Prometheus - Anybody seen it?

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Prometheus - Anybody seen it?

 There seems to be mixed reviews on it, especially over at the IMDb boards. Some people hated it, some loved it.

I've been unemployed the past 2 months so I didn't get to see it in theaters, so I - *gasp* - downloaded a bootleg/cam. I usually wouldn't do that, but I was so desperate to see it since I'm a huge Alien fan that I finally broke down and did it a couple of weeks ago. 

The quality was so bad that I could barely make out what was going on half the time, but just from the dialogue and what I could see, it seemed like a good movie with a good plot. There were a few inconsistencies, but I thought the acting was great, especially from Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapcrice. The music was awesome, and the characters were well fleshed out IMO.

What baffles me is that almost all of the haters say that other then the special effects, which everybody agrees were phenomenal (we're talking Avatar level here), that everything else sucked. This baffles me because I was pretty much unable to appreciate the special effects/cinematography of the movie due to the extremely bad cam quality, so going on sub-par visuals and story/audio alone, I still thought it was a very good movie. Not epic or certified classic, but still a great movie. It definitely would have been worth a trip to the movies.

I was just wondering what everybody else's opinions are.

This does bring up a separate issue, possibly more fitted for a separate thread, but is it possible that modern CGI/special effects is ruining movies? It seems like we focus so much on whether the special effects were good or not that we lose sight of the acting, storytelling, cinematography, etc.

It seems like these days if it isn't a Michael Bay explosion-fest, it's not considered a "good" movie the the majority of people, at least in the online community.

Thoughts/opinions?

"Now this ... is the noble truth of the origin of suffering: it is this craving which leads to renewed existence, accompanied by delight and lust, seeking delight here and there, that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, craving for extermination." - Buddha, the 2nd Noble Truth


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Prometheus is ok. A few bits

Prometheus is ok. A few bits about religion in the movie are really annoying though.

It had a lot of plot holes, and it was frustratingly cryptic in terms of actual answers to questions raised.

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Beyond Saving
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Reverend Wells wrote:This

Reverend Wells wrote:

This does bring up a separate issue, possibly more fitted for a separate thread, but is it possible that modern CGI/special effects is ruining movies? It seems like we focus so much on whether the special effects were good or not that we lose sight of the acting, storytelling, cinematography, etc.

It seems like these days if it isn't a Michael Bay explosion-fest, it's not considered a "good" movie the the majority of people, at least in the online community.

Thoughts/opinions?

Haven't seen Prometheus yet and possibly never will but as to this last part, definitely. I have almost completely stopped watching movies because 99% of them are straight ripoffs or remakes of old stories with less emphasis on the story and more emphasis on the special effects. Not to mention the number of movies with a 5,6,7 etc. after the title. Seriously, 7 Saw movies?!? The first one was pretty good and it was all downhill from there, fortunately, I never had to be subjected to any after #3. And 8 American Pie movies? Seriously? Really, it is getting almost as bad as porn and that doesn't even pretend to have a story line anymore. 

There have been a few that have been good, such as the Dark Knight was excellent, haven't seen Dark Knight Rises as my official superhero movie reviewer gave it a meh and only watched it three times so I will wait for it to be on DVD. But it seems like for the most part, Hollywood writers have become extremely lazy. Either they remake an old movie, tack on a sequel (that repeats the same jokes/storyline) or copy from a book. Copying from a book can at least lead to different story lines, but is rarely done well. For the most part I have been enjoying more low budget under the radar movies like Source Code or In Time were a couple I enjoyed recently.

For my time, I think there has been some excellent story telling going on with tv series although, tv series rarely have a satisfying ending and tend to either drag too long or be cut too short due to economics. Maybe all the good writers in Hollywood were simply offered higher pay from tv series?    

If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X


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I often like sci fi

But I had no desire to see Prometheus.  I was turned off by Battlestar Galactica when they started getting all prophetic, so I have been generally turned off by even a hint of mysticism since.  They usually do it so badly.

Last movie I saw was Brave - fun, fun movie.  My kind of Princess.  And I hope I can scrape together a few dollars to see ParaNorman.  Or maybe Hotel Transylvania.  Just for laughs.  I've not had enough laughs lately.  Thinking about it, I rather like the weird comedic ones - Like the Adam's Family, Hocus Pocus, Little Shop of Horrors, Nightmare before Christmas, Corpse Bride.

Maybe I'm in my second childhood.  Oh, well.....

 

-- I feel so much better since I stopped trying to believe.

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Beyond Saving wrote:Haven't

Beyond Saving wrote:

Haven't seen Prometheus yet and possibly never will but as to this last part, definitely. I have almost completely stopped watching movies because 99% of them are straight ripoffs or remakes of old stories with less emphasis on the story and more emphasis on the special effects. Not to mention the number of movies with a 5,6,7 etc. after the title. Seriously, 7 Saw movies?!? The first one was pretty good and it was all downhill from there, fortunately, I never had to be subjected to any after #3. And 8 American Pie movies? Seriously? Really, it is getting almost as bad as porn and that doesn't even pretend to have a story line anymore. 

There have been a few that have been good, such as the Dark Knight was excellent, haven't seen Dark Knight Rises as my official superhero movie reviewer gave it a meh and only watched it three times so I will wait for it to be on DVD. But it seems like for the most part, Hollywood writers have become extremely lazy. Either they remake an old movie, tack on a sequel (that repeats the same jokes/storyline) or copy from a book. Copying from a book can at least lead to different story lines, but is rarely done well. For the most part I have been enjoying more low budget under the radar movies like Source Code or In Time were a couple I enjoyed recently.

For the past few years, I have been heavily into a lot of foreign cinema and indie type films. Sometimes they are disappointing (which is when the film snobs tell me that I didn't GET the movie) and sometimes they are quite enjoyable (this is when I become a film snob and say that this was a great movie, because it was full of ambiguity and can go on and on about cinematography, etc. etc. )

But it just seems like there is more room for creativity and expression in indie and foreign films that has died out in Hollywood a long time ago.

The last one I saw over the weekend was Valhalla Rising. I WANTED to like the movie, but the film snobs on Netflix will have to put me in the " I don't get it category" on that one. It had a lot of promise. Ambiguity, creepy-suspense building moments, very original plot, but the last thirty minutes just descends into this repetitive feeling where I want the story to finally GO somewhere. Well, it ends right in the middle of everything and I am left sitting there thinking : WTF was that supposed to mean ?

Sometimes that type of film works and other times it doesn't. Lars Von Trier had that one film with Willem Dafoe called : AntiChrist. That had a lot of graphic scenes, surrealistic sequences, huge ambiguities throughout and left you with no clear answers, but it somehow worked as a film. I actually pondered over it after watching it and I personally think that is what a good film is supposed to do. Stimulate you into thinking.

But HOLLYWOOD ? Groan. They don't make films anymore. They make : let's get the top names together, have a whole lot of WAY over the top action that is obviously all CGI generated, have a weak ass plot with a predictable ending and it's not worth shelling out a penny to see the shit they churn out anymore.

Take the horror genre. I haven't seen a good horror film from Hollywood in ages. My generation started ruining those in the 80's when every plot became : let's see how many teenagers we can get naked, let's waste them in really, really stupid ways, and then let's have the little young virgin overcome the all powerful killer in the last reel so he can return in the sequel.

The best horror that I have actually found in the last few years comes out of Asia. When you can give me goosebumps in a film that has little to no gore, I think your giving me a good horror film.

If I want a good gore fest. I'll go with those Italian giallo films of the 70's and 80's that involved zombies and cannibals.

“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno


Reverend Wells
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ThunderJones

ThunderJones wrote:

Prometheus is ok. A few bits about religion in the movie are really annoying though.

It had a lot of plot holes, and it was frustratingly cryptic in terms of actual answers to questions raised.

I did find the religions bits somewhat annoying, but they did play a part in the movie, namely Shaw's inspiration for wanting to find the "Engineers". Also, whether you're a theist, atheist, or deist, the question of "where did we come from?" is a powerful and controversial one, so once again, it played a major part in this movie. Shaw just decided to pursue it from a religious standpoint. She made the Engineers "God". That is her prerogative.

There weren't really so much "plot" holes so much as things that either didn't make much sense or could have been explained better. Most of the so-called "holes" can be explained, but you can check out the IMDb board or prometheus website for that. I don't to start a fanboy/hater debate here lol.

I do think that a huge problem that the "haters" had is that they walked into the theater expecting to see a full-on Alien prequel, and that was not what this movie was. It was only meant to loosely tie into the Alien franchise and provide some information that would allow the viewer to sort of fill in the blanks about what happened prior to Alien.

"Now this ... is the noble truth of the origin of suffering: it is this craving which leads to renewed existence, accompanied by delight and lust, seeking delight here and there, that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, craving for extermination." - Buddha, the 2nd Noble Truth


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Beyond Saving wrote:Reverend

Beyond Saving wrote:

Reverend Wells wrote:

This does bring up a separate issue, possibly more fitted for a separate thread, but is it possible that modern CGI/special effects is ruining movies? It seems like we focus so much on whether the special effects were good or not that we lose sight of the acting, storytelling, cinematography, etc.

It seems like these days if it isn't a Michael Bay explosion-fest, it's not considered a "good" movie the the majority of people, at least in the online community.

Thoughts/opinions?

Haven't seen Prometheus yet and possibly never will but as to this last part, definitely. I have almost completely stopped watching movies because 99% of them are straight ripoffs or remakes of old stories with less emphasis on the story and more emphasis on the special effects. Not to mention the number of movies with a 5,6,7 etc. after the title. Seriously, 7 Saw movies?!? The first one was pretty good and it was all downhill from there, fortunately, I never had to be subjected to any after #3. And 8 American Pie movies? Seriously? Really, it is getting almost as bad as porn and that doesn't even pretend to have a story line anymore. 

There have been a few that have been good, such as the Dark Knight was excellent, haven't seen Dark Knight Rises as my official superhero movie reviewer gave it a meh and only watched it three times so I will wait for it to be on DVD. But it seems like for the most part, Hollywood writers have become extremely lazy. Either they remake an old movie, tack on a sequel (that repeats the same jokes/storyline) or copy from a book. Copying from a book can at least lead to different story lines, but is rarely done well. For the most part I have been enjoying more low budget under the radar movies like Source Code or In Time were a couple I enjoyed recently.

For my time, I think there has been some excellent story telling going on with tv series although, tv series rarely have a satisfying ending and tend to either drag too long or be cut too short due to economics. Maybe all the good writers in Hollywood were simply offered higher pay from tv series?    

I have to admit that I was a huge BSG fan, but I was a bit disappointed with the last two seasons. I still watched it though, and one scene in particular blew me away in the last season. I don't want to spoil it for anybody who hasn't seen it, but let's say it involved the sudden, unexpected suicide or a particular character.

I agree 100% about the Saw series. The first was a great film IMO, 2 and 3 were 'meh' and I have seen any since 3 either.

I really liked Dark Knight and haven't seen Rises yet either. I think I'll wait for the DVD as well.

I'm a pretty big Indie fan, I just don't watch them as much as I want to since it's hard sometimes to sort through the crap and find the gems. I loved  Primer back when it came out, Saw was excellent, Napoleon Dynamite was hilarious even though it did get annoying after it became one of the first "memes", and Moon was another great movie.

"Now this ... is the noble truth of the origin of suffering: it is this craving which leads to renewed existence, accompanied by delight and lust, seeking delight here and there, that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, craving for extermination." - Buddha, the 2nd Noble Truth


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On the OP... I don't think

On the OP... I don't think the movie really worked for me.  In part because I was not a big fan of the Alien franchise, in part because I'm a bit of a movie snob.  I do like the odd popular movie, but it's very rare.  

*spoiler alert*

What didn't work for me was the whole "seeding" of earth thing by breaking down into basic building blocks.... letting evolution take over for a few billion years, and coming up with an EXTREMELY similar physiology humanoid... I have read my fair share of Sci-fi as a kid, but this just didn't click.  I think it tried to be "deep" and "cool" at the same time, and it managed to fail at both.  

I agree with Harley on film tastes, I have watched every foreign film on Netflix with mixed results.  They seem to have a lower ratio of suck over plot. 

I have downloaded or been to all the new domestic (hollywood) movies, I think every one of them was a huge disappointment.  Batman, Spiderman, Total Recall, Battleship...  

A good movie that I saw recently was Pi.  I believe it was on Netflix.  The acting is meh, but the story line was very intriguing.  

 

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 I haven't heard of Pi,

 I haven't heard of Pi, I'll have to check it out. The acting doesn't have to be all that great if the story and pacing are at least decent.

Quote:
What didn't work for me was the whole "seeding" of earth thing by breaking down into basic building blocks.... letting evolution take over for a few billion years, and coming up with an EXTREMELY similar physiology humanoid... I have read my fair share of Sci-fi as a kid, but this just didn't click.  I think it tried to be "deep" and "cool" at the same time, and it managed to fail at both.  

I do agree with that to some extent, but on the other hand it is established in the Alien universe that xenomorphs are able to inherit specific properties from the host, and the black oil stuff was supposed to be based on xenomorph DNA, so presumably if the oil was ingested by an Engineer, their genetic properties would be passed on.

It's all a bit of a stretch and wasn't thoroughly explained, but it's whatever with me. I just accept it as a deus ex machina that is important to the plot of the movie.

I do think that having the Engineers actually be blue guys in a trippy space suit to be a bit of a cop-out though. In Alien, it was painstakingly established that the "Space Jockey" IS the "suit", not a guy in a suit. They ret-conned that one, which pissed even me off just a little bit. Other than that and some "wtf" character moments (Ooh, a dead body. Run away... Hey, an alien vagina snake, let's pet it!), it didn't have too many "holes" that I can see that can't be explained.

 

"Now this ... is the noble truth of the origin of suffering: it is this craving which leads to renewed existence, accompanied by delight and lust, seeking delight here and there, that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, craving for extermination." - Buddha, the 2nd Noble Truth


ThunderJones
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Reverend Wells

Reverend Wells wrote:

ThunderJones wrote:

Prometheus is ok. A few bits about religion in the movie are really annoying though.

It had a lot of plot holes, and it was frustratingly cryptic in terms of actual answers to questions raised.

I did find the religions bits somewhat annoying, but they did play a part in the movie, namely Shaw's inspiration for wanting to find the "Engineers". Also, whether you're a theist, atheist, or deist, the question of "where did we come from?" is a powerful and controversial one, so once again, it played a major part in this movie. Shaw just decided to pursue it from a religious standpoint. She made the Engineers "God". That is her prerogative.

There weren't really so much "plot" holes so much as things that either didn't make much sense or could have been explained better. Most of the so-called "holes" can be explained, but you can check out the IMDb board or prometheus website for that. I don't to start a fanboy/hater debate here lol.

I do think that a huge problem that the "haters" had is that they walked into the theater expecting to see a full-on Alien prequel, and that was not what this movie was. It was only meant to loosely tie into the Alien franchise and provide some information that would allow the viewer to sort of fill in the blanks about what happened prior to Alien.

As far as the religious stuff, it was a scene where the main female characters admits she has no good reason for believing in God, but chooses to do so regardless.

This is the type of doublethink I don't like Hollywood portraying as OK. She is a scientist who suspends her scientific thinking on a subject because it makes her feel good. Ugh.

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Quote:As far as the

Quote:
As far as the religious stuff, it was a scene where the main female characters admits she has no good reason for believing in God, but chooses to do so regardless.

This is the type of doublethink I don't like Hollywood portraying as OK. She is a scientist who suspends her scientific thinking on a subject because it makes her feel good. Ugh.

I think that served to address the age question of infinite regression - "Who created the creator?"

If you were to find out tomorrow through scientific empirical evidence that we undeniably were created by beings from another planet, that might answer the question "Where did we come from?", but it would create new questions - "Where did the aliens that created us come from? Who created them?"

I think that ultimately, situations like this would only reinforce theists' beliefs because it's turtles all the way down.. this is especially ironic since they get mad when someone asks "Well, who created God? Where did he come from?" but if they discovered tomorrow that we were created by aliens, their first reaction would be "Well, who created the aliens? It had to be God. God created them so that they could create us.. it's all part of his plan, blah blah blah.."

Anyway, my point is that in this situation, it made sense for her to continue to believe in God because there were still unanswered questions. Once again, I think the problem is that this premise wasn't fleshed out as thoroughly as it could have been. It made it seem like an irrational decision instead of a rational one because it wasn't explained properly.

"Now this ... is the noble truth of the origin of suffering: it is this craving which leads to renewed existence, accompanied by delight and lust, seeking delight here and there, that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, craving for extermination." - Buddha, the 2nd Noble Truth


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  I was going to go see the

  I was going to go see the movie but I was afraid of getting killed in the crossfire of dozens of armed citizens who might mistake a theater employee for a mass shooter .....so I stayed home.


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ProzacDeathWish wrote:  I

ProzacDeathWish wrote:

  I was going to go see the movie but I was afraid of getting killed in the crossfire of dozens of armed citizens who might mistake a theater employee for a mass shooter .....so I stayed home.

 

If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X


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ProzacDeathWish wrote:  I

ProzacDeathWish wrote:

  I was going to go see the movie but I was afraid of getting killed in the crossfire of dozens of armed citizens who might mistake a theater employee for a mass shooter .....so I stayed home.

I almost spewed coffee on the keyboard when that one popped up.

“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno


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ProzacDeathWish wrote:  I

ProzacDeathWish wrote:

  I was going to go see the movie but I was afraid of getting killed in the crossfire of dozens of armed citizens who might mistake a theater employee for a mass shooter .....so I stayed home.

Lol, good one.

Smiling

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