Prometheus - Part 7

[CConn]

From the reactions I'm reading, this movie is reminding me very much of Burton's first Batman movie in some strange way.

It seems to be an immersive, visual experience that lacks a script that really hammers home any singularly tremendous theme, event, or meaning and thusly is leaving most underwhelmed.

Yet, it seems, the film has a vast and detailed philosophy and meaning behind it that does/will take multiple viewings to really fully experience and appreciate the inherent complexity of the film.

Honestly, it's making me even more excited to see it.

 

[BuddhaWasABat]

Yupp, the mixed reviews make me all the more excited to see it.

 

[Mandalore464]

Spoiler

Yes you could actually interpret it in many different ways. When I saw it I didn't thought that it was earth we were seeing. Also I just read on another forum a post similar to yours that when he fell into the water his dna is what created us. But we can't be sure that is supposed to be earth as you said. So many questions, but it's sure to keep people talking until the sequel arrives.

Spoiler

Well I thought the Engineer's DNA strands were recomposing once he fell into the water, hinting at the fact he had just created life, willingly or not.

 

[gohei_]

Spoiler

Well I thought the Engineer's DNA strands were recomposing once he fell into the water, hinting at the fact he had just created life, willingly or not.

Spoiler

Wouldn't that mean that every living creature on earth would share the same DNA?

 

[chamber-music]

If nothing else, thank the gods that Prometheus retcons the AVP movies back to the hell they came from

Yep Ridley cast them out like Gandalf t:

I've read some intresting theories regarding the engineers from people who have seen the film now

Spoiler

Humans weren't quite what they expected. maybe there was to much more Sapiens than Neanderthal in us, or we weren't meant to be altogether. perhaps they wanted a strong slave race, but they got a bunch of scrawny thinkers and opportunists.

or for some reason they needed a fully developed race to take over or to deploy their final-solution weapon. maybe, in the grand scheme of things, mankind was just target practice for their deadly experiments. maybe they put all those signs so we came to tell them when we were ready to be harvested.

Spoiler

1. They never intended to create US. We were an accident. They meant to create life but not a potential sub species of their own kind. Knowing it could lead to potential intelligent species which could become a dominante species in the universe.

2. They intended to create a very specific life form. The thing they wanted never naturaly formed so they wanted to reset the earth and start again.

3. They created us so they can create the species they seem to worship. This proto alien species which they had a mural. Now there did not seem like enough cargo to drop over the world. But if they infested the right points. It could lead to a couple million males being infected. Impregnating women who gave birth to face hugger things which then face hugger everyone else and gave birth to this proto alien species

Spoiler

We need to take into account weylands ted talk. 'we are the gods now'. obviously we were becoming too advanced and thats why they sought to destroy us. the woken engineer sees that we have created some form of life in David and gets pissed off or he sees it a blashemy as we are challenging the gods (prometheus)

Spoiler

there might be two factions of "Engineers". One faction does the "creating" and the other do the "destroying".
The destroyers try to get rid of the "creators" and eventually succeed. During all this infighting, one creator engineer (or a team of them) secretly terraform earth. One engineer sacrifices himself...maybe even the leader....to make life on earth. His team help the humans to grow throughout time, dying off one by one. WE HUMANS are the last remaining vestiges of the creators. It might be even possible that through the randomness of nature...this leader sacrifice engineer can be reconstituted as a living human. Immortality. He is continually reborn through us which IS HIM. Just like Osirus, Jesus, Buddha, etc.

The Destroyers find out about Earth 2000+ years ago and plan to use the fire they stole from the creators to wipe out earth, so no more creator DNA will remain. The "fire" backfires before they can hatch the attack.

This might explain the Lone Engineer's Reaction to the humans. Not only are they alive and here, but they can create (David). He is furious because the only life he and his dead shipmates were able to create is the worst of the worst.....the xeno. They tried to be the creators and created the xeno. The humans tried and made David. It would explain why they worship it, not in a holy way, more like a punishment way. the same way humans might take heed to "the devil" or "the evil alien" or "demon". They created their own worst nightmare...and when they saw it in the flesh, that's what caused them to flee the way they did in the hologram sequence.

The secret to immortality is to do what the Sacrifice engineer does. He disintegrates himself.

Weyland is trying to do what the Lone Engineer's group tried to do. They are going about it in the wrong way, the SELFish way. The wrong way creates the xeno....every time.....no matter what.....its the promethean curse.

They want to destroy us because we are the last vestiges of the creators, made in their image. They couldve been doing this to every planet the Creators' seeded, and earth was just the next one, which may end up being the creators' "secret weapon".

I think

Spoiler

watching the opening, maybe the sacrificial engineer is prometheus. he sacrfices himself and gives us life and thus the power of creation. maybe the other engineers cottoned on and thought to hell with that, he cant do that and came to wipe us out.

 

[Blue Sugar]

In context of the Alien-universe it created more new questions than giving answers to old ones, something I like cause I feared they would try to answer too much about the jockeys and such.

The film also managed to make me think about how endless the possibilities of life is in the universe and what an endless puzzle it is. I love the fact that they showed that it can feel both inspiring and hopeless.

Spoiler

Weyland showed the hopeless side upon discovering that his creator just wanted to kill him and went out with the idea of how there is no other answers out there. While Shaw showed the inspiring side when realizing her life's big discovery was just a tiny puzzle-piece she doesn't let it bring her down but instead inspires her to look even further, for more answers. I think it summed up the two characters in a great way and shows two ways of seeing things. Weyland wanted to cheat death, Shaw wanted to find the origin of life. He was afraid, she was curious. He was a coward, she was brave.

I think there is a lot more to think about and discuss when it comes to this film in terms of themes than people first realize, even though it's not amazingly dense or deep either for that matter.

That opening scene with the credits is beautiful by the way. Those sweeping shots across the landscape and water are just wow.

 

[Mandalore464]

Spoiler

Wouldn't that mean that every living creature on earth would share the same DNA?

Spoiler

I think we are meant to believe humans only share their DNA with the Engineers and the rest of the species are unrelated. They basically say Darwinism never happened, as Millburn remarks.

 

[gohei_]

Spoiler

I think we are meant to believe humans only share their DNA with the Engineers and the rest of the species are unrelated. They basically say Darwinism never happened, as Millburn remarks.

Hmm, I guess anything's possible.

 

[chamber-music]

Shaw was brave but also reckless, naive and her curiousity is more of a character flaw than a positive part of her character.

 

[Blue Sugar]

Shaw's biggest flaw was why she was together with that *****e-bag Holloway.

 

[BuddhaWasABat]

I'm trying so hard not to click on spoiler tage, and so far I am succeeding. So far...

 

[gohei_]

I'm trying so hard not to click on spoiler tage, and so far I am succeeding. So far...

Come on, you know you want to
Everything's better on this side of the spoiler barrier .

 

[Blue Sugar]

But for me Shaw was – despite her flaws – an inspiring character in the end. Actually I found the ending itself very inspiring.

Spoiler

It would have been so easy just giving up after all she had been through

Spoiler

By the way, anyone else would have thought it was cool if the proto-Xeno had sneaked on to the Juggernaut Shaw took off in? Instead of just being left on this now desolate planet. To get more proto-Xenos in the sequel we now have to go through all that mixing and merging again?

 

[DBryan]

Yet, it seems, the film has a vast and detailed philosophy and meaning behind it that does/will take multiple viewings to really fully experience and appreciate the inherent complexity of the film.

Believe me, its not that complex.

 

[chamber-music]

But for me Shaw was – despite her flaws – an inspiring character in the end. Actually I found the ending itself very inspiring.

Spoiler

It would have been so easy just giving up after all she had been through

Spoiler

All that bad stuff happened and she still wanted to go looking for answers. I can't knock her conviction but I think she really should of quit while she was ahead.

If the answers of why we were created leads to your crew being wiped out and the Earth being threatened you should not go on in my opinion.

 

[Angry Sentinel]

Ok let me try and clarify this one, in Alien, each character didn't need strands and strands of dialog to make an impression, they were all unique and had their own voice on the ship and their own reactions to what went on in the ship, they all had their individual motivations and diferent ways of reacting to the bad s**t that went on in the nostromo. Those little moments went a long way into building up the horror as these people we get familiar with get picked off one by one. With prometheus, there are not only too many people, but a lot of them are "faceless" and have no real development, it comes to the point where no matter if they get picked off, it really doesnt affect the audience, because we have no idea who they are, it's just like seeing a random extra getting offed in a massive battle in a fantasy film.

But on the bright side, the film isn't what you think it is, it's not a claustrophobic horror, so the aforementioned flaw, isn't really that bad, but it would have helped it because a better film.

This may have been discussed already, so forgive me, but I see it is the topic of now. Isn't this the "staple" of most horror movies??? Aren't the characters generally just 1 dimensional plot points... The stupid blonde, the slacker/stoner... the "jock"... the "bookworm". Only partial dramas like Alien actually bothered to aim these generalized characters in a more "useful" manner (and I think that had more to do with the situation they were in "deep space" than the actual intent to do so).

 

[CConn]

Believe me, its not that complex.

Nah, I won't.

 

[Great Mind(s)]

So is it good or not?

 

[BuddhaWasABat]

So is it good or not?

Many love it and can't stop thinking about it, most are on the fence about it, very few really don't like it. Go to the theater and find out which option suits you.

 

[Blue Sugar]

Spoiler

All that bad stuff happened and she still wanted to go looking for answers. I can't knock her conviction but I think she really should of quit while she was ahead.

If the answers of why we were created leads to your crew being wiped out and the Earth being threatened you should not go on in my opinion.

Spoiler

She didn't really get any answers only more questions, so she wasn't ahead really. She was also kind of beyond the point of no return in my opinion. Returning home was never an option. I don't think she ever could go back to leading a normal life after all this. With the threatening of earth I think it's a double-edged sword, should we stop searching just because it's more safe?

And after all, her actions saved the earth for the time being after all. Who says the Engineer hadn't woke up by himself sooner or later, or that other engineers would have found out their mission to wipe out mankind failed? Yeah going to find more answers might risk earth, but it also might lead to a chance to save it from the future. It's also a double-edged sword in the fact that it's characteristically human to want and look for answers and the fact that I also think that's the exact reason the Engineers wanted us destroyed.

Yes she was naive in thoughts, but also strong in will and that's way more inspiring than being a cynic in thoughts and giving up easily. So yeah, she had flaws but every person does and in the end I still say she was an inspirational character more than anything.

 

[gohei_]

Spoiler

And after all, her actions saved the earth for the time being after all. Who says the Engineer hadn't woke up by himself sooner or later, or that other engineers would have found out their mission to wipe out mankind failed?

Spoiler

Yeah, about that. Wouldn't someone else have found out about their invasion never happening? It's been 2000 years and no one is asking for a mission status? So maybe these jockey's are just a small group of the entire engineer species and the decision to kill us was not made from all the engineers?

 

[Blue Sugar]

So is it good or not?

It is a bit messy script-wise, it has editing problems and it has a lot of details I personally didn't like. Yet there is so many great individual scenes and ideas. It's always interesting, immersive and beautiful to look at. Also incredibly intense and thrilling in the last act, a very tense experience for me that I loved.

In the end for me the positive aspects about it comes out on top quite easily. But I'm also not much of a nitpicker and when being emotionally affected I'm very forgiving towards more inherent flaws.

 

[spider-neil]

What I will give this movie (like all Ridley Scott movies) it is absolutely beautiful to look and and why hands down Science Fiction is easily my favorite Genre.

 

[Brother Jack]

Yet, it seems, the film has a vast and detailed philosophy and meaning behind it that does/will take multiple viewings to really fully experience and appreciate the inherent complexity of the film.

That's in Burton's Batman?

 

[xmangambit]

Just come back from London IMAX showing and I have to say I'm thoroughly upset and I honestly believe Ridley Scott is Trolling and made this film only to fund some other projects of his that he wants to make.

Here is my review warning spoilers:

Spoiler

I am a very Big fan of the films (first 3 only), and when I first heard of this film being done by Ridley Scott I thought it was going to be epic! After just watching the film, I feel really sad, angry and just pissed off!

I need to get this out of the way first and it's to do with the ending. What the hell was that Dinosaur/Alien looking thing, it's like the designers failed ona monumental level of making anything horrific, the original Alien design was so horrific and shocking this was like watching a chestburster and out pops an Iguanadon-Alien-Teradactyl hybrid!? WTF!?

I liked the scenes with the space jockey and showing them but they didn't say anything not one thing, I thought there would be some communication at some point but all we got was some neanderthal attacks??

It just seems like, he didn't really explain anything.

Those capsules that the "Captain" of the Prometheus happens to explain as Biological weapons, HOW THE HELL DID HE KNOW THAT!? It was presumption upon presumption and speculation throughout the whole thing!

Vickers-Weyland?! Complete stupid idea!

I've got interviews of Ridley where he states they're going to answer stuff about the Jockey but he might sawell just left it alone! I thought he was going to do something about God and the creation of man, but he cheaped out especially with that scene where Holloway goes "well if they created us, then who created them!?", meh I don't know!

It just seems a bit unfinished, or it seems like he didn't really get across what he originally intended, I'll buy the Blu-ray just to see the commentary but this was as Bad if not worse than Alien Resurrection and I'm actually Heartbroken!

Also LV-223?

The first Alien is LV-426, so - Either this planet is not the one from Alien OR Shaw ends up in a Space Jockey suit and lands on LV-426 and a chest burster explodes but, this is full of holes!