Good God, people! First, this movie is too stupid to warrant this much discussion - - but if you must - - explaining every aspect of the backstory would be like a magician explaining his tricks - - it sucks any magic right out of it.

You've obviously never seen the masked magician, the fun is learning how to do such tricks, because we know it's fake

Quoted for truth.

The cosmos should remain a tad mysterious. Consider Star Wars: in the original trilogy, the Force is an invisible, powerful, and spiritual energy. It is strange and romantic and mysterious. In The Phantom Menace, it becomes a protist detectable with a simple blood test.

A glib, fast answer to the question of why life on earth was created would undermine this film's majesty and power. This film says more than enough. Such an answer deserves its own sequel.

Not quite as epic and stunning as the trailers and promotional materials indicated it might be, but Prometheus is a visually stunning work of sci-fi that can fit nicely into the Alien universe. First of all, this is one of the few movies I've seen in 3D since Avatar and it certainly delivered in that regard. The cast is solid all around: Noomi Rapace is a strong female lead without coming across as a Ripley clone, Michael Fassbender is perfect as the android, and Charlize Theron is at her icy best. There's a lot of complex material here, some unanswered questions, and some uneven distributions of pulse-pounding material throughout. But I still definitely enjoyed it. B+

I would like to say that...

Exactly right. Prometheus has flaws I don't believe were intentional - Guy Pearce's shoddy make-up and the overly expository monologue the captain gives sticking most plainly in my mind. But being mad that the movie didn't give you the big answers it promised is to absolutely clash with the intent of the film.

Looking for the "secret" of the universe is a bit of a fool's errand. If you must, don't go looking for the secrets of the universe in the darkest corners of hell. Nothing good will come of it.

p.p.s. I read through this thread and I don't recall a mention of the c-section scene. I definitely thought that was the movie's most effective part, creepy crawly-wise.

I think everyone can agree that the c section scene was fantastic. So that's no fun to talk about.

Did you like Sunshine, Magnus?

My issue with this conversation: I feel Prometheus' third act is very much in line with the first two, so I don't understand why people are so frustrated by it. With Sunshine, a film I love for the most part, I can at least understand people's complaints: the final scenes, which almost resemble a slasher film, do feel out of step with what came before. But with Prometheus? I don't see it. It's a traditional story of scientists and explorers venturing too far into the unknown and finding themselves unprepared and in great danger. Certain people seem to be interpreting these story elements as a promise of a 2001/Contact/Fountain/Tree of Life style third act in which Noomi Rapace goes on a wild, abstract journey through time and space as the secrets of the universe are unveiled to her, maybe set to Wagner or at least Rick Wakeman. (Or, worse still, as previously mentioned in this thread, a fast and glib version of this type of scene, Mission to Mars style.)

But this is an Alien prequel, and it embraces the Alien blueprint: slowly build a sense of wonder and impending doom and then unleashes a forceful, action-and-suspense-oriented finale. It is a commercial genre film, and it hits those notes perfectly.

And, in my opinion, in terms of the mythology, it says more than enough. The Engineers are fascinating. Their connection to the iconic aliens is fascinating. I hope we see a sequel where even more is revealed, though I bet the sequel would also emphasize action/adventure and horror elements.

This is a perfectly orchestrated popcorn movie which also offers a handful of tantalizing, thought-provoking concepts.

I could understand these complaints if, say, the third act focused on Fassbender's character, David, malfunctioning and becoming violent and chasing people. "Oh, this planet is deserted, but, crap, the android is after us now! Run!" Then maybe you could discuss pandering to the cheap seats, etc. But the action and horror elements of the second half reflect the mysteries and questions of the first half. It's there in the movie's tagline: "the search for our beginning could lead to our end." The film delivers what it promises. It's an action/horror/sci-fi hybrid focused on scientists whose search for undefined cosmic answers leads them into grave and immediate danger, and it's this type of story perfectly told, with memorable performances, awe-inspiring visuals, dense atmosphere, etc.

The way you phrase this is, of course, very skewed, as if this scene emerges from the movie's ass for the sole purpose of an easy adrenaline rush, which couldn't be farther from the truth.

It could also be described along these lines: "in the third act, the explorers rouse the sleeping god they've long searched for. Instead of proving benevolent and willing to answer their questions, the god tries to destroy them. What if we found our creator, our source, only to realize it also aimed to be our destroyer? How would this impact the basic human condition? Would the last person standing cut and run or try harder still to find the answer, staring further into the abyss?"

I prefer my bullshit to yours.

I'm going with Magnus' bullshit in this case.

I've even seen "fans" complain this movies doesn't function as an effective Alien prequel. Which is just insane. This movie explains the aliens, and though not mentioned in any direct way, it explains what must have happened on LV-426 a few decades before Ripley and co. landed there. This is a perfect Alien prequel, even if one finds fault with its other incidents and themes.

I can't argument with you on this point - - it is quite blatant.

lol, it's true.

Such a great character, though. I love how it's instantly apparent he's on a mission unknown to the rest of the characters, yet he never seems overly malevolent, and there is always this tension regarding his "humanity," simulated so well it might as well be real.

Perfect prequel

Thinking more about it, The Engineers are almost exactly similar to the ones in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Think about it, they wake up, kill the villains, but they leave. At least that film stuck with it's theme of knowledge being humanity's ultimate treasure. This film asks who am I? Why are we hear? Knowledge is power? What makes the eggs? What makes the queen? What are the worms? What is the goo? (TMNT Secret of the Ooze is about the best I can come up with) What killed all the engineers? Why was the one ship on LV-426, an uninhabited planet with the destruction part not the creation part? Why does David have telepathy? etc. That's too many questions and those are off the top.

In the end the Alien connection is it's biggest flaw. It creates gapes not only in the mythology, but in its own story as well. It's as vague as a fortune cookie with what's its trying to sell us (You call it deep and philosophical, I call it lazy uninspired) and it's connection of Alien is like a first grader water painting the Mona Lisa and gave it legs and horns. When the teacher asks why the changes, the student shrugs and replies "I don't know"

magnus- check out my rant on page 2, we had a lot of the same thoughts regarding the ending.

It explains nothing about the ship on LV-426. The original Alien does the same amount of explanation. Wow Space Jockey's head is a helmet, and they were made as weapons. That's always been discussed in the other films. Nothing about the actual Alien is explained (hinted at best) We don't know how the eggs were made,

What does David do which would require telepathy?

You can't extrapolate what went wrong for the ship on LV-426 from this film's events and images?

Oh, and I'll defer to Damon Lindelof himself on the final scene. He perfectly sums up its power and nuances:



http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/31479 ... rometheus/

Now see that's cool and interesting, and it even works better with Jesus elements discussed earlier. Then we get a better idea of engineers saw our violence making us monsters. Unfortunately both are on the cutting room floor. Writer's intention vs. execution are two entirely different things. What's in the final cut can barely be deduced from what is written above.

Just ask. Joss Whedon who wrote Alien Resurrection, he's written some very interesting articles on that production.

It can be deducted. It's just not necessarily specified with leaden, blunt-force-trauma exposition.

It's not in the film at all. None of the Jesus, no explanation for the engineers wanting to destroy them And first and foremost, That is not a Queen because a Queen makes the eggs (can't fuck with that) and there is all other types of unexplained creatures. Of course it's obvious that some sort of combination will make the Queen. But that's the whole point this film should have existed. I don't need it implied. Goofy Sci Fi bloggers have been doing that for years.

If they explained anything about the motivation for creation or destruction I'd be much more fine with it.

And the biggest flaw in the writer's claim. She had no intention or desire to create the xeno'whatever, the Engineers set out to create humanity. Now if they explain the guy in the beginning was rogue and humanity was a mistake, that too is very interesting. As is, the film does nothing for philosophy or Alien.

When you say "she," are you referring to Shaw (Noomi Rapace)? Of course she had no desire to create an alien, but she did. The film's ending represents a point where one of the Engineer's biological weapons, having gone through various hosts and periods of incubation (notably a human female), begins to form the recognizable alien. It might be the first of its species capable of reproduction/the first queen.

If a sequel is produced, I wonder if it would concentrate solely on Shaw and David on their journey deeper into space or also show a company team coming to the planet they left behind and finding the alien born from the Engineer.

This is an interesting article: http://www.fxguide.com/featured/prometh ... vfx-space/