I thought prometheus was amazing, it didn't spoon feed the viewer and you can have many different thoughts to it, I think thats what makes a good movie. They didn't give everything away they left you wanting to know more, and you kind of have to guess and make your own interpretation. I think that movie was the best movie of this year.
I definitely agree with you that they didn’t give everything away. That was one of the positive traits of the movie.
I do think there were some good things about Prometheus; just that there were also a lot of bad things.
I think that Prometheus did salvage the ALIEN franchise. Just for the record.
1. All of us followers of yours are aware of your disappointment with Prometheus. Obviously, you're not the only one unsatisfied with it. That said, whether we like it or not, the film is engrained into the Alien canon and mythology. The question: do you think that it's still possible to salvage the franchise, and produce a much better movie using what Prometheus has established for a sequel? 2. Should the AVP films be canon to the Alien/Prometheus universe? 3. Is an Alien 5 even feasible?
1. There are two types of reasons I didn’t like Prometheus. The first set have to do with how it developed the Alien franchise in terms of who the space jockeys really were. As you say, there’s nothing we can do about that now; it’s canon. But the second set have to do with its quality as a film, in terms of pacing, cool creatures, rational characters and believability. A Prometheus sequel could definitely better than Prometheus, as long its the characters are rational, believable, and the story has good pacing.
2. I think so many people consider AVP canon, that they pretty much are whether we like it or not. So I generally consider them canon.
3. I assume by “Alien 5” you mean a story chronologically later than “Alien: Resurrection”. I personally think someone could write a fascinating sequel to Resurrection, starting where that film left off; it just would probably not feature any aliens! The Ripley8 clone has some xeno DNA and I would love to see what else she is capable of. I suppose someone could even tie it back into Prometheus if her xeno DNA makes her genetically more similar to an engineer…
Great questions, thanks! Any responses? Gimme
First off, love the blog and respect your opinion on Prometheus. I would like to add to the discussion. The interaction between David and Charlie is important. David got shit on the entire movie, being told he has no soul and when he asks why he is created, Charlie responds "because we could.". He infects Charlie because he can, out of curiosity. The whole point of the expidition was to answer the big questions. Why are we here? Who created us? David proved they are nothing to their creators too
Very true. I also saw that that conversation between David and Holloway was poignant; man created David “because we could”, and that is supposedly why the engineers created us. This implies they had no “grand plan” or emotional reasons for creating us, and so they had no qualms about wiping us out.
So to be fair to Ridley, this scene did help a lot to make sense of the movie. I should redact some of my criticism in that regard.
I thought humanoid engineers was lazy and uninspired, like all the other creature design. You can tell they didn't have Giger working on them at all (turns out he just did the murals that we barely see) and a sequel can't fix the terrible script, writing and plot holes. The film was an absolute mess and I'm shocked that something by such a respected director with so much money backing it could turn out to be so terrible.
Anonymous
I think the idea of finding the beings who seeded life on Earth, who happen to be humanoid, is an interesting idea for a movie, I just wish they hadn’t used the space jockeys to explore this idea. Prometheus would have been better if not connected to Alien and the space jockeys at all, in my opinion.
I feel kind of up and down about Prometheus. Yes, the character development was lacking but you could say that of a lot of Scott's films. The plot is a tad wishwashy and leaves you with unanswered questions (like how someone can run around after major abdominal surgery...), but there was an open ending which could well lead to a sequel which answers those questions. The cinematography was beautiful, and I liked the fact that the space jockey's were humanoid, it made them more menacing to me.
Anonymous
There was some great cinematography, I agree with you there. My objections have more to do with characters, plot, and creature design.
There isn't a single Alien movie that disappoints me. But what are your personal opinions? The best and the worst?
Alien is the best in terms of genre-influencing originality in set & costume design and script. Aliens is the best in terms of fun action and expanding the mythos. Resurrection met my expectations; it is interesting, but nothing mind-blowing (but I hate the newborn). It does the best job of exploring the evil of the franchise’s main villain, The Company, albeit in a somewhat melodramatic way.
Alien3 is the only movie that I would say disappointed me, in that it seemed to fall short of its potential. I wish it had more positive continuity with Aliens, and had developed the mythos more.
I won’t even comment on AVP and AVP:R; they’re like the new Star Trek movie in that they are just regular action flicks that attempt to bring in extra box-office dollars by utilizing characters that have an existing fan-base, but other than that have no relation to the franchise. Still, they have aliens and predators and so I watch them!
Thanks for the question!
Well it's not really a review, ha, but I thought since I was lucky enough to see it today in Moscow, I needed to share. I quickly checked some infamous magazines/sites like Empire, and they ARE right about some rushed moments etc. But I think, this epic is going to be somewhere between Solyaris and Watchmen soon. It's a grower, I guess. People might like it in 4 years time. And it's definetely not a money-maker like the Thing prequel/reboot.
Interesting. Thanks for writing!
I say what: don't expect much from Prometheus, and don't expect a failure either. This picture is on a completely new level of story-telling. I won't compare it to Alien because it's bollocks-talk, but if you are into film vs film quality-wise rounds, then okay - it's as good. Might be better. Screenplay, cinematography, flaws which are actually not flaws - all is as good as. Phew, I thought I was going to have a heart attack (pessimist here, see).
Thanks for the review! It doesn’t come out here in the US for another week :( but I’m excited! I’ll try to have low expectations
wassup man! just wanted to get your feedback on this! in the new trailer, michael fassbender seems to be watching some kind of moving black jelly like liquid. Then a little later in the trailer we see something really sticky between someones fingers! imo i think that organism is the early ancestor of the xenomorph! only to evolve in the harsh elements of LV 426. after it was crashed in to by the Prometheus, and being stuck on the planet!
It’s probably too simplistic to imagine that we will see the direct ancestor of the xenomorph in Prometheus.
But it seems certain that the space jockeys are master of all kinds of bio-chemical science (kinds that don’t react very pleasantly to humans), and are likely responsible for the emergence of the xenos.
While we're talking about books, I'm going to point out that there are older versions of the first three comic series, even trade paper backs of them, where Newt and Hicks have their proper names.
Oh, good to know! Thanks!
Don't bother with Music of The Spears, it's way too abstract. The Labyrith is pretty good, but yeah the Perry trilogy - Earth Hive, Nightmare Asylum and then Female War - are the best I've read. Shame they had to rename Hicks and Newt, but you can't have it all. The rule of thumb is; if the comic was a good read, the novelisation of the comic is also good.
Good rule. Perry trilogy it is!
I read a lot of the Aliens novels when I was in middle school. The ones from the 90's were all based on comic book series' spun off from the movies. Earth Hive is a good place to start. It's based on the original Dark Horse Comics series simply titled "Aliens," which was originally meant to be a direct sequel to the film Aliens before Alien3 came around. Earth Hive, Nightmare Asylum, and The Female War are a trilogy which follow Wilks (Hicks) and Billie (Newt) on a series of adventur
Great input on the alien books, thanks!
As far as the Alien novels go, the only ones I remember clearly enough to give my opinion on was Alien Resurrection and Earth Hive. Earth Hive being the better of the two. They're definitely worth reading.
More great novel reviews! Thanks, Caleb!
Hey, could you recommend some good alien movies besides Alien?
Well, obviously Aliens!
I enjoyed District 9 a lot, mostly because the aliens looked good and it was unconventional. I never saw Super 8 or Cloverfield.
In terms of classics, you need to have seen E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. And if you didn’t see Flight of the Navigator as a kid, then you had an awful childhood.
There’s some decent action and effects in War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise and Independence Day. For some truly outstanding sci-fi, watch Dark City.
If horror is what you like, then I’d check out The Thing or Event Horizon.
For cheesy fun, watch Men in Black or Mars Attacks.
If you don’t mind the fact that these have no aliens in them, 2001, Moon and the Battlestar Galactica reboot all have excellent futuristic set and costume design which is part of what made Alien so great.
Thanks for the question! Anything I forgot? Let me know!
