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

I hate 3, I will hate Fincher forever based on that movie.

haha

I love them all

Well, Alien, Alien Gunfight, Alien Prison, and Alien: The Frenchening, at least

And eventually Guy Pearce can play himself in the docudrama version. Or something.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/oct/17/young-blood-reverse-effects-ageing

Remarkably, the North Korean dictator might have been onto something.

words we should probably not use very often

Remarkably, the North Korean dictator might have been onto something.

title of my memoirs

very tempted to start

Remarkably, the North Korean dictator might have been onto something (lag∞n appreciation thread)

http://blip.tv/redlettermedia/red-letter-media-talks-about-prometheus-on-dvd-6397461 not essential but a cute followup

Watched Alien, Aliens and Alien 3. Alien managed to frighten me a few times, great cast and nice for setting the story. Aliens seemed hokey with awful scenery and the mother alien killed any horror the film could've had. Alien 3 was at least against a believable backdrop and only one alien again, which seems to work better. I think what disappoints me the most about the Alien series is it never pays off the promise set out in the first film. An now after watching prometheus, I guess I get it. Engineers created us through a mishap or experiment, only to create a bioweapon that would create the Alien which then we would continue to attempt to catch in order to create our own weapon from. I feel like I should go one and watch 4 and the other two Vs movies, but I'm running out of steam.

i have to say i still found this to be a pretty rich movie on a 2nd viewing. just so many suggestive little touches.

the (beautiful) opening shots of ragged/irregular patterns in nature sort of play off a bit of dialogue later in the film: "God doesn't create in straight lines." Underscoring at once the Engineers as false gods and the peril of the "promethean" urge to technological creation.

There's also a few exchanges that struck me as significant thematically. When the first helmet comes off:
Shaw: Don't be an idiot!
Holloway: Don't be a skeptic!

And of course where Holloway answers David's question about his creation with "Because we could" and David responds "Wouldn't it be the disappointing to receive the same answer from your God" or something to that effect.

Also, it's definitely Weyland's misguided quest for immortality that seems to set the whole horror show in motion. If this movie is the work of a believer (and I think it is) then it's nicely old fashioned about it. It's a classic hubris smack down.

Aliens is not a horror flick. Cameron knew he couldn't do better, so he deliberately switched genre and went for sci-fi actioner instead.

Prometheus is still fuckin' stupid thanks to Lindelof and Scott enabling each others' worst habits

i also like the contrast between David's nihilism and Shaw's increasingly feeble faith. at what point does "i choose to believe" simply become denial?

and there's an funny little theme of "unwanted children" running throughout. Vickers, squid baby, humans, and the xenomorph itself. something odious even in the fact of biological reproduction--perhaps it's too organic, too much based in our own mechanical/biological natures to really satisfy in the way a technological creation would, which springs forth from disembodied ideas.

the only two parts that were really galling in their stupidity were, of course, the biologist approach the snake-like creature and Elba and crew sacrificing themselves. the second is at least set up by dialogue but it's perfunctory.

it's doubly weird since both scenarios could have been written differently and actually made 100x more interesting. it's like they knew "X" had to happen and just tool the shortest way to get there.

How is the crew sacrifice stupid?

how is everything else not!

the crew sacrifice is "stupid" because elba's co-navigator buddies weren't narrowly following their own optimized self-interest, an unforgivable lapse in believability apparently

Stupid is pushing it. I take that back. But it's literally set up by dialogue like 15 minutes before (where Elba says his only concern is that none of "that stuff" gets back to earth). It plays as a rather ham fisted dramatic moment but I think they could have written some much more exciting way for them to stop the engineer and die in the process.

The 15 minute before scene is hilarious because he is saying this to Noomi Rapace, who has just take some rather more committed steps towards the same principles.

*taken

There's also a few exchanges that struck me as significant thematically. When the first helmet comes off:
Shaw: Don't be an idiot!
Holloway: Don't be a skeptic!

this is the worst part of this movie, i seriously almost walked out at this shit

I liked it! I love the irony of finding out your "faith" is right only to find out it's right in a sense that is horrifying.

I mean, if you're predisposed to dislike explicitly tacking on religious themes to the Alien movies I get it but for me it's fine because I didn't take away a complacency but a pretty earnest look at believing in the face of "disenchantment."

Yeah how is that dialogue grounds for walking out on the movie?

Guys - I just shudderingly thought about Contact and how Prometheus stole the fire from the ruling deity of his time and how the peeps are going on a search for the origins of humanity... This isn't going to turn into some bullshit religious crapfest, is it?

― StanM, Tuesday, March 20, 2012 8:11 AM (7 months ago)

if it is i am going to throw a flaming trashcan through the movie screen

― A Little Princess btw (s1ocki), Tuesday, March 20, 2012 8:13 AM (7 months ago)

Seems way too fucked up for that. Then again if the message is "Yeah Jesus Christ was an alien visitor who caused human bodies to explode" I'd be impressed.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, March 20, 2012 8:14 AM (7 months ago)

This all came true. Down to our reactions.

Yeah how is that dialogue grounds for walking out on the movie?

For me, it's not the religious themes added on(see also Alien 3), but the filmmakers so deliberately foregrounding it with such "DO YOU SEEEEEEEE". It's bashing over you the head like Ren Hoek for the entire flick with some sorta simplistic religious v science thing, only Lindelof has no idea how actual scientists are(the Darwin scene, f'rexample) and can't even write a believable believer.

the scene alone ain't necessarily worth walking out on, but the scene portends an entire flick of such idiocy

it was more like, oh, this is the kind of movie this is gonna be huh

(a shitty episode of lost)

I never watched Lost, to be fair.

I agree that all of that could have been handled with a much greater degree of subtlety and it'd be a much better movie for it.

The funny thing is that i totally hated Lost and dont much care for Scott. I prefer to think the constraints of the Alien franchise made this more interesting than it otherwise would have been.

This all came true. Down to our reactions.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, October 21, 2012 12:20 PM Bookmark

We were SO...RIGHT...

actually i think a pretty cool movie would be, ILX discovers possible proof of the origins of the ILX hivemind and goes on a voyage to discover it but what is actually there is a horrifyingly banal, nerdy white guy who created us all as straw men to be sacrificed in a clusterfuck that never came to pass

"Aliens is not a horror flick. Cameron knew he couldn't do better, so he deliberately switched genre and went for sci-fi actioner instead."

Not that it isn't a sci-fi actioner, but not a horror flick at all?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvEmC1Bkyqc

"Aliens seemed hokey with awful scenery"
this is a very strange complaint. it mostly takes place in military or civilian barracks and for the most part is very much like the sets in alien, but a little less kitschy.
are you talking about Paul Reiser's tie?

It's the outdoor sets in Aliens that seemed hokey, that looked like sets, imo.

the only time i remember them being outdoors is when something's blowing up.
not a lot of quiet, contemplative moments outside to look for matte lines.

Philip i agree with you but you're going to have to allow for the fact that Jacob isn't just making up a reaction to Aliens out of thin air, or to wind you up

no no! I apologize if it comes across like cross-examination, but I'm really curious about how someone would come to that viewpoint, plus a lot of the viewpoints from a lot of people on this thread re: the new alien movie. It's just totally baffling, and somewhat worrisome in this election season.

!!

lol!

Voting Facehugger/Chestburster '12. "You're gonna die anyway, make it quick."

This is a stupendous bore.

If Ridley Scott's name wasn't in the credits, I'd assume it was an anony-hack directing. Thread comment summarizing my reaction:

if only this movie had just been fassbender-android and a ship and aliens

― obliquity of the ecliptic (rrrobyn), Tuesday, June 12, 2012 1:59 AM (4 months ago)

That could actually make a great movie. Solo hyperintelligent android, of suspect allegiance to the human species, sent as a disposable probe to determine whether the Engineers (or whatever) were a subject of further interest. The sequel posibilities would have ranged rather wide.

one-man-play

Waiting for Ridley

scodott

I just made the mistake of watching Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull and I'm not sure when the whole ancient aliens movie template was molded but holy shit the last act:

wiki's plot summary:

Inside the central temple, they find artifacts from several ancient civilizations. Jones deduces that the creatures were kindred spirits; they too were "archaeologists" studying the different cultures of Earth. The five enter a chamber containing the crystal skeletons of thirteen alien beings seated in a circle, with one missing its skull. After the Soviets arrive, Spalko replaces the skull. The aliens communicate to the group through Oxley using an ancient dialect and promises to reward them with a "big gift"; Spalko demands to "know everything". The skeletons grant her request and transfer their collective knowledge into her mind. At the same time they activate a portal to another dimension. Jones, Marion, Mutt and the now restored Oxley escape the temple, but Mac and the other Soviets are sucked into the portal. Meanwhile, the skeletons combine to form a single living being and the knowledge transfer overwhelms Spalko, causing her to disintegrate; her dust is then drawn into the portal. The survivors watch as the temple walls crumble, revealing a massive flying saucer slowly rising from the debris; it hovers for a second before disappearing into the "space between spaces".

That could actually make a great movie. Solo hyperintelligent android, of suspect allegiance to the human species, sent as a disposable probe to determine whether the Engineers (or whatever) were a subject of further interest. The sequel posibilities would have ranged rather wide.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture as told from the p.o.v. of V'ger.

(note: I would see that movie)

That was the only Star Trek franchise film I truly loved. Its sense of wonder eclipses anything else in the series, and the Jerry Goldsmith score is second only to his original Alien soundtrack among sci-fi scores.

not very far off the plot of 2001?