Prometheus (2012) - your opinions *No spoilers*

[GlasgowSpacer]

Scott’s a director whose at his best when he’ tethered to a strong script writer. When he’s working with someone like Dan O’Bannon or David Webb Peoples he’s phenomenal, but otherwise he can very easily descend into mediocre rubbish like Hannibal.

The quote Clovis Man showed actually sums up one of the film’s biggest problems: it’s fixated on its central idea to the point where everything else in the film feels secondary. Aside from David most of the characters are thinly sketched. On its own this wouldn’t be enough to kill the film (2001 didn’t have any particularly deep characters aside from Hal. Why is it that in so many sci-fi works the aliens and robots are the only ones who feel like fleshed out human beings?) except for two things.

Firstly it clearly wants us to engage with the characters, but doesn’t flesh them out or develop them enough for us to relate to them. Despite everything that happens Shaw seems almost unaffected by the end. 2001 on the other hand is clearly idea driven from the start so we don’t really need to engage with the characters. Secondly, one the film raises its initial questions, it doesn’t develop them. We know right of the bat that the Engineers created humanity… and by the end, that’s still pretty much all we know for sure. While a film shouldn’t spoon feed the audience everything there’s still a difference between leaving things to our imaginations and being needlessly vague. 2001 left the exact nature of the monolith vague, but still developed its themes and concepts enough to make its story genuinely compelling. Sequences like Dave aging in the hotel and the starchild, while ambiguous still show the writers genuinely developing a concept.

Prometheus on the other hand just throws around a lot of vague suggestions without really fleshing out its ideas. Granted it could be argued that they’ll develop it in the sequel, but then again they might not, and even if they do it weakens the film as a stand alone picture. For contrast, thought the Empire Strikes Back ends on a cliff-hanger, Vader’s revelation means that the film has a genuine sense of development. In Prometheus Vader would probably just say, ‘Luke, at some point in the theoretical past I might possibly have had a theoretical connection (possibly) to someone who could possibly have had a bearing (maybe) on someone who might have been part of your immediate family. In theory.’

 

[Bick]

I saw Prometheus for the first time last night. A few thoughts:

The difficulty of understanding what went on and the motivations of the engineers has been a source of much criticism it seems, but I was fine with that. I actually thought it was a nice change to come across a SF movie that tried to impart a sense that things are more complex than we can know right now, and it didn't try to spoon-feed a simple explanation; it left it hard to understand and mysterious. Fine by me. If we finally come across strange aliens on a far off moon, why would it be easy to interpret their motivations?

Overall, I quite liked it. There were some very silly things done by various characters, and I didn't like it that {spoiler}the robots head came off but still chatted away merrily - we've seen this so often in Alien films it seems{/spoiler}. But generally, I was okay with it. I had a sense of wonder and mystery. It got a bit gory/formulaic at the end, and I thought the last 10 mins just became much too silly in certain ways, but I was impressed enough with the overall idea to let that go. I'm not sure what will happen in Prometheus 2, but I suspect it will try to explain too much - exactly what I wouldn't want.

 

[Michael Colton]

My impression of Prometheus is fairly straightforward: it was worth a watch, I disliked the entire last third of the film, and Noomi Rapace's performance was the standout element of the film.

 

[Gawian]

Considering it was marketed as a prequel to Alien.... I found it incredibly disappointing.

To the point that I asked the cinema to play something else.

 

[Michael Colton]

Considering it was marketed as a prequel to Alien.... I found it incredibly disappointing.

To the point that I asked the cinema to play something else.

If I remember correctly, they did make it clear that it was not a prequel but simply in the same universe.

 

[clovis-man]

If I remember correctly, they did make it clear that it was not a prequel but simply in the same universe.

Not sure about this, but, if so, it would raise the question: (should the next film not get us back to the alien critter we know and love) Will the viewing public tolerate a continuation of the tangential path started with Prometheus? Especially if there continues to be a mystery surrounding the motives of the engineers.

 

[Venusian Broon]

A while back I read that a trilogy of movies had been sketched out (seems to be the in thing to do with SF...)

And that therefore the connection back to Alien would be made in the third one, in the "style" of Revenge of the Sith.

But I may have read a load of nonsense.

 

[Michael Colton]

Not sure about this, but, if so, it would raise the question: (should the next film not get us back to the alien critter we know and love) Will the viewing public tolerate a continuation of the tangential path started with Prometheus? Especially if there continues to be a mystery surrounding the motives of the engineers.

I am actually one of the few that hope they do not directly tie it back in but instead keep it tangential. Nothing good ever comes from trying to directly add to a series this many years later.

 

[clovis-man]

I am actually one of the few that hope they do not directly tie it back in but instead keep it tangential. Nothing good ever comes from trying to directly add to a series this many years later.

I think the third and fourth Alien films proved that.

If Prometheus were music, I would see it as a "theme and variations" piece in which the composer forgot to complete the theme. I'm just hoping that at least the central concepts gain some traction in the next one. And I agree that Noomi Rapace was a bright spot. Spoiler:Looks like both she and Michael Fassbender (or at least part of him) will be in it.

 

[BAYLOR]

It was supposed to be prequel to the 1979 film , instead, we got not quite a prequel. At best it was a very mediocre film with bunch of unlikable one dimensional disposable prop characters whose only purpose was to end up dead before the end of the movie , With the exception of Dr Shaw and David.

 

[BAYLOR]

Yet there are some items that I did find of interest. The origin of The Black ooze, did engineers create it themselves or maybe found it somewhere else ? Im think that the latter might be the case. It's just a thought.

 

[paranoid marvin]

It's certainly a film that's crying out for a directors cut; Scott, whilst making some great films, can ramble and at times lose direction. Personally I feel that a little nip and tuck in the right places would do wonders, as it did for another of his films Blade Runner. Doesn't look as though we'll see one though, and I would put this in the same category as Dune; epic in scale, ambitious, but seemingly ending up being more than a little pretentious.

 

[Rodders]

I liked it but i didn't think it was a good film. Perhaps what was left on the cutting room floor would explain a lot.

It did look glorious though.

 

[BAYLOR]

The film had great visuals . But was less then impressed with the story.

 

[Spiegal]

A friend and I recorded a series of videos regarding the Alien franchise. Our discussion on Prometheus was pretty interesting, here's the first of the Prometheus series and the rest of the videos can be found on his channel

 

[Deep Space Nina]

I did not saw the movie in cinema, just a few days ago on DVD, so my memory is fresh. If it would be a stand-alone-movie, O.K. But what I saw was some sort of "I already know what will happen". If I haven´t seen the Alien-movies, probably I would even expected the aliens to give the visitors from earth a warm welcome. I was not bored watching "Prometheus". But it was like ... you know, eating bread from yesterday. Even if it is with a salmon topping (what is equal to a good direction), it is still old bread ...

 

[Nechtan]

I didn't think it was the worst Alien movie. That belongs to Alien Vs Predator. I thought those 2 films were awful. I couldn't even enjoy them in a disengage brain before watching kind of way which I could do with Prometheus. I did have a lot of questions at the end of it including why were so many of the characters morons. But it was entertaining and I am looking forward to any sequels that do get made.

 

[Abernovo]

@Deep Space Nina, day-old bread is a very good analogy of this film. It pretty much sums up my feelings; there was nothing fresh in the story.

 

[Venusian Broon]

I didn't think it was the worst Alien movie. That belongs to Alien Vs Predator. I thought those 2 films were awful. I couldn't even enjoy them in a disengage brain before watching kind of way which I could do with Prometheus. I did have a lot of questions at the end of it including why were so many of the characters morons. But it was entertaining and I am looking forward to any sequels that do get made.

I felt there were quite a few things wrong with this film but actually one of the problems that your reminded me I had with it, was that it seemed to crib a lot of AvP - in fact it felt like almost a slightly more glamourous and glitzy remake of that film. Ridley Scott said he wanted to take back his universe...but in the end it felt like to me that he actually just rehashed bits and pieces of all the Alien (and AvP) movies.

 

[AsmaMohd]

A magnificent science-fiction film, all the more intriguing because it raises questions about the origin of human life and doesn't have the answers.