ALIEN / PROMETHEUS / COVENANT / ROMULUS - SPOILERS INBOUND!!

[Atop]

I get the impression that the institutions and marketing is what fuels a lot of the culture today with how one approaches media. There is generally two or three groups of people, ones who look at advertising as knowledge, ones who are indifferent, and ones who hate advertising. I have discussed the negative role advertising has on media, how it alters creative freedoms... it is all quite disconcerting sometimes. So I understand having a strong opposing emotional response to something that is a) making lots of money, is mainstream b) cost a lot of money to both make and advertise. These things give an impression that the films are no longer of value or they are products. Which they are of course. However where I differ now from my older self is that I no longer care. To expect another Alien, Druqks, what have you is only putting yourself in both a more negative and narrow mindset. This mindset is essentially a transformation from the way in which we observed media in childhood I think. We are advertised to believe that popularity and critical acclaim/award shows are the bar for success. This brings us back to the two or three groups of people. Those that hate advertising will likely see popularity, reviews, and awards as meaningless. Which is fine. However the problem with this is the abundant amounts of this thing you hate. Ads exist everywhere as well as popular culture. It is unavoidable. This conflicting reality is what causes the transformation. We see reality as wrong and therefore establish ourselves as elite. This elitism is the wolf in sheep clothing. After all our understanding of the horrors of capitalistic institutions and how they damage creativity, elitism is of the same beast. It drives us to be competitive over subjectivity and it drives us to find the flaws with the system. If popular culture will always exists, my new way of looking at this is that there is no point in spending energy complaining about a clearly flawed system. Rather like you just said Atop I will approach each film, album as an independent, at least as best I can. It doesn't matter that it wasn't as good as Alien. Alien will always be safe in my mind and in my collection. There was still something to be gained from the Prometheus experience and discussing the theories on the plot or the execution of the directing and writing can be done in a beneficial way that only adds to our imagination.

Essentially...

 

 

Very true in a world filled with adverts, we feel like lab rats and this tends to piss off free thinking persons. So a knee jerk reaction to big budget films when they are first released I can understand, so I think with time people will enjoy this film more. Like DrukQs, when it first came out there were many naysayers and I felt like an outsider for seeing its brilliance. Now it is considered a classic. William S Burroughs said something about great works of art take time to sink into the popular mindset. I am not saying that I think Prometheus is some pinnacle of art but as I have stated before I enjoyed the hell out of it, know people that have as well, and then visit watmm to see so many people talking mad shit. I see this film in four years being considered one of the better sci-fi films to ever be made.

 

A very well thought out post Compson.

 

And def lol'd at the GIF.

 

David is such a know-it-all.

 

cant believe people are analysing this movie so much. Specially when you find out they really did mean to say that the bald guys wanted to kill humans because.....they killed jesus haha what a load a shit

What things do you love to analyze Mr Shit?

 

Considering how Christians have shit all over the ideas of their saviour by killing and plundering in his name, I would be pissed off as well.

 

All writing could be bullshit with this line of thinking.

 

Great job!

 

imo Lindlelop isn't incompetent.......

 

He is a nerd just like the rest of us except that he gets to write sci-fi/fantasy scripts and get paid for it.

 

I was a Lost fan for years.

 

There are many well written interesting plots within the show, but the end did kill it for me.

 

 

i just get the impression he has an idea and he doesn't think on it he just writes it. so many plots holes. so many problems. so much dumb. if he sat and thought about it he'd realize. maybe he doesn't care because he likes the idea so much.

 

cant believe people are analysing this movie so much. Specially when you find out they really did mean to say that the bald guys wanted to kill humans because.....they killed jesus haha what a load a shit

 

that does seem to be what they are saying. they sent jesus and humans killed him so they decided to send the black goo, or something. maybe there is a wheel we can turn which moves the planet so they can't find us?

 

I'd like to see a film where jesus is portrayed as an alien but damn people would boycott and picket it. ALIEN JESUS would be an awesome b-movie

 

Different writers, different styles. I hate Tim Burton and everything he touches. Other people love him, I think.

 

O p i n i o n s !!!

 

With any luck these films will enter into the category of highest budget B films ever made.

 

I love The Hidden and will probably watch it again at some point in my life.

 

The film isn't nearly as good as Prometheus though.

 

To each their own.

 

*busts out dance routine inside of local Wendy's*

Edited June 17, 2012 by Atop

[Guest Jimmy McMessageboard]

so you can forgive a writer for creating a character so dumb that she would run in a straight line away from something that could be dodged easily with a few side steps? or is that explainable because oooooh she might be an android? or jesus!

 

and i think this film can be reduced to one quote: "Hands up"

 

i also enjoyed the watching it but it doesn't hold up to any thought afterwards.

 

i don't thinkanyone likes tim burton anymore

 

OMG JESUS WAS AN ANDROID!

Edited June 17, 2012 by Jimmy McMessageboard

[Guest Jimmy McMessageboard]

someone probably already posted this 10 pages back but

 

[Atop]

That review is awful. Worse than the film ever dreamed of being. Why do people keep posting it????

 

 

Anyhow, fuck Meredith Vickers, she got what she deserved, an illogical death.

 

Everyone that dies in the film, does so in a very odd fashion.

 

So.....

 

HANDS UP!

 

heheh.....

[awepittance]

the review is awful because the guy who did some of the best knock downs of shitty movies was WAAAAY too soft on prometheus

[Atop]

So do you agree with Alex Jones on his ideas about Prometheus?

 

I didn't know Alex was Batman:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enzaao300M0

 

here is the best review of the film that I have read, from the genius Dave at movies.com:

 

I've spent a lot of free time between snacks contemplating the reasons why movies about stuff happening in space are an immediate and automatic source of pleasure for me. And I have determined that the number one answer is monsters. Easy. Monsters live in space and they should eat people who go there.

 

But not just that. Space is also pitch black and inhospitable to stupid humans unless they show up with really kick-ass ships where the beds are pill-shaped plexiglass coffins pumped full of sleep-for-years gas and the doors are always futuristically gliding open or unexpectedly air-locking, subsequently vacuuming the lungs up and out of an unfortunate victim's skull. More importantly, space is full of probable doom, simultaneously holding hands with mystery and the possibility of ecstasy, oblivion or, if you're really lucky, both at once. Think about the ambiguous, glorious ending of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey or the head-scratching finale of Danny Boyle's underseen, under-appreciated, extremely messy Sunshine, the one where a malevolent force interrupts the mission of an international crew of really chill astronauts and it all winds up feeling like a Tiesto-headlining rave on the sun. Both of these films -- one a recognized classic, one just a personal favorite -- are weird as hell and I could watch both of them over and over. People wear neoprene body suits in movies like these because if the ecstasy and the oblivion go down they want to look very cool for the occasion.

 

More about monsters -- this is a Ridley Scott movie and therefore not much of a spoiler to tell you that its headlights are shining in the direction of 1979's Alien, yet whether or not you want to call it a prequel is your business. Charlize Theron, Noomi Rapace, Logan Marshall-Green, Idris Elba and Michael Fassbender, among others, are a crew hurling through the voluptuous void on their way to competing agenda items on their various to-do lists: science fact-finding, unfulfilled religious yearning, corporate dominance of everything and whatever it is that a mysteriously motivated cyborg like Fassbender is up to besides spending a lot of time mastering a precise impersonation of young Peter O'Toole. Then everybody's goals are interrupted by unfriendly forces. That's all you need to know for now.

 

Its the characters' battling interests, reflective of Scott and screenwriters Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof’s scattered approach to storytelling, that unbalance the film, sending it through the script equivalent of an asteroid shower. Who are those other guys on the ship and what's their deal? Why don't we ever find out? What non-denominational spiritual question is the movie looking to answer besides, "Why are we here and how come we're not still ten-foot-tall, cloak-wearing, albino musclegods like the thing that shows up in the first scene?" What about those creatures that arrive and then disappear for good? And why oh why oh WHY does Noomi Rapace's scientist character think it's a smart idea to reach out and touch those snake-things? You never touch the snake-things.

 

But script potholes and logic blackholes aren't always how a movie lives or dies. Sometimes scale and sweep and gorgeous pessimistic hugeness, ice-cold beauty, disorganization and the refusal to answer questions form an unlikely but strongly defiant alliance and carry you along on a transcendent wave bigger than mechanics alone could manufacture. You don't always get what you think you want, but what you wind up with is still immensely satisfying. So you look for hard evidence and reasons for this or that and instead you get evil creatures with no interest in explaining their intentions. You look for God and you get infinite doubt. The tension remains unresolved. There's no victory in the void. And while you're still busy asking "Why?" something devours your entire face and decimates humanity.

Edited June 17, 2012 by Atop

[awepittance]

Forbes Magazine : Prometheus is a Visually Stunning Epic Failure

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2012/06/11/review-prometheus-is-a-visually-stunning-epic-failure/

 

if you disliked prometheus but can't understand why people seem so soft on the movie check out a full database of negative reviews from hardcore alien trilogy fans here

http://www.prometheu...munity/forums/8

Edited June 17, 2012 by Awepittance

[Atop]

Thanks for answering my question.

[awepittance]

you just edited it in after i made my post, sorry for not being a time traveler!

 

 

edit: and Alex jone's prometheus review was very lol, he's taken the 'secret satantic messages are in kids cartoons' paradigm to whole new levels, it's now just really abstract and hilarious

Edited June 17, 2012 by Awepittance

[Atop]

sorry, I thought you had read it man.

 

Yeah....he did the same thing with Avatar.

 

I love that he shows the novel Vril in the vid though....that novel is pretty wacky and very early sci-fi.

Edited June 17, 2012 by Atop

[awepittance]

Prometheus Shows Why Prequels Don't Work - the atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/06/prometheus-shows-why-prequels-dont-work/258455/

[Guest zaphod]

lol'd so hard when holloway died and they faded to white with a very soft ethnic warble far off on the soundtrack. it was like something out of team america.

[Hoodie]

maybe prometheus actually is a statement on sci-fi/horror movies and their cliche human incompetence, as without david they would've all died without discovering anything. david found the ship, found the alien, found the goo room, found the holograph recording, found the alien fetus, saved noomi's ass from mr big alien, and found the second ship. the humans pretty much did nothing except for die.

[Candiru]

I actually like Avatar, but I never thought it would be better than Prometheus. Crazy.

[Audioblysk]

maybe prometheus actually is a statement on sci-fi/horror movies and their cliche human incompetence, as without david they would've all died without discovering anything. david found the ship, found the alien, found the goo room, found the holograph recording, found the alien fetus, saved noomi's ass from mr big alien, and found the second ship. the humans pretty much did nothing except for die.

 

Haha, its funny because its true.

[YO303]

maybe prometheus actually is a statement on sci-fi/horror movies and their cliche human incompetence, as without david they would've all died without discovering anything. david found the ship, found the alien, found the goo room, found the holograph recording, found the alien fetus, saved noomi's ass from mr big alien, and found the second ship. the humans pretty much did nothing except for die.

 

Humans created David.

Edited June 18, 2012 by YO303

[auxien]

been away for the weekend and come back to 5 or so new pages in here....after reading (scanning) through it, all i can say is this:

 

why the fuck are you people who HATED the movie still in this thread? i think you kids are posting more than those of us who liked it. Ridley Scott ruined the Alien universe for you, we get it. quit crying....or, as someone said a couple pages back, go watch Moonrise Kingdom or some other hipster-approved movies.

 

you people just don't make sense to me.

[GORDO]

welcome to the internet.

[Atop]

gml

[Hoodie]

been away for the weekend and come back to 5 or so new pages in here....after reading (scanning) through it, all i can say is this:

 

why the fuck are you people who HATED the movie still in this thread? i think you kids are posting more than those of us who liked it. Ridley Scott ruined the Alien universe for you, we get it. quit crying....or, as someone said a couple pages back, go watch Moonrise Kingdom or some other hipster-approved movies.

 

you people just don't make sense to me.

 

because it provokes discussion and discussion is the reason why i post on a forum.

[auxien]

been away for the weekend and come back to 5 or so new pages in here....after reading (scanning) through it, all i can say is this:

 

why the fuck are you people who HATED the movie still in this thread? i think you kids are posting more than those of us who liked it. Ridley Scott ruined the Alien universe for you, we get it. quit crying....or, as someone said a couple pages back, go watch Moonrise Kingdom or some other hipster-approved movies.

 

you people just don't make sense to me.

 

because it provokes discussion and discussion is the reason why i post on a forum.

 

naw, i get that aspect of things. but there's not much debate, and there hasn't been any seemingly intelligent debate in pages (read: hundreds of posts), so i know when i'm in similar positions (reading/discussing something i feel is lacking) there is a point where i quiet myself, quit bashing the creation and exit the discussion. it's when people (not necessarily you Hoodie, i can't remember your posts in particular) just keep posting their dislike for something over and over and over and over....THAT's what doesn't make sense to me. i guess it's just for attention? that is the root of all trolling, and that's what some of this thread is getting to now. ridiculous.

 

like Gordo said, it's the internet. i guess it's ridiculous of me to not expect it.

[goDel]

The irony is that we're very touchy about it.

[syd syside]

Here's a question. Is the lack of character development for the human characters (David is the only character that learns and wonders) bad writing or is it intentional? The humans move through this alien environment looking around, hoping to find something definitive about their origins. But they don't find it immediately, only DNA samples. However interesting that may be, they do very little analyzing of what it might mean. Nor do they speculate on other things they witnessed. The two main scientists see these Engineers as Gods... and wish nothing more to meet them. Same as Weyland. Yet almost everyone in the film recklessly, hopelessly, meets some sort of end. Most deaths being undignified and meaningless. Before they realized the Engineers wish to terminate Earth/humanity, the Engineers are Gods. They have the answers. When Shaw and others come to understand the Engineers plans, they no longer hold any respect towards it. They assume its motivation and reasoning is wrong. They assume the moral ground even though that ground was built on the shoulders of the Engineers (scene with ground breaking open represents human reality/culture literally breaking open). David on the other hand, knows everything all along I think. He knows waking up the Engineers will lead to events that end humanity. His view on humanity is that if their creators saw no more purpose with humans and humans see no purpose in life then the reasons why (for any of it, origin, why we were made etc) are meaningless. The audience isn't meant to find definitive meaning. It's almost essentially trolling those who take the film seriously. Who think there might actually be some kind of answer. There isn't one is the fact. But for some of us, we can look at life around us and wonder regardless. David has more love and passion for life than humans because he doesn't pretend that his creator cares about him. He doesn't pretend that he will go to heaven when he dies. He doesn't blink an eye when his creator says he has no soul. Perhaps that is what the Engineers would have told us... but unlike David, we continue pretending, denying, and ultimately living in fear.

 

So yeah, I think you are right atop. This film will be looked back on more highly. At least it continues to grow on me and I still have only seen it once. It's becoming something rather brilliant actually.

Edited June 18, 2012 by compson

[syd syside]

Reading on other forums and this one about the Space Jesus etc etc... or why the human characters had no development is kind of hilarious now. It is like the audience is looking into a mirror.

Edited June 18, 2012 by compson

[Silent Member]

wtf