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Yet another review

lost_in_lost

MemberOvomorphJuly 18, 2012938 Views10 Replies
To be disappointed in general is just a question of expectations. So, what did i expect from prometheus? A masterpiece from the master of science-fiction, Ridley Scott. An exciting science-fiction movie, an intelligent story, some unexpected conclusion. What did i get? Well, it was moderate exciting, the story was not very intelligent IMO, and it had no conclusion at all. Instead, the film rised many new questions and answered just a few. But the answers did not make me feel satisfied. We can discuss all the storylines in depth and find some "answer" to all of them (why fifield as "geologist" was lost in the cave, why shaw was able to do selfabortion with medpod programmed for men only etc), but thats waste of time and boring (to me). Its not the question what can be "answered" AFTER the movie, the question is why the movie ITSELF does not answer? If you like a movie or not is mostly a question of "feelings", and i simply did not feel good about prometheus after seeing it. I felt angry and sad. It was like telling a joke, but hold back the punchline. You think.. "he? What was that?" in most of the scenes. David finds this door and the slime between his fingers. Did this scene bring anything to the story? Does it mean something? So you may feel for prometheus like it is an "intellectual titbit", a nice puzzle, and "all the hints are there... use your brain"- movie. But i dont feel that way. I feel its more an "wannabe pseudo-intellectual trap", and it does not deliver. Maybe a question of taste? I dont really think that prometheus is so "deeply intellectual" as some people think it is, i think it is designed as some kind of "trap" for people who love intelligent science-fiction, but when you are in the trap, you dont feel good, your brain hungers for conclusions, but you never get there. Prometheus tries to be an epic? An action thriller? An horror-movie? But it is not anything of this. Its just some wannabe mystery crap with nice pictures and partial good actors. The robot and shaw were great, the rest of the crew was most time annoying, maybe its not the fault of the actors, but the lame script. I dont feel an urge to see it again and again like i feel for other movies, so i think the movie will be forgotten soon, as it is like an arduous and nerving labyrinth for your brain and does not satisfy by any means. But yeah, there were some nice shots and designs, though it was "too clean" in comparison to "alien & nostromo", which felt much more "da real thing". Prometheus is clean with little "designed dirt" in some scenes, but thats not authentic or believable. But why squids? WHY SQUIDS? Well, i even felt "mission to mars" to be a better movie then prometheus, and "mission to mars" was a load of crap, but it had some conclusion. You know what i mean?
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Custodian
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a) in the mountains of madness b) obfuscation doesn't equal intelligent cinema :)
2013 sci-fi horror novels 'Custodian' and 'Tandem' available from Amazon, B&N, iTunes etc...
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Inquisitor Tremayne
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A) it was bad - not to be compared with the intelligence of Lovecrafts writing! B) it was a hot date that spoke with a high-pitched voice and didn't say anything substantial! you spent your money on dinner and a movie and didn't want to go out with her again!
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skyguy1054
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An interesting thing about reading Arthur C. Clark's stuff is that some of his most highly regarded work has a truly epic, but deliberately vague, quality that stimulates the imagination for some people and frustrates others, for precisely the same reason. Ridley Scott seemed to be going for something like a Stanley Kubrick take on Clark's work, and maybe that's just not a satisfying enough strategy for a movie anymore as it was in 1969 with 2001. We were blown away with Kubrik's attention to technical detail in 2001 and Prometheus is generally praised in this regard. But all of Ridley Scott's attention to detail seems misdirected here or directed at a point we cant quite put our collective finger on. It is interesting to me that fans of Ridley (as I am) have taken great pains to give him a pass, where plot holes, silly dialogue and continuity are concerned, when a less highly decorated director would have been skewered for the same mistakes. I mean, I myself could not have done a better job of directing this movie, but somehow I was left feeling as if Ridley Scott could have. There were beautiful sequences, the fly-in to the early Earth for example. But why NOT make it clear if this was Earth or not? Tghe Prometheus landing was a sight to behold, an homage to his own handling of the Nostromo's landing, BOTH of which were something to see! The graphics and holograms (human and SJ) were beautiful, functional in their own universe, and as story devices. It was the story told by the sj holograms that was unclear. In Alien, Scott had an ensemble of great actors that were okay being turned loose to do their thing and free him up to do his. This wasn't so much the case with the crowd of folks on the good ship Prometheus, sorry. I've got more to say but will let someone take it from here for a bit.
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lost_in_lost
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2001 was a straight forward movie, there is nothing "unclear". Even the last "weird" scene was clear. In that scene it was clear, that it is unclear, as this is "another dimension", and "other dimensions" are not clear for humans, thats the point! :-) Alien was a straight forward movie, there is nothing "unclear". An authentic crew on a spaceship follows a sign and finds an alien ship. There they find strange alien things and everything looks strange and "different". Thats not unclear, as this is an alien spaceship and there is nobody who could give us some answers. But as Alien was not an "explaining what aliens do the whole day"-movie, but an horror-sci-fi-thriller, it worked superb, and everything was clear, and it was breathtaking. You did not think about "who the hell is this guy in the chair " - you thought the whole time ".. jesus, who will survive this..". Blade Runner was a straight forward movie. Bladerunner has to do his job to kill replicants who came to earth to ask for more life. What a great movie. And the humanity that roy shows on deckert at the end. And the android (beautifull breathtaking - sean young) that does not know she is an replicant... cool. I dont have an idea why some people speculate if even deckert was an replicant - this was never a question to me, and i am not interested. It was a masterpiece. But Prometheus? Its straight forward to nowhere. Not exciting enough for a thriller, not scientific enough for a sci-fi, not intellectual enough for some "intelligent movie", not horror enough for a horror-movie. Instead, some kind of puzzle-duzzle for self-called "thinkers", who "enjoy space-puzzles" and think to death about every little detail they find in the "art-book for prometheus", where they find nice pictures and detailles NOT SHOWN IN THE MOVIE! Muahaha - is this monkey business? You need a book to get some EXTRA hints (but no explanation at all) for some hollywood sci-fi plot? Come on.. Jesus - do i have to say more? Every 20 seconds you think "he?"... "WTF"... and finally the movie finds its end, and .... well... Ah.. its late..
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Inquisitor Tremayne
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@lost_in_lost - be careful; someone will warn you about your account and free speech at this site will be yanked away. ;^) how do i know - i've been warned!!!
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lost_in_lost
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Yes, you are right. So i deleted that sentence with "s. t. m. when reading more details in prometheus art book" because i dont want to make these intelligent cineasts angry who spent month in dechiffring prometheus (yet without any success..hmm) and sharing their "feeled" wisdom with us ....
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David 1
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"I dont feel an urge to see it again and again like i feel for other movies" I hear you, I actually saw it only once. Will see it again when the DVD comes out. Some scenes were rather aesthetical and enjoyable. But I guess that is pretty much it.
[b]Ask nothing from no one. Demand nothing from no one. Expect nothing from no one.[/b]
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allinamberclad
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@lost_in_lost Hm. Nicely done. I believe there is more than just the shadow of Truth behind these words.
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Custodian
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excellent, a grouch thread, though I don't necessarily agree with all that I've read here: Alien was flawed Blade Runner was flawed Aliens was a canon breaker Prometheus does seem to have been INTENTIOALLY CONSTRUCTED TO CONFOUND or OBFUSCATE ... ...and it 'might' be a New Brand of Cinema after such TV shows as X-Files, Twin Peaks and Lost ...and it might be pushing Humanity towards a Corporate War version of, "There are no easy answers when MARKET is paramount," -- but I don't like it. I'd rather have two hours of UNMITTIGATED CINEMATIC REVELRY (say, Leon; say Nikita; say Martin or even We Going To Have To Talk About Kevin or Fight Club or even Driller Killer or even Un Chien Andalou which was an unmittigated surrealist mind-f**k) than a f***ing cynical commercialistic [i]franchise of CONSUMERIST OPPORTUNITIES[/i], if truth be told. I hate taking the sucker punch for these devious financial [i]intelligentsiati[/i], "Where's HONESTY CINEMA GONE?" Is there nothing left but PROPAGANDA towards AGENDA? Is that the zenith?
2013 sci-fi horror novels 'Custodian' and 'Tandem' available from Amazon, B&N, iTunes etc...
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skyguy1054
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I sure didn't mean to make this a grouch thread. Was just thinking aloud about my own reaction to the film.

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