I only have one REAL issue with it…beyond DB1 & 2…and other various obvious tropes.
The Alien series - especially early on was Sci-fi terror, like you could hear your heartbeat. There was no terror in this. I never flinched or wanted to turn my head. I’m happy wit hthe idea of the story and look forward to it continuing…but I REALLY want them to try and make it scary. Or spooky or paranoying. The engineers weren’t terrifying…they weren’t scary. They were just intimidating. It was closer to Predator without the action.
Plot wise - the random ‘creatures’ just didn’t make any sense, but shrug
I would totally agree. It wasn’t scary except maybe the Alien Cobra bit. Then again I’m desensitized as fuck so it did nothing for me. The first 3 Alien films definitely had that scare factor. This didn’t have much suspense and I think that’s because it didn’t really go to different places. It just replaced certain elements now cliche in the Alien franchise with things that are similar to those cliches. Like the medilab scene with the squid, Alien Cobra, the turned dude going on a rampage, death by flamethrower, climactic chase scene at the end. You get the sense that it tried to invert these moments from the franchise and it just didn’t work.
It’s a ‘good’ film but it should’ve been if not a masterpiece then something truly out there. The Jockey’s should’ve been bio-mechanic not tall and buff albinos. There’s no excuse for that. You could make the excuse that it’s to tie in that the Jockey’s are mankind’s ancestors but visually it isn’t interesting. How hard could it have been to get Giger involved or some other renowned bio-mechanic artist and do something really different?
If you’re doing the bio weapon origin for the Alien, go crazy with it. Make insane alien/human hybrids like Vincent Ward’s ideas for Alien 3. There’s so many things you can do and it doesn’t have to be a ripoff of The Thing. Fifelds alternate attack grazes the lips of doing something different but ties in with the Alien. You know, just an idea, why not have the Jockey’s perform experiments on humans and take the evolution of the Alien even further. Make the newborn from Resurrection look like a spec in the mind’s eye and go full on Salvador Dali/Hieronymus Bosch insanity?
Doesn’t have to be gory as fuck, just something really different we haven’t seen before. The Alien used to be something we’ve never seen before. Felt like Prometheus played it safe.
The movie suggests humans will eventually evolve to become SJs, however realistically if you look how dependant we are on machines and electronics it would be logical to assume we will evolve into a hybrid of biological tissue and mechanical devices.
It definitely felt like it’s going for more mystery element than sheer scares…I think they were just afraid of sinking right back into the problems Resurrection and the AVP flicks where it just degenerated into set pieces with little care for anything else, hence them dropping the traditional elements in favor of seeing the evolutionary stuff. That creates problems of it’s own cuz it is a genre picture, but it has more lofty aspirations, even if they don’t quite get all the way there cuz Lindelof doesn’t like to explain stuff he sets up(he even calls himself extremely pretentious in the commentary).
I’m desensitized to most scares in movies anymore as well, so I had more fun watching the little evolutions(when the Cobra unfurls and it’s facehugger before it grew legs and went ground mobile). I still think the medpod scene is pretty tense, but the whole body horror stuff is one of the few horror elements that still really fucks with me. My brother hadn’t seen Alien or Aliens, and he found Prometheus pretty intense, but was pretty bored with Alien’s pace.
As far as the Jockey’s being the albinos…I actually loved that reveal. That took some balls. The opening scene with the ritual sacrifice had me scratching my head, so when they remove the helmet on the ship and you see the Engineer’s face…that was a holy shit moment for me. I just wish they given the Last Engineer more playtime in the movie, but I like the thematic elements it creates between the humans/engineers and David/Humans/Weyland/Vickers. The whole unwanted/discarded children/parental resentment themes layered in was interesting.
As of August 1st, Prometheus 2 has been greenlit, and Ridley mentions that the “Deacon” xenomorph is likely to create it’s own little shitstorm down the line, so they’ll probably return to more traditional elements…they should just leave Lindelof out of the equation and let Spaihts handle that if he returns.
My quick capsule review of Prometheus after finally seeing it: Pretty on mute. The screenplay was a disaster. Why is it that movies that are meant to put forth ideas then let those ideas ferment always decide to ditch all that cerebral stuff and simply rely of horrible exposition and horror movie tropes?
Lindelof in his commentary: “You’re either listening cuz you’re interested in what I have to say…or you’re listening because you hate me and you want to find out why I destroyed your childhood.”
Kinda sums up the experience…you either go with it or just find constant disappointment in it.
I have to admit after listening to the guy I do like him, he is obviously very smart, he really wants to make the viewer think not hand everything on a plate. Maybe he needs to easy up a little but we need writers like him.
Prometheus was over-hyped as fuck. Mos def not the best film ever, but I found it very enjoyable. I really don’t know what people were expecting. The “making of” feature is great too, they even have a flow charts (lol). What we have in these films is awesome world building with some cool monsters and origin stories. Nothing more.
