So, after having watched Prometheus a second time, it has begun to make much more sense, and I have a much clearer picture of everything that happened.
If you haven't seen the movie yet, and are planning to, don't read the spoilers, because they are, well, spoilers, meant for people who already have
Alot of people seem to have mixed opinions about it, and I guess so do I. Overall, especially after having watched the movie a second time, I can say it is a pretty good movie, but definitely has it's flaws. Ridley Scott's directing seems to be a mixed bag. On most things, he is top notch, and superb, but in other areas, he seems to falter, by allowing characters to do completely idiotic things that get them killed
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
"Hey look, there's an alien looking snake thingy. Oh look, it's rearing itself up and hissing at me whenever I get close to it! Oooh, now it's flaring out a hood of some sort, just like a Cobra snake. I think it would be a great idea to try and TOUCH it!"
, using poor casting for certain characters
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
Guy Pearce (or however you spell his name) in old man make-up, as opposed to a real old man, which would be far more believable (a young guy in old man make-up fools nobody)
, having foolish motivations
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
old guy spends a $1,000,000,000,000,000 to fly halfway across the galaxy hoping an alien being will save him from age related death
, or just plain not having certain characters act the way you should expect them to
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
characters remove the helmet of a decapitated alien, to discover a VERY well preserved head of a VERY human looking alien, yet neither comment on the fact it is so well preserved after 2,000+ years, or the fact it looks mostly human
. It is to the point that certain characters shouldn't have even had names, and should have been named "Moron Victim 1", "Moron Victim 2", "Moron Victim 3",etc...
Ridley also seems to be banking on the idea that most of the audience is also going to be clever, and familiar with the movie Alien (one of Ridley's finest, and one of the best horror sci-fi movies ever made). However, without at least a basic understanding of the movie, certain things won't make sense, or may seem bizarre
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
that near perfectly preserved head came from a room where everything was in suspension, which is alluded to in the first Alien movie, where the alien eggs on board the alien ship are being preserved by a blue field. If you don't know that about Alien however, you scratch your head wondering why the decapitated head is so well preserved after so long
. Ridley wastes no time explaining certain things, and unless you are quick, knowledgeable about Alien, or both, you will miss certain things, and be left scratching your head confused
Overall however, I was very impressed with the creepy location of the alien world, with it's easily discernible Giger touch, the android character David, who's quirk and alien malevolence was quite charming, the Captain of the Prometheus (one of the few characters with some decent common sense) and the story direction in general, which opens ALOT of doors and raises alot of questions that could easily take another movie or more to explore and answer (and thankfully, take the story in another direction NOT associated with the Alien franchise). I was also impressed by the alien antagonists, though alot of people have mixed feelings about them.
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
The "Space Jockeys" as fans have affectionately known them as since the first Alien movie, where you see only one, a gigantic corpse with it's chest blown out in the cockpit of the alien vessel. They are never mentioned in another movie again for 33 years. Many of the fans were disappointed to find out that the creature in the space craft on Alien was just a space suit, and the creature underneath is a giant, bizarre humanoid which shares our DNA (or rather, we share it's). However, I believe making them humanoid opens up many interesting possibilities by bringing up the Sumerian Annunaki, the Biblical rebellion in Heaven, and both Biblical and Pagan Giant mythology, as well as various other ancient creator myths and ancient alien theories which can be explored. I've read a number of complaints that the Space Jockeys/Engineers weren't large enough to be the same creature first seen in Alien, though if Ridley gets to make a sequel, or even a trilogy, I believe we'll see other, larger versions. If the Engineers are the Igigi, then we have yet to see the Annunaki)
If I was a movie rater, I'd give the movie a "B-". It's definitely worth watching, filled with plenty of slimy and disgusting horrors, and for Alien fans, answers to the origins and purpose of the Alien species itself
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
they are nothing more than a biological weapon meant for genocide and ecological cleansing, and are only one of MANY vicious creations of the Space Jockeys/Engineers
In any case, that's what I think at least
