Tuesday, July 17, 2012

AN ALIEN FAN'S THOUGHTS ON 'PROMETHEUS'

Well, it’s been a month since ‘PROMETHEUS’ came out…. I’ve been wanting to organize my thoughts and write a grand review… but as I thought more and more about the film, the less it seemed worthy of review. But here goes...

* WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
 
The Prometheus ship and its interior looked cool and the script seemed like an intelligent one. However, as the film progressed, the screenplay's intelligence diminished. We had a cast of scientists who were nothing like scientists, but instead behaved like irrational dipshits hellbent on touching everything within their reach, all the while jumping to huge conclusions based on absolutley nothing. Visually, the creatures encountered were nothing more than b-movie space cobras, sharktopuses (No disrespect to the Sharktopus) and crab-man zombies. Don’t get me started on the Space Jockeys/Engineers. I felt the script was nothing more than a rehash of a Star Trek episode (Next Gen's “The Chase), shrouded in plot holes and intelligence-insulting plot twists with high school philosophy sold as high concept. In short, it was pretty but dumb.

Now, if this was just a regular sci-fi romp I could overlook all the problems and enjoy the ride, which was a fun one. But this is no regular sci-fi flick… its an ‘ALIEN’ PREQUEL, and 'Alien' & 'Aliens' are my favorite films. So, I of course, have additional thoughts. Readers be warned.
 
So, the Space Jockeys...


One of my favorite moments in 'ALIEN' is when Dallas, Kane and Lambert venture into The Derelict Ship and discover the Space Jockey; the fossilized bones of an unknown alien species. I LOVE the Space Jockey, and it's never explained who it was, where it came from and why - and that was just fine. The MYSTERY of the Space Jockey added to the fun - there's a lot of The Unknown in Space, and that was one of the points of the film. 

The Space Jockey was created by H.R. Giger, who also created the Alien Creature. Both had visual aesthetics that he dubbed "BIOMECHANICAL", which is prevalent in his paintings and sculpture. The link of Giger established (in my mind at least) that wherever the Derelict Spacecraft came from, it was from a sector of the universe that was Biomechanical. Just imagine: An entire area of Space that was all Giger/Biomechanical! I still get giddy at the thought.



In ‘Prometheus’, the fossilized bones we saw in 'Alien' have been retconned into space suits. For years Ridley Scott referred to them as bones, but in the last decade he “pulled a Lucas” and said, “oh, you thought those were bones? No, it was a space suit”.  Boba Fett is a clone, Darth Vader built C-3PO and without microscopic organisms called ‘Midichlorians’ in your blood, you cannot speak to the Force. Instead of  tall biomechanical creatures, Space Jockeys are now just really tall, hairless, super-muscular humans. Yes, they can be called “humans" because their DNA is an exact match to ours. In 'Alien' the Space Jockey represented the eerie vastness of space and the fear of the unknown. By directly linking the Space Jockeys to Earth and Humans, they've greatly narrowed that concept.

'Prometheus' took what was once one of the coolest, imaginative creatures in Film and replaced it with a Star Trek alien race in a Giger costume. For this Alien Fan, 'Prometheus' absolutely ruins the Space Jockey. To activate Engineer Ship, play Flutophone.

"From henceforth, the Space Jockey in 'Alien' shall keep all rights and titles bestowed upon it and only be spoken in the native tongue of Alien fans as 'Space Jockey', and not 'Engineer'. And hither too, the disavowed Prometheus Engineers will give up all rights and titles to the claim of 'Space Jockey'."


In 'Alien', Ash refers to the Alien as "The Perfect Organism". I agree - it's how I feel about Giger's creation - its perfect. It's breathtaking beauty is matched only by its perfect, simplistic life cycle: Egg... to Facehugger... to Chestburster...to Adult Alien*.

* (Now depending on 'Aliens' or the Director's Cut of 'Alien', there is a different factor to loop the cycle. In 'Aliens', there is a Queen who lays the eggs. In the 'Alien' Director's Cut, captured Humans are slowly turned into Eggs. Regardless, with each there is a natural life cycle to the Alien. With some quick use of imagination, you can make both work together within the alien's life cycle).

With the finale of 'Prometheus', we bare witness to the birth of a Black Xeno-Creature, bursting out of an Enginner's body. The monster is officially dubbed the "PROTO ALIEN", which implies it being the first alien (or earliest form of).  The ProtoAlien comes into being like so: weaponized black goo mutates man... man impregnates woman... woman births squid baby... squid baby impregnates engineer... ProtoAlien bursts out of Engineer (with egg).


This is not the life cycle of a species, it's the mutation from organism to organism without need. Whereas the natural biology of Giger's Alien had a beauty to it and with a natural reason of survival and continuation of the species. Personally, I much prefer the Alien to be a part of Natural Biological Order, instead of Weaponized Mutagen Chaos. If the ProtoAlien is indeed the first alien, it greatly effects the Mythos by transforming the Alien into something more akin to John Carpenter's "The Thing".

*(No disrespect to "The Thing" - It's awesome. I just don't want The Alien to be The Thing. I want The Alien to be The Alien).

So, is the Story of the ProtoAlien the Origin of the Alien Species seen in 'Alien' and 'Aliens'? Or is the ProtoAlien merely a different (yet similar) species in the Universe's "Wild Kingdom"? If's it's the latter, then so-be-it-jedi, and disregard the above ProtoAlien paragraphs.


I LOVE Giger's Alien (as well as Cameron/Winston's "Warrior" version). It's Imaginative. Beautiful. Perfect. It's the main reason why 'Alien' and 'Aliens' are my favorite films and why I'm so passionate about the Franchise. I wish ‘Prometheus’ wasn't  tied to the Alien Universe. As a stand-alone sci-fi film, it was fun, albeit extremely flawed. Unfortunately it IS tied to the Alien Franchise and its difficult to overlook that. I feel 'Prometheus' damages the ‘ALIEN’ movie, creature and mythos. 

I wish I could unsee it. 

Personally, I put 'Prometheus' on the shelf next to ‘ALIEN: Resurrection’ – it's very pretty, but also very stupid and infuriating. The Engineers and the ProtoAlien can go play along with the Newborn and Predalien in the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

50 comments:

MOCK! said...

Worth the wait! I think my decision to wait for Redbox was a wise one!

Ness said...

my least favorite parts included...

1. running in a straight line when something is about to crush you

2. scientists touching things with their bare hands

3. scientists removing space suit helmets

4. no one giving a fuck when the main girl has squid baby cut out of her

and the list goes on....

good review man.

Fraser Lovatt said...

Not to mention David's line of "“2 years, 4 months, 18 days, 36 hours, 15 minutes.”

woobot said...

Great review... love the last sentence...hahaha.

Unknown said...

I think you might be on to something with the connection to the Crystal Skull. The ProtoAlien and the whatever from Crystal Skull must be related. They are forever bound together in a universe of suck.

Good review. You didn't even touch on how completely retarded it was to have Guy Pearce in 100-year-old man make-up as the sole owner of "the corporation" and putting him physically on the fucking ship. You take away the whole critique of the nature of man indicting us along with the "Engineers".

Smash Prometheus!

Jim said...

Oh believe me, I could write separate review listing all the stupid bullshit in the screenplay... and started to do so... but then I figured numerous people have already done so online. So I thought I'd focus more on what mattered to me: its connection to the Alien Universe.

Valaquen said...

I thought the film was a wasted opportunity and not even half as intelligent as it wished it was. An intelligent film should get you thinking about its themes (look at 2001) not merely thinking about what the hell it was about. Though I was actually fine with the Engineer, you're spot on with this: "In 'Alien' the Space Jockey represented the eerie vastness of space and the fear of the unknown. By directly linking the Space Jockeys to Earth and Humans, they've greatly narrowed that concept."
Space just got smaller. And I hate how Arthur Max tried to justify taking the bio out of biomechanical. It was perfect as it was. Why feck with the formula? Sounds like they're out of touch with what was successful about the original films.

Hey Monkey Butt said...

I haven't seen it, I don't usually go to the theater, so it's def a wait for me!

Frank Gillespie said...

The quote of the day is officially "The Engineers and the ProtoAlien can go play along with the Newborn and Predalien in the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." Bwahahahahahahah

Jason Garrett said...

It was pretty but very illogical. I have bounced back and forth on liking it/disliking it... the Jockey/Engineer didn't bother me as much as maniacal David (why with the crazy?), dumbass scientists (why not just lick everything, too?), needless new lifeforms (human-gestated Mega Squid) and the fucked up Proto Alien. Also, could the Engineer not have taken an EVASIVE COURSE to dodge Prometheus?

I dug the design. Icy Charlize & hillbilly Idris. I wanted to love Noomi, but really it was just seeing her Dragon Tattoo it up in a spacesuit that I liked.

Pretty pictures and awesome trailers.

Thanks for the SMASH!

Andrew Glazebrook said...

I think my decision not to see this film was a good one,prequels rarely work. I've had too many mates say the film sucked and destroys the whole Space Jockey mystery.

Tim said...

I agree with about 80% of your review. I'm also a huge Alien fanboy and had my own problems with the movie. I will also never refer to the Jockeys as Engineers. I personally loved the ship, the musical score, the alien planet, and Fassbender's performance was just plain awesome. I agree 100% that these people did not act like Scientists. The blue collar workers in Alien and the Marines in Aliens acted like they should have, well, except for Hudson maybe. Nobody except for maybe Shaw acted like their professions. I wish to god the Jockey's weren't just hairless WWF characters in cool suits.

Tim said...

Also, not to get off topic, but was 'Predators' the only 'reboot/prequel' that actually worked? First Star Wars, then Terminator, and now Alien have all been messed up in some way. Whatever your thoughts on 'Predators' you could tell that the creators genuinely shared a passion for the subject matter.

I guess Star Trek could be considered a success as well.

jedispyder said...

Great perspective from a hardcore fan. It actually did change my thinking of the movie a bit.

To go off what you said about the ProtoAlien being a similar yet different type of Alien species altogether, it's possible to think that way for the Space Jockeys and Engineers. If you want to completely disassociate the two, you can think of it as how it's possible that the Engineers created/were friends of the Space Jockeys and then based their space suits off of how they viewed the Space Jockeys being able to survive in space. This is obviously stretching it a lot, but it's one way of thinking that makes this more of a sister-film to the quadrilogy and not a prequel....

Jim said...

I'm going to do another small post soon about the Space Jockey/Enginner discrepancies... if you compare the 2, they are different sizes and shapes. The Space Jockey has much longer arms, for instance. So maybe the Engineers are merely using Space Jockey technology. :)

Tim - Yeah, the ship, score and fassbender were indeed cool. There was plenty of good stuff in the film. I can overlook the bad writing and other flaws... I just can't overlook the Alien stuff. Oh, and Star Trek was not successful. Don't get me started, buster!! One rant at a time. hehehe :P

Anonymous said...

100% agreed. And I am grateful for your leaving out commentary on the horrid "churchyness" of Prometheus as well, as it is so bad that it should never be mentioned again. I felt like I was watching the "Animal" Planet, except the tagline was changed from "In space no one can hear you scream", to "Aliens: Uniquely Human".

Prometheus is so bogus on so many levels, I could go on for days, and it makes me want to kick
Ridley in the nuts, which I might actually have to dedicate my life to after he fcuks up Blade Runner with his apparently impending sequel. Yuck.

Hobgoblin238 said...

Thanks for the review! I will never see it as I respect your opinion.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget, Ridley Scott said this with his brains and mouth...
"NASA and the Vatican agree that [it is] almost mathematically impossible that we can be where we are today without there being a little help along the way…"
...Um...No Ridley. No they don't. Im sure NASA dosnt appreciate you making official press releases for them.

And in the DVD commentary for Alien (I think its right at the end) he explains the Big Bang to Sigourney Weaver. And its nonsense, hes actually explaining a Super Nova. Baddly.

Also, you take Heroin regularly without any damaging side effects as long as its really pure Heroin.

It might be time to acknowledge the possibility that Scott is just an idiot that got lucky. Like George Lucas.

Also I REALLY like Alien 3. There I said it.

Jeyl said...

Oh, Jim! This review makes me so happy! And I'm so glad I'm not alone in the universe who HATED the concept behind the engineers. It doesn't work.

Also what came out of the Engineer along with the Proto Alien was not an egg. It was a Placenta. You can see the Proto-Alien's umbilical cord attached to it. Which raises the question on why an obviously male engineer who's DNA matches ours by 100% is even capable of creating a Placenta. MALE HUMANS CANNOT PRODUCE PLACENTAS!

Also, Ridley Scott specifically requested the "Bio" part of the Biomechanical art form be significantly toned down for Prometheus.

......I say this with pride. Event Horizen was a scarier movie.

Chris said...

Terrible movie, great review. It could have been so good and yet... Look forward to the Jockey comparisons.

Alec said...

Agree completely. Several years ago when I first heard about an ALIEN prequel being green lit with Ridley directing I was so excited. I had images in my head of all this twisted Giger imagery, an absolutely mind blowing Alien creature, that still looked the same as Giger's original but a lot better because of modern fx and all the space jockey shenanigans to boot.

I heard how disappointing the film was from early reviews and I knew from the trailers it was nothing like I wanted it to be, but after looking forward to it for several years I felt I had to go and see it. I wish I hadn't bothered.

Mike said...

I think the movie is great, can't wait to get the bluray with the extras.
In the ship there may have been a human mural but there were xenomorph carvings into the architecture. That makes me think that the engineers big thing is creating xenomorphs. I think their culture is centered around creating the alien and this particular base of engineers decided to play prometheus and give a new batch of humans some of the black goo, evil, darkness, or "fire". I think humans are supposed to be the ideal ingredient in making the alien creature. Could be wrong but thats just part of what i think went down. In the end it kinda means that everyone on earth is part xenomorph.

Jim said...

Mike, I respect your opnions and in no way is this an attack on you or your thoughts.....

if what you theorized was true, my head would explode with rage & sadness. :P

For me, I hate the idea that the xenomorphs are created by anyone. I find it far more interesting that in Space there are simply other species out there.... not connected to Earth & Humans in anyway. That's too limited in scope and imagination. And if they are connected to humans in such a way that humans are part xeno... then they need to rename "ALIEN".

But, if the Engineers did create the xenos (like they're now tellling us), I like your idea that humans are the "ideal ingredient in making the alien creature." That also works well with the whole "alien takes on host's phsycial attributes" - an alien from a human is the best, as see in 'ALIEN' :)

In the end, to each their own.
Personally, I'm sticking with just "Alien" and "Aliens", and mentally disgarding the other movies.

Tim said...

I still hold a soft spot for 'Alien 3' but that's a discussion for another day ;-)

Jim said...

Hahaha yes it is...

but I, too, have a soft spot for Alien3... that beautiful piece of shit. :)

Nik Holmes said...

When I was a young 'un I loved Gremlins, and picked up the novelisation as was so popular in the days before DVDs and the like. The book began by explaining that Mogwais were genetically engineered pets from another planet, who got recalled when it was realised they were defective. Or some such nonsense. I punched that book in the face and refused to read it for being so silly and for feeling the need to explain what never needed explaining. I got the same feeling when it was announced Scott was making an Alien prequel, and refuse to watch. So glad I did and thanks for confirming my fears Jim.

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Seriously, has a prequel to any movie ever worked ?! It's like someone explaining who Clint Eastwood's Man with no name is,or seeing Roy Batty attacking ships off the shoulder of Orion !! I now refuse to watch Prometheus, there are plenty of other things I could be doing instead, I just know it would piss me off big style !!

Nik Holmes said...

Come on Glazy, me and you should go protest outside Cineworld in Middlesbrough, Father Ted style.

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Yeah Nik, Do you remember that bit when the Space Jockey, he tried to take that banana off the other lad?

Nik Holmes said...

"That wasn't a banana Andrew"
Ha, you just made me laugh so much, cheers Glazy!

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Jim I never watch the Director's cut of ALIEN because the cocoon sequence was cut for a reason, Scott said it slowed down the pace of the end scenes,and it's inclusion was a stupid thing, and even Scott says that the original cut is the definitive cut and the Directors Cut was just another way of marketing the movie back at the cinema !!
I was looking over those pictures in the documentary stuff on ALIEN, the ones were he used kids to make the Space Jockey seem massive, from what I've seen of the one from Prometheus the scale is completely out, and it's now around 3 times smaller !!!

Anonymous said...

I can only really think of 1 prequel that worked: Cube Zero.

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Apparently the suquel to Promehteus was green lit today, according to Bill Pearson who did visual FX and props on the original Alien.

He said "Just heard today that a sequel has been greenlit.God help us."

malhavok said...

(In the Voice of Grover from Sesame Street,.....)

-" uuh ummm,..Tooo-Dayss word is 'P'
'P',..can you say it boys and Girls,..'p',..P.P. PEEEeeeee,..as in 'Pro-meeee-the-us',...,..like 'POOP'
'P',..."

Anonymous said...

Sorry to go off topic, but I can be silent no longer!.....

Alien3 has more life, personality and atmosphere than 98% of the monster movies in existence. Ok, fine throwing away Hicks Newt and Bishop was pretty stupid. But when you think of it as its own Alien film and not as a sequel to Aliens, Its fucking great. The fact that it dosnt make any sense, Isnt Alien3's fault! The studio and the producers and editor butt fucked that script into illegibility. The directors cut makes a bit more sense, but then its got that stupid OX birth. Anyway, Im not asking you to love it, I know you cant. But Alien3 Deserves better than to be lumped in with Alien resurrection and the 2 HhhhUUURRGG, sorry, the 2 UUUUUURRRK kak cough, sorry I cant even mention them without dry heaving, those goddamn AVP debacles. Please Jim look into your heart, You know it to be true.

Jim said...

Hey Anon... I've never bashed Alien3 100%. In fact, I've done posts in the pasts asking people to give the film a second chance. Like you, I view it as a stand-alone alien film, unattached to 'Alien' and 'Aliens'. The killing of Newt & Hicks is unforgiveable, which is why I pretend they are all different characters, including Ripley... OR, pretend its just one narly hypersleep nightmare. Like you said, the production was one of the worst in the biz. Thankfully you had a decent cast, AMAZING SET DESIGNS, and David Fincher's eye - the film is gorgeous. I, too, prefer the "Special Edition" as it tremendously fleshes out the prisoner characters (especially the Doctor and Golic). I do miss the dog birth, but overall the SE is a much better film. My main complaints are the killing of newt/hicks (but overlook by using my imagination and pretending they are diff't characters) and the terrible digitial compositing, which makes the puppet look like bad CG. Sure there are other complaints (I'm not a fan of the DogAlien or the "alien vision"), but I can live with those. Overall, I have a special place in my heart for Alien3... its taken many years for it to happen, but there it is.

Jim said...

One more thing about Alien3.... I HIGHLY recommend watching all the supplemental material ("making ofs") that have been compiled together on the bluray. Its a fantastic documentary of the famous production from hell. I'm amazed the film was even made & released! Its a shame - it could have been fitting 3rd outing, standing strong next to 'Alien' and 'Aliens'. Give em a viewing!

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Re-Alien 3,I think people would have eventually lived with the fact if they'd have simply recast Newt as another actress and had her and Hicks live. Possibly have hicks killed off later on in the movie.
Also I still wonder why a ship as big as the Sulaco jettisons it's crew for a small electrical fire, no fire supression systems ? Why not wake the crew ? Bizarre !!

Zlayde14 said...

I honestly think they may have touched, on many subject that were never addressed. I saw "Alien & Aliens " at the age of 12. Impressed and scared. but loved it. I think we need to stop bashing the movie, and look at the points that perhaps the producer was trying piece together. Alien had to start somewhere, So why not start it off on the planet that always brought us back. Perhaps the Proto Alien may have been just a drone with the egg as the queen. No one knows because in Alien all they find are eggs and the space jockey. So where is the queen alien, and was she the egg ? or did our Proto Alien turn into the queen in alien/aliens. Stop bashing the movie just ask for an explanation on the premise of the movie itself.

Jim said...

'Alien' had to start somewhere - yes, it starts with 'Alien'. I don't think a prequel story needed to be told. The discovery and mystery of the Space Jockey in 'Alien' was enough. Let the mystery stand - there are some things in Space we do not know. That was one of the major themes of the movie.

Regarding the planet - the planet in 'Prometheus' is not the same planet we saw in 'Alien'. The 'Prometheus' movie is LV-223, whereas the planet in 'Alien' was LV-426.

Having a negative opinion of the movie does not necessarily mean "bashing".

Anonymous said...

I don't know about you but I ALWAYS pictured the space jockeys as space suits. WHAT ELSE WOULD THEY BE??
The name itself implies it.

Jim said...

Well the name "Space Jockey" is an unofficial nickname given to the pilot by the production designers on Set. The name "Space Jockey" is derived from the short story "Space Jockey" by Robert A. Heinlien, which is about a pilot of a commercial spacecraft. The name had no baring on the what the dead alien was, except for being a pilot of a vessel.

Regarding what else could it be, it could be the skeletal remains of the pilot. The Alien, the Derelict ship and the Space Jockey are all [Giger's] biomechanical. The Alien itself wasn't a soft creature inside a space suit, and neither was the Space Jockey. Creatures from that area of space have "skeletal" exterior attributes.

The script refers to the Space Jockey as a fossilized shape:

From the original script:
Dallas gets up.
They stand for a moment...
Then move away from the rock formation.
Fossilized into the other side of the rock is a shape.
Fifteen feet tall.
Unseen by the members of the party.


And Dallas says, "Looks like it's been dead awhile, fossilized."
He doesn't say, "Looks like a space suit".

Dallas also says, "Bones are bent outward... like he exploded from the inside."
Bones.

For those reasons, many fans have pictured the space jockey seen in 'Alien' as fossilized bones/remains of the biomechanical pilot.

jimbo324 said...

Don't worry. In 30 yrs some studio will remake 'Prometheus' and actually create a film that makes sense instead of trying to figure out what some burned out director was trying to say. Perhaps he woke up one day and thought he was Stanley Kubrick. David the android watched Lawrence of Arabia and 2001 made as much sense as Prometheus. The only way this film could have been much worse would be if Tom Cruise or Jack Black were in it.

jimbo324 said...

The engineer killed everyone because he was pissed that mere humans had the audacity to create life (i.e. David) Although he was an android, the engineer knew it was only a matter of time before it evolved into a conscious being .

Anonymous said...

At last, someone who expresses the idea of "the unknown". Thanks! In Alien this idea was atractive, seductive. It was a movie about the strange, a film for those who wanted to see something unnaturally inhuman but in some way advanced, shown in a credible way. Then, years later someone (doesn't matter who) makes a prequel of a prequel of a prequel of a film called Alien (ALIEN!)turning the ET organisms into humans. Sure, you are the first to travel XX light years into the unknown, already knowing that humanity comes from evolution and we are puny and insignificant and the universe doesn't care about our beliefs and that's a good thing and then... What do you find there? More humans, of course... WTF!! Give back my childhood! About the suit idea, it wouldn't be so bad if the interior were more like the exterior, but no, we have Dr. Manhattan (sorry if my english sounds strange sometimes).

Anonymous said...

Also, my original idea of the SJ was always that the body of the jockey and the chair were a single structure from the very beginning (it sounds indeed biomechanical, isn't it). Like a very advanced version of an auto-pilot, barely similar to our physiology just by chance.

Andrew Barr said...

Thank you for not refering to The Alien as "the xenomorph."
I liked Prometheus but like to pretend its a sequel to Blade Runner that has coincidentally similar space monsters in it.

Jim said...

Remove the connections to 'Alien' (meaning they don't look like space jockeys - redesign them as something else and something new/original) and then 'Prometheus' is a fun romp, albeit a stupid one. It's the impact on 'Alien', 'Aliens', the alien creature itself and the Space Jockeys that I take issue with.

Herzog said...

Great commentary which really crystallized some of my unease with the choices. I don't necessarily object to the idea of probing the backstory of the Space Jockey. I was excited when I heard this was the stated goal. I mean, the beauty of science fiction is that it's only limited by the imagination. The Space Jockey could have been ANYTHING! They could have done CRAZY things with that premise. Remember that Alien3 was during one script treatment going to be set on a wooden monastery floating through space?? But to tie it back to us does indeed shrink the universe back to a human-centric scale.

And I love your point about the totally baffling series of "Thing"-like transformations leading up to the proto-alien, which would somehow then magically jump into being a self-sustaining and complete species, with a logical survival and reproduction cycle (implying an evolutionary origin).

Another commenter pointed out in the comments that including a "Weyland" also took from the metaphorical weight and mystery of "the corporation." Oh, it's just that Rupert Murdoch guy.

Again, almost nothing made sense in this movie, which is well documented. For me, the only thing that worked were the marvelous visuals and forward thinking production design. A lot of thought seemed to go into the amazing sets and the logic of how things might work and look in 70 years and then they must have run out of money?

Unknown said...


The mistakes of Prometheus were too blatant to be overseen - especially by somebody like Ridley.
However, for anyone who's interested in the symbology of Prometheus, I think the following article provides a good summary:
http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html#cutid1

There's also other stuff that this specific article is missing - like the tie between the planetoid "LV-223" and "Leviticus 22:3".
Anyway...

Personally, I don't think there is anything wrong with working with allegories, symbolism, mythology etc. when trying to express a story. But why would Ridley not think it through? Why so many inconsistencies in the plot? I mean there's must have been a better way to tie mythology with the linear progression of storyline, and the mystery of the actual franchise.

Why would he not try to tie the symbolism with the story and the characters development in a more cogent manner?
Even though the symbolism/mythology behind it is interesting, in reality in has failed in becoming part of the film.