Ridley Scott's Prometheus

[Robert]

Originally Posted by Hood

Maybe. We know it wasn't meant to be a direct prequel but there were too many questions that don't really lead anywhere and some aspects that didn't make sense. I hope that any follow up matches our expectations for this film.

To anyone who has yet to see it, go and see it but as a standalone film nothing to do with Alien. It might be more rewarding that way.

Hood

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS You've been warned.

This prequel is pretty epic in it's attempt (at least in comparison tt the the "knock off one by one" original Alien)... so much so, that it leaves the alien xenomorph as a relatively unimportant character. As a transpermia film with heavy religous connotations and undertones this film succeeds amazingly well. At it's heart it's about the creation of mankind, and apparent destruction of mankind by the Space Jockeys..... except something goes wrong with the SJ's plans and the xenomorphs kill their 'master.'

Was mankind to be destroyed arbitrarily because the creators can, as suggested by David and Shaw's boyfriend Hallywell's creation theory? Was mankind created because the SJ's could or was the creation of man an extention of the SJs ala God creating man out of an extention of love? Had mankind's cup of indignation been filled and were the Space Jockeys to destroy mankind for their deeds or was killing mankind arbitrary because the SJ's can??

An interview with Ridley suggested that mankind had killed a messenger 2000 years ago. They ommitted the reference to Christ in the movie, but if the idea of a 'divine' messenger was thought to be placed in the movie, I can easily continue the belief that this story is a sci fi/ alien version of the book of apocolypse/Revelation gone wrong. Maybe the destruction that was supposed to occur 2000 years ago was a destruction of mercy - thus saving mankind the dark ages, numerous plagues, world wars, and the threat of our own annialation.

We saw two space ships in the movie. One brought life, the other death. Will the original craft make a reappearance? I could even suppose they were sci fi versions of the throne of god. Revelations and Ezekiel detail two different types of throne rooms. Both movable IIRC.

At the end we're left with two survivors. One who is seeking answers to her faith. The other ... well, I'm not sure about David. LOL I don't think Shaw is on a mission of revenge, but instead seeking answers. She'll probably end up going all Ripley on them, but not immediately. I believe that there will be a beacon that the Nostromo answers, and it either comes from Shaw when she finally meets up with the SJs and the xenomorphs or from David. Remember Ash seems to have at least a cursery understanding that there are life forms, and he's to assure they are brought back to Earth. The planet Prometeus lands on isn't the same planet that the Nostromo lands on.

Despite the uneveness of some of the story, and the non-sensical actions of some of the crew I liked it. There are unanswered questions like the cave pictures and the apparent map for example, but I think they will be explained in the next installment.

The ultimate question in the Ridley Scott story is, where did we come from? We may not like the answers.

[jamesdietz]

Pre prequel:
WEYLAND INDUSTRIES Crew Training Session:
http://io9.com/5920723/prometheus-ma...aining-session

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFYmv...Q&feature=plcp

"Its not about answers its about questions..."

[Sternjaeger II]

Hahahaha!

[Robert]

What's wrong with duffle bags holding valuable irreplacable specimens?

[Hood]

Originally Posted by Robert

What's wrong with duffle bags holding valuable irreplacable specimens?

And no security force on board ship, plus idiot scientists rushing in with no protocol, and not knowing what they signed on for, plus proto-facehuggers growing huge on air, and an evolutionary step being taken in one go (the alien at the end), plus why, when the SJ took off as quickly as possible, why did he seek revenge before going to get another ship, and can you run when you've just had your lower stomach muscles cut through etc etc.

The problem for me isn't the plot holes/questions that let it down it's the sheer lack of anything approaching even remotely what a real scientific exploration into the unknown would be like. It's a very well made and stunning looking film but it falls short of what I expected.

And the SJ at the beginning could be seeding life or seeding death - there is nothing to say it pre or post-dates events in the film. We don't even know if it's Earth. I have no idea if this has been covered in interviews etc.

Just my opinion of course.

Hood

[Robert]

Yeah, Shaws guts should have been splayed out all over the alien space dome/cover when she vaulted the seperation when the space ship tried to escape.

I concede I could be way off base, but I'm fairly well convinced that this is a sci-fi version of the christian creation/apocolypse. Through transpermia the Space Jockeys created life on the planet. Ridley has confirmed it's the begining of life we see in the opening sequence - though it may not be the planet earth we see. I don't see the point of it not being Earth, but whatever.

Through cave drawings we see that there has been contact during mankind's history. Could they have attempted to guide mankind thoughout time? Ridley also mentions an early concept of a messenger 2000 years ago - an allusion to the christ? I think he declined that idea because of a public uproar from christians, but in the movie we know that the SJs were destroyed about 2000 years ago (another reason I believe this to movie be analogous to the christian myth/story). There's a section in the gospel where Christ cries over the city of Jerusalem, lamenting that if they knew the time they were in and the peace he sought to give....... but he knew he was to be denied and killed - thus the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. (A foreshadow of the alien destruction by the xenomorphs?)

Now, it's easy to assume the SJs were going to destroy man out of revenge or for not living up to a standard they may have been trying to communicate to man. IMO, they could have been sent to destroy man to prevent the yet unknown horrors man would perpetuate upon himself. Due to what ever happened on the planet the SJs plans were foiled. Why one was left alive IDK? That's a plot hole that bothers me - among many.

Anyway, 2200 years pass and mankind is now capable of traveling in space. They arrive on this derelict planet to discover the history they imagine is nothing like the reality they see. The crew goes through their various stupidities and we discover Wayland is in fact still alive. The first thing mankind does is not ask what happened here, or are you our creators. Wayland asks for eternal life. Remember, Charlize's character bows/hugs her father while mentioning a king has his reign and dies, its the natural order of things (wildly paraphrased I know). It's easy to assume she's looking for power after her father passes, but it could be she either doesn't believe in the rainbow he's chasing or that what he's seeking is wrong, and only tacitly complies with him out of filael allegience.

Now, I write all the above to got to this one point, and if you've read this far you're a better man than I, Gunga Din. The last known history of mankind that the SJs were aware of was from 2000 years ago when man was killing each other with rocks and spears. Now here they are on the doorstep - the proverbial holy of holies - and instead of questioning their creators about who they are or any other myriad of questions one would ask the creator, Wayland demands eternal life (If you eat of the tree of life you will not die, but be as gods). Thus he shows mankind is still incapable of ruling himself in a peaceful manner and seeks his own selfish causes. There is no self sacrifice in him and demonstrates to the SJ that the right course of action was to destroy man 2000 years ago. Asking for eternal life would forever doom man to the horrors of his own mind and creations without the respite of death. Seeing that man is capable of space travel means they can further their destructive nature on other planets. so the SJ attempts to kill them and complete the mission of destroying mankind on Earth.


This movie is riddled with incredulous plot devises and strange behaviours by the humans, but thematically I find this portion to be pretty well done. I can still be way off the mark (and read between a whole lotta lines to base my opinion), and may be proven wrong, but this portion of the movie fits very well together for me despite all the other things that make me scratch my head.



Bear in mind I liked the movie "Knowing" and was sorely dissapointed when "Caprica" was cancelled. I enjoy a mix of theology and Sci Fi.

[Katana1000S]

Originally Posted by Hood

and not knowing what they signed on for

Believe it or not this happened in a place I worked, the original contract ran out and we were all offered a choice of three new contracts, most folk chose what was vaguely described as the easiest one, once we were all allocated they told us the three different contracts would have three levels of pay with the folk choosing the easiest getting the lowest ... this really happened, no union there so we/they were stuffed, fortunately I got on the best paying one but it was hard work, glad to be away from that company though.

I digress ... anyway, someone mentioned Alien 3, I do like the later Assembly Cut as its known, makes a lot more sense, as for Alien 4 Resurrection ... its actually not a bad sci fi film, just a poor Alien franchise one IMHO.

I'd say my preference for the original quadrilogy is as they came out, 1 2 3 and 4 just scraping in for a rainy days viewing, and in all cases later dir cuts.

Good comments here on Prometheus, it sure has got folk thinking and talking, think I'll go see it again before its run is finished and of course get the Blu Ray once its out and hope there are lots of extras and a dir cut

[Katana1000S]

Just adding to this, did anyone go to the Alien War shows?

It started off here in Scotland in the early 90's but went on to London and other parts of the UK, basically its a mock up of the Aliens sets and you tour round it with some guys dressed as Marines and shouting harsh language at you, lots of dark corridors, smoke strobes, sirens and gunfire, when you meet the Alien in the dark its actually a guy dressed in the real costumes used in Aliens, they even do the scene with the proximity counter, 10 meters, 5 meters, 1 meter ... Get the **** down, the Alien appears out of the darkness and lots of gunfire then running!!!

It sounds funny writing this here, but it was easily the scariest thing I did in my life ... of course one of my friends claimed once we were out he was not scared but I checked his pulse and it was racing more than mine

They had lots of exhibits from the films on display at the show and I bought myself a 1/1 life size scale model of the Facehugger in Vinyl made by Halycyon I think it was? these are out of production now and quite rare, they had a 1/1 Pulse Rifle kit too, wish I'd bought it at the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_War

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6oCor2VsKE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmRDZRf0bns

[jamesdietz]

What the ship's techy has to say:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/a-series...-new-tech-guy/

Ahh - if only Mort Drucker was still at MAD:

[Katana1000S]

Looks like we will get at least another 20-30 mins of Prometheus with the Blu and DVD release from what I'm hearing.