Topic: Prometheus: Ridley Scott's Alien Prequel

[Skidder.]

I have the Alien Quadrilogy and love all of those films, my favourite being Aliens. My question is, as a big fan of these films, and sci-fi in general, do I buy this film? I've seen very mixed views on here, so not sure what to do.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[StokieSteve]

Ah fuck it, I'll probably buy it.

[Alan_X]

Do these people actually know what DNA is?

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/2Dc_zsM2p34" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/2Dc_zsM2p34</a>

[Haemoglobin]

Ah fuck it, I'll probably buy it.

Download it at zero expense from one of the naughty places, and then buy all the discs & plastic/cardboard n stuff if you like it.

It's the only sane way in these times, mate.

[StokieSteve]

Download it at zero expense from one of the naughty places, and then buy all the discs & plastic/cardboard n stuff if you like it.

It's the only sane way in these times, mate.

Might just do that, cheers mate.

[PROPER crazyemlyn72]

Download it at zero expense from one of the naughty places, and then buy all the discs & plastic/cardboard n stuff if you like it.

It's the only sane way in these times, mate.

great post back there, about the emperors new clothes. a few pages back i questioned the lie about the "stunning visuals" and "breathtaking visuals". i think people automatically expect that from scott, but in this case people are not engaging their brain. the visuals are average. nothing that hasnt been seen in any average movie in the last 10 years. never mind the bad story telling he didnt even film it well.

[Stevie-A]

Might just do that, cheers mate.

Certainly worth a watch, if only to bore the arse off everyone as to whether it is a masterpiece or incoherent mess. I feel compelled to watch it again just to confirm my negativity (and lack of objectivity).

[Andy @ Allerton!]

great post back there, about the emperors new clothes. a few pages back i questioned the lie about the "stunning visuals" and "breathtaking visuals". i think people automatically expect that from scott, but in this case people are not engaging their brain. the visuals are average. nothing that hasnt been seen in any average movie in the last 10 years. never mind the bad story telling he didnt even film it well.

You can say that about a few films. Look at "Lost in Translation" - it gets a lot of plaudits from the "Right on" crowd but there was literally no story. Most of the Murrays bits were ad-libbed and most of the rest was Xenophobic and borderline racist and yet people will tell us that this nothing film with no idea, no story and no point was wonderful.

Each to their own and all that, but there are plenty of examples of style over substance.

In this case there is plenty of substance if you have an imagination and like to wonder about things.

I find it funny that some atheists are getting uppity about the 'Spawned from Heaven/Aliens' ideas given that early atheists used this idea to rail against religion in the 1920s. How they've moved on, eh.

[Bangin Them In]

Over analysis, everyone

It's a movie not a way of life (except maybe for Andy), and as a movie, is ok

It has holes, but it's a movie

[Macphisto80]

You can say that about a few films. Look at "Lost in Translation" - it gets a lot of plaudits from the "Right on" crowd but there was literally no story. Most of the Murrays bits were ad-libbed and most of the rest was Xenophobic and borderline racist and yet people will tell us that this nothing film with no idea, no story and no point was wonderful.

Each to their own and all that, but there are plenty of examples of style over substance.

In this case there is plenty of substance if you have an imagination and like to wonder about things.

I find it funny that some atheists are getting uppity about the 'Spawned from Heaven/Aliens' ideas given that early atheists used this idea to rail against religion in the 1920s. How they've moved on, eh.

Don't worry about it, Andy. I thought Lost in Translation was bollocks too by the way.

[Brian Blessed]

LiT was shit.

Especially that bollocks at the end, where the audience has to wonder what he said.

Like Prometheus, actually.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

LiT was shit.

Especially that bollocks at the end, where the audience has to wonder what he said.

Like Prometheus, actually.

That film would have been helped by a pissed off Engineer wasting everyone.

[sparkiemark73]

*mumbles something about not crossing the streams*

[soxfan]

I have the Alien Quadrilogy and love all of those films, my favourite being Aliens. My question is, as a big fan of these films, and sci-fi in general, do I buy this film? I've seen very mixed views on here, so not sure what to do.

If you sit on your couch, crack open a beer, have some pizza, and look forward to it as a decently entertaining sci-fi flick, you'll enjoy it.

If you haven't gotten laid in a while, and often fantasize that you are a NASA scientist by day and an artsy-fartsy cinema critic by night, you'll take out your frustrations by writing a thesis on why you hate it like many have done on here.   

[Haemoglobin]

Yeah, why does any filmmaker ever bother endeavouring to painstakingly craft a really tight, intelligently conceived, self-contained film, one that doesn't condescend its audience? Who gives a shit, Alien/Brazil/Akira/Moon/Inception is just a movie, same as Alien vs Predator/Independence Day/Matrix: Revolutions/Avatar/Transformers: Whatever is. Just kick back with a Bud lite and a tube o' bbq Pringles, and enjoy them all equally. Get a life.

In other words, most people will lap up any old halfarsed pish, because most people are cool. They rock sports/casual, dey be mackin in all da phat clubs. The rest of us just have to make do with wiping the watery ejaculate & lonely tears from our NHS spectacles each night with an old school sock. What of it? 

[Beav]

[The Gulleysucker]

Watched this yesterday afternoon.
I echo what others have said in that it's not very good, or at least it could have been so much better.
Visually quite nice in parts but I didn't care about anyone in it, the characterisation and dialog from the off seemed very weak and designed for morons to be able to understand, almost at "He didn't see me" Predator level.
As for the technology, just weird. As an example they have these little spherical things for mapping that seem to be capable of flying with no obvious propulsion, yet everyone has  to plod around on the surface huffing and puffing  or using (electric?) vehicles. Incongruous. And how can that squid thing get so big so quickly? What was it eating? Bonkers and at times cartoon juvenile stuff that requires you to either have none in the first place, or to totally suspend your critical faculties and any semblance of scientific reasoning.
While I wouldn't have walked out if I had seen it in the cinema, it was watchable, I'm certainly glad I didn't pay to see it and doubt I'd bother watching it again anytime.
Disappointing. I'd hoped (and been led to expect from the virals) for much better.

[vagabond]

Do these people actually know what DNA is?
http://www.youtube.com/v/2Dc_zsM2p34

Well at least we know that the engineers are supposed to be sinister before they even drink the goo. We also know that engineers are supposed to have a very different dna 'structure' to earthly dna 'structure' (whatever the hell that means). I wonder how they thought of squaring that with the supposed 100% dna match later in the movie?

[Andy @ Allerton!]

Watched this yesterday afternoon.
I echo what others have said in that it's not very good, or at least it could have been so much better.
Visually quite nice in parts but I didn't care about anyone in it, the characterisation and dialog from the off seemed very weak and designed for morons to be able to understand, almost at "He didn't see me" Predator level.
As for the technology, just weird. As an example they have these little spherical things for mapping that seem to be capable of flying with no obvious propulsion, yet everyone has  to plod around on the surface huffing and puffing  or using (electric?) vehicles. Incongruous. And how can that squid thing get so big so quickly? What was it eating? Bonkers and at times cartoon juvenile stuff that requires you to either have none in the first place, or to totally suspend your critical faculties and any semblance of scientific reasoning.
While I wouldn't have walked out if I had seen it in the cinema, it was watchable, I'm certainly glad I didn't pay to see it and doubt I'd bother watching it again anytime.
Disappointing. I'd hoped (and been led to expect from the virals) for much better.

Bit late now complainging about how fast the organisms grow given Alien, Aliens, Alien3 and Alien4.

[The Gulleysucker]

Bit late now complainging about how fast the organisms grow given Alien, Aliens, Alien3 and Alien4.

Not at all.
I thought the same in the original Alien, (I found the follow ups weak) but viewed that as a horror film in the Hammer tradition where such things as Dracula being reconstructed from dust by sprinkling blood is permissable.
This wasn't a horror film.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

Not at all.
I thought the same in the original Alien, (I found the follow ups weak) but viewed that as a horror film in the Hammer tradition where such things as Dracula being reconstructed from dust by sprinkling blood is permissable.
This wasn't a horror film.

I know it wasn't I've made that point several times in this very thread.

However if you 'allow' the unfathomable growth in 'Alien' then you have to accept it in this film as well. It's a bit late to get uppity about it five films in (More if you include the AVP films).

[The Gulleysucker]

I know it wasn't I've made that point several times in this very thread.

However if you 'allow' the unfathomable growth in 'Alien' then you have to accept it in this film as well. It's a bit late to get uppity about it five films in (More if you include the AVP films).

The unfathomable growth could be permitted as after the critter burst out of Hurts chest it disappeared into the bowels of the ship and you could be forgiven in assuming that it presumably found something in the cargo there to assimilate to enable it to grow.
In this film, the squid is in the medical pod all the time.
Sorry Andy, too big a leap.
And why did the Squid have teeth? What was the point of that when it existed to insert a tube insde the engineer to implant the deacon or whatever it's been since called. It was just plain stupid.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

The unfathomable growth could be permitted as after the critter burst out of Hurts chest it disappeared into the bowels of the ship and you could be forgiven in assuming that it presumably found something in the cargo there to assimilate to enable it to grow.
In this film, the squid is in the medical pod all the time.
Sorry Andy, too big a leap.
And why did the Squid have teeth? What was the point of that when it existed to insert a tube insde the engineer to implant the deacon or whatever it's been since called. It was just plain stupid.

My take on the squid was that it was a natural (Probably some sort of sea going creature given the nautical theme of many of the things seen) and something the facehugger evolved from.

Why did the facehugger have fingernails? Why did the Alien have tubes and a serrated tail? Why was it just a carbon copy of the creatures that were found lurking in the Necronomicon?

There aren't many 'monsters' in films that I've seen that have a really credible back story and that's from any writer, any era and any genre.

[Brian Blessed]

Well at least we know that the engineers are supposed to be sinister before they even drink the goo. We also know that engineers are supposed to have a very different dna 'structure' to earthly dna 'structure' (whatever the hell that means). I wonder how they thought of squaring that with the supposed 100% dna match later in the movie?

The 100% DNA is nothing short of lazy. Really, they could have said 99% the same, got the point across and not have yet another stupid little thing.

[Mouth]

Scott really has done a number with this one.

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.

[Flaccid Bobby Fowler]

The 100% DNA is nothing short of lazy. Really, they could have said 99% the same, got the point across and not have yet another stupid little thing.

but they are the same... so they must be our creators

[Andy @ Allerton!]

but they are the same... so they must be our creators

They aren't the same.

[Flaccid Bobby Fowler]

They aren't the same.

they are

[Alan_X]

The 100% DNA is nothing short of lazy. Really, they could have said 99% the same, got the point across and not have yet another stupid little thing.

Chimpanzee's have almost 99% the same DNA as humans, which in many ways makes the whole thing even more meaningless. That figure is disputed by some but the fact remains that chimps, bonobos and other primates are very similar DNA-wise. It makes the idea that the similarity in DNA makes humans special and separate from the rest of the animals completely meaningless. Besides, humans only have 99.9% the same DNA as each other (that's how DNA testing works) and not 100%.

As I said, these clowns have no idea what DNA is. That Youtube clip suggests they think DNA is some kind of worm that lives in the blood stream.

For those who give a fuck, DNA is made of 4 nitrogenous bases (adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine) and the only thing that can change in a gene is the sequence and the length. What exactly is meant to be 'infected' in that clip? If the four bases were altered in some way by an 'infection' then the result would be completely alien and not related to any living thing on Earth. How that relates to the idea of us and the 'engineers' being closely related is beyond me.

Scott and his team have done something amazing with this movie - the more you think about it the shitter it gets.

[Skidder.]

they are

Fiiiiighttt!

[Andy @ Allerton!]

they are

Obviously not seen the film if you think so.

[Flaccid Bobby Fowler]

Obviously not seen the film if you think so.

i have, its stupid, and what was with the little fishy thingy in your mans eye? terrible performance from him in this movie, thought he was better in that UFC movie..

[Andy @ Allerton!]

i have, its stupid, and what was with the little fishy thingy in your mans eye? terrible performance from him in this movie, thought he was better in that UFC moovie..

They note that there is a difference in the film.

I thought it was a little wormy thing. Wormy thing beats fishy thing. See Team 17 for details.

[Flaccid Bobby Fowler]

They note that there is a difference in the film.

I thought it was a little wormy thing. Wormy thing beats fishy thing. See Team 17 for details.

im nearly sure it was fishy 

[Andy @ Allerton!]

im nearly sure it was fishy 

Do you mean the part where they examine the paraphyletic organism in the petri dish just before the lifeboat returned?

[Flaccid Bobby Fowler]

Do you mean the part where they examine the paraphyletic organism in the petri dish just before the lifeboat returned?

Yes, exactly 

[Andy @ Allerton!]

Yes, exactly 

Sorry. My mistake I thought they examined a little fishy on a little dishy before the boat came in.

[Casablancas]

Noel Gallagher

Seen that film Prometheus on the flight on the way over. What a load of shit. Laughable rubbish. Have you seen it? Well don't . . . it's dog-shit.

[Flaccid Bobby Fowler]

Sorry. My mistake I thought they examined a little fishy on a little dishy before the boat came in.

 

Im actually a fan of the movie, although i did feel a little shortchanged coming out the cinema after watching it.
look forward to the Bluray release 

[Antics]

Watched it for the first time. Bloody hell, didn't expect it to be quite so awful, I'd heard mixed reviews but was caught by surprise at just how laughably bad it was.

Clearly didn't understand it