Prometheus - Part 9

[dark_b]

it didnt look to me like he saw 5 ants infront of him.

 

[Destructus86]

Another theory: what were the engineers on LV-223 trying to escape from? We naturally assume they are running because their experiments are out of control, but what if they are running from something else?

Maybe these guys are the equivalent of terrorists in the Engineer race (can't assume an alien species is so homogenous that they don't have different factions and customs within their own kind). Maybe the hologram shows them escaping arrest or assassination from other Engineers who oppose what they do, and are trying to destroy what they've created.

So the hypothetical bio-terrorist Engineers who escape try to bring the Xenomorph experiment with them, but it all goes wrong and they crash on the uninhabitable LV-426. The lawful Engineers realize that it would be folly to send anyone down there to retrieve the experiment, because who in their right mind would land on that planet to begin with, so they set up a warning beacon and just let nature destroy the experiment for them.

The terrorist thing was my theory as well. I think they were opposed to creating new life...they wanted to destroy what the other Engineers had created. when David told the engineers he was created by humans (just a guess) the Engineer went nuts.

 

[dark_b]

i am sorry but no and no.

if you show black liquid in the beginning and then in the middle it has to be the same. this is how storytelling works. what happened to humans happened to the engineers.

the same like in the first alien movie. what is this hole in the chest of this big alien? hmmmm you think the same alien came out like from the Kane? of course it was the same alien. it was not a worm,it was not a bomb and it was not a cat. . its visual storytelling .

this is why Lindelof likes to writte this kind of scripts. people start to question even the things that did make sense. everything is twisted. its why i hate it.

 

[Pink Ranger]

i am sorry but no and no.

if you show black liquid in the beginning and then in the middle it has to be the same. this is how storytelling works. what happened to humans happened to the engineers.

Coke and Pepsi look the same, but are different. Ironically, one of those also turns you into a deformed mutant.

 

[Spade]

it didnt look to me like he saw 5 ants infront of him.

Literally, no. But he treated them just the same. He didn't even consider them a threat, which is why Shaw survived, until after half his face was marred and his ship destroyed. The only ambiguity here is that his behavior doesn't sync with the other living Engineer we're introduced to, but we didn't learn too much about that guy, either.

 

[Destructus86]

I think what really happened was David told the Engineer he could have saved a ton of credits on spaceship insurance if he had switched to Geiko. Then the Alien just went nuts with frustration.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Saw this for a 2nd time tonight, I absolutely love this movie, I am not even a big Ridley Scott fan, Alien and Gladiator are the only 2 movies of his I have thought were excellent, I am not even a big Blade Runner fan.

But I freaking love Prometheus, I dont know how anyone couldnt think it was a good movie, but of course thats down to opinion. Personally, I am happy with the answers we got in the movie, and with the questions that it raised. Its more than just an Alien prequel, which I am glad about, I dont want the Aliens de-mystified too much, as that would take away from the other movies. I personally really hope we get the proposed sequel as I would love to see were Scott went with it, my score has gone up to 9.5/10.

 

[Frodo]

I think this is the only film ive seen in which both sides have made really valid arguements either praising or damning the film. Both sides have really come up with well thought out rationale's for their positions , so its hard for me to say one side is right and the other is wrong. I think they're both right.

 

[DyeLorean]

Just came back from watching, in 3D.

First of all, I liked the movie. From a technical and visual point of view, it's awesome. I also liked the mixture of new mythology vs the Alien mythology. I think it was a very good idea to bring something new to the table, and not making it another "monster in the ship" similar to alien. The balance between the new stuff and the "oh look, I remember that" and "oohhh so that's where it came from" was very good, in my opinion. This is how a prequel should work.

Having said that, I think the film relies too much on the idea of a sequel. I like having questions unanswered, but there are a lot. I know Lindelof co-wrote the script. As a Lost fan, I know how he works as a writer, and I usually share his vision on many many things. However, I do think the film needed to explore a little bit more the ideas it presented, but just because they are very very interesting. I love this kind of movies because they make me think. The thing about our origins, space, alien life, its incredibly fascinating to me. So, when the movie becomes a little bit more horror-oriented, it's still good, but it never achieves bigger things.

Is hard to explain, I liked the movie, I really did, but because the themes and subjects it touches are so interesting, is kinda disappointing they left them out (for a sequel, I hope).

 

[Primal Slayer]

Just saw it and loved it! Sure it isnt perfect but for what it was it had my attention all the way through and just kept me asking more questions in my head.

But I was surprised we didnt see any initial shock over Charlizes' characters father being alive, no one was surprised and just accepted it like he has been there with them all along. And I do wish that they had changed it up a little bit and had Charlizes' character survive as well instead of going with the usual 1 person survives who happens to be the nicest sincerest character.

Hope we get a sequel since I want/need to know why the engineers wanted to off Earth. And why they had a statue of a full grown "alien" on one of the seals if they turned out so ruthless.

 

[The Predalien]

Hi all,
I`ve been with the hype for around 5 years now as a member , longer as a lurker, but i rarely post as you can see from my count!
Also , apologies for my `nick` - I chose that before AvPR was released and before I knew it was gonna SUCK! lol!

Anyway, on to the job at hand - Prometheus. Saw it two nights ago in 3D and I did enjoy it, and I love reading other peoples theories and speculation about unanswered or gray areas of the film.

The plot hole analysis is interesting and I enjoy the arguements for and against certain bits of the film. So I`m going to throw these two tidbits out there as I don`t think they have been mentioned before ( although I may be wrong )

Spoiler

1) When Fifield returns to the ship after mutating he has no helmet on. Now, they mention earlier `you couldn`t survive more than two minutes outside without suit` because of the C02 I think. So how did Fifield survive the walk back to the ship? especially bent over like that!
The engineers cant breathe outside, hence the terraforming. My only idea is that it is a side effect of the mutation.

Spoiler

2) The operating table device in Vickers room was set to `male only`, first of all why? Since if it was Vickers room it would need to be for female obviously and secondly , surely with that technology they have the ability to make the device work for BOTH sexes?!? Maybe it needed more RAM to hold the extra data. Seemed a bit odd and pointless as Shaw managed to get what she wanted anyway but had to program it herself.

I look forward to hearing peoples opinions on this and also to discuss other points of the film.
I also read the most hilarious `review` of Prometheus on another site written by a forum user. I`ll post it here later under a spoiler coz I just found it so damn funny!

Ade

 

[DarthSkywalker]

You have flung yourself cheerfully into the mire of the very misunderstanding that my post was intended to clear up.

Again: obviously, it is impossible for everything about a screenplay/script/movie to be "original", in the sense that nothing like it has been seen before. But, if the content is not adapted from elsewhere, then it can still be said to be "original" in the form it is in.

So, "Alien", "Prometheus", "Terminator", and "King Kong" (Cooper/Schoedsack) were original screen plays/scripts/movies. "Twilight", "The Avengers", "Harry Potter" and "King Kong" (Peter Jackson) are not.

I would like there to be more original movies, and for studios to entrust decent budgets to them.

Even though Prometheus' content is not altogether original, it is at least relatively "unusual" for a Hollywood movie, and that can only be a good thing.

Calling something an original screenplay can be a misnomer, as many original screenplays are based on something. Look at Del Toro's reaction to Prometheus.

As to your last point, those scenes, those moments in Prometheus were done in a very mechanical, very cliched way. It isn't just that they had the storm scene or the lost idiot scenes. It is that they were done in a very similar manner to how they have been in the past. They were even used as plot devices so certain things happened. It is lazing writing that makes the film anything but unusual.

Out of curiosity what is the "android montage?"

If you mean the introductory scene to David, I haven't seen one like that before. And it was great to see that character watch them sleep and watch Lawrence of Arabia. A very clever sequence.

I shouldn't have called it the "android" montage. I actually love the scene, one of the few and most belong to Fassbender, but as soon as it was over, I realized what it reminded me of. Moon. The repetitive life of the drone. It was showing us David's routine, very similar to Hal from 2001.

 

[Mandalore464]

Edit : Deleted

 

[DarthSkywalker]

The one reason I would doubt that the machine was for Weyland, is that it was on the lifeboat, which was commissioned by Vickers. Wasn't Weyland surprised to see her?

 

[dark_b]

http://thebioscopist.com/2012/06/20/the-linguistics-of-prometheus-what-david-says-to-the-engineer/

http://badassdigest.com/2012/06/20/...aid-to-the-engineer-at-the-end-of-prometheus/
classic Ridley Scott. you need to watch the DVD and BR for the real movie.

''This man is here because he does not want to die. He believes you can give him more life.''

''We’re all going to have to wait for the Director’s cut to see if the conversation between the Engineer and David – and there was indeed originally a conversation, not merely an utterance from David – yields any fruit.- Dr. Anil Biltoo''

 

[Mandalore464]

Edit : Deleted

 

[Roose Bolton]

So I finally convinced my pregnant fiancé to see this.......didn't end well heh

 

[Gianakin_]

Not your fiance anymore? Or not pregnant?

 

[Roose Bolton]

Ha its been a week and I'm still sleeping on the couch

But also I hadn't seen it either, yet knew about the scene with Shaw so I figured "hey I'll be a bit of dick and scare the **** out of her." but when I actually saw the abortion scene I was freaking out just as much, I'm going to demand a flamethrower kept handy in 6 months time haha

 

[dark_b]

i dont think this was funny

 

[Gianakin_]

Ha its been a week and I'm still sleeping on the couch

But also I hadn't seen it either, yet knew about the scene with Shaw so I figured "hey I'll be a bit of dick and scare the **** out of her." but when I actually saw the abortion scene I was freaking out just as much, I'm going to demand a flamethrower kept handy in 6 months time haha

Wow! Well, let's attribute it to bad timing and hope for the bast then.t:

 

[regwec]

Calling something an original screenplay can be a misnomer, as many original screenplays are based on something. Look at Del Toro's reaction to Prometheus.

As to your last point, those scenes, those moments in Prometheus were done in a very mechanical, very cliched way. It isn't just that they had the storm scene or the lost idiot scenes. It is that they were done in a very similar manner to how they have been in the past. They were even used as plot devices so certain things happened. It is lazing writing that makes the film anything but unusual.

*Sigh* Okay, please could you indicate the book, comic, videogame, radio play, stage play etc from which Prometheus is adapted; or the pre existing movie of which it is a remake? It certainly isn't an adaptation of ATMOM because, as I have pointed out repeatedly, the two stories are barely alike (particularly if you have actually read ATMOM rather than just glanced at its wiki page).

Yes, everyone knows that Prometheus basically "quotes" the quarantine & storm scenes from the Alien movies, and everyone knows that Prometheus is set in the "same universe". But the script is an "original" work in that it isn't straightforwardly adapting something else. Hence, (from IMDB)

Prometheus

Writing credits

Jon Spaihts Damon Lindelof


vs Avengers

Writing credits

Joss Whedon (screenplay)

Zak Penn (story) and Joss Whedon (story)

Stan Lee (comic book) & Jack Kirby (comic book)


vs Twilight: Breaking Dawn Pt I

Writing credits

Melissa Rosenberg (screenplay)

Stephenie Meyer (novel "Breaking Dawn")


vs King Kong (2005)

Writing credits

(WGA)Fran Walsh (screenplay) & Philippa Boyens (screenplay) & Peter Jackson (screenplay)

Merian C. Cooper (based on a story by) and Edgar Wallace (based on a story by)


Do you see? Even though you may think that Prometheus' script is crap, and you make the valid point that it lifts scenes from other movies, it still has the status of an original script. This does indeed make it "unusual" in the context of the dross that Hollywood pumps out nowadays.

As for the surgical pod- yes, it was clearly meant for Weyland. There is some shoddy writing in Prometheus, but a lot of the supposed "ZOMG" plot holes tend to be identified by people with short attention spans who missed a lot of content.

[EDIT] I am not saying that the poster who originally raised the point is one of these people, this is one of those points that does seem strange until you reflect on it. If you do so, however, you have to consider that the screenplay really doesn't call for the machine that is supposedly used by Vickers to be "male only"; that is clearly a deliberate hint in the script, rather than a mistake. Plot holes occur by omission or by negligence, not by somebody needlessly adding a line of script that makes no sense in context.

I still think it is likely that Vickers was a robot, or partly so. There are a lot of clues to it, not least how Weyland says that David is the closest thing he has to a son, and the manner in which Vickers acts completely out of character to have sex with Janek- possibly to throw him off the trail.

 

[Roose Bolton]

Yeah I'm a total ****

 

[spider-neil]

Yeah I'm a total ****

Did you know about the scene in question going into the movie?

 

[Roose Bolton]

I knew vaguely from the trailers that Shaw had at one point a Squid dangling over her writhing body, didn't know that it was actually in her womb.