SubJeff on 17/6/2012 at 18:37
I wasn't referring to your post at all - I hadn't even seen it. I was just taking a swipe at all the people asking really obvious questions. I supposed I should have gone with "why do they need space suits on hurrr?" or "why do they need oxygen supplies?" instead.
FWIW I agree with your point (now that I went back and read it) about not fleshing him out. They could have at least have him mutter something about wanting to live long enough to meet our creators or God or some such fluff. Maybe give him as specific question he wants answered, like "why have you let us destroy ourselves over the ages?" or "why does the Sun come out, and are the stars just pinholes in the curtain of night?". Or whatever.
Yakoob on 17/6/2012 at 19:35
While I dont care for his character being fleshed out or not (it really wouldn't add much to the movie), what I think could have used more fleshing out was the point he was trying to make - human's drive for immortality. Right now, it does kind of pop up out of nowhere and is never really explored or resolved.
Of course, fleshing out his character could have been one way of exploring that point further, but I think Prometheus already has too many characters that dont get enough screen time as it is :p
Morte on 17/6/2012 at 19:57
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
It's a lot less retarded than answering/explaining a massive list of simple things that people don't get. The amount of nitpicking, a lot of it because stuff wasn't spoonfed (and why should it be?), I've seen re: this film is on a whole new level.
There's a very simple reason for the people nitpicking: the movie didn't satisfy them. And even if they can't always exactly articulate exactly why, they pick at the tangible details, like the plot holes and opaque character motivation. And it's an easy movie to nitpick, because the script is dumb as a brick, while the movie screams TAKE ME SERIOUSLY. Which is the very worst kind of stupid.
For me, the real problem is this: Prometheus is a smushing of serious* sci-fi movie about meeting your maker and a slasher/monster movie and that just doesn't work. It doesn't give you any time with the characters, so you don't care when they die, and it keeps jerking them around to fit the stock beats. (Yes, go pet the obviously scary alien cobra. That'll work out well. Prometheus: like watching Cabin in the Woods, but without the justification for the characters acting retarded.) It has nothing to say about the so-called serious subject matter because goodness me, an alien vagina-cobra is running down that man's throat and an albino bodybuilder is smashing people's faces in.
Or, to quote (
http://badassdigest.com/2012/06/08/sam-strange-remembers-prometheus/) Sam Strange:
Quote:
So as you can see, this is a deeply intellectual film. Most philosophers spend their whole lives on "Why are we here?" Prometheus goes one step further by asking, "Who gives a shit why we're here. Why are super-buff Powder men trying to kill us with black ooze that does ill-defined awful shit?" Deep, deep stuff. Trust me, it'll all make sense when we make Prometheus 2. And if it doesn't, it will when we make Prometheus 3. And if it doesn't, you were never going to be satisfied in the first place, I guess. Shame on you.
*As much as anything derived from von Daniken can be called serious anyway.
Nicker on 17/6/2012 at 21:21
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
There are umpteen examples
in this very thread. If people are going to whine about a set of forceps when it's clearly a symbolic thing then "haters gonna hate" is all the explanation they deserve.
Hey guys, why did Weyland not want to grow old and die huuur? Really, that's the level it's got to.
When the nits are the size of elephants it's hard not to remark at them. When they trample any value out of the film, it's hard not to blame them (and the people responsible).
The complaint isn't the minutiae themselves, it is what the overwhelming number and appalling obviousness of the gaffs says about the sheer laziness of the writing.
I'm not looking for reasons to hate the film. I didn't drop $18 to watch it in glorious IMAX 3D so that I could hate it. And I'm not pissed off at it because I didn't get it. I am pissed off because the film didn't get it... none of it.
Is it a great character piece? No. We don't give a shit about most of the people because hardly any of them seem real.
Is it great SciFi? No. It gets bogged down in explanations that it hasn't thought through and and pretty much gives up on by the second act.
Is it a scary monster movie? No. Unlike
Alien, I never flinched once, namely because the arrival of the monsters and their actions were utterly predictable. Actually it was a relief when some of the more annoying, disposable characters finally made their gory exits. Even that was not particularly satisfying.
And what Morte said...
SubJeff on 17/6/2012 at 21:33
It fell short of the mark, no doubt, but it is good sci-fi and it's not supposed to be a scary monster movie.
Sombras on 17/6/2012 at 22:23
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
It fell short of the mark, no doubt, but it is good sci-fi and it's not supposed to be a scary monster movie.
I think the overwhelmingly negative comments in this thread speak against
Prometheus being "good sci-fi".
Pretty sci-fi, I'll grant you, but that story really stank--even after some here have taken time to patiently explain it to us mental defects. I'll see the next installment because I'm interested, but not because this one was so "good".
Aerothorn on 18/6/2012 at 01:37
Finally got around to posting my quickly-scribbled thoughts on the film, though I suspect the arguments in the 228 (!) posts in this thread have covered all of this.
(
http://www.augmented-vision.net/?p=370)
Also, Sombras: I got some catch up to do, but not sure any number of posts can proove a film is/isn't good. Populism as criticism is a lazy and dull way to go; might as well just have a poll in the title post and nothing after.
P.S. Just watched the trailer and man, am I glad I avoid these things. Spoils a ton of the movie. If you had no idea what the movie was, I can *maybe* see why you'd watch something like that, but if you're an Alien fan and you're going to see it anyway why ruin the surprise and build up expectations based on something that almost certainly isn't fully representative of the product?
Scots Taffer on 18/6/2012 at 01:43
It's funny, there hasn't been this sort of critical backlash and equivalent nerd rage response about a movie for quite some time - I don't think that means anything about the quality of the movie though.
Sombras on 18/6/2012 at 01:59
Yeah, I hear you guys--numerous complaints from a small sample of forum nerds does not a bad movie make, but...
I just can't help but feel that if was truly a good movie, one that resonated well with enough people, there wouldn't be so many of us complaining about it. Sure, anyone can nitpick anything, but many of the issues raised here regard fairly fundamental problems with the film.
Fuck it. I'm still seeing the next one.
Aerothorn on 18/6/2012 at 02:05
I mean, I think your points were well argued, and I'll be the first to admit that it's all over the place. But at the same time I do get the impression that people are more angry because they can glimpse true greatness and it doesn't make it. Did anyone give a shit when Surrogates sucked? No, because A. nobody really expects Hollywood sci-fi to be good, and B. it's not part of a series with tons of diehard fans.
I guess have a vested interest in championing this, because for all of its faults it engaged me. I thought about it. It's merited a big forum debate. That's the aspect of sci-fi I most value. As cinema, Star Trek (2009) was a much slicker, more cogent movie with better character development and humor to boot. But there wasn't much in it to warrant any real discussion, other than the degree to which it wasn't really Star Trek.
