www.bbc.co.uk/5... Fridays at 2pm on BBC 5 live. Mark Kermode reviews Prometheus, Ridley Scott's latest sci-fi offering set in the same universe as the Alien films.
Best part for me is when they have a mission briefing AFTER they wake up from cryo-sleep! 😂. - "you want the job?" - "what job?" - "we'll tell you when we arrive, now get in the tank!" - "I'll take it!"
I saw it, I went for a good 8.5. It was an ambitious film, and that counts a lot for me. It meant that some things like character development and clear answers got pushed to the wayside at times, but overall it was deeply enjoyable and I never found myself saying 'No, please go back and explain that to me', it's one of those films where you're quite happy for the momentum of the film to carry you forward with it.
i saw it in 3D last night and the 3D was incredible. I worked as a projectionist for a long time and this was best presentation of this 3D nonsense ive ever seen.
Some genuine vision in the art direction - particularly the engineer, really making use of the uncanny valley effect there. Some awe-inspiring ideas, at least in the set-up. And the character of David was truly great. Most everything else was a bungle. My biggest problem was that the characters had almost no definition whatsoever. There were some gestures toward definition, but quite random & adding up to nothing. I can hear the writers, "Uh, I think these are the kinds of things people do."
Kermode is spot on. This sums up pretty much how I felt walking out of the theatre. + Visuals/Art Direction/Set Design (yay for sets and not green-screen fest) + Michael Fassbender (the opening act is wonderful) + Noomi Rapace + Some themes and ideas (makes you think, not just popcorn escapism) - The minor characters (Theron was a big waste) - Script/Storytelling (this is what hurts it the most, in my opinion) - Score (didn't like the Trek-like optimism, give me minimalist and brooding) 7.5
Kermode says "I think some people have been disappointed because they were expecting something else". Spot on, Marky-boy. People like me were disappointed because we WERE expecting "something else": A GOOD MOVIE. Something original, with chilling atmosphere, tense action scenes, sympathetic characters, a fascinating conceit and a good tight plot. Instead we got boredom, stupidity, sub-par CGI, cringe-inducing dialogue, and plot holes so big you could fly a Prometheus through them. Arse whole.
Thats because he says something to the engineer, that sets it off. It just doesnt attack them randomly, David says something, and we dont know what it is. That is why this movie needs a sequel. To answer the questions from the first one.
Thank god, there's at least one other person who understands the difference between leaving questions unanswered to make people think, and leaving plot holes because it's a bad script.
How the enemy/monster was defeated in the end was pretty abrupt, but I don't think it spoiled the movie at all, because coupled with that event is a dozen other events that happened leading to it and after. All I know is this will be a blockbuster, and it will be liked by scifi thriller fans and action fans alike.
I get incredibly irritated when dirty Prometheus lovers (including Kermode, in this review) say that those of us who don't like the movie were simply disappointed because we were "expecting something else", i.e. a straight-up Alien prequel. Balls. I did NOT want an Alien prequel. Prequels generally don't work. I was encouraged when Scott said it merely "shares some of Alien's DNA". All I wanted was a story that didn't insult me and characters who didn't infuriate me. Seemingly too much to ask...
I can’t think of another movie that, relative to the hype and the content of the trailers, has been such an utterly frustrating disappointment! I watched hours of the behind the scenes and the making of but felt even more disappointed by the movie itself!
My problem with the scenes is not that they are violent, it is that they are, or at least FEEL, completely random. My earlier comment spelled that out. Every death in Alien is shocking and we are sad to see that character leave. But in Prometheus there are 17 characters, about 10 of whom are superfluous to the story and only exist to get killed in the infantile, pointless action scenes. Also, Prometheus seemed barely interested in the David character. Much less than 2001 was in its technology.
@@hebeusuthu8143 Miles per hour has a measure of time in the expression, but it's a measure of speed, not time. Light years is not a measure of time, simple.
Prometheus looks great, that doesn't mean it's a crushingly boring bad movie, which it is. The story is so big it didn't need to be linked to Alien, that just made it seem even worse. Biggest letdown since Phantom Menace.
Yes, It gives us questions that need to be answered in Prometheus 2, which will then have more questions that will be answered in Prometheus 3, which then link to Alien. People need to listen to Ridley Scott's interview he did with Simon Mayo and Kermode before Mark did the review, this is not a direct prequel.
"create a precurser for the next one to two or more installments." Yep. It was only 1/3 a film that I paid a full price. Sigh...But agree with you that this is a setup for two more "prequels."
I don't know because I am not- Ridley Scott. He is the director of the Alien series. I have complete faith that he will lead us to these answers. Prometheus is not a direct Prequel it is an ORIGIN story, which will be followed by more movies. Which may lead up to/ end up at the beginning of Alien. It's not inconsistent to Alien since it explains the Xenomorphs in that film.
The comments you make on the dialog contrast between Prometheus and Alien are absolutely right. I was able to enjoy Prometheus for what it was, I was entertained watching it. The theater was full of people questioning everything about it at the end - but I would also say it's better to have people talking about how they were entertained and let down than talking about how terrible it was as a whole. It's not great but certainly better than a lot of films with the similar goals.
8) The purpose of 'infected Fifield' showing up was to show obviously the infection in question, what it could do and obviously to the crew aswell. It wasnt hard for him to find the ship because obviously they were on a straight path 'God doesnt build in straight lines' the path leading directly to the 'tombs' or because he followed the crew back.
About the ending: It's not directly tied to the original Alien. Prometheus is set on a different planet/moon than Alien so that crashed ship is NOT the same one seen in Alien. Sequels are planned which we assume will finally tie into Alien. The reason the chestburster doesn't look the same as the one in Alien is because 1) it's an earlier form of the species and 2) it had a different host. (don't you remember the dog like xenomorph from Alien 3 and the warrior xenomorphs from ALIENS.
For me, it was more about the questions being proposed in the movie than the plot. I can see how people didn't enjoy it, but I think we have to give Ridley Scott credit for trying (and I emphasize trying) to go where classic scifi movies in the past have gone. It's far from perfect, but better than most things being shown these days. Just the fact that people are expressing their opinions about the movie and trying to answer these questions tells me that overall it was a success.
The encouraging thing is that there are very few people (critics AND audiences, as far as I can tell) who come right out and say "Prometheus is awesome!" Most people who like it will say "It's okay, nothing special", or "It wasn't a masterpiece, but at least it's not as bad as Transformers 3". But the thing of it is, lots of people really love Transformers 3. Very, very few people really love Prometheus. "Meh" is the operative word in most cases. "Shite" is the operative word in my case.
At the start she says "I believe because I want to". She is supposed to be a scientist. Also the biologist says to her something like "eh, any evidence" and she has none, but it turns out she is right and the biologist dies. Why does Fassbender infect that guy? Just to see what happens? It isn't really discussed later.
this movie was suppose to explain all of them. From alien to avpR. We have waited the better part of 30 years to find out that we have to wait even longer maybe to 2016 before we get our answers. The main thing i was looking for was the relationship between the space jockey( the engineers) and the predators. Nothing, not even the questions asked in the movie were answered.
The Alien in Alien isn't born from a human female- the alien at the end of Prometheus is the Xenomorph Queen, born from an Engineer's chest after said Engineer is impregnated by a proto-xenomorph-impregnator-thing. The Aliens have been around for thousands of years before Prometheus.
I'll be interested in seeing that. I hope it explains how the Captain of the ship went from knowing nothing to knowing everything about the planet, the engineers and what they were doing there. That scene really annoyed me because it's blatant exposition rushed in at the last minute.
Just went to saw it in cinema. Brilliant movie. Creepy as hell, very intense. Very nice CGI and good music score. Those who hate this movie obviously don't use their brain.
... while in contrast in prometheus we don't even know who the main antagonist(s) are or if indeed there is one. In promethues everyhing is more first person, we only know as much as the characters know. This instills a feeling of mystery, and I think Scott did something very original. Star Trek = classic bad guy vs good guy with strong emphasis on developing good guy characters. Promethues = dark, gritty, mystery thriller, we don't know - for sure - who the antagonist(s) are from the onset.
7) The fact they were freaked out is the reason they didnt run, they didn't know what it was, it could of been harmless for all they know, it looked harmless at first obviously and didn't strike until the Biologist went to touch it. Gear to deal with it? They didnt know how long they were going to be trapped
Prometheus is a bad movie because it is sloppy, incoherent and has zero tension. And this supposedly "intelligent" film further insults its audience by throwing in completely random people-getting-smashed-by-things scenes to hopelessly cater to the Alien fanboys and sci-fi action crowd. And in my personal opinion, to say that the film glossed over the exploration of the borderline between the natural and the artificial would be a gross overstatement. That was the weediest aspect of the movie.
It is a prequel to 'Alien' in the sense it's an origin story of how the Xenomorph came to be, but it's not an 'Alien' film, it was never promoted as an 'Alien' prequel at all or with the same theme. Ridley Scott said many times it's a stand alone film, if you were expecting loads of aliens jumping from air vents and ripping people apart then unlucky. Theres a 30 year gap between Prometheus and Alien and RS already said he's willing to make more. Big things have small beginnings
i wouldn't call it a major spoiler since that same ship is already crashed in alien and it was only revealed not to long ago that it was a different planet.
Yes, I know this, and we've discussed a similar issue below. The point is, so what? Oh, so Holloway was poisoned by David, became a mutant, and was then torched to death?! So what! The characters doesn't seem to care anymore or even remember it, why should I? Oh, so Shaw just removed a snarling alien baby from her stomach seconds before it killed her? Ho hum, never mind, looks like she's just gonna stroll across the road to the alien spacecraft for the third time...
You think they should go join Vickers to the lifeboat, which has 2 years of supplies for 1 person? And it took MORE than two years to get there, so even if they got off a distress call, a rescue mission might not get there before they are dead?
I agree with you 100%. People are just slating this film, as if they want to hate it because they found out it has nothing to do with Alien? Grow up people...
Prometheus is a prequel to Alien but it's not a direct prequel. There are questions left unanswered but they are not answered in Alien. They are going to have to make a sequel to set everything up for Alien.
To be honest I didn't think "who is in charge of the ship" was a particularly big problem - Idris might have been titled as "captain", but he was effectively just the pilot/driver. I thought Theron was the one actually in charge. There were a million other problems with the film though!
I'm more ambivalent about the film now, but I still think that if Scott wanted to truly reboot the Alien series, the best way to go about it would be to pick up William Gibson's rejected script for Alien 3 and film that, or point someone with the chops at it. I'm gonna sound like a Chris Nolan sycophant saying this, but seriously, Nolan handling horror-inflected sci-fi on the scale of the script Gibson wrote would be serious fun.
Apparently Riddley Scott had said he intended to make two movies. From what I understand, the sequel to Prometheus will depend on how well Prometheus does. They did leave a lot of mysteries, and didn't answer much. And I think he did that intentionally.
It's because it happened so quickly. The girl just said out of nowhere "hey I think the bad guy wants to destroy our planet" and right away he flies his ship into his... And if the giant was still alive after the crash, why didn't he try to get into another ship, instead of uselessly coming after the girl ? Resulting in what is I think a really terrible ending fight. And what was the point of showing the alien at the end ? Beside having an alien in the movie.
I liked this movie and agree with this critic that it does have flaws. He mentioned that Scott said they were not on LV426. The whole time I thought they were. I don't remember when the film mentions they are on LV223. Well that changes a lot of things for me now.
1. Weyland was on deaths door, was looking for a way to prolong his life. These 'conmen' that don't exist so no point in even mentioning them didn't have the proof in the form of the star maps they found to convince Weyland otherwise. 2) Davids goal in dosing up a member of the crew im speculating was to see for himself out of curiosity or a preconcieved agreement by Weyland to see the effects of this unknown bio-contaminent on human life
I admired the visual scale...the 3D worked very well, with all the floating screens...and it's a truly handsome gorgeous production. But when they awake the alien fellow in the chamber, he just gets out and starts knocking people around..how well thought out is that? And the viseral stuff with goo and completely odd creatures grappling and killing...it just saps the creative thrust right out of the film. The acting and production was the best part.
Trilobyte makes more sense, yeah. I read online somewhere that it was the Queen, and the reason they've been around for thousands of years before Prometheus, is that the Engineers built a statue of an Alien on the wall- and apparently it's what the Engineers were running from in the hologram 2000 years previously.
And finally, regarding your allegorical reading, it may be sound, but so what? The Engineer-goes-apeshit scene was just one of many where secondary nobodies get battered to death to give the impression that this is a scary, exciting action film when really it's just a turgid, boring mess. I accept that this is just my opinion, but I'm sick to death of reading comments like yours, accusing us haters of hating this film because we're too stupid to understand its INCREDIBLE IMAGINATIVE COMPLEXITY!
To be fair, Joss Whedon has said that the final cut wasn't like anything from his original script. So I'm guessing the studio made changes in the editing and what not. A similar thing happend with David Fincher for Alien 3 when the studio made changes in the editing stages behind his back.
Simple problem with the movie: there is no story, only a series of plot points. I love measured, borderline ponderous sci-fi films such as Solaris (both versions) and Silent Running. There's nothing wrong with a film that leaves questions unanswered, but when one of those questions is, "What was all that about?" you know your script isn't up to snuff.
Prometheus is genius. I loved it. When I bought the blu ray I was baffled by Ridley Scott's decision to cut the deleted scenes from the theatrical release wtf lol The engineer speaks deleted scene is sooo cool. And the extended Shaw Vs engineer scene is so interesting.
Why does no one compare it to Mission to Mars ? The plot is basically the same part from the reason they go there in the first place. There is a face in the mountain, the aliens are our makers and a widow departs the planet in the end to find the Aliens home-world.
Mark touches on some great points that people seem to be forgetting or ignoring. I mean Ridley has always said from the get go he's not replicating Alien and it's not a direct prequel. If people have even a remote interest in Sci-Fi please go watch Prometheus it's a really great movie.
Ripley didn't have her own bar and lots of Vodka to calm her fears of being in space, Vickers was scared of space. She asked if anyone died in stasis, she never steps foot off the ship, until the escape pod scene, and she's drinking straight vodka. The problem is not so much that they got kinky, but that they left the bridge unattended while Milburn and Fifield were stranded.
Fair point about the guy ignoring the worm in his eye. Maybe he thought he had just imagined it. I guess we've all ignored potential symptoms before and thought "ahh it's probably nothing." I just thought that, given the circumstances, people would be hyper-vigilent about stuff like that, rather than trying to ignore it.
Haven't seen it but I have heard about it. I have read Ellison's short story, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, which is a horrifying sci-fi novel, so he would be great for Prometheus. Good call
9) For all we know they did have defensive weaponary, not everything has to be explained, what would be the point of a sequel? Do you have a personal defense against a Nuke?
3) See point number 2) also to use Shw as a vessel to transport the Alien life-form back to Earth obviously for testing/research 4) I have no idea what your going on about with number 4. You ended that point with 'was just dumb' so i'm going to assume you couldnt think of a reasonable point for number 4
Fair enough. To clarify, I felt their performances were boring because their characters were. I disagree that the script is tighter, it isn't, simply isn't. I wouldn't for a second compare this to Solaris or 2001. But hey, I did enjoy the film even if I enjoyed it in spite of itself.
If it had nothing to do with Alien -would it be as good? I really enjoyed it, because of the connection with Alien. Was it more to do with my love for the greatest film of all time (For me)
5) They took there helmets off because inside the temple/tomb there was an atmosphere similar to Earths, it was breathable. Everyone calling him stupid was clearly them not taking any risks 6) He got lost because he's a Geolist, he doesnt have Xray fucking vision, the scans he was taking were being sent back to Prometheus for the captain to relay there location and guide them.
I would consider that an unlikely interpretation. Life on earth, as best we know, started somewhere between 3.65 and 3.85 billion years ago. So, are you suggesting the scene where the engineer sacrifices himself occurs 3.85 billion years ago? Possible, but hard to make sense of it.
It's set before the 'Aliens' series with Sigourney Weaver and John Hurt. It seems to be about both the origins of the human species but also the origins of the Xenomorphs (the Aliens).
Dam this movie was SO good! I havnt had one a long time making me want the next so bad,i even came to look up videos on it as soon as i got home from the theatre!
(1) Who would put together a trillion-dollar space mission, without a serious investment in recruiting, vetting, and training the participants. The crew have never even met until just before they arrive! Seriously - can you imagine the Apollo program running like that? Armstrong and Aldrin just jump in the rocket for the first time and say "Oh hey, I'm Buzz Aldrin, nice to meet you. Where are we going? The Moon? OK, lets go, I'm sure this won't need any specialist training."
But if he was ANY kind of scientist at all (and given that he seems to be on the forefront of ground breaking archaeological explorations, you would think he would at least be a COMPETENT one, if not a very good one), he wouldn't take his mask off. He wouldn't bury his head in the sand when he thought he saw a worm in his eye, etc etc. The idea of a scientist being "an impulsive frat boy" is just crazy (and nothing in the film indicated that "frat boy" was one of his character's traits)
And why did the co-pilots so enthusiastically go along for the ride. Janek said he could handle it himself...personally I would say "Ok, you go fly this kamikaze mission. I'll just watch from a safe distance." But no, his co-pilots say "Nah, we're coming with you. Lets all die and say some corny lines about that bet we made at the start of the film."
I didnt, but I got Battleship on Disc, and it was Surprisingly enjoyable, even if it was hard to suspend disbelief about wave hopping alien ships... it was still an enjoyable film.
I think reviews can serve a function of letting you know not to get your hopes up. Better to know ahead of time not to be too excited so that if you wind up not liking it you can go, "well people were telling me it wasn't all that good".
Everyone's a critic. Don't act like you're not. Part of the reason is because we're so passionate about the material that we can be easily disappointed if it's not done perfectly. For the record, I thought Prometheus was badass.
People constantly complain about how hollywood films spoonfeed the audience answers . . . and what a surprise, when one leaves questions, everyone gets annoyed. I loved the grey.
I do however urge you to read other points of view regarding what Ridley Scott meant to convey in the movie. There are a lot of clues the good Sir himself has left all over the internet. I would love to give you a couple of keywords but that would be swept under spoilers. I guess I was raised up with games like Half Life where a good portion of the games universe was speculative, hence this thrill in uncharted mystery.
Philosophically there was nothing profound being said even though emphasis is placed in the 'big picture'. However, Noomi Rapace's performance was excellent and she's hot which made the movie worth watching.
Your point is very valid in regards to opinion. I personally enjoy Kermodes reviews because his taste in movies mirrors my own and he has a very broad taste in film. Its because of this that I value his opinion, not because I 'only' wish to validate my own opinion about films i've liked/disliked but because he's also brought my attention to films I've never heard of and seen before, for example Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet. That's what good critics do.
Well there were obviously several alien space ships on the planet, which apparently David/Shaw could fly with ease...so they could have chosen NOT to die (since it was totally unnecessary) and take their chances on one of the Engineers' ships. In fact, even thought they might not have known about the additional ships, surely it would make more sense to take your chances and try and think of a solution in your remaining 2 yrs, rather than simply accept death on the say-so of some stranger?
Scott constantly said it's a STAND-ALONE movie. Well the ending only works if there's a sequel, which doesn't make it a stand alone movie. If this sequel doesn't get made (which it obviously will) then Prometheus is just a mess
That's all very well and judgmental, but really, my main problem with Prometheus was its complete lack of any drama, tension or coherence. This is a film in which one main character poisons another main character who then dies horribly, and this major plot development isn't even MENTIONED ever again. No tension, no pay-off, no drama. Boring. But you'll probably go on to tell me that this is actually an incredibly artful and revolutionary approach to filmmaking that proves Sir Ridley is a genius.
Given the positive response from Mark re Prometheus(which I loved and would have wanted to see the follow-up film exploring that more), in his review of Romulus he slated Prometheus - 😞
BTW mine are simple logic, not 'hard SF' objections. The 'hard SF' objections might relate to whether travel is sub-light-speed, in which case humanity would have evolved into something else by the time they got back, and veterans of various missions would be from reproductively incompatible but human-descended species, and there are many problems with series chronology; or whether travel is faster-than-light, in which case why the 'stasis'-sleep, how was Ripley found in normal space in Aliens..
Alien wasn't panned by critics. The reviews were mixed. And I'm not sure what "discussion" there ever was about Alien; it was a big hit with AUDIENCES at the time. What I find very interesting is that there are very few negative critics of Prometheus. Most are average, a few are raves (top marks from Roger fucking Ebert) but none savage it like it deserves (in my view). Having said that, I believe audiences will forget it in time. It will NOT endure as Alien and Aliens have done. It can't.
You're saying that if I think Prometheus is bad I should watch Transformers 3 and Prometheus will no longer seem so bad. That is the most pathetic defense of this abortion of a film I've come across. Both films are rubbish but at least Transformers isn't pretentious. "Great movie, blow me." Wow! Fantastic review, man! I'm convinced! Seriously though, as I wrote in my last message, explaining why Prometheus is good is impossible, because it isn't. But you've not even bothered trying.
Best part for me is when they have a mission briefing AFTER they wake up from cryo-sleep! 😂.
- "you want the job?"
- "what job?"
- "we'll tell you when we arrive, now get in the tank!"
- "I'll take it!"
I saw it, I went for a good 8.5. It was an ambitious film, and that counts a lot for me. It meant that some things like character development and clear answers got pushed to the wayside at times, but overall it was deeply enjoyable and I never found myself saying 'No, please go back and explain that to me', it's one of those films where you're quite happy for the momentum of the film to carry you forward with it.
It's a great script. Especially when these' intelligent' characters are running and running in the same direction as the giant rolling spacecraft.
And when the cabbage in the cave tries to pet the newly discovered serpent.
The dumbest crew ever.
yeah but like elizabeth shaw i wanna fail at running away from things
i saw it in 3D last night and the 3D was incredible. I worked as a projectionist for a long time and this was best presentation of this 3D nonsense ive ever seen.
Pretty good and pretty accurate. Now if you could just cram in some more words and thus make the review feel a bit more articulate and full.
I liked the film a lot. I think the ending is Scott screaming "Give us the money to make another, make it now!"
Some genuine vision in the art direction - particularly the engineer, really making use of the uncanny valley effect there. Some awe-inspiring ideas, at least in the set-up. And the character of David was truly great. Most everything else was a bungle. My biggest problem was that the characters had almost no definition whatsoever. There were some gestures toward definition, but quite random & adding up to nothing. I can hear the writers, "Uh, I think these are the kinds of things people do."
ALWAYS REMEMBER: DECKARD IS NOT A FUCKING ROBOT.
Remember that they're basically in a biological weapon factory and the targets have turned up and are wanting to have a chat.
Kermode is spot on. This sums up pretty much how I felt walking out of the theatre.
+ Visuals/Art Direction/Set Design (yay for sets and not green-screen fest)
+ Michael Fassbender (the opening act is wonderful)
+ Noomi Rapace
+ Some themes and ideas (makes you think, not just popcorn escapism)
- The minor characters (Theron was a big waste)
- Script/Storytelling (this is what hurts it the most, in my opinion)
- Score (didn't like the Trek-like optimism, give me minimalist and brooding)
7.5
Kermode says "I think some people have been disappointed because they were expecting something else".
Spot on, Marky-boy. People like me were disappointed because we WERE expecting "something else":
A GOOD MOVIE.
Something original, with chilling atmosphere, tense action scenes, sympathetic characters, a fascinating conceit and a good tight plot.
Instead we got boredom, stupidity, sub-par CGI, cringe-inducing dialogue, and plot holes so big you could fly a Prometheus through them.
Arse whole.
Thats because he says something to the engineer, that sets it off. It just doesnt attack them randomly, David says something, and we dont know what it is. That is why this movie needs a sequel. To answer the questions from the first one.
Thank god, there's at least one other person who understands the difference between leaving questions unanswered to make people think, and leaving plot holes because it's a bad script.
How the enemy/monster was defeated in the end was pretty abrupt, but I don't think it spoiled the movie at all, because coupled with that event is a dozen other events that happened leading to it and after. All I know is this will be a blockbuster, and it will be liked by scifi thriller fans and action fans alike.
I get incredibly irritated when dirty Prometheus lovers (including Kermode, in this review) say that those of us who don't like the movie were simply disappointed because we were "expecting something else", i.e. a straight-up Alien prequel.
Balls.
I did NOT want an Alien prequel. Prequels generally don't work. I was encouraged when Scott said it merely "shares some of Alien's DNA".
All I wanted was a story that didn't insult me and characters who didn't infuriate me. Seemingly too much to ask...
I can’t think of another movie that, relative to the hype and the content of the trailers, has been such an utterly frustrating disappointment!
I watched hours of the behind the scenes and the making of but felt even more disappointed by the movie itself!
@@Monkey80llx For me, its frustrating because the story Arc makes no sense
My problem with the scenes is not that they are violent, it is that they are, or at least FEEL, completely random. My earlier comment spelled that out. Every death in Alien is shocking and we are sad to see that character leave. But in Prometheus there are 17 characters, about 10 of whom are superfluous to the story and only exist to get killed in the infantile, pointless action scenes.
Also, Prometheus seemed barely interested in the David character. Much less than 2001 was in its technology.
Light years is a measure of distance, not time.
cycodamo it’s the description of distance travelled over a period of time.
It literally has a measure of time in the expression
@@hebeusuthu8143 Miles per hour has a measure of time in the expression, but it's a measure of speed, not time. Light years is not a measure of time, simple.
Great review. Always informative. Really enjoyed Prometheus. It offers up plenty of questions to be answered. Can't wait for the next in the pipe.
Prometheus looks great, that doesn't mean it's a crushingly boring bad movie, which it is. The story is so big it didn't need to be linked to Alien, that just made it seem even worse. Biggest letdown since Phantom Menace.
Yes, It gives us questions that need to be answered in Prometheus 2, which will then have more questions that will be answered in Prometheus 3, which then link to Alien.
People need to listen to Ridley Scott's interview he did with Simon Mayo and Kermode before Mark did the review, this is not a direct prequel.
my favourite reviewer. whenever i come back and watch a review about a film i've seen, i nearly always agree with mark.
For myself, it gets better each time, similar feeling I had to 'The dark knight'.
"create a precurser for the next one to two or more installments."
Yep. It was only 1/3 a film that I paid a full price. Sigh...But agree with you that this is a setup for two more "prequels."
I don't know because I am not- Ridley Scott. He is the director of the Alien series. I have complete faith that he will lead us to these answers. Prometheus is not a direct Prequel it is an ORIGIN story, which will be followed by more movies. Which may lead up to/ end up at the beginning of Alien. It's not inconsistent to Alien since it explains the Xenomorphs in that film.
The comments you make on the dialog contrast between Prometheus and Alien are absolutely right. I was able to enjoy Prometheus for what it was, I was entertained watching it. The theater was full of people questioning everything about it at the end - but I would also say it's better to have people talking about how they were entertained and let down than talking about how terrible it was as a whole. It's not great but certainly better than a lot of films with the similar goals.
Loved the "Good morning David" part, a wink to 2001 ; )
8) The purpose of 'infected Fifield' showing up was to show obviously the infection in question, what it could do and obviously to the crew aswell. It wasnt hard for him to find the ship because obviously they were on a straight path 'God doesnt build in straight lines' the path leading directly to the 'tombs' or because he followed the crew back.
but you've got to admit, the design and the look of the film is just amazing, not?
and i actually found most of the actors pretty decent
I loved it, fassbender out-acted everyone else on screen, and I really hope there's more to come
About the ending:
It's not directly tied to the original Alien. Prometheus is set on a different planet/moon than Alien so that crashed ship is NOT the same one seen in Alien. Sequels are planned which we assume will finally tie into Alien.
The reason the chestburster doesn't look the same as the one in Alien is because 1) it's an earlier form of the species and 2) it had a different host. (don't you remember the dog like xenomorph from Alien 3 and the warrior xenomorphs from ALIENS.
I adored the film!. you must see asap
For me, it was more about the questions being proposed in the movie than the plot. I can see how people didn't enjoy it, but I think we have to give Ridley Scott credit for trying (and I emphasize trying) to go where classic scifi movies in the past have gone. It's far from perfect, but better than most things being shown these days. Just the fact that people are expressing their opinions about the movie and trying to answer these questions tells me that overall it was a success.
The encouraging thing is that there are very few people (critics AND audiences, as far as I can tell) who come right out and say "Prometheus is awesome!"
Most people who like it will say "It's okay, nothing special", or "It wasn't a masterpiece, but at least it's not as bad as Transformers 3".
But the thing of it is, lots of people really love Transformers 3. Very, very few people really love Prometheus.
"Meh" is the operative word in most cases.
"Shite" is the operative word in my case.
At the start she says "I believe because I want to". She is supposed to be a scientist. Also the biologist says to her something like "eh, any evidence" and she has none, but it turns out she is right and the biologist dies.
Why does Fassbender infect that guy? Just to see what happens? It isn't really discussed later.
this movie was suppose to explain all of them. From alien to avpR. We have waited the better part of 30 years to find out that we have to wait even longer maybe to 2016 before we get our answers. The main thing i was looking for was the relationship between the space jockey( the engineers) and the predators. Nothing, not even the questions asked in the movie were answered.
The Alien in Alien isn't born from a human female- the alien at the end of Prometheus is the Xenomorph Queen, born from an Engineer's chest after said Engineer is impregnated by a proto-xenomorph-impregnator-thing. The Aliens have been around for thousands of years before Prometheus.
I'll be interested in seeing that. I hope it explains how the Captain of the ship went from knowing nothing to knowing everything about the planet, the engineers and what they were doing there. That scene really annoyed me because it's blatant exposition rushed in at the last minute.
Just went to saw it in cinema. Brilliant movie. Creepy as hell, very intense. Very nice CGI and good music score. Those who hate this movie obviously don't use their brain.
I could seriously listen to Mark talk about movies all day, he never has anything to say that I disagree with and his opinions are really entertaining
... while in contrast in prometheus we don't even know who the main antagonist(s) are or if indeed there is one. In promethues everyhing is more first person, we only know as much as the characters know. This instills a feeling of mystery, and I think Scott did something very original.
Star Trek = classic bad guy vs good guy with strong emphasis on developing good guy characters.
Promethues = dark, gritty, mystery thriller, we don't know - for sure - who the antagonist(s) are from the onset.
7) The fact they were freaked out is the reason they didnt run, they didn't know what it was, it could of been harmless for all they know, it looked harmless at first obviously and didn't strike until the Biologist went to touch it. Gear to deal with it? They didnt know how long they were going to be trapped
Prometheus is a bad movie because it is sloppy, incoherent and has zero tension. And this supposedly "intelligent" film further insults its audience by throwing in completely random people-getting-smashed-by-things scenes to hopelessly cater to the Alien fanboys and sci-fi action crowd.
And in my personal opinion, to say that the film glossed over the exploration of the borderline between the natural and the artificial would be a gross overstatement. That was the weediest aspect of the movie.
Looking forward to you selling your better script 👍
It is a prequel to 'Alien' in the sense it's an origin story of how the Xenomorph came to be, but it's not an 'Alien' film, it was never promoted as an 'Alien' prequel at all or with the same theme. Ridley Scott said many times it's a stand alone film, if you were expecting loads of aliens jumping from air vents and ripping people apart then unlucky. Theres a 30 year gap between Prometheus and Alien and RS already said he's willing to make more. Big things have small beginnings
i wouldn't call it a major spoiler since that same ship is already crashed in alien and it was only revealed not to long ago that it was a different planet.
Yes, I know this, and we've discussed a similar issue below. The point is, so what?
Oh, so Holloway was poisoned by David, became a mutant, and was then torched to death?! So what! The characters doesn't seem to care anymore or even remember it, why should I?
Oh, so Shaw just removed a snarling alien baby from her stomach seconds before it killed her? Ho hum, never mind, looks like she's just gonna stroll across the road to the alien spacecraft for the third time...
You think they should go join Vickers to the lifeboat, which has 2 years of supplies for 1 person? And it took MORE than two years to get there, so even if they got off a distress call, a rescue mission might not get there before they are dead?
I agree with you 100%. People are just slating this film, as if they want to hate it because they found out it has nothing to do with Alien? Grow up people...
Prometheus is a prequel to Alien but it's not a direct prequel.
There are questions left unanswered but they are not answered in Alien.
They are going to have to make a sequel to set everything up for Alien.
Wow, can you explain exactly what you were expecting? Or do you have an amazing gift for exaggeration?
To be honest I didn't think "who is in charge of the ship" was a particularly big problem - Idris might have been titled as "captain", but he was effectively just the pilot/driver. I thought Theron was the one actually in charge. There were a million other problems with the film though!
I'm more ambivalent about the film now, but I still think that if Scott wanted to truly reboot the Alien series, the best way to go about it would be to pick up William Gibson's rejected script for Alien 3 and film that, or point someone with the chops at it.
I'm gonna sound like a Chris Nolan sycophant saying this, but seriously, Nolan handling horror-inflected sci-fi on the scale of the script Gibson wrote would be serious fun.
Apparently Riddley Scott had said he intended to make two movies. From what I understand, the sequel to Prometheus will depend on how well Prometheus does. They did leave a lot of mysteries, and didn't answer much. And I think he did that intentionally.
It's because it happened so quickly. The girl just said out of nowhere "hey I think the bad guy wants to destroy our planet" and right away he flies his ship into his... And if the giant was still alive after the crash, why didn't he try to get into another ship, instead of uselessly coming after the girl ? Resulting in what is I think a really terrible ending fight. And what was the point of showing the alien at the end ? Beside having an alien in the movie.
I liked this movie and agree with this critic that it does have flaws. He mentioned that Scott said they were not on LV426. The whole time I thought they were. I don't remember when the film mentions they are on LV223. Well that changes a lot of things for me now.
Reviews can give awareness to a film of which it would not have received if it were not for film critics.
1. Weyland was on deaths door, was looking for a way to prolong his life. These 'conmen' that don't exist so no point in even mentioning them didn't have the proof in the form of the star maps they found to convince Weyland otherwise.
2) Davids goal in dosing up a member of the crew im speculating was to see for himself out of curiosity or a preconcieved agreement by Weyland to see the effects of this unknown bio-contaminent on human life
I admired the visual scale...the 3D worked very well, with all the floating screens...and it's a truly handsome gorgeous production. But when they awake the alien fellow in the chamber, he just gets out and starts knocking people around..how well thought out is that? And the viseral stuff with goo and completely odd creatures grappling and killing...it just saps the creative thrust right out of the film. The acting and production was the best part.
Trilobyte makes more sense, yeah. I read online somewhere that it was the Queen, and the reason they've been around for thousands of years before Prometheus, is that the Engineers built a statue of an Alien on the wall- and apparently it's what the Engineers were running from in the hologram 2000 years previously.
And finally, regarding your allegorical reading, it may be sound, but so what?
The Engineer-goes-apeshit scene was just one of many where secondary nobodies get battered to death to give the impression that this is a scary, exciting action film when really it's just a turgid, boring mess.
I accept that this is just my opinion, but I'm sick to death of reading comments like yours, accusing us haters of hating this film because we're too stupid to understand its INCREDIBLE IMAGINATIVE COMPLEXITY!
To be fair, Joss Whedon has said that the final cut wasn't like anything from his original script. So I'm guessing the studio made changes in the editing and what not. A similar thing happend with David Fincher for Alien 3 when the studio made changes in the editing stages behind his back.
Simple problem with the movie: there is no story, only a series of plot points. I love measured, borderline ponderous sci-fi films such as Solaris (both versions) and Silent Running. There's nothing wrong with a film that leaves questions unanswered, but when one of those questions is, "What was all that about?" you know your script isn't up to snuff.
Prometheus is genius. I loved it. When I bought the blu ray I was baffled by Ridley Scott's decision to cut the deleted scenes from the theatrical release wtf lol The engineer speaks deleted scene is sooo cool. And the extended Shaw Vs engineer scene is so interesting.
Why does no one compare it to Mission to Mars ? The plot is basically the same part from the reason they go there in the first place. There is a face in the mountain, the aliens are our makers and a widow departs the planet in the end to find the Aliens home-world.
Mark touches on some great points that people seem to be forgetting or ignoring. I mean Ridley has always said from the get go he's not replicating Alien and it's not a direct prequel. If people have even a remote interest in Sci-Fi please go watch Prometheus it's a really great movie.
Ripley didn't have her own bar and lots of Vodka to calm her fears of being in space, Vickers was scared of space. She asked if anyone died in stasis, she never steps foot off the ship, until the escape pod scene, and she's drinking straight vodka. The problem is not so much that they got kinky, but that they left the bridge unattended while Milburn and Fifield were stranded.
Fair point about the guy ignoring the worm in his eye. Maybe he thought he had just imagined it. I guess we've all ignored potential symptoms before and thought "ahh it's probably nothing." I just thought that, given the circumstances, people would be hyper-vigilent about stuff like that, rather than trying to ignore it.
Haven't seen it but I have heard about it. I have read Ellison's short story, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, which is a horrifying sci-fi novel, so he would be great for Prometheus. Good call
9) For all we know they did have defensive weaponary, not everything has to be explained, what would be the point of a sequel? Do you have a personal defense against a Nuke?
3) See point number 2) also to use Shw as a vessel to transport the Alien life-form back to Earth obviously for testing/research
4) I have no idea what your going on about with number 4. You ended that point with 'was just dumb' so i'm going to assume you couldnt think of a reasonable point for number 4
as long as it will have sequel, prometheus is great beginning.
Fair enough. To clarify, I felt their performances were boring because their characters were. I disagree that the script is tighter, it isn't, simply isn't. I wouldn't for a second compare this to Solaris or 2001. But hey, I did enjoy the film even if I enjoyed it in spite of itself.
If it had nothing to do with Alien -would it be as good? I really enjoyed it, because of the connection with Alien. Was it more to do with my love for the greatest film of all time (For me)
5) They took there helmets off because inside the temple/tomb there was an atmosphere similar to Earths, it was breathable. Everyone calling him stupid was clearly them not taking any risks
6) He got lost because he's a Geolist, he doesnt have Xray fucking vision, the scans he was taking were being sent back to Prometheus for the captain to relay there location and guide them.
So...how did the engineer get back into the seat (where they found him in Alien)?
I would consider that an unlikely interpretation. Life on earth, as best we know, started somewhere between 3.65 and 3.85 billion years ago. So, are you suggesting the scene where the engineer sacrifices himself occurs 3.85 billion years ago? Possible, but hard to make sense of it.
It's set before the 'Aliens' series with Sigourney Weaver and John Hurt. It seems to be about both the origins of the human species but also the origins of the Xenomorphs (the Aliens).
Dam this movie was SO good! I havnt had one a long time making me want the next so bad,i even came to look up videos on it as soon as i got home from the theatre!
(1) Who would put together a trillion-dollar space mission, without a serious investment in recruiting, vetting, and training the participants. The crew have never even met until just before they arrive! Seriously - can you imagine the Apollo program running like that? Armstrong and Aldrin just jump in the rocket for the first time and say "Oh hey, I'm Buzz Aldrin, nice to meet you. Where are we going? The Moon? OK, lets go, I'm sure this won't need any specialist training."
But if he was ANY kind of scientist at all (and given that he seems to be on the forefront of ground breaking archaeological explorations, you would think he would at least be a COMPETENT one, if not a very good one), he wouldn't take his mask off. He wouldn't bury his head in the sand when he thought he saw a worm in his eye, etc etc. The idea of a scientist being "an impulsive frat boy" is just crazy (and nothing in the film indicated that "frat boy" was one of his character's traits)
"Abandon" implies that THEIR situation could have been resolved if I stayed. That was not the case.
And why did the co-pilots so enthusiastically go along for the ride. Janek said he could handle it himself...personally I would say "Ok, you go fly this kamikaze mission. I'll just watch from a safe distance." But no, his co-pilots say "Nah, we're coming with you. Lets all die and say some corny lines about that bet we made at the start of the film."
I didnt, but I got Battleship on Disc, and it was Surprisingly enjoyable, even if it was hard to suspend disbelief about wave hopping alien ships... it was still an enjoyable film.
I still can't believe this review, nine years later! It doesn't sound like the movie I saw, which was pants!
I think reviews can serve a function of letting you know not to get your hopes up. Better to know ahead of time not to be too excited so that if you wind up not liking it you can go, "well people were telling me it wasn't all that good".
Everyone's a critic. Don't act like you're not. Part of the reason is because we're so passionate about the material that we can be easily disappointed if it's not done perfectly. For the record, I thought Prometheus was badass.
I think Prometheus will be admired in time.
People constantly complain about how hollywood films spoonfeed the audience answers . . . and what a surprise, when one leaves questions, everyone gets annoyed.
I loved the grey.
I do however urge you to read other points of view regarding what Ridley Scott meant to convey in the movie. There are a lot of clues the good Sir himself has left all over the internet. I would love to give you a couple of keywords but that would be swept under spoilers. I guess I was raised up with games like Half Life where a good portion of the games universe was speculative, hence this thrill in uncharted mystery.
Philosophically there was nothing profound being said even though emphasis is placed in the 'big picture'. However, Noomi Rapace's performance was excellent and she's hot which made the movie worth watching.
Your point is very valid in regards to opinion.
I personally enjoy Kermodes reviews because his taste in movies mirrors my own and he has a very broad taste in film. Its because of this that I value his opinion, not because I 'only' wish to validate my own opinion about films i've liked/disliked but because he's also brought my attention to films I've never heard of and seen before, for example Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet. That's what good critics do.
damn... this guy can talk up a storm... he doesn't pause.
Well there were obviously several alien space ships on the planet, which apparently David/Shaw could fly with ease...so they could have chosen NOT to die (since it was totally unnecessary) and take their chances on one of the Engineers' ships. In fact, even thought they might not have known about the additional ships, surely it would make more sense to take your chances and try and think of a solution in your remaining 2 yrs, rather than simply accept death on the say-so of some stranger?
Scott constantly said it's a STAND-ALONE movie. Well the ending only works if there's a sequel, which doesn't make it a stand alone movie. If this sequel doesn't get made (which it obviously will) then Prometheus is just a mess
That's all very well and judgmental, but really, my main problem with Prometheus was its complete lack of any drama, tension or coherence.
This is a film in which one main character poisons another main character who then dies horribly, and this major plot development isn't even MENTIONED ever again. No tension, no pay-off, no drama. Boring.
But you'll probably go on to tell me that this is actually an incredibly artful and revolutionary approach to filmmaking that proves Sir Ridley is a genius.
Surely Star Trek (2009) was a equally awaited Science fiction
prequel.
I didn't hate the film but it did serve to remind us how utterly brilliant 'Alien' is.
Given the positive response from Mark re Prometheus(which I loved and would have wanted to see the follow-up film exploring that more), in his review of Romulus he slated Prometheus - 😞
BTW mine are simple logic, not 'hard SF' objections.
The 'hard SF' objections might relate to whether travel is sub-light-speed, in which case humanity would have evolved into something else by the time they got back, and veterans of various missions would be from reproductively incompatible but human-descended species, and there are many problems with series chronology; or whether travel is faster-than-light, in which case why the 'stasis'-sleep, how was Ripley found in normal space in Aliens..
Alien wasn't panned by critics. The reviews were mixed. And I'm not sure what "discussion" there ever was about Alien; it was a big hit with AUDIENCES at the time.
What I find very interesting is that there are very few negative critics of Prometheus. Most are average, a few are raves (top marks from Roger fucking Ebert) but none savage it like it deserves (in my view).
Having said that, I believe audiences will forget it in time. It will NOT endure as Alien and Aliens have done. It can't.
You're saying that if I think Prometheus is bad I should watch Transformers 3 and Prometheus will no longer seem so bad. That is the most pathetic defense of this abortion of a film I've come across. Both films are rubbish but at least Transformers isn't pretentious.
"Great movie, blow me."
Wow! Fantastic review, man! I'm convinced! Seriously though, as I wrote in my last message, explaining why Prometheus is good is impossible, because it isn't. But you've not even bothered trying.