Among sci-fi fans and film buffs, Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’ prequel ‘Prometheus’ (and don’t believe any of Scott’s misdirection that the movie’s not really an ‘Alien’ prequel – it so is) has been one of the most eagerly anticipated movies of the year. Now that it’s finally opened, it has also turned out to be one of the most divisive films of the year among both critics and audiences. Even here, Luke raved about the movie in his review last week. I had a different reaction, to put it mildly. If you’ve seen it, what did you think of ‘Prometheus’? Vote in our poll. (Warning: This post will contain spoilers. And profanity.)
As some of you may have seen me post in the comments to Luke’s review after I saw the movie on Friday, I hated hated hated fucking HATED ‘Prometheus’. I think it’s the worst movie I’ve seen in years. It ruins the original ‘Alien’ the way that ‘The Phantom Menace’ ruins ‘Star Wars’. Just as I can no longer watch ‘Star Wars’ without seeing bratty Anakin behind Darth Vader’s mask, I will no longer be able to watch ‘Alien’ without thinking of the idiotic chain of events that supposedly led into its opening. The movie may be prettier to look at, but it’s even dumber than ‘Alien vs. Predator‘, and that’s quite an achievement.
I know that Luke and Aaron are planning to write up a Critical Mass debate about the film. I don’t want to take anything away from them, but I need to dash off some of my own thoughts about the movie while they’re still fresh in my mind.
First, there are some good things in the movie. The production design is amazing, and the photography is quite beautiful. It’s a visually striking film. (I was less impressed with the 3D, however. After a strong start, the movie more or less stops being 3D in the second half.) It also has a good cast, especially Michael Fassbender, who’s terrific as the android David. I loved all of the early scenes where David finds ways to fill his time on the empty ship as the crew sleeps. There are stretches of the movie where I felt that it was very well directed, and one of the better things that Ridley Scott has made in the last couple decades.
That’s about it. That’s the extent of my being nice to ‘Prometheus’. What didn’t I like about it? Hoo-boy, where to start? Here are just a few of my complaints:
I knew that I was in trouble with the opening scene, when the goofy-looking alien (that we’ll later learn was one of the so-called “Space Jockeys”) drinks a potion and sacrifices himself in order to spread his DNA onto the planet (which was presumably Earth, but may not be). Why did he sacrifice himself? That’s up for debate, and I suppose you can explain it away as some sort of ritual, but it seems like an awfully inefficient method for a scientist of some sort to start this chain reaction. This “Chariot of the Gods” theory that mankind was created by ancient aliens is pretty idiotic on its face, but I was still willing to set that aside and go with the movie at this point. (A following scene where one of the supporting characters asks “You’re just going to throw out 300 years of Darwinism?” is pretty hilarious, because that’s exactly what the movie does for this cockamamie bullshit.)
Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and her boyfriend Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) are just about the worst scientists ever. This is evident even in their introductory scene, where Shaw finds the 35,000-year-old cave painting, and blithely knocks down a wall and invites everyone else to come trampling in. There’s no scientific method to anything they do. This happens again after they travel halfway across the universe to a planet (or moon) and discover the first signs of alien intelligence. They rush right into the structure, making a huge mess of things, and barely stop to so much as look at anything (much less document and preserve it) as they run around searching for aliens.
I also love the way that Shaw sees a drawing of a tall guy pointing at stars and immediately pieces together that this is an “invitation” for us to go there. The invitation aspect of the plot makes no sense at all. If the Space Jockeys created us as an experiment, why would they invite us to visit a moon where they’ve established (as Captain Janek somehow intuitively figures out later) a military installation for the construction of biological weapons?
Oh, and the humans arrive on this moon and find one empty building, so Shaw instantly concludes that the entire species is dead. Really? How about you maybe look around a little more, you dumbass?
All of the character motivations are illogical at best, when they even bother to have consistent motivations. Why did David infect Holloway? How did he know what would happen, and why did he want that to happen? How did David and Weyland seem to know exactly what they’d find and what would happen when they got to the moon? (And why the hell is Guy Pearce in terrible old-age makeup in this movie if we’re never going to see a young version of his character? Why didn’t Ridley Scott just cast an older actor? You’d think that a 75-year-old director might understand that older actors need work too.)
Vickers (Charlize Theron) talks about having a secret agenda, but she never really seems to have any agenda, beyond being a bitch. She brings her daddy to the moon to get better, but she doesn’t even like her daddy and actually wants him to die. She tells the scientists not to touch anything or make contact, so what was the point of going there at all? Why not stay on Earth and rig the mission to fail so that her daddy will die and she’ll take over the company? (Everyone else except David already thinks that he’s dead anyway. What would she have to lose?)
All of the supporting characters are idiots, especially the two morons who get trapped in the cave. Hey, bozos, here’s a tip: If you’re afraid of getting killed, maybe you shouldn’t try to pet the penis-looking alien monster thing that just popped out of the goo and hissed at you. Just a suggestion.
Captain Janek (Idris Elba) has no concern at all for the welfare of his crew. Even though his equipment is constantly monitoring his men’s progress and has warned him that there’s other life in the cave near them, he decides to ignore them entirely so that he can go get laid. Is this a ‘Friday the 13th’ sequel all of a sudden?
Everything single thing that happens in the movie after the Space Jockey wakes up is unbelievably, howlingly awful. The movie drops any pretense of having ideas at that point, much less answering any of the questions it tried to raise earlier. The plot makes no sense, and it’s stupid and cheesy as hell. The attempts to hammer home connections to the first ‘Alien’ movie are painfully forced. And the bit where the Space Jockey and the giant Facehugger wrestle… Oh my fucking god, this movie is terrible!! Ugh. It makes me sick.
You know what this movie really is? Do you remember Brian De Palma’s lame ‘Mission to Mars’? ‘Prometheus’ is an even crappier remake of ‘Mission to Mars’ built on the cosmetic features of the ‘Alien’ franchise. I can hardly imagine it being a worse piece of shit than it is. I wish I’d never seen it. In fact, I wish that I could build a time machine just so that I could go back in time and prevent Ridley Scott from making it.
Shame on Ridley Scott for directing this turkey. Shame on Damon Lindelof for writing it. Shame on all of the studio executives who saw a rough cut and didn’t immediately scuttle the entire project.
But maybe that’s just me. What are your thoughts on ‘Prometheus’?
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Thulsadoom
I don’t think I can hate Prometheus like Josh, but I completely agree with most of his points.
Although I didn’t mind what was revealed about the Spacejockeys. It’s basically what fans have theorised and Scott has hinted, since the beginning anyway. So while it maybe didn’t add much originality, it didn’t do anything disappointing either, except perhaps for the humanoid appearance of the Spacejockeys.
I just think the good elements (such as the visuals and style) compensated enough that I reasonably enjoyed the film, without actively liking it. I don’t think I’ll ever bother buying a copy, though. Perhaps for the special features when it’s on budget.
I do think it was a worse film than AVP. AVP may not be perfect, but enjoy it for what it is, not what it isn’t. It had the task of joining the two franchises, which is inherently silly, and it did that about as well as it could. But in terms of characters and story structure, it’s actually a much better film than Prometheus, despite its flaws. Prometheus has the edge in visual/directorial style (and even then, only mildly), but that’s it.
I really hate to say it… but… sacrilegious as this sounds… um… AVP was actually a more intelligent film lol!
August Lehe
Still haven’t seen it. Hope it’s not another ‘Temple of Doom’ Was hoping it was a Sci-Fi look at the Greek myth. Oh well…hope springs eternal!
Paul F
If you have a few minutes then you must read this article on what Prometheus is REALLY about:
http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html
Its quite fascinating and REALLY, REALLY will make you think twice about the movie and may even make you want to go see it again!!
Josh Zyber
AuthorSo Jesus was a space alien and they wanted to wipe us out for crucifying him?
I hate the movie even more now, and I didn’t think that was possible. Thank you for that.
Paul F
There’s certainly MUCH, MUCH more in that article then that!
Paul F
Be sure to read the responses to the above article too. I like the idea that there may be TWO different Engineer races, one that creates life (Shown at the beginning with a round spacecraft) and one that destroys life (The Space Jockey with a different kind of spacecraft). Its possible they were fighting each other…parts of which were shown in the hologram playback in the tunnel.
Paul F
…what if Vickers is an android like David? Again, read that article and responses! It’ll make you think about this movie for days!
Alex
I’m rather amazed that there’s already this many comments and no one’s going to get a free Blu-ray out of this. 🙂
(Haven’t seen it yet, though I am looking forward to it. Incidentally, I’ve always thought that Weyland-Yutani was a little boneheaded for constantly trying to acquire an alien for use as a biological weapon in the original series. What, there’s no nukes in the future?)
lordbowler
Prometheus…
I loved the movie for the first half, then lost most of my love. In the end, I could only like it for what it was with reservations.
My main complaints were echoed in Josh’s review:
Why did David infect Holloway? Did he want to kill him because Holloway hurt his programmed feelings?
Why weren’t the Geologists interested in the rocks all around them? The caves were being mapped, but they got lost when they left much earlier? They should have been wearing red shirts. They never heard of curiosity killed the cat?
Some captain! I can somewhat understand his lack of interest in the scientists, but he didn’t show that much more interest in his actual crew. I assume he was being paid a lot to ferry these scientists around, kind of like Captain Dallas doing what his employers tell him to. You’d think he’d have at least questioned Vickers about what her agenda was.
Did David know that Shaw would have gotten pregnant by infecting Holloway. I was genuinely curious to see what Holloway was becoming.
I also wanted to see Yutani.
I’m assuming now that Shaw has met her creators and seen that they were going to destroy their experiment, is she going to find our creators and kill them first? Ungrateful children.
So the alien queen will plant eggs (with facehuggers) until someone else arrives. Was that blinking like near David’s head the distress call found by the Nostromo? Wouldn’t the seat found by the Nostromo crew be empty now since the Space Jockey left to come after Shaw?
JakeA
I just have to reply to the last paragraph, Lord Blower. This wasn’t the same ship and planet from Alien or Aliens. It is entirely possible the the Alien at the end of Prometheus infected the remaining Space Jockey’s and that there are more ships and more cryo tubes with living Jockeys. Maybe one tried to leave and crash landed on the planet (from Alien/Aliens) after the chest burster was born. I may be wrong about this but the planet in Alien was LV426 or something like that. The planet or moon in Pormetheus was a different name in the one scene where it is shown on the HUD.
Dan P.
I didn’t see the prequel for “The Thing” at the theater, but I got the blu-ray on impluse at Best Buy, for full price (had a gift card, though). Crap. I’m kinda in the same boat on Prometheus, but I spent a lot more going to the theater with my two kids. Again, crap. The best part of the experience was the trailers… “Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”, count me in on that one for damn sure. Kick some ass, Abe!
JakeA
Wow, I’m just wondering what it is some of you thought you were going to see. I thought it was really good. It wasn’t Alien or Aliens by any means but I actually must of have been the few who looked forward to a new sci-fi spin off of the Alien films. It was not the garbage so many of you think it was. It just wasn’t what you wanted it to be.
Josh Zyber
Author“It just wasn’t what you wanted it to be.” That’s very true. I wanted it to be a good movie, and it wasn’t.
JakeA
If this had been made instead of Alien 3 or Resurrection we would have all be talking about how the Alien trilogy was one of the best around.
Barsoom Bob
Sorry, but this movie is not an epic fail. It has issues, most of them begin and end with someone whose intitals are D.L., but there hasn’t been a movie that has made the audience think and discuss, as this one most assuredly has, since Inception 3 years ago.
I am a Ridley guy, I was not dissapointed in Body of Lies, except the Leo should have gotten his head lopped off, nor was I disappointed by Robin Hood,. thoroughly enjoyed it. But, for the first time, I was mildy disappointed by a Ridley film becuase it felt derivative and poorly written. Ridley isn’t a writer he is a visual stylist type director, but he usually hires good writers, which gives his visual stylings and tricks emotional punch and weight. Ridley may have set the directions with the overall concepts for this film, they are very intrigueing and worth considering, but all the stupidness of the film comes from the scriptwriter.
The other feeling I got was that I was seeing two halves, of two different movies. Now maybe in the sequel he will finish the halves of both these movies and everything will be fine. But I would have preferred he never said anything about Alien and had just made the Prometheus story all by itself.
I am a subscriber to the theories that we had some help along the way by “alien” influences. But, one of my intial big take aways from this film was even if you believe that, it doesn’t end there, who then created the “creators”. So there still is “something” that created everything that is and has ever been.
JakeA
“but there hasn’t been a movie that has made the audience think and discuss, as this one most assuredly has, since Inception 3 years ago.”
Exactly. Just like Alien and Blade Runner before many people are drawing conclusions and making up their minds based on the wrong information.
Many assume things, the crashed ship is the same on in Alien and that this was the same planet and blah blah blah.
“No it does not. it takes place on LV-223 which is a similar moon planet but has better conditions for sustaining life than LV-426 did before it was terra-formed. It could be said that LV-426 is in the same planetary rotation as LV-223. If one looks at the computer screens aboard the Nostromo in Alien when they are trying to figure out where they are, the name “Zeta II Reticuli” appears and the Nostromo also passes by a ringed planet during the opening credits of the film. During Holloway and Shaw’s presentation in this film, their 3D imaging shows the ringed planet with “Zeta II Reticuli” on the screen as well. Prometheus takes place in late December 2093 and Alien takes place in 2122 so it’s safe to assume that the Space Jockey from Derelict-426 didn’t fossilize in just 28 years, but instead fled LV-223 during the initial outbreak which killed off all the Space Jockeys. Unbeknownst to it, it had been impregnated by its cargo and died during the birthing process and Derelict-426 crashed on LV-426 over 2000 years ago and remained dormant until found by the crew of the Nostromo.” -IMDB
Jesus Christ, calm down fellow nerds.
Shannon Nutt
I’m just wondering if Josh is now dreading the Blade Runner sequel.
Seems like going back years later to reboot/reimagine a classic never works. Didn’t work for Lucas with Star Wars, didn’t work for Spielberg with Indiana Jones, and it didn’t work here for Alien. Why can’t these great talents just come up with something new? It’s like they’re too lazy to be creative.
Josh Zyber
AuthorYes, I am terrified for Blade Runner now!
(You should blame Lucas for Indiana Jones too. Spielberg has backed away from Crystal Skull. He only made it because he was being nice to his friend.)
JM
Ridley says the engineers are the dark angels of ‘Paradise Lost.’
The sequel will conclude Shaw’s journey to paradise.
Paradise will not be what we think. It will be ominous and sinister.
‘Prometheus’ is a metaphor necklace. 17 metaphors strung together.
The interview at movies.com explains the film as his form of an art lecture.
Deadbeat
I didn’t hate the movie but I was definitely let down by it. I just remember toward the middle of the film wondering when the story was going to start, that is to say that it all just felt like a preamble to a movie that never started. Maybe I’m the lowest common denominator that keeps getting thrown around but it just felt really muddled and I always feel like a movie fails to tell a good story if we are all forced to try to guess what was actually happening. I’m really hoping that there will be a directors cut that will help fill in the holes for me.
JM
Ridley just confirmed the blu-ray will have an extended cut, 20+ minutes.
Ryan
The actors were good, the production was great.
But the critic that wrote this review is right.
The story line to this movie is bad.
The opening scene was so cheesy that I had to make sure I was watching the right movie. I’m a die hard Ridley Scott fan b/c of the Alien’s franchise, I love the movie blade runner, i’ve read philip k. dicks short stories and “do andoid dream of electric sheep”…so even though the opening scene made absolutely no sense to me, I let it slide, hoping that the opening scene would be explained further down the road. It was not.
You can try making up as many stories as you want, this movie does not tie into the Aliens movie, at least not without bending their own Alien’s life cycle rules.
I will eat my words if Ridley scott can come out with a storyline about the engineers which sufficiently explain all of the hoo boo dookie that came from this movie.
But that too is just wishful thinking from a fanboy who grew up loving the alien’s franchise. The truth probably is Ridley Scott wants more $$ and is cashing in on his reputation just like boxer that is past his prime and taking fights for the payday.
Barsoom Bob
What didn’t make sense to you about the opening scene ?
The myth of Prometheus is about someone who steals fire from the Gods and give it to man. The “Fire” is life or intellectual awareness. He is punished by the Gods for his action by being chained to a rock and having his intestines pecked out by birds.
Opening shot we have a beautiful garden of Eden world, primative Earth, and the Engineer does a ritualistic seeding of the planet by ingesting the mutating goo and disolving his DNA strands into the water to be spread all over the planet. That is why later on they have a DNA match with the Engineers. The interesting thing to take note of is that his ship was circular in design, not the donut shape that we are already familar with.
Perhaps these were benign Engineers and another group of these Engineers were very unhappy with this group and created a goo that would grow the xenomorphs to come busting out of their stomaches as punishment or perhaps it was their hubris and they lost control of the goo and that is what resulted ?
JM
The engineers probably have various factions, militaries, terrorists, etc…
Think about ‘The Great Game’ in the Middle East. US, China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Iran.
If humans had the technology to seed other planets, to harvest resources, warfare would expand through the universe.
It would be useful to have bio-weapons that do psychological damage.
Josh Zyber
AuthorThere is absolutely nothing in the movie to suggest this.
JM
Did the engineers build their own ships? Did they invent the black goo?
Drew
Reading Josh’s latest comments, I’m starting to get the impression that he hasn’t even really seen this film yet.
Did anyone else see a big pink muscle-bound dude wrestling with a giant squid monster? Where was this pink guy? I can’t recall seeing anything pink in the entire film.
A vague reference of something happening 2,000 years ago? I definitely witnessed a few very direct references to the events of 2,000 years ago. I wonder if Josh noticed them.
One brief mention, at the end that it’s Christmas Day? The ‘Prometheus’ playing in theatres specifically states that it is New Years Day, at the end. And very directly tells us that it is Christmas Day when they are first woken from cryo-sleep, and the Captain is shown putting up a Christmas tree. He even talks about it being Christmas. The crew goes out looking for the engineers shortly after this. If my power of deduction is correct, that means that many of the events take place on Christmas Day.
I wonder if Josh saw an alternative version? Perhaps a bootleg copy? Complete with pink people, no direct reference to the events of 2,000 years ago, and ending with a brief mention that it is Christmas, whereas the authentic ‘Prometheus’ ends on New Years.
Hmm? The version that he saw doesn’t sound very good. No wonder he didn’t like it.
Shayne Blakeley
Yeah I found the mention of “pink person” and saying that it was only briefly mentioned about Christmas at the end a little odd as well. But whatever, apparently he was pretty furious at this movie, so I can understand some missed details.
Josh Zyber
AuthorOh, excuse me, it’s a powder blue muscle-bound dude. Heavens to betsy that I typed the wrong color. I guess that means that the movie doesn’t end with a weirdly colored muscle-bound dude wrestling a giant squid monster. Is that what you’re saying? I’ve fabricated all of that just to lie to our readers? Please, tell us how it actually ends that’s so much different than I described.
As I recall, when Janek put up the Christmas tree early in the movie, he said something about celebrating all the holidays he missed while he was under. The movie did not cement itself to me as taking place on Christmas day at that point, but I will concede that perhaps I would need to look at that scene again when the movie is bootlegged and scenes pop up on YouTube. Regardless, this Christian allegory that people are reading into the movie is pure bullshit. If all it takes are a couple references to Christmas to make a movie into a Christian allegory, then I guess Die Hard and Home Alone are a couple of the most religious movies ever made.
Barsoom Bob
Josh you see a powder blue guy wrestling with a giant squid.
I see a powerful Engineer, a creator, getting face fucked by an offspring of his own invention and then giving birth to a baby form of an Alien Queen that can produce thousands of alien eggs. Equate the size of a regular face hugger to a regular xeno and then the size of that humdinger with the size of the Queen variant.
Also wasn’t it just cool to see something so vicious and Lovcraftian visualized ?
I just read the Jesus article and I think he is over reaching, trying to limit it to much towards a Christ allegory, but the Christ story does fit in with the movies overall themes. Christ became a big man by doing “miracles” which, as I believe JM pointed out some time ago, can just be technologies that are more advanced than the culture that is witnessing them. As a Dune fan you know very well that Religion is or can be used as a way of controlling and influencing societies behaviors. After Christ died, isn’t part of the biggest miracle, that his body mysteriously disappeared from his resting place and has never been found. Tying it into the movie what if his body was brought back by some of his fellow Engineers and corrupted the magic goo which resulted in something destroying them all.
I think the themes in this movie are much wider than just Jesus or any religion. Remember in Shaw’s dream while talking to her minister father about the funeral procession she was seeing, and asked, How come they aren’t asking for you ? and his reply, They have different Gods.
I called Drew once on petulantly attacking you but you have an irrational hatred of some movies that you indulge just as badly. You could say it didn’t work for me and leave it at that. You kind of went on and on about Avatar, Drive and now this one. How would you like it if some one did the same kind of blind, pompous ridiculing of Dune ?
JM
Didn’t A3 establish that a queen can be made by a normal facefucker?
Barsoom Bob
I’m not that versed in cannon nor that hung up on the “Alieness” of it and I’m just conjectoring and relaying some of the thoughts I had while watching it. I’m in no way coming down in any definitive meaning.
Just trying to counter balance Josh just dismissing the whole movie as stupid, when it was just clumsily written by a man who writes stupid stuff that has no emotional meat to it.
Yes, there are glaringly bad character actions and interactions, but there also powerful, meaningful images and ideas in the majority of it.
Also, It is amazing how much discourse it has created, no?
Shayne Blakeley
I don’t think we saw the creation of the “traditional Alien” at all yet. Obviously they’ve already encountered xenomorphs because of the mural. Whether they created them on purpose or by accident remains to be seen. Within the movie we see several different incarnations of xenomorphs as they take on characteristics of their host (the one at the end being the most familiar since the engineers are genetically similar to us)
Drew
There is quite a bit in the subtext of this movie to suggest this.
JM
Based on this poll, 82% of viewers like the movie. Only 10% are haters.
I expected the results to be more ‘Transformers 2’-y.
Josh Zyber
AuthorYes, this movie is exactly as intelligent as Transformers 2. That is precisely correct.
If that’s what gets you off, by all means enjoy. I would just ask that you acknowledge that the movie is of the same written quality as Transformers 2, and not try to pretend that it’s something other than that.
JM
Is ‘The Godfather II’ the only successful prequel in the history of film?
Chaz Dumbaugh
See I cant do that, Transformers 2 is inept, trashy, immature and overall poorly written, I dont think that about Prometheus at all, because you view Prometheus in such a bad light its getting compared to stuff that IS actually crap, I’m sorry but comparing this to Transformers 2 is in itself inept, trashy and immature 🙂
Drew
The problem is, those missed details are most likely responsible for steering his opinion to where it ended up.
He clearly got so caught up in thinking that this is a prequel to ‘Alien’ and focusing on how certain things were totally different than how he had imagined them to be for 30+ years, that he missed many vital details.
If I would have made some of the reaches thst he made, failed to pick up on any of the important undertone, and missed as many of the crucial details as he did, I probably would have hated it as well.
It’s a shame.
Shayne Blakeley
I don’t believe for a second that Josh “didn’t get it” or that he can’t put his own expectations in check and review a film objectively. That’s silly to imply. That being said, it does come as a surprise to me that he hated it so fiercely, not disliked, but absolutely HATED. There are plenty of movies I actively despise, but I can’t think of any that got me THAT worked up.
Drew
I don’t believe for a second that he “didn’t get it” either. I never said that, or even implied it. I’m merely saying that his hostility, and the fact that it didn’t confirm the ideas he had formed in his imagination after watching ‘Alien’ 30+ years ago, made him miss many vital things, and make many reaches, that were ultimately responsible for shaping his opinion in such a way. If it would have been the same exact film, but confirmed what he had always envisioned, he would have watched it with a clearer mind, and would have had an entirely different opinion.
Shayne Blakeley
Apologies, that line wasn’t directed at you specifically. I was just throwing that out as a general response to some of the more pointed comments I’ve read.
Josh Zyber
AuthorTopless Robot has published its invaluable FAQ to Prometheus:
http://www.toplessrobot.com/2012/06/robs_prometheus_faq.php
Huh, look at that, somebody else has confirmed that all the stupid things I’ve described are actually in the movie. I didn’t just hallucinate them in some Ridley Scott-hating fever dream after all.
JM
Fox spent $130M on a movie my kid could have written?
Shayne Blakeley
It’s fascinating how much of a Civil War this movie is causing. I for one really enjoyed it, my fiance on the other hand isn’t really sure how she feels about it. We’ve spent pretty much the last 24 hours arguing over bits.
(SPOILERS)
Her main complaints were with how no one tries to stop Shaw when she escapes to have the c section and then no one reacts, notices, or cares afterward. Which is valid to be sure, but I kind of like that we’re left to question their intentions. The other issue (and this I agree with) is the absolutely awful old man makeup. Yeesh. They did a better job of that in Jackass. I gave that one a pass mostly because it seemed pretty clear that they made this movie more with a franchise in mind and obviously we’re going to get flashbacks of a young Weyland in later entries, and I prefer this to changing the actor. I fully agree that this movie doesn’t work at all as a stand alone feature. It requires at least some knowledge of the established Alien universe, and it requires at least one sequel to wrap it up. It’s basically The Two Towers.
p.s. Did anyone else get the impression that the snake/alien mutated from the bugs we saw crawling in the black shit, and that David stepped on? I know it’s been speculated and mostly agreed upon that the engineers created the Aliens, but my first thought was that it was an accident.
Drew
Pink, powder blue, what’s the difference, right? The point is, you missed a lot of details. The engineer isn’t powder-blue, either. It’s as if you’re just throwing colors out there now, because you really don’t know/remember.
The film certainly “cements itself” and makes it very evident that it is Christmas Day when many of the events take place. Even the date stamp on the screen when it describes the crew, ship, and location is just prior to Christmas Day. The crew goes out to investigate soon thereafter. There is more than one reference to the fact that it’s Christmas. None of this has anything to do with the Christian allegory that is present in the undertones of the film. Taking place on Christmas does not a Christian allegory make, so your ‘Home Alone’ and ‘Die Hard’ references are just plain stupid.
And once again, it ends on New Years, not Christmas, as you believed. Just like before, the point is, you missed many details because of your irate demeanor.
Josh Zyber
AuthorI saw the movie in 3D. Very possible that the 3D glasses shifted the color. Whatever color you remember him as, he certainly wasn’t normal human flesh tone.
Shayne Blakeley
For what it’s worth, powder-blue is what I saw
John
I saw it in 3d IMAX and thought it was just a very pale white. . i never noticed it being tinged any color. . but i just knew it was not normal human flesh color.
EM
Maybe it’s teal?
Shayne Blakeley
I could maybe understand how upset some folks are getting about this movie if it was dealing with a previously untarnished property, but that isn’t really the case. I personally didn’t hate Alien 3 or Resurrection, but they obviously were a far cry from Alien and Aliens. And the AVP movies were entertaining enough for one watch at least, but all four of those movies are widely regarded as pretty much pure shit. So how this is a more offensive entry baffles me. As for the comparisons to the Star Wars prequels, the original trilogy at the time WAS considered pretty flawless (Ewoks notwithstanding) so the outrage over the prequels felt much more warranted. So they retconned the Space Jockey a bit, that doesn’t really change much of Alien for me, it was basically a set piece in the first movie anyway.
Chaz Dumbaugh
What it really boils down to it seems, is that Josh simply doesnt agree with what Ridley came up with to flesh out the universe more. Sure I’ve wondered for a long time what that thing was at the beginning of Alien and now we know and I LIKE THE IDEA. There are obviously people out there who simply cant agree with what Scott did.
I’m also more of a Star Wars apologist too, sure the prequels sucked compared to the original trilogy but they havent ruined the films for me, Lucas hasnt even ruined the films for me with all the tinkering, I own copies of the originals in one form or another and can always go back and watch them, but the changes dont bother me all that much, the movies tell a much bigger story now, and I still dont get the whiny brat stuff that everyone is talking about, Luke was the EXACT same way yet no one complains about him, he whined and complained all the way till Return of the Jedi, so did his father till he became Vader. So whats the big deal? I’ll never get it, anyways back to topic 🙂
Josh Zyber
AuthorThe difference is that Luke, while a little whiny, was a likeable and sympathetic character. Anakin was neither. Now, you can argue that “He’s going to become Darth Vader, so it makes sense that he was always a prick,” but it’s very difficult to make a whole trilogy of movies based around a character the audience doesn’t like, and George Lucas fundamentally did not have any idea how to do it.
Shayne Blakeley
I wouldn’t call myself a Star Wars apologist, but I can enjoy the prequels well enough. However I’m with popular opinion in regards to Anakin, that was a shitty thing to do to someone as awesome as Darth Vader. I don’t think anything in Prometheus Anakinizes Alien though.
Shayne Blakeley
As a matter of fact, I hope they remain ambiguous as to the exact origins of the xenomorphs, as any answer will be disappointing. Part of what makes them so unique and frightening is that they don’t resemble anything we have a grasp on, depriving them of that mystery would be a detriment. They can expand on the mythos, which is what they do here, but I don’t want a definitive origin story.
Josh Zyber
AuthorThe identity and motivations of the Space Jockey race are the Midichlorians of Alien.
Shayne Blakeley
Only if the still image of the space jockey in Alien was that important to the film in your opinion. Unless I missed something important, it’s never explicitly stated that the engineers manufactured the xenomorphs. It’s shown that they know of them, and that they likely weaponized them (the mural and such) but as much as they show that they also show them running the fuck away from them, and several variations of them. Which to me implies not that this is an origin story but that it’s another example of someone/something trying to use the xenomorphs for their own personal gain and that blowing up in their chests.
Josh Zyber
AuthorThe Space Jockey is a beautiful mystery in the original film. The fact that it isn’t dwelled upon for long is one of the things that makes it haunting. The Space Jockey did not need to be explained.
Scott’s desire to explain that mystery away, and to do in such a half-assed manner, is incredibly undermining and disrespectful to everything that anyone ever liked about the original film, much as the Midichlorians were a needlessly idiotic and offensive explanation for the Force in Star Wars.
Shayne Blakeley
This movie left a shit ton of gaping plot holes, there is no argument to the contrary. The discussion should be about whether you found what they gave us satisfying, intriguing, frustrating, or lazy.
Shayne Blakeley
“The Space Jockey is a beautiful mystery in the original film. The fact that it isn’t dwelled upon for long is one of the things that makes it haunting. The Space Jockey did not need to be explained.”
I’ve stood in your defense until now, Josh, but this gives me pause. If that’s how you felt than it would seem that you DIDN’T view this movie objectively, and actually were against the very idea of a prequel. If that’s the case, was there anything this movie could have done that would please you? I said myself that I’d rather some elements of the Aliens backstory stay a mystery, and I stand by that, but this is hardly the same thing. The space jockey was not exactly a major character until now. Ripley being brought back from the dead, that’s some shit to bitch about. The facehugger that somehow willed itself onboard to kill Newt & Hicks, that’s something to bitch about. The origins of the Space Jockey? Not something to bitch about.
Josh Zyber
AuthorI wasn’t against the idea of a prequel, and if Scott had provided a worthwhile origin story for the Space Jockey, I would’ve been fine with it. But what he gave us was garbage. As such, that mystery was better left alone.
Again, this is much like the Force. That’s something that didn’t need to be explained. But if he’s going to explain it anyway, by god at least give us something GOOD, not this crap.
Shayne Blakeley
Counterpoint: If he was going to explain the backstory of something in Alien, thank the engineers it was the Space Jockey and not the Xenomorphs or for fucks sake Ripley. And before you say anything, I know the “it could have been worse” argument doesn’t hold much water, but my point is that it was (at least in my opinion) more or less safe ground. Who the Space Jockey was and how he got there is irrelevant. The Nostromo crew find him as he is, and the same series of events follow. Whether or not you like his backstory doesn’t fuck up the awesomeness of Alien… At least it shouldn’t.
Shayne Blakeley
SUBTOPIC: I always wanted the “Bad Movie Night” thing to happen (still do) but what could conceivably be better would be “Controversial Movie Night” and we could all argue the merits/fucked up points of these movies.
Aaron Peck
Dammit. I still have a goal of getting this off the infinite back burner.
Shayne Blakeley
Are you who I need to harass? Cause if so, I went through Hell getting Game of Death ready. I’ve stated before how my setup is my TV=my monitor, and the limitations of watching something and joining in discussion are PLENTIFUL. And in this case the only way it would work was to rent a dvd (macs don’t like blu rays) rip it, and open it in another window. Apparently, Netflix doesn’t believe you when you ask for a dvd and usually rent blu ray. I sent that shit back/talked to customer support like 4 or 5 times before I actually got a dvd. I then ripped it, and waited… It remains on my hd… Goddamn you Aaron.
Aaron Peck
Honestly it wasn’t my fault. It got lost in the shuffle when we were trying to figure out if there was anything we could use besides CoverItLive for the chatting software.
What happened was there was such an uproar from the community when we did the Oscars about how slow it got we tried to find another alternative before we pronounced the final word on when we’d do Bad Movie Night. One thing led to another and it was tabled, pushed back, and forgotten.
Shayne Blakeley
I know, I’m just breaking your balls 🙂
Josh Zyber
AuthorShayne, this is an AWESOME idea. We need to get back on this.
Shayne Blakeley
This does not help your argument.
Shayne Blakeley
This comment was a reply to something waaaay back, but it keeps getting pushed forward and now makes no sense.
JM
Personally, I enjoyed the mystery of that comment, and didn’t think it needed a sequel.
Drew
Josh likes to delete comments that hurt his poor feelings, even if they’re not vulgar or inflammatory. So, let’s try this again…
Some of Josh’s recent comments have proven just how out of touch, moronic, and illogical he has become.
He started out by saying a few things that were somewhat warranted. Now, he’s gone off the deep end.
It’s growing quite amusing and entertaining. Keep it up Zyber! If you continue at this rate, nobody will even take your future comments seriously. I love it!
Josh Zyber
AuthorI only moderate comments that cross the line into personal attacks. Your comment that I deleted earlier went way over that line. This one sits right on that line, but I will leave it for now.
You are allowed to disagree with me (or anyone else) all you want so long as you behave yourself. This shouldn’t be too much to ask.
Alexws
The visual effects guy behind the movie Moon also has some thoughts: http://www.gavinrothery.com/my-blog/2012/6/11/so-what-was-wrong-with-prometheus.html