Prometheus - Ridley Scott's 'Alien Prequel' (or not)...
Discussion
One thing that fundamentally annoys me about Prometheus is the ship itself. It's so small. It makes no sense to bring all your eggs down in one basket. The Sulaco + dropship made far more sense. Likewise the interstellar ship in Avatar. Ok, in Alien the Nostromo went down to the surface - it was just the cargo they left up there. But even so.
otolith said:
Loads more, but I prefer to sit back, suspend disbelief and enjoy the films!
Me too, which is why I found Prometheus so disappointing. I gave it every chance and even went to the cinema to see it a 2nd time but the flaws just outnumbered any positives. It wasn't the only film to have that effect on me as I also came away from The Dark Knight Rises feeling the same way 
The problem was that I had very high hopes/expectations for both films and neither of them came anywhere close to matching those expectations.otolith said:
Loads more, but I prefer to sit back, suspend disbelief and enjoy the films!
It's not so much suspending disbelief - it's Sci-Fi after all, it's the piss poor script, charecterization, dialogue and acting which is the main issue. Even if the film was nothing to do with the Alien franchise, the film would still be let down by the aforementioned.otolith said:
Loads more, but I prefer to sit back, suspend disbelief and enjoy the films!
Honestly, when I'm watching a film I actively want to, and find it incredibly easy to, sit back and switch off my critical faculties (not difficult, I admit, I'm like a labrador most of the time) then just watch and absorb. I'm surprised I don't leave the cinema with drool hanging from my mouth most of the time. Having said that, I don't think I'm stupid and I can cope happily without exposition and with ambiguity in a story. There's very little in Alien(s) that has ever caused me to double take and think WTF? Now, that's not to say those things don't exist, however, the pacing, the direction, the acting (and more importantly the fact I cared for/disliked the characters) and the storyline all combine to make me miss them and the whole, together, enables me to watch with disbelief fully suspended for the entirety of the film.Prometheus couldn't be more of a contrast. It so frequently made me think WTF it was just distracting and spoilt the film. By the end of it I really couldn't give a toss who was dead or alive.
Despite what someone has said on this thread, no one is being "clever clever" in their criticism, if only because it doesn't require a towering intellect to find fault with the film so what would be the point in trying to suggest one was. After all, it's not like people voicing these criticisms are particularly few and far between.
to the above post.otolith said:
Loads more, but I prefer to sit back, suspend disbelief and enjoy the films!
Same here, too easy to over analyse the details and miss out on all the fun.Quite how you missed the dreadful script, acting, constant WTF moments, annoying soundtrack, lack of chemistry between the cast and dreadful editing is what I don't understand.
Next you'll be telling me that you enjoyed Ridley's last steaming turd, Robin Hood.
Bedazzled said:
rasto said:
...I had very high hopes/expectations for both films and neither of them came anywhere close to matching those expectations.
I think this is the key, when I saw it yesterday I had very low expectations and was pleasantly surprised on the whole. Visually it was jaw dropping on my projector setup and I quite enjoyed it just as a popcorn movie like Cowboys and Aliens. It could have been fantastic though. 
Edited by SWoll on Tuesday 9th October 21:41
Low expectations saved the day, almost. My brother is quite the film snob and ripped Prometheus to pieces, he's usually fairly near the mark but makes no allowance for my, generally, easily pleased disposition.
So I was pleasantly surprised throughout the first 3rd of the film when I found myself enjoying it, cautiously optimistic for the second and disappointed with the 3rd part which was more stupid then even I could allow myself to like.
As a side note regarding suspending disbelief, specifically in reference to a Superman quiery someone raised a few pages ago about guiding an aeroplane to saftey just holding onto the wing tip. That's nothing, in Superman 3 when he freezes a lake to carry it over to a chemical factory and put out the fire, he holds the whole lake by the edge. It would just snap off... I've carried that around with me for sometime, feels good to share, thank you.
So I was pleasantly surprised throughout the first 3rd of the film when I found myself enjoying it, cautiously optimistic for the second and disappointed with the 3rd part which was more stupid then even I could allow myself to like.
As a side note regarding suspending disbelief, specifically in reference to a Superman quiery someone raised a few pages ago about guiding an aeroplane to saftey just holding onto the wing tip. That's nothing, in Superman 3 when he freezes a lake to carry it over to a chemical factory and put out the fire, he holds the whole lake by the edge. It would just snap off... I've carried that around with me for sometime, feels good to share, thank you.
im said:
TonyHetherington said:
im said:
The surrounding topography of the 2 crashed ships is entirely different.
I assumed that was because it was many years later?I think people are just looking for some kinda conspiracy theory here.
JonRB said:
One thing that fundamentally annoys me about Prometheus is the ship itself. It's so small. It makes no sense to bring all your eggs down in one basket. The Sulaco + dropship made far more sense. Likewise the interstellar ship in Avatar. Ok, in Alien the Nostromo went down to the surface - it was just the cargo they left up there. But even so.
The one thing I'd say about that, though, is that if the crew did absolutely everything as you'd expect. Absolutely everything as being sensible, then surely you'd have no story, and would just watch a science mission?If no person made a mistake, or emotion's made them make a poor judgement, or a poor tactical choice, then stuff would just "happen" rather than any actual "thril" of this thriller film!?
the sulaco was a mining ship, so was huge for the purposes of storing ridiculous amounts of Ore and the equipment to extract and refine it.
the promethius was not a cargo ship.
it looked to have less storage space than the serenity.
it seemed setup for crew, and crew activities.. labs? recreation? fuel?
the promethius was not a cargo ship.
it looked to have less storage space than the serenity.
it seemed setup for crew, and crew activities.. labs? recreation? fuel?
TonyHetherington said:
The one thing I'd say about that, though, is that if the crew did absolutely everything as you'd expect. Absolutely everything as being sensible, then surely you'd have no story, and would just watch a science mission?
If no person made a mistake, or emotion's made them make a poor judgement, or a poor tactical choice, then stuff would just "happen" rather than any actual "thril" of this thriller film!?
: )If no person made a mistake, or emotion's made them make a poor judgement, or a poor tactical choice, then stuff would just "happen" rather than any actual "thril" of this thriller film!?
The two fellas, geologist and biologist, in their stupidity are effectively the catalyst. They're the teenager running up the stairs, rather than out the house. Their stupidity is offset against the horrendous face melt and rape. The 'rape' however, could have been better executed... Please never quote that out of context!!!
TonyHetherington said:
The one thing I'd say about that, though, is that if the crew did absolutely everything as you'd expect. Absolutely everything as being sensible, then surely you'd have no story, and would just watch a science mission?
If no person made a mistake, or emotion's made them make a poor judgement, or a poor tactical choice, then stuff would just "happen" rather than any actual "thril" of this thriller film!?
The thing about Promethueus crew is that they all act like children, and some of the characters turn on a sixpence. As opposed to Alien, where their actions make sense because their characters make sense. We get the whole film because Ash ignores a directive (and we find out later why). We get the film in Prometheus because everyone just acts like nobs with no sense.If no person made a mistake, or emotion's made them make a poor judgement, or a poor tactical choice, then stuff would just "happen" rather than any actual "thril" of this thriller film!?
JonRB said:
One thing that fundamentally annoys me about Prometheus is the ship itself. It's so small. It makes no sense to bring all your eggs down in one basket. The Sulaco + dropship made far more sense. Likewise the interstellar ship in Avatar. Ok, in Alien the Nostromo went down to the surface - it was just the cargo they left up there. But even so.
That was always one thing I found a bit odd about Aliens;The Sulaco always seemed too big for the amount for crew it had on board. Also, there was something of the 'Star-Trek' about everyone heading down to the surface and leaving this rather expensive military ship floating up in space unguarded.
To those who think we are being too harsh, when it comes to sci-fi I admit I am a bit of a geek so this means quite often I will overlook a films foibles and suspend any WTF thoughts entirely, easily pleased IS my middle name.
However even my love for sci-fi was forced to crack about halfway through this film. Seriously Alien and Aliens are by no means perfect and a concerted effort will obviously show some errors but you are so wrapped up in the story, tension and characters that you just don't notice them.
Prometheus on the other hand had none of these to keep me distracted, add to that the huge, gaping plot holes that you could drive a truck through and the whole thing just falls apart. Believe me I wanted nothing more than to loose myself in 2 hours of sci-fi but like Neo in the Matrix, I kept "waking up" and being taken out of the film into reality. The fact that it was Ridley Scott who stuffed this up so badly is even more shocking.
However even my love for sci-fi was forced to crack about halfway through this film. Seriously Alien and Aliens are by no means perfect and a concerted effort will obviously show some errors but you are so wrapped up in the story, tension and characters that you just don't notice them.
Prometheus on the other hand had none of these to keep me distracted, add to that the huge, gaping plot holes that you could drive a truck through and the whole thing just falls apart. Believe me I wanted nothing more than to loose myself in 2 hours of sci-fi but like Neo in the Matrix, I kept "waking up" and being taken out of the film into reality. The fact that it was Ridley Scott who stuffed this up so badly is even more shocking.
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