They're Remaking 'Alien' -- the 'Prometheus' thread

I guess I'm kind of amazed anyone hires the guy after Lost fell apart so drastically.

otm about zombies. Too many zombies. Quit it already!

So it looks like Lindeloff is responding to some of Red Letter Media's questions on Twitter right now..

No, he's saying he *can* answer them without doing so. Which is pretty much what he does.

7h Damon Lindelof ‏@DamonLindelof
I can answer at least four of these questions. http://youtu.be/-x1YuvUQFJ0 #Genius

4 of the 55 or so put forth. thanks, damon.

It is possible that he is pointing out that even Damon Lindelof, who we would naturally turn to for answers, is no wiser than us - gently reproving us for fixating on external wisdom rather than fully inhabiting the question.

WE ARE ALL 'LOST'

And then his chest bursts open.

thoughts on this, after dodging this thread for SO LONG because I didn't want spoilers, and then I just didn't want to engage with it for a few days:

- Am I insane, or was Ridley Scott once a lot more critical than he now is? The set design and everything is nice, but the interviews with other people in the extra material from Alien and Blade Runner led me to believe he'd challenge the writers or crew or know when to make compromises to make a better film. Maybe I am giving the dude too much credit.

- The state of Hollywood screenwriting is shit. The entire "get one dude to give you a script with crazy ideas, then pass it to someone else to punch it up" school is total horseshit, or at least the bane of modern scriptwriting. I know this was the case with Alien, but I feel like it was more collaborative. I keep coming back to the fact that unexplained things (Space Jockey!) or hints at the nature of the characters outside the film is welcome, but modern script doctoring and shit editing has led to this point where ideas from different revisions of the script are thrown in and DO NOTHING BUT DILUTE THE FILM.

Shaw's family flashbacks? Who gives a fuck? The android can watch your dreams? Do something with that instead of a tossed-off line! You figured out having direct Jesus references was maybe bad? Excise that shit from the script completely! The "oh they were coming to kill us 2000 years ago" shit should have been changed to some other non-Jesusy number. This western/Christian-centric horseshit is embarrassing in 2012 in a film that reaches at more than human history, so stfu screenwriters.

I blame Lindelof for nothing, directly, because Scott was the one who filmed the script. The best lines, including the Lawrence of Arabia homage, were in the trailer. The "a king has his reign.." speech was cheesy but Charlize Theron pulled it off!

Oh yeah, and wtf is with "You should keep going, what would <weak husband character> have wanted you to do?" was such bullshit. Like a woman can't have her own motivations without being inspired by dead dude who was relatively uninspiring?

Movie would have been better if she yelled "GIVE ME A SPACE ABORTION, NOW!" at the machine btw

btw I'm totally going to go watch this again because it was pretty and because I liked the android and Noomi Rapace running around in her underwear

and because I am a horrible human being

heroic effort to find meaning http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html

btw I actually really enjoyed the fact that Weyland has this huge sense of self importance, has made all these great things, and the engineer dude just rips off his prized creation's head and clubs him to death with it.

that was good, i will agree

i really think Noomi's whole character and look were wrong/off, except for the part where she ran around in bloody bandages, of course

Some questions:

- What the hell is that giant fossilised thing in the chair? Why is this never answered?

- How come all those eggs were just sitting around in that chamber? You're telling me they were waiting for that crew to come along? How does that work?

- Why didn't the crew run after the chestburster straight away? They've seen what it can do, and yet they all just stand there. Talk about stupid.

- How did the facehugger get onto Kane's face? He was wearing a helmet. Surely if it used acid that would have burned Kane's face.

-How the hell does the creature grow to a full adult in, what, a day? Stupid writing.

- Why did Ash not do a better job of hiding the info on the computer?

- What are the creatures? Where do they come from? How were the eggs made? What is their relation to the dude in the chair? We're never told

I mean all this is just sloppy writing. I guess we're going to have to wait till some hypothetical sequels to find out the answers to this stuff?

alien v pokemon: Prometheus Down

Oh, and why the hell did the crew refer to that areas as a "pyramid"? Were the walls particularly angled implying a pyramid shape, or is it just because the original Alien script referred to a pyramid and they were too stupid to have the Prometheus script actually make sense in and of itself?

glumdalclitch trying hard to troll, none of the points really that baiting, sorry

"Movie doesn't explain what things are or how they work" and "characters make dumb decisions to help the plot along" are really different from "plot starts to meander and then drops that thread" and "movie tries to make references to Jesus"

Alien gained a lot by not having any real philosophy!

glumdalclith FAIL

Alien also had scares, tension, memorable characters etc.

Alien was set so far in the future that everyone had finally forgotten about Jesus

I kind of feel like the computer animated old person in Benjamin Button looked better than the real person in makeup in this film

And I feel like the animatronics and puppets in Alien looked better than the engineer faces in this film

Forgot about J, a song from Dr. Dre's seminal album Chronic 2100

so did i understand correctly upthread that when the bald guy rips of david's head he says "WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?"

That would have been something.

that's what i heard

Would have been cooler if they had cast an actual old guy like Ernest Borgnine or something, it's not like you ever saw him young except in that dumb viral

I like that the android is the only person in the film who seems to have any grasp on existential or philosophical questions.

Kind of hope he told the alien "pretend to kill me, I'll survive, but please waste these noobs"

well, he is essentially existential!

lol those noobs so deserved wasting

- What the hell is that giant fossilised thing in the chair? Why is this never answered?

Doesn't matter, but the crew sure wonders.

- How come all those eggs were just sitting around in that chamber? You're telling me they were waiting for that crew to come along? How does that work?

That's what eggs do! But who laid the eggs?

- Why didn't the crew run after the chestburster straight away? They've seen what it can do, and yet they all just stand there. Talk about stupid.

They were all in shock that a mean alien lizard creature burst out of their friend's chest.

- How did the facehugger get onto Kane's face? He was wearing a helmet. Surely if it used acid that would have burned Kane's face.

Surely a parasite like that knows how to use acid judiciously.

-How the hell does the creature grow to a full adult in, what, a day? Stupid writing.

It molted, dude.

- Why did Ash not do a better job of hiding the info on the computer?

He wasn't devious, he was programmed.

- What are the creatures? Where do they come from? How were the eggs made? What is their relation to the dude in the chair? We're never told

Good thing it doesn't matter, since more or less as soon as we're introduced to them the crew is being attacked and running around and stuff.

Again, lack of "Alien" philosophy justifies any "we may never know" hanging threads. But the whole point of "Prometheus" is about people searching for answers, which sort of puts the burden on the film to, you know, at least answer a little. Especially since it gives us that audience-perspective prologue which the answer-seekers have no idea about.

Lindelof, by the way, could answer everything, but he has such respect for the audience he wants to make you think.*

*While he brainstorms bullshit answers to "reveal" on the future DVD interview features.

Mysteries in Alien aren't actually material to the story; they provide a sense of wonder and horror

"mysteries" in Prometheus are just things the screenwriters didn't think through and are an integral part of the story

- Why didn't the crew run after the chestburster straight away? They've seen what it can do, and yet they all just stand there. Talk about stupid.

They were all in shock that a mean alien lizard creature burst out of their friend's chest.

Not to mention they know that its previous form had acid for blood and was extremely aggressive, and Parker's immediate idea seems to be "stab it," as he brandishes a knife. Ulterior motives aside, Ash quite sensibly yells, "Don't touch it!"

Sensibly, and with a motivation that becomes clear later

That one moment alone is way smarter than anything in P-dog

Which is why I've said a little bit of David motivation would have gone a long way.

it wasn't a lizard it was a fetus worm don't get it twisted

don't get it twisted around your arm that's for sure

~fouls suffered~

ah, just pretend that belongs here

~fools suffered through prometheus~

haha

you know my favorite thing about Aliens that i forgot about is how everyone who works for the corporation wears sport jackets with a popped collar. so awesome. it's like "douche alert"

;)

tbh the motivation for shit looking really cool never needs to be any deeper than "this giant dead alien thing will be in this room and look really cool" and there is mystery built in

why is there a giant face on the wall? because it looks cool

anyone else notice there was a giant face on the canyon wall, too, Mt. Rushmore-style? these alien dudes really like their faces

with a dash of tabasco

wouldve been cool if one of the big faces was like a Neverevending Story type monster who talked and answered all the plot holes in the movie

if the film was straight up until that point & then the eyes blink open and this grumpy face croaks up, my heart wld have soared

^^ otm