Opinion is severely divided on Ridley Scott’s new sci-fi masterpiece in waiting, “Prometheus”. You only have to snatch a quick glance at the number of articles that profligate the internet (and this very website HERE) after only less than a fortnight on general release to see the furry of debates surrounding the film and subsequently the amount of fan boy vitriol that these perfectly genuine opinions incite.
There are some ‘givens’ in Scott’s “Prometheus”, though not that many to hang your hat on. The lack of what we were expecting has appeared to overshadow what we have actually been offered and to some extent, this has riled those that wanted something else. Add to this the fact that what Scott has ended up delivering has been unexpected, shadowy and as graspable as smog and you have dissatisfaction aplenty. From even before the opening credits hit our screens, we all knew this would divide audiences. The casual movie-goer may not be concerned for those elements that I am focusing on here, but this does not make them any less worthy. We deserve a little closure and we didn’t get it and these are some of the reasons why.
Here’s some questions about “Prometheus” that we all want answered…
1. Why Did Weyland’s Trillion Dollar Project Not Occur Earlier?
It seems that the feasibility of this trek across the heavens to accept an invitation (which, let’s be honest, is a bit of a reach) from our possible creators relied solely on the evidence found (somewhat conveniently) in one Scottish cave. Was Weyland only convinced of the validity of the project when this last piece of evidence was found? Did the six other discoveries, all purporting to have the same evidence not convince him?
If I was his age, I wouldn’t be hanging about, quite frankly. I probably wouldn’t have waited. Hell no, I’m certain I would have risked it sometime earlier. Also, just how many caves in Scotland did they search in? They appeared to find the evidence they were looking for rather easily. And why Scotland? Given the locations of the other discoveries, what would make them go looking in the Highlands? They clearly didn’t get a tip off, as we can see Shaw uncovering the find herself. Did they ply some toothless, kilt-wearing harridan with Bell’s finest and hastily scribble down whatever nonsense she came out with? “Oh aye laddie, I remember them etchins’, they’re in them caves, aye”..
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19 Comments
I believe he was eating Tapioca, not rice pudding. As for the rest of your questions I expect you’ll have to wait for a sequel ;)
You are an idiot all these questions were answered in the movie you need to watch the movie carefully “reviewer”, except for the first one(which can be they were probably waiting to sort everything out example the massive ship the crew the only operating machine that could perform weylands procedure on the spot and get the plan going, rather than just waiting for 6 drawings instead of 5) and number 5 is how you interpret the engineers that is upto the viewer so far, I know people complaining why didnt they tell us blah blah blah because you are suppose to discuss it rather than diss the movie because you have a closed brain 2,3,4 are self explanatory but since you are an idiot let me explain
2 because david is programmed to search for the solution for what he is suppose to by weyland, also he asks the husband how far he’s willing to go
3 they were all told different things and not everyone had the same instructions ( as the couple asks charlise theron is there an agenda that we are unaware about) sort of like a need to know basis
4 Every king has his reign how many times do you want that dialogue repeated, weyland wanted to extend his life it would be pointless if he had a company personnel doing what charlise theron was doing because she wanted to take over but he wanted to live forever so she would just be the face for the company
I hate these stupid “reviewers” who go in with closed minds to see a movie which needs you to be engaged and what i hate more is this gets published on a website so thousands of people can see it you sir are an IDIOT like millions others who didnt get the movie
Talk about an idiot… Go get a life, “Shaun”
I actually agree Shaun, this “reviewer” Steven is quite the idiot. These questions are not only answered during the movie but they are also meaningless to the big picture of this movie. Ridley Scott’s big picture for Prometheus was to create a film that will supply the foundation of an idea. The rest can be discussed and debated if you shall, but on the contrary I am satisfied with what Scott achieved. This movie leaves us with questions (however irrational some can be) that will be answered in his movies to come. For now we can only imagine what answers will be given by Scott in his future movies.
I’m with ya shaun.
I don’t understand why so many people are upset about this movie, about it leaving out answers, leaving the viewer with too many questions.
I finally saw the movie and the first thing i said to myself was, “What the hell was everyone complaining about? There weren’t any unanswered questions that would have been answered in this film. And with that, HOLY CRAP did this movie answer a ton of questions.
My only problem with the film was the ending, but I let that slide because I knew they were leaving it open for a sequel. But i’m still a little annoyed that the female scientist didn’t fly home to warn people and acquire a bigger crew to investigate the Engineer’s home planet.
My only other problem was that the characters were extremely two dimensional, minus David, which is ironic because he’s a robot.
Despite the characters, the story was solid as far as I’m concerned. I’ve said it before; since the movie was told from the perspective of the scientists, we’re only going to know what the scientists know. If they don’t know it, then we the audience aren’t going to know it.
It a shame that most people went into this movie with their critical thinking skills turned off.
None of what you are describing as fact was discussed or explained in the film. You’ve effectively made it up. Clearly there is only one idiot here and that isn’t ambiguous in anyway.
The film failed because it contained an unacceptable amount of dreadful dialogue and plot holes you could drive a car through.
Heartbreaking in the extreme given my love for Ridley’s work.
It looked beautiful but the writing stank.
it was a bad movie, it is the same, expensive and ordinary.
Interesting, but that alien in the last scene did not ‘ruin’ the film for ‘everyone’. The main reason I and most people went to see this film was to understand where the aliens from the ‘alien’ series came from. The final scene in a way helped this, and without it I would been extremely disappointed.
The reason for some many questions not being answered is because of Damon Lindelof.
I don’t know about questions needing answers, but what I do know is the “Prometheus” is taking a HUGE hit in the box office take this weekend compared to last weekend. Some websites predict a 73 percent decrease from last weekend, yikes.
At that rate this movie will be lucky to hit 100 million in the U.S.
I think this shows that bad word of mouth, right or wrong, has really hit this movie hard.
With foreign grosses it will still be profitable I think, but not by much. I wonder if they will still green light the sequel.
I’m pretty sure that isn’t really all that surprising of a drop for an R-rated science fiction movie. It doesn’t have the largest of target audiences.
Is it really all that surprising for an R-rated science fiction movie. I’m pretty sure the target audience is relatively small.
Whoa hahah. What a smart mouth. Do you know how many plots you can derive from this movie that is why in fact most didn’t care for it. I loved the visuals but I’m not writing what I thought happened. Because there are pages of it. But now the Rid came out and ruined it. THAT was his analogy. That’s what makes you look so stupid Shaun. Unless he’s lying to build for his next movie, just ask me for what I thought the movie was about it was more entertaining. And, even more concise. Hehehe, Ridley comes out and makes you guys look stupid hehehe. I’m only making fun of you because you came straight out and called someone an idiot. Hahaha. Whata Troll.
I kinda understand why many people have been turned off by Prometheus’ storyline. I also do believe the critic’s reviews have been rather harsh and unfair to the movie; which has caused the movie’s ticket sales to fly south faster than a duck in winter.
However, after going into the movie with very high hopes of an explanation of the original “Alien” space-jockey race and the true origins of the xenomorph lifeform, I too was left scratching my head. It wasn’t till after I let my expectations on a second viewing that I actually enjoyed “Prometheus”.
Yes, there were some pretty silly plot holes and some serious bad decision making on the character’s parts, but all in all, the movie’s sense of sustained suspense and it’s wonderful cinematography made it enjoyable to myself and my partner. We still find ourselves randomly discussing the film’s plot some several weeks after it’s US open. I believe, this was Ridley Scott’s true intentions with “Prometheus” similar to Stanely Kubrick’s “2001″; to get people talking and debating about the movie for month’s and years to come.
As for this article and some of the questions it claims were not clarified or explained in the movie; infact, all but a few were indeed addressed in the movie.
David 8 gave Charlie the black goo because at the behest of Weyland to “try harder” implying that Weyland wanted more aggressive info regarding the engineer’s technology and a possible immortality cure for himself. The scene with David communicating with Weyland through his glowy helm and the subsequent scene with Vickers in the hall. I feel David wanted to know for himself at what extent Charlie was prepared to find the answers he came all of this way to find; hence the scene in the rec room before purposely infecting Charlie with the goo.
As for David’s behavior during the trip whilst the crew remained in hyper sleep. David utilized his time attempting to become more human (most likely to fit in). He watched human movies, played basketball, he even ate food. There is no mystery here on his behavior.
As for the Engineers. My theory is that the class of Engineers seen in the first shot AREN’T the same class of Engineers we see on LV-244. Janek had hinted at the possibility that the installation on LV-244 was in fact military. I believe there may even had been a shift in ideologies somewhere during the engineer’s timeline. Maybe going from seeding life to feeling that they had to clean up their ancestral’s universal meddling. I believe they have always been a race of bio-engineers and the black goo (which was different from the gold goo drank in the first scene) is a perhaps a more sinister variation. The fact that the xenomorph mural in the canister room instantly deteriorated,(which also made the canisters become reactive when the team unsealed the room) after being exposed to oxygen into the atmosphere. I believe this goo had been developed to react to Earth’s atmosphere by design, hence a biological WMD (Weapon of Mass Destruction) or a method to usurp all human life with xeno life. Perhaps a planetary source or supply of the xenomorph creature as a bio-weapon.
Once again, a complete 180 degree shift in Engineer ideologies towards human life.
Cuddles (as the Prometheus forum community has nicknamed) aka Shaw’s baby grew very quickly because once again (to no surprise) the original chest-burster (from Alien) grew at a rapid accelerated rate into a full sized drone within like a 8hour period. This creature also shared that similar DNA to the Xeno from Alien.
Why did Fifield and Milburn get lost in the installation when Fifield’s pups were the ones mapping out the structure? My only reason of thought other than the obvious (to drive the plot along) would be that in their panic from discovering “gigantic dead bodies” they got turned around and separated from the party.
As for Weyland not responding to the call to fly off into the unknown from the wall painting discoveries of Shaw and Green; well just maybe the 9 years between the Isle of Scotland discovery and the launch of the Prometheus mission was the time needed to raise the trillion dollars required to fund the mission.
I truly do believe that alot of people’s questions will be answered in any subsequent sequels in the franchise storyline.
But you don’t go into a film expecting to get half a story. This and all films should stand alone irrespective if they are part of a bigger story.
“we” want answered? Speak for yourself and your friends dont lump the world in with your questions of wanting absolute answers. The Mark of a clever writer is to leave your audience wanting more. Simple business. This is show business, not give the audience exact answers to their seeking souls business. You want real answers? Cool, I dare you to try and earnestly seek a myth: The Gospel of Christ. In Him you will find all the answers you have yearned for all these years, but will learn that it takes accepting the hardest truths HENCE artists like Scott creating ATTRACTIVE and exciting truths that entertain and distract. Ok Im done, now let the judgment of me and these words commence…
HOWEVER, to follow up to my previous comment, I enjoyed this movie for exactly what it was: entertaining fiction, that is very clever in its tactics. Look at the commotion it has caused. People are treating this movie as near religious in that they demand answers, as though Scott himself is a god. Says a lot about the rebellious nature of humanity.
I think the disappointment of many is echoed in Braunwyne’s initial reactions to the movie.
That is, people went to the movie expecting to see the origins of the Alien creature as we know it, as well as answering some questions from the original movie.
The problem is that I felt “Prometheus” didn’t really do that.
As I mentioned on another thread, I suspect “Prometheus” was a ‘hybrid’/compromise between Ridley Scott wanting a stand alone sci-fi movie, and studio execs wanting more ties and references to the “Alien” universe to bring in the fan boy box office. The result can be a confusing jumble of different ideas that alienates audiences and critics alike.
OK try this. The original Prometheus stole fire to give to mankind and was punished (chained to rock and liver pecked out, every day) for it. Now perhaps the Engineer left behind did so as a solo project, seeding the planet for his own reasons? Then you have very legitimate reasons for the other Engineers to be annoyed and wanting to end his project. It would also explain why the Engineer in the space ship immediately went berserk, when he realised that their creations had evolved to the point of space travel.