or some other bunch?....who knows we'll never find out....what happened to the offspring of these chest busted engineers...there's no sign of them dead or alive....who knows We'll never ....etc etc...i wouldn't mind if these where side points but this and other things lead us there and took up a lot of time and built into well over half the film....dissapointing
ShinobiX9X
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 6:21 AMNo point for me to answer with: i injoyed it a lot
well i just did anyway hehe :p
mertber
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 6:22 AMThat's an interesting thought Shinobix9x.
@Nickell, that whole 70minutes might have been a waste, but in retrospect I believe it layed down all the foundation work for these myths we've been talking about. And if the sequel delivers, which is going to be very difficult job for them, I think it will make this film much much more interesting and far more superior.
Also I have the feeling that Ridley Scott wanted to make an Alien-esque film, with the similar sort of terror, but subtly layer these ideas in Prometheus, The first reason being the fans of Alien have been waiting 33 years for this, and to settle them in familiar territory.
BUT I believe in the sequel he will take an completely different approach, and it will be more in the likes of 2001: A Space Odyssey and maybe even Blade Runner, it will be a more metaphysical & transcendent film, and leave the predictable horror tropes behind to become something much more, which is what I'm hoping for.
Anyway seeming we have a couple of people with great insight on this thread, I thought I'll re-post something I wrote earlier, that no one really helped me answer:
While watching the scene when David replays the hologram feed from the Space Jockey's attempted evactuation in the Ship, the 3d Blue Universe reveals several different planets scattered across the Universe with a green strand of light all reaching for earth. This is ofcourse referring to all the other subsitute planets used to build their Bio-Weapons. But why, with full force, go to destroy earth?
Also why does the Alien creature that had burst out from the Space Jockey in the end, look so different, especially when it reveals it's mouth, and it's mouth within that mouth, look's more human i.e. fleshlike, rather than the bio-mechanoidesque look in Alien (Is it because it was born from the space jockey, a purer form of humanity, resulting to a different Alien than the one born from Kane?).
ALSO How do the Alien eggs fit into all of this, Prometheus doesn't give any credence to this.
And Finally I've read alot of people saying both planets are different from Alien and Prometheus.... but are they in the same Solar System? because they both feature that same Saturn-like planet in the horizon.
PS: The space jockey and humans have the same DNA, but look considerably different, is this due to the conditions of their planet, and each 'being' evolves differently, according to their environment?
Nickel
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 6:27 AMwe'll I've given you a few points there...it's just that there isn't any answers man..and we'll never know.....thats the let down....just to the basic plot....i enjoyed too...didn't hate it just disappointed with it overall still much to enjoy within the film..
Fishbonetrumpet
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 6:49 AMI apologise for any writing/author jargon in this comment.
I have read many people experiencing similar issues with plot and loose ends and labeling plot holes and the like. I suggest however, that the movie didn't set out to explain the history of the alien, but to tell the story of the Prometheus crew -- in particular, Shaw. To do this the film is shot mostly from the crew's perspective. The narrator (or movie/visual equivalent to a novel's narrator) while still being third person is not omniscient. An omniscient narrator would explain the elements, but as the narrator is, in essence, from several characters' perspectives, much of the scenario goes unexplained. We, as viewers, are not privy to more knowledge than that of the crew.
Somethings are left unexplained on purpose; this is not necessarily bad writing, nor does it constitu
Fishbonetrumpet
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 6:55 AMI apologise for any writing/author jargon in this comment.
I have read many people experiencing similar issues with plot and loose ends and labeling plot holes and the like. I suggest however, that the movie didn't set out to explain the history of the alien, but to tell the story of the Prometheus crew -- in particular, Shaw. To do this the film is shot mostly from the crew's perspective. The narrator (or movie/visual equivalent to a novel's narrator) while still being third person is not omniscient. An omniscient narrator would explain the elements, but as the narrator is, in essence, from several characters' perspectives, much of the scenario goes unexplained. We, as viewers, are not privy to more knowledge than that of the crew.
Somethings are left unexplained on purpose; a movie is not riddled with plot holes just because you don't, or aren't meant to, understand everything that occurs.
Fishbonetrumpet
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 6:56 AMI apologise for any writing/author jargon in this comment.
I have read many people experiencing similar issues with plot and loose ends and labeling plot holes and the like. I suggest however, that the movie didn't set out to explain the history of the alien, but to tell the story of the Prometheus crew -- in particular, Shaw. To do this the film is shot mostly from the crew's perspective. The narrator (or movie/visual equivalent to a novel's narrator) while still being third person is not omniscient. An omniscient narrator would explain the elements, but as the narrator is, in essence, from several characters' perspectives, much of the scenario goes unexplained. We, as viewers, are not privy to more knowledge than that of the crew.
Somethings are left unexplained on purpose; a movie is not riddled with plot holes just because you don't, or aren't meant to, understand everything that occurs.
Nickel
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 7:38 AMhi @fishbonetrumpet thanks for your input man....i realise by your comment your an intelligent man and explain your point very well....i absolutely agree with you more to the point....does your point not actually become a strong reason why the plot and film fails?...let me say i enjoyed much of the film....and your right it all came from the crews mainly shaws...down through davids...and so on...point of view. and then it stopped...they stopped questioning, stopped being scientific, stopped being the archaeologists...they where there to be and whom we followed as we investigated along with them for 70 mins of the film...then stopped following why they where there....because of this convoluted and cheapened and multiple change of direction and distraction by the story tellers we where not there anymore in the reasons we or they where there to be followed along in the first place....i understood everything about this movie and have indeed had my eyes open further by some great posts....especially in the fact that we seen and followed their point of view down a scary and presented road and it was scary at first....to WATCHING them be killed and ran out of town by monsters...its the movies fault...not ours
Danial92
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 10:29 AMI just saw PROMETHEUS today and it was amazing, I always keep telling myself that PROMETHEUS is not related to ALIEN based on the reviews, but ending up I have to watch ALIEN to find out more about LV426, and the space jockeys. But what i discovered from another point of view that PROMETHEUS had it's on myth to talk about, but I guess have to watch it again to understand again, and PROMETHEUS did actually gave us a lot of thinking.....^^
Nickel
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 10:52 AM@DANIAL92 thanks for the post man appreciate it....not wanting to sound rude my friend but i think you've missed the point of this thread...i'm really glad you enjoyed it....and yes i, as do realise and agree like I've said already that this movie gives you much to think about.....in the larger spectrum it does...but it's not the movie i was watching in the first half to 2 thirds of the film....that left plot and narrative questions hanging out there to die that they'd presented us in the first 70 mins...they abandoned it....in favour of a monster movie...
Danial92
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 11:06 AM@nickell I think you got the point also, the whole scary killing scene just to add-up for the movie, but what left undiscovered is the discover of the creation of human beings, and the engineers, there's no fixed explanation of how they came from, or somehow human beings was made by the engineers as we have the same DNA with the engineers, well i guess have to watch it for the second time just to focus on the first 60-70 minutes of the movie.........
Nickel
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 11:24 AM@DANIAL92 ....I don't know if we're talking about the same things here my friend...i think you should go back and read the thread and indeed others....i don't really want to keep repeating myself but just so that we're on the same page. Yes There are big questions to answer grrrreeatt... i love that....these questions are the start and premise of the film ....they continue on through the movie (though in the back ground a little) and yes are prevalent at the end and indeed fuel the further ideals for a sequel....again...these are NOT the questions i am or indeed so many others are bothered about...they/we/I have already accepted all of this and look forward to pursuing them in a sequel.... Have a look at the movie again....the first half is brilliant and builds up to go somewhere....we follow the crews perspective...and we grow in intensity as they investigate and discover new things on a scary visceral journey.....that does NOT go anywhere...and it happens multiple times....and all i'm talking about is the film that the story was based in....not the big follow on omnipotent questions to creation, the universe, life and god....i'd already accepted those before i even sat down to watch it the first time.....they gave us a wonderful ,scary, story and spectacle for the first 2 3rds i'd gamble of the film...and wasted it....
Danial92
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 11:50 AM@nickell sorry, i think i misunderstood your review thread, and yeah the story of the film is what we concern about.......
Nickel
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 12:09 PM@danial92..... all good my man...no prob....glad you enjoyed the film....:)
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