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Prometheus

Mal12345

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Strange, unanswered questions don't piss me off. For example, the ending to Lost, which Lindelof also had a hand in.

Lost was a time sink anyway. I watched the first two episodes with eager anticipation and quickly realized that this was a story without ending, like a soap, and that they were just going to keep feeding the audience crap to maintain its interest like a carrot before a horse.

I don't see the comparison with Prometheus. That movie is simply begging for a sequel containing the answers. This was made explicit at the end. It's just frustrating having to wait, like ketchup pouring slowly from a bottle.

There have been movies that left unanswered questions for a reason and on purpose, such as a grade B sci-fi flick that ends with a big ? question mark.
 

MacGuffin

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Lost was a time sink anyway. I watched the first two episodes with eager anticipation and quickly realized that this was a story without ending, like a soap, and that they were just going to keep feeding the audience crap to maintain its interest like a carrot before a horse.

It's a TV show, that had over 120 episodes, of course it's a time suck.

I felt the same way, bro.

*fist bump*
 

Zarathustra

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Strange, unanswered questions don't piss me off. For example, the ending to Lost, which Lindelof also had a hand in.

Well, you're an enneagram 9, aren't you?

Frankly, it probably has more to do with being an enneagram 5.

But, even then, as I said in my post, I'm talking about tendencies.
 
F

figsfiggyfigs

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Well, you're an enneagram 9, aren't you?

Frankly, it probably has more to do with being an enneagram 5.

But, even then, as I said in my post, I'm talking about tendencies.

Wow wow wow. Step off bro, don't bring enneagrams into this :girlfight:
 

ZPowers

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I thought this film good, but not great. There were a handful of moments I really liked. Unfortunately, the movie also had a tendency to sporadically disappoint, introduce shoddy (or really cliche) character and plot moments (example: the main character complaining about her infertility came out of nowhere, really kind of added nothing substantial, and kind of felt like something she maybe wouldn't be so concerned about right then considering all the crazy shit that was going on already at that point. And, for supposedly very intelligent characters, they do a few incredibly stupid things basically in service of plot and scares), and had issues paying off themes. I was also lightly agitated by aspects of the science, in particular how our evolutionary process and the apparently total DNA match worked in relation to both those aliens and the other creatures we're clearly related to on Earth, but that's something I could get over.

But, as I say, when it worked I felt like it worked very well. Fassbender, Theron and Elba were stand-outs in terms of performance as well.

I'd probably rank it around 7.5/10, maybe 8/10. Not as solid as Alien, which remains my favorite Ridley Scott film.

Also, why the hell did they hire Guy Pearce in old man make-up as Weyland? I didn't recognize it as Pearce when watching, but I was pretty confident it was someone in make-up. Weren't they aware that elderly people already have old makeup on? Makeup called their skin?
 

violet_crown

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Some things are just a matter of taste and/or getting it in a different way. Not figuring out the first scene is definitely going to make it hard to be in the mindset of someone who saw that, got it and was charmed right away. There are movies I obviously don't get - Avengers - ninety something percent on rotten tomatoes, wtf?

After talking with [MENTION=8413]Zarathustra[/MENTION] about the film last night, I'm in the process of reevaluating my initial, negative gut reaction to the film. I think the point you've made right here is crucial, Violaine. That initial scene is either the viewers entree into the far-reaching questions that have made the film riveting to some, or a pretty opener to a fairly whelming sci-fi/action joint.

Another thing that came up last night was the merit of assessing a film like this on plot alone. While you can argue that plot is a secondary consideration in light of the bigger questions, it shouldn't be marginalized to the point that the viewer ends up feeling that the story is merely a stand-in. It's kind of like that notion that if jazz is all about the notes the musicians aren't playing, you might as well stay at home. Part of my initial reaction to the film was this underlying intuition that after the first 30 minutes of the film, any number of things could have happened in the middle hour that got you to the last ten. That's a major flaw to me. While it could be the old Te urge for structure, I feel a stronger film would have had a clearer line from its most abstract concepts, down to the line by line minutiae. I think a director like Kubrick could have accomplished this, but of course, genius is genius for a reason.

Anyways, while I can appreciate that Ridley Scott may be playing the long game here, more could have been done to make the film something other than mediocre, high-concept, franchise fodder.
 

Mal12345

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I thought this film good, but not great. There were a handful of moments I really liked. Unfortunately, the movie also had a tendency to sporadically disappoint, introduce shoddy (or really cliche) character and plot moments (example: the main character complaining about her infertility came out of nowhere, really kind of added nothing substantial, and kind of felt like something she maybe wouldn't be so concerned about right then considering all the crazy shit that was going on already at that point. And, for supposedly very intelligent characters, they do a few incredibly stupid things basically in service of plot and scares), and had issues paying off themes. I was also lightly agitated by aspects of the science, in particular how our evolutionary process and the apparently total DNA match worked in relation to both those aliens and the other creatures we're clearly related to on Earth, but that's something I could get over.

But, as I say, when it worked I felt like it worked very well. Fassbender, Theron and Elba were stand-outs in terms of performance as well.

I'd probably rank it around 7.5/10, maybe 8/10. Not as solid as Alien, which remains my favorite Ridley Scott film.

Also, why the hell did they hire Guy Pearce in old man make-up as Weyland? I didn't recognize it as Pearce when watching, but I was pretty confident it was someone in make-up. Weren't they aware that elderly people already have old makeup on? Makeup called their skin?

Guy Pearce is elderly?
 

ZPowers

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Guy Pearce is elderly?

No, that's my point. He isn't elderly, but the character is. So hire Christopher Plummer or peter O'Toole (though, with all the Lawrence of Arabia stuff, tht may not have worked) or some other old dude and don't bother with the distracting (and, at times, obvious) make-up.

It's not worth putting that distraction (not to mention unnecessary added cost of makeup) into the movie just to have some viral video (which speaks of misplaced priorities to me).
 

The Ü™

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For a minute I thought it was gonna be Roger Ebert "talking" about Prometheus with his Stephen Hawking computer.
 
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violaine

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Good interview, I'm glad I wasn't just grasping at David's significance and those themes were actually deliberate. If anything, this seems like a lot of the shoddiness wasn't Damon's fault, but more Ole Man Ridley going for a 2001 style piece and if you disagree then GET OFF MY LAWN.

Hah. Yeah, he sounds pretty authoritarian. Michael Fassbender was a pleasure to watch. I loved the point in the interview about building some customization into your bot, hadn't considered that possibility previously.

----

[MENTION=7254]Wind-Up Rex[/MENTION] - I just know that I stepped right into the flow based upon my interpretation of the first scene, it was a little like falling in love with an idea. It definitely influenced the way I watched the movie. (I'm going to see it again as well with my BFF who hasn't seen it. INTJ, given to unpredictable flights of fancy, thank gawd. Very curious as to what he'll think. Also curious as to how it will hold up to a second viewing).
 

CreativeCait

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Um...wow. You're reading too much into it. (And I think you're just seeing what you want to see.)

Remember a movie called Alien released back in 1979? It was just a monster movie! Prometheus should've stayed the same way. If you're going to have a bunch of characters to kill off, so be it. But don't give them unnecessary build-up for such an anticlimactic conclusion! (I wanted to see an epic catfight between the original girl with the dragon tattoo and the bitch, even more epic than the one in Aliens.)

Lol. Isn't this what's so good about movies or any other art form for that matter? We all get something different out of them. Isn't that the point?? And I think its interesting how everyone has been focusing on different aspects of the movie, or annoyed by different things and how that reflects personality type. Like, you're a what...ENTP, maybe that makes you think what I got from the movie was "reading too much into it'. But to me those sorts of things are what I think about and enjoy when I see movies...and it's not leaps at all in my head, that scene made perfect sense to me the moment it happened and it was no biggie. To you on the other hand it was anticlimatic and lacked appropriately dramatic fighting scene or whatever and there seemingly being no point (in your opinion) annoyed you afterwards....I think all these differences in our types and interpretations and of course personal preferences are interesting...
 
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