Prometheus (2012) (1 Viewer)

[Winston T. Boogie]

There are definitely giant issues with the writing in Prometheus. Again, I don't know if you can put that all on Lindelof but he does seem the main culprit..

 

[TravisR]

There are definitely giant issues with the writing in Prometheus. Again, I don't know if you can put that all on Lindelof but he does seem the main culprit..

I don't know that you can blame or credit Lindelof for Prometheus. He just rewrote a draft of the script. The (totally unnecessary) idea of a prequel to Alien & digging into the mystery of the space jockey, etc. was there before Lindelof and there's no doubt that the movie was written by a committee so the movie- good or bad- is not the vision of one man.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I don't know that you can blame or credit Lindelof. I don't know the ins and outs of the script but Lindelof rewrote an existing draft of the script. The (totally unnecessary) idea of digging into the mystery of the space jockey, etc. was there before Lindelof and there's no doubt that the movie was written by a committee.

Yes, no doubt that Ridley takes credit for wanting to do a film about the "big guy in the chair" so his idea to go in that direction. He also seems to talk a lot about "explaining" things with these films so maybe he suggested that these scripts should "explain" what these creatures are. He does not write this stuff though and really...based on all he has said about his films...he is pretty lousy with story, plot, characters and should be kept away from the writers. His best films are films where the writers gave him something good and he figured out how to shoot it. Ridley makes things look beautiful...leave that to him.

Prometheus does come across like just a bunch of pieces that have been thrown together in a blender with no attempt to make them work or fit. I think the film could be reedited into a 30 minute deal that would be pretty good and would basically entail removing 90% of the dialogue.

 

[TravisR]

Ridley makes things look beautiful...leave that to him.

I rewatched Prometheus yesterday and I have to say that it is a great looking movie. Even for Scott when you can fully expect that, it's exceptional.

Yes, no doubt that Ridley takes credit for wanting to do a film about the "big guy in the chair" so his idea to go in that direction.

In his TV work, Lindelof shies away from explaining too much (he always said that going too deep into explanations on Lost would be like the midi-chlorians in The Phantom Menace where losing the mystery hurt things) so I'm assuming that he worked on a movie that is one big explanation simply to get a chance to work with Ridley Scott.

 

[TJPC]

I rewatched Prometheus yesterday and I have to say that it is a great looking movie. Even for Scott when you can fully expect that, it's exceptional.


In his TV work, Lindelof shies away from explaining too much (he always said that going too deep into explanations on Lost would be like the midi-chlorians in The Phantom Menace where losing the mystery hurt things) so I'm assuming that he worked on a movie that is one big explanation simply to get a chance to work with Ridley Scott.

I have expressed my view on Lost before, and have no desire to restart the bitter exchanges. For us, after the show being a must see, I and everyone I talked to at the time found the ending basically so stupid that we all felt cheated and like fools for being tricked into watching it. I will never be fooled like that again!

 

[TravisR]

I have expressed my view on Lost before, and have no desire to restart the bitter exchanges. For us, after the show being a must see, I and everyone I talked to at the time found the ending basically so stupid that we all felt cheated and like fools for being tricked into watching it. I will never be fooled like that again!

Yeah, there's no need to go down a bad road again but the difference between the two is that Lost explained its mysteries while still maintaining an aura of mystery about the island & its mechanics while Prometheus went into explanations of things that required no explanation. One of the cool things about Alien is that the derelict craft is totally alien and we can only guess as to what was going on there.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

One of the cool things about Alien is that the derelict craft is totally alien and we can only guess as to what was going on there.

Yes! It was a mystery people could talk or think about for years and they did. I don't fault the idea to make a film about the Space Jockey BUT I would have done so in such a way to deepen the mystery and make them even more fascinating. Not tell us "Oh, by the way, that big guy in the chair...just a big bald white guy in a space suit and oh yeah, I was getting really drunk watching those Ancient Alien shows late at night and so we'll say his peeps also played a large part in "creating us" because...well...why not?"

"Well, I would say that's a stupid idea and that you should not watch Ancient Aliens while downing a bottle of scotch."

"How about if we suggest that Jesus was really a space alien?"

"How about you lay off the booze and put down your goddamn pipe?"

"Like they crucified Space Jesus and so the aliens get mad and want to kill us all!"

"Because all the images we have of Jesus, and granted those are made up too, are all of a giant totally hairless body builder white guy that seems to have never been out in the sun. He would have sort of stood out in the Middle East don't you think? Sure, that's about as dumb as you can get."

"Let's do that then! Pass me the pipe and the scotch and I will write this all down."

 

[Tino]

There are definitely giant issues with the writing in Prometheus. Again, I don't know if you can put that all on Lindelof but he does seem the main culprit..

*sigh*

In YOUR opinion there are giant issues. Not for me and many others.

No offense pal but do you just not get that your opinions are NOT facts Reggie?

You're killin' me Smalls.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Just saw Covenant. I liked it a lot. The Aliens can still chill, thrill, and surprise. Fassbender and Waterson are terrific. Danny McBride does well, he becomes a member of the crew and is not a washed out ball player. I only thought of that while writing these comments.

I sure wish it had been in 3D. Bring on Prometheus 3! The following I'll put in spoilers. I do reveal plot points here!

Spoiler

Fassbender plays David and not David and is quite good at it.

The prologue with David releasing the plague on the Engineers doesn't occur until mid-movie.

The prologue seen on the internet with the crew celebrating their mission is not in the movie at all.

This means James Franco only appears as a crisply burnt corpse and in a video.

The last 15' of the movie I'm wondering did Walter lose his left or right hand? Then I'm wondering is that David or Walter?

There's definitely room for a followup to this movie and I hope Ridley makes another.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

To answer your spoiler:

Spoiler

The last 15' of the movie I'm wondering did Walter lose his left or right hand? Then I'm wondering is that David or Walter?

It's David. We see David and Walter fight, but the scene cuts before we see the resolution. When Fassbender returns to Waterston and they get back to the ship, we're supposed to believe it's Walter, but he has too many strange reactions for the audience to be able to accept that. For instance, he reacts positively to the presence of the alien on the ship, and seems to wince when Waterston is able to defeat it. To me, the way that they cut away from the fight scene made it immediately obvious that a switch was about to be pulled.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Uh, Josh, not that many have seen the movie, that's why I used a spoiler. You're revealing info many won't know or want to know.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Uh, Josh, not that many have seen the movie, that's why I used a spoiler. You're revealing info many won't know or want to know.

Understood, that's why it's in a spoiler tag. Is it not showing up that way on your end?

 

[Johnny Angell]

Understood, that's why it's in a spoiler tag. Is it not showing up that way on your end?

Never mind. I think I'm suffering Alien-Lag.

 

[Johnny Angell]

"How about if we suggest that Jesus was really a space alien?"

What part of Prometheus suggested Jesus was a space alien? The movie does posit the idea that The Engineers created us, but I don't recall anything about a space alien Jesus. Surely not the the opening when the Engineer swallows the black oil?

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

What par of Prometheus suggested Jesus was a space alien? The movie does posit the idea that The Engineers created us, but I don't recall anything about a space alien Jesus. Surely not the the opening when the Engineer swallows the black oil?

No part of the film suggests that Jesus was an alien from outer space...or more specifically an engineer. It was something Ridley said in an interview later...I think when he was drunk.

Here is a really amusing (or what I would call a really horrible) item you may not have noticed about the writing. I think a lot of people get caught up in the fact that none of the crew appears or ever acts as if they are some sort of scientist. Instead they all appear, quite specifically in the film so it must be intentional, not to have have any scientific knowledge or expertise of any kind...they are actually portrayed as the OPPOSITE of scientists. The amusing thing is though there is NEVER any evidence in the film made apparent to the characters that indicates or even hints at the idea that the "engineers" had anything at all to do with creating us. Yet, the idiotic characters blurt out things indicating they think they did...and you have to ask why this is since nothing in the film gives them any reason to think this. Not the drawings found by Shaw and her boyfriend and not a single thing they find on the death planet.

So why do they persist with thinking these "engineers" created humans?

They plant something in the film to make the AUDIENCE think this...but not a single thing that the characters find or witness should make them think or even theorize this is the case.

It is either a giant hole in the absolutely horrid writing OR it is done intentionally to tell us something...

 

[Josh Steinberg]

What part of Prometheus suggested Jesus was a space alien? The movie does posit the idea that The Engineers created us, but I don't recall anything about a space alien Jesus. Surely not the the opening when the Engineer swallows the black oil?

When Shaw and the crew discover the body of the lifeless Engineer on the planet, one of the crew members carbon dates the body and discovers it to have been lying there for approximately 2000 years. When you combine this with the knowledge that they had come from Earth and were planning on returning there (as established by the map room scene with David and later dialogue scenes) before everything turned to shit, and consider that religion has been an important theme in the film, I think the film infers the possibility that something that happened on Earth 2000 years ago turned the Engineers against us. Well, what event in human history happened 2000 years ago that we're all still talking about?

The film doesn't explicitly state that Jesus was an alien, but if we take from the film the idea that humanity is the descendant of the Engineers (who could be seen as gods or God), and we take the idea that Jesus was the son of God, it's not a reach to imagine that Jesus could have been an Engineer. It's a science fiction explanation for a phenomenon (resurrection) that science can have difficulty explaining at face value.

Because I know that no matter what I say on this is going to invite a response, I want to preemptively say that I never read the interview that Reggie refers to where he alleges that Ridley was drunk. (I find it hard to believe that a professional filmmaker such as Ridley Scott would be conducting press interviews while drunk and just spouting out random nonsense.) I came to this belief solely from watching the film. I remember the very first time I saw the movie, when one scientist asked the other to date the body, and the date was "2000 years ago" how that immediately stuck out to me. There would have been no reason to include that information otherwise. It doesn't really impact the plot one way or the other, and the number of years the body has been there has no bearing on the story otherwise. The only way that moment has any meaning is if there's a reason why it's specifically 2000 years. Again, to be completely clear on this point, I got this idea from watching the film and only from watching the film. I think it's fine if people see it differently or don't draw the same conclusion, but I just want to be clear that this is something I got from watching the film and not something that I'm just saying because someone else said it or because I read it somewhere. These elements I mentioned, like the otherwise random mention that the alien body has been there for 2000 years, are in the movie. Each viewer can choose to interpret them as I have, interpret them differently, or disregard them all together, but it can't be denied that there are elements in the film which can be used to draw conclusions - which is all that I've done.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Well, what event in human history happened 2000 years ago that we're all still talking about?

The rather MASSIVE issue with that is that scientifically speaking the whole Jesus story is a fairly tale...so again this brings us back to the point that no scientist would take into consideration anything with regards to Jesus when formulating a theory so again...why do the supposed "scientists" in the crew act as if they are not scientists at all?

What do you suppose the people that wrote this story are trying to tell us?

 

[Johnny Angell]

When Shaw and the crew discover the body of the lifeless Engineer on the planet, one of the crew members carbon dates the body and discovers it to have been lying there for approximately 2000 years.

The body had been lying there for 2000 years which would mean it, and the other Engineers, had not been on Earth 2000 years ago.

 

[Johnny Angell]

The amusing thing is though there is NEVER any evidence in the film made apparent to the characters that indicates or even hints at the idea that the "engineers" had anything at all to do with creating us. Yet, the idiotic characters blurt out things indicating they think they did...and you have to ask why this is since nothing in the film gives them any reason to think this. Not the drawings found by Shaw and her boyfriend and not a single thing they find on the death planet.

You're forgetting the comparison made between human and Engineer DNA. The DNA was too close a match to be a coincidence.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The body had been lying there for 2000 years which would mean it, and the other Engineers, had not been on Earth 2000 years ago.

Few things:
- The movie says "about 2000 years" - not exactly. That leaves wiggle room.
- The movie begins in 2089 on Earth.
- They arrive at the planet in 2093. (Since we don't know exactly when they left, this means the journey could take less than but not more than four years.)
- This would not seem to preclude or rule out that the Engineers visited earth circa 0 BC or 33 AD, and came to this planet after leaving Earth.

The film doesn't explicitly say "Jesus was an Engineer" or that the Engineers visited earth around the time of Jesus, but I think there are things in the film that support that possibility, and nothing to contradict it.