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PROMETHEUS: Ultimately a failure as an ALIEN Universe film.

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Neurion

Veteran MemberMemberOvomorphSep-09-2012 3:47 PM
Greetings Nostromites, For 33 long years, I had been waiting and wanting to go back to that haunted planetoid…somewhere in deepest space. I’m still carrying the memories of my first experience of ALIEN, which I first saw at the tender age of 12, back in ’79…when the world was not quite such a sophisticated and jaded place. A world where the average home contained only one or two stationary telephones, and television channels could be counted on two hands. You know what? I was fairly willing and even excited to go along with Scott’s idea of going in very different direction with the so-called ALIEN prequel. Unfortunately, PROMETHEUS did not deliver. For me, the script/narrative and direction was “Quasimodo,” half-made…a half measure…and therefore unsatisfying. I was definitely not expecting or desiring a rehash of the original, but I did want to be amazed, wowed, enthralled, scared…or even scarred. Alas, I was thoroughly disappointed. It felt like ALIEN-cinematic-masturbation, instead of the real thing. It’s not my intent sow seeds of hostility or provoke an argument with those of you who sincerely enjoyed PROMETHEUS fully, I would however like to read some responses from those of you who like me, have weighed and measured the film, and have found it wanting. Thanks, Neurion
43 Replies

oduodu

MemberXenomorphSep-13-2012 7:06 AM
djamelameziane You know what I am just starting to get a little tired of this ambiguity thing. However its the ambiguity that keeps the mystery alive. The whole success of the alien franchise resides with the mystery of the sj and derelict. If we start to solve that are we not destroying the basis of the mystery and therefore ending what keeps people coming back ? (we will probably only know by the end of p3 if at all) I am just waiting for the DVD so that I can get answers on 2 things: is Ridley moving away from a2 - a4(or not) (as in everything after a1 is not considered canon by ridley as it relates to p1-p2-p3-a1) and will the answers provided by the cut scenes really help us to significantly answer the mysteries - particularly regarding the xenomorph origins and why they wanted to destroy us and what happened to the sj/derelict ? (meaning that we will wait a couple of years for the restoration cut eventually getting the answers or maybe only in p2?) I am not sure we will get answers on those but I will stay positive until after we have definite feedback from the cut scenes from members on this forum . What does this have to do with nerion's OP ? Well if the DVD answers these questions then perhaps a lot of people feeling like nerion about prometheus might change their mind that it failed as an alien universe film because there is definite proof that it is moving towards an explanation as to origins of the xenomorph and why the space jockey crashed. So now I am waiting for feedback on the cut scenes to see what materialises. I am just beginning to wonder how many re release DVD 's we will see until the final restoration cut is released (of prometheus).

Neurion

Veteran MemberMemberOvomorphSep-10-2012 12:03 AM
@Magellan9 Thanks for the compliment on my previous review. I think "we park our cars in the same garage"...cinematically anyway. After reading the responses so far, It's nice to know that I'm not alone in my feelings, thoughts, and opinions on PROMETHEUS. By the way, I'm drawn to PROMETHEUS, as a bee is to pollen...through my great cinematic affection for the original. So, I did enjoy many aspects of it. Which makes it all the more frustrating for me, knowing that it could of been so much more. If it had been a prequel to TRANSFOMERS, I couldn't have cared less. It's precisely because it IS related to one of my favorite pieces of art EVER, that I care. ~N :-(

keep-itreal

MemberOvomorphSep-09-2012 3:50 PM
why did you think the narrative/script was unsatisfying?

Svanya

AdminPraetorianSep-09-2012 3:57 PM
I totally agree with you. It's fine on it's own but as anything linked to Alien it just doesn't work, the ending seemed tacked on simply to please Alien fans. It was very unsatisfying.

Neurion

Veteran MemberMemberOvomorphSep-09-2012 4:03 PM
@Keep-itreal For me, the questions left unanswered in the original ALIEN actually enhanced the mystery, atmosphere, and horror. In PROMETHEUS, it seems more like plot holes, like errors in story development and editing. The ALIEN tropes seem like they were just thrown in as window dressing for Alienphiles like ourselves. N

djamelameziane

MemberFacehuggerSep-09-2012 4:35 PM
I am with you as well Neurion it was a good film and even had moments of greatness but it was filled with utterly bonkers bits which for many of us detracted from the movie. And no I am actually mainly not talking about the unanswered questions I am talking about the way people acted in this movie and a few other things of which I have talked about so much I cannot be bothered to repeat them all again! I likened it to Eisenstein with dementia moments were it looked mind blowing and like it was going to blow us away then awful almost comedic parts that made me cringe with pain argh! If this does get turned around with some unbelievable amazing follow up (movie, internet or tv) I will take my hat off but it really feels like it going to be more of the same in the next few parts -limping along to an end - I will watch it all but I really hope they pull the stops out after this one!

 "It's almost as if they are making it up as they go along" :D

Patient Leech

MemberFacehuggerSep-09-2012 5:08 PM
I could not disagree more wholeheartedly. I'll even go as far as to say that it's more meaningful and poignant than [i]Alien[/i]. Beneath the ambiguity there is depth and layers that Alien [i]doesn't[/i] have. The ideas are much more grand and provocative. I've found that the film is very satisfying in that I find myself thinking about what stuff means all the time. The film sticks with you. And to me the connections to Alien enhanced it. It made the imagery familiar, yet still alien (heh). And Ridley and his team did a [i]superb[/i] job with said updated imagery and special effects. Superb direction and a visual feast. Having said all that, I didn't watch the trailers or read all the hype. So I went into the theater having not seen a whole lot of the film and not having expectations built up from the trailers. And dark science fiction is my bread & butter, so I was mesmerized. Saw it 3 times in the theater and can't wait to get the blu-ray.

Necronom 4

MemberNeomorphSep-09-2012 5:27 PM
@Neurion. In 79 you could count the number of tv channels on two hands? Where you from? I could only count 3 channels then, when i was 2 (on my little stubby fingers lol). Anyway, i think i know what you mean. Being a massive fan of ALIEN since i was about 8 (yes, i had bad parents). I always wondered what was that big alien thing sat in that weird seat, in that weird alien spaceship and why did it have all those eggs in the basement (silo)? ALIEN was a complete nightmare of a Film (in a good way!) and i was really expecting something extremely dark and horrible from the SJs past and expected it to be straight from the mind of H R Giger himself! When i heard the news about the prequel, in about December 2011, i went into sci fi mode, i was so excited! 'would my thoughts about that SJs past be realized after all these years of wondering?'. June 1st, it was released at the pictures (cinema) and i was finally going to find out what that damn SJ was really all about. I took the wife with me and i was like a little kid on christmas morning! We came out of the pictures, after it had ended and went for something to eat. We ordered our food and whilst waiting for it to arrive, my wife said to me, " Are you ok? You seem down, are you dissapointed about the Film?". The only reply i could muster was "Yeah". When we got home, after having a very quiet meal, i started to think about it. Yeah, it was defo what Ridley wanted, something completely different but at the same time keeping it in the same universe as the Alien series (sort of). I've since forgiven it for being not what i expected. I'm 50/50 on it at the moment. On it's own, as a stand alone Film, it's very good! But as part of the ALIEN universe, it falls wide of the mark, by a mile! IT SHOULD AND COULD HAVE BEEN ALOT DARKER!!! BAD CREATURES! BAD! I really like the engineers though, what a great surprise that was!

The poster was good though!

 

m7

MemberOvomorphSep-09-2012 5:33 PM
@Neurion Thank you! [i]''I did want to be amazed, wowed, enthralled, scared…or even scarred''[/i] This is exactly how I felt when watching Prometheus! Personally I was very, very disappointed, to say the least. Problem for me (and a lot of others) was that my expectations for this film were sky-high, and I expected something based on the darker theme from the trailers, that in the end were misleading. To be rude you can call it false marketing. I absolutely loved the initial scenes with the sacrificial engineer, and then David aboard the ship before it reached LV-223. This really helped to build up the tension and raised my expectations to unimaginable levels. But the moment the crew woke up, introducing the characters and what followed, (particularly Holloway, also Milburn and Fifield) I started so see cracks in the beautiful facade. And soon my worst fears were realized, as the pacing increased combined with how some of the scientists behaved during certain situations. Every movie is flawed some way or another, but in this case, so many things just weighted down the overall experience down for me in terms of story development and how a lot of scenes seemed to be completely cut. I think this is the moment when a lot of disappointed viewers started to pluck the film into the slightest of details. And we cannot question the fact that this film was disliked (and hated by some) by an alarming number of people, take the dislike forums for instance. Of course other forums contain disappointing reactions, but oh boy this sure is a new level of disappointment that I've never witnessed since Schumacher's version of the dark knight. As for me, I initially hated everything but Fassbender's performance and the great visuals as the credits rolled for me for the first time, and people with Alien T-shirts and Nostromo logo's were booing in the cinema, which says a lot. However, as time passed I've consigned this film to the shallow ''popcorn film'' section together with Avengers. At least it's entertaining and fun to watch, and in the end; just a movie. The difference between Prometheus and Alien IMO is that I consider the latter a [u]serious[/u] film and a benchmark in film history. What I like about this forum are other's opinions and how we see this film different. Neither did I intend to provoke, this is just my opinion and It's been so fun to write! BTW Neurion, I also read your earlier review which was very well written.

NCC 1701

Veteran MemberMemberOvomorphSep-09-2012 6:10 PM
i too waited 33 yrs ... about that god damn S/J sitting in the chair ???, yr after yr,, i took that out of the movie the most , i just felt the movie should have been more darker and the acting more down to earth and simple , just like Alien Agreed Neurion

dfjao4vmnom54rvf394u03rj0qjv

MemberOvomorphSep-09-2012 8:13 PM
The movie is going to make 400 million bucks at the boxoffice or pretty close to that. Critics and the audience also overwhelmingly liked it, so it's definitely earned its place in Alien canon. Scot said he wasn't going to remake Alien to begin with. He wanted to do a completely different movie. So I think your perceptions were slightly biased. I went in with an open mind not expecting Alien 2, and I was extremely pleased with the film.

Ruhaniya

Veteran MemberMemberOvomorphSep-09-2012 8:20 PM
It's not as bad as seeing Paradise before one is pulled into hell. I did like the wrath of God for altering nature message. For sure next time I'm not going to open any Christmas presents before we land on the Planet. I wonder was that Black Irish whiskey Halloway was drinking? Ahhh yes perhaps it was Janek. BuT Why ...WHY aren't all the mining ships not already equipped with standard issue space trucker functioning androids during Nostromo's time and after? Which reminds me of Space Hunter...classic Sci-fi! When Molly was still a boy. Space Doobies for all and for a good nite ;) [img]http://www.sushitree.org/images/events/117.jpg[/img] Thirsty like a fish out of water?

Svanya

AdminPraetorianSep-09-2012 8:22 PM
@Space Doobie; Holloway was drinking "Ace of Spades" Champagne. [IMG]http://i47.tinypic.com/2rpcm51.jpg[/IMG]

joeyjoe

MemberOvomorphSep-10-2012 12:31 AM
I think prometheus worked remarkably well. Ridley deftly navigated the tight rope of operating within the "alien universe" while at the same time forging a new and interesting framework for further (and most importantly fresh and different) cinematic expression and exploration. I would have been very disappointed had prometheus involved facehuggers/xenos/eggs/hives/haunted house in space etc. The "alien universe" is now more interesting than it has been at any other time.

boinkerX

MemberOvomorphSep-10-2012 12:50 AM
...from having Shaws faith jammed down our throats as the reason for belief that the SJ race engineered our own race, to Holloway feeling the mission was a failure because they found some dead creatures, to EVERYTHING involving Fifeild, to Weyland himself, to the generic creatures (not including the pressure suited SJ... I thought that guy was pretty cool looking), to David acting as an experienced pro when it came to anything engineer related, and wrapping up with the same cheesy ending as AvP... I was let down quite a few too many times to say I enjoyed this flick. I went in expecting the best, and walked out feeling like i should never hope again. It can be said that all these faults lie on poor writing, but at the end of the day, the director made the call to proceed with filming. After that bunk Robin Hood flick and now Prometheus, I think old age has diminished the abilities of Ridley Scott, and I am going to be leery of anything else he puts out.

Custodian

MemberOvomorphSep-10-2012 2:43 AM
the reason PROMETHEUS failed for me? SPACE JOCKEY and CHARIOTS OF THE GODS... no way was I expecting Ridley to SHRINK the whole Space Jockey prop to fit into the 'Engineer NavChair' narrative. Where are my enormous GANESHA/OLIPHANT beasts from Giger-space? Space Jockey was ALWAYS a time-space telescope device for a trunklike space beast type thing powering through the galaxy like a FREIGHT TRAIN until. LV-426 slammed into it. What was the trade like? Why the eggs? All'a that... I 'realise' now, as I'm constantly reminded by Staff (lol), it's intended to be an Engineer NavChair with a gay Orrery interface, but I never saw that coming. I didn't - call me naive, call me hopeful. And I mean this in a sucker-punch way. Surely, SURELY, any number of screen writing teams could have pulled the viewer back in time (and space) to the land of the Giger Beasts AND avoided Alien AND avoided Von Daniken? A proper ONE FILM Alien-prequel that ended with the LV-426 arrival/crashlanding/hyperspace drop out, anything........... It's not that hard to make a TOTALLY HARDCORE and VISCERAL ALIEN-inflamed cinema experience for the adult fans of the Alien franchise - rip their minds to shreds, ffs. It's what they're after. NOT some gay (and I use that word in the Northern English sense to mean 'wishy-washy') flowery overlay-interface funky Kuniform (never translated by the robot who could) lie after lie after lie after lie theatrical event that was this Corporate War Propaganda film for a generation in desperate need for some justification for a God/Gods. Man, it could have been a wonderful psychedelic flesh-trip, it could have been a literal REVELATION; and with a real story - just not this one, neither Spaiht or Lindelof's version, to be frank. Something ANCIENT and morose like psycho-erotic space mythology should be, covered in cum and slithering in its own bodily fluids. Seriously, Prometheus is a film for kids - like all "horror" nowadays. I mean, on a base (the most basic narrative) level, "Did we 'really' need that pointless Juggernaut exhaust-tube (of course Shaw'll escape in time) finale? Did the Juggernaut really need to exit the LV-23 atmosphere like a ROCKET?"
2013 sci-fi horror novels 'Custodian' and 'Tandem' available from Amazon, B&N, iTunes etc...

Fan

MemberOvomorphSep-10-2012 5:32 AM
I know that this may seem insanely optimistic, but maybe the elephant like creatures DID exist in the past somewhere and the engineers found them and their tech. I wonder what paradise may hold for us. I hope that the writers have been reading our disappointments and adjust things in such a fashion that helps to both evolve the story and touch base on aspects that we would have liked them to do in Prometheus. I am with all of you who have a long history of wondering about the jockey and derelict. I"m 38 years old and watched Alien when I was to young for such a movie. My fascination with the space jockey and horror pertaining to the Alien itself has been a sort of inspiration in ways for most of my life. I have always wondered about the unanswered details and quite frankly, Prometheus failed to satisfy...the comics did more for me. Again, maybe if we are lucky, Paradise will do what Prometheus did not.
ALL generalizations are WRONG!

Custodian

MemberOvomorphSep-10-2012 6:29 AM
Fan, for me, the [b]obvious scale change[/b] and the [b]obvious design change[/b] suggest that the Engineer version (i.e. all-embracing Chair, rather than born-in TimeSpace Telescope) was BACK ENGINEERS Oliphant Technology. Space Jockey was (was it?) millions of [i]fossilised[/i] years old when LV-426 was the subject of the Alien movie.
2013 sci-fi horror novels 'Custodian' and 'Tandem' available from Amazon, B&N, iTunes etc...

djamelameziane

MemberFacehuggerSep-10-2012 6:45 AM
What freeplanet said could be one good result - but like people have said the big budget films are heavily controlled by not being 18s - I never expected anything like this anyway. I was fully ready to see a few glimpses of the proto-xeno at the end and I had even seen a picture of the engineer so my disappointments were with dialogue characters and comedic deaths and a few other bits like awful makeup on weyland :O ! But I also think if they had just polished up prometheus (allot! - ie characters and things making more sense) as it is and make some awesome new parts with wicked new monsters - elders and the god like thing it could still be pretty great even a classic could appear in one part :O ! But its a big ask...I think they should integrate the xeno a bit it seems to be going that way with the large mural of one - must be some possibly large integration coming...

 "It's almost as if they are making it up as they go along" :D

djamelameziane

MemberFacehuggerSep-10-2012 6:52 AM
+@ freeplanet and yer I was expecting a really deep moving story about that SJ possibly him being the last of his kind and him being alone for thousands or millions of years or something like that - maybe they even getting a psychic link the the bio equipment around him or something - even though he was dead and seeing flash backs to the glory of his races achievements spanning across the milky way - which finally got wiped out by a race which made the xenos or something similar - but to redesign him as such and move it all sideways was strange but it has its merits I suppose its not totally crap...and I hope they can do something special with it all :S ...even something like this would of been closer to the mark: [img]http://cdn.screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/Alien-Prequels-Space-Jockey-Concept-Art-280x318.jpg[/img][img]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8GJbAAr1DY8/TRI8yAk5FEI/AAAAAAAACRg/HjwIu6o2JgY/s640/25zmh52.jpeg[/img]

 "It's almost as if they are making it up as they go along" :D

King

MemberOvomorphSep-10-2012 6:59 AM
@Freeplanet yet again i couldnt agree with you more, while i personally enjoyed prometheus i was still dissapointed with the fact that the elephantine jockey idea wasnt used and instead we god tall bald muscular white men instead. Personally i would have preffered that prometheus had no link to alien and to me it seemed a pretty good enough film in itself , and there was no need for an alien relation. Now what i would have wanted from the space jockeys were them to be tall elephantine giants, who had no human contact , did not create humans nor did they have a creator. They should remain creepy and mysterious as well as have the ability of telepathic communication this way whatever the jokeys "whisper" to your head it'll be sure to make you go insane as we can expect their voices to be unearthly. that for me is what a jockey should have been.

[img width=351 height=150]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ML_kFkjpdzE/SK6uPUT8iKI/AAAAAAAAGm4/tzk1lye2eZE/s400/vlcsnap-94269.jpg[/img] "Frostmourne Hungers"

BigDave

MemberDeaconSep-10-2012 7:28 AM
The end of the day its going to be each to their own. I was originally disappointed, but then most of that was purely because of the Hype that was carried by the Original Alien, the whole story in that this movie would have touched upon the Space Jockey and maybe some Xeno links. The Original and Blade Runner are such classics, that well like with Star Wars EP4-6 any prequels are going to be up against it from the start. Looking at the plot i agree it is so interesting and gives such a great scope for a new franchise... I mean another movie about Xenos would have to be done VERY VERY WELL for it to even contend with not being a disappointment... Dont forget after the AVPs and last Alien Movie kind of damaged to some the Franchise. And none Alien Fanboys would just seen Prometheus as OH NO NOT ANOTHER ALIEN MOVIE.... And i think thats one reason for Ridley and Fox to tone down the concept and aim of the movie. As it is i think it opens up a massive potential, and i know understand the whole scope of the tale and connection with Engineers in our creation and links with Ancient Astronaut theories in that the many Gods in ancient civilizations where actually just how we interpreted a advanced Humanoid Race who visited and created us. And hence why the Space Jockey was then designed as a Humanoid to fit in with the movie and tale they are trying to tell.

R.I.P Sox  01/01/2006 - 11/10/2017

BigDave

MemberDeaconSep-10-2012 7:42 AM
Here are my concerns over the movie... well was. [b]The Scope and Potential.[/b] The movies scope was so vast that i sadly felt that the movie really needed to be either 3 hours long, or indeed in two parts i.e Prometheus Pts 1+2 and thus Prometheus 2 would have to be called something else. [b]The flow of the movie.[/b] The movie seemed very rushed in some parts it seemed to flow ok until after Fifield Attack and then well it appeared as though the production staff had covered about half the movie but then realized they only had 30 min to fit the rest in. I complained that some scenes looked odd, never seemed to link together and it appeared as if someone had just randomly cut scenes out or down, but i put this down to Lindelofs style of writing. [b]HOWEVER[/b] It soon came to light that yes many scenes was cut short or cut out and that if these extra scenes was added then the movie would have flowed better. I do understand why some scenes was cut though. [b]Sacrificial Full Scene.[/b] As they wanted to keep the Elders and Engineers a little bit more of a mystery as Prometheus 2 is where they want to explore the race more. And the opening Scene with translated Dialog would have given more hints to why we was created. [b]Alternative Fifield concepts.[/b] As they carried more Xeno DNA and maybe also why we see so little of the Hammerpedes as Ridley wanted this movie to not be so much about the Xeno and wanted to savor the Xeno DNA mainly for Shaws Baby and then the Life Cycle it has from Baby to Deacon. [b]Full Engineer and David Conversation.[/b] Again this scene may had covered and answered some questions they want to answer in more detail in Prometheus 2. [b]Full Engineer vs Shaw Scene.[/b] As Shaw puts up a good fight and it somewhat diminishes the awe of the Engineer... However i some how think that Danny Devito would put up a good fight with a Axe against a unarmed Mike Tyson so i cant see why these Scene was cut. And there would be cuts due to Gore to get the movie to wider Box Office Audience and also there are some scenes cut that well i guess we can only gauge if they was good for the movie or not once we see them. But at the end of the day, this leaves open more sales for DVDs and also showing of a extended cut at the Box Office.

R.I.P Sox  01/01/2006 - 11/10/2017

King

MemberOvomorphSep-10-2012 7:42 AM
that's true, when i first heard ridley was changing his movie to a new original idea and that its an alien prequel no more i instantly thought that there would be no xenos or jokey relation nor would it take place in the alien universe which was good, then he added that the film will have strands of "alien DNA" then i thought alright maybe the movie might have the same look or feel like alien but still doesnt take place in the alien universe. but as soon as i heard that it would take place in the alien universe of course like any fan boy i was hyped but at the same time scared that they might mess it up.

[img width=351 height=150]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ML_kFkjpdzE/SK6uPUT8iKI/AAAAAAAAGm4/tzk1lye2eZE/s400/vlcsnap-94269.jpg[/img] "Frostmourne Hungers"

BigDave

MemberDeaconSep-10-2012 7:54 AM
Ultimately here are my only major disappointments now i seen the movie 3 times. 1) [b]LACK OF USE OF CHARACTERS...[/b] Ok we all knew the movie would be about Shaw and David who i feel was covered well and we knew Ford, Milburn were just fodder as with the unnamed other crew such as Mechanics and Mercs etc. And i feel Holloway and Janek was used correct, i just was so disapointed by the lack of use of Vickers and Weyland and Weyland Corp and its Board should had played a massive part in the movie.... I guess maybe they was both shooting other movies at the same time. 2) [b]CHARACTER USE AGAIN...[/b] I felt some Characters, well acted out of Character and non more so than Vickers, who came across as this cold, cool and ruthless business woman with her own Agenda and who played her Cards very close to her chest. So the whole Janek and Vickers scene was one of my least favorite, mainly as Vickers response well went against the Character that was set up for her. She should have said in response to Janeks "are you a robot" .... "well Captain i am off to have a shower and bed, and so looks like you will never find out" I also think that as this Heroic Character Janek who goes down with his Ship at the end, i felt the scene where he was not so interested in the safety and well being of two of the Crew left stranded lost and afraid in the Temple but more interested in hitting on Vickers was a little out of Character. 3) [b]LENGTH OF MOVIE AND SCOPE....[/b] Again i felt the movie needed to be like 3 hours to help keep the flow and give more detail and time for Characters. 4) [b]TONED DOWN XENO ASPECT...[/b] I loved the Xeno ish Fifield and i think that should had been used, and i also loved the Hammerpedes and would have wanted to had seen more from them. 5)[b] THE KILLINGS...[/b] They was lame, as i said above i would have loved to had seen the Xeno Fifield and more from the Hammerpedes and was disappointed at how many of the crew was actually killed by Fifield and the Engineer in what was best described as simply throwing them around like rag dolls. ULTIMATE DISAPPOINTMENT they was....

R.I.P Sox  01/01/2006 - 11/10/2017

dfjao4vmnom54rvf394u03rj0qjv

MemberOvomorphSep-10-2012 7:55 AM
I'm sorry, you're trying to make an intellectual argument and then call something gay? What? And Prometheus is a film for kids? Yeah, that doesn't sound pretentious at all. Seriously, the film wasn't supposed to be a direct prequel. It's OK it wasn't a re-tread. I think most people accepted that, and it is a popular movie. Frankly, I enjoyed everything about it. I felt the script, which didn't spoon-feed everything to the audience, was excellent. Some people have unmeetable expectations though. If you're expectations were that it has to give you the exact same feeling when you watch Alien in every way, you didn't have the right the mindset going into this film, especially with everything Ridley said about it before it came out in theaters.

BigDave

MemberDeaconSep-10-2012 10:27 AM
Not many movies are flawless and even Alien has its flaws and plot holes. Prometheus for me was not bad, and apart from the few problems that seem to now not be so bad as we get over the massive task that the movie had and that was to build upon or better Alien. This leaves a movie that is very underrated, some of the deleted scenes are coming now and they seem to give answers to why the movie never flowed. And these scenes address some of the plot holes in the movie.

R.I.P Sox  01/01/2006 - 11/10/2017

dfjao4vmnom54rvf394u03rj0qjv

MemberOvomorphSep-10-2012 11:25 AM
The film doesn't have plot holes. It has things that are left ambiguous. but that's not the same thing. Using the criteria that Prometheus is criticized by some people, Alien is full of massive plot holes. Who is the Space Jockey? What happened to the ship? What are the eggs? How did the company know to send Ash with the crew? NONE of these are answered in the film. It forces the audience to think about things to unravel their answers. Prometheus works on the same level. So that's something I don't think has ever been a legitimate criticism of this film.

HAL 9000

MemberOvomorphSep-10-2012 11:31 AM
@BigDave, couldn't agree with you more. ALIEN definitely had plot holes, too. Let's all hope that the deleted/extra scenes for Prometheus will fill those that really matter. But judging it from what has leaked so far, this might well not be the case... Anyway, below now my initial response to this thread.

HAL 9000

MemberOvomorphSep-10-2012 11:41 AM
Hi all, and first of all thanks to [b]Neurion[/b] for opening another thread about reviewing this highly anticipated film, but in a more moderate tone and constructive fashion. And it's great to see that this also reflects in most of the comments I've seen here so far. This has always been a truly sophisticated and inspirational community, it still is, and hopefully has a long prosperous future ahead... What I'm about to say has most likely been said many times before, not just by me and not just in this thread, of course. Nevertheless, I'd like to contribute with my opinion and share my thoughts on this, which to begin with, have changed quite a bit from right after my first viewing until now. It really has been a bit of a journey in itself, but I will come to that later on. I first saw Prometheus in a midnight screening on June, the 8th in one of the biggest available IMAX 3D screens across Europe, in Waterloo, London. My expectations were extremely high, clearly based on all that I had seen and heard until that day, fed by a most nutritious and impressive viral campaign. Finally approaching the cinema, I could suddenly feel all the excitement and tension of that long built-up hype that I had experienced, starting from around early 2010 or so. Then, during the opening sequence I thought, oh my god, this is going to be epic beyond my wildest expectations! However, when leaving the cinema I felt empty, numb, disappointed and angry, to say the least. I asked myself: "Really? [b][i]THAT[/i][/b] was it? [b][i]This[/i][/b] is what I've desperately been waiting for since roughly 30 odd years?" Ok, I quickly realised that I had been spoiled by the marketing on an unimaginable scale, I just watched a fast-paced, littered with plot holes, but somehow still stretched-beyond-imagination trailer! They just squeezed in bits and pieces here and there to connect all those countless trailers we all watched endlessly, then to desperately end up with a running time of just over two hours. The only positive impression that was stuck with me at that point was the spotless visual beauty of the film. But that alone really wasn't good enough for me. Sitting on the night bus on my way home I desperately tried to recover as many positive things as possible, but those hiddeous characters such as Milburn, Fifield and yes, even Holloway came back to mind. Wouldn't someone like Peter Weyland with that entrepreneurial spirit and seemingly infinite financial resources have hand-picked the best available scientists? People who will take their mission most seriously plus having certian social qualities that are needed for a mission of this caliber? What a waste of time and budget on the film! That time could have been invested in a deeper character build-up of a far smaller crew altogether. I just wanted to get to know them better, share their passion for such a mind-blowing mission they've been so lucky to be part of! Having said that, I did feel however, that David's, Shaw's and Janek's characters were impressive from the start and just as great as the actors that had been cast for those roles. So there was hope after all... During the following two months I had much time to read through the avalanche of positive and negative threads and comments across the internet, plus having had time to think about and analyse my own emotions for the film from a growing distance, which really helped to improve my view on it. So just a few conclusions here: 1. Ridley/Lindelof never said that Prometheus will tie in directly with the ALIEN universe, but instead will follow two seperate threads, where one of which will eventually get even closer to the happenings in ALIEN and the other might drift even further away, to explore an entire new and exciting world. Furthermore, there were early indications that we will be treated with more than just one film. Well, he delivered all that and it actually worked for me. In a nutshell, Prometheus works for me as stand-alone, but just as well as being a distant cousin to the ALIEN saga. A young cousin, who still has many things to learn and plenty of time ahead to explore further. 2. It would have been great to have had more screen time allocated to really feel Shaw's hopelessness, followed by her breakdown, clearly caused by desolation and isolation after the Juggernaut's crash and her fight with the engineer, let alone losing her beloved partner Holloway and developing doubts in David's integrity. 3. I'd agree that the ending, showing the Deacon bursting out of the Engineer's chest, was forced and purely served as a crowd-pleaser. It didn't add anything for me, if not making it worse. However, I thought the ending up to that point was beautifully done, although still having felt slightly rushed. 4. Ridley is well known for his meticulous attention to detail, his ability and drive to deliver stunning and beautifully crafted imagery. Especially the scene of the ascending Juggernaut will stick with me forever, it was simply amazing! As I already said above, he most certainly delivered all that on a golden plate. So, those are just some observations I wanted to share here as I wasn't attempting to write a full review within this thread. Something I still haven't done, something I simply wasn't ready for. I'm glad that I haven't done one so soon, only days or weeks after my first viewing. Did I ever review ALIEN or Aliens in all those 30 or so years? No. And I feel like that only now I'd be ready to do so, having gained so much more understanding and passion for those two movies (each epic in their own way), mostly due the course of dissecting and understanding Prometheus. And since Prometheus is part of a series, a bigger story is still to be told. Therefore, I'll still hold back with a full review. Have yourself a rough count on how many times you've seen ALIEN and its sequels! [b]Now,[/b] about two weeks ago I saw Prometheus for the second time, on a smaller mezzanine sized screen at the Empire, London, that surprisingly still showed it, even in real3D. It was so much better than the first time 'round, I really enjoyed it and I'm glad I gave it a second chance! For all the above reasons it felt more fluent, made more sense as well I appreciated the high attention to detail even more. So I went from a rather disappointing 60/40 against it, over a quite balanced 50/50 inbetween, to a very welcoming 70/30 for the film, and the BluRay/DVD including all those extra's is still to come. So for me personally, it's happy days and I definitely look forward to the things on the horizon, including many more viewings of Prometheus!
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