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Mark_TB

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Can someone please explain to me the logic of the reproductive cycle of the "monster" in this movie? In the previous movies, it was rather straightforward -- face-hugger implants embryo, it explodes out of host and grows to adulthood. In Prometheus, we have this magic black goo infect people, causing them to mutate into monsters themselves. One mutant is then somehow able to impregnate another character with an alien embryo. This excised creature then facehugs the Engineer, resulting in a fully-formed alien bursting from his chest. And don't get me started on the tiny snake-thing sticking out of the one guy's eye. It all seems convoluted, and a rather unbelievable way for any creature to reproduce. I get the impression the screenwriters were looking for something that was more "cool!" than logical.
- Mark
 

dpippel

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Originally Posted by TravisR /t/321160/prometheus-3d-blu-ray-combo-blu-ray-combo-available-for-preorder-on-amazon-with-free-movie-ticket-limited-quantities/60#post_3997493
I think you're forgetting some painful sci-fi memories of the last 2 decades. I don't think Prometheus is a GREAT movie but taking a cursory look at a list of sci-fi movies on Wikipedia, I think it's easily better than:
Alien 3
Universal Soldier
Demoliton Man
The Meteor Man
Robocop 3
Time Cop
Congo
Johnny Mnemonic
Judge Dredd
Tank Girl
Viruosity
Water World
The Island Of Dr Moreau
The Postman
Godzilla
Lost In Space
Soldier
Wing Commander
The 6th Day
Battlefield Earth
Hollow Man
Mission To Mars
Red Planet
Supernova
The Adventures Of Pluto Nash
Resident Evil
Rollerball
The Time Machine
Hulk
The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Revolutions
Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines
Alien Vs. Predator
I, Robot
Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
The Stepford Wives
Aeon Flux
Doom
Fantastic Four
The Island
Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem
Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer
Resident Evil: Extinction
Transformers
The Day The Earth Stood Still
Death Race
The Happening
2012
Terminator: Salvation
Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen
Resident Evil: Afterlife
Tron Legacy
Green Lantern
Transformers: Dark Of The Moon
John Carter
And that leaves out low/no budget movies & direct-to-video dreck (it's really studio movies only) and it's limited to what I've seen. Once again, Prometheus might not be a great movie but there's been alot worse in the last 20 years.

I was responding to a comment rating Prometheus as one of the best SF films of the past two decades. My response was that I think it's one of the "least notable" SF films of the past 20 years, not one of the absolute worst. It shouts to the universe that it's going to answer the big questions, but those answers were boring, trite, lacking in imagination, and poorly executed. For a film that promotes itself as cerebral and actually steals the opening shot from 2001, it was a big pretentious bore. For me. The likes of Judge Dredd and John Carter didn't set out to take on the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.

And you know, that's my opinion. You don't have to like it or agree with me. If you enjoyed Prometheus then good for you. You say toe-may-toe and I say toe-mah-toe.
 

Douglas Monce

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Walter Kittel said:
Sorry Doug, you knew this had to be inevitable. :)
Gattaca (1997)
The Matrix (1999)
Children of Men (2006)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Inception (2010)
The Fifth Element (1997)
Source Code (2011)
Moon (2009)
Serenity (2005)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
Star Trek (2009)
Contact (1997)
Donnie Darko (2001)
The Fountain (2006)
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
V for Vendetta (2005)
I would offer up any of the above as a counter to that statement.
- Walter.
The only one there that I would even put in the same league would be Moon. I don't consider Star Trek or Serenity to really be science fiction, more action adventure.
Doug
 

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Billy Batson said:
Oh yes, I finally caught up with it last night (borrowed the DVD from my local library) & what a disappointment! I thought the film was flat & boring & downright tedious, & the cinematography was only so-so. The publicity had you thinking this was some sort of major event, a lot of people must have gone to the cinema with very high hopes...& come out a feeling a bit deflated.
The comments about Prometheus, remind me of the contemporary comments about Blade Runner when it first came out.
Doug
 

Douglas Monce

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Billy Batson said:
Ha, I think we'll have agree to differ on this. There's some great movies on that list & the ones I've seen I much prefer to Prometheus, even the bad ones are a lot more fun. Nothing really happends to just over half way through, the worms bit, & that's a curiously flat scene. Every character is underwritten, the science is looney tunes, the motivation is, I dunno. I'd forgive all this is the film was fun, but it's not, it's a drag, well I thought so. Every movie has its fans, my little film collection is chock-a-block with guilty pleasures.
Again this sounds like contemporary comments about Alien. You know nothing really happens in that film for about 45 min also.
Doug
 

Douglas Monce

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Mark_TB said:
Can someone please explain to me the logic of the reproductive cycle of the "monster" in this movie? In the previous movies, it was rather straightforward -- face-hugger implants embryo, it explodes out of host and grows to adulthood. In Prometheus, we have this magic black goo infect people, causing them to mutate into monsters themselves. One mutant is then somehow able to impregnate another character with an alien embryo. This excised creature then facehugs the Engineer, resulting in a fully-formed alien bursting from his chest. And don't get me started on the tiny snake-thing sticking out of the one guy's eye. It all seems convoluted, and a rather unbelievable way for any creature to reproduce. I get the impression the screenwriters were looking for something that was more "cool!" than logical.
- Mark
Who cares. The "life cycle" was really only solidly established in Aliens, and then it was based more or less on bees or wasps. In addition, the black goop appears to be the same stuff that the Engineer drank at the start of the film, seeding human life on Earth. Who is to say how it would react in a different environment. Why does there have to be only one way they can develop? In the original film Dallas and Brett were being turned into Aliens through some unknown process.
I'm not sure why these things need to be explained in detail, I much prefer the ambiguity.
Doug
 

WillG

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Thinking about Prometheus, I think one of the main flaws of the movie is that when you are trying to do a story that explores the origin of Man, it's a fool's errand, because you are never going to be able to create a fully satisfactory story about that subject. I don't have any problems per se with the story Prometheus was trying to tell, but we all know that the Origin of Man aspect was pure fiction, so there's no real insight into the mystery. I suppose maybe it's possible life began on earth because of an alien race "seeding" the planet, but I wouldn't think that Lindelof, Spathis and Scott really think that Prometheus offered any kind of truth to the question. And there's some disappointment there, because you sort of hope that the movie might actually offer some kind of compelling theory.
Contrast this with the "Dawn of Man" sequence in "2001" It's starts within the framework of a generally accepted theory about man descending from Apes. And then suggests that a marker left by an Alien civilization triggered an evolutionary leap for what would ultimately become Man. Although, Kubrick's scenario is probably unlikely, but you may think "who's to say something like that couldn't have happened"
As far as being a movie of fiction, I don't have a problem with Prometheus (but I recognize the flaws people have talked about regarding the film). And it did inspire a lot of discussion when released about the themes.
 

Douglas Monce

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WillG said:
Thinking about Prometheus, I think one of the main flaws of the movie is that when you are trying to do a story that explores the origin of Man, it's a fool's errand, because you are never going to be able to create a fully satisfactory story about that subject. I don't have any problems per se with the story Prometheus was trying to tell, but we all know that the Origin of Man aspect was pure fiction, so there's no real insight into the mystery. I suppose maybe it's possible life began on earth because of an alien race "seeding" the planet, but I wouldn't think that Lindelof, Spathis and Scott really think that Prometheus offered any kind of truth to the question. And there's some disappointment there, because you sort of hope that the movie might actually offer some kind of compelling theory.
Contrast this with the "Dawn of Man" sequence in "2001" It's starts within the framework of a generally accepted theory about man descending from Apes. And then suggests that a marker left by an Alien civilization triggered an evolutionary leap for what would ultimately become Man. Although, Kubrick's scenario is probably unlikely, but you may think "who's to say something like that couldn't have happened"
As far as being a movie of fiction, I don't have a problem with Prometheus (but I recognize the flaws people have talked about regarding the film). And it did inspire a lot of discussion when released about the themes.
I don't find the seeding idea any more or less likely than the dawn of man/monolith idea in 2001. Both are ludicrous, in terms of reality, but that is why it is science FICTION.
Doug
 

WillG

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I don't find the seeding idea any more or less likely than the dawn of man/monolith idea in 2001. Both are ludicrous, in terms of reality, but that is why it is science FICTION.
Doug
Yeah but my point is (and apologies if I didn't express clearly enough) is that while we both know that "Prometheus" and "2001" are fiction, what is more "acceptable" when suspension of disbelief comes into play (and maybe overall, what constitutes a more/less outlandish interpretation of the events) and thereby more satisfying from a narrative perspective. You have Prometheus which suggests an Alien race was completely responsible for life being created on Earth. By contrast, you have "2001" which plays in generally accepted theory of the ancestory of modern man, but suggests that an Alien race left a marker that prompted an evolutionary leap.
Again as Science fiction I have no problems with the story each movie is trying to tell, but it's question of what story is more satisfactory.
 

Douglas Monce

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WillG said:
Yeah but my point is (and apologies if I didn't express clearly enough) is that while we both know that "Prometheus" and "2001" are fiction, what is more "acceptable" when suspension of disbelief comes into play (and maybe overall, what constitutes a more/less outlandish interpretation of the events) and thereby more satisfying from a narrative perspective. You have Prometheus which suggests an Alien race was completely responsible for life being created on Earth. By contrast, you have "2001" which plays in generally accepted theory of the ancestory of modern man, but suggests that an Alien race left a marker that prompted an evolutionary leap.
Again as Science fiction I have no problems with the story each movie is trying to tell, but it's question of what story is more satisfactory.
I don't think either one is more or less believable as a concept. Its simply a matter of at what point in the evolutionary process was there alien intervention. The Earth as depicted at the start of Prometheus is not devoid of life, there are clearly plants growing on the banks of the river.
Doug
 

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