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Reply #30 posted 06/02/12 4:12pm

Identity

Prometheus Already Available For Pre-Order On Amazon

June 2, 2012

http://www.cinemablend.co...31223.html


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Reply #31 posted 06/02/12 6:21pm

Cerebus

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^^ But it says right on the Amazon page "THIS TITLE HAS NOT YET BEEN RELEASED". It doesn't even have a future release date listed. So really, it's just a way for Amazon, the studio, or both, to use your money as capitol now. Kind of shady, since I doubt it will see release much before Christmas (if then)

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Reply #32 posted 06/02/12 7:04pm

Militant

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I watched it last night.

Wow. Great movie. Provocative story. Stunning graphics. Great performances.

*SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

I'm wondering why the hell the Engineers didn't destroy humanity on any of the occasions when they visited Earth before? We know they visited all the different civilisations from the matching murals found in different places. What were they waiting for? And if the Engineers were all killed by the mutant-worm thing they created as a weapon (except for that one that they wake up) then why didn't more Engineers go to destroy humanity from wherever it is they are originally from? Or at least go to the moon base to wake up that Engineer in stasis?

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Reply #33 posted 06/03/12 11:00am

IstenSzek

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Militant said:

I watched it last night.

Wow. Great movie. Provocative story. Stunning graphics. Great performances.

*SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

I'm wondering why the hell the Engineers didn't destroy humanity on any of the occasions when they visited Earth before? We know they visited all the different civilisations from the matching murals found in different places. What were they waiting for? And if the Engineers were all killed by the mutant-worm thing they created as a weapon (except for that one that they wake up) then why didn't more Engineers go to destroy humanity from wherever it is they are originally from? Or at least go to the moon base to wake up that Engineer in stasis?

*SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

my guess would be that the engineers watched humanity evolve slowly and didn't find anything

they had to worry about or be displeased about, until their last visit (who knows when or where

that was?).

sometime after their last visit they must have decided to end their 'project' on earth. but what

the reason would be remains unclear. argued might be the way we are destroying the planet or

depleting it's resources and other life forms on it.

or perhaps we were just sent here to start up civilisation, colonisation, cultivate crops and even

domesticate animals up until the point where they could simply take over? in Alien, ripley's cat

is iirc strangely unaffected by the alien, so perhaps only human/engineer based life would be in

danger if the worms or the following alien race would be unleashed upon them?

the reason why no one bothered to wake up the engineer in stasis might be that they figured

the entire moon base was infected and rendered too big a hazard to even try and salvage.

since the 'weapon' they were creating proved to be lethal even to themselves, there would be

no reason to try and get the production back on track since unleashing it upon earth would be

a catastrophy for them as much as it would be for the humans. once all humans would be dead

they would still have to deal with all those 'worms'.

and what exactly is the reason that a worm, after gestation in a host, becomes that 'alien' ?

was it engineered like that? but if so, why? is it simply an unpredicted mutation, something

the engineers did not foresee?

if they wanted to end human life on earth, it would stand to reason that they would do that with

a fixed goal in sight. either the planet and it's resources or just to pull the plug on humans as a

failed project. but it doesn't make sense that they would create a weapon for that which would

infest the planet with hostile, strong and clever aliens which would in turn be able to kill off all

the engineers themselves.

the engineers obviously did not come from that moon originally. it was simply a base. so is the

'alien' in fact the natural end of the evolution of the life on that moon? something that made a

leap through the fusion with the engineer's biological weapon?

anyway. the way i see it is that, whenever and for whatever reasons the engineers abandoned

the 'weapon' they were creating on that moon, doesn't mean that the others on the home planet

have also given up. they might be creating a new weapon somewhere else and killing off life on

earth might still be the plan after all. they just gave up on the moon base.

however, that would be kind of strange considering that the engineer in stasis, after waking up,

immediately tried to set off for earth. that would kind of counter everything i've wondered about

above. lol.

lol. so many questions. and yet still, the movie made me feel completely satisfied lol

and true love lives on lollipops and crisps
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Reply #34 posted 06/03/12 1:01pm

Phishanga

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This movie won't be shown in Germany before August 9th. WTF. neutral

Hey loudmouth, shut the fuck up, right?
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Reply #35 posted 06/04/12 2:47am

IstenSzek

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Phishanga said:

This movie won't be shown in Germany before August 9th. WTF. neutral




Your signature :falloff:

"Tommieeeee!!!"

Lol.
and true love lives on lollipops and crisps
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Reply #36 posted 06/04/12 6:32am

Identity

Exclusive IMAX Poster for Prometheus Midnight Showings

June 4, 2012

Exclusively for IMAX fans – those attending the Prometheus midnight shows in North America in the first hours of June 8th receive an exclusive, limited edition poster.

The never-before-seen artwork teases the mysteries unlocked in Prometheus, and is available as part of IMAX 12:01.

Check for list of participating theatres on imax.com; while supplies last.

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Reply #37 posted 06/04/12 7:56am

OldFriends4Sal
e

imago said:

Unfortunately, several prominent critics have given this lukewarm reviews, and some even negative.

Most, however, are liking it but admitting that it's no sci-fi 'classic' in the vein of Alien and Blade Runner. I wonder if this is due to how desensatized we are by provocative ideas, and how mush is really due to the fact that it isn't as good.

I won't get a chance to see it here in Asia until June 7th. sigh

I don't think most movies will every get that 'classic' feel again like Alien Blade Runner Star Wars ESB Halloween 1 & 2 etc even Purple Rain

There was still something of mystery during the 1970 -1980 movies

There are too many copycats too many people who sequil the hell out of stuff with no real depth and plot that makes you feel chills

Movies with too much explination do a bad job in mystery,

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Reply #38 posted 06/04/12 8:02am

ufoclub

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Dig if U will the picture of a 6th grader obsessed with the movie "ALIEN" so he drew his own comic of it back in 1980 (these pages are relevant to anticipation of "Prometheus":

[img:$uid]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v18/ufoclub/KidsALIENcomicpreviewsize1.jpg[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v18/ufoclub/KidsALIENcomicpreviewsize2.jpg[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v18/ufoclub/KidsALIENcomicpreviewsize3.jpg[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v18/ufoclub/KidsALIENcomicpreviewsize4.jpg[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v18/ufoclub/KidsALIENcomicpreviewsize5.jpg[/img:$uid]

[Edited 6/4/12 8:06am]

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Reply #39 posted 06/04/12 10:33am

Phishanga

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IstenSzek said:

Phishanga said:

This movie won't be shown in Germany before August 9th. WTF. neutral

Your signature falloff "Tommieeeeeeee!!!" Lol.

highfive

He speaks his mind. lol

You heard about the coming Atoms for Peace album, right?

Hey loudmouth, shut the fuck up, right?
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Reply #40 posted 06/04/12 10:57am

IstenSzek

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Phishanga said:

IstenSzek said:

Phishanga said: Your signature falloff "Tommieeeeeeee!!!" Lol.

highfive

He speaks his mind. lol

You heard about the coming Atoms for Peace album, right?

i'm very excited for the upcoming AFP album. is there any word on a release date yet?

speculation seems to be september 8. but i'm hoping it will be released sooner.

and true love lives on lollipops and crisps
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Reply #41 posted 06/04/12 1:03pm

Phishanga

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IstenSzek said:

Phishanga said:

highfive

He speaks his mind. lol

You heard about the coming Atoms for Peace album, right?

i'm very excited for the upcoming AFP album. is there any word on a release date yet?

speculation seems to be september 8. but i'm hoping it will be released sooner.

Really? Haven't heard that. Didn't even expect it this year, so I'd be completely happy with September. smile

Hey loudmouth, shut the fuck up, right?
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Reply #42 posted 06/04/12 10:00pm

ZombieKitten

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ufoclub said:

Dig if U will the picture of a 6th grader obsessed with the movie "ALIEN" so he drew his own comic of it back in 1980 (these pages are relevant to anticipation of "Prometheus":

These are amazing omfg

I didn't know you were like 12 when you did these, I thought when I saw it on FB that you made them now as an adult lol so I didn't pay too much attention boxed

I can see now you've been very gifted all along, and this talent must come in handy for your storyboarding cool

I'm the mistake you wanna make
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Reply #43 posted 06/04/12 11:06pm

novabrkr

Ufoclub touched

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Reply #44 posted 06/05/12 4:00am

DaveT

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ZombieKitten said:

ufoclub said:

Dig if U will the picture of a 6th grader obsessed with the movie "ALIEN" so he drew his own comic of it back in 1980 (these pages are relevant to anticipation of "Prometheus":

These are amazing omfg

I didn't know you were like 12 when you did these, I thought when I saw it on FB that you made them now as an adult lol so I didn't pay too much attention boxed

I can see now you've been very gifted all along, and this talent must come in handy for your storyboarding cool

There's are awesome!! biggrin

But how did a ten/twelve year old get to see "Alien" in 1980?...bear in mind it hit cinemas in 1979, and wouldn't have been available on video until a few years later....did you sneak into a cinema for a cheeky viewing? If so, massive high-five!! razz

www.filmsfilmsfilms.co.uk - The internet's best movie site!
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Reply #45 posted 06/05/12 4:36am

ZombieKitten

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DaveT said:

ZombieKitten said:

These are amazing omfg

I didn't know you were like 12 when you did these, I thought when I saw it on FB that you made them now as an adult lol so I didn't pay too much attention boxed

I can see now you've been very gifted all along, and this talent must come in handy for your storyboarding cool

There's are awesome!! biggrin

But how did a ten/twelve year old get to see "Alien" in 1980?...bear in mind it hit cinemas in 1979, and wouldn't have been available on video until a few years later....did you sneak into a cinema for a cheeky viewing? If so, massive high-five!! razz

I was still cowering in my closet from looking at the BOOK of ALIEN, didn't get the courage to rent the VHS until I was in my 20s

I'm the mistake you wanna make
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Reply #46 posted 06/05/12 6:07am

ufoclub

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ZombieKitten said:

ufoclub said:

Dig if U will the picture of a 6th grader obsessed with the movie "ALIEN" so he drew his own comic of it back in 1980 (these pages are relevant to anticipation of "Prometheus":

These are amazing omfg

I didn't know you were like 12 when you did these, I thought when I saw it on FB that you made them now as an adult lol so I didn't pay too much attention boxed

I can see now you've been very gifted all along, and this talent must come in handy for your storyboarding cool

Thanks!

I'm curious, how could I have made it more obvious on my facebook page that I made them over 30 years ago more clearly at just a glance? I ask because I've been advised to go ahead and digitize all my comics I did back then and make an entire website devoted to them. Of course this means a lot of work to photograph and then restore all the pages to optimal contast in photoshop, and to learn how to make a website (even though I've worked professionally with web design companies for over 15 years now, I never programmed my own website in all this time.

I was drawing and drawing from the age of 6 years onward. These days I don't draw as much, but I still can draw and paint if the need comes up.

It does come in very handy on set if I need to communicate the various shots I want. I can draw exactly how I want a shot(s) to look on the flip side of the script and the cameraman (if there is one!) can infer the posotion, the lens, the lighting, etc.

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Reply #47 posted 06/05/12 6:10am

ufoclub

avatar

DaveT said:

ZombieKitten said:

These are amazing omfg

I didn't know you were like 12 when you did these, I thought when I saw it on FB that you made them now as an adult lol so I didn't pay too much attention boxed

I can see now you've been very gifted all along, and this talent must come in handy for your storyboarding cool

There's are awesome!! biggrin

But how did a ten/twelve year old get to see "Alien" in 1980?...bear in mind it hit cinemas in 1979, and wouldn't have been available on video until a few years later....did you sneak into a cinema for a cheeky viewing? If so, massive high-five!! razz

thank you!

I didn't get to see ALIEN for a year or so until it started showing on "movievision" a sattelite cable channel that my cousins had in their apartment. But... I did read the novel, and bought the photonovel back then in 1979. I also checked out every issue of Monsters, Starlog, Fantastic Films that covered it. I was an ALIEN junkie!

My first rated R movie I snuck into in 1980 was a good one. It was Excalibur.

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Reply #48 posted 06/05/12 6:52am

ZombieKitten

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ufoclub said:



ZombieKitten said:




ufoclub said:


Dig if U will the picture of a 6th grader obsessed with the movie "ALIEN" so he drew his own comic of it back in 1980 (these pages are relevant to anticipation of "Prometheus":




Y

These are amazing omfg



I didn't know you were like 12 when you did these, I thought when I saw it on FB that you made them now as an adult lol so I didn't pay too much attention boxed



I can see now you've been very gifted all along, and this talent must come in handy for your storyboarding cool




Thanks!



I'm curious, how could I have made it more obvious on my facebook page that I made them over 30 years ago more clearly at just a glance? I ask because I've been advised to go ahead and digitize all my comics I did back then and make an entire website devoted to them. Of course this means a lot of work to photograph and then restore all the pages to optimal contast in photoshop, and to learn how to make a website (even though I've worked professionally with web design companies for over 15 years now, I never programmed my own website in all this time.



I was drawing and drawing from the age of 6 years onward. These days I don't draw as much, but I still can draw and paint if the need comes up.



It does come in very handy on set if I need to communicate the various shots I want. I can draw exactly how I want a shot(s) to look on the flip side of the script and the cameraman (if there is one!) can infer the posotion, the lens, the lighting, etc.



:lol:
I couldn't see it properly in FB on my phone - it gave me a preview only 20mm high! On the org (on my phone) I could see it any size I wanted.
I'm the mistake you wanna make
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Reply #49 posted 06/07/12 7:00am

Identity

photos/sweepstakes/PROM_Sweeps_DETAIL_460x304.jpg

Enter the Prometheus IMAX.com Sweepstakes to win some Ridley Scott classic films like Alien, Blade Runner, and Gladiator on Blu-ray, Prometheus IMAX t-shirts,Prometheus: The Art of the Film books, IMAX tickets, and more.

Enter to Win

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Reply #50 posted 06/07/12 9:58am

imago

Dear God, I did not like it. sigh

SPOILERS AHEAD:

The Good:

The opening of the movie is beautifully shot, epic, and sets a tone which firmly roots the movie in science fiction ala 2001, and not horror. It’s completely nonsensical in the sense that an engineer self-sacrifices in the name of creation, when just pouring some of that shit in the water would have done the trick. But then again, it’s never fully established that this is a sacrifice. I also love the contrast of this opening scene to Alien, in that it’s brightly lit, and we are shown one of the characters in broad daylight.

The 3d animation is lush, flowing, never overbearing, and just beautifully shot. The problem is that once they land on LV-2whatever, it becomes relatively mundane after a while. That being said, the shots of the Prometheus coming in for a landing are stellar and just beautiful. You get a true sense of scale when you see just that bigass ship contrasted against the planet and moon making appear like nothing more than a speck.

I’m now a fan of Michael Fassbender. He really made a perfect android. David is complex. We know he doesn’t have emotions and he doesn’t feel like we do, but he appears to possess arrogance, sensitivity, wit and sarcasm. He obviously has desires and a sense of self-taste, because he has a favorite movie, going so far as to emulate the main character in the movie. Moreover, upon the death of his creator (aka his father), and the supposed end to his mission, he proposing an additional one to Dr. Shaw. He did not need to, and certainly had no programming directive to do so.

Maredeth Vickers is also a complex character [super spoilers]. I was never able to tell if she was an android or if she was human. She calls Mr. Weylan “father” much as David did, but appears to have a far longer history with him (David, having only 3 years). She could be a real biological daughter of his, but how would she get on the crew without others knowing who she was. She appears to be some kind of android that possesses real human emotions, a condition that only she and Weylan know of? Obviously, if there were a sequel to the movie, it would be easy to show that she survived the ordeal, as androids can be beaten to hell and back and survive. They also need not breath, so the atmosphere wouldn’t affect her. Obviously there are a lot of plot holes, but it would work. Of course, if she’s a droid, why fuck the captain? For some reason though, I get the sense that she’s not fully human.

Finally, the movie leaves you wanting to know more. Despite its MANY flaws, it does leave you with a feeling of wanting to know how it all ends. This obviously is a good thing.

The Bad:

It’s a completely muddled work. Is it an action thriller? Is it a horror? Is it a sci-fi movie? What the hell is it? To me it’s got a sci-fi heart, but the director was under pressure to make 14 year old boys dig it---something he only half heartedly pulls off.

Scott also needs to fire the people who wrote that shitty script. There is way, way, waaaaayyyyyy too much explaining of the premise, the circumstances, the restrictions, and consequences in the dialogue. It reminds me of that awful scene in Attack of the Clones, when Aniken and Obiwan are standing in the elevator on the way to Padme’s quarters. We learn that Aniken is anxious, Obiwan owes Aniken his life, and that they are like brothers….all through the fucking annoying ass dialogue. All of the main actors in Prometheus are quite capable of pulling off the problems and limitations and their predicaments in their facial expressions, and the way they interact with each other. There’s no need for so much of the dialogue to explain things. It’s just terribly cheesy. This is where Prometheus definitely departs from Kubric’s superior 2001. I mean, do we really need somebody to say that it’s 10 below zero? Can’t you show that in the various ways? Say, ice being scraped off of the astronaut suit masks? Or perhaps, when they take their masks off, a fresh jet of steam from their noses or one of them being shown to shiver? Do you really need to say it? If they needed to say anything in the dialogue, they should have explained why the Prometheus appears to be so much more advanced than the Nostromo, 30 years after it—a simple discussion about how it was a different breed of ship from the cargo carriers may have done the trick, but much of the audience probably wondered this (at least the ones who saw Alien).

When the characters are offed, you feel nothing. I mean, nothing. Not horror, not sadness for their loss….just nothing. [SPOILER AGAIN] I mean, when three of the main characters make their sacrificial move to save mankind, it’s so unreal in feeling hat it’s hard to imagine this is the same director of Alien. Did they have family? Were they motivated to save anyone special back home? We don’t know. We just know that there was little or no soul searching on their part---they marched on to save mankind like Gandalf and his posse trying to save middle Earth…ergo, it didn’t feel authentic.

Also, there’s simply very poor character development. When Scott did Alien, we didn’t need to know much backstory. That’s because it was a very simple movie—it was a haunted house in space. This, however, is a much larger, far more expansive movie at heart….we need to know why we should care. And that’s not fully explored. So when people die, the next best trick is to make their deaths riveting and exciting….again, not well done.

The camera angles are not all that spectacular. When Shaw climbs Vicker’s survival pod, you don’t get a true sense of the struggle outside of her constant moaning. Position the damned camera above her to show her struggling to get in for fucks sake…like in one of those climber movies. Shit!

Finally, good god the illogical plot holes. Why did David infect one of the crew at the risk of jeopardizing Weylan? The contagion could have easily killed everyone on board, including Weylan—David’s primary mission. David is obviously logically minded, and strategic—why didn’t he consider this? There’s the prospect he was going to place them in Cryo-sleep and ship them back home, but even this doesn’t fully make any sense.

I can appreciate the squid growing up quickly, but how the hell didn’t anyone notice it was there? Why didn’t Vickers know? Why didn’t David check—was he so tied up with Weylan? If so, how did he plan to handle the situation if the infection had spread? It just made no sense.

I could go on and on about the movie, but suffice it to say, it was a huge letdown. That being said, it’s better than what passes as ‘sci-fi’ these days, so worth checking out. I will definitely be seeing it a second time, at an iMax theater, and trying to see if I missed anything. It appears, Scott crammed enough into the movie for repeat viewings, and perhaps I’ll appreciate it more if I pick up more.

I will say this---if there is a sequel. It should either be very interesting, or just plain stupid.

Overall, I give it a 1/2 out of 5 Kanye stumps

.

[Edited 6/7/12 16:49pm]

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Reply #51 posted 06/07/12 10:03am

Identity

I'm going to catch the IMAX 3D premiere at 12:01 AM. Gotta get that free poster!

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Reply #52 posted 06/07/12 10:12am

imago

Also, it was strangely boring.

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Reply #53 posted 06/07/12 10:31am

Identity

^

The stateside reviews have been positively glowing. Maybe we've got the director's cut. wink

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Reply #54 posted 06/07/12 10:32am

imago

Identity said:

^

The stateside reviews have been positively glowing. Maybe we've got the director's cut. wink

I'm hoping so.

This movie deserved to be long like Lord of the Rings : Return of the King....it would have helped a great deal.

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Reply #55 posted 06/07/12 11:35am

Cerebus

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imago said:

Identity said:

^

The stateside reviews have been positively glowing. Maybe we've got the director's cut. wink

I'm hoping so.

This movie deserved to be long like Lord of the Rings : Return of the King....it would have helped a great deal.

He pitched it as at least two movies. If it's succesful I think we can be pretty damn sure they'll be at least one sequel. Lets just hope he sticks around for it this time instead of passing off the directors chair.

Also, I've read an enormous amount of terrible reviews from all around the world, including the states. But I still expect it to make gobs of money.

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Reply #56 posted 06/07/12 1:03pm

Militant

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moderator

I loved it so much that I saw it a second time, on Monday (first saw it last Friday night).

You see the movie differently the second time. But that's the case with a lot of movies, I guess.

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Reply #57 posted 06/07/12 3:44pm

Identity

Prometheus Writer Damon Lindelof on Why Vague Is Good

June 7, 2012

Link

Damon Lindelof is no stranger to controversy. Having written 115 episodes of Lost, including that ending, he’s courted about as many divisive opinions as a storyteller possibly can. And he’s set to provoke a whole new fan base with the release of Prometheus -- a sci-fi opus directed by Ridley Scott and set within the world of Alien -- which probably poses more questions about the origins of the franchise than it answers.

Lindelof spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about his mission to take the Alien out of an Alien prequel, his favorite Prometheus character and the delicate art of knowing just how much to reveal.

Since the inception of Prometheus, Ridley has said it “possesses the DNA of the Alien series.” What mythology did you inherit, and where did you have freedom to create your own?


When I came in, there was a script that had been written by Jon Spaihts, who I share screenplay credit with, that I thought was quite good, but it was a dyed-in-the-wool Alien prequel. And I fundamentally felt like the best version of this movie would be to strip away its own inherent prequel-ness, which made it feel like you go into it knowing exactly how the movie is going to end.

Connecting dots is not that rewarding of an experience. What’s rewarding is putting a puzzle together and popping that final piece in, and suddenly you understand -- this actually does connect to the world I know but in unexpected ways. So it was really about embracing something that felt a little bit more original and unexpected. Not to say that there would not be tips of the cap or strains of the familiar tropes of Alien, but they'd be more like afterthoughts as opposed to the bricks upon which the foundation was constructed.

Today’s Hollywood seems to have the ethos of “why make one, when you can make three?” Prometheus sequels already have been discussed. Did that possibility give you more latitude to be a little more nuanced or vague?


Nobody went into this thinking, “We're gonna do a trilogy.” [But] you have to wrestle with those ideas, because although "vague" is probably not an adjective you and I would be like, “Oh my God -- I'm so excited to go see something that's vague,” I do think there's something exciting and challenging about a certain degree of ambiguity in filmmaking. And when you look at the other two science fiction movies that [Scott] made, the original Alien and Blade Runner, both of those movies are still being debated and speculated and theorized about all this time later.

And [we looked at Prometheus as] an archeology dig where we're basically going to turn up some artifacts and we're going to put them on the table for everyone to look at. How these artifacts necessarily connect to each other and what the larger story behind them is going to be a matter of some discourse, and the characters in the movie will be having that discourse amongst themselves.

But no one's going to basically come out of the skies and tell them whether or not they're right or wrong. That is very much in tune with the movie that Ridley wanted to make, which is, "This is what happens when mankind is silly enough to think they can go and ask God questions.” First off, God might not necessarily be interested in answering you, but even worse than that, you might just set him off just for the act of trying.

What was the breakdown of the work between you and Jon Spaihts?

It's so hard for me to objectively answer that question because so much of Jon's work already existed. So my work was really a reaction to, and a building from, Jon's stuff.

The job that he was given was writing a clear-cut Alien prequel, and by the time I came in, it felt like everybody involved wanted to make a shift away from making it so profoundly about that stuff – the chest-bursting, the eggs, the acid for blood.

So the majority of the ideas that I brought were about trying to infuse the movie with the sense of, “It's a movie about creation.”

Was there a part of the script that you’re particularly proud of?

I was really interested in and catalyzed by the robot, David [played by Michael Fassbender] -- I felt like he was going to become the central figure of the movie. Because in the genealogical chain of things, there are these beings that may or may mot have created us, then there's us, and then there's the being that we created in our own image.

So we're on a mission to ask our creators why they made us, and he's there amongst hiscreators, and he's not impressed. Oddly enough, the one nonhuman human on this ship -- that's sort of a prison -- exists to question why it is we're doing this in the first place. And then Michael made me look like I really know what I'm doing, so I'm particularly proud of all the David stuff.

You've always been involved in projects that demand so much secrecy. Does it get easier to know how much to reveal during the making of them?

That's such a good question -- and the answer is, I don't know. It feels like it's a constant exercise in reacting to the last time you did it: If you're not saying enough, people will get frustrated and feel like you're hiding something. Or the marketing department of the studio will say, “People need to know more about this thing in order to get them excited about it.” If you're not talking, it feels like you've got something to hide, and then suddenly you find yourself talking too much and people are saying, "I wish that I had known less when I went to go see this thing."

And we all have had that feeling where we see a three-minute trailer and feel like, “I just saw that movie.” So you just modulate it as you go. And the code we try to live by is that if I were not involved in this movie as a fan, what would I want to know? And even if people are angry about me being too secretive, like in the case of the new Star Trek movie [where] everybody wants to know who Benedict Cumberbatch is playing, I'm just not commenting.

Is he a good guy, or is he a bad guy? Is he from classic Trek or a new original character? I'm just not saying anything because I don't know what the upside is. And I sort of feel like hopefully with Star Trek 2, we've earned a little bit of goodwill so that we don't have to say as much -- because we certainly don't want to say too much.

What do you learn from the experience of writing something like Cowboys & Aliens or the finale of Lost, where the reaction is so polarizing? Does it make you question the impulse to follow your creativity, or does it embolden you?


The answer depends on what day you ask me. I think that at the end of the day I'm drawn to a certain level of ambiguous storytelling that requires hard thought and work in the same way that the New York Times crossword puzzle does: Sometimes you just want to put it down or throw it out the window, but there's a real rewarding sense if you feel like you've cracked it. And the other kind of story that really sort of draws me to it is one that requires me to talk to other people about it once I've seen it -- creating water-cooler communities around these television shows or movies. It's super-exciting as the storyteller to see that people are doing that.

But it's a road fraught with peril because you have to give answers to these things, and when they don't gel with that the audience was theorizing -- or they just don't like it, period -- you're going to be victim to their outrageous disappointment. But you can't really have one without the other. I would love a world where's there's the perfect landing I could stick that literally 100 percent of people who watch Lost would love the ending and there would be no dissenters, but it feels like I keep getting attracted to and generating content for stuff that is fairly divisive.

And although it is genuinely painful and disheartening to hear people say that they hate it or that they wish that they'd never watched it in the first place, there's also something sort of sadistically cool about knowing that fights are happening out there about something that I've done.

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Reply #58 posted 06/07/12 3:49pm

Cerebus

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Lindelof is an ass. Not a fan.

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Reply #59 posted 06/07/12 4:46pm

imago

Cerebus said:

Lindelof is an ass. Not a fan.

I never had an opinion before, but now I do. The script was terrible.

But, even so, Scott is responsible for the tone of the movie---the movie simply wasn't well executed despite the script. I kept thinking about an hour into the film, "shouldn't I be caring about something by now?". But I wasn't. I simply was curious about what was next, but the end is no payoff.

The entire thing felt still born.

I had been waiting for this thing FOREVER. I'm a huge Alien fan. And was NOT expecting an alien film at all. I was simply expecting a smart sci-fi, and I didn't think Prometheus was even that.

But, like I said earlier, it is better than what most studios like to pass off as sci-fi these days, but that says more about the state of hollywood movies than about Scott's accomplishments in Prometheus.

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