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After literally months of teasers, trailers and intense anticipation, Ridley Scott’s return to sci-fi is finally upon us. Prometheus sure gained some mixed critical reviews, but now that you’ve placed bum-on-seat and witnessed it with your own two-eyes, tell us what you really thought.
Was it as epic as the trailers looked? Was it worth taking out a mortgage to go see it in IMAX? Did it scare the willies out of you in 3D? Go for it in the comments, just try and avoid true, film-ending spoilers, at least in the first few rows.
I’ve just watched Alien again having bought the bargain Alien Anthology. Off to see Prometheus this weekend — that alien ship from Alien looks mighty familiar
Just back from having seen it. It actually managed to live up to my expectations. Very enjoyable in its own right and as part of the Alien Universe. A few plot points remain to be cleared up, but there are hopefully going to be more films to do that in.
I’d have to agree with you there – it lived up to my expectations. Was a pleasure to go back and revisit the Alien and Aliens right after… that little bit of extra insight shed just enough light to make them interesting again.
What did you think of it Sam?
Just got back from seeing it. I felt it asked more questions than it answered, but anyone think that’s a really crappy biological weapon? I mean, what happens once you’ve wiped out your enemy. You’re left with a planet full of a really, really hostile force.
SPOILER DO NOT READ @ people that have not seen the movie.
Well, it seems that it was an experiment that got out of control. They were probably trying something they could control.
This comment is just to get the spoiler out of the front page.
I think it was more of an experimental weapon facility, with the substance being used experimentally to produce super-soldiers?
i’m glad you felt it was nessesary to post a meandering needless and lazy post like this… per chance will you actually be BOTHERING to do your job and actually post a review or once again treat this place like some online forum instead of actually ..you know… giving some jounalistic insight
Well aren’t you the life of the party…
It’s hardly “taking out a mortgage” to see a film on IMAX – at 15 quid a ticket it’s only a few bob more than a standard cinema ticket, and in my view worth every penny for the sheer quality of the experience.
I guess it depends where you are — our local IMAX is almost £20 a shot (ordinary non-3D is £10), so if you’re taking the family with you that’s quite a trip.
wow do you live in london or something lol a normal NON 3d movie where i am in yorkshire is only £7.55 or only £5.35 if go on a mon tue and thursday
or buy 1 get 1 free on wed
I paid £39.00 for two VIP Seats at the BFI IMAX at Waterloo (so £18.50 each). I’m there for the 18:40 showing this evening (Sunday).
The Vue at Westfield charges £20.30 for “Scene” tickets and £17.60 for “Xtreme”.
London basically keeps the country afloat.
Data point : Liverpool Odeon IMAX is £12.60
It’s incredibly difficult to get tickets at the only “proper” IMAX screen in London. Though, it’s definitely worth the extra £ if it’s a proper IMAX-ified movie. They’re renovating the screen at the end of the month too – just in time for Spiderman and TDKR!
1st film i saw in imax was avatar and it was £7.50 which i was really surprised at considering most regular cinemas in notts and lincoln charge more for regular tiny 2d (cant remember where the imax was but it was neither of those 2 and took agers to drive to)
I quite enjoyed it. I think it would have been better if it didn’t have ties to Alien. Visual effects we great and they used 3d in the right way also. I feel too many films use 3D to make things come of the screen rather than creating depth. I really did like it.
I haven’t seen the Alien films yet, but Prometheus for me was garbage.
Fur coat and no knickers I believe is the phrase that comes to mind when I think of this film. Great effects and good acting but lacked a decent storyline, really. And for me that’s what films are all about.
What do you mean “yet”? Seriously, get up off your sofa, go to your local dvd emporium and buy. Now.
Come back when you have watched some of the best sci-fi films ever made (Alien and Aliens).
Your opinion may vary of course!
I was gonna wait cause I heard Prometheus was a prequel … don’t actually think there was a point haha.
There was absolutely no point!
A prequel is a sequel that is set before the first film. They’re not necessarily intended to be watched in a different order than what they’re made in.
They will have made Prometheus with the FACT in mind that EVERYONE has seen the Alien films.
The plot didn’t require much in the way of movement or structure because we’ve all seen the other films. You should go watch them then come back and watch Prometheus – only way to do it.
You’re wrong to think that the “everyone” in the audience for a cert.15 film has seen Alien which is over 30 years old.
I see what you’re saying, but you’re intentionally taking what I’ve said the wrong way.
My point was that the film is targeted at a certain audience. This audience is the kind of group who will either have seen Alien, or would watch the other films beforehand.
That was the reason for the story not being comprehensive. We already know Weyland corp. for instance, so there was zero introduction.
I didn’t mean to take what you said the wrong way, but the majority of people my age I know (earlier 20′s) who have seen/want to see Prometheus haven’t seen Alien.
Also most people (excluding avid fans) who watched Alien in the 70/80′s probably wouldn’t even remember the space jockey or WeylandYutani let alone connect it to Weyland corp.
For example I told a certain friend who was excited by the trailer that it’s a sort-of precursor to Alien.
He responded by saying he didn’t really like the Alien vs Predator films.
As one sci-fi fan to another, I don’t think the general public is as upto speed with the Alien connections as we are.
Thanks for making me feel old.
He made me feel old also, its talking to people born in the 90′s that does it for me!
I was born in 79, the year Alien came out and i still have a MASSIVE emotional attachment to the film, i was shown it by an enormously irresponsible family member when i was 7, along with The Thing, and it was the last film that gave me nightmares, after that Baptism of fire i was a Horrorphile and Sci-Fi nut for life.
The one thing you have to do is walk in telling yourself THIS IS NOT AN ALIEN PREQUEL.
It has the similar tone to the original Alien, but it’s done as well, if not better, thanks to the advanced special effects. It gives more understanding about how Alien came about, and a better depth about the universe as a whole. Is it Avengers-level stuff? probably not. Is it worth watching, I’d have to say yes, although when you come out you’ll probably be scratching your head a bit when it comes to plot.
There weren’t any spoilers in there… i don’t think?
“it’s done as well, if not better, thanks to the advanced special effects”
Ahaha, really? You’ve not seen many films, have you?
It had good special effects…
I’d give it a 7/10. But seeing as alien for me is a 10/10, that makes this film disappointing. I felt the end was rushed. All in all I think it suffered some of the same problems as Lost, and maybe they needed an additional perspective on the writing team to act as counterpoint to Damon Lindelolf. His world building and referencing to myth and alien is well done, making it difficult for any geek to pick holes in. However for such a high stakes concept, those stakes don’t really come across from the tone and pacing. More gravitas was needed. It paid good service to the existing Alien mythos, but I think where they wanted this to sit in it’s own right, they perhaps overlooked what made alien strong in the first place. They should have been made to watch Alien 20 more times! You really feel the stakes in alien, every crew members death had tremendous impact, no matter how small their role. Prometheus you don’t feel as engaged with the characters, so when any of them die you don’t really care. The strong female lead is no Ripley, the survival instincts are their but are made too effortless without the emotions and desperation to back them up.
i said that, she was a bit of a stupid bitch in my opinion but my mates seemed to think she made quite a good heroine, she sure as hell was no badass like ellen ripley. several of the other characters were a bit cardboard cutout too, ships captain was a poor rip off of apone from aliens (assholes and elbows sweethearts! its another beautiful day in the core!”
one of the main things that bothered me somewhat is that david the android, although he had supposedly been studying languages he seemed awfully adept at operating all of the ships technology for no good reason, we were led to believe that this was an exploratory mission, it had a sinister subplot if you will but they were still supposed to be confronting an unknown race and technology, just because you can read a language doesnt mean you can automatically understand how to use it. think of it like this, you can read japanese flently, you get a complicated japanese model to assemble that comes with no instructions, would your japanese language ability allow you to build the model, probably no
meh it was ok, nothing great, i loved the 1st film and the 2nd movie
its not in the same league really
be honest did it even have the slightest chance to come close to those two movies? theyre some of the greatest movies ever made. im ageeing with you at the mo though, it was ok, but i think after a few watches to catch all the intricacies of the plot it may ascend from ok to pretty good. if nothing else you can say it was visually very impressive
it was ok, when i left the cinema with my mates we all said we felt a little disappointed, visually it was a stunning movie (we wathed in 2d, we are all 3d haters) but the plot behind it seemed a bit shaky, but after an evening of discussion on it we weened to find merit in several sections so it may be one of those films you have to watch a few times to fully get it. either way not a bad film, ut avengers was my more enjoyable cinema visit so far this year.
we had intended to make it a double bill, after prometheus we were going to watch “the raid” but prometheus was a bit of a thinker so we decided against it, plus i popped out for some more snacks quick in the film, i didnt quite have enough for a bag of sweets in the change i had so i thought id grab a scoop of pick n mix, just a small one, one single scoop, the cost £4!!!!! for about 10 chocolate brazil nuts! madness!
one thing i couldnt get over though was the trailer to the new spiderman movie, it looks utterly awful, they may seem to have got spidey a bit more right in the quipping department but it looks awfully over stylized if that makes sense, spidey swinging though what looks like some sort of neon future neo-NY, it was too soon for another spidey anyway but from that trailer i wont be making the effort to see it
one other thing, till this year i havent been going to the cinema often at all so until i saw avengers it had been a while since id been and the trailers had changed, no longer were they largely just adverts not movie trailers but they were also almost all adverts for booze of some sort which was most annoying as you cant take booze into the cinema! (well i say cant, i smuggled a few cans of red stripe in!)
Haha, my local 3D IMAX sells beer along with the popcorn and soft drinks. I don’t know why more cinemas don’t sell booze you’re allowed to take in. It’s not exactly the sort of place you can drink loads and get tanked up and disrupt the film.
You’ve clearly never been to Crawley! I’ve seen people ejected for being drunk and disruptive!
I enjoyed it; stunning visuals in digital IMAX, but it only aspires to being “hard” sci-fi. For one, the science crew are the dumbest collection of SOBs I’ve ever encountered (except for Rapace’s Shaw), and in general, a lot gets sacrificed on the altar of “survival horror” as it proceeds.
I was left disappointed and you can clearly see lindelolfs influence as it left us with more questions than answers (aka LOST style).
Visually it was stunning but there were way too many unsolved questions and I guess its just a way for them to make sure people pay to watch the sequel.
I agree with what people said; there was no connection with the charectors; the captain was your typical type, as were the two guys betting with one another “you can pay me on the other side!” …hmm.
And charlize theron and her role; it seemed pointless to me to be honest; for the goals she stated you would think it would have made more sense for her to stay back at home on earth. (Trying to avoid giving away her part)
What use did she actually have? none really and I get the feeling Scott put her in because she seemed to throw a question mark as to who the real heroine is between her charector and shaws.
There is no clear cut answers and for people paying to see a movie experience; your left wondering what it was you paid for because it seemed to be simply visual brilliance..and no further enlightenment.
Quite predictable too the plot I thought.
I would still give it about 7.5/10 I think.
Just to add ; I couldnt help think the crew were the dumbest idiots ever; Im surprised evolution didnt select out some of the stupidity they displayed (taking your helmet off on an unknown planet where biological infection from organisms unknown to us is possible – its not just for breathing you idiots) – Were they possibly the dumbest scientists ever to have been rallied together and sent out there?
Not to mention the meteor expert who was controlling the “pups” that were mapping the tunnels…gets lost?..excuse me..but what? They get lost yet those other clowns manage to run out carrying all that heavy stuff to avoid the storm? Doesnt make sense or add up.
Also the other idiot who insisted on touching the deadly snake looking creature like it was a cute poodle…did that look like it was anything short of dangerous?
I wonder if the advertisement for the crew read something like “idiots needing for space mission; must be exceptionally good at not using common sense”.
Yeah.
Personally i think you deserve a star for that, so…..
omg I have a star!!
This may sound like an incredibly nooby question (and likely to get it revoked) but what can I do with this star exactly?
O_o
Not a great deal to be fair, but you can now give others stars and it will hold you in good stead at the next meet up if you choose to come! Priority access and such!
my thanks for teh kool staR!!!!
Somebody else really nailed it. It’s the story that lets this down. The whole thing felt horrifically disjointed, full of scenes that seemed to exist for no relevant reason.
I also don’t understand why they even tried to make this part of the Alien chronology. Every scene that was intended to lead into Alien was so auxiliary that it might as well be removed.
I was so disappointed when I left the cinema. Especially considering that it could’ve been such a better film.
Hmm… I thought it was a bit of a mixed bag.
*SPOLIERS BELOW*
The good:
The visuals, obviously. There’s not a single Ridley Scott film that is bad looking and this was no different. Although people are prone to mistaking shots of impressive landscapes for good direction, the opening scenes were fantastic and thegeneral level of production design was of the highest standard. However, for me the best bit was the foreboding atmosphere that pervaded most of the film. From the ampoules reminding everyone of the eggs in Alien to the familiar sculpture in the wall above them, the feeling that something is going to go very badly wrong was well set up. Although a lot of people wanted some answers as to what the engineers were up to, I quite like the idea that an alien race should be inscrutable. Also, a huge cheer for whoever decided to put a Weyland logo on David’s fingerprint!
The bad:
Unfortunately, the atmosphere vanished by the time Milburn and Fiefield copped it. From then on it just became an attempt to make an action film with a bit of body horror thrown in. The ampoules also bothered me because although they were clearly some kind of biological weapon, I found the inconsistency of their effects irritating. I also didn’t understand why David decided to infect Holloway. As for the ending, the image of Shaw flying round the galaxy with David’s head made me think of Lexx… On a final pedantic note, how could the thing that Shaw removed from herself grow in size AND weight without anything to feed on?
All in all, I reckon a 6.5/10 but I’m eager to see where the story goes. That said, I’m worried that explanations of what happened will be slightly unsatisfying. Alien gave absolutely no answers about the xenomorph’s origins and was none the worse for it.
Massively had a boner for that finger print.
I watched it on Friday evening and it was pretty stunning. The atmosphere Scott creates is so intense and leaves you transfixed on the action. Visually, it was very pretty, as was expected. In all, it was a masterclass in the aesthetics of cinematography.
A lot of people are slating the story for being incoherent or incomplete, but I think the questions posed add to the impression the film makes.
*****SPOILERS*****
I was thinking about the opening where the geeza kills himself by, I think, ingesting an alien. Was he the one who releases the aliens onto the engineers? After discussing the film, that’s the biggest loose end for me.
My understanding of that scene was that the guy was seeding the water with the building blocks of life – he was the primogenitor of humanity.
The issue I have with the ‘open questions’ in the story is how so many of them get in the way. Alien was good because you could watch the film and still enjoy it without actually caring about the loose ends. Prometheus puts them in places where they can interrupt the flow of the story (for me at least). For example:
(SPOILERS)
Why is it that of the two scientists that were killed, it’s the one that didn’t have the alien in him that comes back? This kills the drama for me as there’s no clear threat. The whole fear of the Alien films is the terror within. When you don’t know how he’s transformed, there’s nothing to fear. Never mind the fact that it’s all forgotten about afterwards – nobody seems to care that about 6 people on their crew of 17 have died.
It’s made clear that all these civilisations have the same star system in their paintings. Except across the period of 35,000 years the position of those stars would have changed. So either the Engineers knew exactly when humanity would discover the star positions, or someone dropped the ball.
There are a few others, but some of them feel like nitpicking.
I think these things are just dramatically convenient, and would appear in virtually any story ever if scrutinised enough. The film was outlined to become a series, and if that’s the case, the main objective of the movie would be to make you ask questions.
I managed to find a quote from the actor that supports that he was “the primogenitor of humanity”, also. It should’ve been made more obvious that they were on Earth, or I’m just a derp. ^_^’
From what I understand it was the black goo itself that turned Fifield into the monster. Apparently those weird creatures were the insects/maggots that David disturbs when he enters the canister room which crawled into the goo. Similarly the black goo starts a transformation in Holloway, but is slower as it was a small amount starting inside him. However, it does allow him to implant a weird semi alien foetus inside Shaw, which is then capable of further impregnating (or ‘sticking an alien in the belly of’) the engineer, having been exposed to human genes (the engineers are us, remember). This is then the birth of the first alien as we know them. So do sum up, the black goo itself is the biological weapon, not the aliens directly. Mayhaps it is capable of creating whatever the scariest damn thing the alien species the engineers encounter can imagine.
In case this gets bumped to featured comment. (Spoilers).
Definitely the liquid that seemed to be responsible for Fifield. The only other thing that it could have been, unless i’m mistaken, would have been the cobra’s blood.
so the black goo just basically fucks everything up, with the result being “Alien”?
I think so yeah – it certainly seems to be a genetic manipulator. The Engineer at the start who drinks it ‘breaks down’ thus seeding life on earth. Holloway starts changing from the inside, and it changes his genes as he plants the half human/half alien into Shaw. I think the ‘Alien’ creatures are just one particular manifestation of what the goo can do.
Well you’ve opened up a whole new aspect of the film for me, looking at it that way it makes much more sense, though still the results of the goo seem to be a bit too random to sit prettily in my mind as a bio-engineered weapon, but that’s not your fault. I think you deserve a star for that…
we got into the movie a bit late, when Charlie and Shaw are in the cave, is this primogenitor bit before that? I was thinking of seeing it again anyway, looks like i’m deff going to have to now!
I was lucky (sorta), ’cause I got to my screening 30 mins late, but we ended up sitting around for another 40 minutes whilst they sorted out an issue with the projector. >_< Thankfully, they put the movie straight on so we got to miss the adverts, at least.
But in direct response, yes it is. It's a good scene too!
Buggrit! thanks Glen, i’m just glad i have the unlimited pass!
They tried to sell me one of those when I got my ticket. Luckily I’m well connected, and most of the time I can get in free.
A star! Wanted one for ages. Yeah the primogenitor bit is the very opening scene. The only bit you missed though. I wanna see it in 3D now, supposed to be good.
I’m going to go watch it in IMAX, it’s one of the few films I think you need to see. I refuse to see the REAL D 3D films now, every one has disappointed me, except Up!
I’ve only seen the first Alien movie, do I need to watch the previous Alien movies before going to see Prometheus?
No.
You need to watch the previous Alien movies full stop.
Underwhelmed is the only way I can describe the way I felt after watching that movie.
if you watched the trailer (as I did a month ago with NO knowledge of such a film being made, and a big fan of original Alien) then, like me, you would be dying to watch a film full of suspense, mystery, grit, believable characters.
Wasn’t the case. I didn’t go in there for an alien prequel. I went in for that feel that I had when i watched the original alien, and as a result, underwhelmed and mildly embarassed.
BUT: like Dr Shaw, I want to know more and why…so if Scott can get the script right, minimise the hollywood bullshit (cobra scene “dumb” scientist and cringeworthy joke / bet amongst crew members (how can they do it and not feel embarrassed!), not rush scenes…..then viva la sequel….for that sequel to be special, it has to learn such lessons, and, for me, go back to that original, for that suspense factor.
Nice try with getting the alien fanboys all excited with the trailer.
You know what, I went in with no expectations as I can’t stand to watch Blade Runner so I didn’t want to tar this film with the same brush. However, the latest trailer out gives you the whole film without the content in-between. So no, not really worth the price-tag on iMax, but the fan-boys will salute as that’s just what they do best. Prometheus for me is a bad film, running on the expectations that Scott is an incredible director, so the film MUST be good. I suggest it’s a tad like, Guns N’ Roses minus the Slash
The name is there, but nothing else to back it up.
Marginally surprised at the mixed comments and glad that I’m waiting for the hype to die down. I think most people had huge expectations for this because of its link to Alien whether it stands alone as a movie in its own right. I will now probably catch this in 2D at my local to formulate an opinion next week. Cheers for the opinions/reviews!
Anybody here from the UK, I recently attended the world première from new british movie ‘Ill Manors’ directed by Ben Drew. I suggest anybody old enough (It’s an 18)- go and see it! It’s an amazing, true story created with a £100k budget and the overall look of the film is amazing considering.
Compare the 100k budget of this to the 80 MILLION budget of Prometheus and to be honest I think Ill Manors is better. The trailer doesn’t give anything away. It’s a tragic story but make sure you go and see it!
I think you’ll probably find that the vast majority of people here are from the UK.
I’ll be watching Ill Mannors, its Written & Directed by Ben Drew aka Plan B.
Yeah I didn’t think of that when posting on Gizmodo UK like haha. Although we could have foreign friends visiting the site!
WARNING: SPOILERS
The Pros
As always, Scot delivered amazing visuals with a dark brooding atmosphere, spectacular special effects, and excellent cinematography.
The premise was also intriguing and explained the happenings of ‘Alien’ excellently.
The Cons
Michael Fassbender’s portrayal of the android, David, gave a glimpse of what we expect from a Scott character: David was complex, morally ambiguous, and intriguing. This was backed up by Fassbender’s (as usual) excellence performance. This was in sharp contrast to the other characters, and particularly the protagonist, Elizabeth Shaw: she was unlike-able and shallow, and made worth by Noomi Rapace’s dreadful performance. The only thing that fluctuated more than her characters attitude was her accent, which seemed to come from a different part of Europe in ever scene. The other characters were nothing but fodder to die, despite a few half hearted attempts by Scott at character development. Indeed, I did not find myself caring at all when any of the characters died, and actually found myself rooting for David.
It seems that this lack of character development came due to an over-saturation of action.
Whereas ‘Alien’ masterfully builds up the danger and tension, Prometheus did not manage this feat. It seemed that Scott tried to build tension, only to release the flood gate with a torrent of mediocre action scenes. The protagonist’s self caesarean scene, which could have been as iconic as the famous chest bursting scene, was dulled by the other action scene occurring simultaneously. It was also difficult for the audience to develop a clear sense of what the danger was: first it was an indigenous alien, then it was a disease, then it was a zombie, then it was David, and then it was the Engineers. This made the film difficult to follow and uncompelling. This leads on to another mistake in the film: throughout the film the Engineers are built up as an enigmatic and mysterious race. Scott totally shatters this mystique when he has the only living Engineer attacking the cast, adding them to the (huge) list of dangers to the film. In this lazy bit of script writing, the Engineers turned from an excellent tool with which to put some philosophy into the film to just another antagonist in a film with more antagonists than characters.
The film was also riddled with minor plot holes: why did the crew members trying to catch Shaw let her go after being kicked over once? How did the geologist with complete maps of the structure manage to get lost? Why did the corporate woman not just run to the side? All these unanswered questions served to distance the viewer further from the film (as if the characters didn’t already do this enough.)
Overall, Prometheus had the foundations of an excellent film: stunning visuals and an enigmatic premise. Unfortunately, this was let down by a lack of decent dialogue or character development, which was made worse by the sheer volume of action shoehorned into the film. All of this led to a film that, despite its promising storyline and visuals, was hollow and disappointing, and certainly left me feeling firmly on Earth…
5.5/10
This sums up my views perfectly!
This really does sum it up an absolute treat.
The reason that Theron ran straight instead of to the side is so she can be either the villan, or just somebody in the NEXT Prometheus film. They made a deliberate point of her being squashed into the ground and I think it’s pretty clear she is an android in the same way that David was (David’s sister) from the way she called the old man ‘father’ in that weird way.
Saw it and loved it. How can anyone say “it wasn’t ‘Avengers-level”? (as someone wrote below)…
“Avengers-level”?
I enjoyed “Avengers”, but seriously, come on now? Are you joking?
It is difficult for me to even attempt to offer up a critique of this film without spoiling things for those that have not yet seen it. As a massive Sci-Fi nut and a particular fan of Ridley Scott’s output; I could talk for hours around the details surrounding my opinions on every intricacy and nuance of every branch of the plot and every Alien reference I spotted from my very comfy seat in the BFI IMAX Waterloo.
). Prometheus puts a crew of 17 crewmembers into a sandbox and asks the viewer far more than they might at first realise. On my train journey home, I recalled the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, Nietzsche, Descartes, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus and many more. I began questioning my beliefs in a creator, my intelligence, consciousness and ambitions, as well as my very origins and reason for existence. I certainly didn’t get that watching The Dictator last week.
I sit here in the dark at my keyboard, soaked through to the bone after an arduous train journey and walk from my local station in the rain. I should be tired, it’s been a long weekend; I haven’t slept very well these past few nights, and yet I’m more awake than if I’d spent the entire evening washing down ProPlus tablets with Espresso Coffees. I haven’t spoken to anybody for hours, and yet I feel more stimulated by the provocation of thought than if I’d spent the past few hours in conversation with a room of Theologians and Philosophers.
Let’s get this out of the way now: Prometheus isn’t The Avengers, and it certainly isn’t Avatar. Don’t get me wrong; Prometheus deserves to be exalted in much the same way as those movies through its technical achievement and its capacity to entertain over the course of its running time. For me at least, it answered many of the questions I had about the fate/origin of ‘The Jockey’ from the original Alien, the ‘relationship’ between the eponymous Alien and Ripley and many, many more ponderings and enigmas that have festered in my brain for years. It also provoked many more questions about the canon of the Alien world (questions that I hope are answered in future instalments). As a Sci-Fi thriller, it succeeds as a spectacle and as a traditional narrative. It might not be best-of-breed when judged by these criteria; it’s far more likely to deny adequate lighting and hold a deliberately obtuse cinematic wide shot of an environment/location than erratically and epileptically cut every 3seconds to create what I sometimes feel is a faux ‘excitement’ in Hollywood features (à la The Avengers or Spiderman). The pay-off of this is that where there is supposed to be gore and violence, you certainly get your ‘money-shot’ in Prometheus (This film certainly deserves its 15 Certification). The story; when analysed as a linear narrative, might even disappoint the casual viewer, or the less cultured/forgiving Sci-Fi nut (This isn’t The Matrix: Reloaded, there isn’t going to be an ‘Architect’ pop-up and attempt to answer ALL of your questions at once). Be warned; this is layered cinema for grown-ups, not pre-pubescent, unthinking children.
The real accomplishment of Prometheus is not in the questions it answers, but in the questions that it asks of the viewer. Just like the story of the titular character and mythological Greek Titan; Prometheus exists quite obviously as a cautionary allegory of creationism. It both questions and reinforces the ideas behind religion and broader belief structures. It plays with the concept of the pursuit of knowledge and ‘godliness’ of man and his desire for immortality both in the flesh and through fame and memory. At the same time and almost paradoxically, it explores the willingness of man to sacrifice and martyr themselves in pursuit of a greater ideal or cause. It even looks at some of your more traditional Oedipal mother/son relationships (in a far less immediate and obvious way that the original “Quadrilogy” – but with added staples
To invoke another Philosopher; John Stuart Mill spoke of intellectual and moral pleasures as being ultimately superior and more rewarding than more visceral, carnal pleasures. For me at least, in an even more successful manner than something like Inception did, Prometheus successfully straddles the intellectual and the more traditional Hollywood ‘carnal’ spheres in a way that is far too rare in modern cinema. If you’re looking for a film you will discuss for days and weeks and reference for many decades to come, you won’t go far wrong in letting Prometheus pose some questions of you while keeping you thoroughly entertained in the more conventional manner. To criticise this film’s achievement is to misunderstand its intention. If The Avengers is the anecdotal ‘quickie in a Lift’, Prometheus is a sensuous massage followed by an intense and rewarding ‘session’ with someone you love. Long after Thor has hung-up his hammer and the Hulk has stopped smashing things; people will be talking about and studying Prometheus alongside other acclaimed cinematic masterpieces. For keeping my brain ticking over for much longer than its 124min running time; Prometheus is cheap at twice the price of my admission, and I very much intend to put my money where my mouth is and prove the validity of that statement by going to see it again very soon.
I am guessing you liked it.
I’m guessing he wants to show off his reading habits a bit, and wants a job with the Gawker chain, personally.
I watched it thinking there were massive holes in its credibility & plot as a piece of science fiction with “realistic” roots. Even simplistically, I watched wondering if, in 2093, not one of the crew (either of Prometheus, or Ridley Scott’s scriptwriters) had ever even watched a horror movie before.
I like your observation about the comparison between a belief in creationism and the reality of meeting one’s maker.
Pity it couldn’t explore that whilst also getting right the basics like a logical plot and believable characters, essential to any narrative-based film no matter what the underlying themes and objectives of the story are.
What technical achievements do you mean?
See, I completely disagree. I felt that the overarching themes almost made the characterisation redundant. And I felt the plot answered almost every question I’ve had in my head since I first saw Alien. I actually felt that for a 2hr movie, Scott did a very good job with David & Shaw in particular and also felt that Charlie, Vickers & Captain Janek were all fairly well developed for what is a 2hr Theatrical Cut dealing with some complex themes and the albatross of being related to the Alien franchise.
Plus remember, this is Ridley Scott we’re talking about. Give it a couple of years and there will be a 3-4hr Directors Cut with more characterisation and detail.
In terms of technical acheivement, we’re talking about a master of mood and cinematography working with 3D Cameras for the first time and with Computer Generated Imagery to a degree we haven’t seen from him before, within a genre that has been missing his presence for years. For me, the subtle use of 3D was sublime in providing a depth and solidity to the stunning alien environments. It was even better than Avatar in absorbing me in its world. It will win countless awards for cinematography, visual effects & costume design come awards season…
I consider myself a Sci-fi fan also but Prometheus has way too much bad script writing, poor charector development and no real answer to anything.
Why did so called scientists insist on taking off their helmets on an unknown planet? do the words biological infection mean nothing to them? the helmets are not just for breathing?! Im not even a scientist and that was the first thing that came to my mind.
Why did the so called meteor expert who was actually mapping the tunnels get lost? He ran back first and actually made reference earlier in the scene about him tracking the pups – surely he of all people could have found his way out?
Yet despite bailing on the rest of them earlier – he gets lost while a crew manage to run out carrying all that heavy equipment to avoid the sandstorm…without any mapping themselves?
What was the point of having Vickers in the story? her goal seemed to be to run weylands company – surely…SURELY it would have made more sense for her to stay at home and count on the mission failing only for her to take over? what was the point of her coming on the mission beyond confuse the audience as to who the real protagonist was?
There was no real connection with any of the charectors and the only one I was rooting for was David who seemed to have had the most depth going for him…and he was the bloody robot!
I think you have bought into the hype and also biased considering your a Ridley Scott fan as I reckon Scott could have filmed a pile of cow dung for 2 hours from various angles and I suspect you may have approved it =/
(im joking – no offence directed at you btw)
But seriously – I think it lacked on so many areas.. =/
I keep seeing responses similar to this, elsewhere in the Comments section but I’m going to respond to this one.
Sometimes you need to have characters do stupid things in order to advance a story. I could pick holes in Homer’s Iliad/Odyssey, I spent seemingly my entire time at University tearing Shakespeare a new one. Essentially every storyteller ever known exhibits what can be interpreted as a “plot hole” or “Factual Error/inconsistency” once in a while in the name of supplying us with drama, suspense and plot.
Which brings us to the second gripe, interpretation! For me, there’s an incredibly good reason why the helmets were removed. The scientists are indeed warned quite strongly to keep them on. But once one of them (someone who believes he might be about to meet a benevolent deity-like creator) takes the decision to remove the helmet, seemingly without effect, and the rest follow. How do we know that the helmets weren’t scanning for airborne contaminants and that this was clear, but not vocalised? Even if it turned-out they were attacked by a hostile, water-dwelling, alien snake/face-hugger cobra freak creature and they were in fact INSIDE a giant biological weapon…their experience of the planet thus-far had led them to believe they were not in danger.
These weren’t trained space-explorers, they were scientists on earth selected for their particular set of skills, or were mercenaries. Personally, I was ready to forgive a few lapses in protocol, particularly as there was no perceived danger, and they were clearly in discomfort. Hell, having no benefit of hindsight and with all indicators pointing toward there being no ill-effect resulting from doing so, I’d have removed the helmet!
Reference the scientists who get lost…They were off-mission. We see quite clearly that later, they are reliant on the Captain’s interpretation of the complete mapping performed by the pups for direction and relaying of information about other lifeforms etc. Clearly, the data being collected was either not available for analysis on the equipment that the scientists were carrying, or it wasn’t capable of being transmitted to them correctly (perhaps due to their subterranean location or a limitation of the equipment they had to hand). It is quite easy to take the leap of faith that this person’s skills would have been best-served in analysing the returned data once he was back on the ship in his lab coat? It is absolutely perceivable that they stormed-off, switched their radio comms off and relied on their memory to get to surface-level (getting lost in the process). This is Ridley Scott, this is probably a plot thread that is dealt with more detail in an Extended Cut…but even if it isn’t, I feel that subsequent information adequately explains why the rogue team might get lost.
Without Vickers, the story wouldn’t have worked so well for me. If you see my above posting I go into more detail on my thoughts, but put simply, as well as us not understanding her motives earlier on and her existing as a potential malevolence, she plays an important part in a tale of ‘sibling’ rivalry (that David seemingly wins. Through contrast with David, she plays an important part in reminding us about what it means to be human (care for a sick/dying relative, desire for acceptance from a parent etc.)
Also, she plays a very good role as Devil’s Advocate. She distrusts the validity of the mission inherently and questions her father’s motivations in even attempting it. She is therefore by extension, distrustful of David, and distrustful of Elizabeth and Charlie. The irony is that her (at the time – unexplained) care and human struggle dehumanise her; making David at times seem more human than human (The Captain even questions whether she might be an Android (and, we can safely assume, gets the reward of some Charlize Theron action off-camera for his insult). She is there because as we are told (albeit subtly) she has knowledge (along with David) that Weyland in fact, isn’t dead. She wants to be there to satisfy her curiosity and to be there for the dying moments of her father (who would have surely died on the trip, assuming the answer to immortality wasn’t found).
I am admittedly a Ridley Scott fan…and his work on the film was exemplary as always. But it was the depth of the story (thanks Damon Lindelof), and the deep thematic range that Prometheus covered which impressed me most (and seemingly flew right over your head). You chose to pick holes in incidental detail instead of suspending your disbelief for the sake of enjoyment. As a result, I consider my ticket to have been money well-spent and you came away disappointed. I can’t change that…but my entering the film with a glass half-full and my mind open certainly helped.
Your loss.
As you have taken the time to respond it is only fair I humour you also.
“Sometimes you need to have characters do stupid things in order to advance a story”
I’ll start with that Flynn – Yes I guess to a certain extent your right; maybe emotion does overcome people and they make poor decisions.
But coming back to the bit about “suspending disbelief” – I truly think that is what the role of movies are all about – making people believe in what they are seeing and to do this sometimes we have to take an approach where people are real and believable.
Doing stupid things like taking your helmet off on a foreign world does not suspend disbelief – in fact it just makes you question the crew of so called experts in science, exactly how unreal it is.
I’m not “picking holes” – I’m pointing out areas in the movie that make suspending disbelief really difficult because of the un-human like behaviour people are exhibiting – which is effectively down to just bad script writing and laziness.
Hell why not simply have something cave in on him destroying his helmet making him realise the air is fine and then everyone else following suit? That would have been more real and believable? Hell It would have probably created more suspense and emotion than him being a complete tool and disregarding common sense.
As for the helmets scanning for airborne contaminants etc and it not being vocalised – that is just grasping at straws to patch a hole in the script – that is a typical “post-hoc” thing to say after the event making it difficult to prove one way or another.
We might as well start making assumptions on all sorts of things simply because they were not vocalised in the movie – but then how are we suppose to buy into anything?
Why didn’t they use the teleportation device to transport back to earth? Just because it wasn’t vocalised doesn’t mean it wasn’t there now was it? Or the super strength serum to give them invincibility to fight the evil monsters? Again – just because it isn’t mentioned doesn’t mean it cant be thrown in either.
Thats the point though – we as audience members are willing to make a few jumps here and there as long as it seems believable – there was no mention of airborne infection so I guess its safe then right?
But you know what a REAL scientist would do? He would keep his flippin helmet on because you don’t know what the duck is in the air!
The scientist that gets lost – again he’s not the one with the bloody monster infecting him yet he is the one that gets back to the ship – again were left to our own devices to fill in the blanks and join the dots.
Again we infer that they must have turned off their radios just to make it believable?
Were taking a lot of leaps in faith so far to account for the bad writing…
..ok so hands up who would be turning off their radios on an unknown planet that is evidently scary as hell? Any takers? Hell not me thats for sure and I doubt I would be the only one.
Again though we’ll “assume” that’s what happened (no mention of such btw)
Why not just radio back and ask for directions? Why not keep the bloody radio on and relay back with the ship on getting out? The captain knows the way out – The radios were fine throughout the entire section and everyone was always in constant contact – they were warned about the sandstorm through the radios? It is just poor script writing.
As for Vickers – I disagree – I think there was no depth with her – her character was so shallow that the likes of yourself are searching for depth and meaning when in truth she was just after the old mans throne – that’s it.
There was nothing more to it and based on the information we were given about her – nothing matched up. Stay at home – wait for the old man to croak – get rich – mission accomplished.
But curiosity again is what we assume to have driven her? Hm.
I wasn’t disappointed, no – I went in with no expectations and an open mind to see whether I can buy into the movie.
I love sci-fi and I will make a few jumps and leaps of faith no problem – just make it real and believable.
Poor scripts do not do that.
I really liked it, worth the price and I will be getting it on Blu-Ray. There would be no crisis for the movie industry if 30% of the movies made were at least half as good as this one.
Wishing to avoid repeating what other people have said, I’m looking at it this way: Alien and Blade Runner are my absolute favourite movies. On the basis of those two, I’ve always held Ridley Scott in very high regard. But following Prometheus, I’m finding myself wondering how important his input into those movies really was, and that other people involved in Alien and Blade Runner should have had much greater recognition.
Prometheus: incredibly shallow characters making nonsensical decisions. Logic-defying sequences. Patronising plotting. Disregard to the value of it’s own canon. Inability to decide what kind of film it is – Hard, philosophical sci-fi? Barely. Horror? Definitely not. Thriller? eh, at a push.
I went into this fully prepared to love it, but so many aspects just made me think, “Hmm, really? Did the same director REALLY direct Alien?” – the overbearing music, anticlimatic plot, pointless gruesomeness, unconvincing emotional response…
What was really odd was how much of a retread it was of Alien (someone else has described it as a reboot), whilst totally failing to emulate so many of the less mechanical aspects of that film.
Just come back from a Midnight 3D IMAX screening in Uxbridge and… I liked it. It wasn’t the film that I expected, but satisfied me anyway. I don’t think you’d miss out much if you didn’t see it in 3D, although saying that I like the extra depth you get with the 3D, but I’d definitely go see it at an IMAX if you can.
It does fill in some gaps left by the original Alien movie, whilst creating some questions of it’s own. I’m probably going to see it again.
Elisabeth Shaw annoyed the hell out of me though.
I now introduce you to Hornetheus, my vaginal exploratory vessel.
Went to see it at Crawly IMAX; this was my 1st IMAX experience (£12.50 for ticket after 10% discount) so afterwards I was totally blown away by the visual spectacle and audio bombardment I had just experienced. However I was buzzing from that and unable to sleep so gave me some time to get over that and actually reflect upon the film itself. I enjoyed it as a film in its own right; it’s hard not to take it as a film related to the Aliens universe when there are so many references, imitation of scenes and build-up. Especially the final scene, which felt tacked on. Watching Alien again afterwards, now obviously knowing that there is an android on-board when the crew don’t, the subtle acting makes it so more apparent and clever whereas with David and everyone knowing up-front, ruined any potential suspense or storyline associated with that; why does the company insist on having an android on-board and making sure the other crew know about it, then keep it secret (Alien), then go back to it being SOP again (Aliens)?
My biggest issue with prequels (OK OK it’s not a strict prequel but in terms of timeline, setting etc…) of films that were made a long time ago when the technology wasn’t available to make super-future tech in the film – the tech in the “past” seems much more capable and high-tech. If they can produce amazing CG visuals why can’t they make the tech match the period more effectively. I appreciate it’s hard to make a computer display look worse than a greenscreen like in Alien. You get me?
Finally, IMAX 3D was great, not in your face wangs, just immersion. The scene when Prometheus lands with the boosters in your face, my hair was blown back off my face and felt as if it was landing on my head; amazing
I know what you mean about the older-tech, newer-effects dilemma (see Star Trek 2009 for the worst example) but in the case of Prometheus, two factors could explain it – Prometheus was a science ship, so logically it would have the highest of high tech. And then for all we know Nostromo could feasibly have been older than Prometheus (only 30 years difference – Nostromo could easily have been 50 years old by the time of Alien) – though this wouldn’t help with the divergence between real-world tech and what was shown in Alien – though by the time 2094 rolls around in the real world, Prometheus will doubtless look as dated.
An Austin Allegro Vs. a Mercedes SLK
“with David and everyone knowing up-front, ruined any potential suspense or storyline associated with that; why does the company insist on having an android on-board and making sure the other crew know about it, then keep it secret (Alien), then go back to it being SOP again (Aliens)”
For me, David’s character acts with enough secrecy and intrigue to not warrant his being an Android kept secret. Indeed, it serves the plot for his nature to be known as it adds a Dramatic Irony in that we understand his agenda to not be entirely benevolent; and that the “Pure Science” nature of the mission is not to be believed. We also have the underlying theme of David being to Weyland what the Earth Humans are to the Humanoid Aliens (creator).
In Alien, it’s absolutely integral that Ash’s identity is kept secret. His mission is to infiltrate the crew and ensure the safe delivery of the Alien to the Weyland Corporation. He needs to follow orders and not question any collateral loss of life. The Nostromo is a tug vessel used to transport mineral ore, it is perfectly conceivable that the ship would not have fancy state-of-the-art equipment, or indeed Androids. It is in fact implied that the Nostromo’s previous medical officer was human and we know he had worked with some of the crew on previous missions, confirming Ash to be a plant with a specific agenda.
With Aliens, we are back to a scientific vessel and presumably a larger budget. There has been a passage of almost 60 years and Bishop’s function is Planetary/Asteroid manoeuvring of the ship. We are told that Ash’s model was “twitchy” and that his malfunction led to the implementation of behavioural chips that prevent later models from harming humans regardless of other objectives. Ripley’s distrust of Bishop (having suffered at the the hands of Ash) is a key plot point and integral to the drama of Bishop being the hero in the end.
With regards to Nostromo vs. Prometheus, it’s like saying a 2010 18-Wheeler Scania Truck is less fully featured than Concorde. One is designed to be cheap, dirty and functional…the other was supposed to be the pinnacle of human science and achievement. There’s only 29-years between the events of Prometheus and Alien, and as thomashiles says below, it’s not inconceivable to suggest that the Nostromo actually pre-dates the Prometheus…
The technology issues were actually pretty jarring , no more so than the laser scanner floaty devices and the 3d map in prometheus. This could’ve been done with more believable tech (floaty devices must use anti gravity? Really and that all they use it for???). The holographic map also was a bit much as it made the spacejockey’s star chart less impressive.
I’ll accept that the Nostromo can be older and this is cutting edge but then makes the Sulaco and the marines really rubbish tech wise.
Also the ‘lost’ team members – That was a terrible plot point that could’ve been explained by a tiny scene with them, perhaps a holographic wall to change their perceived route? With the mapping that was moronic.
Apart from that though in MAX 3D it is AMAZING to watch. I think the plot/editing needed a little work but one thing is sure it beat the hell out something like Avatar.
I look forward to watching again and getting more of the nuances that I know exist.
*SPOILERS*
Where parallels have been drawn earlier between Prometheus and The Avengers, I found a better comparison in Inception. Both films assume a certain level of intelligence of the audience and play out a hard sci-fi story using expansive visual effects and earth-shattering audio. Where Prometheus falls flat is the characterisation. The strength of the first Alien was the motivation of the secondary characters and the audiences empathy in their respective fates. The Prometheus crew surrender their lives too all too readily, they’re drawn far too thin to suspend disbelief, as an example I couldn’t get past seeing Benedict Wong’s character onscreen without the word “MEDIBOT” popping into my head.
However, where Sir Ridley Scott succeeds is in expanding the Alien mythology. Prometheus adds substance to the entire series by building on the engineer backstory and infusing the xenomorph v humanity struggle with the dramatic irony that both protagonists descended from the same creator, who has subsequently slipped into the background.
Prometheus implies that the engineers see humanity as a threat and decide to extinguish their mistaken creation with violence. Their second mistake is to manufacture a weapon which itself turns on them, both here and in the corresponding events that pre-date the first Alien film. In my opinion Prometheus is intended to forewarn against our own over-confidence as we assert control over our own DNA and at the same offer a more serious context to the Alien series.
The script issues are disappointing so it’s a 7.5 out of 10 for me. As a fan of the series I was also pleased to see that the first appearance of a proto-xenomorph in the late 20th century appears to render the present day Aliens V Predator storyline null and void, though the final scenes appear to have been hacked to bits and resequenced.
I thought it was excellent, even though it does feature my most hated sci-fi trope (which I shan’t mention for fear of being a spoiler.) The direction was top notch as was almost all of the acting. Noomi Rapace is still my ideal woman (although I’d probably end up with a Charlize Theron-type character) and Michael Fassbender was superb. The sets and elements from the original film sent actual chills down my spine, although that could have been the air-con. Recommended.
Really enjoyed it. Not going to be too spoilery myself but I’d have to agree with some folk here and on other sites that the casting may have been less than fantastic – Fassbender i thought was very good, but the archaeologist seemed incredibly one dimensional. Having said that, themes like the Engineers were just great. They seem to have shrunk somewhat for the prequel but i’m guessing that there may be a reason for this. The set piece on board which took place near (but not right at) the end of the film was freaking amazing. Just the weight of the characters, the quality of the audio; outstanding. For a two hour long flick, it felt more like an hour and a bit. Very engaging.
If i were to whinge, i think the only real decision that i’d still be scratching my head over was one to dress Guy Pearce up in an Old suit when there are so many other kickass elderies out there to whom the role could’ve gone. I’ve never managed to find a really compelling piece of acting undertaken by someone trying to impersonate an individual far older than themselves. But still. I was worried that i might miss out by electing to view it in 2D rather than 3D, but definitely money well spent.
I do think this is one instance where you’ve missed out watching it in 2D (I’m not usually a fan of 3D myself).
I agree with you on the Guy Pearce point. It was a little jarring & I’m sure a genuine old man could have done the role justice…
I was contemplating the 3D show and busting out with the whole office for their day trip to the iMax. i seem to end up with a roaring headache during most of the shows i’ve gone to see here over the past few years, though. It never happened back in the eighties so i worry that this is something to do with the old ocular system starting a long slow slide into shorting out :/
So, I thought it was pretty good. Not mind blowing though. I liked the technology state, the cinematography and the majority of the story line — I didn’t like either of the doctors though, which annoyed me a bit. The character of David was particularly well acted though; incredibly sinister at times, with enough interest and intellect to make him one of those characters that falls into the grey area between good and evil.
Would I go and see it again? No, but it is worth seeing. Saw it in ordinary 3D; don’t think it would have been worth paying more to go see it in IMAX. Having just seen Alien and Aliens, it wasn’t as good as the first, but I would say it’s about equal with the James Cameron outing.
If you’re on the fence, definitely go see it — worth the price of entry for sure.
Michael Fassbender makes the movie for me – his portrayal of David is both chilling and endearing.
I really enjoyed it. As a spectacle it was fantastic (great design, cgi etc); as a set up to Alien it was very nicely done; as a story in its own right it was a pretty decent bit of sci-fi. And I liked that much was left open to interpretation
But as a number of other people have mentioned, some scenes were just infuriating & really threw my suspended disbelief…
***SPOILERS & CYNICISM***
“I’m an alien & I’m going to start life on this planet by killing myself. I guess my advanced technology isn’t advanced enough”
“Let’s leave a rough sketch of our weapons base location with these violent and superstitious creatures we made – they’ll never invent space travel and track it down”
“It’s 93AD. They haven’t invented space travel, but let’s wipe em out anyway – just to be safe!”
“I’m doing semi-naked push ups because that’s pretty much the only reason I’m in this film”
“The air is breathable, but I doubt there are any dangerous microbes or bacteria in the air. Let’s take our helmets off!”
“I’m going back to the ship. I’ve just mapped this whole area, so I can’t possibly get lost”
“I’m a trained biologist. Of course this penis cobra isn’t dangerous!”
“Are those worms in my eyes? Meh – probably nothing”
“What was that? Oh, it’s my late colleague’s distorted crab-like corpse – I’m just going to turn my back on it…”
“This high-tech medical pod doesn’t remind me of a fairground crane game in any way”
“I may have just sliced my stomach muscles in half, but I can still perform super-human gymnastics”
“The ship is falling towards me. Better run directly away from it instead of going left or right to avoid it”
JANEK: “Anyone who doesn’t want to die, leave now”
CHANCE: “No way, Ravel still owes me money”
RAVEL: “There’s no way I want to be in the sequel to this thing”
ALL: “Here comes the water slide. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee”
Saw it yesterday at my local IMAX cinema, worth every penny and the slightly longer journey to get there. Apart from the excellent movie experience you get from watching it in an IMAX cinema, the movie itself was brilliant. I agree that it has asked more questions than it answered, but I seriously cannot wait for the next one. (Which there will have to be with that ending)
One last thing, can we please just agree that 3D is a waste of time? The supposed “sense of immersion” is in no way worth the trade off of reduced brightness and colour saturation…
Normal cinema I agree but in IMAX it is worth it.
3D is not a waste of time for films that have been made with 3D Cameras. What I don’t like is the tendency to add 3D as a gimmick in post (See ‘The Avengers’ for details – although there are worse culprits)
IMAX 3D is awesome, as is anything filmed with the Fusion Camera System and screened in IMAX 3D or Real 3D. I’ve now seen Prometheus in both 2D and 3D and can comfortably say that my IMAX 3D experience didn’t suffer from the effects you speak of and in fact was vastly improved visually through the increase in the sense of depth and immersion.
I’m sorry, reduced brightness and colour saturation are unavoidable side-effects of the polarised lenses used by both IMAX and RealD 3D projection systems (linear and circular respectively). Saying you don’t notice the effect is like saying that you don’t notice that sunglasses make things darker on a bright day…
I saw Avatar twice at the BFI IMAX and honestly prefer seeing it on my 1080p projector at home due to the deeper colours and lack of cross-talk during scenes such as the Thanator chase. There’s a reason that 3D has been confined to novelty films for the past 30 years and that’s because the only time it’s remarkable is when something is deliberately designed to poke out of the screen (ie. Jake pointing his gun out before the Thanator attacks or the liver in Flesh for Frankenstein).
I could tolerate 3D if it was formed like those Sony 3D headsets (two separate screens providing the stereoscopic effect) but as long as it’s done by polarised glasses, it will always be inferior to a traditional, unadulterated 2D projection.
Why should 3D be remarkable? The best 3D, you shouldn’t notice.
In fact, you can mitigate the effects you describe by limiting the depth of field you’re attempting to achieve (something Prometheus does very well, going largely instead for an effect that takes the foreground of a scene no more than a few feet forwards – except in the Weyland Hologram message scene, which seemingly took place in the popcorn on my lap). The effect increases immersion, without being jarring or obvious.
With regards to saturation, Prometheus is a Ridley Scott film, so half of it takes place in places with limited lighting anyway! With lots of black, grey and green, you don’t miss out by having a pair of polarizing glasses on. Avatar is a different beast altogether of course (Pandora is an almost sickly colourful day-glo world) and I can kind of understand why someone who doesn’t get along well with 3D glasses might find Avatar in 3D jarring.
IMAX 3D and Real D glasses are a tool that work really well for most people WHEN THEY’RE USED CORRECTLY. 3D has a bad reputation because of the bad implementations that exist (particularly from the 1970s, but also modern-day “jumping out of the screen” fests), to the point that the films that do it well are bundled into the same group. It’s like swimming in a swimming pool that someone has pissed in. Unless you saw the person pissing in it and have a propensity to be an annoying git pining for a time when people were too polite to piss in pools, you won’t taste it when you inadvertently swallow some of the water. In my IMAX 3D screening, I can honestly and truly say I completely forgot I had the glasses on and I hugely preferred my IMAX 3D screening. (Remember, I have now seen the movie in both 3D and 2D). I completely respect your right to have your opinion, I’m just saying…I feel I’d have missed out if I’d only seen the film in 2D.
But…Let’s not again suggest for a second that Prometheus in 3D is anything like Anaglyph 3D from 30 years ago. That’s an insult to technology and makes it hard for me to take anything else you say seriously…
Sorry, but 3D technology on a cinema screen does not and never will increase immersion. Although some of the issues (strobing, colour and brightness loss etc…) are solvable, the focus/convergence mismatch is impossible to rectify and means that viewers will always feel that they’re watching a film with 3D effects.
I’m a fan. It’s the most original scifi thriller type film I’ve seen since Inception. It kept you guessing all the way through and made sure you weren’t always right.
Fassbender was outstanding. The 3D was used very well, it helped create the mood but didn’t try and become part of the narrative.
A couple of things bugged me, but after reading the comments in this thread, I’ve started to realise there are a lot of weak points. In fact, the script is full of inconsistencies and 1 dimensional characterisation. Still, I DID enjoy it and I disagree that it doesn’t stand up against Alien. I think it was also good at building tension and absorbing you into the world, not so much the characters.
I’m undecided if I should see this or not, may wait for Blu-ray. I try and convince myself that I’m a big Scott fan but then I realise I’m a fan of Blade Runner and Alien, two films made by a different man in his prime, some 30 years ago. A man that has then gone on to make far more stinkers than classics. I hope this is a return to his best, but can’t decide from these comments and somehow doubt it after GI Jane and Robin Hood – can an older man rekindle his creative best? I doubt it unless he was on some serious doobies while making this, like late and great Robert Altman.
PS. Blackberry Bold ads, really? Gizmodo UK, where is your self respect? Take the money and run.
I thought it was OK. I’m a massive Sci-Fi fan but it didn’t live up to the hype for me. I saw it at the Crawley IMAX in 3D (£13.50).
The imagery and the set design was absolutely fantastic but the story never gripped me or engaged with me at all, the script was very poor in my opinion.
It was frustrating how predictable and plodding it all was, the film didn’t feel natural and it didn’t flow. It really annoyed me how they ‘set things up’ for later on in the film. Things like ‘Ohhh I see you live in a lifeboat’, later on ‘LAUNCH LIFEBOAT’. ‘Ohhh you’ve got one of those surgery pods’, later on ‘I NEED TO USE THE SURGERY POD’.
GAHHHH I GET IT.
It was very interesting, just not a great film.
Don’t forget “but I can’t have babies”. I saw that a mid off.
Yeah exactly, there were loads like that.
I enjoyed it enough but there were a few things niggling at me which if I really loved it, I should not have noticed.
1) The dialogue was pretty awful, not Star Wars prequels bad, but still ropey.
3) The pacing wasn’t right, and I think you can tell this was made in this decade, the editing was done so fast and furious that you didn’t care about the characters, or what just happened. So when it came to their time, I didn’t really care they were gone.
4) (SPOILER) And for the love of Hollywood, if I see another film where people are so willing to give up their lives in a blink of a second (here’s looking at you Deep Impact, Armageddon, and worse of all The Core)!
Yes most Mr Fassbender is the best thing in it. In fact the first sequence where he is featured is perhaps one of the best parts of the film.
I was really disapointed with the technology in this movie. It was either seen before in other sci-fi, or stuff that we will have in 10 years time, not 80.
And the plot holes, omg the plot holes. Only thing that surpases them is those “that would never happen in real life” moments. Yeah, let’s just waltz around the alien compoud with no safety precautions what so ever.
No-one can use the excuse that Alien is an old film so most people my age (23) hasn’t seen it because it must have been on channel 5 at least 80 times in the last ten years as a late night film.
Also, if you are genuinely into films then there is no reason to not watch them, they are legendary and anyone who is really into their films will have either watched it or plan to watch it, but you must watch them before Prometheus or half the story will be lost on you (Weyland, the throat dwelling creatures, the acid blood/spit) and you may not enjoy it so much.
Hard to believe that Alien is 30 years old, doesn’t look it at all…
Must admit though, went in with big expectations for Prometheus and although it delivers on sets, locations and design, there was a little too much of not going on… I sense a prequel sequel…
Not seen the film yet, but from all the reviews, it seems Prometheus was intentionally dumbed down to appeal to the less intelligent ADD generation who have grown up with visually impressive but shallow fair. This started with the recent Bond movies that feature a cold almost characterless lead, no humor at all, and other action movies, where it is all about style/wobbly camera work and no substance. Compare to the superb characterisation in Alien, most Harrison Ford movies, The Thing (all of them), Close Encounters of The Third Kind (prob best sci fi ever made), 2001 etc etc. It was obvious Prom was a turkey before it was released by the fact they even released a whole series of trailers, therefore trying to tempt the naive in. Those of is who know that movies that are overhyped before release are to be avoided saw this coming. Still going to see it though (in 3D) soon so will judge then.
a complete let down of a movie in all aspects