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Prometheus
sorceress21269
Posts: 577Member
2 days till the premier here. I'll be going Friday and post a review. I hope to see the FTL question in the Alien universe dealt with on screen. I hope we get to see the Prometheus making a Tachyon Shunt jump instead of the "Aliens" styled "now we're here, now we're there" approach to the story. It will be nice to get some more canon established for the universe.
I'm not too fond of the Prometheus exterior though. The configuration of the craft looks awkward to me. Maybe I'll like it more after the film. I hated the Galaxy class the first time I saw it now I love it so who knows.
I'm not too fond of the Prometheus exterior though. The configuration of the craft looks awkward to me. Maybe I'll like it more after the film. I hated the Galaxy class the first time I saw it now I love it so who knows.
Post edited by sorceress21 on
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I hope this movie elevates the series from the 'torture porn' mess it had descended to.
"The supralight drive is a Yutani T7A NLS tachyon shunt which is capable of unladen high cruise up to 0.42 ly per sidereal day (153 cee). When it is towing large amounts of cargo such as automated refineries, the maximum sustainable cruise speed drops radically, about 0.1-0.12 ly per sidereal day (40-45 cee). For maneuvering at sublight speeds when towing large amounts of cargo, the immensely powerful mass reaction engines are required. On the Nostromo, the original Saturn J-3000 engines have been replaced to two Rolls-Royce N66 Cyclone thrust tunnels with bipolar vectoring for midline lifting functions. Each of the powerplants develop a 65,830 metric ton of thrust, using water for reaction mass. When running wide open, both of the engines give a high impulse thrust totaling of 131,660 kN. "
The use of the hypersleep chambers is because though they have an FTL capability it's still pretty slow resulting in inter-system travel times to take months. Putting the crews to sleep lowers the operating cost for Weyland-Yutani and is psychologicaly easier on the crewmembers.
In regards to your comment on the Prometheus exterior, I have to agree, though for different reasons. To me, it looks too much like the Serenity from Firefly with a couple extra engines.
been out for a while over here, honestly there's a lot of problems with this film but the effects, models and other aspects of production design are really not the issue, in its own way it looks great and really none of us can do better can we;) but anything you've heard negative about the script, pacing etc, is all true i'm afraid to say.
I've posted my crappy review here
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If you struggled through my somewhat tongue in cheek preview you really struggle through this one. big spoilers, but it probably wont ruin a movie thats maybe more about specific (and awesomely spectacular) set pieces than really making sense, packs too much into too short a time & a ****ty script... Almost in the same way that star wars prequels really made no sense if you thought about it but looked great.
can't wait to see this film though, looks very interesting.
If it quacks like a duck...
Um, contradictory much? The fact that it's set in the Alien universe makes it an Alien film. Sure, it may not deal with the chest-bursting aliens from the first two films, (and the crap that followed) but it's still an Alien film. To not be an Alien film, it would need to be a totally original film. Though, in Scott's defense, I can see why he wants to separate it from Alien3, Resurrection, AVP and AVP2. The series really went downhill after Aliens. And, when Fox approached him to do Alien 5, he said he wouldn't do it, but he'd do a movie set in the same universe. And that appeased Fox because it's still an Alien film. So, why not just call it what it is?
But, I digress. He can call it whatever he wants. I still want to see it.
I completely agree.
Overall I’ll give it a C+
SFX:
The FX were top shelf and in some scenes actually spectacularly presented. Nothing to complain about here but this feeling is just for the quality of the CGI. Though they were very very good I wasn’t “wow’d” by anything new. They took time honored scifi cliche SFX insofar as display’s, holograms, space scenes etc. and presented them with a quality and beauty that rivaled Avatar but lacked originality.
It may have been the equipment in the particular theater I was in but the audio track of the film was very flat. It was almost like the center channel was missing. Dialog was hard to hear in some scenes due to the loudness of the setting.
Production design:
Again I did not care for the design of the Prometheus exterior. The ship is awkward and nonsensical in its arrangement. And my feeling that it does not have “Serenity” lines was enhanced after seeing the film. A vague and slight similarity maybe, but if no one had ever brought the comparison up I never would have seen it.
The costumes, environment suits, interiors and vehicles were the best part of the production design. They spared no expense here. I have no complaints and was very impressed by the realism they put into the film in this area. My only crit on this point is the internal arrangement of the Prometheus interior sets made no sense and gave the viewer no feeling that the internal configuration ran in concert with the exterior lines. This aspect was very reminiscent of the Leonov sets from 2010 which were fantastic but their arrangement made no sense.
Plot/Story:
Overall it was pretty interesting but done too vaguely. An intelligent di-hard science fiction fan will have no trouble understanding and following the story but the average moviegoer that isn’t studied up on their Alien Universe lore, Ancient Aliens Lore and general “sci-fi-ery” will struggle with the story. It’s got some slight originality to it but it won’t wow you. The concept of the general plot is not completely unique. In this regard is suffers from the “Avatar” syndrome but was not told as well as Avatar.
There was also just not enough setup for the story. The preamble to the main story was a very brief scene at an Archeological site on Earth. There was no mission set up, no explanation how the expedition was funded or organized or how crew were selected. There was an underlying conspiracy plot device regarding Weyland that we have come to expect from the Alien Universe films. But it was only gleamed on and was so brief it was completely pointless for it to have been in the film at all.
Script/Dialog:
Overall this was probably the film’s weakest point. There just wasn’t enough dialog in the right moments and there was too much in all the wrong moments. The one liner’s were weak and only managed to get one limp group laugh out of the audience. I think this film was scripted assuming the viewer already knew the entire back story of the Alien Universe. In one regard that’s okay, but in others it made for poor story telling.
Characters/Acting:
The characters were all very dull and underdeveloped. And there were too many of them. Most of the film’s cast had either only a few lines or none at all. And the main roles were either woefully un-acted or over-acted.
Universe Backstory/Canon:
Once again we are denied any glimpse into the technology that makes these interstellar voyages possible. Ridley Scott repeated the exact “first we are here, now we are there” scene jump from Earth to the Orbit of LV-223. The only mention of anything to do with the ship’s stardrive was a brief mention of the “Ion Drive” at the film’s climax. Anyone educated in scifi lore and real world space technology knows an Ion drive is insufficient for practical interstellar flight. In this film it took the Prometheus a little over 2 years to reach LV-223 from Earth. In Alien, the Journey of the Nostromo as stated by Ellen Ripley when she was briefing the crew , to take ten months to get to Earth from the Zeta-2 Reticuli system (the location of LV-426), a real world charted star system 39 light years from Sol. Both examples demand the existence of some type of FTL drive.
Insofar as continuity this film takes place on a moon around a ringed planet designated LV-223 only 2 years and 52 days travel from Earth. In Alien and Aliens the moon around the ringed planet is LV-426. Now, this is either a production continuity screwup or an intentional difference. We might suppose that LV-223 was re-designated LV-426 by Weyland-Yutani after the failure of the Prometheus mission in order to cover up the incident and that advances in stardrive technology shortened the trip time for the Nostromo. Though the setting of LV-223, Terrain, weather etc. was similar to what we saw of LV-426 it was also quite different from LV-426 in many ways. The only really suspicious similarity is that both were moons orbiting a ringed gas giant.
Was it a Prequel?
100% yes. Why Ridley Scott wanted to derail that perception of the film is bewildering. In Prometheus we see the origins of the Xenomorph, enough said. Even if it’s later revealed that LV-223 and LV-426 are different moons this film clearly marks the firm beginnings of the Xenomorph legacy. If that’s not a prequel I don’t know what is.
Sequel Potential?
I suppose, though I doubt RS would have the nuts to make a direct sequel to Prometheus. It would have to be done very very well compared to Prometheus itself and considering overall I think this film failed to deliver what it’s buildup foreshadowed. I’d also be surprised to see another RS effort set in the Alien Universe at all as I predict this film will not be all that successful financially. It's actually got flop potential.
Conclusion:
Not a must see in the theater. Wait till it hits pay per view and watch it at home on your HD flat screen. The experience will be no different.
of course, characters were completely hollow and there were too much of them.
story wasnt that original, but i liked how it was told.
there is no explanation given for anything. you are free to interpret everything as you wish.
the characters just gave clues or hints. and i havent see this in a long time. its refreshing.
Also, @ L2K: I definitely agree with you on one point... it certainly does leave a lot up to ones own interpretation.
Also, @ Coolhand: It does look like Serenity.
Prometheus_spacecraft.jpg
I'm not quite on that level yet, but the last movie I watched at the movies was Watchmen. Haven't gone back since. It's always an irritating experience. Still, this movie didn't manage to excite me about it. If I see it on TV someday I might stop and watch.
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The last movie I saw in a theater was Batman Begins. :shiner: I love the movie, but I hardly enjoyed it because some b**** (sorry, that's what she was) behind me kicked my seat and talked through the whole thing. Plus, this was the "nicer" theater (more expensive) and the place was so dirty that I didn't feel like I was getting my money's worth. And that was before the major ticket price hike they did "just because they can" a couple years ago. :mad:
So, I wait for DVD. It doesn't matter how good I think the film looks, I wait.
Their full review can be found here: http://redlettermedia.com/
Not seen that pic before, to be fair it looks a lot less like serenity there than it does in the movie. I lol'd at the 'fireproof windscreen'. I'm sure thats slightly better than making it out of frozen water
*edit* oh and also 'intergalactic communication antennae' intergalactic?
Redletter actually mirror most of the comments i make in my review, which is not surprising as the errors are all too obvious (and i felt at times like i was channelling plinkett while typing it - the plinkett review of phantom menace is essential viewing btw if anyones not seen those reviews). I cover a few other points that they miss though, including starting up the alien spaceship with a flute thats just left laying around, phew, no primitive savages can steal this spaceship, not unless they can play a flute... oh and the security system handily plays back the correct tones to play at the touch of a button.
I should have probably added, "and falling asleep in the back seat until the would-be thieves arrive."
btw i'm sure there's no offense intended but you might want to edit that last bit so it looks less like a personal attack.
space-jockey-2-gonzo.jpg