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Prometheus

ALB2012

Maester
The new Star Trek movie changed lore and that was excellent. Sometimes a new vision just changes it, happens all the time. It is a movie- it is not meant to be accurate, it is meant to be fun and entertainment. If they stuck to the laws of physics it would probaly be very dull ( see mythbusters.)

As for the "bash" at Christians- I won't comment as this is not the time for a theological debate however if it serves the plot then it serves the plot. Would you have been offended if they bashed Jews, or Muslims or Hindus. Would you have even noticed?

Gun laws- not everyone agrees with the gun laws. I have no idea whether they were making a statement or not. I suppose that is down to personal view, as is the whole "I didn't like this film," "I thought it was great" debate.

You can't enjoy every book you read, or indeed every film you see. You cannot please everyone.

I wonder what all the "bashing" about self publishing is over. I have seem some "officially" published books which are badly written and full of mistakes and still got through. I have seen some excellent self published books.
There are so many talented people who are just unlucky or don't get the break for one reason or another, self publishing is a useful tool, for those that cannot find someone suitable or afford to go down the old fashioned route.

Yes there are some badly written books out there, and perhaps it is more likely in SP or E books but well no one forces a person to buy it or read it. If you don't like it stop reading.

I would rather read a good book with a few typos than a well edited book which has a terrible story.
 

ALB2012

Maester
Went to see this a while ago and enjoyed it for what it was. I think I enjoyed the fact that my freind was cowering in the corner during most of the movie despite it not being scary.

As far as the unexplained stuff like the aliens/engineers suddenly want to destroy the humans it seems to me that they've left that sort of thing unanswred in order to make a sequal.

Or simply did not have time to include it. Maybe it just is? Sometimes the answer to why is simple:because.
 

Ophiucha

Auror
A. Broke cannon, what had been established in prior movies.
B. Turned the movie into a “Lets bash the stupid Christians at every turn.”
C. Respecting the beliefs of a non-specified Pagan religion, you don’t get it both ways.
D. Broke the laws of physics, again.
E. Turned the movie into a “Lets bash the stupid Gun Owners at every turn.”
F. Out of control robots, it has been done too often.
G. High tech multi billion dollar spaceships manned by untrained illiterates.
H. Made Corporation owners, ultra-evil, ultra-rich, greedy, stupid murderers.

A) Actually, I think it is very specifically a prequel to Alien, but not Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien Resurrection. More specifically, the Director's Cut of Alien. Spoilers if you haven't seen it. In the director's cut, Ripley - while the ten minutes till self-destruct counter is counting down - comes across Dallas and another crew mate, alive and stuck to the wall with the usual hard, saliva-y crap they use, with them turning into the alien eggs we see at the beginning of the film. This breaks all of the canon of the later films, but actually makes much more sense in the context of Prometheus.

B/C) The protagonist was ambiguously Christian - hell, I wasn't even entirely sure if she was Christian so much as she valued belief and the cross symbolized that to her because of her father, but nevermind - who maintained her faith throughout horrors and scientific miracles. How is that bashing Christianity? Further, C is hardly a valid point. One, it took place in Africa, no? What evidence do we have that it was a pagan religion? It could have just as easily been Islam. Or voudon. Further, you can very easily bash Christians not bash Paganism. If you don't think that's possible, I must wonder how many atheists you've met, because many of them are cool with Paganism and hate Christianity. I think they're both stupid, myself, but as an active member in the atheist community, I can tell you that the yay-Pagan, nay-Christ view is very popular.

D) In which instance in particular? The space travel? Regardless, there's this thing called suspension of disbelief...

E) When did this happen? Yes, the scientists thought guns would be unnecessary, and thought the guys who brought them were being paranoid and/or warmongering... and they were completely wrong because holy crap guns would have been insanely useful at every turn. The maybe two instances guns were even mentioned (which doesn't make the whole move "lol screw guns", btw) were, to me, functionally like the main characters saying something like "let's split up!". It's a set up for them to not have guns when that'd be absolutely great to have.

F) It's a trope of the Alien series. It's been done, but let's be honest, Alien did it best and Prometheus is allowed to use it.

G) Was there any evidence that anyone on that ship was an 'untrained illiterate'? The captain - Idris Elba - seemed perfectly capable of piloting the ship, and I daresay I think he can read. The other two captains who admittedly got so little mention that I just sort of called them "Asian guy" and "white guy" also seemed to be piloting the ship at times and had to read displays, so... what are you even talking about?

H) C'est la vie. They made Weyland seem that way. But I don't care enough about defending the rights of corporations to say they're wrong to do so. Also, Charlize Theron - who presumably would have taken over if she weren't squished - seems like she's not evil, not particularly greedy, and is in no way stupid. Rich, yes, but... I mean, that's how corporations work in America, and presumably Weyland Corp. is in America, and I thought her murdering the scientist was pretty justified.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
I saw this movie finally, just this morning. I enjoyed it. The only thing that really bothered me was some of the foolish decisions made by characters who are supposed to be smart and should know better.
 

TL Rese

Dreamer
i admittedly expected a lot more from this movie. there was just so much hype that i had really high expectations. - plus, ridley scott has such a great reputation, who would have thought he'd screw this up? the special effects were entertaining enough, but that's about it. charlize theron's character could have been eliminated entirely (what does she really contribute to the plot?), and there seemed to be so many loose ends and plot holes. *sigh* oh well.
 

Telcontar

Staff
Moderator
My take in a nutshell: Breathtakingly gorgeous movie with some decent ideas. Sadly, all decent ideas were completely hamstrung by breathtakingly horrid script.

Too many mysteries and too few semblances of an answer that had any merit. Too many characters doing too many stupid things (not just unwise, but stupid - like trying to pet an alien creature you know nothing about). Too many contrivances, too many "this is only here as an excuse for special effects" moments, etc. Such as how the 'black goo' caused so many different, seemingly unrelated effects. No ryhme or reason to it, just excuses for pretty stuff, weird stuff, and pretty weird stuff.

I did enjoy the movie, but mostly as a B movie spectacle wrapped in a AAA movie budget.
 

Zophos

Minstrel
I didn't dig it. There was a lot of pointlessness to it, way too much unexplained and the link from Prometheus to Alien was more of an "Oh crap, we forgot to put in a scene that makes it somehow relevant" moment. In fact, I found the entire genesis of the climax creature savagely disjointed. The only redeeming quality of the entire film was the conversation about meeting your maker and him telling you "I made you because I could." There was actually a grain of substance to that, but the rest of the movie really just fell apart.

A. Broke cannon, what had been established in prior movies.
B. Turned the movie into a “Lets bash the stupid Christians at every turn.”
C. Respecting the beliefs of a non-specified Pagan religion, you don’t get it both ways.
E. Turned the movie into a “Lets bash the stupid Gun Owners at every turn.”
....

While I agree the movie was pretty lame, I don't follow your logic any of these.

...
H) ....Also, Charlize Theron - who presumably would have taken over if she weren't squished ... and is in no way stupid....

You mean aside from her cartoonish death of not being able to figure out the quickest route to escape the giant wheel shaped space ship that was about to roll over?
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
I do think Theron's character was unnecessary. I kept wait for more out of her.

The only thing I really had a problem with, as noted above, were the stupid decisions people made. My expectations weren't that high, but on the whole I still had fun watching it. The biologist playing with the alien creature was probably the low point in terms of sheer stupidity. I didn't find it believable that a biologist on a mission to a distant moon would react that way to seeing some strange alien life.
 

Zophos

Minstrel
...The biologist playing with the alien creature was probably the low point in terms of sheer stupidity. I didn't find it believable that a biologist on a mission to a distant moon would react that way to seeing some strange alien life.

Yeah, he definitely went the "Look at the pretty puppy! Let's pet him!" route. Seemed out of character for a dude who started out as a skeptic of the "Engineer" hypothesis based on 10 bazillion years of evolution, or whatever he said. I have complete faith in evolution, but I'm going over to that 4' lamprey thing and petting it!
 

Pyrsa

Acolyte
Couldn't agree more. You've gotta think these megabuck movie makers have a really poor opinion of the audience's recall/critical thinking/taste. And how much more money could they make by getting it right?
 
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