Support NeoGAF

[Truant]

I enjoy Prometheus as a cosmic body-horror film with pretty pictures and some decent performances.

 

[W.S.]

That's interesting. I love the Alien Queen for the movie Aliens because it fit the films themes, structure, and tone, but I found it to greatly diminish my fear of the aliens because it made them much more explicitly insectoid and natural. I loved the life-cycle shown in the Alien director's cut where the alien turns humans into the eggs. That was thoroughly disturbing not only because it fit the body/sexual terror of the creature, but again it was a completely alien mechanism of reproduction for the creature. Most movie aliens don't feel all that alien, but the xeno in Alien absolutely nailed that, of something that we will never find on earth.

I've always like the idea that when a Xeno is away from the influence of a queen, it acts the way it was shown in the Alien DC ie turning prey into eggs, with perhaps a new queen coming from one of the resulting huggers. Maybe this what happened to the terraformers on LV246.

It's a cool idea but it doesn't make much sense, how does it turn the person into the raw material for an egg? How does a face hugger form from that?

 

[Fancy Clown]

It's a cool idea but it doesn't make much sense, how does it turn the person into the raw material for an egg? How does a face hugger form from that?

No one knows how it works, that's part of what makes it so scary. How can they grow to adult size in a matter of hours without any food?

 

[W.S.]

No one knows how it works, that's part of what makes it so scary. How can they grow to adult size in a matter of hours without any food?

That's never been properly shown but I think the model for them were ants which is why the queen-->egg-->facehugger-->host in Aliens makes more sense.

 

[brisk tacos]

Lmao at the idea that Prometheus is worse than either AvP movies. You want to talk about legitimately terrible movies on all fronts that left you disappointed...

 

[nowarning]

Prometheus was alright, I saw it in the cinema and enjoyed it, picked it up on blu-ray when it was a bit cheaper. Some of it was a bit daft but whatever, I'd quite like to see a sequel.

 

[Fancy Clown]

That's never been properly shown but I think the model for them were ants which is why the queen-->egg-->facehugger-->host in Aliens makes more sense.

It certainly makes more sense, which again kind of demystifies them a bit. I can see the merit for the alien queen--again I do like it for Aliens--but I prefer the extreme body-horror approach from the DC as the lack of basis in the natural world again makes it more alien and disturbing.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

I enjoyed Prometheus but the characters were disappointing. I didn't like the romance, I didn't like the subplots, and their motivations, and I disliked the line delivery.

I liked Fassbinder. His robotic acting was straightforward. I liked the aliens, and I enjoyed the prologue, the mythology and wylan.


I just didn't like the main cast. And it's such a weird thing, because Ridley does know how to get a good performance out of his actors. None were memorable. The exposition was hacky and forced, and basically it felt like the characters just spilled out the plot ("talking heads") instead of doing things.


Everything about it, from sound design, to aesthetic, to the cinematography is breathtaking. I loved what he build, but how can anyone get behind it when the characters were not better? I welcome a sequel. I hope for the best! There is more to tell here! I'm much less weary about a Prometheus 2 than a AVATAR 2, which I just think sounds like the same movie but under water.

 

[CadetMahoney]

The characters were disappointing. I didn't like the romance, I didn't like the subplots, and their motivations, and I disliked the line delivery.

I liked Fassbinder. His robotic acting was straightforward. I liked the aliens, and I enjoyed the prologue, the mythology and wylan.

I just didn't like the main cast. And it's such a weird thing, because Ridley does know how to get a good performance out of his actors. None were memorable. The exposition was hacky and forced, and basically it felt like the characters just spilled out the plot ("talking heads") instead of doing things.

And yet we have ppl questioning why ppl think it's shit. The film got a lot more wrong than it did right basically.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

And yet we have ppl questioning why ppl think it's shit. The film got a lot more wrong than it did right basically.

I agree that not having good characters is the worst sin you can commit in any story be it in a game, movie, tv show, book.

You can enjoy the journey if you love the characters, even if the story is shit. you'll soak up a simple, predictable or over-done story with a simple morale/message if you love the characters.

But you can almost never enjoy a good story with shitty characters. it just doesn't work, because you don't give a fuck about the characters on screen. True Blood is an excellent example of a cool world, story and mythology, that is wrought down by such unappealing characters except for a couple of exceptions (Lafayette, Eric).



With all this being said though, I think a movie can be so strong visually and audio-visually that it can carry it. Oblivion is a good example. Or Lord of the Rings the The Two Towers- which is a slow borg of a paced movie with a lot of needless filler that doesn't do a whole lot. It's just so damn captivating to look at and listen to, and then you can forgive a lot of the not-so-good-stuff IMO.

 

[W.S.]

It certainly makes more sense, which again kind of demystifies them a bit. I can see the merit for the alien queen--again I do like it for Aliens--but I prefer the extreme body-horror approach from the DC as the lack of basis in the natural world again makes it more alien and disturbing.

Well they're waaaay past demystified at this point lol

This is why I don't mind them going into the engineers, they're just as interesting to me and to a degree even the deacon alien is a nice detour from the typical xenomorph although I doubt they'll do much with it.

 

[DECK'ARD]

Agreed with your entire post but this part in particular is really spot in terms of how I feel about the franchise as a whole. I always loved the idea that the aliens represented something realistic and natural and that evil was just our subjective interpretation of it because it was so different to what we were used to and because as you said it was something we couldn't ignore because it affected us directly. To me the more fucked up yet still plausible we could make these creatures and their life cycle, the stronger a metaphor the conflict with them could be for man's struggle against his own rigid and biased sense of morality and his irrational dislike and fear of anything that doesn't conform to the arbitrary standards he repeatedly tries to apply to nature.

Yeah, I think being plausible whilst also being 'Alien' is why it worked so well. We weren't just introduced to a xenomorph that runs amok and kills everyone, by being shown how it came to be it was made that much more real. This wasn't a monster, this was a species.

A species we'd just been lucky to not encounter before because its life-cycle was at odds with our own. The first death was so it could live, which sent the message that we already meant nothing to it. This was just nature at its most raw. The xenomorph's lack of morality is as alien to us as the creature itself, but by showing its life-cycle why it doesn't share those values was explained.

And that's more scary, because there's nothing to be reasoned with or condemned. No sense of moral superiority. Just a frightening acceptance of how it is.

 

[Chiggs]

It's a great companion piece to Alien and Blade Runner.

No, it's really not.

 

[NumberTwo]

Prometheus is worth watching for the cinematography, and sfx if nothing else. The script on the other hand is full of baffling (sometimes moronic) character motivations and incoherent plot development. I still actually went to see it twice because it was such a pretty film to take in.

 

[Fenderputty]

I thought Prometheus was beautiful and while a mess pretty fun. So I'm down for 2.

 

[Decado]

I thought Prometheus was beautiful and while a mess pretty fun. So I'm down for 2.

Likewise. I'm hoping it is an action film, though. Would love to see Scott's version of Aliens. Particularly if it is R-rated.