Ridley Scott's Prometheus (2012) - Alien prequel

Saw it in a cinema in Leicester Square in London on the week of it's opening. Great movie.

 

Anyone read the graphic novels? They seem to go off on some wild tangents but the main plots are pretty entertaining and seem to offer some answers.
SPOILER ALERT FROM THE COMICS!!!

The Pilot/Space Jockey was on his way to take over the Earth with the alien eggs.

 

They started calling it that on set according to Scott and the name stuck.

 

I saw Alien with my old man back in '79. He jumped about 30 feet in the air during the opening scene as the camera pans over the quiet ship's deck, and suddenly the monitor turns on. He freaked me out almost as much as the movie.

Her name was Vesper, and I have no doubt the director's cut is better than the atrocity that was the theatrical cut of KoH...but there's no way it could reverse the issues that gave it a 39% rating on RT.

 

Orlando isn't great, but the rest of the cast is pretty solid....Just my 2 cents. I didn't like the theatrical release either, but the director's cut turned me around on this one.

 

The expanded edition of KINGDOM OF HEAVEN is possibly the most radically different Director's Cut of any major film I've seen. (In the DVD introduction, Scott derisively refers to the elongated entrances and exits that mark most directors' cuts.)

The expansion restores a large subplot featuring Eva Green's Queen (radically cut for the theatrical version) and her heir (missing completely), as well as additional backstory about Balien -- explaining, for example, why he knows anything about seige warfare and the like.

 

Getting back to the subject at hand, there's been a suggestion or implication that the Aliens were being ferried to Earth to eliminate humans and thus conquer the world. It's very likely the Aliens would accomplish such a task, but how then would the (whatever they are) get the Aliens to stand down, or eliminate them? Not much logic in this premise.

 

maybe they had an Alka-Seltzer weapon to neutrilize the acid in their veins.

 

well the pilot has/had the tech to capture them.

 

The pilot is also dead and fossilized.

 

Carrying a load of eggs isn't the same as herding a bunch of adults.

 

Please keep to the topic: Ridley Scott's Prometheus. Religious discussion is against the rules and has been deleted. Thanks.

 

My thoughts about the "Alien3" extended cut from my review:

"Does any of this significantly improve the movie?

No. Those who already dislike Alien3 probably won’t come to embrace it via this cut. Those who care for the flick likely won’t think even more highly of it now. I find the changes to seem interesting but they don’t make it a better movie. It’s a moderately different one, but that’s it. I think it was fun to see the different scenes, but in the future, I’ll likely watch the theatrical cut. It seems tighter and better paced. Too many of the new scenes slow down the film and don’t take it anywhere particularly interesting. "

 

I think those are good films - I just don't think they're GREAT. I didn't say I thought Scott had lost his talent, though he has made some crummy movies over the last decade or so - "Hannibal" was pretty terrible.

I simply don't have a lot of faith in him to make "Prometheus" a great flick...

 

Actually, my main problem is that I think Scott has become too much "style over substance". Style was always hugely important, but with his better films, they had meat as well. I think flicks like "BHD" and "Gladiator" lack the same substance and impact as "Alien" or "Blade Runner".

I agree with those who think the extended "Kingdom of Heaven" is a big improvement - it's still not a great film, but it's pretty good.

I guess I just hope that Ridley can give us something more than "pretty good" one of these years. Kinda feels like he's turned into Tony over time...

 

There's a huge amount of illogic in Alien when you start to dissect it (so to speak). For example: if the evil Company had the ability to create a perfect humanoid robot, why not ship a whole spaceship full of humanoid robots off to space to retrieve the dangerous Alien? Why not send a spaceship full of experienced soldiers out to get the Alien? Why wouldn't the Company realize that the Alien was really, really, really dangerous and uncontrollable by anybody, making it unusable as a weapon? Why would the crew split up and look for the Alien separately, in the darkest, most remote parts of the ship? Why couldn't they X-ray John Hurt and see the Alien embryo growing inside him? Lotta vague stuff like this that really makes no sense. (Don't get me started on the cat.)

I'm doubtful that the Space Jockey was intent on putting the Alien eggs on Earth -- I think he was overcome by the other Aliens and sent out a distress call, which is what Earth eventually received and analyzed. My memory of seeing the big Space Jockey prop, which was mostly made of styrofoam and was sitting outside the Egyptian Theater in the rain, the last time I saw it, was that the creature had a chest burster hole in him, implying that he had been infected and died. I saw them as a noble race, not intent on killing us and eating us (like the other Aliens).



(Note the hole in the Space Jockey's ribcage.)

Original screenwriter Dan O'Bannon went on an LA sci-fi talkshow in the early 1980s and admitted some of these flaws, and went on to say although he liked parts of the film, there were some story aspects that still bothered him. I think in some ways, Jim Cameron's sequel solved a lot of those logistical problems and came up with ways of a human fighting the alien in a fair way (the external suits), plus answered the question of how the aliens fought, how they were organized, plus brought in the Alien Queen. All very clever inventions on Cameron's part.

 

Styrofoam and rain, always a good combination.

I don't think that is the Jockey's ribcage anymore. I think that's the skeleton of a giant facehugger draped over his chest. It laid its eggs in the pilot and died there. The baby alien burst out through the chest AND through the dead facehugger.

 

This is going to go one of two ways isnt it?

Either "Oh Wow!!" or "Oh Purrleasse!"

 

Oatsdad and Vidiot make some interesting points here.

First, I think I mostly agree with Vidiot's critique of Alien. Although maybe you're asking for too much rationality and logic from a sci fi horror flick? Don't know. How RS gets past the leaps of logic is his great sense of gritty style. When I wasn't screaming like a little girl back in 1979 (and I mean that as a good thing) my 14 year old self was truly in awe of the production design, performances, and of the way Alien was filmed. Everything down to the spooky Jerry Goldsmith score all seemed of a piece. Majestic and yet gritty at the same time might be one way to describe Scott's aesthetic.

Iirc, Alien was originally going to be more of a cheap exploitation horror movie, but Ridley Scott effectively lobbied 20th Century fox (was Zanuck jr. still involved then, I think maybe so) to make it into a more impressive and epic production. Few directors would have been able to put Ripley into her role without changing it around. The more or less gender neutral portrayal of that character was groundbreaking and arguably feminist.

Veronica Cartwright was originally going to be Ripley. But in an inspired move he switched SW into that role. VC is brilliant at giving full play to the emotions that the audience feels at times in the film--at least when you see it the first time.

That sense of emotional horror brought out by VC seems to be part of the new film, as we see in a few seconds of the trailer. "Please?" one character begs. Creepy.

I think Gladiator has as much content of any of his others. It shows the Roman Empire as a brutal and corrupt imperialist society that sustained itself politically in part through spectacles of various kinds. He doesn't make any obvious plays for parallels with the us, but it's there if you want to see it. Oatsdad: What more in the way of content do you want from a film like that?


I totally agree with Oatsdad and Vidiot that Cameron's sequel was brilliant. Different kind of film, but just flat out great for the genre. I was impressed in 1984 with the first Terminator, but in 1986 with Aliens I knew a huge new talent had hit cinema. That's one thing I like about Hollywood. It's not easy, but if you're flat out that talented they don't care if you're from a country other than the US--they let you make some big movies.

 

I'm afraid Prometheus will be voted "biggest bomb of 2012." Many people will be saying, "That made absolutely no sense" as they leave the theatre.

Red flag #1: Scott has said this movie will have little to do with the Alien creature.

Red flag #2 This movie is about the origin of the human species.

Red flag #3 Even though the trailer has been released, no one has any idea what this movie is about.

 

You make some good points. All of those red flags are potentially worrying....esp. for me #2.

 

Well, hopefully there will be some promotional advertising of this. It's still early. I suspect this will get some talk in the next few months.

 

LOL. You mean besides being the #1 news item on entertainment blogs all this week?

 

#1. Good, do we really need another take on the Alien.

#2. I'm not sure how literal I would be with any of his ramblings about the plot of this movie.

#3. Who cares. I don't want to know too much before I see a movie.