Sandman
2012-06-01 08:38:10 UTC
So, I saw the movie last night, and I have mixed feelings.
So, the movie is about a scientific expedition that travels to LV-233
(i.e. not LV-426, but in the same solar system) based on "hints" from
cave paintings around the world, which is just a pattern of dots,
which in turn is supposed to correlate to the configuration of a
series of stars (i.e. constellation) not visible from earth with the
naked eye. One of the cave drawings is over 35,000 years old, and I
would image that the location of stars in the sky would alter in such
a time period, no?
Anyway, they travel to LV-233, a journey that takes two years in
Prometheus. In Alien, they're halfway home when Mother stops the
journey and Lambert calculates the journey hom from that point will
take ten months, so that seems about right I suppose.
The movie takes place in the year 2093, and I'm trying to figure out
when Alien takes place. I'm not sure if they ever say, but Ripleys
daughters date of decease is "12.23.20" which I suppose could read as
23 of december in 2220, because it can't be in 2120 since Ripley was
drifting around in 57 years. She died two years before Ripley was
found in Aliens, so Aliens takes place in the year 2222, which is 72
years after Prometheus.
Since Weyland Yutani is behind the expedition in Prometheus as well,
it seems hard to imagine they waiting 72 years to send something like
Nostromo there, but perhaps I have the math wrong.
So what about the movie then?
Well, the script is too packed for starters. Too much is crammed in
and Ridley Scott seems almost restless in his pacing of the cut and
chain of events. These supposed scientists arrive at LV-233 and
instantaneously runs out of the ship to this structure to examine.
Contrast this to the very slow paced opening of Alien where the focus
is on everyday life of the Nostromo and the characters. Cuts in
Prometheus are to compressed. Too few transport scenes in between
locations.
Also, the script contains too many extraneous elements totally
unnecessary to the plot. We have a cheesy father/daughter substory
that doesn't get enough screen time to be significant, but enough to
make it seem like it's supposed to be important. And there are several
things like that.
But the movie is incredibly beautiful. Expertly shot and framed. It
has some tension at times (mostly involving David played by Michael
Fassbender as the ships android), but unfortunately, it's not a sci-fi
thriller like Alien.
Also, too many stereotypic scenes and situations. The "though guy"
scientist is separated from the others and is obviously the first to
fall victim to what is the Prometheus version of the face hugger.
Which brings me to the aliens and how they are portrayed.
The movie is about the human race being "created" by the race we all
know as the Space Jockeys. Super spoilers ahead! :)
The space jockeys from Alien actually look just like us! Or very much
like us. They're taller and more muscular, and what we see in Alien is
not an exo-skeleton at all, no, it's a space suit! I have a hard time
reconciling this with Alien, where they talk about it being fossilized
and the bones are bent outwards, and closeups really look exactly like
bones. In Prometheus. In Prometheus we "see" SJ walk around in these
space suits, and also how they are integrated into this pilot seat
(i.e. the SJ sits in the chair and the mask and "ribcage" close around
him - making it look like he's grown out of the chair. They also
conclude that we have the same DNA as this race, however unlikely that
seems.
This is an image from Prometheus where the ribcage is being assembled:
<Loading Image...
>
Which doesn't look a lot like this:
<http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g-AfjN4A54A/TyHiukkC9yI/AAAAAAAAbWI/MFJ1GjHe
ACM/s1600/spacejockey13.jpg>
Also, on the subject of face huggers and xenomorphs, I have a hard
time reconciling that between the movies. In the end scene of this
movie, we see a creature bursting out of the chest of the space
jockey. This creature is smaller than an alien yet quite alien-like
(i.e. bipedal, elongated skull, double jaw) but more slender. I have
no beef with this, it's the process of how it came to be that I'm
bothered with.
In Alien, the xenomorph is the result of a face hugger from an egg
laying an egg inside a human host that develops into the chest burster
that later matures into the Alien. Fine.
Now get this, the alien-like creature in Prometheus is created by
"goo" from some container inside the ship is put into the drink of a
crew member (who dies from this) who has sex with another crew member,
who becomes three months pregnant in 10 hours (yes, pregnant - ARSE
vibes yet?). She uses a automated surgical machine to remove the
squid-like fetus (and then is stapled up and walks around like nothing
happened apart from occasional abdominal pain). Later, the Space
Jockey is attacked by this fetus, who inserts something into him
through the mouth much like a face hugger. Later, this ready-made -
non-chest burster - alien emerges from the SJ.
So:
Egg -> Face hugger -> Chest burster -> Alien
Goo -> Sex & Pregnancy -> Fetus -> SJ -> Alien..ish.
Yet the creatures are made to be strikingly similar, even though the
process of development is unimaginably dissimilar? I have a hard time
swallowing this (no pun intended). It's as if they wanted to make it
different, yet hint at it being the same. It doesn't work - one or the
other!
Also - a note about the first scene in the movie. It's never
explained! That bugs me! I mean, I have nothing to say about the fact
that you never actually *learn* anything about the SJ race in
Prometheus. They just *are* and they supposedly made us, but nothing
more is revealed (other than "guesses" by the characters that are
treated like truths)
But the first scene in the movie shows one of these not-quite humans
that are later revealed to be the SJ race. He is left seemingly alone
on a planet when a large disc-shaped spaceship leaves the planet. He
opens a canister of some from of liquid and drinks it. His skin starts
to discolorate and we see how his DNA is being attacked and his body
starts to fall apart. He falls into the water where closeups shows his
now free floating DNA-strands seemingly starting to rebuild
themselves. Cut.
Ok, intriguing first scene! Nothing in the entire movie even comes
close to ever touching on anything related to this after that scene.
Wtf? Why did you show us that? The first scene of a movie is there for
a reason. It's to plant something, introduce something, set the mood
or whatever. Not show something that is 100% unrelated to the entire
movie!
Being a true Alien fan, I went into the movie with super high
expectations. I did enjoy the movie, but I'm focusing mostly here on
the things that were out of place, quirky or just plain wtf's. There
are tons of things to enjoy in this movie as well (Swedish actress
Noomi Rapace is quite good as the "lead" character).
If you haven't seen it, you should. If you have seen it - what did you
think?
So, the movie is about a scientific expedition that travels to LV-233
(i.e. not LV-426, but in the same solar system) based on "hints" from
cave paintings around the world, which is just a pattern of dots,
which in turn is supposed to correlate to the configuration of a
series of stars (i.e. constellation) not visible from earth with the
naked eye. One of the cave drawings is over 35,000 years old, and I
would image that the location of stars in the sky would alter in such
a time period, no?
Anyway, they travel to LV-233, a journey that takes two years in
Prometheus. In Alien, they're halfway home when Mother stops the
journey and Lambert calculates the journey hom from that point will
take ten months, so that seems about right I suppose.
The movie takes place in the year 2093, and I'm trying to figure out
when Alien takes place. I'm not sure if they ever say, but Ripleys
daughters date of decease is "12.23.20" which I suppose could read as
23 of december in 2220, because it can't be in 2120 since Ripley was
drifting around in 57 years. She died two years before Ripley was
found in Aliens, so Aliens takes place in the year 2222, which is 72
years after Prometheus.
Since Weyland Yutani is behind the expedition in Prometheus as well,
it seems hard to imagine they waiting 72 years to send something like
Nostromo there, but perhaps I have the math wrong.
So what about the movie then?
Well, the script is too packed for starters. Too much is crammed in
and Ridley Scott seems almost restless in his pacing of the cut and
chain of events. These supposed scientists arrive at LV-233 and
instantaneously runs out of the ship to this structure to examine.
Contrast this to the very slow paced opening of Alien where the focus
is on everyday life of the Nostromo and the characters. Cuts in
Prometheus are to compressed. Too few transport scenes in between
locations.
Also, the script contains too many extraneous elements totally
unnecessary to the plot. We have a cheesy father/daughter substory
that doesn't get enough screen time to be significant, but enough to
make it seem like it's supposed to be important. And there are several
things like that.
But the movie is incredibly beautiful. Expertly shot and framed. It
has some tension at times (mostly involving David played by Michael
Fassbender as the ships android), but unfortunately, it's not a sci-fi
thriller like Alien.
Also, too many stereotypic scenes and situations. The "though guy"
scientist is separated from the others and is obviously the first to
fall victim to what is the Prometheus version of the face hugger.
Which brings me to the aliens and how they are portrayed.
The movie is about the human race being "created" by the race we all
know as the Space Jockeys. Super spoilers ahead! :)
The space jockeys from Alien actually look just like us! Or very much
like us. They're taller and more muscular, and what we see in Alien is
not an exo-skeleton at all, no, it's a space suit! I have a hard time
reconciling this with Alien, where they talk about it being fossilized
and the bones are bent outwards, and closeups really look exactly like
bones. In Prometheus. In Prometheus we "see" SJ walk around in these
space suits, and also how they are integrated into this pilot seat
(i.e. the SJ sits in the chair and the mask and "ribcage" close around
him - making it look like he's grown out of the chair. They also
conclude that we have the same DNA as this race, however unlikely that
seems.
This is an image from Prometheus where the ribcage is being assembled:
<Loading Image...
>Which doesn't look a lot like this:
<http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g-AfjN4A54A/TyHiukkC9yI/AAAAAAAAbWI/MFJ1GjHe
ACM/s1600/spacejockey13.jpg>
Also, on the subject of face huggers and xenomorphs, I have a hard
time reconciling that between the movies. In the end scene of this
movie, we see a creature bursting out of the chest of the space
jockey. This creature is smaller than an alien yet quite alien-like
(i.e. bipedal, elongated skull, double jaw) but more slender. I have
no beef with this, it's the process of how it came to be that I'm
bothered with.
In Alien, the xenomorph is the result of a face hugger from an egg
laying an egg inside a human host that develops into the chest burster
that later matures into the Alien. Fine.
Now get this, the alien-like creature in Prometheus is created by
"goo" from some container inside the ship is put into the drink of a
crew member (who dies from this) who has sex with another crew member,
who becomes three months pregnant in 10 hours (yes, pregnant - ARSE
vibes yet?). She uses a automated surgical machine to remove the
squid-like fetus (and then is stapled up and walks around like nothing
happened apart from occasional abdominal pain). Later, the Space
Jockey is attacked by this fetus, who inserts something into him
through the mouth much like a face hugger. Later, this ready-made -
non-chest burster - alien emerges from the SJ.
So:
Egg -> Face hugger -> Chest burster -> Alien
Goo -> Sex & Pregnancy -> Fetus -> SJ -> Alien..ish.
Yet the creatures are made to be strikingly similar, even though the
process of development is unimaginably dissimilar? I have a hard time
swallowing this (no pun intended). It's as if they wanted to make it
different, yet hint at it being the same. It doesn't work - one or the
other!
Also - a note about the first scene in the movie. It's never
explained! That bugs me! I mean, I have nothing to say about the fact
that you never actually *learn* anything about the SJ race in
Prometheus. They just *are* and they supposedly made us, but nothing
more is revealed (other than "guesses" by the characters that are
treated like truths)
But the first scene in the movie shows one of these not-quite humans
that are later revealed to be the SJ race. He is left seemingly alone
on a planet when a large disc-shaped spaceship leaves the planet. He
opens a canister of some from of liquid and drinks it. His skin starts
to discolorate and we see how his DNA is being attacked and his body
starts to fall apart. He falls into the water where closeups shows his
now free floating DNA-strands seemingly starting to rebuild
themselves. Cut.
Ok, intriguing first scene! Nothing in the entire movie even comes
close to ever touching on anything related to this after that scene.
Wtf? Why did you show us that? The first scene of a movie is there for
a reason. It's to plant something, introduce something, set the mood
or whatever. Not show something that is 100% unrelated to the entire
movie!
Being a true Alien fan, I went into the movie with super high
expectations. I did enjoy the movie, but I'm focusing mostly here on
the things that were out of place, quirky or just plain wtf's. There
are tons of things to enjoy in this movie as well (Swedish actress
Noomi Rapace is quite good as the "lead" character).
If you haven't seen it, you should. If you have seen it - what did you
think?
--
Sandman[.net]
Sandman[.net]
