Prometheus - Ridley Scott's 'Alien Prequel' (or not)...

Prometheus - Ridley Scott's 'Alien Prequel' (or not)...

Author
Discussion

gregs656

10,903 posts

182 months

Thursday 18th May 2017
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Civpilot said:
Maybe they can do a directors cut using a completely different director.

Maybe one who can put together a coherent story that makes sense and isn't up his own self importance?
A 'Directors cut out' version, if you like.


Blaster72

10,869 posts

198 months

Thursday 18th May 2017
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p1stonhead said:
Is it actually David's intention to wipe out humanity? I thought he was just a bit maniacally curious?
Maybe right, I got a bit distracted when he was "doing the fingering". Still can't fathom if I enjoyed this flim or not. Need to watch it again.

chris watton

22,477 posts

261 months

Thursday 18th May 2017
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After paying to watch Prometheus at the cinema and regretting it, I am so pleased to read that I was quite right not to waste money on this sequel. from what I had read, it is more of a 'soft reboot', but still has all the characters doing stuff people would never do or say in real life.

I get the feeling that Ridley Scott thinks very little of fellow humans, which shows in his awful scripts.

Blaster72

10,869 posts

198 months

Thursday 18th May 2017
quotequote all
To be fair Ridley Scott doesn't do the screenwriting.

Munter

31,319 posts

242 months

Thursday 18th May 2017
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I can only assume that putting people into stasis isn't a perfect thing. The brain clearly degrades resulting in significantly reduced cognitive function.

Anyway, having just figured out something is trying to kill us all, I'm going to go over here on my own, and do something that serves no useful purpose. All alone. Where I cannot be seen or heard. I'll probably be separated from any weapons for a period of time. Hope nothing bad happens.

chris watton

22,477 posts

261 months

Thursday 18th May 2017
quotequote all
Blaster72 said:
To be fair Ridley Scott doesn't do the screenwriting.
Perhaps, but to be fair, it's Scott's film.

Venturist

3,472 posts

196 months

Thursday 18th May 2017
quotequote all
Munter said:
Anyway, having just figured out something is trying to kill us all, I'm going to go over here on my own, and do something that serves no useful purpose. All alone. Where I cannot be seen or heard. I'll probably be separated from any weapons for a period of time. Hope nothing bad happens.
rofl
Why do they keep on doing this. It's ridiculous.
Have them all sit in a petrified circle with their backs to each other, armed to the teeth, with nothing but their own panicked shallow breathing for company, desperately trying to keep their eyes open as the hours drag by till daylight, still totally unable to stop themselves being picked off one by one.

wevster

765 posts

158 months

Thursday 18th May 2017
quotequote all
Venturist said:
rofl
Why do they keep on doing this. It's ridiculous.
Have them all sit in a petrified circle with their backs to each other, armed to the teeth, with nothing but their own panicked shallow breathing for company, desperately trying to keep their eyes open as the hours drag by till daylight, still totally unable to stop themselves being picked off one by one.
Yep all too predictable, you know who the next one to die will be when they wonder off alone...

I like how after the captain has died they then send the new captain and the second in command down to the planet surface.


deanobeano

429 posts

184 months

Thursday 18th May 2017
quotequote all
Seen it today.
Long time Alien fan hoping for a long awaited improvement to anything made from the nadir that was Alien Resurrection.
The first three films are brilliant, excellent and good. I'm referring to the directors cut version with regards to Alien3.

Totally disappointed in this film, for all the reasons mentioned previously and particularly the mass from 'thin air' for the morphs.

I'll add one more (tiny) observation into the discussion.

They perform the rescue in a craft that is designed to move heavy loads from the orbiter down to the colony plant.
It is capable of reaching orbit.
But swing a small crane out from it and it lacks sufficient thrust to counter this weight imbalance and starts flying like Stevie Wonder is at the controls...FFS

Blaster72

10,869 posts

198 months

Thursday 18th May 2017
quotequote all
deanobeano said:
Seen it today.
Long time Alien fan hoping for a long awaited improvement to anything made from the nadir that was Alien Resurrection.
The first three films are brilliant, excellent and good. I'm referring to the directors cut version with regards to Alien3.

Totally disappointed in this film, for all the reasons mentioned previously and particularly the mass from 'thin air' for the morphs.

I'll add one more (tiny) observation into the discussion.

They perform the rescue in a craft that is designed to move heavy loads from the orbiter down to the colony plant.
It is capable of reaching orbit.
But swing a small crane out from it and it lacks sufficient thrust to counter this weight imbalance and starts flying like Stevie Wonder is at the controls...FFS
roflcool

Escapegoat

5,135 posts

136 months

Friday 19th May 2017
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Just back... and it's even worse than Prometheus, and that's not something I thought possible. frown

Anyone else spot the Blade Runner nod? When Daniels sticks the nail into David, he says "That's the spirit" - just like Roy Batty

funkyrobot

18,789 posts

229 months

Friday 19th May 2017
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Just got back from seeing it.

It was ok and I'm glad I saw it at the cinema. Ruined by stupid characters though.


Anyone else notice the old Alien films music when they were looking at the chart of the system?

The chest burster seemed to incubate quite quickly in this film.

I thought there would be more to it than just a naughty synthetic. hehe

s m

23,242 posts

204 months

Friday 19th May 2017
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funkyrobot said:
Just got back from seeing it.

It was ok and I'm glad I saw it at the cinema. Ruined by stupid characters though.


Anyone else notice the old Alien films music when they were looking at the chart of the system?

The chest burster seemed to incubate quite quickly in this film.

I thought there would be more to it than just a naughty synthetic. hehe
Yes, I was just a bit too young to have seen Alien at the cinema....and watched a dodgy VHS copy at my friend's house. Maybe I'd be a bigger fanboy of the original if I'd seen it on the big screen like the later films.

I actually enjoyed the irony of the 'full circle' in Prometheus/Alien Covenant. Having said that it's just 2 hours of entertainment each time for me ....not a religion smile

youngsyr

14,742 posts

193 months

Friday 19th May 2017
quotequote all
wevster said:
Venturist said:
rofl
Why do they keep on doing this. It's ridiculous.
Have them all sit in a petrified circle with their backs to each other, armed to the teeth, with nothing but their own panicked shallow breathing for company, desperately trying to keep their eyes open as the hours drag by till daylight, still totally unable to stop themselves being picked off one by one.
Yep all too predictable, you know who the next one to die will be when they wonder off alone...

I like how after the captain has died they then send the new captain and the second in command down to the planet surface.
Isn't this actually a suspense building technique common to all horror films? My feeling is you're supposed to know who is going to get it next, you just don't know how or exactly when (but it will definitely be soon) - to keep you on the edge of your seat.

If you view the films as horror films rather than Aliens type action movies, then a lot of it starts to make more sense (like telegraphing the switch at the end).

I watched Prometheus again over the past couple of days and, as a standalone film, I thought it was quite good. The "problem" is that Alien and Aliens are iconic films, so "quite good" seems "pretty bad" in comparison.

chris watton

22,477 posts

261 months

Friday 19th May 2017
quotequote all
Perhaps it is better to think of these new films as homages to B-Movies of old, rather than high brow art forms Scott thinks they are. They may be a little more fun to watch if not taken seriously.

Lance Catamaran

24,989 posts

228 months

Friday 19th May 2017
quotequote all
youngsyr said:
wevster said:
Venturist said:
rofl
Why do they keep on doing this. It's ridiculous.
Have them all sit in a petrified circle with their backs to each other, armed to the teeth, with nothing but their own panicked shallow breathing for company, desperately trying to keep their eyes open as the hours drag by till daylight, still totally unable to stop themselves being picked off one by one.
Yep all too predictable, you know who the next one to die will be when they wonder off alone...

I like how after the captain has died they then send the new captain and the second in command down to the planet surface.
Isn't this actually a suspense building technique common to all horror films? My feeling is you're supposed to know who is going to get it next, you just don't know how or exactly when (but it will definitely be soon) - to keep you on the edge of your seat.

If you view the films as horror films rather than Aliens type action movies, then a lot of it starts to make more sense (like telegraphing the switch at the end).

I watched Prometheus again over the past couple of days and, as a standalone film, I thought it was quite good. The "problem" is that Alien and Aliens are iconic films, so "quite good" seems "pretty bad" in comparison.
I think it's more a case of you're supposed to care for the characters so feel an emotional attachment when they do die. Problem is that's a hard thing to do, and when you have more than a few it would be impossible to give them all enough screen time. Part of it is because we've seen so many films we know what to expect, that the characters who have had the most screen time aren't going to be the first to go (although having said that, the first half of Alien gives no indication that Ripley will be the sole survivor)

IroningMan

10,154 posts

247 months

Friday 19th May 2017
quotequote all
Isn't part of the Alien backstory the fact that the characters are generally just ordinary people, not highly trained professional specialists, who therefore find themselves completely unprepared for what they encounter?

The whole crew in the first film, barring Ash, were basically just truckers, so protocols get treated just the same way as a small haulage firm's H&S policy does.

Beyond that there is always the dark hand of W-Y, so we may have a hand-picked crew, but who knows whether they've been hand-picked for their intelligence or their ineptitude!

Spice_Weasel

2,286 posts

254 months

Friday 19th May 2017
quotequote all
Watched it last night. Have read the spoilers now!
Too busy at work to comment in more detail right now but it was going so well up to a point...

p1stonhead

25,566 posts

168 months

Friday 19th May 2017
quotequote all
Spice_Weasel said:
Watched it last night. Have read the spoilers now!
Too busy at work to comment in more detail right now but it was going so well up to a point...
The end of the studio logos? hehe

deanobeano

429 posts

184 months

Friday 19th May 2017
quotequote all
p1stonhead said:
The end of the studio logos? hehe
The bit at the end when Ripley falls into the molten lead, holding the queen chestburster?