Ridley Scott's Prometheus - Sequel gets new writer

[Roboplegic Wrongcock]

Also saw this earlier at the IMAX and it was sadly disappointing. I also watched the launch trailer for the first time and my god does it spoil every surprise in the film. Terrible stuff whoever put that together.

One thing that really irked me you've just mapped out the caves with your scanners and still can't find your way out? And you can't talk to the ship to ask them if you're going the right way until the film needed you as early monster victims.

You have just been impregnated by an alien body and you attack two ship members you're then allowed to wonder the ship and perform a Caesarean on yourself. After which you don't tell anyone on board that yo I've just given birth to some fucked up shit it's still locked away in that room.

Someone who you assumed is dead and his readings turns up outside the ship whats the first thing you do? Oh yeah lets open the hold and see what if his there

Characters doing dumb shit always brings a film down for me.

Things I enjoyed the 3D was absolutely astounding seriously good stuff and proves when you have a director who has a vision you can get some good stuff going it's interesting that it's the older directors Scorsese and now Scott who are showing how well 3D works when it's not just stuffed into a movie just because. There were shots in this film little incidental stuff that was just breathtaking in 3D.

And the vistas?

So as a film it was just ok but as 3D spectacle it was And Noomi Rapace is so damm fine.

[Broker]

I think this is the most disappointing film I've ever seen. Whilst I'm fully aware that people are trying to apologise for its inability to live up to or tie into the franchise, it's an awful film taken separately on its own merits.

The script is terrible, full of people lazily shouting childish plot exposition at each other. The things you want to hear are never said or explored, and a tonne of obvious stuff is shown and then loudly spelled out through direct dialogue. People state the painfully obvious throughout, but nobody feels the need to discuss or explain the main themes of the film.

The characters consistently behave in ways which make very little sense. People forget what was happening moments before, or suddenly know things with no explanation. Sometimes the characters seem to understand everything happening on the ship, other times they've got no clue what's going on in the next room.

The plot jerks around senselessly. The first hour is glacial, people walking through dark halls, then the second hour moves so fast and churns through so much that it makes no sense. The movie lays out grandiose ambitions and themes, then fails to explore any of them. The threats are many and varied, but essentially just show up whenever the plot requires them too, in multiple unlinked varieties, exactly like the crew of the ship do.

All of those things are entirely independent of it being part of any franchise, they're major, intrinsic failures of the film. It's pretty and they've cast some good people in it, Fassbender gets the only part that isn't paper thin and works his undeniable talent on it. But he's an android, so his wooden dialogue fits. I could happily have believed any of them was a robot, the way they all speak is totally inhuman.

As a stand alone film, it's maybe a 4/10.

If you like Alien, if you like the franchise and deservedly expected something special from Scott returning to the genre he defined and the series he created? It's a 1/10, a shit film that totally fails to live up to its forebears, and actively contradicts them. The links to Alien make no sense whatsoever, and are purely there to earn fox money. It's a genuine insult to the fans, far more than AvP, because nobody expected that to be good, and as a die hard Alien fan it's much worse than AvP, even if judged as a standalone movie it isn't.

So, where to begin? Both "Let's get this straight, I'm here for the money" and "Do you have some sort of agenda" set the stage early on for awful, simplistic dialogue. During the medical procedures the Doctors helpfully explained what was happening to one another in simple laymans terms!

I gather people consider Noomi Rapace to be quite good? I can't believe anyone could put her performance in this on a level with Fassbender's, it was as lazy as the dialogue she thoughtlessly read aloud.

They all acted like total idiots. Big thing is falling towards me, it is long but thin so I run in a straight line away from it as it carries on falling towards me. Even when I save myself by rolling a foot to the side, I'll get up and run straight forwards again one minute later.

They have floating orbs that can map terrain, but no floating lights and gave to hold torches?

Shaw has a Caesarian, then is so hurt she can barely walk. Though she can run. And jump a small gap. But no it hurts again, maybe a spot of abseiling will help.

Lazy, shitty sequel bait ending, senseless link to Alien which doesn't work at all, frequent, thoughtless links to Alien, without bothering to stay true to anything in it.

Awful, awful film.

For fuck's sake, this is such bullshit.

AvP was among the worst films ever made. Nobody who isnt getting over emotional about things could for a second consider Prometheus to be in the same league as AvP. Comparing this to that really makes you sound like you haven't seen either. Same goes for the "it's, like, Phantom Menace bad" idiots.

It's not the film you wanted it to be, which is a terrible shame. But seriously, grow up.

To the people who haven't seen it, don't be put off by the hyperbole of a few. It's one of the best, or at least most interesting films of the year.

This is what all Star Wars fans sounded like after Phantom Menace came out, desperately flailing for positive things to say about it, then insulting people who don't like it when they can't find any.

Agreed, it feels like it should have been at least another 30 minutes to do the plot justice.

They could've cut 30 minutes out of the first hour where nothing happens.

Now, I love Lost, but the lack of decent pay off in that show is bleeding terrible. I hope this isn't as bad. Probably seeing it Tuesday and I have AVP2 prepped to watch on Monday night so my expectations are suitable lowered.

I loved lost, but felt brutally burned by the ending. This is far less satisfying.

Anyone who has seen it, you think theres any room for a Kingdom of Heaven style directors cut solving some of these glaring issues? Or atleast lessening their impact.

The worst things about it are the plotting and dialogue. Whilst the plotting might be sorted with a recut, it seems unlikely that lots of better dialogue was recorded and discarded.

[Nespresso]

In the car home, just saw this in IMAX 3D, wowzers, reading your negative comments, wowzers, will post a proper reaction tomorrow.

My brain needs a cooldown.

[Made of Ghosts]

I'm gonna controversially stick my neck out and say that I basically agree with everyone. The whole thing looks spectacular, especially in 3D, and there are some good scares and tense bits. And Michael Fassbender is good. But on the whole I don't think I liked it a great deal.

The film is full of bits of plot that begin and end with no real consequence. They're going to find the creators of humanity! Oh, they found them. A crew member is infected! And killed before he can do much damage. But Noomi Rapace is space pregnant! So she gets a space abortion and is basically fine after that. Oldguy Pearce wants to cheat death! No, he dies. Michael Fassrobot has a secret plan! ...To be honest, I'm still not sure what it was, apart from the Guy Pearce thing. Why did he infect one of the crew? While we're here, why was the Guy Pearce plot kept secret from the rest of the crew? And why did the Ancestors want to destroy humanity anyway? Why did they leave those messages? And why was Charlize Notarobot's personal surgery pod specifically designed for a man? And why was the old man played by Guy Pearce instead of an actual old man?

Any of these bits of plot could've made a fine movie, but there's no ebb and flow to events. It tries to be Alien meets 2001 but neither side of the storyline is wholly satisfying and they don't mesh well, leading to a variable tone. Too much is going on and there's no sense of an escalating situation. The script is often apalling and the acting is very variable. There were 17 crew members, and I cared about... maybe six of them. Then they mostly die and that's it. I didn't feel like there was one complete story there. Just a bunch of stuff happening

In writing all that, I've sort of convinced myself that it's a terrible film. In practise I actually did enjoy a lot of it. There is a fair bit of tension in certain sections (mostly at the beginning), and some great bits of body horror, one scene in particular. And the mysteriousness is compelling, despite coming to very little in the end. It's obviously very flawed but at least it's interesting. I would cautiously recommend it. Very cautiously.

[Wiper]

In the car home, just saw this in IMAX 3D, wowzers, reading your negative comments, wowzers, will post a proper reaction tomorrow.

My brain needs a cooldown.

I saw it in 2D last night, and have to say - I (and the friend I went with) really enjoyed it. The dialogue wasn't brilliant, the ending was awful, but it was beautiful enough that I enjoyed it (even if I had to hide from certain scenes, damn my squeamishness!). Went in expecting a straightforward sci-fi thriller with ties to the alien universe (but not the films), and got it. An enjoyable, pretty, occasionally disturbing film with clunky dialogue.

[GENOME]

Lawrence of Arabia looked awesome in HD 3D!

[tjhooker]

He is a director that is good at making a film look beautiful and creating an effective atmosphere but in a 20-film career most have been average to poor (I realise a lot of people like Gladiator, Thelma & Louise and Black Hawk Down more than I do), but even including those amongst his greats it is only 6 films of note. Prometheus is pretty par for the course for Scott.

What about the Duelists or Black Rain?

[lordcookie]

The Duellists was one of the six films of note (and my third favourite Ridley movie) whereas Black Rain looks great but I don't consider it anything special.

[rumblecat]

Yeah, I saw this on Friday, thought it was pretty mediocre, looked lovely, terrible story, poor characters, just a really dumb movie unfortunately. One thing I just don't understand is this one-

Why did David (the robot) spike the guy's drink? Even if he was looking to create new forms of life or wanting to experiment to see the affects, it was a really bizarre and dangerous thing to do- infecting someone and letting them walk around free on a ship that hosts your boss/ creator / father figure / guy you have to protect. And of all the people to choose, then surely a non-essential crew member would have made sense, rather than one of the two people responsible for discovering and decoding the wall paintings that led them there... I was glad he did it because that character was shit (reach alien planet, partner is dissecting an alien life-form, biggest discovery ever, mind blowing for any scientist... do you stay and watch? No, you go off and get drunk alone and mope about how shit everything is because "you wanted to talk to them" instead...

[88h88]

Yeah, I saw this on Friday, thought it was pretty mediocre, looked lovely, terrible story, poor characters, just a really dumb movie unfortunately. One thing I just don't understand is this one-

Why did David (the robot) spike the guy's drink? Even if he was looking to create new forms of life or wanting to experiment to see the affects, it was a really bizarre and dangerous thing to do- infecting someone and letting them walk around free on a ship that hosts your boss/ creator / father figure / guy you have to protect. And of all the people to choose, then surely a non-essential crew member would have made sense, rather than one of the two people responsible for discovering and decoding the wall paintings that led them there... I was glad he did it because that character was shit (reach alien planet, partner is dissecting an alien life-form, biggest discovery ever, mind blowing for any scientist... do you stay and watch? No, you go off and get drunk alone and mope about how shit everything is because "you wanted to talk to them" instead...

I'm in two minds about various bits of this film including a lot of character's actions but I saw this particular bit as David himself wanting to play God knowing full well that it'd seriously fuck up whoever it came into contact with.

It had me wondering if the stuff he said to the awoken engineer was pretty much "oh I tried using some of that black stuff on a human" and the engineer saw that humans were playing God by creating David and his kind and then even David himself is playing God hence the wholesale ass-whooping for everyone. When engineers used the black stuff all kinds of beautiful life is created, when used on humans it all goes horribly wrong.

Still doesn't answer various other things but that was kinda my take on it.

[Roboplegic Wrongcock]

I was on GAF earlier and had people saying with straight faces that this film will be considered a 'classic' in a few years.

[Broker]

It's literally the reaction to Phantom Menace all over again.

[Mr Cochese]

In the car home, just saw this in IMAX 3D, wowzers, reading your negative comments, wowzers, will post a proper reaction tomorrow.

My brain needs a cooldown.

You have an IMAX screen in your car?

[CactuarBill]

I was on GAF earlier and had people saying with straight faces that this film will be considered a 'classic' in a few years.

While there are idiots like that, on the other end of the spectrum, people are saying this is worse than AVP.

[Steven]

I'm in two minds about various bits of this film including a lot of character's actions but I saw this particular bit as David himself wanting to play God knowing full well that it'd seriously fuck up whoever it came into contact with.

It had me wondering if the stuff he said to the awoken engineer was pretty much "oh I tried using some of that black stuff on a human" and the engineer saw that humans were playing God by creating David and his kind and then even David himself is playing God hence the wholesale ass-whooping for everyone. When engineers used the black stuff all kinds of beautiful life is created, when used on humans it all goes horribly wrong.

Still doesn't answer various other things but that was kinda my take on it.

I just reckoned his engineerese was a bit patchy and he ended up saying they were all going to take turns fucking him, starting with the old man.

[BeeJay]

I just reckoned his engineerese was a bit patchy and he ended saying they were all going to take turns fucking him, starting with the old man.

Superb, I can see a meme in the making just like downfall one.

[lolly]

Due to the fact that I probably won't see this for a long time I''ve read all the spoilers and dicussion on this thread. It sounds to me like it's shallow , inconsistent and cynical TBH. The fact a writer who was on Lost doing this should have set real alarm bells ringing , I really though that series was poor (even though I stayed with it for two seasons) . I still am intersted in seeing it but it will be with the same detatched POV that I watched the AVP movies as potentially interesting projects rather than the nervous tension that I sat through Alien in, and I'd had Alien spoilers described to me by older kids for a long tme before I plucked up the courage to watch it myself.

[88h88]

Have any of the Lost writers produced anything worth a damn? Lindelof obviously doesn't seem capable of it seeing as this is essentially a re-write of At the Mountains of Madness that he just had to put a futuristic spin on.

I liked Lost a lot, imported box sets before the series finished in the UK and couldn't wait for more but as the show went on more things popped up, more mysteries came and went without ever being answered or referred to ever again. It's the same in Prometheus, it seems like it was really lazily written.

[Mr Cochese]

The film is ruined for me now. Whatever we get instead, I will be thinking about the two guys mindcontrolled into fucking each other then having a titanic battle against a swarm of finger-length drones and the Catburster. They eventually win by smashing the Catburster's face in with a shovel. And one of the guys has a nipple in the palm of his hand that he keeps milking. Nothing else they come up with could possibly hope to be better than that.

Would the people who have seen the film agree with this statement?

[Roboplegic Wrongcock]

While there are idiots like that, on the other end of the spectrum, people are saying this is worse than AVP.

This is no way worse than AVP, but it's a damm disappointment for anyone that actually wanted some good solid sci-fi.

[Made of Ghosts]

It's nowhere near a Phantom Menace situation. For all its (huge, gaping, ruinous) flaws, it's well made and engaging at least some of the time. And gorgeous to look at.

I'd like to hear Harry S Plinkett's take on it actually.

[Paulando]

Yeah, it's perfect for a Red Letter Media review.

[Shoes]

I didn't think it was gorgeous, actually. Every shot had some shiny HUD on it, which drove me nuts. It looked like a two-hour Mass Effect cut scene.

[amc]

I think for all its batshit go nowhere setups and plot holes it would outdo the SW prequels for the Plinkett expletive record.

All three of them put together.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Fuck me that was just appallingly written.

Along with the shit expository dialog ("I'm hear to get paid") etc, which has been mentioned enough already, there were so many stupid little plot holes to go with the shit characterisation.

This mission cost "1 trillion dollars (in 2093 I doubt that will be very much money)". So why the hell have they hired an utter moron of a geologist who's clearly got a drugs problem. And how the FUCK did he get weed onto the ship? And if the mission is so important and expensive, why do NONE of the people seem to know each other before they awoke from hypersleep? You'd imagine they'd all have trained together or something, right? HSE would have a fucking field day.

Why did the biologist go from total scaredy cat to wanting to stroke an alien cobra that emerges from a PUDDLE OF TERRIFYING GOO.

Why did nobody fucking stay in touch with the two guys who are stranded in an alien building, full of dead aliens. Instead vickers decides to fuck stringer bell, because he can play the accordion. How did these people get their jobs?

Why not just fucking cast peter o'toole as mr weyland, instead of Guy Pearce in old-man makeup, which really just looks so so bad.

Why is the incredibly expensive medical pod only calibrated for men. Wouldn't that kind of be a bit of a flaw, technically. Also, since it's calbrated for men, it's presumably meant for weyland. Why not stick it in his bit of the ship, then?

Why didn't those two idiots shut up about their stupid bet.

Why is Noomi Rapace's character such an inexcusable twat. The 'it's what I choose to believe' line made me want her to die most of all.

Why, after discovering that there is a powerful alien race who ACTIVELY PLAN to destroy us, do you go sailing off to find them again, instead of going home and telling everyone about it, maybe?

Why, when he woke up after a few thousand years sleep, did the engineer immediately go off on the murder again? That's not the first thing I'd do. I'd maybe check my email, see what was up with everyone, see if we were still actively trying to destroy humanity or not. And, so, what, he just went to sleep to escape whatever was going wrong, or something? And then just carried on afterwards.

Why was david's head still in the exact same spot, after the fucking space ship had crashed and wildly rolled over miss vickers. Miss vickers who doesn't know how to fucking run sideways.

Why do the cave paintings invite us to some shithole weapons dump where they're actively trying to kill us.

Why the hell would you take your fucking helmet off on an alien planet. Are you an idiot. Why make a big deal of it? It did nothing to the plot whatsoever.

And how did the cavemen know where the engineers came from, if, you know, one of them just dissolved himself into a river, and the rest flew off.

Amateur awful writing, basically. Ugh. No wonder the guys who wrote it did cowboys and aliens and darkest hour.

[redbloodcell]

While there are idiots like that, on the other end of the spectrum, people are saying this is worse than AVP.

It is better than AvP, but AvP was made by Paul "the shit one" WS Anderson. For something that was made by Ridley Scott (for about double the production cost of AvP) it isn't as "better than AvP" as it should be by a long shot.

[Paulando]

I figured the medical machine thing had either been tampered with (by David, I guess) so she wouldn't be able to use it, or that it was just there for Weyland.

Either way, none of it made much sense, and I still don't get why David poisoned Holloway in the first place.

[Mr Hatfield]

watched it - thoroughly impressed with the scale, effects, cinematography, 3D, sound (not so the music) - it definitely pushed the boundaries of what is possible in cinema with next-generation technology, effects etc. - very impressive indeed.

however - the storyline, plot, and character development were all shockingly bad - absolutely and utterly appalling - none of it made any sense at all!

- why did David poison Holloway?

- what the hell was the relationship about between Weyland and his Daughter?

- why was Holloway getting pissed when David poisoned him?

- how the fuck did David know how to operate the controls on all the doors, controls etc?

- why the fuck did they remove their helmets when the air was breathable? It was a "trillion dollar" mission FFS - completely unprofessional and completely ridiculous

just some of many unanswered questions

[Vespa Alex]

however - the storyline, plot, and character development were all shockingly bad - absolutely and utterly appalling - none of it made any sense at all!

Really?

I know I'm a fairly forgiving viewer who focusses more on the positives of a film, but I just can't see it as being that bad for anyone.

As a serious question, what other films would you say are of the same quality as this?

I'm disappointed that it wasn't the instant classic that we all wanted it to be, but I came out of the cinema after a couple of hours having enjoyed myself.

[Gorf King]

It might not be a classic right now, but I feel confident we can make it into one. In this post I revealed back in March that a few of us from the forum who know our Apples had been working on a fan version of Prometheus that would be 'true to everything that's good about the first film while bringing on all the aesthetic advances that the prequel has to offer'. This is a still from what we came up with back then:

Primitive, I know! But of course, we did that without the benefit of actually having seen Prometheus, so we were simply guessing at what could be in it that would ass - sorry, add - to the original. And boy, did we get it wrong. There's no way we could have seen just what the future held in store for us, but having now done so we've updated our own version to include all the extra stuff that we couldn't have seen back then, as it was in the future and so, naturally, was all too innovative and ambitious to guess until we got to fully see the director's vision on the big screen. I think we've got just about everything of value in this one: