Svanya's thoughts on Prometheus after seeing it (my review)

Svanya

AdminPraetorianJune 08, 20122304 Views40 Replies

I liked the movie but didn't love it. I give it: 7/10. Let me focus on the basics, no nitpicking (well not too deep anyways): 1-The movie felt rushed, it needed at least 30 more minutes to flesh itself out. I feel like I missed a huge chunk of the movie. 2-The Soundtrack reminded me so much of Star Trek I half expected Captain Kirk to break into his famous "These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise"... 3-I didn't feel an emotional connection with the characters. Give me more time to digest it all. Sure I loved the costumes, the sets, Fassbender as David, and the C-Section scene. I need to see the movie again to really put all my thoughts in order. I think I may be in shock tbh... [Center]****************************[/Center] *2nd screening edit, 10 June. (not gonna make a whole new post just to say this) Saw it again today and my verdict stands, it was an entertaining movie but it had some flaws; I feel it was deliberately held back to save something for the sequels and did not live up to it's full potential (great Director, actors, sets, budget ). Worth seeing, it is a good Sci-fi movie, just don't expect a masterpiece. Honestly everything in it seems to be old stuff leftover from O'Bannon's original script and rejected scenes from Alien. ~Notes of interest: 1-David has interesting quirks for a Robot: He is Left handed. He is seen eating, snacking, dying/styling his hair. 2-Shaw's father and the SJ dying of essentially the same thing, rapid cellular breakdown. 3-The line "God does not build in straight lines" makes no sense as they were looking for god... 4-David's head and body are in the same place it was in before the crash or at least very close and close together. 5-If the engineers head/helmet was so heavy how come Elisabeth/Ford were able to carry it, and then Elisabeth carried it alone in the bag BUT when they examined it they needed Davids help?? 6-Shaw just walks up to the MedPod, doesn't bother to lock the door despite people wanting to contain/freeze her, and does a whole C-section. The same people that worked to contain her lose total interest in her condition after 5 minutes. 7- In the trailers Holloway shines his flashlight onto the same type ceremonial bowl we see at the opening of the movie which the engineer drinks from, but in the movie it's replaced with a green crystal... [Center][IMG]http://i48.tinypic.com/fto7sp.jpg[/IMG][/Center] [Center]Srsly, wtf?[/Center]

Wat

Arkadine
Group: Member
Rank: Ovomorph
View Profile

June 08, 2012

@Svanya So it was you hehe :-)

Proxy
Group: Member
Rank: Ovomorph
View Profile

June 08, 2012

@ Svanya yeah david was my favorite character by a stretch. seemed more human than a handful of the human characters combined. @Arkadine im jealous of how you seem to have connected to Vickers. I really wanted that! I felt it just didn't click for me. Her death was so nonchalant too. I thought more of her character could have been fleshed out at moments including her death. Like the look on her face when she killed Halloway. I wanted some lines about how she felt at that moment. Although i heard there was a scene there that got cut there.

Giger's Dream
Group: Member
Rank: Ovomorph
View Profile

June 08, 2012

I saw it last night in 3-D and even though I knew going into it that it was not a strict Alien prequel it still felt off to me overall. I too felt the pace was too fast...some things never seemed to resolve...and there were too large of jumps in the story line to comfortably transition for my tastes such as finding the cave painting to being on the ship...it just felt like it was rushing to get to some place it never arrived at to me and leaving out a lot of necessary story lines. It should have been closer to 3 hours imo to truly do the story justice, develop the characters and draw the viewer in. the plot was just too complex to effectively resolve it in the time frame they did... There seems to be a "daddy" theme throughout and I think I need to see it at least one more time to be able to pickup on some of the under themes going on. Visually, gorgeous...I wasn't scared or frightened in the slightest though which was a disappointment to me..I will see it again (at least once more in the theatres, maybe a couple more times) as I think it's a thinking man's movie and there are some themes that need to be flushed out with multiple viewings...I'm hoping that since I viewed it from an Alien fan's pov the first time I can now enjoy it as a stand alone movie on it's own but at the same time some of the very things that bothered me about it are inherent to a good movie imo...I really wanted to like it more than I did...I think like Svanya I was lukewarm when I've been building it up in my mind to something in all fairness to RS nobody probably could have delivered on...If there is a part II or III I really hope they spend more time on the story to answer some the of the questions we all have...

Arkadine
Group: Member
Rank: Ovomorph
View Profile

June 08, 2012

@Giger's Dream I agree with you that there was not a sustained sense of dread throughout the entire movie; the temple exploration should have been spookier... I think the problem is that Prometheus is a "cleaner" version of Alien. Ridley has abandoned some of his trademark style flourishes, maybe to avoid being accused of repeating himself.. but I sure miss some of the mist and the smoky atmosphere of his earlier films. However, when it comes to shock value, I thought the medi pod sequence was absolutely brilliant, it made me skirm in my seat; Prometheus will be remembered for that, and for the navigation hologram scene, and of course for Michael Fassbender's performance.

iapetus
Group: Member
Rank: Ovomorph
View Profile

June 08, 2012

Svanya read your review - enjoyed it Wrote a long post and lost it in a mix of clumsy-me and clumsy-server... Not brave enough to re-write it all now but thanks for posting, I will write a longer reaction next time. All in all, though maybe a slight bit more positive, I felt very similar to you on many points right after my first time, but the 2nd was much much more enjoyable, flowing naturally and focused. So pretty sure your pros will be reinforced and cons will be put into perspective after a 2nd time. Will be interesting to read that too anyway, take care

Svanya
Group: Admin
Rank: Praetorian
View Profile

June 08, 2012

@iapetus; Oh I did enjoy the movie, just not in love with it. This is merely a first thoughts type thing. I had trouble posting so I wrote it very fast.

Wat

Spiderbabe83
Group: Member
Rank: Ovomorph
View Profile

June 08, 2012

I agree about the part when shaw had the baby and no one was around and no one seem to care about what hell shaw had been through losing her lover and then giving birth to a alien . That part of the movie bothered me somewhat, since I could relate after having 4 c-sections myself, It was very cold the emotions shown by the other actors. The concern for this alien being on the ship had no importance what so ever at the time.

Svanya
Group: Admin
Rank: Praetorian
View Profile

June 08, 2012

@sbordoli; I know right! Imagine being in that situation?? As women?? I would have cut it out of me with a rusty butterknife, and OMG having that happen right after my lover was killed before my eyes?? Horrible! And they treated her like chuttle too, like nothing, hell David gave more a shit about her well being than the humans. He even wraps her in his coat. But the scenes were so short with so much untapped emotional potential just flung at you and dumped almost as fast.

Wat

sukkal
Group: Member
Rank: Ovomorph
View Profile

June 08, 2012

I have to echo the criticisms and the praise. I'd probably give it a 7.5/10, but that's probably because I'm not that clued into the score relationship as much as I could be. I related to David, Shaw, and Vickers, and Janek actually. Not strongly, but they are clearly the glue and I'm convinced that they will all be back. Vickers is NOT dead. That was my one true [url=http://www.prometheus-movie.com/community/forums/topic/5642#67029]predictive vindication[/url] in all of this fore math. David will simply be repaired. They don't need an extra one. And, her apology to him for zipping him was my favorite line in the whole movie. And, that brings me to my next ‘big idea’... I'm going to be an apologist for the fact that nobody other than Janek seems to have a soul in this film. I am choosing to see this as a metaphor for our modern, technologically empowered, emotionally complex lives. None of our "returnees" really gained *any* dimension (="humanity") until the very end of the film. But, I found that redemptive and it gave me hope (but, I'm a bit of a romantic that way). I also love the fact that the foundation is not only set for future films, but also that David, Shaw, and Vickers all have multiple agendas that can go off in different directions. I love that David and Vickers are effectively siblings and HE was more belovèd to father. That's really interesting. I think that's likely something that Damon brought (though it may have been Charlize herself), and I want to give whoever did that a big hug of thanks.

Sky
Group: Member
Rank: Ovomorph
View Profile

June 08, 2012

Thanks for the review. By any chance do you feel neo-futuristic type character development, I mean rushed? I get that feeling from your review. Characters in this type of genre are rarely developed or more like sacrificed for the main plot.

Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.

abordoli
Group: Member
Rank: Ovomorph
View Profile

June 08, 2012

Great review.... The reason I feel that Shaw is not doted on after the med-pod scene is because very few people in the room with Weyland were in the "know". There were 5 people including Shaw and she left 2 (Kate Dickie plus 1 other) knocked out in one of the two scanner/examination rooms. Remember, almost half the crew were dead (Milburn, Holloway, Fifield and the 3-4 he took out makes 6-7 out of the 16 on board dead; the ones not there were Vickers and Janek and his two co-pilots). You had Weyland, 2 security dudes (1 playing a male nurse), David and Shaw. Only David and Weyland knew and both were disappointed. When she came in, 3 men attended to her (helping her sit down) including David that gave her his top clothing. The urgency of Weyland's corns were a bit more pressing, wouldn't you agree? ; )

Svanya
Group: Admin
Rank: Praetorian
View Profile

June 08, 2012

@Abordoli; It's not a review LOL! It is my first impressions!! @Sky, the scenes were rushed; Holoway dies, Shaw has her C-section then onto Weyland in less than 15 minutes.

Wat

sukkal
Group: Member
Rank: Ovomorph
View Profile

June 08, 2012

The film is not cut well. The stories will come out about the editing eventually. The biggest problem is the pacing that stems from the inferior editing. There had to have been "unnatural" pressures that forced that. It's just too basic a thing for Ridley to be "cool" about given his druthers. I have to believe that.

db
Group: Member
Rank: Ovomorph
View Profile

June 08, 2012

Savanya, Thanks for your first impressions. I was especially looking forward to your thoughts. And I'm glad you'll see it again. I think your concerns are echoed through this community. A lot of what seems to be missing is the sense of the classic "ensemble cast"... (The magic number being 7.) People can remember 7 characters. You can write/build a relationship with characters that the audience appreciates within that number... It's a lot tougher to write 16 or 17 parts effectively (though I've been tasked with writing for as many as 20 sometimes). Ripley, Dallas, Ash, Kane, Lambert, Parker, Alien. See what I mean? Ross, Rachel, Joey, Phoebe, Monica, Chandler, (and 1 extra boy/girl friend per show.) See? Perhaps if the crew of the Prometheus had been given the time for a sit-down-and-discuss- their-options scene (like the crew of the Nostromo), you would've had more empathy for them. 3 words: Blu Ray Baby!

artyoh
Group: Member
Rank: Ovomorph
View Profile

June 08, 2012

It's surreal to me that people are talking about the crew of the Nostromo, as if there was scads of exposition that personalized them as realistic individuals. IMO, that is revisionism, plain and simple. Brett was a friggin' moron. I mean, seriously, would you really want him working on the engines of [i]your[/i] interstellar spacecraft? Was he plausible as a technically skilled individual, capable of doing that? Both blue collar guys bitched and moaned stereotypically, and were only concerned about their shares. We learned next to nothing about the back stories, beliefs and motivations of the other characters, either. Captain Dallas, irresponsibly risks the entire crew, ship and cargo, by ignoring basic quarantine procedures. Is that professionally credible? Lambert basically whines her way through the entire movie.......does that enhance or detract from the disturbing nature of her death? Don't get me wrong....I think "Alien" is brilliant, but in terms of characterizations, i really don't think the original movie is superior to this one in any way.

Sky
Group: Member
Rank: Ovomorph
View Profile

June 09, 2012

If the movie was rushed like that then I wonder why they didn't breaked the movie in two pieces like Matrix. It worked for them.

Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.

Svanya
Group: Admin
Rank: Praetorian
View Profile

June 09, 2012

@Sky; I know! That is exactly what I kept thinking. It's been done with many movies, I think The Hobbit will be like that and I know Harry Potter was, why not this??

Wat

Prenihility
Group: Member
Rank: Ovomorph
View Profile

June 11, 2012

I started a thread about what everyone dislikes about the film... Just saying. Not to look like a prick who wants to kill a thread or anything. Just... Yeah, check it out. Everyone should post away in there. We need a megathread of all the negatives of the movie.

Macs
Group: Member
Rank: Ovomorph
View Profile

June 11, 2012

@Svanya You could not have put it better. All those questions you point out, I had. The movie did seem a bit rushed, kind of going in all directions, its as if it wanted to pack too much in one show. Also, after that huge collision, how come David's head was in the same place (the engineer was burned and all banged up, so how did this happen?). I saw an interview of R.S. yesterday that made me reconsider again of all these questions, maybe I am missing something. I'll go watch it again today.

wseaton
Group: Member
Rank: Ovomorph
View Profile

June 11, 2012

I think I disliked everything about the film, and lost count at all the plot inconsistencies. Why were all those ancient civilizations pointing to the same star map again? I agree it seemed rushed, and that it was forced to have an 'R' rating. Cut the pointless monster gimmicks, slow down the pacing, and we have something watchable. The sold out IMAX audience I was with was clearly annoyed at the film and didn't jump once. I'm hoping Scott gave in to concessions with Prometheus in order to get additional movies. Problem is, Prometheus is going to tank quickly at the box office and he's going to lose some credibility.