PROMETHEUS (2012) Retrospective / Review
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- Опубліковано 13 січ 2021
- PROMETHEUS (2012) Retrospective / Review
New Prometheus artwork by Jack Davies jackdaviesart.com
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#Prometheus #ALIEN #RidleyScott #Xenomorph #oliverharper #retrospective - Розваги
New Oliver video is like finding a 20 dollar bill in my pocket that I didn't expect to find
Oh man don't you love that?! It happened to me the other day!!!
INDEED!
My thoughts exactly... He deserves way more subs than he has, reviews of the highest quality
@@jonmurphy4889
Me too dude!
Edit:
Sadly I only found it after the jeans came out of the washing machine, and the pieces were now smushed in amongst the rest of the laundry...
In the words of Geralt of Rivia; _FUCK_ ...
100 dollar bill.
I love the thought of this movie way more than the movie itself
The original scene between David, The Engineer & Weyland was so much better than what ended up in the final cut. The dialogue gave a greater insight into the motives of the Engineers.
Some of the editing choices & the hiring of Lindelof really impacted what could’ve been a very good film.
This movie is probably most famous for it's "running away from a giant object when you could just turn in either direction" trope
Cinema sins: the Prometheus school of running away from things.
@@fuckyouleftube decapitation by large door is a great finish to a little jog
check the PROMETHEUS inspired music video ua-cam.com/video/DicNr_-GirU/v-deo.html
Absolutely hilarious and took me so far out of the movie. Made worse because it kills of one of the best characters in a stupid way when they could have done it any number of other ways too.
Hahaha this
'She worked to achieve a British accent...'
This is literally the first point I had any idea whatsoever her character was supposed to actually be from Britain. I figured she had a mixed accent from moving around a lot as a kid or something.
check the PROMETHEUS inspired music video ua-cam.com/video/DicNr_-GirU/v-deo.html
Took a minute to figure out that Elba wasn’t British and he was supposed to be Southern. His accent was just hideous 😂
@@ScratchthechalkBoard That seems a bit absurd, accents are always in motion.
I think she's terribly cast in this - a bizarre, distracting accent and a whiny, grating shriek. Of course she escaped criticism and got good reviews....because strong 5ft wamen. Michael Fassbender on the other hand put in a remarkable performance as David (before Ridley completely lost the plot with Covenant). His is the only performance worth praising, and maybe Fifield. Literally every other performance in this movie is HORRIBLE.
@@ScratchthechalkBoard He was really bad, Stringer Bell in space.
I remember being really mad at Prometheus too.... but then I saw Alein: Covenant.... now I think Prometheus wasn’t so bad after all 🤷♀️😂
X10000
Damien Lindelof thought it would be great to ask more questions than giving answers, after he wrote most of Lost tv series!
That's like preferring Covid 19 over the Spanish flu.
I thought Prometheus was okay when I first saw it and actually had no clue it was an “Alien” franchise film since I had never seen any of the Alien movies. Then I went back and watched Alien cause everyone told me it was a classic, and upon viewing it I realized “oh shit Prometheus is linked to this film.” So I went back and revisited Prometheus after watching the first 3 Alien films, and despite the confusing continuity issues with it, I had a whole new appreciation for it. Easily the 3rd best film in the franchise.
After becoming a new fan of the franchise I was obviously hyped for Covenant, and then I saw it and it killed any future interest in the series...
@@sonnyblack0870 That's how I felt after watching Alien 3. Franchise killer. Nothing against David Fincher, I am a fan of his other work, but for me the story was not worthy. , So I only consider two films in the "Alien Franchise." Alien and Aliens. End of story. The concept of Prometheus movie was an interesting one, and the visuals were stunning, but probably would have been better off being its own thing in the Alien universe and not end the way it did..
Prometheus was meant to explore the origin of the Space Jockey. Making the giant biomechanical Space Jockey into a tall humanoid in a suit showed a complete lack of imagination. Even worse, they made the Space Jockey race into the creators of humans, destroying the sense of distance, mystery and adventure of the original Alien movie.
This is the worst problem of Prometheus, the utter lack of creativity. Maybe they should have asked Jodorowsky for ideas :p
Prometheus came so close to being a great movie. When we learn about the dropped storylines and extra footage its very sad to imagine what Prometheus should have been.
Then we saw the appalling writing, leading to a ridiculous plot, and just plain stupid dialogue, and ludicrous characters, and realised the only thing that could have saved it was another director, and a decent scriptwriter.
check the PROMETHEUS inspired music video ua-cam.com/video/DicNr_-GirU/v-deo.html
@@thesoundtrackclub5597 Fuck me they couldn't make a film with a logical structure that would stimulate an averagely intelligent 5 year old, why would I want to listen to the music?
We'll have to wait for the directors cut in another 10 years
The ending made no sense. Why would the team go from escaping to committing suicide so fast and all it took was a ship to take it down. Why wouldn’t people of earth be capable of the same thing
Such a mixed film but hot damn does it still look incredible.
When it comes down to "being good" vs. "looking good," choose "looking good." Hollyweird maxim.
I have watched it many times just for the aesthetic, atmosphere and the in universe feel, although these prequels fall short they are still very engaging for me.
I was equally stunned when I watched this retrospective. Wow, I remembered the movie so much different.
Maybe they should have rather made 2 or 3 excellent suspensful movies with all the ideas in this one instead of one bland potpourri.
Got invited to see it in IMAX and was blown away.
Reminded me of Avatar.
Great looking but terrible film.
I loved the soundtrack, and like the movie alot, i preffer that they would follow up on it ignoring Alien/Xenomorph, and further explore engineers and see through Shaw's attempts to reach their world. instead it got dropped, she got killed off and David went to different planet and it went straight to bridging itself to Alien :/
I would not of minded the Alien connection only if David was *NOT* their creator, but just an android who found out that the Engineers engineered the Aliens and decided "I can best their Alien design!".
David creating the Alien, or modifying it- which still doesn’t make sense, was a bad route to go. I was so excited for Covenant to come out......so excited. They could have wrapped the engineers and the xeno in such a better way.
yeah.. "Prometheus" had such potential, but they f'ed it up in the sequel by having it going in a different direction and connecting it to "Alien" !.. the Engineer story-line seemed interesting.. there was no need to directly link this to the Alien franchise
Yeah, totally agree. Don't understand all the hate this film gets. With all the re-boots and re-remakes, I can see why in some ways (eg Dark Fate or The Predator *spew*), but was very disappointed with Covenant. David created the xenos, but they had a xeno in the mural room. Or even if that was a deacon, surely the Engineers still created them. Wanted to see why The Engineers wanted humans wiped out, and to kill off Shaw??!! You'd think they would have learned that lesson from the beginning of Alien 3 and killing off Newt and Hicks!
What about David didn‘t really „invent“ the Xeno. What if he just follow a Engineeringpath already set, and he isn‘t aware of? Just like the poem he gets wrong. I would believe it by this kind of megalomaniac. But to your comment. It‘s because the „fans“ wanted it🤷🏻♂️. Standard nowadays. Remember the Last Star Wars films? Same happened but worse.
I saw Prometheus quite a number of times, even though I was aware of its flaws. It is a lovely audio-visual piece of moviemaking, and the story had potential to lead into something great.
... But after Covenant, I lost interest even in it. I think a large part of this was because Scott hadn't recognized the importance and audience investment in Rapace's character.
You’re on the money here weird decision to kill off Noomi she was the best in it!
Shaw and David are the core of the story for sure.
Noomi is an underrated actress for sure, she should've definitely been given more of a chance. But i think the nice thing is that despite the flaws, even Covenant is at least visually pretty nice, some sci-fi concepts are really awesome at least revolving around David, and Michael Fassbender is easily the best part of the movie. I think even Scott got bored with the human characters and spent all his energy/focus on David. As a kid I liked them. I mean there's plenty sequels/prequels that have boring characters and flawed storylines, but have no audio-visual filmmaking to counter that. Covenant and Prometheus are beautiful movies and there's parts of them that are genuinely good.
Well said.
I felt cheated
Fascinating how old Wayland and old Biff Tanner (Back to the Future II) look remarkably similar. Just that I feel that Biff looked more convincing.
In the original Alien trilogy the life cycle seems realistic. Now it's just magic goo that does whatever the writers want it to in any given scene.
The black goo is the equivalent of a haunted house, It can do whatever the writer needs to. You want a monster squid? Got it. A zombie? There. Space cobra? That too. Dissolve a guy? Sure!
@Dark Woods, I'd argue there never was an Original Alien trilogy.
@@tiredoffools8929 yes there was alien 3 is a masterpiece so get off your high horse Alien, Aliens, Alien3 the perfect trilogy
@@adriel88_ Agreed. But only if we’re talking about the assembly cut.
Yepp it sucks but Ridley Scott won't stop he wasn't even the writer of Alien just did a great job in a directing capacity and the writers of prometheus and covenant are idiots. They're overexplaining everything that was "alien"
I love that sound effect in the trailer that sounds like a scream/alarm going off and that it keeps repeating, filling you with dread. I think they used it in a trailer for the original Alien, too. I just love it.
Yup, I think its the best trailer I've ever seen just because of that alarm sound effect in cadence with spliced scenes. The movie actually let down the trailer imo, lol.
It was cool and I think was the first, if not one of the e first to do that. Of course it was so effective that now it’s become cliche, I feel like tons of others are copying it. Although you could argue it’s derivative of the camera effect sound from Texas chainsaw massacre
That scream alarm is from the trailer for Alien 1979
I think it had one of the best trailers ever. I couldn’t wait to see it - and really enjoyed it! Then I saw it again. And all the dumb bits really stood out. It went down in my estimation, sadly.
The discourse for this film on the old IMDB message boards were insane.
[hand over heart] Rest in peace, imdb message boards. :{
Hate the internet war against the exchange of ideas. It's downright scary. The internet was literally heralded as a place where ideas can be exchanged. People can discuss freely from around the world. Honestly, I'm surprised UA-cam comments themselves haven't been given a maximum character limit, or even that they still exist at all.
@@Krystalmyth Sorry, this comment is not available in your region. ( the world wide web is also getting more and more virtual borders..very bad development aswell...)
@@Krystalmyth
I think there is a limit. I encountered it recently. In practice it's a good limit. Relatively large.
Free thinkers and ideas are not welcome in the new normal corporate neo communism that's knocking on everyones door
"Writer Damon Linidelof was brought in"...and everything went downhill from there.
Thank you. That guy destroys everything he touches.
@@StevenMatthewsTFI Errrrrrrr, Watchmen was a fricken masterpiece. Leftovers was pretty damn good as well.
@@adampoll4977 i feel watchmen was faithful more because of snyder. Lindelhoff wasn't the name he is now. Snyder isn't a great storyteller, but he had the graphic novel to work off of. (I actually think Snyder may be the best visual director out there... but man his story telling ssssuuuucccckkkksss)
@@Lazrael32 I'm talking the mini-series...
@@adampoll4977 ah fair enough. My bad
Another Damon Lindelof ruination. Everything he touches turns to dust faster than that Engineer at the beginning.
Eh, The Leftovers was good. 🤷🏻♀️ **shrug**
I see many people blame everyone except Scott, whose geriatric brain is mushy, much like the dead engineer's head.
@@KabbalahSherry HBO watchmen was good too.
check the PROMETHEUS inspired music video ua-cam.com/video/DicNr_-GirU/v-deo.html
@@matheus31218 You need serious help.
The best Alien sequel was 2014's "Alien: Isolation." Yes, I love it more than "Aliens".
for me is a trilogy Alien, Alien Isolation, and Aliens
F that game. Going in you think you're going to be the next Ellen Ripley, but quickly you realize you're pretty much reduced to another Lambert. I literally was too scared to move from a locker for about a half an hour.
Nope
If opening doors and playing 8-bit puzzles for toddlers about 18 hours is your thing, then i highly recommend Alien:Isolation.
@@markocieslak1497 lol
Remember Vickers running straight forward instead of zagging out of the way when the juggernaut was rolling to her
"A king has his reign, and then he dies. It's inevitable. That is the natural order of things."
-Meredith Vickers, former person turned pancake
Ah yes the movie where the scientist touched the goo
The scientist who was terrified of his own shadow but then treated a vicious looking snake alien like a puppy dog.
@@darkwoods1954 Why on Earth would that moron think that thing would be friendly towards him? It resembled a snake which even on Earth are generally not considered to be very pleasant to be around in the first place.
@@Webshooters1 If he thought it was a very simple, primordial organism then it would have no behavioural traits as we understand it, it would be more like a plant than an animal.
Yep and yet another movie where people go to Alien planets and think it's "okay" to take your helmet/suit off just because oxygen exists. Do people in the future just like forget what happened to Native Americans when all the diseases from Europe showed up? I get the movie "reason" why they want the actors to show their faces but when that stupidity effects the plot it's just dumb writing.
that's when I checked out. them getting lost was not believable. why not show him act recklessly earlier in the movie???? that would make sense
It's always a hit or miss with Ridley Scott. It's like He'll direct whatever Script you give him. That Critic was Right. "Ridley is only as good as the script". He is a very talented Visual Director who knows how to frame Shots perfectly. I'm looking forward to his next Movie "The Last Duel".
He’s done great work in recent years; The Martian, All the Money in the World, and Kingdom of Heaven are particular highlights for me. Alien Covenant was a pretty looking mess, and extremely disappointing.
from what i understand Spait actually had a pretty faithful script but lindelhoff thinks not having answers or things having to make sense are limiting and make for terrible shows. REALLY. and he gets paid more to destroy a script than i'll make in years.
It's not that he is only as talented as the script, it's just that he isn't as talented as he has been made out to be and is only as good as the rest of the crew. He's like George Lucas, if left to his own devices he will make a terrible movie. There is a reason that as he has gained more power in Hollywood he has gone longer between making good movies and has only made 2 or 3 good movies in the past 2 decades.
@@Jaqen-HGhar people seem to forget he didn't even come up with the original alien movie concept. it wasn't his.
it was in the script.
why does HE of all people get to be treated like that franchise's god? sigourney fucking weaver and the late yaphet kotto technically contributed more to the universe and what makes it what it is onscreen than he ever did, from an originator standpoint.
Mark Kermode is a good critic.
Fun review of the story as well as the making of this film. I especially appreciated your critique of the characters -- nothing ruins a sci-fi or horror film more than characters doing out-of-character things (biologist sticking his face up to a snake-like creature, for example). I'm always shocked when skilled directors like Scott allow things like that into their films.
The characters are insanely frustrating and stupidly written, but god damn do I love watching this movie.
Just remember this, the crew wasn't the best or brightest of their field.. they were the ones who agreed to a lot of money to go SOMEWHERE to do SOMETHING for a LONG amount of time. The best and brightest would say fuck off.
@@treborkroy5280 Don't try and rationalize it, it's not going to work. The script and plot simply don't make a lot of sense.
@@jennyanydots2389 so you disagree with my statement?
@@treborkroy5280 Well, obviously I disagree. Why would a company with extremely vast financial resources settle for untalented or stupid people to execute such a large project? Especially if the owner of said company is going along. Just because a job is difficult or time consuming doesn't mean talented individuals would shy away from it. Talented people aren't generally afraid of challenging situations or time consuming endeavors, they usually tend to embrace them. Those characters were poorly written, their behavior makes no sense half the time even for a person of average intelligence and common sense.
@@jennyanydots2389 That is an assumption that they are the best of the best. Who, being the top of their field would take that risk? It obviously attracted people with little attachments back home or those who were attracted by the money. Makes more sense than assuming a rich guy filled his ship with greatest scientists and hauled them off to god knows where with no explanation.
Movie should have been called David. Covenant would be David 2.0
J.A. FTW... i like that idea, and it would be fitting, except it would have totally given away David's importance in the first film.
When one focuses on Davids story, all the other crap fades into the background as noise - and that's a good thing.
check the PROMETHEUS inspired music video ua-cam.com/video/DicNr_-GirU/v-deo.html
All they had to do with this friggin movie was have the characters follow some reasonable protocols for exploring an unknown planet. They all died because they had no safety in place and they made awful decisions. Otherwise, I love this movie. It's just tough to move past how stupid the people are.
Have you seen alien covenant ? Hahahahaha.
@@THEBANDIT7979 Yep same thing repeated totally idiotic
mmm you don't see the big picture, most of the story would not exist without those stupid decisions..
@@icoborg That's fine by me LOL
@@icoborg my feeling is the disaster would have more impact if it happened despite characters being competent and following protocols
I thought it was terrible. It thought it was cleverer than it was. The supposed mystery was easy to explain and there was so little substance to the story. On a positive note I am fascinated that I am now watching a retrospective of a film that was released close to, or just after the time I began watching your retrospectives. Welcome to old age! :)
Personally I think the best musical score of the series is Elliot Goldenthal’s Alien 3. Haunting !
too bad the movie itself SUCKED !
I liked Aliens more! Going after Newt is my wake-up-sound! Sublime!
@@danieltallon5087alien 3 did not suck. It was fucking excellent. And it’s a miracle it turned out as well as it did with the studio interference.
The first graduate of the Prometheus School of Running Away From Things.
Ping!
Lame
I remember when CinemaSins was funny
@@Ammoniumbicarbonat it was ever funny?
The ambitious prequel that didn't live up to peoples expectations .
Things could have been worse...
*Star Wars flashbacks*
Much worse...
@III Vance Sorry, but as a film buff, I find the claim that the Star Wars prequels are at all better than Prometheus and even Alien: Covenant to be laughable. From an acting and visual effects perspective alone the prequels have nothing on these, I’m not talking about dated CGI either. Cinematography, direction, the works! The only debate worth having is over the script, and even if the prequels were better from a writing perspective, it still wouldn’t be enough to save them, because it could only win out by a pathetically slim margin AT BEST. And I never once mentioned the sequels, so I don’t know why you felt compelled to bring those up...
PS, I find it hilarious that you consider Sam Jackson a win for Phantom Menace, considering he’s barely in it and has the most flat, boring performance of his career in it (seriously, it’s actually miles better in the following 2 prequels and even then it sits squarely at the bottom of his filmographic excellence), it doesn’t exactly sell the prequels very well. By that logic, you are also contradicting your own argument or just being severely out of touch if you claim these two Alien movies have no qualities that are better than a shitty, actionless performance by Sam Jackson that involves scenes of him sitting down speaking in monotone and standing up speaking in monotone. If you think Prometheus and Alien: Covenant aren’t any better than THAT, you need a reality check, mate...
@III Vance I just told you how Sam Jackson wasn’t a win, because nothing that makes him a win was featured in the prequels. And you still haven’t told me how these movies have no redeeming qualities, as you stated pretty much the implication that the prequels virtually have none. If you don’t at least consider Michael Fassbender a win in these movies, you need to revoke that funny license of yours... And aren’t you also jumping on a bandwagon by saying the prequels are severely lacking in redeemable qualities?...
check the PROMETHEUS inspired music video ua-cam.com/video/DicNr_-GirU/v-deo.html
Still gets me to this day how that guy got lost with locators with direct contact with the ship, 3d mapping, and directions .
when you forget about every idiotic decision the characters made, the movies pretty fun
Yeah, unfortunately, if you try to forget every idiotic decision, the movie would've ended in that cave in Scotland, with two moron scientists believing with no evidence whatsoever, that they were made by aliens.
Haha so when you turn off your brain?
@@docholiday5119 oui
@@docholiday5119Well, you’d need to turn of your brain at 3 minutes and 40 seconds into the movie, at the point that engineer drinks the magic goo. What a feckin’ eejit.
This movie would have been a lot better if they had never called Damon Lindelof.
AMEN TO THAT
It would have been A movie, not a failed trilogy...
Exactly...I was really looking forward to this film but that guy butchered this script
There are shitloads of people they shouldn't have called...
100%agree. The early behind the scenes stuff looked like a much better movie. Then they bring Damon in and he just echo Chambers all of Scott's thoughts and they do everything in their power to distance it from Alien, scrapping the story and all the concepts and designs.
I'm surprised they haven't just tried to do a film adaption of Alien: Isolation
Would be waaaaaay better than the young ripley nonsense the rumors are talking about
I am perplexed in general with hollywood decisions. Isolation would be the movie we need.
Alien isolation is the franchise's only saving grace
And the messed up thing is I don’t know if we are ever getting a sequel to isolation
I keep playing alien isolation over and over again, because it captures everything the fans love about the xenomorph and the franchise hasn’t been able to match its quality since, and yes, please sega/ca, we need an alien isolation 2 which unfortunately doesn’t look like it’s coming anytime soon... Instead more blah blah blah blah blah...
The soundtrack by Marc Streitenfeld is incredibly underrated.
Agreed, it’s probably the best thing about the movie. That and Idris Elba.
Agreed with both of you!
If you had a drinking game where you took a shot every time a character did something inexplicably stupid, a Siberian Russian would be blitzed within half an hour
Fans start watching Alien Covenant and realize the mess it is: "We Were Wrong, We Were So Wrong"
I recently tried to watch Covenant and only got about halfway through, such a dull slog
After the idiots screwed those of us who wanted to see where Prometheus was going to go in the sequel so that we got Alien Covenant because we needed shooty, shooty, bang, bang bruh
@@lutherheggs451 No, no. It was more Shooty, Shooty, Bang Bang, Flute Playing
as much of a mess that prometheus is, covenant makes it look like a masterpiece
Covenant is the best Alien-film since Alien, and future analysis will prove me right. It is a lean, mean piece of intense terror, and not nearly the mixed bag Prometheus is (and I really lile Prometheus).
People may have had doubts about Lindelof after Lost, but this movie confirmed those doubts.
He's either terrible at writing things that make sense, or he's really bad at fixing things when he's brought on board. Even if the nonsense in the plot wasn't written by him originally, it passed through his rewrites so he's at least partially to blame.
💯
You're left with more baffling questions than answers with the stupid mystery box method. Redlettermedia's endless questions of the baffling things that happened in the movie was more entertaining than the movie itself, because none of the movie character were even smart enough to ask these basic and obvious questions.
@@Edax_Royeaux I instantly think of RLM and mystery boxes too whenever this movie comes up.
Did you not watch Watchmen show he wrote? It's a masterpiece
@@satellitelungshq7683 that doesn't change his shortcomings in previous works.
The most beautiful train wreck I've every seen.
I always just assumed that the "space jockey" was just from another race of aliens that had been killed by the Xenomorph. I never thought there was any big mystery that needed to be explored.
Prometheus probably would have been better off if "The Engineers" weren't the space jockeys at all and didn't create the Xenomorphs. It seems like they couldn't decide if they wanted to make a story separate from Alien or not and half-assed it.
Damn this makes me feel old... I know we're getting an Alien TV series & another movie is in the works but I really hope they finish up the Prequel Trilogy with Alien Awakening or whatever it will be called, it just doesn't seem right to leave it unfinished...
Haha, same, the whole time I kept saying to myself "Wow, that was really almost ten years ago?!" Time really does fly!
@@RosebudKane41 For real
if they leave it unfinished it will be very unprofessional on their part u cant leave a story incomplete like that I dont care how bad the movie did in the box office finish the damn story
@@adriel88_ from a business perspective it'd be unprofessional to make another one. If you aren't getting the ROI on it there is no reason to keep chasing it. This is like saying "I invested 100,000 in a stock, sure it's had years of bad earnings but this next ER, this is gonna be the one!" while having lost most of your original investment and throwing more money at it. Also known as trying to catch a falling knife.
check the PROMETHEUS inspired music video ua-cam.com/video/DicNr_-GirU/v-deo.html
I recommend watching "The Furious Gods: Making Prometheus", it's very entertaining.
Is it still only on the 3D release? I own the bluray normal version, as 3D makes me violently sick. :(
at 13:10 the Engineers that smiles right into the camera would give any horror movie baddie a run for their money in the sinister/evil stare department.
SUBBED!!!! Glad to see you are still making content! These reviews are my childhood/mind and are a treat!
I still love the movie. But everything you mention is spot on. Imagine if this was a Metroid movie and Charlize was Samus. That kind of production value. Would be epic, I think.
Holy shit, Charlize would make the perfect Samus!
Oliver, Wow...another great video, incredible work-you really put love into this project of yours. Keep It Up!
wow this is an extremely thorough background information about the film,
You're reviews are the best on the Internet! I love your channel!
I believe we learn something very critical about the Engineers, that with all of their advancements, they are very similar to humanity. They are an extremely ritualistic and religious race, who worship their version of a higher being. This is mysteriously touched upon with the subtle revelation that they themselves seek and revere a creature bearing the likeness of the xenomorph. That to me is the cyclical theme and purpose of the relief image that is seen in the chamber. I think it is a beautiful story element. Seeking that which can never be attained ( a perfect being of origin) in its place giving life to a complete evil paradox.
They were dumb. They looked like a bunch of yokels from the local peasant farm
I heartily agree
Alien horror
Aliens action
Alien 3 drama
Aliens 4 comedy
Prometheus mystery
Covenant slasher
Damn! That's pretty succinct.
@@caseygoddard thanks
Totally agree and thats why I like alien 4 if you look at it as a weird dark comedy its why better but tonally doesn't really fit with the rest of the series. The end is still pretty shit though haha
Resurrection was very much more in line with the Dark Horse comics. Read "Music of The Spears" or "Labyrinth" and "Nightmare Asylum" then go back and watch "Resurrection" again... It's a comic book movie.
Aliens 4 is Delicatessen in space.
Pretty much sums up my feelings for this. It looks wonderful, sounds great, fassbender is superb, the idea is not bad, but the script and bloody stupid characters do my head in! And of course the classic , big long thing is rolling towards you and they don't run to the side like normal people, but run in line with the ship squashing Theron.
Like all the normal people you know who've had a spaceship rolling at them?
ask anyone in the world which way they would run?! However in the heat of the moment with a spaceship rolling at you some may not think straight :) @@RogerRoving
ridleys in camera process is always sublime
They wasted money on hiring that actor to play the Engineer, the prosthetics they used ended up making him look exactly like the actor Mark Strong ( Shazam,Kick Ass etc). Should have just used him in the first place. Great review Mr Harper.
They needed a tall actor.
Ian Whyte is 7 ft tall and is a pro at acting in heavy prosthetics (he played the giants in Game of Thrones as well). There's a lot of nuance in those types of performances that not everyone can do well.
This had SO much potential and totally just threw it out. Added fluff to and questions that didn't need to be asked.
That's why people still talk about this film with so much passion...it had great potential to be SO much better than it was..they should have taken one last look over that script and asked themselves if it made any sense whatsoever.
This is one of the few times where I actually loved what we got and feel bad others didn't get what they wanted out of an Alien Prequel. Its a huge world why just xenomorphs over and over? Ridley listened to those folks and we got Alien Covenant.
I don't care what anybody says... Prometheus is one of my favorite sci-fi movies of all times.
you have by far the best editing and production of these retrospective videos
Thank you very much!
@@OliverHarper dude. Absolutely. Not only do I enjoy the way you put everything together but you remind me of movies that I love and I want to re-watch when we live in a time that good quality is hard to find.
Thank you so much
Prometheus isn't a masterpiece by any means, but it was entertaining.
@III Vance as I said, it is not a masterpiece. I’d rate it 6 or 7 out of 10.
It’s definitely a gorgeous movie. I love the spacecraft, equipment, and ideas but that’s pretty much it. Lol
Haha you know, one can say that about basically any movie in the world.
@III Vance I don't agree. And I believe you are just overreacting because the movie did not live up to your expectations. Prometheus never was or never will be an excellent movie, but to you there is no in-between, either it is excellent or straight garbage. The truth is there are many, or should I say the majority of movies are just that, neither garbage or excellent. They are just decent, you can either enjoy them for what they are or stop being so negative.
So was Batman & Robin
I hate this theme of old creators revisiting what made them popular after years and years of them wanting to get away from it. In the end, usually it was a group effort, and only one part of the group comes back, it is dissappointing. I think Prometheus would have been interesting as it's own thing, and maybe that's originally what he wanted. But as a part of alien, it comes off as lack luster and poorly handled.
you know what I find hilarious is how Ridley Scott trashed AVP and talked so much shit about it yet he copied the scene explaining the old civilazacion stuff he rip it off straight from AVP it looks the same and also has some of the same dialogue yeah you talked down AVP and stole their scene and tought we were gonna be too stupid to not notice it at this point I like AVP and AVP requiem better sure they arent masterpiece but the Xenomorph is still a acient alien species instead of a stupid robot creation 😤😤😤😤
Great job as always. Amazing details about the saga.
Hard to believe it was 2012....damn time flies.....
I remember driving home from the cinema after watching Prometheus and just laughing to myself. The writing is so clumsy and nigh on amateurish. It's always mockable when someone thinks they're really smart but talks rubbish, especially when they don't realize they are talking rubbish but instead think they're really profound.
Yep, the most insulting writing is when dumb writing thinks it's great writing.
“Never go full Lindleof”
I always remember it as "the movie where the map expert gets lost and the xenobiologist tries to pet a space cobra".
@@Banjo-Oz
But I don't think its silly to try to touch the alien-snake creature ... remember this, their space suit is able to withstand the blasting metallic shrapnel storm in another scene, so obviously it has been proven to be extremely inpenetrable as a technology ..
Its like how you would wear gloves when handling a new species of snake on earth because historically there's never been an animal of that size able to penetrate the gloves ..
Remember this, this movie takes place before they've ever met any xenomorph, obviously no one is going to expect any creatue to have corrosive acid blood .. right ?
So please have some perpective, its not "silly" to touch the little snake based on the futuristic technology premise of the movie ...
I have never clicked on a video as fast as this one! I know this movie gets crap, but I love it none the less. That opening is gold.
Yes!
I like this movie too IDC if people don't like it
I like your views on these many opinionated hits or misses.Your New perspective is helpful and not degrading but insightful. Curious to watch other videos. I really like your intro, the production setup, then plot, little Easter eggs here and there I might already know or not, and then the retrospective or future to the story. Well done.
A luxury B movie. The unbelievable art direction of the film and the beauty of the images was pure Ridley Scott, the novelty of moving away from the repetitive alien cliches with a new approach to mythology seems very successful, but the dialogues and the absurd actions of the characters looked like from an Ed Wood movie.
"Mederith"
Cannot unhear.
xD
I looked at the original script of Prometheus or alien engineers And I was like why did they did not use this version of the script it would make more sense to make it a prequel to alien then the jumble mess that we got That's been said but I still joy the film and David Is a pretty interesting android character.
Is the original Script available in the interwebs? :O
@@saftpackerl yes indeed it is.
Two words: Damon Lindelof
@@pennydreadful5163 yep indeed and I wish they use this script.
. . .like with Gavin Rosedale: the critics called the music of his band (Bush) derivative, and Gavin fell for it. After two classic albums they went and made 'The Science of Things', an album which abandoned much of what made their previous works so great. So it was with 'Alien: Covenant'. We go in on the edge of our seats to watch Shaw and David encounter the engineers and what do we get? Danny McBride. Cue the trombones playing "wah-wahhhh".
The first time i saw this movie i did not know it was an alien prequel until the very last scene with deacon xenomorph, and boy did it blow my mind.
Love this movie
I always thought Prometheus was an interesting perspective on two deep questions:
-If you could meet your Creator, what would you ask them?
-What would Their answer be?
In this case, this would be "Huh we are as surprised as you are, we had no idea what would evolve from the experiment. To be honest I was rooting for the big lizards"
The exact same thing Scott did on Blade Runner... Plagiarizing himself much?
"That's your question? Really? Wow."
I thought it was a perspective on, how f@c£ed would you be, if you'd signed up for a job, only to find it let by someone who'd mistakenly convinced themselves they'd found their creator, and got most of the crew killed through a persistent lack of critical thinking.
@@pdzombie1906 Scott only directed never wrote them
Love this movie, watch almost every year.
@III Vance I hope you know there are others with a different opinion than yours.
@III Vance Okay then.
@III Vance Seriously dude? If someone likes a movie you don't like he's a bot? I really like this movie, heck I even liked Covenant. Stop being a crybaby
Prometheus is the movie we needed, but didn’t deserved.
I love this movie and the world building it did, it is a shame that its sequel was Alien Covenant and not Prometheus 2.
We did not remotely need this movie. It retroactively makes the original movies worse because all the interesting mysteries now have underwhelming canon answers
Nice job again, this is absolutely fantastic. You're really in the pocket on this one.
When describing this movie, every sentence should end with....
was never explained. 🤦♂️
So much potential, but still an absolutely beautiful movie.
Only fools like everything explained.
@@odinetsthepale6581 It's a fine art to know what to explain and what to leave to interpretation. Prometheus fails at it.
@@Antillles how so? Any example? To me everything that needed explanation got one.
@@odinetsthepale6581 The black goo is the biggest example. It just does whatever the movie needs, so you never know even the minimal rules about it. One can make some interpretation of it, but when it does cobras, zombies, giant squids, dissolve people and... create life? clearly there are not rules. Saying "it depends on the host" sounds more like a last minute excuse. People got the Alien life cycle, even if it wasn't perfectly explained.
Or why the engineers want to kills us. Not even a hint or anything. Sequel bait maybe, but having zero explanation for one of your antagonist is not what I consider a good script. I find myself watching big blue guy attacking protagonist trough a long scene without knowing why.
Why were the engineers running in the hallway? If I just had to assume something went wrong and there was an accident that would be almost fine... but then there is more than one ship and now that assumption is not enough. Now more hints of what happened would have been better.
And maybe this point has to do more with a terrible script than a case of "leaving to interpretation", but David/Wayland intentions made no sense. David stealing a urn and infecting Halloway (by orders or by free will) is fabricated drama, for a mission that was going to investigate all that anyway. Pretty sure Shawn would happily check the urns at a second trip to the place.
When you don't know the antagonists intentions, don't understand the main threat rules and why certain events happened, and on top of all that, "professionals" act out of character and sometimes just like idiots, the movie ends being a series of unconnected events happening on the screen.
But the biggest proof for this at the end is the audience reaction. There are many smart deep movies that don't need huge thesis to be defended. People get them and understand if something remain unexplained, even if those movies aren't the most popular. It's not the case with Prometheus.
Another solid review, just want say, I and many of my friends absolutely loved this film. The mood and scale of the film far surpassed all the other alien films minus the first two. For me the worst part of the film wasn't even in the film, it was the fact that we were left thinking the sequel would be where Shaw and David went and what they found out about the engineers. I loved the idea of them flying off into the unknown to reveal how the xenomorph as we know it came to be. Loved the engineers, they gave the series a much needed fresh paint of coat. Yes some of the characters made really stupid decisions, but any of the films short comings was made up for ten fold in mystery, creativity, and excitement in what could be. Still hate that Ridley Scott reverted back to what he thought was fanfare and changed the tone and trajectory of his own masterpiece with alien covenant and now because that film did so poorly we probably won't ever find out what evil David ended up doing. I am extremely saddened that we will not find out. In hindsight, David being the engineer of the xenomorph that we see in the original films sounds like a lot of fun.
Don't blame Ridley for changing direction, as the studio new leadership wanted a more traditional Alien movie.
@@red0guy Scott said it himself!
Excellent job on your channel...you have a lovely style and aesthetic I guess....love it....oh and ‘ in search of last action heroes’ was fantastic, you did a fantastic job....
The space jockey in the original was 3-4 times bigger than in Prometheus....I think the scale was all over the place, trying to tie everything to make sense
Superb review, defiantly going to have to watch this film again
You have made me appreciate its many flaws , maybe I’ll like it more on my next viewing ?
"I fucking love rocks!"
Great piece of dialogue from Prometheus.
The more I've thought about this film, the more the writing infuriates me. A story doesn't need to provide all the answers to the questions it's exploring but does need to at least partially match it's curiosity with it's actual pursuit in asking these questions. This film doesn't do that. It's exploration feels half-hearted and the plot itself feeling undercooked (or overcooked). My expectations were high. Way too high apparently.
The writing is absolutely shit, so is Ridley's 'visual ideas'. Alien 1 worked so good because scott lef that to the pros.
Great review as always. My memory of initially watching this film was mixed at the time, but after buying it on blu ray and watching it again made me appreciate the film more. The visuals are top notch and, like yourself, I really want them to make the third film in order to complete David's story (that bastard). After watching the film for the third time, I even went and purchased the collectors edition just to fully complete my alien film collection.
Prometheus is for me an awesome movie with great dialogues, great footage, awesome actors wich i all love. BUT storywise and plotwise... oohhhh if they just tweaked it more and left some stuff out put some stuff in LOL this would and could have been THE movie of a century. But it just ended up to be a guilty pleasure for me. Great video Mr. Harper.
It maybe a mess of a movie, but it's a well constructed and well shot mess. Plus, Micheal Fassbender is great as David.
Well, it’s well shot.
I'm one of the very few people who really enjoys Prometheus. The Engineers are perfectly executed and it keeps me wanting to know more of their culture.
To bad the sequel want full Alien. I don't dislike covenant but I was hoping to visiting Paradise with Elizabeth
Incredibly well made video, awesome work.
Awesome retrospective! No doubt this was a very polarizing movie. I thought it had a very interesting concept, but was setting itself up for failure by only being slightly connected to Alien, along with muddled character motivations. Regardless, there are still elements of this film that I appreciate like the set design, art direction, special effects, and some of the performances. I would love to see a retrospective on Alien: Covenant.
A beautiful, watchable nothing of a movie. It just left me cold. "Aliens made humans, LOL" is not a new idea, neither is the notion that they'd be disappointed in us. I don't find that fascination in that concept that Scott seems to. Covenant was even worse though.
The idea of a prequel to Alien was a bad idea. They didn't need to be explained, neither the Xenomorph or the Space Jockey. Both origin stories are worse than not knowing and having it be this mysterious relic that was stumbled across by a mining ship. David the wacky android bio-engineering them and then turning into a one-liner spouting slasher villain was just stupid. "Don't let the bed bugs bite", ugh. Most characters in both Prometheus and Covenant are under-baked to the point of absurdity. I didn't even know the captain of the Covenant ship was played by James Franco until they showed a video of the character after he died. They were all really dumb characters too, annoyingly so. In movies claiming to traffic in high concept ideas and philosophical questions, having characters as braindead as your average B movie horror movie fodder is really jarring.
Those of us old enough to remember the ridiculous book “Chariots of the Gods” were cringing already at the opening scene of Prometheus… and then repeatedly throughout the rest of the movie.
Prometheus or how to destroy the magic of "Alien"
that little laugh is somehow so out of character for you, i laughed out loud when i heard it :D great vid as always, godspeed man!
@Threehundredpages Pages when he talks about holloway, between 29:30 and 29:46
35:55 Bruh this movie is hilarious... When that big ass Engineer started throwing them people around like that, it always kills me how GONE Shaw was lol. She was OUTTA THERE lol
The trailer was utterly amazing and the film was decent but visually stunning. Covenant was an absolute disgrace, and the way they treated Shaw's character was beyond shocking.
Totally agreed about Covenant and Shaw. And I'm a guy that really likes ALIEN 3.
@@42ndStreetMatthew I have a soft spot for Alien 3 myself. I loved the comic con passage video with Shaw and David that was the movie right there.
@@Irishesbox11 Agreed! I was genuinely excited about Covenant because of The Crossing. So much for that.
There's a part in The Crossing where David mentions learning their (the Engineers) ways and the short ends with him opening the weapons bay. My thought was David wanted to destroy them because he interpreted them as being unrepentantly evil and he wanted to protect Shaw. But I guess having an evil Dr. Frankenstein robot is more "interesting." Blech.
@@42ndStreetMatthew what did he learn about the ways of the engineers? What were they like in the crossing?
@@1and253 It doesn't actually show what he learns, but it's what I initially inferred. Here's a link to The Crossing: ua-cam.com/video/XeMVrnYNwus/v-deo.html&ab_channel=AlienAnthology
Love this movie. Masterpiece in my opinion. Remember, just my opinion.
I'd watch alien or aliens a thousand times without hesitation before I even remotely considered watching poopmetheus or convenient a second time.
The first Alien movie did a good job setting up the “truckers in space” premise to explain the characters….the crew weren’t “experts,” they didn’t expect to be in that situation, etc. But as many note, in Prometheus the characters were all presumably hand-picked by a trillion dollar corporation for a hugely important mission, yet are mostly whiny, openly annoyed at being there, unprofessional, and incompetent at their jobs (with the mapping specialist getting lost mapping the alien structure and another crew member who knew this was an archeology mission running like a scared kid at the site of a long dead body).
No, you shouldn't be presuming that anyone was hand picked by a trillion dollar corporation, cos the movie told you otherwise.
1. Weyland financed it personally, not his company.
2. Weyland was paranoid to the point of pretending to be dead... in order to keep the mission a secret, because he thought Shaw had found the answer to longer life and he didn't want anyone knowing or beating him to the punch.
3. Vickers hired the crew, not allowed to tell them anything other than how much it pays. You see that the briefing takes place more than 2 yrs after launch, and the pilots, milburn and fifield dialogue all tells us that they signed up to a mission without knowing the destination nor the risks, just the pay. Only the bottom of the barrel personnel with no other options would jump at that mystery mission.
But yeah, it was dumb that the guy who made the map got lost... they just had to kill off the two skeptics first... even ignoring the fact that there is a 3D *map* on the bridge showing the location of each member of the away team.
I really enjoyed Prometheus, save a few elements. I'm one of the few that really liked Covenant as well. Again, a few elements didn't add up for me. However, David was set up to be a really great villain. I'd love a book to allow his story to be completed.
I’d love for you to do a treatment of, “Rush” (2013)...have you seen it?
You have impeccable taste my friend...
Both Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl were perfectly cast as Hunt and Lauda respectively.
Hans Zimmer's score is as perfect as ever, full of urgency, time ticking away, tragedy and triumph.
I think it is criminally underrated, and nowadays it will more than likely be branded as being full of "toxic masculinity", like Le Mans '66 and Dunkirk.
Right On, Man-I’m glad to see others digging Rush as I do, and there should always be more devotees...it’s got something for everybody...horror, humour, tenderness, and psychological depth. The script and storytelling style are amazing! Just think of a minor scene such as when Nikki had just met Marlene & they had had to hitchhike-the two dudes that picked them up were F1 fanboys & they had the goddamn time of their lives LOL!!
Rush is legendary just like Hunt himself.
Lol what a random request. I guess he could do a video on the Miss Marple tv series too.
Imo the first mistake was taking inspiration from the drivel of Erich Von Daniken. A similar concept of us being made by aliens was already explored (unsuccesfully) in Mission to Mars (2000).
It’s so cool seeing these old Dark Horse comics. I wasn’t much into comic books as a kid, but when I discovered the Aliens series (beginning with Vol. 2, which had the airbrushed color artwork) on Dark Horse while in middle school, I quickly became obsessed with them for a couple years (up to Alien vs. Predator and Earth War).
Oliver, I find that your intros always manage to strike more excitement than any trailer I've ever seen. They really make you want to watch the movie!
I personally like the movie but the story makes no sense because I feel there are so many things that happened in the movie I just lost interest but Nevertheless I enjoyed it
Oliver always delivers. Thanks mate.
Fantastic work as always. I am now compelled to watch Covenant.