Ridley Scott's "Prometheus"

[Dr. Zaus]

Spoiler

It would make sense if they wanted us to go there for peaceful reasons (which David could have fcked up for the crew); or it's possible that they initially wanted to see the fruits of their labor for whatever reason and then that favorable opinion changed for whatever reason.

True: But we must all assume that they contacted us regularly enough to leave evidence, over thousands of years, for us to follow back to that planet when we were advanced enough; Since this must be true they don't need to send us to said quarantine planet because they can say "hi" any time they like. A simple solution to this would be placing a stable wormhole or some other spacial anomaly near the planet so that it was the only place in the galaxy (or near earth) that could travel to another galaxy (or long-distance in this galaxy)[/spoiler]; But they didn't do that: and you know why they didn't do that?

Because they couldn't write a script as well thought-out as a freaking 2-part star-trek episode!

 

[Chiropteran]

Spoiler

Real problems with the story:

1- He didn't have to pretend to be dead, but he only had a day or so of life left- so he wanted to stay under hibernation until the last possible moment. Probably figured it would raise less questions if he let the crew think he was dead rather.

2- Don't disagree here, but I don't see it as such a bad thing.

3- Weyland wanted that crew. A real large "professional" excursion would have been harder to manipulate and control than a small group including only a couple scientists and people he has worked with in the past.

4- This is made perfectly clear later in the story when it's revealed David is following Weyland's orders.

5- Lots of minor complaints. From imdb: Logan Marshall-Green described his role of Charlie Holloway as "an ESPN X-Games scientist" who looks before he leaps. That is exactly how I saw him, from the first moment of insisting on going to the structure the first day "opening his Christmas presents" to taking off his helmet, to ignoring the worm in his eye. This is what he has been waiting for his entire life, he doesn't really care about anything else except finally answering his questions. I assumed that he ignored the worm because he was afraid if he mentioned it or revealed it would end his mission, he didn't even care about his own long term health if it meant he could finally get his answers.

6- Re the paintings, I just assumed the "weapon facility" was the only engineer world in our galaxy, so it was the logical place to point since anything else would be absurdly far away.

 

[Magusigne]

It would make sense if they wanted us to go there for peaceful reasons (which David could have fcked up for the crew); or it's possible that they initially wanted to see the fruits of their labor for whatever reason and then that favorable opinion changed for whatever reason.

Typically in most Sci-Fi books I've seen it's a purposeful trap to make sure they don't attain a certain level of technology....

Inhibitor's in some novels.

Plus..maybe they were peaceful and David said something to the effect of "Kill all humans". Doesn't everyone want their parents dead?....

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Chiropteran: most of your answers are reasonable, though there is NO indication in the movie to support any of them: almost all of these problems could have been solved with a simple hint or line of dialog that addresses the issue.

though:
you said "This is made perfectly clear later in the story when it's revealed David is following Weyland's orders.[/spoiler]"
I'm sorry, but this does not make clear why the rest of the crew would put up with his actions; Again they should think of him as C3PO and be disturbed/confused/suspicious when he acts like Indiana Jones.[/spoiler]

If you ask me, and you didn't, the movie would be watchable and reasonable with about 10 more min of characterization and cutting the yahoo's eaten by the proto-huggers out of the movie. There's no good reason they couldn't be eaten on the ship or simply while running; the justification for their death and spidey's return to the ship is ridiculous and a waste of camera time[/spoiler]

 

[SP33Demon]

True:

Spoiler

But we must all assume that they contacted us regularly enough to leave evidence, over thousands of years, for us to follow back to that planet when we were advanced enough; Since this must be true they don't need to send us to said quarantine planet because they can say "hi" any time they like. A simple solution to this would be placing a stable wormhole or some other spacial anomaly near the planet so that it was the only place in the galaxy (or near earth) that could travel to another galaxy (or long-distance in this galaxy)

; But they didn't do that: and you know why they didn't do that?

Because they couldn't write a script as well thought-out as a freaking 2-part star-trek episode!

There is no evidence that they had the tech to create a spatial anomaly like a wormhole to warp us across the galaxy. It's believable that they didn't have this tech since they also had to go into deep sleep for travel in their ships. And like others have said, it's possible that the quarantine planet (LV-223) is the only one in our galaxy that we could get to, and it's also possible that they could have planned to transport us to their planet using their more advanced human preservation tech. It's anyone's guess.

 

[Chiropteran]

though:
you said "

Spoiler

This is made perfectly clear later in the story when it's revealed David is following Weyland's orders.

"
I'm sorry, but this does not make clear why the rest of the crew would put up with his actions; Again they should think of him as

Spoiler

C3PO and be disturbed/confused/suspicious when he acts like Indiana Jones.

I don't think it's perfectly accurate to say they put up with his actions- most of his actions were done without the knowledge of the crew, though when he is trying to open the main doorway the scientists are like "David I don't think that is a good idea", but he just ignores them and finishes what he is doing before they can interfere. I felt like they were a bit uneasy with what he was doing (when aware of it) but powerless to stop him through most of the movie.

As another example he is messing with the "vases" and someone tells him to stop, he apparently does stop but then out of sight he collects a vase anyway and brings it back.


I already thought the movie was watchable, and overall reviews are generally positive (73% RT isn't bad) despite the people who don't like it really hating it. But a little more characterization? I wouldn't be against it, but I just don't think it is needed... the majority of the characters die and you don't need to get all that attached to them because it's not supposed to be a depressing drama.

 

[Via]

I don't really care that the characters were as shallow as an ant's grave.

What bothers me way more is seeing "Lost"-style episodic writing enter the big-screen arena and generally be well receieved by a disturbing amount of veiwers and reviewers.

As infuriating as the ending of "Lost" was, I still think that style was ok for a sci-fi drama TV series whose goal was next-day water cooler banter. I do not think it's acceptable for a movie that should be self-contained within it's running time.

 

[jhansman]

No spoilers here, just to say that I rolled the dice on this one. Sigh....

Kinda sad that the criterion for dropping $10 at the box office is a film is "watchable." Thanks, Hollywood. We can always count on you.

 

[SKORPI0]

There is no evidence that they had the tech to create a spatial anomaly like a wormhole to warp us across the galaxy. It's believable that they didn't have this tech since they also had to go into deep sleep for travel in their ships. And like others have said, it's possible that the quarantine planet (LV-223) is the only one in our galaxy that we could get to, and it's also possible that they could have planned to transport us to their planet using their more advanced human preservation tech. It's anyone's guess.

http://alienanthology.wikia.com/wiki/LV-223

LV-223 is a moon introduced in the movie Prometheus.
It is in one of three moons of a ringed gas giant, orbiting the star Gleise 86.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_86

Gliese 86 (13 G. Eridani) is a K-type dwarf star approximately 35 light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus. It has been confirmed that a white dwarf orbits the primary star. In 2000, an extrasolar planet was confirmed to be orbiting the star.

Looks like they do have FTL space ships, since it only took them 2 years, 4 months, 18 days, 36 hours and 15 minutes.

http://www.prometheus-movie.com/community/forums/topic/7487

 

[Harrod]

Spoiler

I want to know how the engineer made it out of the crashed ship and over to the life raft without life support. I'm sure that if they were able to breath in a no oxygen environment than they probably wouldn't have had the ship manufacturing making breathable air to begin with.

 

[Gibsons]

http://alienanthology.wikia.com/wiki/LV-223

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_86

Looks like they do have FTL space ships, since it only took them 2 years, 4 months, 18 days, 36 hours and 15 minutes.

http://www.prometheus-movie.com/community/forums/topic/7487

http://www.projectprometheus.com/newworlds/

 

[Gibsons]

Spoiler

I want to know how the engineer made it out of the crashed ship and over to the life raft without life support. I'm sure that if they were able to breath in a no oxygen environment than they probably wouldn't have had the ship manufacturing making breathable air to begin with.

IIRC it wasn't

Spoiler

a no oxygen environment, it was high co2. Despite what the warning voice was saying at the end. I think I remember that from when they were entering the atmosphere. Not too hard of a stretch that a superalien could survive it for a while.

 

[surfsatwerk]

http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html

 

[Skel]

Typically in most Sci-Fi books I've seen it's a purposeful trap to make sure they don't attain a certain level of technology....

Inhibitor's in some novels.

Plus..maybe they were peaceful and David said something to the effect of "Kill all humans". Doesn't everyone want their parents dead?....

I wondered about if he said something to the engineer, or if he was just speaking gibberish. They spent a bunch of time having the cast almost look down on him for being an android. The looks he gave, made me think there was a glitch with him as he looked somewhat offended in a lot the scenes.

 

[SKORPI0]

http://www.projectprometheus.com/newworlds/

Thanks, now I'm more confused. Too many websites about this movie. :\

 

[BladeVenom]

Spoiler

I want to know how the engineer made it out of the crashed ship and over to the life raft without life support. I'm sure that if they were able to breath in a no oxygen environment than they probably wouldn't have had the ship manufacturing making breathable air to begin with.

3% CO2 is survivable at least in the short term. Although you might not want to live there without a CO2 scrubber.

When she said it would kill them in 2 minutes, it was just one of the many mistakes in the movie.

 

[Lifted]

Alien Origin

A movie created from "found footage" of a lost military expedition that exposes the origins of life on earth.

Hmmm, sounds familiar.


This one can't be any worse than Prometheus, right? :hmm:

 

[Number1]

the problem with this movie was the writers. They wrote a bad movie and ridley scott is a good enough director that the movie is still entertaining. But the more you think about this movie the worse it gets and that's never a good thing. After watching it i kept trying to convince myself it was good, but the plot is really just nonsensical. None of it really makes any sense whatsoever so basically you better just watch this in 3d and enjoy the visuals.

completely agree.

 

[Ichinisan]

Yet in this future they decide to spend a TRILLION dollars on a voyage using people that DON'T FREAKING KNOW why or what they're even there for and they can't be bothered to send out some exploration robots first to make sure shit is copacetic? What in the bloody fuck?!?!?

Haven't read the rest of your post, but this is somewhat explained. Weyland wanted to get their ASAP because he knew human tech couldn't save him, but had a hunch that alien tech might be able to do it.

 

[Gibsons]

Ichinisan - As the OP, would you mind putting a spoilers warning in the title - and maybe we can just stop using the tag for the rest of the thread? Huge swaths of black text is kinda cool, but a little annoying too. :\

 

[Dr. Zaus]

http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html

FTFA:

you caused us to die at the hands of our own creation[/spoiler]

No support, at all, in any of the movie for this premise.

This web page, like a many poster here, creates a narrative out of story-elements that do not support said narrative. I'm not asking if you can imagine-up a solution to the plot holes, obviously anyone with a little creativity can do that! I'm saying that we can't establish any good reason for that planet to be the place the cave-walls point to without further information; it is in no way implied in any of movie. It is a flaw, it is a 'question' that is un-answerable. It is a plot-hole, not a mystery or a puzzle.

Also not a mystery or puzzle is the entirely irrational behavior, unbelievable actions, and emotionally meaningless moments throughout the movie. Failing to give us any rational understanding of how the guy with the map can't make it out of the cave, why there would be such irresponsible yahoos on a trillion dollar mission (more manipulable?, no, contentiousness is a personality trait that is orthogonal to submissiveness), and a constant dedication to actions that violate the archetype presented with absolutely no justification: we get a sloppy film that hit the 'mad libs' the director asked for (mix alien with chariot of the gods PLZ!), but missed all of the narrative cohesion needed for a good movie. This is the opposite of inception.
[/spoiler]

 

[Ichinisan]

Was that made clear in the actual movie, or is that your hypothesis? Just curious; I could have missed it.

That's the way I understood it before I walked out of the theater or discussed it with anyone.

 

[Ichinisan]

David is the main character, the one we identify with, and he is the impact character, the one that makes major changes to the plot. Despite being a 'bad guy' he is the super-hero and the other characters are side-kick material. It's very 'breaking bad' in that way. But it's confusing because we expect more than one character to be characterized, something this story didn't do.

I didn't really think of David as a "bad guy." He only did what he was told to do.

Reaction to Davids superhero status is not questioned. This is a big problem because he is constantly activating things, going in unexpected directions and generally not following orders in a way that should have indicated that he was a problem. They should have thought of him as C-3PO human-alien relations; he was acting like indiana jones: temple of the alien puzzels. This could also be solved through characterization that indicated David's independence as established amongst everyone.

From what I gather, he didn't clearly demonstrate independence. He only did what Weyland told him to do.

And what pissed me off the most, the thing that made no fucking sense at all and which had no damned reason for being: the planet they had painted on the walls was a weapons facility, having humans point to that planet in cave paintings makes NO damned sense!

Maybe the dots represent stars, or maybe they represent multiple planets in a system. If the Engineer homeworld is in that system, maybe they expected to meet their visitors...but they met their own demise first. Instead of finding their homeworld when we visited the system, we found LV-223. I still don't like this. It means that Weyland wasted resources to terraform LV-426 when there were far more-habitable places in the same system, including some where alien structures can be found with little-to-no effort.

 

[Saint Nick]

Man these spoiler tags are a pain in the ass!

 

[BudAshes]

Man these spoiler tags are a pain in the ass!

Yeah especially when it's about a movie that really can't be spoiled because the only good part is the visuals.