PROMETHEUS post-release discussion - Page 3

Damon Lindelof twitter

... You're welcome? RT @mickbim Hey @damonlindelof, you are the second person to rape my childhood after George Lucas ! Congrats !

hahaha does he not get it? And yet he's a sci fi writer

Well, he seems to not understand half the stuff he writes, so it wouldn't surprise me. 

Of course he gets it. He replied jokingly. No different from his responses to people that didn't like the Lost finale.

Another thing pissing me off is people on other sites saying, "Well you obviously went into this film expecting an ALIEN prequel..."; when actually the OPPOSITE is true...OK, I had a vague idea about the story, BUT RIDLEY HIMSELF SAID THIS WASN"T A PREQUEL!

I saw the trailers and TV spots and chuckled to myself about all the fan-boys frothing at the mouth and smugly thinking "yeah, I can see where THIS is going...Nice one, Ridley..."

So basically what I'm saying is Ridley pulled a fast-one on people believing what he preached...I realise this makes me sound like the people I'm railing against...but this film died with me due to fan-service.

...I can't stop thinking about the damn thing, though.

Shit.

(sorry...this makes me sound like an absolute cunt...)

This has gotta be some kind of new land-speed record:

Amazon already has pre-orders up before the movie even makes it into the theater.  The Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy is currently on sale for $27.99, and the version that adds 3-D is on sale for $34.99.

Love how there are ALREADY reviews ...

I've just got back from seeing Prometheus and the thing I realised straight off the bat discussing the film with the guys who came along with me is its hard not to sound like an Alien fan with severe butt hurt that this film wasn't Alien.

Now I am a big Alien fan (no shit) but I am also a fan of SF in general and I have to say that from that point of view alone, Prometheus is a total rambling mess. A beautifully shot mess, but a mess none the less.

There is so much wrong or simply mishandled with this film its hard to point at exactly where it all goes wrong. From a story perspective it seems to be unable to work out if its a 2001 wide eyed epic dawn of man, big concepts, SF or if its monster of the week SyFy shlock b-movie.

One of the major issues for me, is that the films concepts and opening half hour should be inspiring wonder from all concerned on board the Prometheus, yet most of the time the crew act like potentially finding the origin of the species and "Darwin in a can" is no big thing and its this lack of engagement with the situation that drains the life out of the film almost immediately.  Most of the crew themselves are so lightly sketched they're barely there. We're told that the Prometheus has a crew of 17 yet we only meet five major characters, a couple of barely speaking parts and the rest are Ridleys Red Shirts, there purely to be bumped off in one of the few action moments, all of which undermines the films tension from the get go.

Fassbender acquits himself well and dominates every scene he's in, yet despite this, the script and the plotting throws his motivations and actions back and forth. Is he an Ash like malevolent android or a Bishop style innocent child? Its hard to say as the character flip flops between the two poles so often it gets hard to care. Noomi Rapace is the character we're supposed to be rooting for, but as with all the other characters she just seems to blunder from one scene to another with little motivation.

The scenes where....

...should all have had major consequences for crew dynamics and character interaction but these scenes are blown off and ignored within seconds and never raised again as if Scott and Lindelof just wanted to get past the bothersome story and script stuff and just kick off the Gods & Monsters action.

And when that action happens its pretty lacklustre, there is a couple of shocks but nothing astounding or even that frightening. The lack of scares isn't a major deal breaker if you at least cared about the characters involved, but beyond a brief moment of enjoyment from the growing friendship between Rafe Spall and Sean Harris' botanist and geologist, there's nothing to latch on to. Idris Elba is fine enough, but his main role in this is to squint at screens and Charlize Theron's corporate ice queen seems like a character that will "do a Ripley" starting all officious and thawing by the final scenes but that never happens.

The creatures (not the Jockeys) are so uninspired that I started to suspect that this wasn't so much a film set in the Alien universe as a knock off of Alien that sprung up on straight to VHS after its release like Titan Find or to a lesser extent Xtro, where you could imagine writers saying "Oh yeah and then the monster goes in his MOUTH!" or "And then the monster FUCKS HIS FACE MAN!" and then trying to write a plot around those one or two scenes. And where the creature in Alien had a very clear and queasily plausible life cycle, the wriggly critters from Prometheus, just feel like accidents or cruddy monsters from an Asylum flick, looking and acting like they do just because well everyone hates tentacles don't they?

And as for....

In fairness the film has some big ideas in the first half but they're never explored in a satisfying way and by mid way through the film you get the sinking feeling it was added for no real reason than to just get the Prometheus to LV-226 so the monsters can start running about. By the end of the film I felt like I had been duped with the promise of something epic only to get something utterly underwhelming.

So as a SF fan I was deflated by the movie in so many ways. As an Alien fan, I just... well... I was pretty speechless by the end credits (see last spoiler as to why) and while Prometheus doesn't diminish Alien it certainly seemed to be trying extremely hard to explain everything yet making a pigs ear job of the whole thing.

I really need to think over the film again, to nail down more specifics about why I disliked this movie as much as I did but for the moment I'll have to just say that its not because its not Alien, its just because its not an interesting or engaging film

I just don't understand why people are going in expecting Alien.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ambler 

I just don't understand why people are going in expecting Alien.  

*looks at the first trailer, the director, and the preproduction*

*raises hand*

Oooooh Oooooh Oooooh.  I KNOW, PICK ME PICK ME

Do you think some critics disbelief, or however you want to put it, in the concept of ancient aliens contributes to their dislike of the script?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ambler 

I just don't understand why people are going in expecting Alien.  

I certainly wasn't. Scott and Lindelof had hammered home the "it has strands of Alien DNA but its not a prequel" line so often only someone completely unaware of the film barring the trailer and poster both of which say "from the creator of Alien" and take that as an indicator of the film's direction could be expecting that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheCatfishCommander 

Do you think some critics disbelief, or however you want to put it, in the concept of ancient aliens contributes to their dislike of the script?

I don't think the "Chariot of the Gods" theme was that badly handled initially and the script in the first half certainly goes out of its way to sell the concept. No, where the script falls down is in the character work especially how some act and react to certain situations. Where any normal person would get, angry, upset, indignant or frightened, most of the characters in this just look blankly at each other and move on to the next scene.

For example

The only positive I can think of at the moment is GdT's assertation that this film ruined his At the Mountains of Madness adaptation is a load of rubbish (unless it performs so poorly that it kills any serious Sci Fi for years).  I think I may go see this again to see how it is on a rewatch but I don't know if I can pay £10 again for a film I felt flat about.

Yeah, I really thought it would be more similar than it seems to be, but regardless I've read the ATMOM script and let's just say HP would have disowned the movie adaptation.

maybe that is what he meant.  The movie is going to do bad, and kill any chance.  But then again, I don't care for GDT, so eh, whatever.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheCatfishCommander 

Yeah, I really thought it would be more similar than it seems to be, but regardless I've read the ATMOM script and let's just say HP would have disowned the movie adaptation.

any chance you could toss me a copy of that?

I have a feeling/hope this is yet another "Kingdom of heaven"; Scott probably just delivered the cut Fox demanded, all while retaining the right/chance for a Director's Cut version in home release.

The film's disjointed and illogical transitions just scream cut to shreds...either that or Lindelof got away with WAAAY too much script work.

I have to say that GdT would be able to do a Mountains movie with little problem or audiences pointing and saying its Prometheus. That's not to say that there isn't more than a few nods to Lovecrafts story in Prometheus... The discovery of ruins of an ancient civilisation, the team of explorers splitting into two (one in the ruins one back at base camp) and the ruin team reviving the ancient evil which aims to leave and wreak havoc upon Earth but even that wouldn't affect a Mountains film adaptation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryoken 

I have a feeling/hope this is yet another "Kingdom of heaven"; Scott probably just delivered the cut Fox demanded, all while retaining the right/chance for a Director's Cut version in home release.

The film's disjointed and illogical transitions just scream cut to shreds...either that or Lindelof got away with WAAAY too much script work.

I will say that it does feel like the guts have been ripped out of it in places purely because there seems to be no logical progression for some characters to act the way they do. That said however, I doubt there is enough footage existing to repair the damage and sprawling mess the movie becomes in the last 40 mins

His movie would be more of an amalgamation of the Cthulu/Ancient Ones stories rather than a straight up ATMOM adaptation

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryoken 

I have a feeling/hope this is yet another "Kingdom of heaven"; Scott probably just delivered the cut Fox demanded, all while retaining the right/chance for a Director's Cut version in home release.

The film's disjointed and illogical transitions just scream cut to shreds...either that or Lindelof got away with WAAAY too much script work.

Going to rant a little bit.

Fuck that Director Cut bullshit, I'm tired of seeing films, like Kingdom of Heaven, only to have the director go, "it wasn't my vision".  Fuck that, why the fuck then, should I waste my money and my virigin experience with the film if it's not what the director intended?  Seeing a great movie for the first time is something EVERYONE wants and something will all strive to see.  How many times have we all said "I wish I could see Empire Strikes Back again for the first time".  By them hacking it apart, and making something watered down, it's fucking up my experience to see something better the first time.  For instance, Alien 3, the Assembly Cut is a much much much better film.  Maybe my hatred for the premise of Alien 3 in general would have reduced and eliminated if they allowed Fincher to finish his work uninterupted.  The only time this has worked was Lord of the Rings. 

I haven't seen Prometheus yet, but I don't get the hate for the ATMOM script.  It was pretty fantastic, and from what I'm hearing from you guys I would have rather seen the whole "origin of the species Alien inspired story" done through that script with Tom Cruise starring and James Cameron producing than Ridley Scott exploring the idea of the Space Jockey.  That script reads like The Thing meets Alien.  How is that a bad thing?!

I didn't mean to suggest it sucked, but I think hardcore Lovecraft fans would be disappointed in it. Similar to how hardcore Alien fans would probably be disappointed in Prometheus. ATMOM is essentially a creature feature with tons of gore in the style of Hellboy and Blade, which I would love, but to say that Prometheus ruined it when clearly they are different really irks me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freeman 

 That script reads like The Thing meets Alien.  How is that a bad thing?!

I would say more like The Thing meets Aliens meets Hellboy II

No way.  Just because the shit hits the fan doesn't mean = Aliens.  The mood is Alien style dread and tension for massive chunks of that story.  I'm not sure why you brought in the Hellboy comparison, presumably because of lots of creature design and interesting visuals?  Hey, you could do A LOT worse than Hellboy 2 for that stuff.  I'd argue that movie is gorgeous and imaginative.

I only say Aliens because of the multitude of various creatures at play, rather than just a single entity stalking the crew. Aside from that I agree with you.

It's interesting how much the complaints make this sound a lot like what happened with KINGDOM OF HEAVEN... the theatrical version, while cool as far as individual sequences and performances and general scale, overall just didn't make sense and was actually kind of a bad movie. Then you see the DC and everything falls into place (and in the case of KOF, it becomes a fantastic movie).

I will be fucking pissed if that has happened again with PROMETHEUS. It's fine if you make a 3-hour movie but have to do a 2-hour cut for theatrical-release reasons.. fuck Joe Sixpack. But at least let us, the aware film consumer, know. We'll still see your movie theatrically but then at least we'll be able to go in with realistic expectations rather than coming out confused and bummed out.

I suddenly remembered and wondered if someone could explain it or if it was just a plothole...

I also kind of want to know exactly what life form was pinging one of the sensors every hour, the one that David goes to investigate. As it's far too far from the bi-chambers to be any of the worms, and it seems to be going off consistently every hour. 

Have to agree with what most others are saying - it just feels like there's a lot missing. I can think of at least two shots from trailers that weren't in the movie ...

This scene with Weyland and his goons shooting at something.

David finding the wiggly things on top of the urn.

The David one could have just been trimmed for time, but the first one seems to be a pretty big action scene.

(I'm willing to admit I'm wrong if I'm just not remembering them being in there)

The trailers gave the feeling of something EPIC in scope, but it really felt quite small, with the characters running back and forth between the same locations.

And speaking of trailers, WAAAAAAAYYYYYYY too much was given away. Between the various trailers, teaers and TV spots, you've seen all of the money shots.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leto II 

This has gotta be some kind of new land-speed record:

 

Amazon already has pre-orders up before the movie even makes it into the theater.  The Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy is currently on sale for $27.99, and the version that adds 3-D is on sale for $34.99.

 

I'd love to pre-order - but I haven't seen the film, obviously since I'm in the US.  I'd like to wait and see if it'd be even worth getting in 3D.  However all that, I wanted to say thank you for many of you guys posting Spoiler Warnings.  I know someone like myself shouldn't be wandering about in this thread, but curiosity and a respect for many of your opinions has gotten the best of me, and here I am.  So, thank you.  This whole discussion is making my anticipation for this film rise even more so.  I need to see this for myself!  

Quote:

Originally Posted by nameless 

Have to agree with what most others are saying - it just feels like there's a lot missing. I can think of at least two shots from trailers that weren't in the movie ...

 

 

This scene with Weyland and his goons shooting at something.

 

 

David finding the wiggly things on top of the urn.

 

The David one could have just been trimmed for time, but the first one seems to be a pretty big action scene.

 

(I'm willing to admit I'm wrong if I'm just not remembering them being in there)

 

 

The trailers gave the feeling of something EPIC in scope, but it really felt quite small, with the characters running back and forth between the same locations.

 

And speaking of trailers, WAAAAAAAYYYYYYY too much was given away. Between the various trailers, teaers and TV spots, you've seen all of the money shots.

Kind of sucks that that first shot isn't in the movie, because that's one of my favorite shots in the trailer.

As for that last line, I agree. I went ahead and spoiled myself by reading that synopsis on Wikipedia, and basically everything I already knew from the trailers/tv spots/etc was in there. I'm not complaining too much. I'm still going to go in with a big smile, because it still sounds like a really cool movie that I'll enjoy.

Peering through fingers as I skim the thread, I note that Sir Rid was on the Kermode and Mayo show some hours ago and said straight up there's plenty of stuff for a director's cut.  Seems to bear out what people are saying about it being a bit choppy and with bits missing.

Strange.  You'd think by now he, or they as the case may be, would want to put out a big Scott final cut opus.

Now for the Democratic response. 

Prometheus is almost destined to fail. I don't like basing my opinions solely on the responses of others, but I think this film is a case where the burden placed on the artist is nearly insurmountable. Scott made Alien thirty three years ago, and the expectation that Prometheus should even come within a mile of living up to that film seems to be pretty high. That's ridiculously unfair. Alien is one of the greatest science fiction/horror films of all time, period. Few films can stand in stride with it.

None of this is meant to excuse Prometheus for its flaws. There are several. Notably, Lindelof tries to go all Lost on us in really obvious ways; what I'm about to type is super spoilery, so if you're reading this and if you haven't seen the film, seriously, fuck right off. You're making everything worse for yourself by being here than you have by watching every trailer a hundred times, every viral video a hundred times, and read every bit of gossip before going to sleep. A hundred times. I'm being a dick on purpose. Go away. I like you, but go away.

Anyways.

The major flaw with the film lies in the family drama of the Weylands. It's not crippling, but it wrestles with the film's worthy elements for visibility in the second and third acts in truly obnoxious ways. I blame Lindelof, squarely. The big reveals of Weyland being alive and Vickers being his daughter do not work by any stretch of the means. If it isn't clear Weyland's hologram is full of shit in that early scene, you don't watch enough movies; if it's not clearer still that Vickers is his biological kid (against David, his manufactured kid), then you really don't watch enough movies. Neither of these arcs work to a satisfactory degree, and the shit of them is that they could have done so and added a ton to the film's central theme of creation.

Creation is all over the place here. Apart from the obvious thread about Shaw and Charlie wanting to meet their makers, there's the matter of children bouncing everywhere. The obvious reference point here is David-- who acts like a kid wanting to please his father, though admittedly that's just me putting my own stuff on him-- who is a son to Weyland, but then you have Shaw's sterility and her yearning to have a child, and the horror she endures when that becomes a reality in the most unwanted way possible. Hell, Fifield even refers to those life-scanning orbs as his pups. This is a movie about creation, our progenitors, why life exists, and why we create mockeries of life when we can.

So Weyland's shit should fit right in, except that it gets Lost'd. When we learn Weyland is alive, and that Vickers is his little girl, that booming single drum beat that punctuates the climaxes of so many Lost episodes (and cuts to commercials) echoed in my brain. It's fucking inexcusably hackish stuff that's made more aggravating because it could have worked perfectly if Weyland was a character in the movie. There's no reason for him to fake his death. In fact, putting him alive on the ship and with everyone's knowledge would have made his quest and the fate he meets resonate much more effectively. And it would have made his moment with Vickers pop.

Apart from that, there are minor things, like Janek making a lucky guess as to the nature of the planet they're on. While it comes out of nowhere, Janek's clearly not an idiot, and the facility is clearly not the Engineers' home. "Biological weapon storage facility" is  a pretty reasonable guess, even if there needed to be more breathing room before Janek's own jaunt into the temple and his statement to Shaw on his beliefs. And it does feel more like him positing a theory than stating fact. But still.

Everything else? I don't fucking care about the nature of the infection anymore than I care why the black ooze in District 9 turned Sharlto Copley into a prawn. I don't give a crap about the gestation period of the xenomorphs or Fucking Enormous Face Hugger. I don't care that Weyland just brought one armed guard to say hi to the Engineer. None of that matters. It's not even nitpicking. And it all works on screen anyways. I don't mind the crew being mostly faceless because, well, they're not; there are only a few people who don't receive names, and they die extra's deaths. Everyone else we get to know in organic if brief capacities. I felt Fifield and Milburn's deaths. I loved that Chance and Revel going on about their bet before facing oblivion. Hell, I even liked Kate Dickie for all we got to know her character. Barely recognized her at first.

This is a really, really good movie. Should you lower your expectations? Sure. They probably are too high. That's the nature of being a film fan in the Internet age, where we can consume as much information as many times as we want from as many sources as we please at any point in the day. Prometheus is likely going to end up victimized by its own hype-driven hubris. That doesn't mean it's bad. Is it flawed? Sure. But it's gorgeous, beautifully composed in every way, acted with sterling clarity and impressive depth, and filled with big ideas that it explores thoughtfully and with resonance. I don't think anyone should be letting disappointed early word bring them down. It's worth seeing and then some.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Damar 

I suddenly remembered and wondered if someone could explain it or if it was just a plothole...

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

But if Fifield and Milburn didn't make it back to the vehicles, than who the hell drove the APC back? Or was there some offscreen driver who stayed onboard the vehicle?

I was wondering about this too and figured what you did.  Some stayed back (the one who went with that big weapon?).

Mark Kermode's review, which I find mirrors my own...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Muzman 

Peering through fingers as I skim the thread, I note that Sir Rid was on the Kermode and Mayo show some hours ago and said straight up there's plenty of stuff for a director's cut.

Not shocked in the slightest, especially since he previously hinted that we'll be getting some sort of extended cut on home video.  The question is how much longer will it be?

He also said there needs to be two more films before we can dock with the  A L I E N  timeline.

Not sure how I feel about THAT.

For those who've seen it, does it feel like a Kingdom Of Heaven scenario where another cut might reveal a completely different movie?

I haven't seen most of the spoilers things on this thread, but I trust Kermode and his genuine excitement there. He didn't even have time to go into the 3D. I see it in three days and squiggly whatever blah blah. I reckon I will enjoy it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daley D 

I haven't seen most of the spoilers things on this thread, but I trust Kermode and his genuine excitement there. He didn't even have time to go into the 3D. I see it in three days and squiggly whatever blah blah. I reckon I will enjoy it.

It's actually some of the best 3-D I've seen...really worked well with the holographic displays and the orrery in the temple...otherwise totally unnessessary.

Re: why you should/shouldn't expect this movie to be Alien: (don't look at the subject line of this post because spoilers)

Everyone has been so infernally convinced of the movie's direct connection that film that they have it in their heads that it's a xenomorph film. But it's not, and it shouldn't be, and Scott even said that it's not an Alien film a shitload of times. And everyone ignored him. He's outright said it's not a prequel. He said it only contains strands of DNA related to that franchise. He said that it precedes that story but isn't directly connected to it. 

Of course there's been so much rumor-mongering going on in the months leading up to the film's UK release/imminent US release that the accepted truth came to be, "Prometheus is an Alien prequel". I don't think that means anyone should reasonably go in and expect Alien, though; everything Scott's said in the past isn't exactly false, and again, expecting Alien puts an enormous burden on Scott and the film. Don't judge based on whether he out-pinnacles one of his pinnacles. Take the movie on its own merits, which are numerous and substantial. 

To me, everything i've read points it to being a prequel.  If you eliminated Anakin from Episode I, isn't that still a prequel?  To me, a prequel is a story within the same universe that is set before the first film.  And that movie, in a roundabout way, does tell us how the Alien came to be. 

Everyone keeps talking about a sequel(s).  I really, really, really doubt there's going to be a sequel.  I just don't see the word of mouth on this to be positive enough to make it a sequel-spawning hit.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by littlenomad 

Everyone keeps talking about a sequel(s).  I really, really, really doubt there's going to be a sequel.  I just don't see the word of mouth on this to be positive enough to make it a sequel-spawning hit.  

Have you LOOKED at the films that are getting sequels these days?

...and anyway, anything more would be classed as a 'sprequel'...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graham 

 

Have you LOOKED at the films that are getting sequels these days?

Ridley Scott doesn't do cheap knockoff sequels.  There won't be a sequel production of Prometheus' scale.  The notion that there's going to be a new Ridley trilogy or something...look, this film is going to have to do amazing business for that to happen.  And I don't think there's going to be enough interest outside the geek community for that to happen.  I'm not saying there won't be another "Alien" movie.  But I highly doubt there will be a set of Ridley/Prometheus sequels.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monster Pete 

To me, everything i've read points it to being a prequel.  If you eliminated Anakin from Episode I, isn't that still a prequel?  To me, a prequel is a story within the same universe that is set before the first film.  And that movie, in a roundabout way, does tell us how the Alien came to be. 

Sure, it's a prequel. But it's a prequel in a loose sense. The events don't lead into the beginning of Alien. The characters of that film never come up. In fact, by the time Prometheus ends, we're still nowhere near to Alien in terms of location (they take place on entirely different planets!) or in terms of xenomorph evolution. And-- most importantly-- there isn't a fucking xenomorph stalking the crew for most of the film. Would you expect Anakin to force-choke bitches in Phantom Menace? 

Part of the fun of Prometheus for me is in seeing the ways-- quiet and loud-- that it connects to Alien. But it's not Alien. 

Also, 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freeman 

For those who've seen it, does it feel like a Kingdom Of Heaven scenario where another cut might reveal a completely different movie?

Maybe not to the effect of the theatrical and director cuts being like night and day, where night is mediocre and day is incredible. But yeah, I definitely think that the director's cut will improve on the theatrical in significant ways.

Quote:

Originally Posted by agracru 

Now for the Democratic response. 

 

Prometheus is almost destined to fail. I don't like basing my opinions solely on the responses of others, but I think this film is a case where the burden placed on the artist is nearly insurmountable. Scott made Alien thirty three years ago, and the expectation that Prometheus should even come within a mile of living up to that film seems to be pretty high. That's ridiculously unfair. Alien is one of the greatest science fiction/horror films of all time, period. Few films can stand in stride with it.

 

None of this is meant to excuse Prometheus for its flaws. There are several. Notably, Lindelof tries to go all Lost on us in really obvious ways; what I'm about to type is super spoilery, so if you're reading this and if you haven't seen the film, seriously, fuck right off. You're making everything worse for yourself by being here than you have by watching every trailer a hundred times, every viral video a hundred times, and read every bit of gossip before going to sleep. A hundred times. I'm being a dick on purpose. Go away. I like you, but go away.

 

Anyways.

 

The major flaw with the film lies in the family drama of the Weylands. It's not crippling, but it wrestles with the film's worthy elements for visibility in the second and third acts in truly obnoxious ways. I blame Lindelof, squarely. The big reveals of Weyland being alive and Vickers being his daughter do not work by any stretch of the means. If it isn't clear Weyland's hologram is full of shit in that early scene, you don't watch enough movies; if it's not clearer still that Vickers is his biological kid (against David, his manufactured kid), then you really don't watch enough movies. Neither of these arcs work to a satisfactory degree, and the shit of them is that they could have done so and added a ton to the film's central theme of creation.

 

Creation is all over the place here. Apart from the obvious thread about Shaw and Charlie wanting to meet their makers, there's the matter of children bouncing everywhere. The obvious reference point here is David-- who acts like a kid wanting to please his father, though admittedly that's just me putting my own stuff on him-- who is a son to Weyland, but then you have Shaw's sterility and her yearning to have a child, and the horror she endures when that becomes a reality in the most unwanted way possible. Hell, Fifield even refers to those life-scanning orbs as his pups. This is a movie about creation, our progenitors, why life exists, and why we create mockeries of life when we can.

 

So Weyland's shit should fit right in, except that it gets Lost'd. When we learn Weyland is alive, and that Vickers is his little girl, that booming single drum beat that punctuates the climaxes of so many Lost episodes (and cuts to commercials) echoed in my brain. It's fucking inexcusably hackish stuff that's made more aggravating because it could have worked perfectly if Weyland was a character in the movie. There's no reason for him to fake his death. In fact, putting him alive on the ship and with everyone's knowledge would have made his quest and the fate he meets resonate much more effectively. And it would have made his moment with Vickers pop.

 

Apart from that, there are minor things, like Janek making a lucky guess as to the nature of the planet they're on. While it comes out of nowhere, Janek's clearly not an idiot, and the facility is clearly not the Engineers' home. "Biological weapon storage facility" is  a pretty reasonable guess, even if there needed to be more breathing room before Janek's own jaunt into the temple and his statement to Shaw on his beliefs. And it does feel more like him positing a theory than stating fact. But still.

 

Everything else? I don't fucking care about the nature of the infection anymore than I care why the black ooze in District 9 turned Sharlto Copley into a prawn. I don't give a crap about the gestation period of the xenomorphs or Fucking Enormous Face Hugger. I don't care that Weyland just brought one armed guard to say hi to the Engineer. None of that matters. It's not even nitpicking. And it all works on screen anyways. I don't mind the crew being mostly faceless because, well, they're not; there are only a few people who don't receive names, and they die extra's deaths. Everyone else we get to know in organic if brief capacities. I felt Fifield and Milburn's deaths. I loved that Chance and Revel going on about their bet before facing oblivion. Hell, I even liked Kate Dickie for all we got to know her character. Barely recognized her at first.

 

This is a really, really good movie. Should you lower your expectations? Sure. They probably are too high. That's the nature of being a film fan in the Internet age, where we can consume as much information as many times as we want from as many sources as we please at any point in the day. Prometheus is likely going to end up victimized by its own hype-driven hubris. That doesn't mean it's bad. Is it flawed? Sure. But it's gorgeous, beautifully composed in every way, acted with sterling clarity and impressive depth, and filled with big ideas that it explores thoughtfully and with resonance. I don't think anyone should be letting disappointed early word bring them down. It's worth seeing and then some.

This is a great post and I'd especially like to emphasize the last two paragraphs. Some of the (hysterically pre-emptive) criticism for Prometheus has been way over the top. There's no reason to write off this movie, it's worthy of your time and money and you should see it.