Prometheus Forum

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The writer is being attacked on Twitter and while the original eighty percentile was quite good, it looks it's getting ready to start slipping, and the opinions can be summed up in all style and little substance.

I'm nervous, you guys.

You should be. It's honestly not very good. Im surprised it's getting as much positive buzz on RT as it is.

This movie had a lot of hype for it. When my Aunt, who hasn't seen Alein or Aliens since they were in theaters is hype for a Riddley Scott movie something is up. I don't expect it to be perfect but I doubt it's going to be Last Airbender levels of bad. You should do what I did for Avengers and any other movie I am sold on and couldn't care what other people think about it before I see it. Do your best to just cut yourself off from any sort of contact with it until you get to see it

Oh man that tweet is disgusting. I'm glad twitter usually fights back since every account is visible and can be traced back.

I'm not surprised, when the internet gets it in their heads that something will be great any disagreement is seen as blasphemy.

I saw it on opening night, and while initially I was pretty disappointed, it's grown on me substantially.

There were some absolutely terrific elements: the KEY characters were fairly well-developed and obviously well-acted; the ideas presented were fantastic and I absolutely adored the mythology; the sets are basically best-in-field and the atmosphere was impeccable.

The main problem with the film is that it asks these giant questions, seems totally set on focussing on them for the first hour, and then takes them out of the over when they're only half-baked. (I also though there were one or two very small things that were absolutely atrocious; thankfully, they are confined to certain moments - certain line readings and a directorial choices here and there).

Saying that, the amount of hype placed at Prometheus' feet was unfair: it IS a great movie, as the general consensus on RT suggests, it just isn't necessarily the film we expected. The number of questions we're left with at the end is a double-edged sword. Hopefully now that Scott has unshackled this franchise from Alien, we'll see a greater focus on the better aspects of this film in a possible sequel.

As others have said, if the film had more or less dropped the (pretty tacked on) Alien strands - ie. the giant face-hugger and the proto-xeno in the films coda (though, obviously kept it in the same universe since it deals heavily with the Space Jockey race from that film ), then it would likely have had a far warmer reception.

Going to see it again in the next week. This time I'll be able to watch it with a clearer head, and likely enjoy it far more.

@GetEveryone: I'm astounded how the movie can grow on anyone over time. The more I think about it, the more problems I have with dropped storylines, plotholes, bad twists, poorly written dialogue, little tension, cookie cutter characters and awful sequel fodder ending.

@The_Patriarch said:

@GetEveryone: I'm astounded how the movie can grow on anyone over time. The more I think about it, the more problems I have with dropped storylines, plotholes, bad twists, poorly written dialogue, little tension, cookie cutter characters and awful sequel fodder ending.

S P O I L E R S

Given the main cast was fleshed out fairly well, I don't agree with the cookie-cutter characters notion, even if the rest of the cast were there as purely fodder.

Like I said, there were elements I didn't like. There is a strange intangibility to the things that didn't work, and trying to put a finger on it has proven pretty difficult. The entire section with Weyland was pretty unnecessary. They set up David as the Prometheus figure then suddenly have Weyland crop up in the film's final act and declare his desire for immortality; it struck me as needless (as did the dreadful "father" line, which I'm guessing you were referencing with your 'bad twist' comment). The flashes of the cross during the brief dream-sequence had me audibly sighing, too. Not to mention the awful Scottish actress (I'm Scottish), who sounded like she was told to enunciate like a local news correspondent.

The film we do have is... I don't want to say badly constructed, so I'll go with weirdly. The first hour is more or less exactly what I'd hoped it would be: we are given mysteries, get to spend a little time with characters getting to know them better and teased with the notion that the race we have set out to meet are gone. The abrupt change of pace in the second half doesn't allow for the same scope of developing these themes as they should. Basically, I think that by attempting to juggle the story that had been brewing with the horror sections on the second half, there were far too many ideas and none of them were given the chance to really ferment into something meaningful.

In the best example I can think of, the whole Med-Pod scene was played out far too quickly and set up a little too obviously. It lacked tension where it should have been terrifying. As soon as it was over, it was never mentioned again and Shaw was more or less back to operating at 100% in the very next scene (it served next to no purpose other than the split second death of the Engineer). As I said before, these Alien elements felt tacked on. I guess the intangibility problem I mentioned just comes down to scripting issues and/or the cut.

If the entire film had played out like the first hour, culminating in the awakening of the Engineer in the third act and a more prolonged chase scene with Shaw, it may have had more impact. As it is, all of the big moments fizzled a little. An extended running time would probably have corrected the largest issues I have with it. There is an absolutely fantastic movie in there, unfortunately the one we ended up with felt like a whittled-down cut of a longer, more mysterious, thoughtfully paced film. It teased us with some incredible elements, but seemed determined to hit a quotient of important plot points before the end of its run-time.

What dropped storylines were you referring to, btw? Why Shaw starts barking at the Engineer as soon as he wakes up I don't know, because as far as I'm aware only David was privy to the fact that they were heading back to Earth.

Given ALL that, though, I really enjoyed my time with it and, thinking back, the general look and feel of the film as well as the main characters really drew me in more than the elements that I feel didn't work to the film's benefit. Writing this has actually been very cathartic, and I can see far more clearly what did and didn't work.

I'll be seeing it again, and I can't wait to I'm looking to revisit the temple with these characters. If it does decent business, then hopefully we'll see the sequel (they were so obviously setting it up for) and they can spend more time fine-tuning the script and really focussing on the elements that worked in this film.

I just got back from seeing it and i was pretty disappointed by it, it had great acting, decent characters and great visuals. The 3D was 100% pointless and the story was just plain baffling. Instead of giving the viewer answers it simply left more questions. The whole plot of the film made the whole journey for the crew pointless, and the small ties to the original Alien film were rushed and not fleshed out enough.

I left the cinemas feeling very disappointed and plain confused at the whole film. It just didn't need to exist.

That never helped Robin Hood from mediocrity.

@aseddon130 said:

The whole plot of the film made the whole journey for the crew pointless, and the small ties to the original Alien film were rushed and not fleshed out enough.

I left the cinemas feeling very disappointed and plain confused at the whole film. It just didn't need to exist.

That's more or less the problem: it's effectively two movies. The more thoughtful one we have for the first two-thirds, and the Alien prequel we have for the last act. If Scott and Fox had the balls to just drop the affiliation to Alien it would have been monumentally better.

Again, though, I thoroughly enjoyed it, regardless.

Basically, we'll have to wait for the inevitable extended cut (Theron just let slip that there was an additional 21 minutes of footage cut from the film - regardless of what Scott says, the studio will put one out) before we know if it could have been any better.

@aseddon130 said:

That never helped Robin Hood from mediocrity.

True... nor Alien.

Virtually every other one of his offerings was much improved by the longer cut, though.

I loved it, it's getting way to much hate.

Wow. There were people that didn't enjoy this movie? I'll see you guys never.

@scottp said:

I loved it, it's getting way to much hate.

@dezvous said:

Wow. There were people that didn't enjoy this movie? I'll see you guys never.

I wouldn't worry about the small section of internet hate, guys. It's generating some great buzz in the mainstream and has been reviewed pretty well. Sitting at 74% on RT with an average score of 7/10.

It's a flawed film, sure, but a damn fine one.

*SPOILERS*

This was one of the few films I came out of not sure if I liked it, or thought it was just mediocre. The more I think about it I find myself really liking parts of it, but overall those parts don't seem to fit too well together. I was definately glued to the screen the whole time wanting to find more and more, but it seemed like Scott only hinted at possible explanations and in turn just made more quections. I do enjoy movies that create these exestential questions and such, but it seems a weird fit since it's been two decades since he made this univers. The final bit before the credits just seemed so forced. I'm not sure if it was Fox who was pushing for it, or Scott himself realized that setting the movie in the same universe and not adressing the xenomorph would upset fans, but either way it just seemed to be tacked on. It almost seemed like that should have been more fleshed out and a major plot point of the sequel. It would have been so much cooler if in a sequel Shaw finds the origins of the Engineers and finds that they ended their own existence due to all of their genetic testing and creations of new species. Then it could have ended with Shaw crashing the ship that ended up on the planet from Alien.

I also agree with @GetEveryone in that it almost seems like two movies. I think it could have definately been cut at parts and the plot extended into what happens after Shaw leaves the planet. I'm sure the Director's Cut will add more great stuff to it, but I doubt it can answer much, especially if Scott planned a sequel from the beginning. Honestly I kind of liked the mystery and unknown origins of everything that the original Alien created and would not care if the answers never came to existence. As much as I wanted to find out everything in Prometheus, maybe it was better in the end to keep the space jockey a mystery and the origins of the xenomorphs an unknown. Either way I plan on seeing it again and look forward to the sequel!

@GetEveryone: I only read a few sentences, but it seems like you started going into specific scenes and even mentioned something towards the end. If there are spoilers, please label your post as such. Thanks!

@csl316 said:

@GetEveryone: I only read a few sentences, but it seems like you started going into specific scenes and even mentioned something towards the end. If there are spoilers, please label your post as such. Thanks!

Apologies! It was in response to someone who had seen the film, but yeah I'll label it.

Sorry again.

@FoxMulder said:

*SPOILERS*

It's been two decades since he made this universE.

Alien is pushing 40. Now that'll make you feel old (or young, I guess...)

I actually really dug most of this movie. I had a problem with the fact that very few of the characters are more than just one dimensional and there to be killed off, and it took a while to grow on me, but I think that's mostly because I kept going "shouldn't this be a horror film?" But then eventually I realized "oh no, this isn't a horror film, this is just a sci-fi film that has horror aspects of it," and after that I started to enjoy it for what it was. I was about to give it 4 out of 5 stars, but that last scene kind of disappointed me and left a bad taste in my mouth.

I actually really dug most of this movie. I had a problem with the fact that very few of the characters are more than just one dimensional and there to be killed off, and it took a while to grow on me, but I think that's mostly because I kept going "shouldn't this be a horror film?" But then eventually I realized "oh no, this isn't a horror film, this is just a sci-fi film that has horror aspects of it," and after that I started to enjoy it for what it was. I was about to give it 4 out of 5 stars, but that last scene kind of disappointed me and left a bad taste in my mouth.