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

D9 looked great considering the budget, but I haven't seen it in a while so maybe it hasn't aged that well. I wonder just how much air it's in the prices of effects houses? Or other movie businesses?

  On 6/28/2012 at 5:54 PM, The Overlook said:

Eh, don't sweat it, dude.

 

Even I have a "warning point" and I'm practically an angel...except when bickering with my husband, Joyrex.

LOL. I have 4 warning points, I don't even know why.

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d9 was really good, but it stops there. not exactly a movie to remember. cloverfield, on the other hand... 9/10

if Children of Men is a "tech demo" then honestly you should probably just stop watching movies. best sci fi film of the last 20 years, probably.

actually that would go to 12 Monkeys or something

anyway, I'm just saying, when the "pickins" are this slim, i do think it's reasonable to lower standards just a little bit.

Has anyone watched The Target (Russian film)? It's sf, quite serious and very good.

Oh yeah, this is fascinating.

One was for joking about posting a nude picture of someone. Making a joke (lol)

One was for unspecified "trolling"

One has no actual reason attached to it.

The other was for making a personal attack at someone. Which is fair enough.

Still though, LOL

  On 6/29/2012 at 6:46 AM, vamos scorcho said:

d9 was really good, but it stops there. not exactly a movie to remember. cloverfield, on the other hand... 9/10

  On 6/29/2012 at 6:50 AM, vamos scorcho said:

if Children of Men is a "tech demo" then honestly you should probably just stop watching movies. best sci fi film of the last 20 years, probably.

 

actually that would go to 12 Monkeys or something

 

anyway, I'm just saying, when the "pickins" are this slim, i do think it's reasonable to lower standards just a little bit.

District 9 was not enjoyable to me. i honestly considered not finishing the movie about 2/3 of the way through. Cloverfield was okay, but more interesting conceptually than realistically. i don't think it's visually or character-wise very interesting. it was okay though, kept me interested at least, i enjoyed it. i have no desire to see it again really though, if that means anything.

haven't seen Children of Men so i can't really comment. i caught 20-30 minutes on tv one day and it didn't leave me wanting to actually watch the entire movie. i'll probably watch it one day nonetheless. 12 Monkeys is good, and pretty strange for a rather mainstream movie. it's held up by good actors and a well constructed plot, with enough visual weirdness to keep it interesting....i enjoy it but i don't hold it in as high a regard as you do obviously.

not sure what i would nominate for best sci-fi of the last 20 years. there's a hell of a lot of contenders.

Alright, this thread is sufficiently derailed for me to jump in here and say...

How're you gonna talk about Cloverfield and District 9 being the best sci-fi movies in recent memory when you've got films like 'Primer'?

[youtubehd]4CC60HJvZRE[/youtubehd]

[youtubehd]gFJMcAB5SFU[/youtubehd]

awepittance was specifically talking about a kind of 80's genre aesthetic which district 9 approaches. primer is great, sure, but it isn't part of that. neither is cloverfield. actually, cloverfield just wasn't a good movie, period.

I have watched Prometheus yesterday night, finally. My review (or whatever it might be) may contain some SPOILERS, even though at this point pretty much everyone at watmm has seen it, i guess.

I had not been reading this thread, not because i was afraid of spoilers, but because i always wanna go to the movies for the descovery, and because i didn't expect this film to be at the level of Alien or even Blade Runner, which were Scott's best moments and my favorite sci fi movies, but also belong to a very specific moment in history, and space exploration history.

My hope for Sci fi movies is already long gone, and so is my hope for the older generation of directors, like Scott, and it's a shame that Hollywood doesn't understand how directors are like any other artists: there is no way one can be successful for an entire career and keep bringing masterpieces of human creativity and imagination at 10 years intervals.

I wanna focus my critique on more technical details because, honestly speaking, the story and the plot deserve really no attention. It's like the Sci Fi genre, and especially Prometheus, have been contaminated with that same lack of intelligence of writing, naive optimism, cringe worthy accuracy and negligence, bad and soulless acting. Where is the united, anxious and varied ship crew? Most of the crew feels dispensable and ridiculous:

the lady that sticks a syringe on the engineers head. is she even a doctor? if so, she would be crucial for the crew's well being

the asian and other pilot under the black guy's command: making a bet? offering themselves for suicide with no second thought? what?

Charlize Theron? What's the point of her character? If only we could get bigger screens of her sweaty ass

The two chickens who get behind the crew and trapped inside the temple: i understand they would be good to add some humour and relief the tension, except there were neither.

Also, if the expedition was so important for humanity, why not send older, experient scientists, instead of good looking, fashionable kids which add zero credibility to the whole thing?

Then there is the huge amount scientific inaccuracy:

Shaw gets instantly recovered after the abdominal surgery? maybe it will be possible in 2090's, but i wasn't convinced at all. The program-your-own-surgery-pod was cool enough for me, but they had to mess with the whole thing.

Professional scientists removing their helmets in unknown and most definitely hostile conditions? excessively naive, but above all, pointless.

I feel like i have just wasted my time on these two last paragraphs, as everyone with minimum common sense will agree that most decisions taken by the crew and scientifically pointless and really boner-killing, to say the least.

I want to focus my thoughts on technical questions, because they seemed really weak to me in Prometheus.

I can understand that the movie feels to clean and shiny. After all, our current technology allows us to get such result. But isn't there a place for the senses? Where is the feeling of touch, the physicallity, so essential to get people immersed on a sci fi movie? Alien embraced this so perfectly. Remember how the cat added a mundane feeling to the atmosphere inside the ship, thus reinforcing the human presence? And how the rough, harsh, raw and dark exterior of the planet worked so well in contrast with the sterile whiteness and light interiors of the ship, which sended signals to our senses and interacted with our body, making us feel part of it?

After the two scientists are rescued from the storm in Prometheus, how come their suits are so clean? Even the storm looks clean.

And the scenery of the planet is just so boringly vulgar. I can imagine that the planet of our origin could have a diametrically different look, as well as its architecture. The pyramid shape was a very clever detail though.

The special effects and imagery didn't look that surprising either. I don't often agree with people ranting about cgi and special fx being irrealistic. Sci Fi is about humanity's dreams, theories and the future, so the reality factor should as well be unfamiliar to the eye and cause suspicion.

But the efforts felt lazy here. I was really feeling the opening scene, the ship's shadow wandering troughout the surfaces, but when the the engineer appears my boner is gone. Is that cgi or makeup? or both?

Overall, the special effects didn't surprise me but some things, like the 3D video message left by the Weyland or the robots constructing the temple's 3D map in real time, really satisfied me and certainly represent a step in technology development we won't need that much to grab with our own hands.

It's a shame to know that Prometheus failed in both the technical side and the storytelling side. I really enjoyed Fassbander's acting, even though it feels too programmed and thoughtless, for a robot that loves Lawrence of Arabia, and i enjoyed the screens of Shaw's ass and wet body.

I left the theatre thinking i had watched a total mess of a movie, and for a moment thought it had been unnecessary to waste money and time on making it. So much potential to it, that wasn't grabbed. The idea of humans being a product of extraterrestrial creation seemed like a concept worthy of a Sci Fi movie.

Instead Prometheus felt to me like the extinction of the last element of an endangered species, being it Sci Fi movies in this case.

I have enjoyed Avatar a lot much.

Both feel too naive and cringe worthy on their story and acting, but at least Avatar embraces technology in a more wishful and dreamy way, and does feel prophetic when compared to the funny expedition that was Prometheus' journey.

I will end my words the same way i have started: i feel like the Sci Fi movie has come to extinction, and i feel sorry for young and talented directors and writers, full of ideas, but unable to step into the industry, because Sci Fi movies need a lot of money to be created.

The good news is that everything in life revolves in circles. Sci Fi cinema will one day reveal a new spirit and ambition. All we need is this generation of film professionals to retire and give their place to new ones.

I just think you're in a negative mood because Portugal lost at Euro 2012.

  On 6/30/2012 at 4:22 PM, goDel said:

I just think you're in a negative mood because Portugal lost at Euro 2012.

I don't even care about football. And if i did so, i don't mix things like that

BREAKING NEWS:

IDM Message Board Over-Analyzes Something.

  On 6/30/2012 at 5:40 PM, hautlle said:

BREAKING NEWS:

 

IDM Message Board Over-Analyzes Something.

Coming up later on the show - How to self diagnose for aspergers

I still think it's because of the Euro2012 loss. Or it could be bad coffee. This is not the season for Aspergers, is it?

  On 6/25/2012 at 11:13 PM, Joyrex said:

"Lack of understanding" Give me a fucking break - I'm just sick to death of pretentious assholes (I'll let you decided for yourself if you're in that camp or not) who complain about movies mostly, from my perspective, for the sake of doing so instead of doing what movies were meant for - enjoyment.

lol Joyrex

Talking about pretentious.

I can understand you saying that movies were meant for enjoyment, after all, you seem to spend a lot of time playing videogames, so suddenly everything involving characters and story is entertaining.

I feel sorry for you and everyone that isn't able to get the message of cinema beyond the enjoyment, even though it's not the case with watmm, as most people here are actually passionate about cinema.

I wish i could be like you guys tho, being so sure about your thoughts, your opinions, your life.

The only thing i know is that i am not sure of anything.

Of course not everyone is as demanding as i am, but i would like you to present concrete arguments instead of making lame jokes about opinions.

Next time if you please. Prometheus really isn't worth of my attention right now.

lol, I still haven't seen Prometheus, but I'm really enjoying this thread.

Btw, I re-read Childhood's End yesterday, after being reminded of it by a post on watmm recently. I would love to see a film version, probably more so than Rendezvous with Rama...

I can't stand imagining Childhood's end in movie form because I don't trust anyone on designing those "certain characters" in that book.

  Joyrex said:

movies are meant for enjoyment.

  On 6/30/2012 at 6:34 PM, ruiagnelo said:

  On 6/25/2012 at 11:13 PM, Joyrex said:

"Lack of understanding" Give me a fucking break - I'm just sick to death of pretentious assholes (I'll let you decided for yourself if you're in that camp or not) who complain about movies mostly, from my perspective, for the sake of doing so instead of doing what movies were meant for - enjoyment.

 

lol Joyrex

Talking about pretentious.

I can understand you saying that movies were meant for enjoyment, after all, you seem to spend a lot of time playing videogames, so suddenly everything involving characters and story is entertaining.

 

I feel sorry for you and everyone that isn't able to get the message of cinema beyond the enjoyment, even though it's not the case with watmm, as most people here are actually passionate about cinema.

 

 

 

 

I wish i could be like you guys tho, being so sure about your thoughts, your opinions, your life.

The only thing i know is that i am not sure of anything.

 

Of course not everyone is as demanding as i am, but i would like you to present concrete arguments instead of making lame jokes about opinions.

 

Next time if you please. Prometheus really isn't worth of my attention right now.

lol the condescension here is hilarious

  On 6/30/2012 at 7:33 PM, gaarg said:

I can't stand imagining Childhood's end in movie form because I don't trust anyone on designing those "certain characters" in that book.

Wayne Barlowe did a pretty good job in my favorite childhood book:

  On 6/30/2012 at 8:03 PM, auxien said:

lol the condescension here is hilarious

what?

lumpy, what was the name of that book? I had it as well, but haven't seen it in over ten years. would really like to know!

Barlowe's Guide To Extraterrestrials