Prometheus

[01101010]

I doubt you can recapture that lightning in a bottle, but the emotions played out on screen in Alien probably set the bar too high for any of the following iterations of it. This one just seemed to lack any connection to it as has been said in the thread. Guess scientists really are unfeeling assholes as opposed to blue collar workers. 

[Paelos]

Because LOST was a Failure.

My point was that the problems of the show carried over into what could have been a promising movie premise. The man only knows how to write checks he can't possibly cash.

[Ironwood]

Lost wasn't a failure.  Just sayin'.

[Paelos]

Lost wasn't a failure.  Just sayin'.

I don't think it was a "failure." I think the writer who did both lacks the ability to formulate a story without relying on the crutch of "tune in NEXT episode for the answers!"

[Ironwood]

I wasn't talking to you.

[HaemishM]

Lost wasn't a failure and I liked the ending. It wasn't perfect, but I thought it encapsulated the show fairly well, especially in comparison to the ending people expected. It obviously wasn't a financial failure, but I don't think it was a narrative one either. YMMV.

[Engels]

There's a ton of great artwork and a so forth that make the movie a worthy flick for any sci-fi fan, but this feels like a project with so many cooks in the kitchen they end up not being able to boil a simple egg, much less something with wildly ambitious philosophical goals.

[Mrbloodworth]

I wasn't talking to you.

Should have been green I guess.

[Ironwood]

 Why is the Scottish geologist a sociopathic twat from the get go?

Seriously ?

Is this more Green ?

[Engels]

Nah, Scottish jokes aside, it was entirely over the top, unexplained hostility, which ended up looking like poor acting, although it was just plain ole awkward script writing.

[SurfD]

Yeah, a lot of character actions kind of made me go "what the fuck were you thinking" too.  

I mean, the way some of the characters act, I wouldnt be surprised to find out there is a hidden undeground lab out there with a bunch of office types in lab coats having it on with the Prometheus crew.  Control to Chem Department, did you finish treating their respirator tanks?

[Comstar]

If you took a cheap, crappy, ultra-low budget 1950's SF movie and made it in the 21st century with 200 million dollars, you'd have Prometheus. It's like someone resurrected Ed Wood and told him to make a sequel to Alien.

Though come to think of it, I'm wrong. Ed Wood had a dream. Whoever made that piece of crap had a bad dream that was read by an Android without feelings, likeability, comprehension, musical ability (seriously, the music through the ENTIRE FILM was wrong), character motivation, plot making ability oe the knowledge of how to scare people, and then try and make a film about Aliens. Who are 100% human.

Or and somehow we need to get a Giant Squid that increased in size 1000 fold inside a medical bay made of plastic and end the movie in a nuclear explosion. And don't end the movie without ending the movie first. And also have a zombie. Because EVERY Ed Wood movie needs something that came back from the grave.

OMG. The Alien engineer's play was PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. It all makes sense now!


BUT WAIT THERE'S YET ANOTHER ENDING. After this next one.


When we can fly this ship at faster than light speed.




For the sequel.

[Lakov_Sanite]

The squid was what kinda crossed the line for me, even in the world of alien with its sketchy biology, the squid was a bit much.

[Tannhauser]

The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Holloway

[SurfD]

Yeah, I completely forgot about the mind boggling Biology traits anything remotely associated with the Xenomorphs have.  Nothing says realistic Biology like things derived directly from human DNA that have:
- Acidic blood hundreds of times stronger then anything remotely reasonable
- The ability to gestate from fetus to man sized or larger in a matter of hours
- The ability to increase in size and mass so extremely out of proportion to caloric intake that it practically defies the laws of Conservation of Energy

I mean,

[01101010]

Yeah, I completely forgot about the mind boggling Biology traits anything remotely associated with the Xenomorphs have.  Nothing says realistic Biology like things derived directly from human DNA that have:
- Acidic blood hundreds of times stronger then anything remotely reasonable
- The ability to gestate from fetus to man sized or larger in a matter of hours
- The ability to increase in size and mass so extremely out of proportion to caloric intake that it practically defies the laws of Conservation of Energy

I mean,

A wizard did it...

[bhodi]

Saw it this weekend.

It was an object lesson in poor research protocols, bad personnel selection and hilarious under-staffing.

Who needs a watch on an unknown creepy planet? Let's just all have sex instead!

[Phildo]

Nah, Scottish jokes aside, it was entirely over the top, unexplained hostility, which ended up looking like poor acting, although it was just plain ole awkward script writing.

I thought he was a mercenary at first.  A predecessor to the space marines from Aliens or something like that.

[Merusk]

From pretty much the moment that anyone took their helmet off, I was 

Just saw it this afternoon as my Dad's-day present and I was the same way.   

"Wtf.. why are you even doing that.  Nooooo, stupid!"

The movie straddles an odd line between hard science and fantasy science while also dipping toes in philosophy and horror.   It never quite gets them all right and I blame that on the script and the writer's inexperience.   (Or perhaps he just approaches everything this half-assed.)   

Not to mention so much of the movie was entirely pointless to the narrative.   
Ending thoughts:

Saw it this weekend.

It was an object lesson in poor research protocols, bad personnel selection and hilarious under-staffing.

Who needs a watch on an unknown creepy planet? Let's just all have sex instead!

See what happens when you put things in the hands of corporations! 

[Tannhauser]

This was a different planet than LV-426 where the first two movies were based.

[Merusk]

Oh shit, I missed that. Well now it makes even less sense to me. 

[Margalis]

Oh shit, I missed that. Well now it makes even less sense to me. 

Yeah, a lot of people were confused like that. Speculation is it was supposed to be the same planet but got re-written late. The naming and the fact that it appears to be staged similarly on purpose is odd.

Apparently late in the game they did a script pass to make it less directly connected to Alien.

[Paelos]

(Or perhaps he just approaches everything this half-assed.)   

I don't think that's the case with Lindelof. I think his greatest strength as a writer is the ability to set a stage and give you a reason to give a shit about the coming material. If he was in charge of the first 1/4 of every story, and then forcibly removed from the project so that someone else actually moved his setpieces to a natural conclusion, the ending result would ultimately be better.

[Surlyboi]

Meh.

[01101010]

Yeah, a lot of people were confused like that. Speculation is it was supposed to be the same planet but got re-written late. The naming and the fact that it appears to be staged similarly on purpose is odd.

Apparently late in the game they did a script pass to make it less directly connected to Alien.

Well at least it got me thinking on how this movie would line up with the originals.

[Mattemeo]

I have come to a theory regarding the abject stupidity on display during the events of Prometheus. It's not much, but it makes some sense.

These people have been asleep for 2 years. They have been put into a sustained vegetative state, not much more than a coma, for a significant period of time. Now, I suspect that there's all sorts of hard sci-fi medical mumbo jumbo in their cryo-tubes that stops them all from actually becoming dribbling vegetables, but being forcibly woken up from a 2 year coma is still likely to leave a person with a fair degree of (possibly non-permanent) brain damage. Because while these people were hand-picked for their professional backgrounds, their actions imply some serious form of cognitive disability which I'm going to posit is simply because they all have the MOTHER of all jet-lag. "Eat space-pap to regain muscle mass! Drink sticky sweet space-pop to give you energy!" suggested the creepy automated Lunchlady voice. That it omits to tell them to take their space-Omega 3 supplements to stimulate brain activity was either an operational snafu or David Did It.

[Samwise]

Maybe Senator Palpatine was using the Dark Side to cloud their minds.

[Merusk]

Horror works with teens because they have notoriously bad decision making skills.  Hormones literally make them stupid.   It's almost passable with blue-collar 'real joes' because not all of them are street smart.  People at the pinnacle of their field breaking protocol because LOL ALIENS..   no.

[SurfD]

David Did It.

This one also bugs me quite a bit.   You could write a fairly thick book based simply around attempting to figure out what the fuck David was doing / thinking throughout the entire movie.  Many of his actions are so downright bizzard you just have to wonder what was going through his head.

[Margalis]

This one also bugs me quite a bit.   You could write a fairly thick book based simply around attempting to figure out what the fuck David was doing / thinking throughout the entire movie. 

Would you write this book before or after you wrote one about the Lost numbers?

[Ironwood]

Maybe Senator Palpatine was using the Dark Side to cloud their minds.

GOLD JERRY.

Also, bizzard.  Great new word.

[Mattemeo]

Also, I guess this movie pretty much confirms that the Aliens VS Predators movies are completely not part of the Aliens franchise cannon

I don't think they've ever been considered canon. Ill thought out fan-service, certainly.

[Johny Cee]

Also, I guess this movie pretty much confirms that the Aliens VS Predators movies are completely not part of the Aliens franchise cannon

I don't think they've ever been considered canon. Ill thought out fan-service, certainly.

Predator 2 had an alien skull included as a trophy, and I believe was always considered canon or permission was secured to do it from some rights holder....  it launched a gazillion other works with Alien/Predator crossovers.

The reality is that the Aliens folks never gave a shit about any kind of continuity anywhere at any time, which was why each movie did pretty much whatever it wanted. 

[murdoc]

Yeah, a lot of people were confused like that. Speculation is it was supposed to be the same planet but got re-written late. The naming and the fact that it appears to be staged similarly on purpose is odd.

Apparently late in the game they did a script pass to make it less directly connected to Alien.

Well at least it got me thinking on how this movie would line up with the originals.

The problem with that thinking is that...


And a flute? Really, a fucking FLUTE!?

This video is full of spoilers, but I can't stop laughing at it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x1YuvUQFJ0

[01101010]

Yeah, a lot of people were confused like that. Speculation is it was supposed to be the same planet but got re-written late. The naming and the fact that it appears to be staged similarly on purpose is odd.

Apparently late in the game they did a script pass to make it less directly connected to Alien.

Well at least it got me thinking on how this movie would line up with the originals.

The problem with that thinking is that...


And a flute? Really, a fucking FLUTE!?

This video is full of spoilers, but I can't stop laughing at it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x1YuvUQFJ0

Hence my final statement... I am rethinking things and hurting myself in the process.