At first, when my usercp said people were posting in here again, I thought to myself, "Are you fucking kidding me?"
But some of that new stuff you posted, Jen, was actually really good.
Finally, some of the missing footage is being released -- there's supposed to be a good 25-30 minutes of scenes that were cut from the movie.
here's one of them. Well, look at that -- suddenly the scene with the Engineer clubbing Wayland to death makes sense, now that we see the footage of what Wayland says to him. We also get a clearer understanding of Wayland's logic and why he thinks he deserves what he is asking for... which then the alien directly answers, and perfectly, by his response.
Unfortunately, this seems to have been pulled from youtube, but I
think it's in the 14 min video you posted later...
Depending on the rest of the released footage, we could potentially be looking at yet another instance of "Death by Studio Committee" for a motion picture.
I've got a suspicion about this that I'll post later...
I've heard the Extended/Director's Cut of Kingdom of Heaven is pretty decent too, btw, in comparison to the theatrical release.
Never saw it (which was one of the funny parts about that "honest trailer" video [a good number of things in there, though, were stupid]), but was watching some of it (only about 10-15 minutes) for the first time a couple weeks ago (not sure which version) on HBO or Cinemax or something, and, while some of it was pretty cheesedick (the sets/costumes for the crowds looked almost as cheap as Hercules or Xena), it actually had some good actors/acting (although, Orlando Bloom is godawful), and seemed better than everything I'd heard about it.
Here's part of the opening scene:
Also taken off unfortunately...
And not sure if this made it into that 14 min clip...
Plus a link to a list of all deleted scenes, with links to where they were referenced (in interviews, etc.)
http://www.prometheusnews.net/movie/deleted-alternate-scenes/
A few of those were decent but a lot were just minor crap.
Also, here looks to be 14 minutes of the deleted footage, compiled into one video -- it's the second video down (right under the youtube one):
http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3194600/get-a-taste-of-the-deleted-opening-scene-from-prometheus/
This was awesome. Thank you for posting.
That 14 min clip I've referenced a number of times above was great.
A lot of stuff in there seemed like it would have fleshed out the movie better.
I'm having trouble recalling what was in the original theatrical release, but one of the clips here has material right before the clip I posted above (where Wayland talks to the engineer), and it has Shaw trying to cut Wayland off and ask all the important questions -- why did they come? Why do they hate us? Why are they now out to get us? And Wayland cuts her off and demands immortality instead, claiming he deserves it.... If that didn't appear in the movie, it's a shame. It's a good scene, and it leaves you wondering if Wayland hadn't been there, if Shaw would have gotten some actual answers.
I thought there was better stuff missing that you've provided, but this was interesting.
I can see, to a degree, why they left it out, just to leave some more mystery as to what the deal is with the Engineers.
Also, it kinda makes Weyland look really one-dimensional and pretty damn stupid, as if this Engineer is gunna wake up from his 2,000-yr slumber, have some old bastard with horrible makeup who's basically to him what a monkey is to us, and just say, "Oh, yeah, here, here's the secret to eternal life."
I was planning to watch the entire movie again tonight but got wayland, err, waylaid, so I'll finish it tomorrow:
One reason I got slowed down is because the movie can sync up with your smartphone, especially easily if you've got a home wifi. So playing the movie on my PS3, with my phone running off my home network, every 1-4 minutes the movie was triggering something to play on my cell. (The movie would automatically pause while the video on my cell would kick off; and once the video finished, the phone would stop and the movie would continue.) It's kind of cool, actually.
It sounds kind of complicated/like a bitch to get done, but that does sound kind of cool.
What kind of videos was your phone interrupting with?
I saw a commercial hyping what I figure is this capability, but I usually figure that kind of stuff is almost all hype, and usually completely overrated.
The other reason is that I watched the 36 minutes of alternate/deleted footage.
So there were an additional 22 min of footage not shown in that 14 min clip???
My opinion is that Prometheus was damaged (maybe not fatally, but badly) through overzealous editing. I can't say the material was "crucial" in the sense that not having both of your lungs removed is crucial to your survival, but basically it really disrupted the thought process and foreshadowing of the film which made some of it difficult to follow and also made some of the character behavior seem non-sensible. My opinion is that about 75% of the material, reinserted back into the movie, would have made it a much better experience. I suppose length is a problem for some, but nowadays we've had blockbusters that are still yet longer than the 2:25 the movie might have been, so... if it makes the movie more enjoyable?
Hate... studio... execs....
Scene comparison (sorry that the quality isn't the best, I had to compress things... turn your volume up)
Theatrical Version:
[video]http://tinypic.com/r/2h8a1yo/6[/video]
Alternate Version:
[video]http://tinypic.com/r/30wr1v8/6[/video]
Wow, that second scene was way better.
It was kinda subtle, and I only watched it once through, but it did seem way more effective.
If they had just kept that scene, you could have identified with some of the characters a lot more.
I disagree with your summary (not quoted) of it, though: I think it's more that she's just a power-hungry bitch.
Will there be an extended edition of the film released on video?
It's not clear.
This release, it looks like they just put a bunch of the deleted clips on as supplements. In the past Scott has given contradictory answers as far as an "official" extended/director's cut, where they incorporate all the footage right into the movie.
I hope they do. I still haven't seen this movie, and I'd like for there to be more content that provides better context when I do see it.
Ok, so here's what I figure: there was some mixture between studio exec idiots fucking the theatrical version up unintentionally (for time, et al?) and them somewhat intentionally fucking it up for mystery, controversy, and, most importantly, the opportunity to: 1) not only release a bunch of extra footage and thus, after having built up the mystery/controversy from the theatrical release, get a whole bunch more people to buy the blu-ray to try to figure/sort out the mystery/controversy; 2) open up the possibility for a Director's Cut release, on blu-ray, in theaters, or both, and thus make even more money; and 3) continue building on the franchise, via the aforementioned mystery, controversy, major blu-ray release with lots of additional information, and possibility of a Director's Cut, for the sequel, and whatever else may come of this franchise (I mean, let's be real, this movie has generated almost 300 posts on here, and is still having more added to it rather regularly, a fair number of months since its release, and even the haters are more likely than not going to go see whatever sequel they put out [hell, Jennifer, possibly the most vocal hater, bought the frickin blu-ray]).
Apparently, Lindeloff is out of writing the sequel, and, although Prometheus was by no means perfect, I think they definitely did what they seem to have really intended to do with this movie, which was reboot the franchise, and, if they do things right moving forward (which, granted, based on the execution of this movie, may be a big 'if'), there's definitely enough material here to make something pretty interesting/intriguing.