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

OG "Alien" xenomorph test footage: http://io9.com/5919117/test-footage-from-alien-was-way-creepy-even-with-the-xenomorph-out-of-costume

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpKi41a1rJI

finally saw it. consensus otm. A mess. looks amazing, actors mostly do good work with a screamingly bad script.

Hated the clumsy character drawing - post-cryo meal in particular is an insult to the parallel scene in Alien.

Takes some of SFs loveliest topoi - aliens made mankind, exploring a tomb-planet, sad robots - and screws up each of them, through mis-pacing, confusions in place of ambiguity/mystery, shitty dialogue and shoddy symbol games. (seems to think bible reference = automatic profundity power-up.)

I do keep thinking about it, but those thoughts are mostly 'why wasn't it better?'. I am all for meeting-the-demiurge SF but this goes wrong. idk, sequel might be better, get into full-on batshit gnostic liberation war with jesus space jockeys lead by head of david as t e lawrence vs satan space jockeys.

But I wasn't bored. I might even watch it again.

Funny how that smart Hulk piece illustrates the problem with extrapolation, and then the comments kick off with a lengthy extrapolation. "See, it's just like Mary Shelly's 'Frankenstein ...'"

Sigh. Comments.

i rewatched alien the other night too. that scene where ash tries to kill ripley by stuffing a fastidiously rolled porno mag down her throat. also "don't worry, parker, yeah. you'll get whatever's coming to you." best slasher movie.

I read on Wikipedia that Ridley Scott originally wanted to end the movie with the Alien biting of Ripley's head and then speaking with her voice, so my guess is that whatever is making "Prometheus" unwieldy and nonsensical is a direct result of the producers involved having the clout/chutzpah to tell Scott no

ash tries to kill ripley by stuffing a fastidiously rolled porno mag down her throat

yeah, there are some unsettling images around power and gender that just sort of freelance around the place without ever really being determined or explained or fit into the jigsaw, which gives them more power ultimately. the computer being "mother", who witholds secrets and betrays the crew; the homicidal alien herself actually being a mother; anyone who is impregnated being a mother, but against their will..

Meantime:

http://io9.com/5919117/test-footage-from-alien-was-way-creepy-even-with-the-xenomorph-out-of-costume

I read on Wikipedia that Ridley Scott originally wanted to end the movie with the Alien biting of Ripley's head and then speaking with her voice

hahaha lol whut. i did hear that he wanted ripley killed at the end, and the alien punching in the coordinates for earth which i have to admit would have been a stupendously badass way to end that movie

i heard he wanted the alien to wink at the camera too

hahahahaha

lol

zoom in and freeze-frame on the grinning Alien's face as "Neutron Dance" starts toplay

DJP making me want to recut Alien to the soundtrack from Beverly Hills Cop

"My blood's just burning..."

ahaha

took my son to see it over the weekend. liked it even more the second time around, will prolly see it again.

OMG, DJP, congratulations on losing your Alien virginity!

now that's an image

ew

and once again we circle back to forbidden world

facehugs all round

lindelof seems like he'd bruise easily

He is very thin-skinned, he has a hissy fit when anyone criticizes the Lost ending.

Well this is disagreeable:

http://m.io9.com/5919306/another-theory-about-the-meaning-of-prometheus

I need to finally get this posted since it's been in my head ever since I saw the movie the first time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-PldHhYMoU

facehugs all round

― Zaireeka Badu (NickB), Monday, June 18, 2012 3:00 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

Oh goodie; I found this guy's hilariously overwrought writing on Cabin in the Woods, and I'm happy to see he's unleashed his stoned theology major ways on this flick too

Reading that io9 piece--are people REALLY saying they found this film too complicated? Isn't the problem that the complications are just unnecessary and dumb?

the complication is there's no plot

https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTcroJcXmIUdkV-cPNl3soykOK8MCaDKCSFVhjrgwsPAxL_VTw15Q

can we shop David + xenomorph into that bed plz

Annoyed SF writer/biologist Peter Watts: http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=3211

Enjoyed the Watts article almost as much as the io9 one

Maybe not the best H.G. Wells books, but maybe my favorite one: http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2007/01/star_begotten_a.shtml

Pardon what may seem like a digression, but having found a website that lists the chapter titles for said book, they are simply too charming not to share

• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Note on the Text
• The Mind of Mr Joseph Davis is Greatly Troubled
• Mr Joseph Davis Learns about Cosmic Rays
• Mr Joseph Davis Wrestles with an Incredible Idea
• Dr Holdman Stedding is Infected with the Idea
• Professor Ernest Keppel takes Up the Idea in his Own Peculiar Fashion
• Opening Phases of the Great Eugenic Research
• The World Begins to Hear about the Martians
• How These Star Begotten People may Presently Get Together
• Professor Keppel is Inspired to Foretell the End of Humanity
• Mr Joseph Davis tears up a Manuscript
• Notes to Introduction
• Notes to Star Begotten

I think I've watched like half an episode of lost so I'm no expert here, but I'm wondering if part of the problem w/ lindelof as movie screenwriter is that he doesn't have the discipline needed for short-run characterization. TV's all about sprawl, if you don't flesh out a character completely in an hour you've got 12 more to work it out, introduce other dimensions, etc.

since lindelof's shorthand is rusty his film characters come off as mercurial ciphers, maybe?

• Dr Holdman Stedding is Infected with the Idea
<3

good poll fodder imo

dudes maybe this is obvious but i was sort of idly wondering how the aliens can gestate in a bath of human gastric acid, which will dissolve practically anything, and i remembered - they have acid for blood! they LOVE acid!

yes, the summer of 1989 was a special time for xenomorphs throughout the galaxy

I just saw this and I thought it was good. Lots of little annoying things but overall I liked it alot.

BUT my step dad has an elephantine memory and said that the movie reminded him of this Outer Limits episode:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zanti_Misfits

and once again we circle back to forbidden world

― nuts spats (Austerity Ponies), Monday, June 18, 2012 11:59 AM (Yesterday)

belated lols

Saw this tonight -- what an entertaining load of singin' and dancin' malarkey.

Hello my baby hello my honey

http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2012/06/20/5-scientists-share-their-baffled-reactions-on-the-bad-science-in-prometheus/

Bill Chadwick, Geologist, John Milner Associates

The first thing the geologist says is, “I’m in it for the money.”

[A pause that I interpret as puzzled silence.] Uh, typically not.

lol

hahah

so many lols

In one scene, a biologist encounters an alien creature that looks like a giant phallus. The biologist refers to it as a “she.” What would you call a creature that resembles a giant phallus?

A “he.” Definitely.

Yeah, the amount of deadpan in that article is as if every scientist interviewed was deeply British

The first thing the geologist says is, “I’m in it for the money.”

[A pause that I interpret as puzzled silence.] Uh, typically not.

On the other hand, geology does sometimes strike me as one of the more mercenary branches of physical science. I mean, these are people with a fundamental understanding of the carbon cycle and yet many of them are still more than happy to work for the likes of Exxon Mobil etc