Movie Debate #134: Prometheus

[Reed Rothchild | 9,816]

 

[TDIRunner | 2,841]

I WANTED to like this movie.  I really did. 

I had been really looking forward to this concept.  I loved the idea of trying to explain some of the back story to Alien.  The movie is amazing to look at, but there are a lot of issues with the story.  I tried to look around the flaws.  I read about some of the fan theories trying to explain out the parts of the movie that didn't make sense.  But at the end of the day, it just isn't a very well done movie and it deserves most of the criticism it gets.  It's too bad considering how close they were to creating something awesome.  

[Sumez | 3,109]

I can see all of its issues, but I quite enjoyed watching it in the cinema. 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,816]

22 minutes ago, Sumez said:

I can see all of its issues, but I quite enjoyed watching it in the cinema. 

Ditto

I used to have problems with the originals even as a kid.

"How does the alien grow so large, so fast?  It hasn't even eaten anything yet."

[Tulpa | 3,630]

Damon Lindelof was responsible for a lot of the issues.

[Code Monkey | 2,074]

My girlfriend's friend paid her $100 to watch this because she doesn't like scary movies.

I liked the idea of the story but it just left me more confused. Here are some spoilers I liked:

Spoiler

I liked how it was supposed to signify Prometheus of Greek Mythology stealing fire from the Gods and giving it to the humans, basically as the creator of civilization. By dropping the sample into the river, it sparked life on the planet.

 

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,110]

I don't even remember this, but it doesn't look like I missed much.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

I'm a big fan of Alien and the mythos surrounding it. Most people only remember the scenes on the Nostromo, but a good chunk of the opening is actually spent with the characters exploring the derelict alien ship. There are many context clues as to what happened, but very little hard evidence. If you listen to Ridley Scott's commentary on the film, he actually talks a lot about the backstory he envisioned for the doomed alien race and he brings many of those concepts to life in Prometheus.

That being said, the first time I saw the movie, I left disappointed. I thought I was getting another Alien film and that's not really what Prometheus is. If that's what you want or that's what you expect, you will be disappointed. However, if you're open to something new and willing to circle back around to it a few times, it is supremely interesting.

In fact, I LOVE the audacity of creating a new movie in a mega franchise without even featuring the main character or main antagonists of the entire series. I love Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Shaw and Michael Fassbender is superb as David. I love that everything just feels slightly off the whole movie, but you can never really figure out why. The movie plays on the themes of life and death, old age and rebirth, and, of course, man's attempt to control nature. Good and bad is almost an afterthought.

I still love to go back and watch this movie every now and then. The acting is fantastic, the special effects are awesome, and I love the world building. It's right up there with Ridley Scott's best movies in my book. I still can't believe that Ridley Scott let Shaw die off-screen in the prologue to Alien: Covenant. I was so excited to see her journey to the alien home world. What an absolute waste of a fantastic character.

[Mega Tank | 1,024]

1 hour ago, DoctorEncore said:

I still can't believe that Ridley Scott let Shaw die off-screen in the prologue to Alien: Covenant.

It was very strange they got rid of Shaw this way. I never looked into it, but was there a reason given as to why?

[Sumez | 3,109]

5 hours ago, DoctorEncore said:

Michael Fassbender is superb as David

Guy carries the whole damn movie!

Honestly, Prometheus would have been a lot better without the tie-in to Aliens, that part just feels super forced.

[G-type | 2,715]

had some good parts. but overall, not for me.

[Tulpa | 3,630]

13 hours ago, Sumez said:

Honestly, Prometheus would have been a lot better without the tie-in to Aliens, that part just feels super forced.

That was the problem with Lindelof's involvement. It was actually going to be a legit Alien/Aliens prequel. By all accounts, it wasn't going to be super amazeballs or anything, but it would have been a coherent entry.

Then they gave the script to Lindelof, and he took out most, but not all, of the references to Alien. So now it was a mess of "It's sort of an Alien prequel, but not really, it's the same ship, but not the same planet," and all the weird inconsistent stuff the characters do. It's like they were caught between rewrites moving it away from Aliens and to its own thing and then they said said, "Eh, good enough."

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

On 8/9/2023 at 9:22 PM, Mega Tank said:

It was very strange they got rid of Shaw this way. I never looked into it, but was there a reason given as to why?

I don't know why they took that route and unceremoniously dumped the strongest character from Prometheus. My guess is that Scott wanted the movie to be focused on David and he felt that Shaw distracted from that. Or perhaps her pursuit of the precursor alien race would've taken the movie in the wrong direction. In my opinion, she would have provided for a much better foil for David than whoever was in that movie. In fact, I literally cannot remember a single thing about the non-David characters or the actors who played them. I was pretty pissed after I watched Covenant and haven't gone back to it. Perhaps some day I'll try to find some redeeming traits, but I'm still annoyed how they did Noomi Rapace dirty like that.

They actually did make a prologue for Covenant showing a bit of what happened with Shaw, but it doesn't make the movie any better.

 

 

Edited August 11, 2023 by DoctorEncore