PROMETHEUS will knock our home theaters !!! (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

[6th.replicant]

Disaster?!

A tad strong, but does anyone agree with this?

No way!

It's an ambitious 'big movie', in every sense of the phrase, and by not playing it safe/joining-the-dots, it's very refreshing :clap:

There're a tidy few themes/metaphors flying around: Faith and creationism vs Darwinism; racism/slavery; fish-out-of-water/acceptance/a sense of place and self [during the outward voyage, android David (Fassbender) frequently re-watches Lawrence of Arabia and models himself on Lawrence/O'Toole...], etc.

Once again, props to Scott for including strong female leads - Rapace and Theron - while Idris Elba's ship's capt is suitably savvy, laconic and likable; Fassbender is cool - Birkenstocks aside - witty and sinister; and the rest of the cast have their moments.

Rappace obviously has a very large pair of Reeboks to fill, so it seems she's opted to make her character less gung-ho/headstrong, more of a sensitive/thinking scientest, but just as smart, resourceful and determined.

Natch, there's the obligatory 'annoying shouty man' character - but don'tcha love it when they get despatched, in an oozing flurry of eye-popping SFX...

And speaking of "oozing, eye-popping SFX" - there's plenty

There are some great moments re camera work and direction, some of which is quite subtle - eg, love it when the ship slams on the 'brakes' when it reaches LV-223 (note: not LV-426...). And plenty of 'eeks', 'OMGs' and tension.

HR Giger's designs are carried over and very apparent throughout the Space Jockey's 'caves'; hence HRG's credit in the end titles.

However, in hindsight, at times Prometheus does seem a tad disjointed; perhaps Scott's intended final cut has had severe pruneage? For example, there's no sign of Elizabeth Shaw's pitch to Wayland to fund the voyage or the latter's Ted address. And during an interview on R5's Kermode and Mayo's Film Review (during Podcast, Prometheus section starts at 32:35), Scott hinted that there might be a director's cut: "...There's every possibility, never say never." (Kermode awarded 7.5/10.)

Is it significant that Prometheus's cinema cut is 124 mins and Inception, another example of a 'thinking SF blockbuster', is 148 mins?

But, and IMVHO it's a 'big but', 3D is not able do Prometheus's cinematography justice.

Too often, 3D can't deal with shallow depth-of-field, rendering figures/objects in the foreground as merely over-lit and placed against 1930s-era (cruddy) back-projection, and when objects 'jump out' of the screen and the image eventually dissolves, it's so feeble it's comical. Also in the Kermode/Mayo interview, it's arguable that Scott prefers the 2D: "The 2D [version] is actually quite beautiful."

A must-see, but not in gimmicky 3D.

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

I'm not a massive Alien fan, the original movie is undoubtedly a classic, the rest, though, don't really do it for me.

I am looking forward to seeing Prometheus though, in 2D, and not 3D, and I hope it will be better than many of you think it is, but I won't expect too much. I kind of trust 6th.replicant's judgement on movies, so I'm hoping he's right.

Oh, and it's theatres, not theaters. I hate American misspelling.

 

[RickyDeg]

Hard to believe I'm about to say this, but on reflection I now actually admire some of the fan-fiction I've read and feel that several of those could have been better grounds for a story. I've always felt that Ridley Scott needed truly well-written scripts to be able to deliver a film that wouldn't soley rely on it's visuals (reminds me of the Star Wars prequels). Sadly, as fine as Prometheus may be on the technical side of things, to me there is no trace of a fulfilling result (thanks Damon Lindelöf? or Ridley Scott for approving his script?). The story lacks an intelligent delivery of its own ideas and questions.

When I think about it more closely it feels as though this flick is nothing more than a mediocre segway for future films and very little else. I wish they'd focused all energy on making one good stand-alone film and pour everything into that and then possibly take it from there. Instead Prometheus seems like a questionable franchise-starter wrapped in a hollow shell full of cracks.

 

[6th.replicant]

IIRC, on initial release, both Blade Runner and Alien received very mixed responses from audiences and critics... :roll:

 

[RickyDeg]

IIRC, on initial release, both Blade Runner and Alien received very mixed responses from audiences and critics... :roll:

That is true. Let's see if history will repeat itself in Prometheus favor.

Personally I doubt it but only time will tell.

At the very least it's bound to be a very nice home theater experience (?).

 

[richardw42]

I hardly go to cinema now. Was going to see Prometheus but prob wait for the BD. I find cinema can't compete with home cinema and mine is a fairly. MOR system.

 

[Son_of_SJ]

I find cinema can't compete with home cinema and mine is a fairly. MOR system.

I'm not sure that any system containing a Yamaha RX-V3067 receiver (drool, drool, envy) can be described as Middle Of the Road ....

 

[Lee H]

I am a diehard Alien fan

I guess once you've ran out of skyscrapers, airports and power stations that space was the obvious next step for John McClane...

 

[chrisk139]

This film has undoubtedly divided opinion with alot of criticism being aimed at Plot , characters, reality checks , lazy film making etc etc..

IMO Ridley Scott made absolutely the film he wanted to make... to take back his original creation and give it a new direction with a backdrop of the biggest questions we as a human race have to ask "What,where,why,how did we come to being". This is evident thoughout the film. I feel it reflects on us as a human race through time past, present + future. Standard SCIFI/Horror with a deep subtextul core underneath.
That's how i saw it.

If you got a problem with the film that's your problem not Ridleys.

I'd be interested to see if opinion changes with the repeat veiwing on blu-ray..... i always remember watching Ocean 11 and thinking it was rubbish and when i watched it sometime later again i loved it so i know you can change your mind about a film.

Sorry, I could not agree less. The film was full of half-baked ideas, and non-sequiturs. It was woefully underwritten. The only character who was written enough to be interesting was an android. The humans were all two dimesional and shallow, with confused motivations. There was no reason to care about any of them or their fate, which surely is the purpose of any film.

To be honest, I was hugely disappoined. I agree that's not Ridley Scott's problem - it was my money I wasted. He didn't ask any questions really and if he did he certainly didn't answer them.

Perhaps properly written and with a director other than RS this could have been a decent film. I for one shall not spend more money buying the BluRay, even though I own and really like the earlier films on BluRay.

 

[v1c]

At Last Ridley Scott revels Prometheus Secrets ?

Rotten Tomatoes has an audience rating of 87% liked it from 37,871 users so i don't think that reflects a disater of a movie.

I think it's being ragged on to quickly time will tell.

 

[Sleepaphobic]

Tbh I can't take Rotten Tomatoes seriously anymore. Piranha 3D has a rating of around 75% and Goon is even higher, need I say more? if you read online a bit you will see incredible amounts of people saying The Avengers and The Dark Knight are the best movies ever made. I don't want to sound condescending but if the majority of people think that then the standards aren't very high. Hey I thought those were good popcorn movies too but that's all they are.

Prometheus had a super solid start and the idea was good but it totally fell apart.

 

[theo12]

I am a diehard Alien fan

I guess once you've ran out of skyscrapers, airports and power stations that space was the obvious next step for John McClane...

Ooops must have watched the wrong film, but somehow don't remember seeing Brucey!!

 

[Paul.]

Tbh I can't take Rotten Tomatoes seriously anymore. Piranha 3D has a rating of around 75% and Goon is even higher, need I say more? if you read online a bit you will see incredible amounts of people saying The Avengers and The Dark Knight are the best movies ever made. I don't want to sound condescending but if the majority of people think that then the standards aren't very high. Hey I thought those were good popcorn movies too but that's all they are.

Consider this: maybe it is you who are wrong? RT is acurate if you take it's ratings in the context of its genre and market. People who like action movies are naturally going to think the Avengers is the best movie ever, cos arguably it is the best film ever in its given genre.

 

[v1c]

Tbh I can't take Rotten Tomatoes seriously anymore. Piranha 3D has a rating of around 75% and Goon is even higher, need I say more? if you read online a bit you will see incredible amounts of people saying The Avengers and The Dark Knight are the best movies ever made. I don't want to sound condescending but if the majority of people think that then the standards aren't very high. Hey I thought those were good popcorn movies too but that's all they are.

Prometheus had a super solid start and the idea was good but it totally fell apart.

Where do you think it fell apart ?

If you really believe it fell apart then that's down to Ridley Scott which would mean he's not a very good director..... don't really think that's the case myself.

 

[BenLaw]

Tbh I can't take Rotten Tomatoes seriously anymore. Piranha 3D has a rating of around 75% and Goon is even higher, need I say more? if you read online a bit you will see incredible amounts of people saying The Avengers and The Dark Knight are the best movies ever made. I don't want to sound condescending but if the majority of people think that then the standards aren't very high. Hey I thought those were good popcorn movies too but that's all they are.

Consider this: maybe it is you who are wrong? RT is acurate if you take it's ratings in the context of its genre and market. People who like action movies are naturally going to think the Avengers is the best movie ever, cos arguably it is the best film ever in its given genre.

Im not sure there's a correlation between being popular and being good! Didn't avatar and titanic do rather well?

Thats obviously not to say there aren't films that are both popular and good...

 

[Paul.]

How do you define good? A films job is to entertain a subset of people. If it is hitting its box office targets it is succeeding at pleasing it's desired market. Doesn't have to please everyone to be good.

I think the majority of popular music is aweful. But I beleive that I am calibrated differently to normal folk. I've always hated the attitude that people who enjoy more esoteric music are somehow more educated or have better taste, it's the same with film.

 

[v1c]

Tbh I can't take Rotten Tomatoes seriously anymore. Piranha 3D has a rating of around 75% and Goon is even higher, need I say more? if you read online a bit you will see incredible amounts of people saying The Avengers and The Dark Knight are the best movies ever made. I don't want to sound condescending but if the majority of people think that then the standards aren't very high. Hey I thought those were good popcorn movies too but that's all they are.

Consider this: maybe it is you who are wrong? RT is acurate if you take it's ratings in the context of its genre and market. People who like action movies are naturally going to think the Avengers is the best movie ever, cos arguably it is the best film ever in its given genre.

Im not sure there's a correlation between being popular and being good! Didn't avatar and titanic do rather well?

Thats obviously not to say there aren't films that are both popular and good...

Your point is right but my context was that at the moment out of 37871 users who voted on RT 87% liked the film that also doesn't mean the film is good per say but if you say you like a film you would assume that they would think it's good.

The observation i was making is that the negative view of Prometheus is stronger in this thread were this may not be the bigger picture representaion of the film.

 

[6th.replicant]

...I don't want to sound condescending but if the majority of people think that then the standards aren't very high.

:roll:

 

[manicm]

Disaster?!

A tad strong, but does anyone agree with this?

I want to go see it cos I'm bored but still, surely it beats that dreg called Avatar? Cameron is making a sequel, possibly completing a trilogy, the Almighty forbid.

 

[manicm]

Tbh I can't take Rotten Tomatoes seriously anymore. Piranha 3D has a rating of around 75% and Goon is even higher, need I say more? if you read online a bit you will see incredible amounts of people saying The Avengers and The Dark Knight are the best movies ever made. I don't want to sound condescending but if the majority of people think that then the standards aren't very high. Hey I thought those were good popcorn movies too but that's all they are.

Consider this: maybe it is you who are wrong? RT is acurate if you take it's ratings in the context of its genre and market. People who like action movies are naturally going to think the Avengers is the best movie ever, cos arguably it is the best film ever in its given genre.

Im not sure there's a correlation between being popular and being good! Didn't avatar and titanic do rather well?

Thats obviously not to say there aren't films that are both popular and good...

Luckily I did not have the misfortune of seeing the latter (2d or 3d), but good company ensured I saw the former - and yes it was very popular, and verily not good.

 

[gregvet]

Luckily I did not have the misfortune of seeing the latter (2d or 3d), but good company ensured I saw the former - and yes it was very popular, and verily not good.

Am I the only one who quite liked pirhana 3D?

Still looking forward to Prometheus at the IMAX on Friday, even despite the mixed response.

 

[the record spot]

Opinions are ten a penny and I'll take Rotten Tomatoes as a better barometer than some of what I've read here.

The film's got some clever ideas, the characters are pretty believeable (in as much as you can buy into that or suspend your disbelief as needed for most action movies) and Noomi Rapace brought an interesting religious counterpoint with her character's faith. The premise behind the film - our predecessors on a remote planet - was a new twist, and the early facehuggers cleverly done. The Alien was always adaptable, this panned out here as per previous releases.

Oh and anybody who doesn't buy into the agony expressed by Noomi Rapace at her Caesarian in the film as being real or believeable probably doesn't understand women never mind the film!

Thought it was excellent - as stated - and verily, more please Ridley.

 

[simonlewis]

I quite liked piranah 3D as well, i was hoping to see piranah 3DD at the cinema but by the time i was free they stopped showing it, :doh: oh well i'll just have to wait before it comes out on blu-ray.

 

[6th.replicant]

Whoa, steady, The RS - plot spoilers!

 

[RickyDeg]

Well, just for the record the tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes is currently down to 75% and I bet it'll continue to decline.