Prometheus

[bucketshred]

Anyone seen it yet?

I saw it last weekend (in 2D) and thought it was awful.

Your thoughts?

Paddy

[MDV]

Not seen it. Really want to; I love alien and aliens, and am quite fond of alien 3. There was no alien 4.

From reports so far, it appears to be quite divisive.

[Afghan Dave]

Really wanted to see it but I've only read bad things so instead of gambling....

Looked up a full list of spoilers and decided the bad things I read were probably accurate.   :?

[Philly Q]

Blimey, a film getting its own thread!

Haven't seen it, haven't read too much about it because I do intend to see it eventually.... but everything I have read sounds like Sir Ridley is continuing his long run of expensive, well-crafted, good-looking but ultimately disappointing films.  Hope that's wrong, but it has a ring of truth to it....

[MDV]

This does not bode well.

I hope I dont end up liking the mystery of what happened to lead to alien more than what happened to lead to alien.

[Dmoney]

I've seen it.

What do you want to know? I'd say it's worth seeing but you expect something on the dramatic level of Alien you'll probably be disappointed

[blue]

i saw it last night.  i was prepared to be disappointed, given the level of expectation.  basically, if you go in with an open mind, not expecting a film just like Alien or Aliens, (and certainly not a typical summer blockbuster!) you shouldn't be disappointed.  

i found my self lying awake thinking about the film, trying to piece things together, and wondering where it would go next.  that alone makes it good to me.  usually you walk out of the cinema and pretty much forget about the last two hours!  

the 3D version is good, by the way.  not gimmicky, thrusting into your face.  it just has a wonderful sense of depth, like looking through a window into another world.

a lot of people say Scott's films seem cold, soulless.  this won't change their minds.  and they're still wrong :)

[Andrew W]

I saw it in 3D last weekend and really liked it. I had been very careful to stay entirely spoiler free and had no expectations of what I was about to see when I went in. Without any spoilers, I liked it because:

1) I think it asks some very interesting questions. It doesn't answer them necessarily but it does encourage you to engage with them. I'm still thinking about it a week later and that doesn't often happen.
2) It's nothing like Alien or Aliens in its concept/style/pacing. Much more like a Phase IV or a Solaris I think.
3) I found the characters interesting but uniformly unlikeable. If you need someone to root for in a movie, this ain't it. That said the actual dialogue in the screenplay is pretty weak in my opinion, though the ideas it explores aren't.
4) It looks fantastic.

[Philly Q]

a lot of people say Scott's films seem cold, soulless.  this won't change their minds.  and they're still wrong :)

Of all his films, the one I find most emotionally involving is his very first, The Duellists.  

I don't know about cold and soulless, but I do think most, or a lot, of his films lack something.... a decent plot, in many cases.  :P

[Dmoney]

It does look fantastic and I did enjoy it, but afterwards I left confused.
Some shots in there had the audience in the cinema in stitches. In particular a couple right at the end that seemed to make me feel like overall the film was cheapened by slack comedic relief. I also wasn't particularly into how it went a bit 'space odyssey' although I did quite like the story overall. The other thing that confused me was the motive of David for doing certain things... at first it seemed plausible that what he was doing had a relation to the actions of individuals in the original films, but afterwards I realised some of his actions seemed completely without motive or purpose.

[blue]

touche, Philly :)

Dmoney, i'm not sure what the funny bits were, but it could be the perspective a person's watching it from?  i totally get what you mean about the motivations.  it really seemed that some characters knew a lot more about what was going on than they were letting on.  but those questions weren't answered! 

the graphic at the end of the credits really has me wondering if they've already made a second film which has been cleverly kept under wraps and will be with us on a certain date in the not too distant future...

[Dmoney]

I guess your right.
If one person laughs out loud in a cinema then a bunch more probably will as well as a reaction.

I can't really say the exact parts because it'll give things away. 

Like Andrew says, it's hard to really find a character to like. Maybe they'll release a longer cut like Aliens that will have more character building scenes in? I quite liked David as a character but was generally confused by him. Some of the other characters didn't really have much of a function and therefore you never learned anything about them.

[MDV]

touche, Philly :) it really seemed that some characters knew a lot more about what was going on than they were letting on.  but those questions weren't answered!

Good!

This is one of two or three things that really distinguish Alien for me, and by inheritance, aliens. Theres an untold backstory, hinted wider and deeper events, and in both one person that both knows much more than anyone else and is themselves a puppet.

It makes the story and world much more interesting, and also goes at least some way to put you in the place of the protagonists more convincingly, as you at least share their ignorance and watch things with the same unprivileged perspective. With all the space ships and aliens and other stuff thats awesome but imaginary, scifi very rarely gives you much that lets you connect with a characters situation.

In a genre dominated by tedious exposition, its a very redeeming feature. I hope that they were brave enough in Prometheus, a film that by its nature promises answers, to still leave questions.

[blue]

oh, they were.  i think it's fair to say, and doesn't give anything away, that you leave with more questions than answers

[Dmoney]

I'm not sure it comes across that way in the end... i mean, the guy you expect to be "the one who knows more than they are letting on", plays that part well, but after the story has developed you realise that this persons actions can't really have been based on any prior knowledge and therefore don't entirely make sense.

not to me anyway.