PROMETHEUS REACTION, OPEN DISCUSSION WITH SPOILERS

[Rick Hunter]

Well, the urns are clearly chemical canisters. But we still have no idea about how they are supposed to be used, and if it's the same kind of stuff the engineer drinks at the beginning or not. We only know it makes people turn into freaks and worms into weird white snakes...

[[STARS]TyranT]

I'm wondering also, with the worms reacting to the ooze, and becoming evolved into the snake things. Would an arachnid creature, such a spider become a more face hugger style creature?

Oh I can't wait for the Bluray, I'd like to see/hear Ridders and Lindelof on the commentary, and to be fair to Scott he's usually pretty good at explaining his choices, so it should be pretty good. I hope they get Charles Lauzirika to put it all together, he does a fantastic job with Ridley's films. (His work on the Blade Runner set and the Alien Anthology are the finest home releases ever).

[[STARS]TyranT]

EDIT: Nevermind, link pulled already.

[Rick Hunter]

This movie is so incoherent at times that it really needs a director's cut. Problem is, Ridley already considers the theater release as a director's cut edition...

[Smiley]

This isn't like 'Alien' in the sense that this is a secluded creature feature that happens to take place in space. Prometheus aims to be a bigger film that delves into the origins of man and what awaits beyond them. It just happens to take place in the same universe as 'Alien'.

That being said, the film doesn't supply you with all the answers to the questions it asks. I'd say they want the audience to decide for themselves, but the ending leaves off on a note for a followup to be made.

I won't bother to decrypt all the elements of the story, but rather look at it as a film on its own.

I would rate this experience to that of "The thing" prequel although Prometheus is a much better directed film which is ion Scott's favor. I enjoyed them both, but the source material that inspired them is still superior for one basic reason that made both Scott's 'Alien' and Carpenter's 'The Thing' memorable. And that my friends would be the characters.

Both films had a well rounded cast of memorable characters which included believable leader figures and smaller roles that still offered relevance. You could relate and pin point the traits of each one. They weren't just there for a body count.

And with Prometheus that's how I feel about half the cast. Guy Pearce is third billing in the movie, but offers very little as Weyland. He's a good actor even with the make up job on him to look ancient, but his talents are wasted and his look is silly. If they couldn't do the make up effects properly then they might as well have cast an older actor for the part. Weyland's path to immortality was questionable.

What does Vickers offer to the plot? And what's the meaning of her role aside from being the supposed "boss"? What we see are hints of what she wants yet are ultimately wasted by the film's conclusion.

The only characters that matter to the plot are Shaw, Holloway and David. All three of which spend the most time asking the questions we ask with no pay off except a cliffhanger. The journey isn't over.

But despite that I was still thoroughly entertained by the direction, pace, cinematography and special effects. There is a good amount of CGI, but none of it comes off as half assed or trashy. And the props and appliances that aren't CGI are well made and look as they are intended. Some of which come off more organic and believable than Weyland!?

I'd watch it again. And if they did do a followup I would certainly want to see more. Perhaps it feels like a episode more than a film because there's intent to continue off the story like a saga. And if that was the case then this does have the making of an origin story worth telling.

[I_Am_Nemesis]

Absolutely loved this film, but i will say that it had its issues. The film felt like it was more busy raising questions and setting things up for not just one but multiple sequels or spin offs. For example the Huge squid like facehugger and the Alien that comes out of the engineers body at the end didnt really feel like they fit in with this film. If they make a sequel im pretty sure they will) id imagine that it would follow shaw on her journey to the engineers home world, which pretty makes the Alien pointless at the end as he is stuck on that planet. Still i was interested in the Alien at the end, kind of hoping it wasnt just stuck in their for fans of the originals. Also that black liquid they find was never fully explained, Its obviously what they use to breed organic life as shown in the very beginning of the film yet when ingested its fatal and causes the drinker to unravel. We never really find out much about the engineers motivation and reasons for wanting to destroy earth. Still I expect that these questions will be answered later on.
Anyway the rest of the film was brilliant (except for the slight pacing issue) and I really enjoyed it. Hats off to fassbender though, his Android was incredible to watch.

[Rombie]

The most stupid part of the movie might be when Shaw walks around full of blood her stomach half open, and nobody wonders why, nobody cares about what happened to the squid, we don't see the two doctors again...

Yes you do. They're with the group with Weyland, and then go to the Engineer. He kills both of them after ripping off David's head and smacking Weyland with it. The English female doctor is thrown across the room.

Still doesn't explain why they ignored Shaw running off though. It was almost as if the incident down in the access dock was supposed to take place at the same time to be a distraction, but never happened that way. I only otherwise agree that it makes no sense.

Oh, and the beginning of the movie... 100% copy-paste from AvP1. Very original... THE disapointment of the year for me.

Wait... what. This one you have to explain more. I don't get how ancient pyramids on earth has anything to do with that. But it's been a long time since I saw AvP1 because, well it's shit.

I did also wonder why Holloway saw the chamber as a 'tomb', which then lead me down a thought process that the urns were actually the dead of an alien race.

I thought the same at first, but I'm not convinced. My issue with that is they find the beheaded guy at the door which was shut, but the projection shows that many of them ran into the room. Yet no remains of any others were found and the room had no other visable exits.

[Det. Beauregard]

Just saw this last night, and I must say that while it was entertaining, it raised so many questions but failed to answer them. I can't say I was disappointed since I really had no expectations, but it was still a bit underwhelming. I thought the horror scenes were done well, like the part where Shaw had to use that machine to cut the alien out of her, but there was just so much that went unexplained with a lot of the movie.

- What was the biological weapon, exactly? The engineer at the beginning drinks it and creates all life on earth via it, but how? When the geologist guy gets infected with the liquid, he mutates into a Tyrant-like creature, yet when Holloway gets infected he impregnates Shaw with a (supposedly) xenomorph offspring. But she "births" a giant facehugger, not the actual black xenomorph. WTF?! Nothing makes sense, and no attempt is made to explain how the weapon creates life or destroys it.

- Is it safe to assume that the xenomorphs came from this weapon, and that the engineers created them?

- The black xenomorph at the end looked different and far more human than the xenomorphs from the Alien films. Yet those films take place not long after the date of Prometheus, and evolution does not occur that quickly.

- The machine that Shaw used to cut the alien out of her said it could only perform surgeries on males, yet it was in Vickers' quarters. I assume the machine was for Weyland, but then why would Vickers be using his personal quarters?

- In the Alien films, the big "Umbrella" corporation is called Weyland-Yutani, yet in this it was just the Weyland Corporation. Who the hell is Yutani?

- Why did David spike Holloway's drink with the weapon? No reason is ever given why it would do this - did it plan the whole thing? Did it know Holloway and Shaw would have sex, and she would birth a xenomorph? If it did orchestrate the whole thing, why? No explaination is ever given. David then helps Shaw escape at the end, which also makes no fucking sense.

Why didn't they get an older actor to play Weyland? It was terribly done, and it was clear from his first appearance that he was a younger actor in a shit ton of makeup.

Killing off Vickers by the ship falling on her felt like a really lazy way to just get rid of her character to avoid any more character development. She could have survived and teamed up with Shaw, maybe getting killed by the engineer in the detached part of the ship or something. Killing her like that felt so rushed, since she could have just ran to the side to avoid the damned ship, yet continued to run forward like a moron.

The "battle" with Shaw and the engineer near the end also felt rushed. She picks up the badass-looking axe, yet never even attempts to use it on the engineer. It could have been done better.

Finally, bits of the story that felt like they were supposed to be big reveals to the audience (Vickers being Weyland's daughter, Weyland still being alive) didn't have the effect they should have. By that point in the film, it just seemed like the audience didn't really care. Also, did anyone else feel that the conversation between Shaw and Holloway about the former not being able to have children felt forced and shoehorned in? It felt really obvious that she would have an alien pop out of her or something due to that whole scene.

[Pikminister]

Y'know... I'm a bit worried now about Ridley going back to Blade Runner... I'm getting a George Lucas/New Trilogy - Spielberg/Kingdom Skull vibe from all of this suddenly.

It's like when these guys age, they don't necessarily get better at their craft.

[[STARS]TyranT]

The viral videos show Yutani, and the Weyland website describes Yutani as a rival company.

They are also the main reason why they hired Guy Pierce, check out Weyland's TED talk.

Don't forget as well, the ship on LV426 has been there thousands of years, and is still sitting there while the events of Prometheus happen, the engineers have a mural showing an alien in the urn chamber too.

I think David spiked Holloway's drink becase he has been tasked by Weyland to learn all he can about what's going on and to find Weyland a cure from 'dying'. He uses Holloway as his test subject so to speak.

[Mr. Spencer]

Ozwell E. Weyland

[GEORGE TREVOR]

Saw the film today.......some wonderful moments but as a complete film, it fails considerably. The utter lack of severe tension, some appalling dialogue along the lines of 'this is what's happening kids'.....the Captain's conclusion that it's a military installation comes out of nowhere, without any evidence or experience to suggest this.

There is no uniformity to the processes involved with the 'black goo' , as contact with it produces a range of different effects ~ so it disintegrates the ingesting being as a military resource, but in the hands of the Engineers it becomes a vehicle to create life.....it may also have mutated the worms into that being that breaks that guy's arm & then dives down his throat (??) but then we have the blood of that generated worm act like an acid, but turn a man into a super-human lunatic....but then it can infect a being and bond with his DNA whilst he stays disintegration free long enough to create a further life form when hours later he has sex......this is a fucking B-movie! The creature that then grows from this hybrid resembled the final form of William Birkin and looked like something out of a bad 1980s Amityville sequel.

I would love some answers from a mind sharper than mine....why was there a design of a xenomorph in the temple if the generations to create one had not yet existed (black-goo infected human + sex with another human > giant tentacle final form Birkin thing + Engineer = early form xenomorph) ? Were those aqua-snake things that broke the guys arm and ingested by him already there on the planet before the engineers arrived with their urns, or was that a latter creation ? and why did the escaping 2 females not just side-step the falling Engineer ship to the left or right ?!

[[STARS]TyranT]

Clearly the Xeno's had existed before, and we know they have because the ship on LV426 is ancient.

The ooze is a life creating or evolving tool, though if ingested it clearly breaks down the host, but the DNA also creates life in its own way. Though I suspect Holloway would of become much like Fifield.

[Rombie]

I think David spiked Holloway's drink becase he has been tasked by Weyland to learn all he can about what's going on and to find Weyland a cure from 'dying'. He uses Holloway as his test subject so to speak.

People I saw it with and I were talking about this after the film, David acts against all sorts of safety and quarantine issues - opening doors and access ways without any care, and the like. We figure the directive from Weyland was to do anything and everything possible to find information on how he could live forever or to return any specimens back with him.

We decided the directive in Alien is basically the same idea of what he was told.

investigate life form. Gather specimen. Priority One. Insure return of organism for analysis. All other considerations secondary. Crew expendable.

The last thing, again, probably most important. He treats the crew as expendable on the same basis that Ash was told.

[I_Am_Nemesis]

and why did the escaping 2 females not just side-step the falling Engineer ship to the left or right ?!

This! this really bugged me, i get that the long run from the ship was meant to be dramatic but this still bugged me. Have to say that i agree with the rest of what you said as well, although i still enjoyed the film as a whole, even if it did raise a 1000 questions while answering none.