but what is she going to eat/drink for the entire time she's on the ship? she grabbed like three cans of food when she was in the escape pod.
Was thinking that myself. Maybe the cans were all bouillon.
There's muttering about the opening scene elsewhere -- Scott has apparently said that the Engineer was engaged in an act of willing sacrifice as opposed to punishment and therefore that he was consciously creating life, but that the planet he was on wasn't necessarily meant to be Earth.
charlize theron/idris elba hookup scene was so embarrassing and awful
I'd love to know who was the Stephen Stills dork on the creative team.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 11 June 2012 14:30 (eleven years ago) link
uggggggggggh
― congratulations (n/a), Monday, 11 June 2012 14:31 (eleven years ago) link
Ridley said the opening scene was not necessarily earth, and was just there to show some sort of symbiotic relationship between the Engineers - how the fuck did Noomi determine they invented us? - and creation. But of course, by dropping the Jesus stuff there is absolutely no motivation for the Engineers to mobilize fleets of bio-weapons aimed at earth, and even then ... why didn't they do it? Why were they all dead? Why did it take the arrival of Expedition Team Idiot to wake the one guy up, who is all, yawn, what day is it? Oh, yeah, Christmas. Christmas! Shit, I'm late! I need to jump in my ship and destroy the earth! Better thousands of years late than never, right? I'll be there in a jif, in two or so years.
Would have liked the movie to have ended on a surreal relativity-based car chase, with the alien ship and Prometheus racing back to earth at the speed of light, for two years, its pilots glowering at each other through the portholes.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 11 June 2012 14:33 (eleven years ago) link
In the future, "Love the One You're With" will be the only musical relic of the 20th century. Sort of like "All Along the Watchtower" in "BSG."
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 11 June 2012 14:34 (eleven years ago) link
maybe the engineers wanted to destroy earth to eliminate any memory of stephen stills
― congratulations (n/a), Monday, 11 June 2012 14:35 (eleven years ago) link
I would be happy if that were so.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 11 June 2012 14:40 (eleven years ago) link
We're already way ahead of them anyway.
― Julie Derpy (Phil D.), Monday, 11 June 2012 14:42 (eleven years ago) link
maaaany xposts re Damon Lindelof i09 interview: "I was called to take the ball into the end zone." By which he means tear the ball into tiny pieces and hide the pieces all over the field and add smoke monsterand everyone stands around wondering wtf is even happening until both teams just get bored and go home.
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 11 June 2012 15:54 (eleven years ago) link
He is the absolute worst.
― I found him in a Bon Ton ad (Nicole), Monday, 11 June 2012 15:55 (eleven years ago) link
he is not smart in the way that i would like someone who has a part in writing this movie to be smart
― obliquity of the ecliptic (rrrobyn), Monday, 11 June 2012 16:54 (eleven years ago) link
i am sad about the state of hollywood
again
Rrrobyn y u no rite scripts for Hollywood?
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 11 June 2012 17:05 (eleven years ago) link
i have heard that that way is full of suffering
― obliquity of the ecliptic (rrrobyn), Monday, 11 June 2012 17:13 (eleven years ago) link
And the spoiler-heavy video responses are starting to come in:
the Half in the Bag/RedLetterMedia guys:
http://redlettermedia.com/half-in-the-bag-prometheus/
Two other dudes on the internet:
http://spoonyexperiment.com/2012/06/08/vlog-6-8-12-prometheus/
I kinda want a full Plinkett review of the flick just b/c these guys do great deconstructions as to what can go wrong with a script, and the 2nd vid gets across the emotional component of concentrated frustration and disappointment with the flick, even if they go a bit hyperbolic and some of their points are incorrect.
― Dreaming in Infrared (kingfish), Monday, 11 June 2012 17:14 (eleven years ago) link
This was truly one of the most beautiful sci-fi flicks I've ever seen, even moreso than Avatar and Tron Legacy, IMO it's a better movie than them both, but I don't really have anything good else to say about it outside of how great the whole look and feel of everything was
― frogbs, Monday, 11 June 2012 17:16 (eleven years ago) link
Tom Lennon & Ben Garant from Reno 911 wrote a book about it:
http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Movies-Fun-Profit-Billion/dp/1439186766
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510ZqZkEDJL.jpg
Which is a charming book but a bit sad that two guys responsible for great comedy that they themselves star in also turned out a book about how to be studio hacks.
― Dreaming in Infrared (kingfish), Monday, 11 June 2012 17:17 (eleven years ago) link
i don't even have questions about the plot and "science" and whatever. my questions are like:why was charlize's character not more central? why did she have to die? such bs. i mean, the only time i cared about the boring main scientist woman character whose name i can't even remember because who cares was when she was in the surgery pod but that was mostly because of my own sympathetic-imagined-pain response
― obliquity of the ecliptic (rrrobyn), Monday, 11 June 2012 17:20 (eleven years ago) link
wouldn't good-looking movies be better if they were actually good movies
then they would be feel good movies
or think good movies
― he bit me (it felt like a diss) (m bison), Monday, 11 June 2012 17:21 (eleven years ago) link
no
― obliquity of the ecliptic (rrrobyn), Monday, 11 June 2012 17:22 (eleven years ago) link
i wonder if there was an exact turning point when ridley scott and james cameron became artless boring assholes or if the transition was so gradual that they were able to watch it happen with weary amusement
― obliquity of the ecliptic (rrrobyn), Monday, 11 June 2012 17:27 (eleven years ago) link
I can't say much for Scott, but for James Cameron, it was somewhere between T2 and True Lies
― Dreaming in Infrared (kingfish), Monday, 11 June 2012 17:35 (eleven years ago) link
the artless boring assholes burst from their chests during dinner
― the late great, Monday, 11 June 2012 17:39 (eleven years ago) link
With Scott, I'd place it right after Thelma & Louise: 1492, White Squall, and G.I. Jane is an embarrassing run.
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 11 June 2012 17:45 (eleven years ago) link
^^^
T&L itself is a little embarassing but it has a lot to recommend it. it is, at least, INTERESTING
― retro-shittified (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 11 June 2012 17:46 (eleven years ago) link
Cameron executes his own banal ideas near-flawlessly. He still understands the underpinnings of a big-budget popcorn movie. Scott hasn't written a script since film school in 1965, and hasn't worked against budget/SFX limitations, or with great scriptwriters, for a couple decades.
― The Painter of Blightâ„¢ (Sanpaku), Monday, 11 June 2012 17:47 (eleven years ago) link
Say what you will about Avatar, but if you can accept the premise and Cameron script touchstones like the crescendo of false endings, its really well made and paced throughout.
― The Painter of Blightâ„¢ (Sanpaku), Monday, 11 June 2012 17:49 (eleven years ago) link
Scott hasn't written a script since film school in 1965, and hasn't worked against budget/SFX limitations, or with great scriptwriters, for a couple decades.
^^u&k
― retro-shittified (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 11 June 2012 17:51 (eleven years ago) link
Cameron also has the rather amusing qualifier of becoming a mad deep-sea billionaire
― Dreaming in Infrared (kingfish), Monday, 11 June 2012 17:52 (eleven years ago) link
The dif. between Scott and Cameron is that Scott is an intellectual (art school!) and Cameron defiantly anti-intellectual (drop out, former truck driver, self-taught). I don't mean necessarily that intellectual=good, but that Scott has always had very interesting things to say about even his least interesting films - he's engaged - whereas Cameron has always fixated on the tech over intelligence. One outcome of that disparity is that Cameron has always wielded his success as a big hubris-y fuck you to detractors, whereas Ridley has parlayed his success into any number of journeyman distractions. All Cameron films share a certain DNA - thematically, structurally, in the script - but aside from a technical proficiency Scott has been all over the place. Cameron is also more of a auteur/egoist, and consistent. Scott, from what I understand, recognizes the value of collaboration, even though in his case it's resulted in a bunch of shitty movies.
Just riffing here. Each has been responsible for a few of my favorite films of all time, as well as a few of my absolute least.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 11 June 2012 17:58 (eleven years ago) link
i think the intellectual/anti-intellectual thing might be more about their personae than about who they actually are
― congratulations (n/a), Monday, 11 June 2012 17:59 (eleven years ago) link
Scott has always had very interesting things to say about even his least interesting films - he's engaged
Agreed. I believe I stuck up for American Gangster and Kingdom of Heaven somewhere else here. Neither are essential viewing, but at least it feels like he gave a shit about them.
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 11 June 2012 18:05 (eleven years ago) link
Grumblings from around the web suggest that there is a chunk cut from the flick before theatrical release.
What I'm wondering is: would more of this movie actually be a good thing? Could you really smooth out all the faults by adding in missing bits, assuming they were even shot?
― Dreaming in Infrared (kingfish), Monday, 11 June 2012 18:06 (eleven years ago) link
I really do believe the movie would have been much better with an extra 20 or so minutes of Fassbinder at the beginning. They could have covered a lot of missed ground in a really subtle way.
xpost Both are ace technicians, regardless, but at least going by his commentary tracks (and from friends who have worked with him), Scott doesn't ever seem like a hothead doofus. That's perhaps why he's able to adapt to so many different things (crap projects or not). But Cameron espouses a proto-Bay like arrogance tempered by, I guess, undeniable results. He couldn't do anything other than what he does if he tried, which is why the farther he moves away from what he does best- focusing on actual words, say, rather than battles or explosions - the worse his movies are.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 11 June 2012 18:08 (eleven years ago) link
xposting myself: I was shocked when I saw the run time was only a hair over 2 hours. In this day and age, I was expecting at least 2.5 for a project of his magnitude.
Armond smackdown!
― retro-shittified (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 11 June 2012 18:10 (eleven years ago) link
So I still haven't seen this, though I will, but in re the music...
I got the score CD and have listened to it 3 or 4 times. There are two composers on this thing: Marc Streitenfeld and Harry Gregson-Williams. HGW was hired to write the broad sort of golden age sounding 'Prometheus Theme', which in the film, I gather, is tracked and retracked all over the damn place to the point of absurdity. Streitenfeld did the synth-heavy brooding sound designy bits (and it's in one of his cues that the Goldsmith quote plays).
On CD, where you hear the grandiose bit in three Gregson-Williams tracks surrounded by the dark textural Streitenfeld shit, it's pretty damn enjoyable. I hadn't listened to any of Streitenfeld's film music before; I guess he's Scott's usual sound editor? Anyway, liked the Prometheus album enough to download his score for that Liam Neeson on ice movie The Grey...
― Lewis Apparition (Jon Lewis), Monday, 11 June 2012 18:10 (eleven years ago) link
It's possible. The director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven is 45 minutes longer and re-emphazised much of the story. I never saw the initial theatrical version, but this copy/paste from Wikipedia is interesting:
After the pitching of this film, studio marketing executives took it to be an action-adventure hybrid rather than what Ridley Scott and William Monahan intended it to be: a historical epic examining religious conflict. 20th Century Fox promoted the film as an action movie with heavy elements of romance and, in their advertising campaign, made much of the "From the Director of Gladiator" slogan. When Scott presented the 194-minute version of the film to the studio, they balked at the length. Studio head Tom Rothman ordered the film to be trimmed down to only two hours, as he did not believe that a modern audience would go to see a three-hour-and-fifteen-minute movie. Ultimately, Rothman's decision backfired, as the film gained mixed reviews (with many commenting that the film seemed "incomplete") and severely under-performed at the US box office.The Director's Cut (DC) has received a distinctly more positive reception from film critics than the theatrical release, with some reviewers suggesting that it is the most substantial Director's Cut of all time and a title to equal any of Scott's other works., offering a much greater insight into the motivations of individual characters. Scott and his crew have all stated that they consider the Director's Cut to be the true version of the film and the theatrical cut more of an action movie trailer for the real film[citation needed]. Alexander Siddig, the Sudanese-born actor who played Imad ad-Din al-Isfahani, in particular agitated for the release of an extended cut.
The Director's Cut (DC) has received a distinctly more positive reception from film critics than the theatrical release, with some reviewers suggesting that it is the most substantial Director's Cut of all time and a title to equal any of Scott's other works., offering a much greater insight into the motivations of individual characters. Scott and his crew have all stated that they consider the Director's Cut to be the true version of the film and the theatrical cut more of an action movie trailer for the real film[citation needed]. Alexander Siddig, the Sudanese-born actor who played Imad ad-Din al-Isfahani, in particular agitated for the release of an extended cut.
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 11 June 2012 18:11 (eleven years ago) link
Hmm. Yeah, I've hear his cut of KoH is actually worth seeing, and is kinda bleah otherwise.
― Dreaming in Infrared (kingfish), Monday, 11 June 2012 18:18 (eleven years ago) link
Trying to recall which cut I saw on TV during my recent trip home but I assume it was the longer one.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 11 June 2012 18:19 (eleven years ago) link
So much for Asimov's laws:
What was David's motivation for "infecting" Holloway with black goop?Damon Lindelof: I say that the short answer is: That's his programming. In the scene preceding him doing that, he is talking to Weyland (although we don't know it at the time) and he's telling Weyland that this is a bust. That they haven't found anything on this mission other than the stuff in the vials. And Weyland presumably says to him, "Well, what's in the vials?" And David would say, "I'm not entirely sure, we'll have to run some experiments." And Weyland would say, "What would happen if you put it in inside a person?" And David would say, "I don't know, I'll go find out." He doesn't know that he's poisoning Holloway, he asks Holloway, "What would you be willing to do to get the answers to your questions?" Holloway says, "Anything and everything." And that basically overrides whatever ethical programming David is mandated by, [allowing him] to spike his drink.
Damon Lindelof: I say that the short answer is: That's his programming. In the scene preceding him doing that, he is talking to Weyland (although we don't know it at the time) and he's telling Weyland that this is a bust. That they haven't found anything on this mission other than the stuff in the vials. And Weyland presumably says to him, "Well, what's in the vials?" And David would say, "I'm not entirely sure, we'll have to run some experiments." And Weyland would say, "What would happen if you put it in inside a person?" And David would say, "I don't know, I'll go find out." He doesn't know that he's poisoning Holloway, he asks Holloway, "What would you be willing to do to get the answers to your questions?" Holloway says, "Anything and everything." And that basically overrides whatever ethical programming David is mandated by, [allowing him] to spike his drink.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 11 June 2012 19:50 (eleven years ago) link
is it creepy to anyone else that the android is the most interesting character/person in this movie
― obliquity of the ecliptic (rrrobyn), Monday, 11 June 2012 20:33 (eleven years ago) link
It's something I haven't seen in science fiction, which is a sense of racism or bigotry towards androids and synthetic life.
stopped reading
― retro-shittified (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 11 June 2012 20:35 (eleven years ago) link
so basically this person has not read any science fiction
― Victory Chainsaw! (DJP), Monday, 11 June 2012 20:40 (eleven years ago) link
or seen the first couple alien movies.
― retro-shittified (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 11 June 2012 20:41 (eleven years ago) link
But temples and feet and Romans and gods and pandas and plugs and...
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 11 June 2012 20:51 (eleven years ago) link
Entirely possible/likely that Lindelof hates anything/everything to do with sf/geek culture and is busy destroying it from the inside.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 11 June 2012 20:55 (eleven years ago) link
this sort of makes me fear for the new ST movie :(
― retro-shittified (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 11 June 2012 20:56 (eleven years ago) link
Waiting for the battle royale when he and Whedon face off.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 11 June 2012 21:05 (eleven years ago) link