ALIEN / PROMETHEUS / COVENANT / ROMULUS - SPOILERS INBOUND!!

phew, but Ridley is now done with 'grunge' so i guess its going to look a lot like the new Total Recall movie

which actually kinda looks like a Prometheused Bladerunner verse

scroll to 1:20 to see how Ridley will fuck up forever the legacy of Bladerunner with hollywood CGI moneyshots

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total recall movie looks sleazy, stupid, hollywood bullshit, cgi, action bullshit, asshole bullshit

how is it possible that film has gone this far down the shitter. i think its time we truly start asking this question

just seen this at the local 3D imax... thought it was OK! certainly not unmissable or anything, but i'll give it 6.5 out of 10 tentacles.

  On 6/2/2012 at 10:41 PM, The Overlook said:

The fact that you have Karl Pilkington as your avatar suggests to me that, not unsuccessfully, you're just trolling the shit out of everyone.

He is not a troll Mirezzi. One of ,my friends from way back on here. His opinions are real not just antagonizing.

  On 6/4/2012 at 2:51 PM, Squee said:

Prometheus isn't much better than the The Thing prequel.

SQUEE, this statement is fucking bullshit. Prometheus looked so much better than the thing prequel, there is no comparison. The script was at least three times better as well.

  On 6/5/2012 at 11:09 PM, Awepittance said:

so hey guys, just wanted to come in and pat my prescient-self on the back

 

December 22nd i wrote this in the thread : )

 

  Quote

edit: also it's never a good sign for a trailer to show so many over the top CGI money shots. I can't think of a single movie that has done this that wasn't disappointing to some degree.

 

Phantom Menace trailer anyone?........

 

Yeah I am with Compson. Saying anything negative before seeing a film, unless the trailer is completely atrocious, which none of the Prometheus trailers are, is a bit wacky. Whith the Phantom Menace, I just remember the trailers being very ambiguous. Not like the UK Prometheus trailers where they give away plot points.

  On 6/5/2012 at 11:15 PM, Awepittance said:

so it safe to say this movie is Mission to Aliens Vs Predator ?

No, not at all.

  On 6/6/2012 at 12:19 AM, compson said:

  On 6/5/2012 at 11:15 PM, Awepittance said:

so it safe to say this movie is Mission to Aliens Vs Predator ?

 

I'm not sure, gonna have to watch the film to gauge something like that

Exactly, no one should be able to review or speculate on an entire film based on trailers. That is the point of most trailers, to get you to come see the film. It is not the film itself. So by reviewing trailers as the film, people are being ridiculous.

  On 6/9/2012 at 1:18 AM, Awepittance said:

and i hate to say it but the leaked spoiler synopsis that ended up actually being either fake or an early revision (i was blatantly wrong) was FAR more interesting than what ended up in the final script. my god

Did you read the fake scrpt. Because I think the one that leaked wasn't real.

  On 6/9/2012 at 1:50 AM, Gocab said:

it's bad, I wish it was never made.

Best worst review ever.

  On 6/9/2012 at 10:44 AM, compson said:

lol at everyone

Indeed.

  On 6/9/2012 at 8:06 PM, Awepittance said:

Hoodie nailed so many of the fatal flaws in this movie, good job :). Yeah the technology was out of control in this movie, a machine that can see people's dreams shouldn't exist at least in my mind in a pre Space Truckers space movie. It was actually beyond stupid.

 

also what happened to characters having realistic reactions to seeing an alien species or structure for the first time in human history?

 

they acted super fucking laid back for having experienced such a thing. Especially the 2 scientists who should have been ecstatic.

I haven't read Hoodie's nitpicking but I will eventually. All of you are picking this film apart to death. I have problems with it as well but I can safely say that I have never seen this story on film and that I enjoyed a lot of it. The closest piece of writing I can compare the ideas to is At The Mountains of Madness by Lovecraft and the Chariot of the Gods by Von Dänikenwho ripped off this book http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Morning_of_the_Magicians in which the show Ancient Aliens rips off every time it is on.

This film is not nearly as bad as you all are making it out to be and with further watchings I am pretty sure I will enjoy it more, simply for David's character and all of the buck wild nasty horror sequences on the planet. I saw it IMAX 3D, so the sound was amazing. The visuals are amazing. The first shot of the film was beautiful, in a Lovecraftian, Olaf Stapledon, Arthur C Clarke kind of way.

Maybe you all just need to stop expecting films to be as good as you want them to be. I know you are writing scripts Robbie. Make better films instead of getting upset over the ones being made.

Lots of mythical ideas here that I enjoyed. The part I did not enjoy really was the fact that I think the whole film was a set up for a sequel.

And I think it is safe to say that Guillermo del Toro can still make At The Mountains of Madness and not have it look or being anything like Prometheus. The only thing in common is speculation on who or what might have created us.

This film is not perfect. Nothing is. Get over it.

It is a lot better than the Phantom Menace.

Prometheus 7.5/10

hey check it, this guy nitpicks it with a positive spin, WTF??? How strange of him to not hate this film? http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html#cutid1

A lot of people in this thread are so angry .. its just a fucking movie.

I enjoyed the fuck out of Prometheus, yeah it has its flaws but most movies (if not all movies) has flaws. Stop being so fastidious.

  On 6/9/2012 at 9:49 PM, Atop said:

hey check it, this guy nitpicks it with a positive spin, WTF??? How strange of him to not hate this film? http://cavalorn.live...135.html#cutid1

honestly, i feel like the script probably suffered from too many rewrites. the movie does a lot of things correctly in terms of philosophy and symbolism, but the actual storytelling is done poorly. in my mind, one of the few things that could explain that is someone working on the film for so long that they become "blind" to what they are actually creating. they craft these little plots that are brilliant but can't weave them together correctly to make a quality final product.

i don't hate the film. i can't hate a film. i'm disappointed with the film.

Compson is cool he just seems to not understand the nuances of human opinion,

criticizing a movies marketing campaign is totally valid and often clues you in on if the movie will be good or not, a lot of huge red flags for PRometheus told us that it would be a bait and switch, and well it was exactly that. Alien is one of my favorite movies, it is completely valid for me to make judgement calls on a prequel to it even before i see it. Sorry

  On 6/9/2012 at 9:49 PM, Atop said:

hey check it, this guy nitpicks it with a positive spin, WTF??? How strange of him to not hate this film? http://cavalorn.live...135.html#cutid1

since when does being extremely disappointed in something equate to hate?

  On 6/9/2012 at 9:43 PM, Atop said:

Stapledon, Arthur C Clarke kind of way.

 

Maybe you all just need to stop expecting films to be as good as you want them to be. I know you are writing scripts Robbie. Make better films instead of getting upset over the ones being made.

thanks cody, i can still do both right? i just dont want to choose between one or the other. I like to have my cake and eat it too

im with Squee, the Thing prequel at least didn't show every single good looking money shot in the trailer, they left a lot of things as surprises. Such as showing 'The Thing' for a lot of shots before he tried to replicate humans. Prometheus, at least by my estimates showed or at least hinted at every single pinnacle and good looking scene in the entire film. In fact what they did not show would have turned people off, the giant white bald dudes, good thing they only showed glimpses of them in the trailer. It's amusing to me that Damon Lindeloff acts like his script is superior to previous prequels done, when it suffers from the exact same problems as the ones he is criticizing.

  On 6/9/2012 at 10:30 PM, Awepittance said:

Compson is cool he just seems to not understand the nuances of human opinion,

 

criticizing a movies marketing campaign is totally valid and often clues you in on if the movie will be good or not, a lot of huge red flags for PRometheus told us that it would be a bait and switch, and well it was exactly that. Alien is one of my favorite movies, it is completely valid for me to make judgement calls on a prequel to it even before i see it. Sorry

Advertising is satan. Usually it's not done by the creative forces who actually made the film, but a 3rd party post-production studio. I was talking in the new Quentin Tarantino thread about this. His trailers always suck because his films don't translate at all to trailer form (his strength is unfolding a scene with long sequences of dialogue: ie opening of Inglorious Basterds). However humans aren't very patient and they need assurance for their hard earned cash, so things have to be marketed and spelled out. Ideally I would go to the theater one day and see a poster for Prometheus and I would buy my ticket that day and go check it out. Think about how much pre-thought goes into anticipating a film now. Trailers go through entire 2/3rds of films now, so as one anticipates they begin to fill in the blanks. Just as when people read a book and then go see the film, they are often disappointed in the film because it didn't match up with their own filling in the blanks (visual aesthetic etc). So my point in all this is, sure voicing ones opinion about poor marketing is cool, but does it actually promote a better form of marketing to the studios etc? Not really, because they already have you when you buy your movie ticket and sit down in the theater seats. They don't really care if you dislike the film cause the ending was spoiled in the trailer, they got your money. So there is no reason for a trailer to be subtle or vague to studios. The act of watching advertising though is a poor and pointless endeavor if you already know you are going to already pay for whatever it is. That's all I'm saying. Instead of going to see Prometheus and be disappointed as some of you were, you were spending your time anticipating this disappointment and analyzing it... then you go watch it, even though you know you are probably going to be disappointed. When you leave the theater disappointed people then say that too much was spoiled and it was as disappointing as they imagined. Spending all this time and energy over something due to advertising is a waste. Fuck advertising. Theres so many better ways to get informed on what films to check out or music. I think a lot of people have rose tinted glasses on older films because they are infact not subject to its advertising ever. Nor is most of the music people love on this website subject to advertising, at least in the sense of altering the artists creation to some easy to digest form for the masses.

  On 6/9/2012 at 9:43 PM, Atop said:

He is not a troll Mirezzi. One of ,my friends from way back on here. His opinions are real not just antagonizing.

Fair enough, brother, and the comments in this thread pre-release are (I thought) obviously not to be taken too seriously.

It does, however, kinda piss me off when people say things like, "Learn to make better movies instead of criticizing {INSERT $250M BUDGET BLOCKBUSTER HERE}."

Whatever emotional investment you have in watching films, remember that when it's all said and done, we're all just assholes and sheep when we queue up. The producers have the last laugh. I fail to see how compson can criticize advertising but leave Lindelof et al. out of the line of fire.

Anyhow, don't stoop to discouraging somebody from making films, as a hobby or as a profession, just because they don't like the same movies you do. No matter how outspoken the critic, every reception of every film is ultimately meaningful. Meaning making is a discursive process and the fact this thread is 50 pages or the Recent Films thread is 500+ pages directly speaks to that. If Robbie wants to shit on some films while glowing over others, I gather it informs his own ideas as an artist.

  On 6/9/2012 at 11:41 PM, The Overlook said:

  On 6/9/2012 at 9:43 PM, Atop said:

He is not a troll Mirezzi. One of ,my friends from way back on here. His opinions are real not just antagonizing.

 

Whatever emotional investment you have in watching films, remember that when it's all said and done, we're all just assholes and sheep when we queue up. The producers have the last laugh. I fail to see how compson can criticize advertising but leave Lindelof et al. out of the line of fire.

i agree with the first part here; there's nothing we can do to change the movies at all once they're released....unless George Lucas is on this thread. he can change his movies at will, apparently, years after the fact. director's cuts and such are interesting different takes, but the most of us are just consumers. just get on the ride and enjoy it or get off.

the criticizing of advertising for this movie doesn't much count, because Scott's own company did a large part (if not all) of the advertising. it's not like Scott handed over a gorgeous diamond and the big bad studio shit on it until it was worthless....Scott is part of the big bad studio here. like Lindelof said in that interview he did on The Verge, this movie is all Scott. he directed the writing in large part, and of course directing, producing, etc. he's to praise or to blame here, mostly.

watched alien last night, seemed to me like the basic plot of both films are kinda the same? crew picks up on signal, they think is an s.o.s. they go investigate, turns out it wasn't an s.o.s. and scary monsters are out to get them.

at least that's the same thing one can inferr form the prometheus trailer.

anyway.. I'm glad Lindeloff is getting all the hate. It's funny too because in that interview he was all like, "oh no no i didn't write it I just tried to make sure Scott could have his vision done"

  On 6/9/2012 at 5:03 PM, auxien said:

  On 6/9/2012 at 10:42 AM, Dogboy73 said:

  On 6/9/2012 at 1:40 AM, auxien said:

dude, it's not bad. it's not Alien. not in the least.

You got that right! Not in the same league by a long shot!

 

It's not trying to be Alien though. It's a sci-fi flick set in the same universe. I doubt it will be as important 30 years from now as Alien still is, but I'm honestly not sure there's ANY movie released these days that will have the impact of something released before the 90's. when there was an explosion of films pouring out of Hollywood. but that's a whole other discussion.

 

 

  On 6/9/2012 at 10:42 AM, Dogboy73 said:

  Quote

Prometheus is much more about revelations and origins and intellectual/psychological things that happens to be drenched in blood and monsters. emotions are few and far between. there are flaws but it's not bad. just go in as open-minded as possible.

It's much more about ..... what the hell is it about!? It's pure Lindelof Lost style cock teasing! Questions answered with questions & more questions. Nothing makes much sense. You have to interpret the story however you see fit. So you leave the cinema totally perplexed & wondering what the hell it was all about. There is zero satisfaction from this film beyond the breathtaking visuals. Characters are dull, weak & then dead. The story is all over the place & it can't make it's mind up if it wants to be an Alien prequel or a complete new movie. In the end it's neither. It's a friggin mess of epic proportions. Most disappointed with a film I think I've ever been! It's like Phantom Menace/Lucas syndrome all over again. Except this is worse because this is Ridley Scott with his third film in a genre he really did define with Alien & Blade Runner.

 

there's definitely some Lindelof cock-teasing going on. i enjoyed about 1/4 of Lost, i personally think a lot of it was shit television. there's a LOT of stuff that makes sense. there's a LOT of story that is shown in this movie. there's also a lot that wasn't revealed, which is fine by me. the (what we now know is an) Engineer in Alien was never explained, never touched on in all the sequels. huge bit of information that is left unanswered. how the hell was there a face-hugger that impregnated an animal AND Ripley in the events before Alien 3? who knows, it's one of the many mysteries left unanswered, and is most likely unanswerable. they're just horror/sci-fi flicks man...they're enjoyable, and whatever needs to happen to keep the story going happens. whatever the director or writer wants to happen will happen. Prometheus is just a fun decently done movie that is a vehicle for the story, unfortunately. the characters fell to the wayside, and there's nothing we can do. it's done, the movie is still good despite it, in my opinion.

 

the difference with those "mysteries" is that they're not central at all to the plot, they're just details whose solutions make no difference at all. To make the analogy more accurate then you'd have to have all the aliens movies being about some group setting to investigate the engineer, the facehugger and then completely forgetting about their mission for no reason.

  On 6/9/2012 at 9:50 PM, YO303 said:

A lot of people in this thread are so angry .. its just a fucking movie.

 

I enjoyed the fuck out of Prometheus, yeah it has its flaws but most movies (if not all movies) has flaws. Stop being so fastidious.

FUCK YEAH EXTREME ABORTION

  On 6/10/2012 at 12:06 AM, auxien said:

the criticizing of advertising for this movie doesn't much count, because Scott's own company did a large part (if not all) of the advertising. it's not like Scott handed over a gorgeous diamond and the big bad studio shit on it until it was worthless....Scott is part of the big bad studio here. like Lindelof said in that interview he did on The Verge, this movie is all Scott. he directed the writing in large part, and of course directing, producing, etc. he's to praise or to blame here, mostly.

Criticizing advertising always counts because the inherent structure of advertising/trailers does a disservice to the film unless its purely new content, like those viral videos which were cool. Just because Scott had control over the edit of the trailer doesn't mean he could have not made one.

Unless you think trailers enrich the film somehow, I don't see how my point of view on this is controversial. After ones sees the film, whatever opinion you have is valid, but one has to question how our culture of advertising negatively affects the experience... seems there is a trade off to ensure profitability.

SAw it last night... it was cool... I too questioned a couple of things, but I liked it. 7!

The only trailer I saw was the first one. I usually shut myself away from all hype, critiques, watmm threads, youtubes, etc. when I want to see something. I've only seen about 2 trailers for batman rises then shut myself away until it comes out! it's the only way to be sure.

I'm seeing the film in 3 hours in 3D. I'm making some marijuana food for the occasion. Getting quite sick of having to sneak smoke in the car before the film.

Asymm that is the way to approach it I think. If advertising harms the film, then avoiding it is giving the creators respect. I can't admit to being very good at avoiding hype and whatnot, but I try and recognize trailers, reviews, etc as essentially meaningless and I try not to give them much thought. Generally the only aspect of a trailer I pay any attention to is the visual aesthetics. Dialogue and whatnot are always manipulated and condensed and plot points/money shots wasted. A short written synopsis and a minute long montage of the actors and visual aesthetics without using too many money shots would be ideal and refreshing in this age of condensed film trailers.

Not as good as you guys would have me believe (circa 3 months ago) but way better than you guys would have me believe (circa right now). I don't have any nostalgic attachment to the Alien franchise & I only watch like 10 movies a year so maybe that has something to do with it iunno. Also

i liked it. the only critique i believe is they could have made it longer to explain more bits, to build better characters etc.

i didn't expect it to be as good as alien or blade runner so i wasn't let down.

I enjoyed it. It was predictable but definitely had me on the edge a few times even with all it's predictability. That and, Noomi Rapace with red hair was quite nice. Visually amazing without a doubt.

  On 6/9/2012 at 10:30 PM, Awepittance said:

Compson is cool he just seems to not understand the nuances of human opinion,

 

criticizing a movies marketing campaign is totally valid and often clues you in on if the movie will be good or not, a lot of huge red flags for PRometheus told us that it would be a bait and switch, and well it was exactly that. Alien is one of my favorite movies, it is completely valid for me to make judgement calls on a prequel to it even before i see it. Sorry

Its cool to criticize movies, give you opinions and pick on plot holes but you shouldn't get so angry. Its just a fucking movie, its not like Ridley Scott came to your house kill your kids and raped your wife.

  On 6/10/2012 at 4:02 AM, YO303 said:

  On 6/9/2012 at 10:30 PM, Awepittance said:

Compson is cool he just seems to not understand the nuances of human opinion,

 

criticizing a movies marketing campaign is totally valid and often clues you in on if the movie will be good or not, a lot of huge red flags for PRometheus told us that it would be a bait and switch, and well it was exactly that. Alien is one of my favorite movies, it is completely valid for me to make judgement calls on a prequel to it even before i see it. Sorry

 

Its cool to criticize movies, give you opinions and pick on plot holes but you shouldn't get so angry. Its just a fucking movie, its not like Ridley Scott came to your house kill your kids and raped your wife.

i don't think anyone here is angry. maybe you're not interpreting hyperbole correctly. i sincerely doubt awepittance wants to go around punching people in the throat because of the star wars prequels. he probably just said that for effect, just like i said that the blade runner sequel makes me sick (but not really, i feel quite fine).