Scified veterans (Prometheus)

Confession time! And storytelling! Sorry to go OT here but I have fond memories of the Prometheus-movie forum (thanks Chris) 

I was a user and frequent visitor on the prometheus-movie forum back in 2011, and that hype was over-the-top based on the amazing enthusiasm from many users. I was no less enthusiastic. 

One poster always had caps ENABLED to give you an example of that!

After the release people started raging on the forum and it was divided into two camps with two separate sticky'd boards for people who either liked the film and disliked it. I've never seen something like that before in other forums.

I'll admit that I was among the people who raged after returning from the night release viewing, and it didn't get any better with a second viewing as I simply felt and still feel like the film is remarkably flawed for being a Ridley Scott film (that's not his fault.) I just can't stand bad writing. To some people "I'm looking at it the wrong way" apparently.

That being said I do regret some of the things I wrote back then but mind you this was an effect of my initial anger that simply went overboard. 

Returning to the topic of discussion, I'd say that the mood is surprisingly healthy again. Is it perhaps a combination of Alien purists and Prometheus fans being drawn to the site? Hopefully both camps will be satisfied when the film comes out.

To summarize the hype levels on the forums here imo for each film respectively:

Prometheus 10/10 - extremely hyped up, very high thread activity 

Alien Covenant (as of now) 8/10 - It's hyped alright, with bursts of high posting activity. And we still have 70 days to go at the time of writing so I guess the hype will increase even more.

Neomorph

That is an outstanding account and assessment.

I was pumped for Prometheus but never dabbled in sites before.

I stumbled onto this site by accident when it was Prometheus 2 I think and it changed to AC.

It is interesting you mention stickies- I ignore them. I like the free for all of what we are doing now.

I am surprised by your hype level assessment comparison but respect it since I was not there.

Finally- when if at all did you notice a die down after Prometheus released and got picked apart if at all?

Thanks again, I didn't expect a detailed and insightful response like that.

First of all, thank you dk

I wouldn't say I noticed a die-down as the forum imo was still going strong despite a lot of people leaving or taking a break.

It all started one or a few days before I was attending to the release here in my country. I remember a few users living in a country where the film was first released- being super disappointed, but initially I didn't register anything unusual as no film appeals to everyone of course.

When I saw the film myself I instantly agreed with what a lot of things (not everything) they mentioned and also discussed in the stream of disappointment that followed in the days, weeks and sometimes months after. I've never seen so much hate towards a film.

So why did I remain for months? Well apart from criticising/discussing myself I guess I wanted insight into what people who were satisfied liked about the film to sort of try to see things from their perspective, even though I felt like the issues of the film were to big and too many to be overlooked by the few better aspects imo. 

The most common criticism most dissatisfied people shared was clear: The writing, the characters and the acting was underwhelming. A lot of people felt the other way around and I guess it was and is good with a counterweight on both sides as long as it is kept professionally with respect to each other.  

I got obsessed with Prometheus when I saw the trailer before John Carter. I found this site not long after and became obsessed with these forums. I spent irresponsible amounts of time reading and responding to posts.

Once prometheus came out, I made sure I saw it opening night, and I'm one of the people who wanted to buy another ticket as soon as the credits rolled. I took a break from the site when the hate spewing got out of hand. 

I came back in late November to see how AC was coming along.

The hype levels for PROMETHEUS were absolutely off the charts. The main reasons being that it was Ridley Scott's first Sci-fi movie since BladeRunner and more importantly he was returning to the A L I E N Universe, what could be better or more exciting for Ridley/Alien fans? 

For me, and I am sure I speak for many others, it was a dream come true. Ridley is my favourite living director, and to me, he is the perfect Sci-fi Director.

I was a lurker, but felt compelled to join the site, which is something I had never done before, I don't have a twitter or mushbook account, and I tend to steer well clear of social media.

There was an incredible level of anticipation, excitement, camaraderie and positivity on the forum. I think almost everyone expected to love PROMETHEUS and the level of disappointment many felt afterwards was very hard to accept and contain. The frustration led to anger and it got ugly at times!

Pre-speculation and post-analysis, led to some absolutely amazing threads, with a level of insight and intelligence that was a joy to behold. Have a look over on the Prometheus board and you will see what I mean. Look for posts by Mala'kak and Hypernova in particular! 

Personally, Prometheus was not what I expected, after I got over that initial shock I soon grew to love it. Sure some things frustrated me, chiefly some of the writing, but I do think that it is a visual masterpiece and in many ways, is groundbreaking.

I feel most people, and certainly veteran members, are regarding Covenant with more restraint. A case of lets wait and see. There is what I would describe as contained excitement on the forum, at least for now! ;)

It's funny, I lurked constantly on the Prometheus forums. I watched that trailer so many times I knew it by heart. It wasn't until after the movie came out that I stopped looking on the site because everyone was so divided to the point of arguing with people's FEELINGS about the movie...insanity.

I re-discovered this when AC was announced, and now I try to contribute. I was always afraid to because I was afraid I'd either a) upset someone with my comments or b) be laughed off the forum for any ideas I had. I've come to realize neither is the case as everyone on here is awesome!

Hype level for Prometheus Forum - 10/10

Hype level for AC Forum - 9/10...it will get to 10/10 I believe.

Well said Lone

(we're still bff's right? Lol) 

Hahaha of course, so long as we avoid the Newborn! XD

I've been lurking since the Prometheus 2 days.The first i ever heard of the Fire and Stone series was here.Can't really make a proper comment on how high the excitement for Prometheus was,but I can tell you that the excitement for Alien Covenant is through the roof!

I was here...can't remember my username back then, and was fired up from the time i first saw that Teaser, checking almost every day. I was over the top fired up. My family was fed up with me. Then, it dropped on my birthday, and my whole family and group of friends went at midnight.

Then I never posted again on the forums. Probably never even looked at them again, until now, lol.

@Hicks/Hudson

Insanity totally sums up the post viewing debacle! 

It was a very emotional time. I felt really bad for my fellow long time Ridley and A L I E N admirers who had invested so much over the years, waited for this moment, only to be left feeling jaded, empty, upset, and or angry.

It was a bitter and unexpected pill for many to have to swallow! 

@Lone you summed up my "Post-Prometheus" period quite well, lol.

@Lone I couldn't agree more. It was crazy and I just couldn't believe the amount of negative feedback. I almost feel like that's why the hype before Prometheus almost never gave the movie itself a chance. Too much hype, too much expectation from die hard fans that they just couldn't accept the movie for what it was: a flawed but GREAT stand alone prequel of the Alien universe. It laid some great foundations and now Ridley is able to explore that new (and old) mythos in greater detail. People were expecting SO many answers from 1 movie, it was almost impossible to expect that.

@Hicks/

Well said. Too many expectations, definitely explains a lot about Prometheus. BUT, the way it opened SO many avenues to explore and wander down was why it will eventually be viewed as great. However, there's plenty of time for that AFTER the connection is made to Alien! When that's done, we will have a HUGE Universe for the media to explore until the end of time!

Great points H/H and Starlogger!

One day Prometheus will be seen in the larger context, as part of a trilogy or more. That may change some people's perception of it. Or maybe not!

..............

Fuckin weird and pissed! What a combination

The level of hype the Prometheus forums received were indeed, "off the charts". However, Fox also marketed and teased Prometheus for a full year prior to its release, so we had even more time to grow the community and gather new members. Alien: Covenant's marketing by comparison is not nearly as gradual, but will be more like an intense bombardment. Seems to be the trend for studios lately and I can't say I'm a fan. Having Fox release periodic Prometheus updates was a lot of fun and gave most of us a reason to sign on every day.

That being said, you can see that our "Now Online" counter is over 200 at any given moment now, go back 2 months, this number was at about 100 on average. Members are definitely becoming more active with more to discuss and it should, ideally continue to grow!

The Prometheus forums were also on a crappy sever back then. The server I moved the site to now can sustain our traffic spikes more easily - often not causing a complete crash. That was a frustrating aspect of the Prometheus site for me.

All in all, I'm happy to see the forums slowly becoming more active again. :) It's also great to see familiar faces, as well as new ones posting about.

I'm having problems copying and pasting for some strange reason.

What I wanted to say in the reply above was it was great!

The hype for Prometheus then was 10/10

I think for Covenant it's more like 8/10

IMO

I started participating in this site a few months before Promwtheus was released. Back then I was known as Major Noob which was accurate, given I'd never joined a forum before.

My experience here pre and post Prometheus was an eye opener, and made the movie itself so much more of an emotional experience than maybe it would have been otherwise.

The negativity was well underway before the release, and went crazy thereafter. It was obvious there were genuinely disappointed fans, but also many others who will apparently mock anything. I took it personally because I believed then, and still do, that Prometheus was an act of daring film making and displayed a genuine love of the science fiction genre, and the Alien universe in particular. I was so relieved in the theatre to be enjoying the movie that I was moved to tears, so set up I was to be let down. It was not perfect. But it was so, so much better than I had been led to believe.

I was truly concerned that the negativity over Prometheus would deny us a sequel,and that pissed me off, because I wanted one badly (which was the whole idea, I think, with the way Prometheus was structured). I've been disappointed by movies before (I'm looking at you, Matrix 2 and 3) but never to the point of rage. I believe now that this was an example of a sensitive topic running up against internet anonymity. 

Some of the complaints about Prometheus were unreasonable (he tried to pet a space snake!) or outright ridiculous (it's supposed to be hard science!). Come on. It's a movie. A pretty cool one. AC will be pretty cool too, I think. But U do think that now I'd almost be let down if the debate didn't go haywire.

Hi Lone!

Happy Days!

Hi Noob!

I remember when you changed your name Noob! Who here remembers when I went by "Bug Hunter"? Hahaha ;) 

I remember Chris and Gavin was Snorklebottom....ah the nostalgia! :)

Hey Noob and N4 great to see you guys! XX

Yep who would've thought that a website could give you so many lovely memories? I was n7 among a few others previously but I don't think anyone remembers me (or should lol) 

Apart from the veterans here I remember NCC 1701 (beer profile pic) who had that impressive Enterprise model project going on, PUNX who often started a conversation with "Oi oil oi", Franz, Cypher, tank girl, PUNX, Sky, Neurion, Major Noob and many more although I've forgotten some. 

Who was the girl who baked those delicious Alien/prometheus cakes and shared her work back then?

And that user who used caps...."PROMETHEUS IS ZIBILLION TIMES BETTER THAN ALIEN!!!!!!" He wrote once. 

All those memories... :) 

Hey Neomorph :)

Major Noob is now Aorta! NCC still pops by, it was Belladonna who baked the cakes and biscuits, but she was eventually banned.

Do you remember Patch? His posts were so funny and his profile pics too. He would post 'word jazz' [as he came to call them] sessions on the SB. Kept us all well entertained!

Hey Lone! 

Belladonna it was!! Woah there she got banned!?

.......

I remember her being really nice, did she start making phallic-shaped cakes or something? 

Patch yeah I do remember that name! But I need read his old posts again to remember his style/writing pattern more. 

One user who really, I mean really remind me of one current user here in terms of activity-level was David 8.

Do you remember him? Flaming rock 'n' roll hand gesture. He frequently used trademark-comments such as "trollollol" and probably stood for 20% of all the posting activity on the prometheus-movie forum back in 2012. Then he got warned for accusing the Mods of "targeting him" openly in discussions and disappeared shortly after.

Not to accuse others of anything (it's not my concern really), I remember myself letting my disappointment getting the better of me one time in 2012 as I engaged in a keyboard battle against the opposing Prometheans. Svanya, being super professional like she always was, stepped in and said (and I quote) "can't we all just get along" lol XD 

Those were the days....*grizzled voice* the keyboard battles we fought...the laugh we shared. Good times...

I am not so sure...

I think its pretty much split... the more Aliens Fan Boys may be getting excited with this....  I think Prometheus when it was announced had much more Hype... but i think Trailers etc started to make some concerned this is no Alien flick and have doubts we would get answers...

Ridleys interviews seemed to back that up... and so Prometheus divided opinions.

I think this time we have Aliens and its being pushed down the throats to get people into to see the movie, and they may now expect a Spaights kind of Movie minus not so much Engineer and Mythos stuff...

But then i think this is in part the elements they are not showing... that will be part of the surprises.

A NUMBER of Fans was maybe Expecting Prometheus to give us Xeno clues and answers and Felt let down...

It now SEEMS that Alien Covenant is teasing these again but with Xenos for 100% this time... but i think some of those fans may feel let down..

I am hoping that Prometheus fans, may be in for some nice surprises for the next movie, that sets up down the line getting some of the answers relating to creation and Engineers and who else they created and who created them.....

Myself....

After reading the 4Chan leaks...  i thought it sounded like a AVP2 minus Predators and Pred-Alien meets Alien R with a bit of Aliens Action and Alien horror thrown in... and super slasher movie splashes of Gore...

I felt those leaks missed out on a lot of other elements and never recall a lot of none Alien things... and so that gave me some hope..

The Set Reports and other new information does now give me some hope we would get a movie that is trying to please Alien Fans.. Aliens Action Fan Boys and those who thought Prometheus opened a interesting new universe.

My theory when AC was announced was this could be the case... and then Alien Fans would have Alien 5 to carry and the Alieny route and that a AC sequel could touch upon where they wanted to go prior...

I think this is something thats still possible...

But i am not going to set up too high expectations... because as some AVPGalaxy members had said....  The 4Chan is exactly the movie we having and those expecting Prometheus clues and answers will be disappointed....

But time will tell.... ;)