Prometheus - on Blu-Ray and DVD Oct. 9, 2012

[TehPW]

http://www.google.co...9,r:1,s:10,i:97

well i dont know if this pic is legit, but having a Engineer with a Predator Shoulder Gun certainly would be cool (or awesome way to link up the francizes)... was this a euro movie poster?

meh, read the article. cool but probably fake as the Jan 2012 date makes me think so...

Edited June 1, 2012 by TehPW

[aerocombatpilot]

There are clearly some similarities in the storyline (group of explorers traveling to remote location, finding something unexpected, implications and consequences of said find). Having said that, I think there are enough differences in the plot, characters, not to mention the setting and tone, for there to be no real problem in del Toro making "At the Mountains of Madness". It's not like there are that many original stories out there. Romantic comedies churn out the same story over and over and over again with different actors and no one seems to mind.

Thanks, I was really starting to scratch my head on this one.

[myk]

Romantic comedies churn out the same story over and over and over again with different actors and no one seems to mind.

I'm guessing that's because the couples that watch these movies are probably getting it on long before the movie has a chance to annoy them...

[vermillion01]

Watched a matinee of Prometheus before heading into work for the evening... here is the quick & dirty, *spoiler free* review:

It is by no means perfect and does have some pacing issues- I think it could have done with being a good 40 mins longer (here's hoping for an extended directors cut on bluray) however.....

I did thoroughly enjoy it.

Its beautifully shot and has a wonderful musical score (must look the composer up as i'd never heard of him) with some fine performances from Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace

I guess, as the message in the film suggests, it all depends on what you go looking for. If you go into this looking for an "Alien" prequel or similar, you will be disappointed.

IF you go in looking for a fresh sci-fi epic from one of the masters of cinema, you will, as I have, really enjoy it.

Although, the film actually leaves you with more questions than answers

One last thing though... damn the trailers for this film. They were so so good and showed far too much.

EDIT:spelling

Edited June 3, 2012 by vermillion01

[Penguin]

Just finished revisting Alien (original 1979 cut) as my "homework" for Friday's premiere . I love how fresh this film stays despite being 33 years old. Only the lack of CG effects mark its age, especially with the beautiful blu-ray restoration. As one of my favourite films, I always find or rediscover bits with every viewing. This time around:

• With the clairty of HD, you can really see how much of the space jockey's ship was actually there on the film in the long shots.
  
• Ash' true nature is one of the best late reveals ever. No one sees it coming, yet it doesn't feel artificial or extraneous.
  
• The ramping tension towards Ripley's escape is expertly done. The bit with Jones, and the sorta safety we feel when Ripley is in the self destruct room, put on the brakes just enough to let it ramp back up even more. The worst idea in the 2003 cut was re-inserting the "Dallas egg" scene. Ridley's original impression was correct; it drains all that tension away and blunts the following action.
  
• Just 'cause I was having a drama theory flashback, seems to me Alien falls into a kind of 5-structure rather than the traditional 3-act. First act ends with Kane and the egg, and the second with Kane's demise. Action rises in the third act up to Ash' reveal. Fourth act provides a climax at Ripley's escape, and then there's the denouement in the shuttle.
  

Anyway, satisfying as always. Eagerly awaiting Friday, with just enough caution that I'm not going to have unreachable expectations going in.

Edited June 3, 2012 by Penguin

[Keith]

Watched a matinee of Prometheus before heading into work for the evening... here is the quick & dirty, *spoiler free* review:

It is by no means perfect and does have some pacing issues- I think it could have done with being a good 40 mins longer (here's hoping for an extended directors cut on bluray) however.....

I did thoroughly enjoy it.

Its beautifully shot and has a wonderful musical score (must look the composer up as i'd never heard of him) with some fine performances from Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace

I guess, as the message in the film suggests, it all depends on what you go looking for. If you go into this looking for an "Alien" prequel or similar, you will be disappointed.

IF you go in looking for a fresh sci-fi epic from one of the masters of cinema, you will, as I have, really enjoy it.

Although, the film actually leaves you with more questions than answers

One last thing though... damn the trailers for this film. They were so so good and showed far too much.

EDIT:spelling

I demand a full slew of spoilers STAT!

[reddsun1]

I demand a full slew of spoilers STAT!

Prometheus crashes into the space jockey's ship, goes boom--everybody dies...

and the now crashed jockey ship will await the arrival of Nostromo, when sh*t will start poppin' off again.

[Omegablue]

As Ridley recently stated, if there's the most likely sequel to this film, it's going to further deviate the Prometheus saga from Alien. Aside for the whole movie, the ending does confirm a relation to the Alien franchise, but the Prometheus film is pretty much on it's own rebooted timeline. Let alone the technology gap, too much of great importance happens to never be mentioned in the four Alien films.

[Omegablue]

Also Prometheus deserves a prequel. Lol

Edited June 4, 2012 by Omegablue

[Graham]

We get it here on Thursday

Graham

[Hoptimus]

I will go see it this weekend.

[areaseven]

Gonna see this tomorrow night.

[areaseven]

Goddamn, what a great movie. Makes me forget that anything past Aliens exists.

[slaginpit]

THIS MOVIE SOOOOOOOOCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEDDDDDD

YAWN

SLOW

BAD ACTING

PLOT PROGRESSION WAS BARELY THERE

LEFT ME with a MEH and probably GIGER giving his middle finger!

movie didnt have any depth. It is and isnt a prequel meh waste of time

[Kurisama]

I am literally walking into the cinema to see this. SO EXCITED.

[taksraven]

I like this review. Really tells me if I want to see this in the cinema or not. (The answer is no). It's funny, a film that has been treated by marketing and fans as the second coming sounds like it is a bit of a fizzer. Who would have thought?

[sketchley]

Too much hype and anticipation?

... I've totally lost the "must see in cinemas NOW" feeling, too.

[slaginpit]

Too much hype and anticipation?

... I've totally lost the "must see in cinemas NOW" feeling, too.

like I said

Reviews are out.

Average feeling I get was it wasnt bad but it was watchable. That Fassenburger was excellent everybody else was over-compensating. A little drab, and lackluster. I think it had to do with this generations ridiculous neurotic behavior ie tell me what is it about, no dont tell me just tell me small bits, no tell me in even smaller bits and then tell me about the general idea etc etc. Just tell me what the movie is about. PERIOD. OR dont tell me at all. Like I said neurotic! I felt it would flop on expectations as a result of hollywoods presentation style of upcoming movies

[Kurisama]

Wow. I'm walking out of the cinema... I'm on a natural high.

That was amazing. Excuse the pun, but its a different beast. And all the better for it.

It was beautiful and tickled all the right spots for me.

[Omegablue]

If you liked the Avengers comedy, you'll most likely not enjoy Prometheus.

If you hated the Avengers comedy, then you'll probably like Prometheus.

[Reïvaj]

If you liked the Avengers comedy, you'll most likely not enjoy Prometheus.

If you hated the Avengers comedy, then you'll probably like Prometheus.

Oh, got it.

Then I'll enjoy it

[Knight26]

I liked the comedy in Avengers and I think I will like the more cerberal Prometheus as well, I can do that, enjoy multiple things.

[myk]

That's what she said...

[slaginpit]

I wouldnt care if I didnt see the xeno in it but this movie made no sense and I 100% agree with the toronto stars review\

Prometheus

(out of 4)

Starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Logan Marshall-Green, Guy Pearce and Idris Elba. Directed by Ridley Scott. 119 minutes. Opens June 8 at major theatres. 14A

Prometheus valiantly asks the big questions — Who are we? How did we get here? — but then settles for banal answers.

Ridley Scott could have simply delivered the expected prequel to Alien, his influential 1979 ick pic that made “facehugger” and “chestburster” part of the sci-fi lingo while at the same time horrifying sexual fantasy. Millions of fans would have been happy with this, present company included.

Instead Scott swings for the stars, literally, with a different kind of origin story. The journeyman British director muses about the spark of humanity, positing godlike activity in places far from heaven that his curious earthlings choose to visit. Their chariot is a trillion-dollar spaceship called Prometheus, named for a reckless god who got too chummy with humans.

This is daring ambition for a summer blockbuster, and Scott deserves some credit for seeking to enlarge our craniums, and perhaps also our souls. Bonus points for casting: a cool Michael Fassbender and warm Noomi Rapace make for inspired hires, saving the movie from its own excesses (3D included).

Scott’s high motives take the low road when he gets to the yuck factor expected of all Alien movies, which now total five if you include Prometheus — and you should.

Prometheus underachieves the awe but over-delivers the ick, presenting so many versions of slimy, crawly and grabby creatures, it’s almost a cosmic reboot of We Bought a Zoo.

After years of brow-furrowing over whether he should revisit his cherished Alien — or even the sci-fi genre, to which he also contributed the dystopian gem Blade Runner — Scott weirdly entrusts his screenplay to two writers who obviously believe that more is more.

Jon Spaihts (The Darkest Hour) and Damon Lindelof (TV’s Lost) are conjoined spirits in the art of contrivance. Scott may be contemplating human creation, but Spaihts and Lindelof are busy figuring out how many heads they can dissolve and stomachs they can explode, narrative be damned.

Having trouble making all your plot strands connect, lads? No bother. Just bung another bug in there, and it will carry you through. Stretching the plot, and all semblance of credulity along with it, certainly seemed to be Lindelof’s mantra for Lost.

Prometheus starts well enough, and that includes showy visuals that justify the big CGI payout. A prologue set during Earth’s pre-history shows a human-like space alien anticipating Jesus Christ as he sacrifices himself for the civilization to come.

Jump ahead to 2089, or about the time Toronto gets a new transit line, and archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw (Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) are finding similar star patterns in dissimilar global cave drawings. A trip to Scotland’s Isle of Skye convinces Shaw, Holloway and a barely-there benefactor Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce, under latex) that Earth has received an interstellar Evite from friendly E.T.s, or rather “Engineers,” to use the film’s parlance.

Fire up the Prometheus, the Weyland Corporation’s finest spacecraft. Shaw and Holloway are put into hypersleep for the multi-year voyage, joined in slumber by Captain Janek (Idris Elba), Weyland drill sergeant Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron), and numerous lesser characters awaiting their icky incidents.

Watching over them all, HAL 9000-style, is an android named David (Fassbender), who looks like David Bowie but talks like Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, the movie classic David watches repeatedly to learn earthling nuances.

As way too many Prometheus trailers have already revealed, our intrepid interplanetary travelers arrive at a place that will seem familiar to Alien aficionados, but also different enough to pique curiosity.

The biological eggs of the original film seem to have become the manufactured urns of this one, but is their purpose the same? And is that a space jockey I see, or just another large exotic gent without clothing?

The sexual subtext is still very much there — every nook and cranny seems to resemble an orifice. But eros is overwhelmed by a monster’s mash of creatures that don’t seem at all interested in evolving along the erotic lines envisioned by H.R. Giger and other Alien imagineers.

Further exposition serves no useful purpose beyond this point, but fear not spoilers, because Prometheus resists easy analysis. Normally, this would be a good thing, but the film baffles not because of brilliant writing but because it just doesn’t follow any internal logic, and that includes character development as well as monster evolution.

Theron’s chippy Vickers disappears for a lamentable period of time, and Elba’s grooving Captain seems far too mellow for a guy whose ship is under siege. (And what millennial soulman would be listening to Stephen Stills, anyway?)

For Alien fans, Prometheus is a disappointment, even if they do get a Giger fix late in the game. For non-fans, it’s a fantastic voyage of befuddlement, with the stentorious score by Jerry Goldsmith and Marc Streitenfeld not aiding enlightenment. You go looking for God, and instead get a headache.

Still, I give it a marginal pass, for the acting by Fassbender and Rapace and for a scene that really delivers in the classic Alien way. Stripped to its visceral essentials, the franchise is meant to frighten us and gross us out, and Prometheus rises to that modest challenge.

A lot more was promised, but pass the popcorn anyway. In space, no one can hear you whine.

[Hikuro]

Set myself for very low expectations, very low. And just reminding myself that this is NOT alien. So I might enjoy it tomorrow after work. If my girlfriend feels any better from her stomach bug she MIGHT enjoy it. If she doesn't get better, then I go alone and got no one to converse with.

[ron5864]

Have not seen it yet, but it sounds like Team Weyland did not find the Protoculture planet they were expecting.

[myk]

For a movie that claims to not truly be a precursor to the Alien story, they sure leaned on many trademark Alien freak-out moments and basic story elements to pick up the relatively uninteresting and plodding story line. Further, I would also say that for a movie that wants to establish itself as its own entity away from Alien they literally copied the 70's classic to the point that people who didn't know any better could have called it a reboot of sorts, seeing how that's the trend these days anyway. After experiencing the final scene right before the credits, NO ONE can say that this movie has little/nothing to do with the Alien story; this movie relies so heavily on the Alien universe that for Ridley Scott and anyone else to say otherwise is sort of delusional.

Alien didn't have all of the techo-visual wizardry that Prometheus had, but no one can deny that Alien was far more frightening and engaging of a story than Prometheus is. And when will story writers ever learn? DO NOT SHOW THE ALIEN/MONSTER/CREATURE IN FULL VIEW! One of the reasons why Alien is so horrifying is that you never really see it! It's all sounds, shadows, faint outlines of something sleek, powerful and terrible that's going to kill you. Ah well. The movie is enjoyable, just don't go in expecting a revolutionary, ground breaking sci-fi experience that will shatter your expectations. As far as I'm concerned it's just a prettier, but far less effective Alien, even though it isn't supposed to be so...

Edited June 8, 2012 by myk

[Keith]

And now the real question everyone wants to know about, is there a comparable tank & panty scene?

[myk]

.............................I will say...........Yes.....

[eugimon]

just got back from watching it... I liked it. some very interesting ideas and gorgeous shots... a very interesting take and I'm keen to see where it will lead to.

[Kanedas Bike]

Just got back from seeing it as well. Still formulating an opinion on whether I really enjoyed it or not, or if all of the "this isn't a prequel to Alien" really stands up against the events in the film. Even with all of the recent comments here and elsewhere I was hoping for a LOT more.

And damn if the previews do show entirely too much.

Eh. Oh well.

-b.

[myk]

Just got back from seeing it as well. Still formulating an opinion on whether I really enjoyed it or not, or if all of the "this isn't a prequel to Alien" really stands up against the events in the film. Even with all of the recent comments here and elsewhere I was hoping for a LOT more.

And damn if the previews do show entirely too much.

Eh. Oh well.

-b.

Funny thing is a lot of people are trying to decide if they liked the movie or not. Could this have something to do with the intended ambivelance of the movie as a prequel to Alien or not? I would guess so, but just like you said, based on the events of the film itself, especially with that final scene, this IS an Alien prequel if I ever saw one. It's possible that because of the duality of the movie it fails to deliver as its own unique sci-fi story and it equally fails at being a proper Alien prequel..

Edited June 8, 2012 by myk

[macrossnake]

Watched it, love it.

It is a story exits in the same universe as the ALIEN but a different timeline. Events are somewhat related, but it is not a prequel at all.

AND it is not a horror movie, instead it is a thrilling 'exciting' ride!

Edited June 9, 2012 by macrossnake

[eugimon]

I don't think it's a different timeline

They just found a different ship with a different weapon

[myk]

Hmmmm, ok now that's certainly interesting. Well regardless of my less than stunning review I still like the movie and recommend it. My plush dog-alien from Alien 3 went with me last night and liked the movie too...