Amph On Earth, Everyone Can Hear You Scream: The Prometheus / Alien Discussion Thread (Romulus, Earth)

It feels like a franchise without shame.

I can't stand the idea of revisiting it.



EDIT: And there isn't a chance in hell of it being anything like Alien. Such a distinct and clever film would never be permitted in such a giant franchise today. It'll be neutered standard action fare with as low a certificate as possible. People will lap it up, of course, but it will be another nail in the fattened legacy of a once lean idea.

 

Alien was clever? Let's break the concept of Alien down to it's basic elements. Alien rapes space miner's face, makes victim pregnant. Victim gives birth to drooling death machine that stalks the halls of an empty space ship and eats people for the rest of the film. That's not really that clever, that pretty much borders on shlock.

What made it a classic was the performances, direction and visual design, something that Prometheus could have down to a T.

 

What made it classic was a brilliantly simple idea executed flawlessly.... something zillions of films since then have failed to match. It may sound simple, but it's extraordinarily hard. So perhaps not clever in the sense of having a complex plot, but clever nonetheless. This new film will have good direction and visual design, I am sure, but none of that matters if draped all over those things is yet another 15 certificate action film pretending to be something it's not. And that's what we'll get.

There is absolutely no way Fox will let a film set in the Alien universe carry an 18 certificate, or dare to be different, or not try in some way to explain parts of the Alien backstory that are BETTER LEFT UNEXPLAINED.

Hard sci-fi is not permitted when dealing with such a big film. Don't kid yourself otherwise.

 

Not another "It's not R so it sucks!!!" argument. Alien is pretty tame by today's standards, in fact I'd bet good money it would only get a 15 today, and possibly even a 12 if the chestburster scene was cut. While it is a pity Ridley has to work within a confined limit instead of being given full creative freedom the fact is the only way Prometheus would get an 18/R certificate is if it was full of uber-violence, which isn't what the franchise is about anyway.

And as for the content of the film, I'm willing to wait for the final product before making these assumptions.

 

Of course standards change with time. That's a given. Alien isn't tame by today's mainstream standards, because it's a psychological affair as much as it is straight horror, but it's rating is certainly a product of it's time. The point however, is attitude and scope. I'm not saying Prometheus will suck if it's not an 18 rated film with lots of gore, I'm saying that the freedom to take risks that might see it become more than just a standard action film with nothing truly challenging or controversial within it - and thus potentially end up with an 18 certificate (or even make it a difficult to market 15) - will be absent. Spayed at birth. Alien was controversial, and was designed to push the envelope, so to suggest it's wasn't at least partially concerned with shocking it's audience is foolish. It was also the first of the franchise, and so unbound by the rules of success. Aliens changed the deal somewhat and so succeeded (although I still think Alien is better), but after that the franchise became just... awful. Tame as ****. Prometheus will follow in those footsteps, and not the groundbreaking attitude of the original - even taking into account today's differing standards.

I'm not. People will go and see this film in their droves, and the studio will think it was a good idea and so make more. Bad ideas need to be prejudged, else they become routine.... which is basically what cinema is these days. Bad idea after bad idea doing well because people pay to see them.

Prometheus, if it borrows anything from the Alien universe, is IMO a blot on the landscape. I'd rather see nothing at all than another 'reasonable' addition to the franchise.



EDITS: Because I can't spell.

 

I'll be seeing this one way or another regardless, just out of curiousity. It can't be any worse than Alien Resurrection.

 

I'll be picketing cinemas with a placard reading, "Down with this sort of thing."

 

I... sort of... agree with our very British friend. I liked it better when Prometheus was supposed to be a stand-alone movie.

 

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Via Bleeding Cool.

 

Given that the sad nature of what constitutes "horror" these days, and the fact that Giger's alien is a Disney cast member, once slated to get his own show in the Magic Kingdom, I think there's a definite point that Alien is tame by today's standards.

 

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Prometheus trailer leaked again.

Looks different to the explanation of the last one. No clips from the original Alien to be seen. It's blurry and covered in watermarks but you can make out one or two rather exciting clips.

 

Love it.

 

Was that the space jockey in the chair rising up through the floor just a bit before the 40 seconf mark?

 

I couldn't tell. All I could make out was a ship, some explosions, some people running, Idris Elba yelling and the reflection of a guy holding his phone up.

 

As awesome as that trailer was...


1. SPELLING ERROR! When using the word "it" in the possessive, there IS NO APOSTRAPHE. Apostraphes are used FOR CONTRACTING "IT" AND "IS".
What they are saying is "They Found It Is End". Engrish, lol.

2. Why does every action/sci fi movie trailer these days always do the booming Inception bass for the music?

 

You aren't the only one to notice this. But I'm pretty sure someone will catch that before the trailer is due to debut in cinemas. It's very obvious the trailer is still a work in progress.

 

MAJOR SPOILERS...if real. Certainly sounds about right. HOLY OMG!

Earth. The beginnings of our world. In an opening montage, we watch as our primordial planet is terraformed and bioformed by seemingly all-powerful, Godlike alien entities?the ENGINEERS. The seeds of life are introduced to Earth for the first time by these fantastic extra-terrestrials, who have the power to create and manipulate both mechanical and biological matter at will. The montage ends as the earliest genetic recipe for life is sent forth from the Engineers? massive, towering CITADEL in the dark desert.

The desolate desert of Africa: 2085. The prehistoric ruins of the Engineers? Citadel is discovered by a corporate construction team tasked with building a nuclear-powered comm-array in the wilderness. Amidst the ancient remains are found highly advanced, biomechanical relics with are determined to be of extra-terrestrial origin. This catches the attention of the mega-conglomerate WEYLAND-YUTANI CORPOTATION, who finances a massive archaeological excavation of the citadel in the hopes of reverse-engineering the alien biotech for financial gain. Running the operation is MEREDITH VICKERS, a cold, calculating corporate executive, who recruits intelligent and independent astrophysicist DR. ELIZABETH SHAW to head up the research team. Assisting Dr. Shaw are xenoarchaeologist DR. THEO ZEDMORE and her fellow astrophysicist DR. LOGAN. Shaw uncovers the secret of the citadel when she discovers a chamber of star charts, which seem to lead the way to the home planet of the Engineers. Also uncovered is evidence suggesting that the Engineers had a database of all life on Earth, and may even have been responsible for its creation including Man.

In a partially-submerged MANHATTAN, Vickers meets with Dr. Shaw and an OPO, (Off-Planet-Officer), CAPTAIN JERAMIAH JANEK, and plans a space mission following the discovered star charts in an effort to find and make first contact with the Engineers. For the scientists and explorers onboard, it will be a journey of discovery, but for Vickers, it?s merely a way of obtaining new technology so that Weyland-Yutani may retain the lead in the competitive race to establish colonies off-world.

The depths of space: 2090. A highly-advanced, top-of-the-line ISRV (Interstellar Research Vessel) PROMETHEUS decelerates as it reaches its target solar system. The vessel?s crew emerges from their cryo-chambers. Along with Elizabeth Shaw, Theo Zedmore, Logan, Meredith Vickers, and Captain Janek, the crew of the Prometheus is comprised of: First Officer MUDOW, Security Officer RAYDEN HOLLOWAY, Navigator CHANCE, Helm Officer RAVEL, Operations Android DAVID 4.0, Political Officer ALDRICH, Medical Officer FRANCIS, Engineer YURI, and Technical Officers SIENA, LETTUP, and TEMBROOK. The crew gets acclimated to their removal from cryo-sleep, their muscles in atrophy from five years without use. Holloway assists Shaw in her physical therapy exercises.

The crew prepares for arrival at the home planet of the Engineers. Shaw and Holloway are instantly attracted to each other, initiating a romantic relationship. However, as they enter the Zeta 2 Reticuli star system, Prometheus encounters a massive disturbance which hadn?t appeared on scanners, one even more powerful than a black hole: a wormhole in space. Prometheus is sucked into the wormhole, and after a harrowing ride, emerges on the other end. The ship crashes on a barren planet, which the damaged computer system identifies as the mission?s final destination.

The crew sets about attempting to repair the Prometheus, while Elizabeth Shaw leads a recon expedition to investigate nearby structures, which turn out to be a cavernous Engineer temple. Inside the temple, Shaw?s team encounters a bizarre BIO-BRAIN, a biomechanical humanoid face set within a towering pillar, as well as thousands of seemingly primitive URNS. David takes several of the urns back to the vessel for analysis.

Investigating the urns, David discovers that they contain the gene

 

Interesting enough....source?

 

That sounds interesting.

 

To quote Senator Vreenak, "It's a faaaake!".

 

HEY GUYS! HES A PHONY! A BIG FAT PHONY!

 

A few images you might not have seen

 

Official poster