Ridley Scott's Prometheus

[nole1]

So I just got home from seeing it in IMAX 3D and it was ok at best. I will have to admit, at most I'm a casual sci-fi watcher so lots of thing that some die hard fans would love were probably right over my head. For me, seeing it in IMAX made the movie bearable. Scenery was incredible but the plot really suffered. Half of the events simply didn't make sense. It seemed as if there was no motivation or reasoning behind them. Went to see it with my brother-in-law (who is probably the biggest sci-fi nerd I know) and as we were leaving he turned to me and said "What the hell?! That seriously made no sense. I love Ridley Scott but some of that was just dumb."

[noahpictures]

I am not into sci-fI but really enjoyed Prometheus. The boyfriend of the main character was mis-cast. His acting was just horrible.

[gaseousclay]

I caught the matinee on Friday and thought it was ok but not great. the visuals looked amazing but as a lot of reviews have already pointed out, the plot suffered the most. there were also a few jump cut scenes that kinda ruined the flow of the film for me. I also wasn't very impressed with the Space Jockeys. I guess I was expecting them to be a little more alien (no pun intended) and when that didn't happen I felt let down. so in a nutshell this is a great popcorn movie if you don't have high expectations. I'll more than likely buy the dvd when it comes out to complete the Alien canon. my recommendation would be to catch the matinee so it doesn't feel like you've wasted your money.

[blary54]

Its settled then...tomm is my bday and I was gonna either goto Prometheus or The Avengers. Think im gonna go with the Avengers.

[merkur59]

my vote goes to the Avengers, not because of the plot, but for the funny one-liners and some 'scene-stealers'.

[christhach]

Well, I saw Prometheus over the weekend with lowered expectations, and ended up enjoying it a lot. Basically, I think Ridley got over-ambitious and tried to squeeze what should have been a 6 hour movie into 2 hours. Kind of the same thing happened to the movie Dune, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

As a result, despite some really cool concepts and the wonderful character of David, the movie does not take enough time to set up all the characters. And due to the need to rush through all the stuff that needs to happen in the 2 hour format, you are left with plot holes, or more specifically, plot leaps that are not well explained. I had to go to several boards to understand and clarify certain points in the film. I now want to see it again with that knowledge.

Again, I enjoyed the film. But it's kind of a shame. It really could have been epic. They really should have done a Lord of the Rings type of deal and split this movie into two parts. That way, they could have developed their thread-bare characters into folks I actually cared about and done a much better job of fleshing out the obscure, but critical plot points (they are there in the film as-is, but you really, really have to look for the clues - it all happens so fast, it's easy to get lost in a confusing mess).

As is, I give it a B / B- for the movie's excellent sci-fi awe and wonder concepts, acting (Fassbender) and the best special effects / sets I've ever seen.

Now I've got to see the Avengers, 'cause no-one does ensemble cast writing like Joss Whedon. : )

[BingeAndPurge]

Saw it last night. The writing is spotty in places, the science is out of whack, and I drove home realizing it was Scientology. Taking away the writing and bad science, it was visually very enjoyable.

[DMT]

Ridley Scott put a lot of work into the symbolism of the movie which I think lead to some plot holes and bad character development. The theme of sacrifice in order to give life which is present in many religions comes up a lot, Prometheus himself gave man fire so man could have equal footing with the gods of Olympus and for that he was chained to a rock to have his liver (which which grows back) ripped out everyday for eternity, how many times did that image come up? In an interview Scott said he wanted to have a scene where humans crucified one of the Engineers but decided against it as it would have been too direct. With that in mind you can make a good guess as to what the missing details for the story was. The engineers who sacrifice themselves to give life to lifeless planets created humans, initially they guided mankind but somewhere along the way mankind developed selfish characteristics, they sent their final emissary a sort of "space Jesus" to try to steer humanity back on course, but instead the humans murdered him. After that the engineers decided the experiment has failed lets destroy it and start over. As I said in another thread it's an average movie to watch and a great movie to think about.

[jtb]

I saw the film this past sunday and really enjoyed it. But I like sifi. The story is not new though, I think it has tones of "At the Mountains of Madness", a book published in 1931.

[xraygun]

6th graders have a better understanding of the Universe than this turd.
Total disappointment. Seemed like the story was written by a committee of young hot shot producers who failed science class.
Overpriced episode of Scooby Doo.
The "scientists" have less sense than Shaggy and Scooby.

Hey let's take our helmets off on a foreign planet. Who needs gloves? Hey look an alien snake creature, let's pet it.
Protaganist scientist lady cuts herself almost IN HALF, staples herself back together and then can run like Rambo.
Flame throwers for space weapons. Suits made out of 50's pajama material that instantly catches fire.
Super intelligent god creatures' space ship that can't outrun or fend off a human ship destroying it by ramming into it.
Pathetic ancient drawings with 6 stars like a constellation, but inexplicably is a "solar system".
Incredibly funded scientific mission with surly incompatible crew that haven't met before and are only awakened minutes before orbiting the planet destination.

so so so so bad.

[TnutsShave]

6th graders have a better understanding of the Universe than this turd.
Total disappointment. Seemed like the story was written by a committee of young hot shot producers who failed science class.
Overpriced episode of Scooby Doo.
The "scientists" have less sense than Shaggy and Scooby.

Hey let's take our helmets off on a foreign planet. Who needs gloves? Hey look an alien snake creature, let's pet it.
Protaganist scientist lady cuts herself almost IN HALF, staples herself back together and then can run like Rambo.
Flame throwers for space weapons. Suits made out of 50's pajama material that instantly catches fire.
Super intelligent god creatures' space ship that can't outrun or fend off a human ship destroying it by ramming into it.
Pathetic ancient drawings with 6 stars like a constellation, but inexplicably is a "solar system".
Incredibly funded scientific mission with surly incompatible crew that haven't met before and are only awakened minutes before orbiting the planet destination.

so so so so bad.

Hmmm...maybe you aren't the target demographic?

I can't imagine scifi movies based in reality would be very much fun to watch. In Star Wars, you can hear explosions in space...try watching it and muting the t.v. during the battle scenes next time. It's pretty lame.

[Drybonz]

I am not into sci-fI but really enjoyed Prometheus. The boyfriend of the main character was mis-cast. His acting was just horrible.

I also enjoyed the movie, and agree that they had the wrong actor for this character. I also could have done without a couple of the over-the-top action scenes, such as running from the falling spaceship. Overall, though... I liked it and I'm curious to see how they will do the sequel.

[xraygun]

I'm not asking for reality, just something that isn't so stupid I can't suspend my disbelief.

[Drybonz]

I'm not asking for reality, just something that isn't so stupid I can't suspend my disbelief.

I think it was obviously tilted a little more toward the fiction than science end of the spectrum, but I think they were going for more of an action movie, like Aliens, etc...

[MilesTeg]

I thought it was quite ambitious. I read some good articles after seeing the film (essays, really) that analyzed the symbolism and pointed out things I had not noticed, so I will want to see it again. I agree with the above post that it tried to do too much; it should have been a two or three part film. The character development suffered as a result of cramming too much into two hours, but I still was satisfied. The David character was well done.

[Champion of Capua]

I'm not asking for reality, just something that isn't so stupid I can't suspend my disbelief.

You should enjoy Avengers than, it could totally happen.

[Champion of Capua]

I really liked the movie and agree with many of you that the writing should have been better. IMAX 3D did make it visually worth watching, much like Avatar. Hoping there is a directors cut with an extra hour

[BingeAndPurge]

I have now decided this was a really bad movie. A buddy and I have gone back and forth all day, similar to Xraygun, about the stupid writing and predictable sci-fi/horror plot structure. Throwing in a bunch of overdone symbolism doesn't make up for garbage (shined s***). How does the guy in charge of mapping the structure be the one to get lost, and not be able to or think to call for directions until the storm hits?

The self-indulgent shot of the Xeno at the end was just the cherry.

Seriously, I've been doing this all day, and am convinced that this is one sloppy mess of a movie that could have been great.

[mmack66]

6th graders have a better understanding of the Universe than this turd.
Total disappointment. Seemed like the story was written by a committee of young hot shot producers who failed science class.
Overpriced episode of Scooby Doo.
The "scientists" have less sense than Shaggy and Scooby.

Hey let's take our helmets off on a foreign planet. Who needs gloves? Hey look an alien snake creature, let's pet it.
Protaganist scientist lady cuts herself almost IN HALF, staples herself back together and then can run like Rambo.
Flame throwers for space weapons. Suits made out of 50's pajama material that instantly catches fire.
Super intelligent god creatures' space ship that can't outrun or fend off a human ship destroying it by ramming into it.
Pathetic ancient drawings with 6 stars like a constellation, but inexplicably is a "solar system".
Incredibly funded scientific mission with surly incompatible crew that haven't met before and are only awakened minutes before orbiting the planet destination.

so so so so bad.

"Zoinks!"

[nole1]

Here is a hilarious rant by someone about the plot holes of the movie. Some of it is a little overdone but his points are well made. Enjoy.