Prometheus

Yeah, from everything I read about this before it came out, I was expecting there to be nods and winks to the "Alien" world and set in the same universe. What I didn't expect is there to be such a (perceived) deliberate connection. Maybe it was just subterfuge, but what we got I wasn't expecting (such a direct connection to the original). Now that doesn't mean that's what worked or didn't work though. The problem isn't what was or wasn't done to canon. The problem was weaknesses in the story and characters. If they didn't show the last images of the pseudo/proto xenomorph the movie wouldn't have been any stronger or weaker. The problems came way earlier in the film.....in the script actually.

It's a good science fiction movie but it's also a pretty flawed film. I think the sequal (if done) has potential to be a better movie and maybe (hopefully) fill in some of the blanks.

I liked it, and give it 4/5 stars. It is well crafted and the performances by the principles were strong. I am actually a bit disappointed that Scott elected to revisit the Alien setting intstead of exploring something creatively new. It is the George Lucas "I must explore my created universe!" ego trap. Cameron has fallen into it, as has Peter Jackson. It is sad how short the journey from auteur to institution seems to be. At least Chris Nolan knows enough to disconnect from Batman after three films, and Guillermo del Toro seems to be stretching his legs a bit with Pacific Rim.

Still looking forward to the film myself - maybe this weekend.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chazzmatazz I am actually a bit disappointed that Scott elected to revisit the Alien setting intstead of exploring something creatively new. It is the George Lucas "I must explore my created universe!" ego trap. Cameron has fallen into it, as has Peter Jackson. It is sad how short the journey from auteur to institution seems to be. At least Chris Nolan knows enough to disconnect from Batman after three films, and Guillermo del Toro seems to be stretching his legs a bit with Pacific Rim.

Cameron fell into it when? If you mean Avatar, he planned sequels before the first was done, so not sure that is a far comparison, exactly. Peter Jackson attempted to stay out of the Hobbit (assuming that's what you mean), but took over only when the other director pulled out...

Lucas remains in a class by himself.

Yeah, lots of leeway with canon here: different planet/moon, different facehugger, different chestbuster, and an Alien bas relief. I see no problem with trying to force everything to fit if you want them to.

Tough crowd here in the forums.

Hmm...after seeing it, I could see how it can fit and still allow AvP & Predator 2 to be canon. Other than that bit at the beginning, was he on Earth or what? A sacrificial lamb to bring another species into existence?

Let's see if I can try to fit this into canon.

LV-233 was a weapons research outpost for the Engineers. Naturally, they'd want to isolate their work from the main body of their society. It's possible that each of those mounds was a different hot lab, working on different things.

The xenomorph we saw was the result of their research on a preexisting organism. Possibly to see if they could adapt and control the xenos. Maybe by including an automatic extinction switch that would shut 'em off when their work was done. The ship we saw on LV-426 in Alien was possibly a supply shuttle taking the eggs to one of their research facilities.

While the Engineers may have created humanity, the Predators took advantage of a perfect species to use as a host for the 'natural' xenomorphs. The Engineers didn't like their creation being used for such and had a, "Those are OUR toys! If we can't play with them, no one can!" mentality and decided to wipe out humans, which kinda sorta fits with the images presented in AvP.

Probably a lot of holes in the theory, but the idea that it tosses out established canon isn't necessarily completely true.

My take.

The Engineers are like us, from a world(s) with multiple factions who are now at war. They are looking to develop a bio-weapon that will infect and destroy the population of an entire world. The Engineer in the beginning isn't from the same faction as the later one. His ship isn't a horseshoe but a solid disk. He seeds this world and modern man develops.

LV-233 is a weapons development complex and the remaining engineer sees/senses that we are spawned from the other faction and wants to go off to drop his payload on Earth. The Xenomorph relief may be an indication that it's a species that the Engineers are looking to control by weakening them to a degree (they are simply to lethal to use in their natural state). The ship found in Alien may have simply been a Engineer ship overrun by an original Xenomorph species and it crashed on LV-426 maybe centuries before this movie is set.

As for my opinion of the movie, it was meh to me. Snow White and the Huntsman flowed better than this film. Technically the film was great. It was beautifully shot, the cast was excellent but it just didn't ... well flow from scene to scene well. It wasn't suspenseful and it wasn't all that scary.

It reminded me of the time I saw 2001 for the first time. I was 6 with my dad and first you had ape-men then you where in space, then a space station, then the moon, then another ship with a mean computer and then a pretty light show that ended with an old man in a bed. I couldn't see how that was all connected in a coherent plot at 6. Prometheus sort of made me feel like that again. It seemed disjointed.

To those hoping a Prometheus sequel will provide some answers, you better hope they have a different screenwriter. Wrapping up open issues with a bow is not in Lindelof's wheelhouse.

The timeline for the Weyalnd Corporation, both in the character of Peter Wayland and in the off-screen material, does not jive with the one in the Aliens vs. Predator movies, or so I'm told. I've avoided the who Aliens vs. Predator vs. Dracula vs. Frankenstein vs. Abbot and Costello thing.

It's safe to say, from that and Ridley Scott's comments, that he doesn't consider those movies to be part of his continuity.

Personally I liked Prometheus; it resolved its character arcs while leaving enough unexplained about its universe for a sequel. Or not; it also works, as the original did, as a Lovecraftian horror story IN SPACE.