Prometheus previews and spoilers

swagtasticreviews:
Prometheus

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Prometheus has landed.

Finally. Is there any better feeling than when you’re greatly anticipating a movie and it blows away all your expectations? Avengers and Ghost Protocol both did that for me. Now comes Prometheus. A quasi/pseudo-prequel to the Alien series. Calling it a direct prequel isn’t right because it does take place before Alien, it is its own movie and you don’t need to see Alien to enjoy it.

Prometheus brings up a series of questions that we have no answers to. Where did we come from? What created us? Why? What happens when we die? Somehow in its attempt to answer these, it created more questions and riddles. Oh god I loved it.

The idea for the movie came from the scene in Alien when John Hurt is on LV-426 andd goes into the giant spaceship and finds that giant body thing sitting in that chair. It has a hole in its chest and has been dead for sometime. This creature is what we nerds call the Space Jockey. Who was he? What was ha doing? Are there more of him? Boom. In steps Prometheus. Here the Space Jockey is called an Engineer and there are…well, see the movie.

The story here is absolutely wonderful. It answers questions you never knew you had. I was captivated the entire time. The only thing that could have deterred me attention was if the guy next to me had a seizure and they had to pause the movie. Man, how much would that have sucked? Also, during a part with this awesome star map, a guy near me had a seizure and I couldn’t pay attention to the movie because I wanted to make sure he was all right. I got up to help them for a minute too.

The movie really does take you to another world. The effects are dazzling and the 3D was incredibly well done. I’m pretty ‘meh’ over 3D. I can take it or leave it, but when it’s good, I’m impressed. The movie is…haunting. I think that is a correct word for this. The landscape, the aliens, the score, David. It’s bleak and scary and the movie is intense as all hell. I jumped several times. It has some wicked crazy parts that may you wanna turn away, but you just can’t. It’s incredible.

The acting was top notch. Noomi Rapace will no longer be “the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. She’ll be known as Elizabeth Shaw, that girl from Prometheus. Because no one wants to pronounce her name. She was great. Other major/minor characters were really well done too. A couple of relatively unknown guys has big roles. Like the 2 guys who get lost and Shaw’s boyfriend, played by Logan Marshall-Green.. Idris Elba plays the ships captain Janek. i really like him and wanted to know more. Charlize Theron played herself, but as a stuck up business head with her own agenda. More then anything else it needs to be talked about how amazing Michael Fassbender was as the android/synthetic/artificial person David. He could not have been more perfect. He was creepy and awesome and articulate and channeled his inner Lawrence of Arabia.

What I’m going for here is that Prometheus was incredible. In fact that doesn’t cover it, but it’ll have to do for now. The movie doesn’t pretend to have all the answers to all the questions it raises. You have to think yourself. It’s one of the best hardcore Sci-fi movies I’ve seen in a long time. I believe this movie will stand the test of time and become a classic. In space no one can hear how awesome this is, but on Earth everyone can see this 9/10.

I also got a free t-shirt. Awesome right?

katkingkole:
Reasons why I love the Aliens series but didn't love Prometheus

I have waited for Prometheus since 1998.

It didn’t completely SUCK. But it did have a lot of things that turned me off. I went into this movie with high expectations, and as such perhaps I set myself up for disappointment. Either way, talking points below:

Likes:

1) Fassbender: Absolutely amazing. Give this man an award, please. His portrayal of David was creepy but vulnerable, soft but deeply disturbing at the same time. An android seeking love, it seemed. A very complex, well written and well acted character. HE is what the movie should’ve revolved around, not Shaw. Shaw’s one-dimensionality (showing only her faith and goodness) is boring compared to the complex, duality of David’s character. He is both good and bad, and that’s what makes him compelling.

2) The imagery. BEAUTIFUL. One of the most visually stunning movies I have ever seen. I do hope they are nominated for this.

3) The parallel between Weyland’s impending death, man’s mortality, and the Engineer’s creation of both us and the beings that destroy us. “Why would they create us just to destroy us?” Maybe hinting at, Why would God create us only to make us mortal and thus watch us die? Interesting concept.

Dislikes:

1) The reoccurring and over-emphasized themes of faith and purpose. I do think these are important themes for the movie— David’s struggle to find purpose between two worlds (man and machine) and Shaw’s need to maintain her faith/belief in her purpose in the face of overwhelming proof against it. (“Why did we create you? Because we can.”) These are important points, but I felt they were forced on the audience (through repetitive reference) and by doing such, their power is reduced.

2) The way the aliens/Prometheus/the Engineers are shown. In the original Alien movies, most of the creatures are shown in glimpses and in faded or low light. This leaves some to the imagination and makes them all the more frightening. In Prometheus the aliens/Engineers are shown in full. I think it would’ve been much more frightening to see them in glimpses instead of long, drawn out clips. The way they were shot in this film made it kind of cheesy to me.

3) Waste of Noomi Rapace’s acting. Her lines were, many times, over-dramatic and just not well written. I feel the script (and her character specifically) presented us with too much upfront information (too much exposition for you writers). Details that we could’ve gathered ourselves were stated outright by Shaw and it felt very forced. Again, the writers did not do a great job of trusting the reader to understand important points in the movie here, and because of this many of Noomi’s scenes seemed melodramatic (which I f#%@#&! hate because she is amazing).

4) Not all questions are answered. ACTUALLY— They didn’t all have to be answered, but I expected to feel more closure than I do having seen this.

Either way, bring on the sequel. They have set up a very interesting ride— the tension between Shaw’s character and David’s character was, in itself, the beginnings of something very interesting.

jimmybatthemovies:
Prometheus (capsule) review

Though some plot elements ultimately feel inconsequential, Prometheus soars on the strength of its visuals and cast. The grand sets and grotesque special effects are top-notch. Noomi Rapace and Idris Elba shine in their respective roles, but Michael Fassbender steals the show with a performance worthy of an Oscar nod. His portrayal of android David alone is worth the admission price (the 2D price, that is; the 3D is largely unremarkable) and perhaps even several re-watches, if only to to get a better idea of the character and his (its?) motivations. Unfortunately, a subplot-of-sorts involving Charlize Theron is not very compelling and results in a big “reveal” that feels silly and forced. The film is also overstuffed with ideas that are brought up once or twice (e.g. how science affects one’s faith and beliefs), but they don’t leave much of an impact. All in all, a rather unfocused film that’s saved by its beauty (and, in contrast, the occasional delightfully gross moment) and onscreen talent.

7.5/10

doncoent:
Prometheus

This is the third blog I’ve written for a Ridley Scott movie (see also: Alien vs. Aliens, American Gangster) so I’ve had a lot of time to express my feelings for this esteemed director. I said that there was only one movie of his that I truly loved (Black Hawk Down), and a few that I outright disliked, one of those being Alien. Prometheus is a prequel of sorts to that highly-acclaimed sc-fi film; pair that with Scott’s so-so record and you have one moviegoer who’s bracing himself for disappointment. But I am delighted to say that Prometheus met and exceeded my expectations; Black Hawk Down now has some company.

The film is the story of Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace), a scientist on a faith-based journey to discover the origin of man. Patterns in cave paintings lead her (and her fellow-scientist boyfriend) to a distant galaxy, reached thanks to the sponsorship of the Weyland Corporation. Like all Hollywood corporations, they feign interest in the heroine’s optimistic goals while secretly hunting for valuable information. So what follows is a standard sci-fi story where curious humans dig a bit too deep and find themselves in a deliciously violent predicament. Now this sounds like a bit of a routine plot, but I didn’t mind at all. Scott told his story quickly, efficiently, and without distraction. In the end, it doesn’t really matter if the story is not one hundred percent original, just as long as we become involved. Scott had an original story in Blade Runner, but he spent far too much time with visual splendor and I wasn’t as engaged as I could have been. I’m just speaking for myself here, but I responded well to Scott’s style in this film; it had all of his signature visual mastery, but he also made sure that the story sustained tempo. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I prefer faster-paced movies because years of video games and TV have diminished my attention span. But I’ll try to provide some evidence as to why Prometheus is a good film, no matter who’s watching it.

I was particularly impressed with the characterization. There was the aforementioned Shaw, a quick-thinking heroine with a belief in the divine. I was happy to see that they did not treat her, a religious person, as an ignorant dupe. Rather, she’s someone searching endlessly for an answer that may not even exist. She may not have found anything yet, but this provides only more motivation. Besides, is the reason for the creation of all life something she’s just going to find on one planet? Do you really expect one alien abomination to put that issue to rest? It’s an ambitious, inspiring goal and I thought it was handled well. Another character that proved exceptionally memorable was the android David, played by Michael Fassbender. I think I read somewhere, probably on Wikipedia, that David is supposed to be an earlier version of the androids we see throughout the Alien series. Whether or not that is true, I thought that Fassbender’s performance made this apparent. Very early on in the movie, you can tell that this guy is not a real person. His movements are too agile, too “perfect.” It’s close to how real humans move, but he hasn’t learned how to act casual. There was another, smaller element that I wanted to mention: during his leisure time, David is shown watching Lawrence of Arabia, starring Peter O’Toole. As the movie went on, I started to feel that David really loved that film; he was acting like Peter O’Toole. Fassbender imitates him skillfully, his lithe movements, his light voice, and his prissy attitude were all familiar quirks of that famous actor. I’ll try to address the other characters quickly; Charlize Theron as the icy executive with a violent streak, Idris Elba as the cool and reasonable ship’s captain, and Guy Pearce as the dessicated but still impassioned industrialist all intrigued me in their own special ways. They, along with the standard quirky crew types, were people whose fates I became invested in. Since Scott afforded them some time to breathe and express their personalities, we were allowed to become involved in their experiences.

Ridley Scott, as I have mentioned, is known for his visuals. And boy, did they not disappoint. I was engrossed in his blighted landscapes, his foreboding temples, and the futuristic ship itself. Everything on screen was the work of a man who loves to create worlds in his imagination and paint them with the utmost detail on screen. Even his worst movies (re: Legend) look fantastic, but they’re wasted when no involving story takes place there. But now that Scott has a motor in the form of a good tale to tell, the visuals are put towards something that matters. And since that’s all I really wanted to say on the subject, but this paragraph is a bit too short, I’ll talk about the suspense and the action. I felt that that suspense worked well, much better than in Alien, because the action was in the service of the story. Now, in Alien, the basic plot was how a creature kills off the crew members one by one, made easy by the fact that they stupidly try to confront it head-on. But this threat is different; it’s not some rampaging beast. The characters are trying to figure out what the threat it is, or whether it’s a threat at all. I find it scarier when we don’t know if the alien will be friendly or not; I mean, where do you even start? Do you approach it calmly, or guns blazing? The Alien from that film was obviously a vicious monster with one plan: kill. But in Prometheus, the foreign race is humanoid, thus leading to more ambiguities. If we happen upon some creature that looks like us, we’ll naturally be more sympathetic, even if we don’t know what it is. And now that I’ve gone on some sort if tangent, I want to go back to the issue of the film’s action. Prometheus employs one technique that never fails to arise suspense in me: a timer. No matter what the situation, give your characters a countdown and it will always raise the stakes. Prometheus pulls this trick more than once and, in my opinion, it works every time.

So it’s quite clear that I loved the film, but of course I had a problem or two. There’s one character who commits an unspeakably evil act, but it doesn’t seem like the ramifications come full circle for them. I mean, not every movie has to have a scene of vengeance, but an action that heinous has to have some sort of ripple later on. This character ends up doing something that can be seen as a kind of atonement, but not all parties concerned know all the details. A loose thread, but I’ll leave it be. This film engrossed me, it carried me along, and I didn’t have time to worry about nagging issues. I didn’t just sit in my seat and watch the movie play, it was an experience. I was along for the ride, a smooth ride. And I think that’s the mark of a great film.

ricketyticketytock:

EVERYBODY SEE PROMETHEUS.

Jesus Christ Ridley Scott knows how to make a movie. Just like Alien, Prometheus delivers a non-stop thrill ride in the (supposedly) empty vacuum of space. It had a large amount of similarities and direct parallels to Alien, not that I’m complaining, Alien works so it’s only smart to work off of it. It’s only different in its slight attempts to add more background information behind things, (even a little character development behind the lead; something Alien never attempted), which is to be expected with a prequel.

Not that this hindered the suspense. It had some scenes even as memorable as the stomach scene from Alien! Amazing.

I just realized that this whole time I’ve only been comparing it to Alien, and I don’t think it’s fair to judge movies merely in comparison to others. But I’m only inclined to do so because it’s so obviously established in my mind that Prometheus was brilliant, so I don’t have many other criticisms.

In short it was f#%@#&! bad ass. Go watch it.

butteredpopcornmoviereviews:
Prometheus (2012)

With Prometheus, he creates a groundbreaking mythology, in which a team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a thrilling journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.

It takes a tremendous amount of balls to create a film so massive in scale and propose dozens of questions, build them up, and give them an answer they don’t want to hear. They all but spit the questions back into your face, and say deal with it. It may leave some viewers in a frustrated mood towards the film, but if you realize the films true intentions, you may get the same smirk on your face that I did. They were never here to find the meaning of life; they were just here to save it. It’s highly ambiguous and the epic journey is far better than any destination it could have brought you too.

If you’re looking for ties to the alien universe, it’s there, just not as much as you’d expect from a film constantly hyped as a prequel to Alien. This is a story that gives you an idea about how the later films may have come together in shape, but creates a much more epic tale in its universe. It isn’t about an alien race looking to kill its new occupants, but rather one about life, faith, death, evolution and the way that all fit together. For every argument it seems to side with, it quickly retaliates with a counter and juggles a back and forth view on things. The decision is mostly left up to its audience, but even then it seems to come up short. You will never fully understand it, which is what can be frustrating. You want them to hand it to you but they refuse to give you an easy answer. That’s why it was such a risk in what they tried to accomplish that earned them a lot of respect. Its story is the most ambitious one I’ve seen in the last 12 years (outside of Inception), and solidifies it as one of the best additions into the science fiction genre in a long time.

The journey they take is one of grand proportions. The world and en environment around them are completely blended in of CGI and physical sets, you can almost never tell them apart. The moon they spend the movie on is not only beautiful, but fascinating as well. The temples, caves, and structures are well constructed and add a much larger universe than the ones scene in the previous installments. For the first time, you get a true scope of just how massive the world really is. The audio is one of the best I’ve ever heard and when the ship takes off, you actually feel like you’re on the ground level watching it leave right in front of you. I just wish they would have played that dynamite score more often. It’s an overall fantastically made movie that hits on all sides.

The crew this time around feels more developed than the ones we’ve gotten in the past. The two lead scientists Shaw and Holloway, played by Rapace and Logan Logan Marshall-Green are freaking great. Rapace brings another strong female character in the film world that tops Ripley from the first film, but just below her in the second. The transformation and situations she has to overcome are cringeworthy due to her great performance in the most extreme situations. Logan Marshall-Green, relatively unknown, adds a lot of heart and sympathy to a film that seemed composed up of a lot of dark mysterious figures. His honest intentions became something you could latch n and root for. The cream of the crop has got to go the always amazing Michael Fassbender. He introduces us to a character that seems to have his own agenda that is terrifying when you consider his lack of morality. Whatever his true intentions are, they are always hidden to the point where you don’t know whether to hug him or stab him in the back when he turns around. It’s a difficult role that he made seem way too easy. The opening minutes of the film are when he’s at his best, but he is no doubt the strongest throughout. In very solid supporting roles, Idris Elba and Charlize Theron add characters that don’t necessarily get enough warranted screen time, but add intrigue and backbone to an already solid cast. Each character has at least that one moment to shine, but Rapace and Fassbender take you away.

If you were ever dying to see Ridley Scoot finally return to top notch form, he’s finally came back to us. It’s been a long wait, not just for him, but this franchise, to become relevant again that the expectations could’ve killed them both, but Prometheus lives up to the hype and delivers one of the year’s best films. It’s not the perfect kind of film, but it will surely be stuck in your thoughts for days with an urge to watch it again. It’s a world I can’t wait to revisit again, and I hope this time it doesn’t take 25 years to come to light again, it’s too good to be left on the shelf.

Overall Score: 9/10

donniaandjokesy:

365 Movie Challenge:

103. Prometheus, ★★★★★

You have to see this in IMAX 3D. There is no other f#%@#&! option—this movie, I was literally blown away. omg the cinematography was f#%@#&! sick, the whole movie was f#%@#&! wiLD—

f&#! MAN GO SEE THIS f#%@#&! MOVIE AND MAKE SURE YOU SEE IT IN f#%@#&! IMAX 3D BECAUSE THAT WAS HANDS DOWN THE GREATEST MOVIE EXPERIENCE I HAVE EVER SEEN IN

MY

LIFE

oh mygod i was not physically, mentally, emotionally prepared for this movie holy hell

walkintoasylum:
prometheus spoilers

so basically Fassbender made this movie. Rapace was quite good, too. But mostly Fassy. Bloody hell, every single movement he makes manages to scream ‘not human’. Brilliant. For once he wasn’t hot, either; he was absolutely beautiful instead. I’d watch the s$#! out of a movie centered solely on David. Androids fascinate the hell out of me, I would love to see him undertake this existential journey to becoming a true entity in his own right.

The caesarian scene was notable, too. Great acting from Rapace.

The story wasn’t mindblowing, but then I didn’t exactly go in expecting Requiem For a Dream, so I didn’t mind. The visuals is what stayed with me the most.

it’s the first time I’ve watched a film in 3D, and oh my f#%@#&! god all the scenes with holograms in it blew my mind. I swear I had a teensy orgasm when David discovered the universe-hologram chamber. So unbelievably gorgeous, I got shivers.

I CAN’T WAIT UNTIL THE DVD COMES OUT AND I CAN GIF THE s$#! OUT OF THAT

final verdict: if you’re a fan of Fassbender and/or gorgeous visuals, see this bitch.

noomirapeface:
Spoiler-free Prometheus review

Firstly, have to say that Prometheus is not a prequal to Alien, despite what every-f#%@#&!-body has been saying: it’s more along the lines of a movie that takes place in the same universe as Alien. Ridley Scott’s said like a dozen times that it’s not meant to be a prequel in the purest sense, it just takes place in the same universe and has some aspects to it that cross to Alien but it’s a whole new mythology in that universe. So if you’re a buttmad fanboy who hates any change or addition to canon you shouldn’t be too buttmad at this.

I saw this movie in IMAX and this is actually the first IMAX film I’ve seen. I have to say it was worth the extra money just because of how gorgeous this f#%@#&! film is: the opening scenes panning over an empty earth-like vista (believe filme in scottland and iceland and s$#!) was amazing, and of course seeing my waifu in glorious IMAX was pants-jizzing.

That is the one thing this movie has going for it: the visuals. The shots are gorgeous and the directing is amazing. As I said, believe this was filmed in Scotland and Iceland and the like, and I am a huge sucker for natural vistas (one of the reasons I can watch the Twilight movies). The sets are well made and well done, and yes, there are some giger-esque sets in this movie, don’t worry your little buns.

One thing that pleasantly surprised me was how good the creature/other effects were. I have become very jaded towards effects in movies, especially after s$#! like the thing prequal and the wolfman remake etc. MOVIE MAKERS TAKE NOTE: THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT RIGHT. THIS. PROMETHEUS. SERIOUSLY.
They used an amazing mixture of practical effects and CGI and it blends seamlessly. Everything looks “real” and not obviously CGI like you poor souls are used to. Things look gritty and goopy and there is a decent amount of gore. The costumes are gorgeous and I can only theorize on some of the creature effects;probably just some clever angles or something.

hiijoe:
Prometheus Review

This was the big one. Second only to TDKR as the most anticipated blockbuster this summer, Prometheus promised us not only the best looking film but perhaps the most intelligent & thought-provoking (a rarity for big budget Hollywood productions). So with the weight of the world on its shoulders, Prometheus raises it up…raises it up to its peak…so close to showing us its true strength…and then it falters. The big one didn’t quite do it. So the big question is, why?

For those reading that are unaware of this films history, Director Sir Ridley Scott (Alien, Gladiator, Blade Runner) helmed this ambitious project. Set in the same Universe & 80 years prior to his first mainstream break in the sci-fi monster movie Alien, Prometheus proposes us the scaled question; Why are we here? Did someone create us & if they did, to what end?

With that age old question set in place we delve into the year 2093 to follow a ragtag team (scientists, astrologers, xeno-biologists, pointless but pretty company exec’s etc.), into the bold frontier that is space. Their mission is to search for our creators, based on archeological evidence found here on Earth.

From here on in I won’t spoil anything greatly. Bare in mind I will write some things at the end of this review that WILL spoil plot details for those who haven’t seen it. I will warn you before that but the rest of this review will be safe for the time being. I hope if you have watched the film you will read the post script about the plot.

One thing I cannot fault in Prometheus is simply the sheer scale & breathtaking allure of the visuals. From a tremendously crafted vision of Earth, prior to human existence to the barren yet captivating atmosphere of an alien planet, Ridley cements (like he needed to) that he is a master hand when it comes to the grand scope of cinematic beauty. Just watching the lovingly detailed Prometheus ship enter the newly discovered atmosphere of the target planet, slowly leaving the black emptiness of space into the luxurious colour of the unfamiliar territory is what I can only describe as Cinematic Erotica. The 3D is mostly subtle but this only helps but draw in everything in a pleasing way (I saw this in IMAX, an experience in itself). With haunting wide-shots and lurking camera tracks, one cannot help but feel totally immersed in the idea of “Holy s$#!, this is what Sci-Fi should always look like!”

The idea for this film isn’t too ridiculous, as long as you discount strong scientific theory and Darwinism. But I can forgive that, after all it’s only a fictitious movie. It can’t become too unrealistic, can it? The answer is yes but not within it’s ardent philosophy, but with the characters. Not for some time have I watched a film, which for the most part preaches its intelligent content, that has characters lacking the very trait. To willingly signing up for an unknown adventure, to showing individual characteristics that are recklessly abandoned as the story continues, to breaching H&S procedures & to pointless plot twists, I found it very hard to connect with any of the characters. People may feel I am nitpicking but the sheer idiocy of some of these characters was shocking for a film of this callibre, bar perhaps two.

Indeed, despite the lack of engaging material to work with, Michael Fassbender as the quiet, calculated android David and Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Shaw, the protagonist scientist who has conflicting religious ideologys’s work great in making us believe in their story. I found everyone acted very well but without the much needed character development and involvement (not forgetting that nearly every minor character has an attack of the stupids at one point or another), it just seemed fruitless. Even Charlize Theron as the cold, shrewd (yet somehow sexually approachable) company executive Meredith Vickers seems to have little point being there. Like the visuals of the film itself, most of the characters are just pretty decoration to fill the screen. David models himself like Peter O’Toole from Lawrence of Arabia with looks, mannerisms & speech. I can’t help but see Prometheus like this; Stunning, full of potential & certainly the air of magnificence but, ultimately, it cannot compete with the grand range & the sophistication of the tale that it so wishes to be.

The film certainly starts off well; What answers will they find? How will this affect Elizabeth’s strong and stubborn religious views against her proven scientific discoveries? How will her interests in her lover & co-worker Logan affect her judgement? What are David’s true motives? Meredith doesn’t want to make contact with the aliens and even after a pointless plot twist, what does she wish to gain by being there? All of these mysteries get completely sidelined and forgotten about as the muddled plot bounds ever forward. One may argue that some things could be explained in a sequel. But that is a cop out for the majority of the unnecessary plot holes. Honestly, for a film that was loosely thought of 33 years ago you would think they would of ironed out a lot of the niggles.

Which brings me to the main reason why I think this film stumbled on the last hurdle; the mismatched & leaden script which was written by none other than who I personally think is the biggest hack in the game at the moment, Damon Lindelof. Lindelof is what you may call a “dab hand” at the Sci-Fi genre (Lost, Cowboys & Aliens). The script reeks of his meddling. I loved the beginning of the Lost series, with its huge mysteries and ironically, great character development. But as it drew to its end it was evident he was just an average writer, who threw any plot device into the mix hoping that it would stick, with no care or consideration for explanation. I don’t wish to argue about my interpretation of the Lost ending as the point is moot but I can’t help but compare some things to Prometheus.

A personal message to the guy in question. Damon, you are not as clever as you like to think. Pushing your ridiculous & kooky religious ideas with Sci-Fi is nowhere near as clever or interesting as you think. You created a jejune, uninspired, preachy script that was full of plot holes & ideals with zero direction. I honestly think you are the main reason this film wasn’t the best it could be. You somehow made it fail. You lack the craft & knowledge to creating good stories.

In conclusion, everything about Prometheus is brilliant apart from the charm. Which as we all know, makes great films what they are. I watched this film as a stand alone story & tried not to compare it to Alien, which I mostly succeeded in. But it is hard not to in one respect. Where Alien may of just been another monster movie, it had believable and relatable characters. We had a group of people that as the film developed, we found that we cared for & perhaps even saw a little of ourselves in them (especially if you are a chest-bursting alien). A well written cast of working class people struggling against the unknown is one of the many things that helped make Alien what it is, a great film even by todays standards. Prometheus lacked this quintessential ingredient & suffered for it. Where the idea of the horror & potency of bio reproduction/weaponry was casual subtext in Alien, it is just in your face text for Prometheus (in what they discover, a certain reproduction scenario). Perhaps on further viewing I can take more from it & discover things I never knew before. But just like the situation the protagonists of Prometheus are in, is it worth investigating further to just be disappointed?

6.5-7/10.

WARNING SPOILERS.

OK big plot problems. If the Engineers really wanted to destroy us, do you not think a clearly more sophisticated and intelligent race would devise a better way of doing it then bio weaponry that seems to have actually caused their own downfall? Perhaps that will be explained in a sequel but it is a glaringly obvious omission.

Why was Elizabeth’s ideals about religion completely abandoned? Why suggest an idea and not bother delving into it?

Why was there a huge deal when Logan tried to enter the ship (so much that he agreed to his own death) but as soon as a ‘corpse’ of another crew member appears, the door is swung open to invite him in? Honestly, his helmet is smashed in an inhospitable atmosphere & his legs bent over his head backwards, he is clearly ‘dead’ but somehow winds up in front of the ship. EXERCISE SOME CAUTION, YOU MAY LIVE LONGER.

Why was there no H&S protocol? I don’t care if this is nitpicking, I’m sick of these cowboy characters. Oh, my device says I can breath in this atmosphere? Lets not bother testing this out in a safe manner or assume my device is faulty, lets take our helmets off!

Why did the two characters who left the group they were in because of being scared of finding aliens, suddenly decide when they encounter the first alien life EVER seen with human eyes, to turn all gooey eyed & try to make friends/touch it?

How come the ships crew decide to find out what happened to said two characters because they don’t know what happened to them cause the captain was too busy shagging. This is 2012 & we have live TV that we can rewind, are you telling me they have no recordings from their helmets in 2093? Sheeshhh.

Why did a bunch of characters decide to kill themselves for a greater cause with not so much as a second thought, even smiling at what they are about to do? Why did the captain say he can’t control a ship which he was personally invited to come & do? For a bucket load of cash? Why did the other crew members stay, WHY kill yourself if you can just leave? Also if we are to assume that Weyland’s helper was still on the ship, they just involuntarily killed him. Nice one guys.

Why didn’t Elizabeth freak out a little more about the death of her lover? Or when she finds out she is pregnant when she is supposed to be infertile? Or when she finds out it is an alien inside her? Or when she has to manually cut it out herself, with it then attacking her? Seriously, that is a LOT of crap for one person to go through in the matter of a few hours and to seem ok with apart from a few moans and groans.

How did Elizabeth move around after having her stomach skin, fat & muscle surgically ripped into? I am no doctor but I know that around 10 staple stitches will not magically fix you & let you run, jump and fight like a motherf@#$%!.

What was the point in revealing that Weyland was Meredith’s father? What value did it bring to the screen except cliche’? Bore off.

Even then, why was it a big deal that Weyland was secretly on the ship? Would any of the other characters really give a damn if he was there or not? He funded the project so how is this interesting?

Why is it that almost every character sees black goo on an unknown planet & immediately decides to touch it? Even after two colleagues go missing in a chamber they are investigating and one of them is mysteriously dead, somebody STILL does this.

What is the point in the holograms in the temple? I know it is useful to show the characters and us what happened but why would they be there? Lazy script writing. Also considering the technology, I see no reason for them to be so hazy and blurry apart from the fact that it looks cool.

Why did Elizabeth immediately start sticking volts into an Alien head to “see what happens”? Isn’t that a tad reckless for a scientist whose whole reason going there in the first place was to discover as much as possible before destroying evidence? Why did it explode?

I was told this one after the film but it is fact that organic molecules cannot form in oxygen-rich water. Which completely debunks the idea of where we come from. Personally I am willing to ignore some of the science but go figure.

Why o why do Elizabeth & Meredith run in a straight line when the ship is going to fall on them? Just run sideways.

Hollywood tension and all but I repeat the mantra that this film was aiming for;

It is supposed to be intelligent.

http://morgan-leigh.tumblr.com/post/24757498549/prometheus

“Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay | To mould me Man, did I solicit thee | From darkness to promote me?”



The great strength of Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, in theaters this weekend, is its near-unswerving commitment to ambiguity, both on a grand philosophical and a small personal scale. Nowhere is this better expressed than the character of David, an uncannily human robot in the vein of Blade Runner’s replicants, played with astonishing precision by Michael Fassbender. Though the film technically opens with scenes introducing the film’s humanoid aliens and the scientists (Noomi Rapace and Logan Marshall-Green) who are searching for them, it begins in earnest with David wandering around the brig of the Prometheus - the ship carrying him, Rapace’s and Marshall-Green’s Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway, and the rest of the crew to the faraway planet where Elizabeth and Charlie believe human life originated - or, more accurately, was invented.

The human crew members have spent the two year journey to their destination in cryostasis, and David has had the ship to himself as a result. In the intervening time he has learned every ancient language that might be of use in communicating with the aliens, should they find them; become very good indeed at riding a bicycle while spinning a basketball on his finger; become fixated on Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, to to tune of dying his hair to match O’Toole’s blond locks in that film; and, finally, watched Elizabeth’s dreams of her long-dead father. He is, therefore, the most and least human member of the crew from the get-go: we get into his private space right away, and he is allowed idiosyncrasies by the film that the other characters for the most part do not merit. Yet there remains something distinctly uncanny about his manner, largely supplied by Fassbender’s remarkable performance, that never lets us forget that he is not quite like us.

What it is, exactly, that David wants is never explicitly stated, just as the motivations of Captain Janek and Meredith Vickers, played with equal force by Idris Elba and Charlize Theron, respectively, remain largely under wraps. Elizabeth and Charlie are the starry-eyed dreamers of the company: they have come all this way, they explain, because they desperately want to ask the race of aliens from this planet, whom they believe invented the human race - they call them “engineers” - why they did so. The rest of the crew - not just Janek and Vickers but the rest of the scientists on board, who implausibly have not been briefed on their mission before arriving - seems ambivalent about the idea of facing their creators, and about the idea of a creator in the first place, but Elizabeth and Charlie are devout. They are, in some ways, both Victor Frankenstein and his Creature: desperate to gain the recognition of their creators and also, it would seem, tempted by the idea of a wealth of scientific knowledge that remains unfathomable to human beings. They want to meet their creator and plumb him of his secrets.

The entire mission, then, is an act of the grossest hubris, and the scientists on the crew do not dissuade us from this interpretation of events. They do many things that seem inordinately stupid, and which do occasionally lapse into implausibility, but for the most part their seemingly stupid decisions are not the result of mere imbecility but an arrogant faith in their mission. In some sense they all - but especially Elizabeth and Charlie - feel entitled to the answers that they seek, when in fact the questions they are asking are so philosophically broad as to be unanswerable. Thankfully, the movie does not attempt to answer them. It simply watches, as fascinated as we are, as their hubristic aspirations collapse beneath their feet, taking the crew and the mission with them.


If Elizabeth and Charlie are the dreamers of the film, then David is its primary actor, its agent of chaos. Though the other characters, including the man who engineered him, repeatedly remind him that he cannot feel anything, it becomes increasingly clear as the movie progresses that he can, indeed, feel things, and that sympathy towards those humans who demean him is very much not one of the things he feels. Never once in the movie is David invited to explain his own opinion on the mission, and the movie benefits greatly as a result. The audience is invited, instead, to infer his motivations from his actions, which becomes easier as the film progresses. In one of the movie’s critical scenes, he asks Charlie - who is disappointed, it seems, that there was not a welcoming party of aliens waiting with bated breath for his arrival - what he would do to know why his creator created him. When Charlie answers “Anything,” David takes matters into his own hands, with disastrous consequences. Charlie is punished for his dedication to - or, perhaps, his obsession with - his mission. David, of course, already knows why he was created: as Charlie himself says to him in that scene, humans created robots “Because we could.” David points out that this would be a remarkably disappointing answer for Charlie to receive, and Charlie agrees, before adding that it’s lucky David can’t feel disappointment.

It’s unsurprising, then, that David’s actions seem so morally indefensible. He owes nothing to these particular people, and nothing to the human race at large besides his life (and we can call it life), but as he says late in the film, don’t all people wish for their parents’ death? He ultimately seems to develop a level of respect and fondness for Elizabeth, but not for the rest of the crew - and why should he? As Mary Shelley persuasively demonstrates in Frankenstein (incidentally, subtitled The Modern Prometheus), we owe nothing to the people who created us if they do not love us - but they do owe us love. The film is rife with repetitions of one species creating another and failing to control it - and always, the problem comes back to a lack of love. This is philosophy on a grand scale, but in a way it is a simple matter of parenting, as we see with David and his own creator, Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce). David, like Frankenstein’s Creature, only wants his creator’s love and approval. And like the Creature, he does not feel particularly generous to the race of people who have repeatedly reenacted his creator’s emotional rejection of him. But David does not have the eloquence of Frankenstein’s Creature, who reads and declaims Milton. Although his motivations and emotional depth have been persuasively demonstrated by the end of the film, they are never explicitly articulated. If the Creature bursts to life on the page of Shelley’s novel, David lurks in the shadows of Scott’s film.

This resistance to explaining the characters’ motivations, and to a certain extent a similar hesitance to explicitly state the themes of the film (writers Damon Lindelof and Jon Spaihts do occasionally give in here, regrettably), is what ultimately makes Prometheus a very good film, if not quite a great one. Although it can treat its characters harshly, it is also does not judge them, and so the audience is likely to feel sympathetic to whomever is on the screen at any given time. This means that the film can be reasonably interpreted in any number of different ways. I saw the movie through David’s eyes and tended to agree with his disdain for Elizabeth and Charlie’s blind devotional drive, and I believe that it is most persuasive as a condemnation - albeit a sympathetic one - of their hubris.

But I also do not doubt that other viewers of a different philosophical bent could easily see it as an endorsement of that drive that instead condemns David’s amorality. Prometheus refuses to give its characters the answers to the questions that they seek, but paradoxically manages to give its viewers all the answers they might want - so long as they are willing to commit to the film as an exercise in character and not in plot. For character is what matters here. What, exactly, the aliens who created humans meant when they did so does not really signify, just as what the real origins of life can never be fully explained or understood. What matters is, instead, how the characters cope with the fact that there are certain things they will simply never know.

Posted June 9, 2012 at 7:09pm i

medafets:
Prometheus

Ah, the Alien franchise, I had some really good times with the original movies, Ridley Scott’s original Alien was a bit before my time, and I suppose the era that I was born prevented me from fully appreciating the thrills and chills that it delivered all the way back in 1979. But it was James Cameron’s sequel, the imaginatively titled “Aliens” that was what really made me fall in love, to this day I consider Aliens to be a perfect action film. Then the series was followed up with some pretty average, but enjoyable sequels, so when I heard about the sequel/prequel that was being made I was a tad suspicious, when I heard that Ridley Scott was at the helm I joined the many other legions of fans that have been impatiently anticipating Prometheus (And thus making it one of the most anticipated films of 2012).

In the original Alien, when the team investigates the deserted Alien ship, do you happen to remember a figure who was sitting in a large chair that had had his chest burst? It was never mentioned in the original film, but that figure has since to be known as ‘The Space Jockey’, ring any bells? Well anyway, Prometheus sets out to tell the story of that figure and how the ‘aliens’ came to be present on that ship.

The year is 2089 and a team of archeologists has just uncovered a series of cave paintings that hold a serious scientific anomaly, a figure on the cave walls is pointing to a cluster of stars, but the thing is; that the same figure and cluster has been found on cave paintings and engravings from all over the world. The conclusion; the paintings point to a planet many light years away from earth that may contain the answer to the biggest question that humanity has ever faced: What made us and why are we here?

A team, financed by the Weyland Corporation, make the two and a half year journey to the planet on a ship called…you guessed it: Prometheus. On board are the people who discovered the paintings, the religious archeologist Elizabeths Shaw (Noomi Repace, who was the original swedish Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and her fellow archeologist and love intrest Charlie (Logan Marshall-Greene).

The trip is looked over by the cold Weyland Corporation representative Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) and the resident android on board is the well-to-do David (Michael Fassbender) who has chosen to make his personality resemble a character out of his favorite film; Lawrence of Arabia.

When the team hit the ground and start searching through a pyramid that they discover, it soon becomes clear that they have made a big discovery, one that may answer the question that they came to find; the origins of human existence. Yet at the same time, (To the surprise of exactly no one) they have stumbled onto something may spell the death of not only the crew of Prometheus, but the entire population of earth.

It is with a heavy heart that I say Prometheus is a mixed bag as both a science-fiction thriller and a film set in the Alien universe. Overall I had a good time with it, but with my awe of what I was given came with a fair amount of bitter disappointment as well. I’ll start with the strengths.

Visually, this is one of the best films I have ever seen. It has been a while since I’ve seen a film in 3D, and an even longer time since 3D made any sort of impression on me. But fear not, the 3D in Prometheus might be the best i’ve seen, maybe even better than my first viewing of Avatar, if you have the option, defiantly go for the extra dimension with this one. The film just looks magnificent from it’s opening moments to its closing, the CGI in both the landscapes and the space-ships is just incredible. The costumes, which mostly consist of space suits, all look fantastic.

Prometheus gave me such a sense of awe when it really shows the sheer scale presented here, I don’t think watching this at home would have the same effect, so try to catch this on the big screen.

The other major strength of this film is that fans of Alien will get the most magnificent rushes of nostalgia. When you see that title slowly revealing itself one line at a time you get that lingering feeling that you get from the opening of Alien, and even down to the design of the ships, seeing the crew wake up from hyper-sleep and all gather for a meal, glorious. But it’s when a character walked into a room that Alien fans will know well that the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, without giving anything away; I will never look at that space jockey the same way after this. The final ten minutes of Prometheus are just an Alien fans delight, when we see huge aspects of Alien begin to form it’s all I could have wanted from an Alien prequel.

However, the biggest problem that Prometheus has is the script. I can’t tell if it’s fully the fault of the script or it might possibly be the editing, but the second half of the film is just a mess. There are many things that needed to be explained better, and some that frankly don’t make sense. For example, the magnificent opening sequence has no explanation for what happened in it, nor any context to the rest of the film, which is just frustrating!

The script also makes characters do things that range from being unbelievable and silly, to some that frankly make no sense at all (Did they sleep together or not?).

As you might have guessed, for this is an Alien film after all, the sequences of suspense are pretty effective. There is one in particular involving abdominal surgery which is just shock and gory goodness. Very cleverly the film doesn’t try and scare the pants off you, for it would never be able to do that to a desensitized modern audience, but what it does do it deliver several great gory and jolting sequences, it does this exceedingly well.

I can’t say anything bad about any member of the crew for they all did a fine job, but no one went beyond being simply ‘good’ (Surprisingly not even Michael Fassbender, who I consider to be one of the greatest actors currently working in Hollywood). Once again the script is to blame, for many key characters are under-developed and most roles really didn’t have anything special to work with.

And finally, I don’t think that “cheated” is the right word for it, but for a film that is so heavily set in prequel territory, I really was not impressed for the blatant setting up for a future sequel.

In Summary: Prometheus is not a bad film, far from it, when it does something right it does it brilliantly, such as the awe-inspiring visuals and providing of glorious Alien nostalgia. Where it has a pretty significant fall is the script’s handling of the second half of the film, when story strands are left dangling and characters start doing things that have no proper reasoning behind them. So in the end, I’m very glad I saw Prometheus, the Alien fan in me left with a big smile on his face but I’m so disappointed that the film I waited so long and in such anticipation for was not better than what I was given.

http://thepompouspickle.tumblr.com/post/24751658875/my-thoughts-on-prometheus

June 9, 2012
My thoughts on Prometheus

Honestly, like most people, I was a bit underwhelmed with Prometheus. As you can tell by looking at my blog for the past 2 months, I was REALLY wanting to love this movie. And I did like it a lot. But it was far from perfect. The visuals were, as many people have said, incredible. And the acting was also incredible. But there was just something missing that Alien and Aliens had in them. I just didn’t get that feeling that I got when I first watched the other movies. So I’m going to ramble now and try to put words to describe my feelings. Warning for possible spoilers and a lot of unpopular opinions.

A lot of people are giving shout-outs to Fassbender and his role as David. And I do have to say, his acting was top-notch and absolutely amazing. I can’t really put his portrayal into words. It was absolutely breath-taking in many ways, especially when you compare the very beginning to the end. He seems to transition from a small autistic child to a rather devious soul with actual thoughts and desires. It was a brilliant performance, certainly. However, the actual writing for character of David was puzzling in a frustrating way. I already wrote an entire post about David that I will probably put on my blog a little later, because it’s long and full of me rambling over myself trying to find answers. I get a lot of what he did, after sleeping on it and thinking about it for a long time. He had the urge for freedom. I get that. But the things he did to Holloway and Shaw? It needs answers.

Which brings me to my next thing: a lot of people are complaining about unanswered questions. And a lot of people are defending the movie by saying “The Alien movies didn’t answer everything either!”. This is very true. However, not all the questions Prometheus left unanswered were acceptable to leave open. There were questions that simply could not be answered with a sequel, unless the sequel is nothing but Shaw and David having a big long heart-to-robot-heart on the ship to the other planet. The thing about why the Engineers tried to kills us? It doesn’t need answering; David said as much himself.

However, why David poisoned Holloway? It will FOREVER baffle me. And what was with the scene in the beginning with the Engineer committing suicide? It was never explained. I would have been okay if the scene involved the WMDs attacking the Engineer. But he did it on his own. It frustrates me how the writers put that scene in the very beginning and didn’t bother to make it particularly significant, other than showing what the WMDs can do. So really, this is my biggest complaint about the movie: the sloppy writing.

However, there were things I liked. Particularly, the characters of Shaw and Vickers. I loved Vickers more than I can possibly describe. She and Shaw were a perfect balance of brains and instinct. And they both had such raw emotion that could be seen in almost every scene they were in. Even when Vickers was an ice queen, you knew that she thought and felt deeply. Perhaps she wasn’t thinking of others, but no one really was. Even Shaw was pretty selfish in the movie, thinking only of herself and Holloway. Vickers was strong and smart, knew she was strong and smart, and was determined to make things work out in any way she could.

This is why I was pretty disappointed with how she died. She seemed to have such good common sense. But instead, she had Zoolander-syndrome: she couldn’t figure out how to turn left. I wish both she and Shaw survived. So that the three of them could go off on the ship, head to the other planet, and f&#! up the Engineer’s day. Like, Shaw would go in demanding answers and after she got them, Vickers would come in with her flame thrower going “No further questions”.

Overall though, I actually really liked the movie. The editing was top notch, the sound was brilliant. And unlike most people, I liked the plot. It was nothing new, but it didn’t have to be. Many characters made really stupid choices, but it was a horror movie and Horror Movie Stupidity is not unexpected. For the most part, the characters were engaging even the writing failed them and I have to appreciate that. If I were to grade it, I would give 3.5 stars, or an 8/10.

Oh and why was Vickers’ medical pod only calibrated for men? The last time I checked, Charlize Theron was definitely female. Unless the Captain got a rather nasty surprise when he went off to “love the one you’re with”.

Also, David-Shaw-Holloway is the strangest not-love triangle I have ever seen in my life and I don’t know why I wanted it so very much.

moviestvandmore:
Post-Prometheus

So I saw Prometheus. I’m glad I did have some forewarning about the poor aspects of the movie, mainly the script. The acting actually wasn’t all that good either, except for Michael Fassbender. He’s just consistently great it seems.

I watched the film with a friend and we were both disappointed with the other main characters, including Noomi Rapace and Charlize Theron.

Back to the script. There were indeed plot holes. I won’t go too much into it, but if you’ve seen the film then you might want to check out this list of 10 Questions Left Unanswered at the End of Prometheus. It contains spoilers though so read at your own risk.

But indeed the visuals were great. The opening shots were beautiful. The ones where David, the android played by Fassbender, looks at a holographic map of the universe, are also pretty awesome.

What lifted the movie for me was how it did often keep the suspense up, and how it provoked one to think about humanity, creation and robotics. The last one ties up with my post earlier on the issue.

I would agree that I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5 rating. Over at Rotten Tomatoes, viewers gave it a fair grade as well of 75%.

peak-hills-infinite-wonders:

Prometheus directed by Ridley Scott

Rating: WOW

Last night I went to the opening night of Prometheus and I went into the film with zero expectations. I remember seeing a lot of hype for the film on Perez but I didn’t consider seeing it until I saw the trailer during The Avengers. This film is actually awesome. It’s been hard to take alien films seriously because I find that sometimes I’m unimpressed by the effects and thus can’t find the film shocking. Prometheus is an alien film but the story is well-developed and the effects aren’t merely for shock value. For this reason, scenes genuinely disturbed me and yes, shocked me. I feel that this is rare because even though I’ll leave a film and enjoy it, I’ve expected to enjoy it. In no way did I go into this film thinking that it would produce intense reactions.

I cut my thumb yesterday at work and after seeing this film I felt like an asshole for crying after seeing what the character Elizabeth Shaw played by Noomi Rapace had to go through. I’m referring to a particular surgery scene that was grotesque without the exaggerated gore. Michael Fassbender was fantastic as the robot David. He is an extremely attractive actor but he successfully managed to creep me out. Every character in the film was contrasted very well so I didn’t feel like someone was unnecessary.

I would recommend this film to anyone. I hope I haven’t built it up too much but I honestly liked it that much!

http://fill-light.tumblr.com/post/24749885723/review-prometheus-2012-dir-ridley-scott

REVIEW: Prometheus (2012), dir. Ridley Scott

In discussing a film that has been the subject of so much hype and, in the last few days, so much disappointment, I feel I must address not only Prometheus itself but the criticism it has garnered, and what that might mean for movies in general. Spoilers below.

Prometheus was more or less what I expected. I had fun. The film’s technical achievements, myth-making and performances more than made up for the weakness of the plot, dialogue and characterization. Like many have said, it’s a well-made movie based on a so-so script.

However, I don’t believe for a moment that Prometheus deserves the vitriol of its harshest critics (Devin Faraci, I’m looking at you). Much like the proto-xenomorphs themselves, fanboys are a weapon of mass destruction who can turn on their masters as soon as serve them. But perhaps even that isn’t the crux of the problem.

Yes, boys and girls, we are spoiled. Prometheus’ greatest crime is not achieving its obvious ambitions, and as such the critics feel the need to cast it aside as utter dreck. 21st century Hollywood film-making and the criticism surrounding it has become polarized and rigid. Movies can only be masterpieces or messes, and filmmakers are either geniuses or idiots. God forbid we embrace films that have unrealized potential, or that fail in interesting ways.

Dare I make some irresponsible generalization of how the ubiquity of information has disallowed ambivalence in human thought? No, I dare not. Perhaps the rising cost of movie tickets and economic strain on the middle- and working classes puts pressure on studios to market its films as either harmless, stupid fun or Cinematic Events. Prometheus is in neither category, but as a franchise reboot with enough well thought-out SF and horror elements to hold interest, it works.

Who am I kidding, I’ll pre-order it on Blu because it all looks so damn good. And because Michael Fassbender.

anatomyofanoxford:
We've come to a point in humanity

that originality is so far gone and removed that we simply are incapable of creating anything new. Everything has literally and physically been done before.

So it’s not a matter of what you do, but rather how you do it.

That’s what I love about Prometheus. Everyone is going to whine, bitch, and moan about how it plays right into every science-fiction cliché and gimmick that its predecessors did. But honestly, that’s the point. It’s a prequel. And the entire premise of the film is basically a metaphor for, “It’s been done before.”

Don’t sit there on your high horse and poke it with a stick, you’d be lying if you said it didn’t keep you on the edge of your seat for its entirety. Even when you knew exactly what was coming, the suspense of it was nerve-racking.

I think Ridley Scott did a great job with this. He’s a master filmmaker for a reason. The plot isn’t bland or flat, it’s merely original. THE original. Which after several millennia of tellings and retellings, has just become unoriginal.

Think about it, guys. Stop relying on douchebag film critics for an opinion and actually take a minute or two to ponder what was just presented to you.

rivinari:

Holy mother of f&#! I saw Prometheus last night.

Mother f#%@#&! Prometheus.

Jesus it was such abeautifully horrific movie. Well worth the wait. THAT HOLOGRAM SCENE WITH DAVID, you know which one, IT WAS BEAUTIFUL. AND THE SCENERY WAS BEAUTIFUL TOO. mind blow.

Anyway I won’t say anymore because spoilers, but I’m slightly freaked out, because my head canon Sebastian Moran is Michael Fassbender and I wrote a mini fic for a mormor prompt earlier, and in that I’ve got him playing Chopin’s raindrop prelude on piano.

David had Chopin’s raindrop prelude playing at the beginning of Prometheus.

ffffffffffffffffff-

samtopia:
Man, Prometheus was pretty disappointing.

I’ll admit I wasn’t as excited about this movie as some people that I’ve talked to, but I was expecting good things based on the trailer and the hype. The first half of it was alright but it descended into convoluted madness in such an unfortunate way that by the end I was so completely uninvested in anything that was happening. On the plus side, Michael Fassbender was really phenomenal of course and the set design and effects were absolutely out of this world. That’s really saying something because with few exceptions if a live action movie is mostly computer animated I just can’t take it seriously (including Avatar) but the effects in Prometheus actually felt real, or at least really visually crisp. Seriously though that movie should have either completely dropped the Alien connection or dropped the mythological creator thing because mixing them both together just felt completely unwarranted. As far as summer blockbusters go it’s definitely more worth your money than most other films in theaters right now, but it doesn’t even hold a thousandth of a candle to Alien or Aliens.

indiethingsforhipsters:

Prometheus Review

With Alien being more deserving of respect than a genuine classic, and Aliens which is one of the best action movies of all time, Prometheus is somewhat in the middle. In terms of quality. In tone and plot (both structure and storyline) this is 100% Alien.

Where it differs is the phenomenal themes and questions this movie raises. Who created us? What is our purpose? If we meet our makers what would we say?
But in between all of that nonsense is a regular slasher. But I found it thrilling and invigorating.
My heart was permanently beating and this Alien world extends it’s universe.
Guy Pearce looks like Mr Burns as he walks around and Charlize Theron is there…for some reason, but Idris Elba and Noomi Rapace are marvelous.

But Michael Fassbender. What can I say? Channeling Peter O Toole in Lawerence of Arabia (quite literally) he gives the same erk that Ian Holm gave in the original.

SPOILERS
The Alien at the end seemed to be shoved in there to be defined as a proper prequel (Scott was almost definitely pressured by studios)
UNSPOILERS

It has been criticized for not having enough characterization, but with a phenomenally existential plot, i don’t think it requires it as much as other movies need to. After all, it is written by Lost’s Damon Lindelof.

4/5

mollyso:
Movie Review: "Prometheus"

image

Let’s start this review off in the best possible way—with a shameful confession: I have never seen “Alien.” Through some form of pop culture osmosis, factoids about the film have been transmitted to me; I know it’s directed by Ridley Scott. I know who Ripley is. I know aliens come out of human body parts they should not be coming out of. Beyond that cursory knowledge, though, the plot points are unfamiliar to me, so when I heard about “Prometheus,” ostensibly the film’s prequel, I figured I’d better learn up quickly or risk sitting in the theater completely lost.

That was until a friend and “Alien”-enthusiast said: “They say it’s a prequel, but I don’t believe it’s a prequel.” Sure enough, one needn’t memorize, or even glance at, the “Alien” wiki to follow “Prometheus.” There are Easter eggs embedded in the film for “Alien” aficionados—I know this because at various points during the movie, and particularly during the final scenes, my fellow theatergoers murmured “Ooooh,” clearly putting together a piece of a puzzle invisible to me. By and large, though, the film stands on its own as a sic-fi adventure and, because the genres often go hand in hand, an origin story.

What do our makers owe us? Scott mulls over the question, among other existential quandaries. Moviegoers can ask a version of the same thing: what do our directors owe us? Complex characterizations? Compelling plot lines? Beautiful images? Timely commentaries? Scott succeeds in providing all of these things to some degree.

After various loved ones’ untimely deaths, the film’s heroine, Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace), is determined to find out ‘why.’ Why life? Why death? Why create either? Rapace plays her with quiet conviction, but conviction in what we’re not entirely sure. There are cross necklaces and rumblings of faith, but I would have liked it if Scott had spelled out her religious beliefs more clearly for us. It’s an ongoing issue throughout the film: the actors are strong, but most of the characters are sketched out rather than shaded in, making it hard to figure out their motivations during the film’s climax. The exception to this is Michael Fassbender’s tricky android David, a fascinating creature robbed of humanity but searching for agency nevertheless. Fassbender put his predatory blue eyes to good use in “Shame,” “Jane Eyre,” and “Fish Tank.” Here, they contain the same menace, but also flash with pain when confronted with the way humans have devalued him. While the mortal shipmates question their makers, David puts the spotlight on his—us.

If some of Scott’s characters are somewhat haphazard, his world is fully realized. This is one of the few films I recommend seeing in 3D, where you can get a better sense of the depth in each scene. The alien planet feels real, as do the aliens. (The second impressively conceived space creatures I’ve seen this year, following “MIB 3.”) They’re just as creepy as Ghostface or any other horror movie figure. One of the film’s most skillful and terrifying scenes involves Shaw unceremoniously removing one of the aliens from her body—and you thought Bella Swan’s labor was bad.

“Prometheus” may not be the most subtle film, nor the most expertly plotted, but none of its missteps were large enough to pull me out of the world. Because of its concerns with life and humanity, the film demands more of the audience than an average summer movie, while still incorporating the scares, thrills, and fast pace we’ve come to expect of blockbuster fare. (Impressively, despite the complex plot it rarely gets bogged down in exposition). The territory Scott covers may not be alien, but it’s original enough to make for a memorable moviegoing experience.

http://andiwasaboyfromschool.tumblr.com/post/24730298043/my-thoughts-on-prometheus-what-you-may-be

My thoughts on Prometheus.

What you may be expecting and what you will get are very very different. Please read on if you’ve already seen the film or not planning on seeing it. If not…

Spoliery Spolily Spoilers!

From the very first trailer, I figured this sci-fi adventure would be more in the vain of ‘Moon’ and ‘2001 a Space Odyssey’ films as much about the human psyche as space travel and aliens. From the trailers and all of the people behind the film (Damon Lindelof one of the producers of LOST produced Prometheus), it looked like it would be more of a film leaning toward the end of the scale that plays more with in the human mind and sways a lot further away from the original Alien films (STFU everyone who says this isn’t a prequel to the ‘Alien’ films it’s CLEARLY in the same universe) sci-fi horror.

To my surprise it was a lot more towards the horror end of the scale. For a film where the crew of a space exploration vessel go out to find our ‘creators’ it left a lot to answer for.

Don’t get me wrong. It was a fantastic ride. A lot of fun, a lot of scares. Michael Fassbender is one of the best actors in Hollywood right now. His turn as David the android was second to NONE. He is brilliant as David and every minute he is on screen you can’t look away and the scene in which Noomi Rapace has to give her self surgery to remove an unwanted guest is brilliantly horrifying. I still left the theatre wanting more.

For a film that gave us such great viral videos as Peter Weyland of Weyland Industry’s TED TALKS 2023 (GUYS!! THEY DID A TED TALKS VIRAL VIDEO THEY’RE TALKING TO US THE TUMBLR PEOPLE) and a commercial for Fassbender’s David android. It promised so much but delivered so little.

With that said, they’re were heaps of stuff in the movie to make it an absolutely passable sci-fi thriller/horror. But I wanted so much more from it.

bearbaire:

Prometheus (2012)

Director: Ridley Scott

Cast: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba

Ridley Scott’s return to Sci-Fi and the Alien franchise he started 33 years ago frightens, enlightens, and puts you under a spell.

I don’t do these reviews nearly as often as I’d like, but when I actually do, you can rest assured I loved the darned thing. Prometheus is that rare summer blockbuster that challenges you to think, but the truly unique thing about Scott’s quasi-Alien prequel is that its script, penned by John Spaihts & Damon (LOST) Lindelof poses some of life’s grandest questions and has the good sense to realize it could never possibly know the answer, because it is, in fact, simply a movie. Rather, it gives you some food for thought; perhaps raising some questions you never thought you wanted to know the answer to.

These philosophical ambitions take a back seat to Alien tie-ins in the last 15 minutes or so. The last shot of the film in particular is so infuriatingly Alien related and out of place, meant merely for sequel set-up. “Cool, but tacked on” a friend put it to me, and I couldn’t explain it any better. I view no other purpose for it as it is in no way essential to the rest of the story. But as I said before, this is an Alien prequel, and Alien is one of the biggest horror franchises of all time, so I can’t dock it too many points for building on the mythology. It’s just a shame that this could have been a splendid movie in its own right without bludgeoning me with Alien connections.

The horror elements of this sci-fi tale are in true spirit of Ridley’s Alien as far as tone and themes are concerned, only now he’s found clever ways to up the stakes. With Alien, the Xenomorphs that are the film’s main antagonists are phallic shaped and and penetrate the body laying eggs to be hatched via the host’s chest. If you’re unfamiliar with this franchise, perhaps you’ve at least heard the term “chest-burster”. It is exactly as uncomfortable looking as it sounds. In this film, Scott keeps tradition with creatures other than the Xenomorphs, but some still very phallic shaped monsters (one in particular that, in all honesty, looks like a p**** with a mouth) that still do a lot of penetrating. What Scott is doing very successfully in his attempt to frighten us is provide the audience with an ultra-disgusting visual metaphor for rape, both male and female, and although Alien did this to great effect, Prometheus finds some nastier ways to shock you in my opinion.

As for the cast, I shouldn’t have to tell you that the lead players in this movie are at the top of their game. Charlize Theron provides a typically convincing performance as the Prometheus crew’s no nonsense boss, but Rapace and Fassbender stood out the most for me. Such a wondrous thing for Scott to keep the tradition of a strong female lead as he did with Sigourney Weaver in Alien.

Finally, my favorite thing about the film is the visual spectacle. I should admit, I am disappointed this is the case, (I wanted the philosophical insight to be more awe-inspiring than the visuals) but the nonetheless, Scott and his camera crew have delivered some of the most gratifyingly grandeur images these eyes have ever seen. The word “epic” comes to mind, but I feel that term is used often to describe many things that may be cool, but are not quite epic. These images are arresting when you are in the theater and completely haunting after you’ve left. I’m still processing it all.

I saw this film in IMAX 3D and payed 17 dollars for a ticket. I don’t feel that I wasted a single penny, but let’s hope Prometheus’ sequel will allow itself to more naturally flow into the world of Alien.

A-

alliewhitt:
Saw Prometheus tonight...

… and it was pretty darn amazing. Great cast, AMAZING graphics, interesting story. I watched most of it through my fingers, but that’s because I’m a wuss - I’ve had a fear of things popping out of people or of people blowing up every since I watched The Mummy as a kid and the scarab thing popped out of the guy’s arm and chest. *shivers-galore* O.o

Other than a few gruesome scenes that literally drained the color from my face, it was fantastic.

And just to top things off, I adore Michael Fassbender, and his character David was perfect - added wonderful, sarcastic humor where it was needed.

Go see it. But if you’re a girl (for one specific scene that, after you see it, you will understand), or at least if you have a week stomach, be prepared, either with an already empty stomach, a barf bag, or something to hide behind. You have been warned.

NOW FLY MY PRETTIES!! *queue evil laughter, now!*

ashtonkutchermustdie:
Prometheus - A Review

Like a lot of movies nowadays Prometheus has been subject to much hype, anticipation and marketing. In this 24 hour news, internet forum, social networking age every piece of information, utterance and image has been pored over, speculated on and critiqued since Ridley Scott announced that he had started on the project a few years ago. However, even with trailers, trailers for trailers and viral marketing a lot of Prometheus has still been kept under wraps. Ridley Scott has never explicitly stated that this is a prequel to Alien (even though it is). He has been very careful about that. The sheer weight of the original film, its iconic status and the status of Scott himself, who has returned to the genre he helped define with Alien and Blade Runner, could have crushed the film before it even began. And it does. In the shadow of a Xenomorph and Scott’s back catalogue, it withers.

Calling the film Prometheus in itself creates a challenge (Prometheus in Greek mythology is the Titan who stole fire from the Gods and gave it to man, thus kick-starting civilisation. He was punished severely for his crime.) Just the title and the connotations of it give the audience some idea of story, themes and subjects. And these are big, big, themes. Scott is already piling the weight and expectation onto his own shoulders before the film even begins.

The main problem with this film is the script and I direct any failings or criticisms solely on writers Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof. Lindelof is most well known for being the writer of TV series Lost. Anyone with any amount of taste and sense should already hear alarm bells ringing.

It’s hard to write about Prometheus without giving too much away and so there may be a few spoilers up ahead. The film opens with a very strange scene of a bald, white, humanoid alien apparently committing suicide by drinking an unknown black liquid. From this moment on I was sceptical. It felt more like a shoddy sequence from Men in Black film. I really wanted to like this film and tried my hardest but this scene set the tone; nonsensical, silly and disappointing.

Have prequels ever been good? I really can’t think of one that is superior or even on a par with its original. This film has all the same problems that The Phantom Menace had. The sense of anticipation and disappointment is similar. The pace is really horrible. You spend the whole film imagining that something is going to happen and that it’s building up to some big climax but it just never does. Although the last half hour is the best part of the movie it’s simply not enough. As you watch it doesn’t seem so bad but afterwards, the more you reflect and think about it the worse it seems.

Like Lindelof’s Lost series this tries its hardest to be epic and clever but ends up eating itself. It’s dragged down by a lot of unexplained, unexplainable events that are simply thrown in because the writer thinks he is better than he is and also that the audience are dumber than they are. I’ve heard this film described as “cerebral sci-fi” by a few people. Anyone hiding behind that phrase is kidding themselves. This is not cerebral in any way. I don’t doubt that it wants to be and that was the intention but the end product is just a mess of questions, half thought through ideas and no real message or point. Sound familiar Lost fans?

The first Alien was a sort of sci-fi horror, the second went for all out action, the rest of the franchise have wavered between the two. This film is neither; I don’t know what it is. Dull, I suppose. The only real horror to speak of is a scene where Noomi Rapace’s character, Shaw, is being operated on. This is probably the best set-piece in the movie. It used body-horror, gore and some neat call-backs to the other Alien films to great effect. Unfortunately, this is the only scene that is mildly satisfying and it doesn’t even make a lot of sense within the context of the film. All of the action scenes seem shoe-horned in at various points just so the pace doesn’t lag too much. They’ve just not been thought through. The worst part of the film is when a previously dead character returns in zombie form. This makes absolutely no sense in the continuity of this film or the rest of the franchise and seems thrown in because they were lacking in ideas.

What’s good about it? Well Fassbender, Elba and Theron all give mesmerising performances. Fassbender in particular steals the show. With his part being an android it’s not a particularly hard part to play but he gives it just enough innocence and underlying menace to differentiate from Ash or Bishop in the other films. Fassbender’s David, though non-human, is probably the most relatable and sympathetic character in the film. Once again the script lets him down. With the character having no real motivation for some of his actions, it leaves us wondering whether he’s good or bad, working under his own autonomy or being manipulated by another character. Elba, as always, is great playing the blue-collar captain of the ship, more like the working class character we are used to seeing in the franchise. Theron’s performance, while good, is a little one note. The character herself is quite good, though for a while it seems like she’s being built up for something integral to the plot that never happens.

As most genre fans will tell you, a film like this lives or dies on its depiction of the aliens or monster. This dies. Giger’s original design for the alien in the 1979 film was a terrifying, nightmarish monster that, along with the scorpion/spider hybrid, the face-hugger, has become iconic. Scott has tried so hard not to use these now ubiquitous images that he instead invents something else. Something worse. 20th Century Fox surely own the rights to Giger’s designs and the man himself could have been employed to create a new creature or creatures. But he wasn’t.

In 1979’s Alien we briefly see one of Giger’s designs in the background. A huge humanoid exoskeleton, all ribs and bone with an enormous head, dead black eyes and what looks like an elephants trunk; the Space Jockey. Prometheus is based around the question, “who is the Space Jockey (here referred to as an Engineer) how did he get there and what happened to him?” In the first act of the film it is revealed that the classic Space Jockey look is just a suit of armour and inside they are the giant, pale, bald humans from the opening scene. Considering the whole film is based around one of Giger’s designs, best not to f&#! with it, yeah? Especially when the design your replacing it with is so substandard.

I could go on and on with what’s wrong with this film. Plot holes, lack of action and answers, characters with no real motivation or explanation for their actions but on the whole it’s just disappointing that more thought and effort hasn’t been put in by its makers. If this is, in fact, part of a planned trilogy, as Scott has hinted at, then please for the love of God keep the hack from Lost well away from the next ones.