[Scott_Arm]

Originally Posted by Dooby

So, it was an idea, that they took out, but left in? I'm still waiting for something even half definite that proves that there was a solid, well thought out story behind this film. This to me is still proving otherwise.

When a director has to backup/explain something in a 1000 word interview with "some site", that's bad story telling.

Ask David Lynch what Eraserhead means, and he'd probably say, "I don't know. What do you think?" One man's "bad story" is another man's classic. Leaving questions that are open to interpretation doesn't make for a bad story. I'm not saying it is an incredibly well written movie, but leaving some questions (especially questions about life/death/origin/spirituality) open isn't something I look at negatively.

[MfA]

Of course the reason stuff is left open is usually because the story wasn't well crafted enough to allow an internally consistent world with any one set of answers ... of course as this comic points out we we're kind of fools not to see it coming, why didn't someone tell me there was a Lost taint on this movie? I wouldn't have build my expectations up so much.

[Scott_Arm]

Originally Posted by MfA

Of course the reason stuff is left open is usually because the story wasn't well crafted enough to allow an internally consistent world with any one set of answers ...

I do not agree with that.

Edit:
In my college years I worked in a video store. One of the most annoying complaints that I ever received about a movie, and I received it a lot, was about the movie Ronin. If you haven't seen it, the movie is about mercenaries that are hired to retrieve a briefcase. In the end, you never find out what was inside the briefcase. People would return the movie and say things like, "That movie was stupid. What's the point? You never find out what's inside the briefcase." The significance of not knowing what is inside the briefcase is to show you the types of people that would take a job to violently retrieve a briefcase do not have any interest as to what's inside it. The briefcase is just a plot device. I view the black goo in Prometheus the same way. They show you what it does, but they do not explain exactly how it works or why anyone would make it, but it doesn't matter. All that matters is that it does work, and it's a convenient device to raise questions about Creation (organic, inorganic), religion and all that jazz. The characters in the movie wonder what it is, why anyone would make such a thing and what kind of place they're in, but it's all meant to be larger questions of being alive, origins, gods etc. I'm not a religious person, at all, and I do not find those questions to be particularly interesting or spend any time thinking about them, so a lot of that is lost on me. You can, I think, successfully argue that part of the movie is not particularly inspired, thoughtful or sophisticated.

[Dooby]

But if someone made a $150million, 2 hour film specifically about what was in the case, and STILL didn't answer the question, you would still find that acceptable?

There was no reason for this film not to have answers. It's based off a premise that's 30 years old and has had thousands of geek-hours (yeah, that's a metric) poured into the discussion of where the Jockeys were from and why the Aliens were made.

But, you'll notice I haven't really complained about the appalling lack of answers in my posts on this site. When the rest of the film is so amazingly bad (90% of the acting, and *that* script) the basic (and by that I mean simplistic) plot falls by the wayside. If, in every scene, I'm sat there shaking my head at the latest stupid thing someone has just said or done, the pertinent details of that scene stop being pertient. This happened from Scene1 in Prometheus.

[MfA]

Originally Posted by Scott_Arm

In my college years I worked in a video store. One of the most annoying complaints that I ever received about a movie, and I received it a lot, was about the movie Ronin.

But in Ronin the content of the briefcase doesn't really matter, it's just a story device to get the ball rolling ... the protagonists couldn't give a shit about the content of the case. Just as the origin of the Aliens doesn't really matter in Alien(s) ... they're just a force of nature who oppose the protagonists, who don't have the time or inclination to concern themselves with the alien's origins.

When the unravelling of a mystery is made part of the plot though expectations shift ... the problem is that a lot of authors just throw in a lot of LOL RANDUMB shit and pretend it's a coherent story, when it really isn't ... aka DEEP. Then they end it without answers, or worse make some asspull connections to religion and call it a fucking day (because hey, everyone is already used to religion not being internally consistent right?).

[Mariner]

I've just been dragged to watch Rock of Ages with my fiancée. I won't dignify it with a score.

Just trying to decide whether it was so bad it was good or simply really, really bad.

[banksie]

Originally Posted by Dooby

Again, we didn't need to know this before hand. Also, when Theron says to Fassbender "what did he say?", this isn't "foreshadowing", it's ramming a plot point down our throat. Imagine how cool the scene where we see him in the wheel chair would have been, if we didn't know he was onboard. It would have been: "oh man, they are gonna freak when they see her covered in bloo... damn! weyland is onboard!". The way it played out was "oh, there's weyland, wondered when he was gonna turn up. why aren't they bothered she's covered in blood?".

Lazy lazy story telling.

And if they hadn't put any clues that Weyland was aboard you would be probably complaining that his presence comes out of nowhere with no justification.

Not even Theron (the exped leader) seemed to know the captain of the ship.

Given that they shared history and were talking about past events then I don't know where you get that from. She explicitly says at the briefing that she had met many of the personnel as part of selection process already. Why do you think she doesn't know the captain in particular?

"A cave" with a giant head in it is a WMD manfacturering facility? I always find when I'm making highly dangerous genetic destroying ooze, that I want to do it in the least sterile place I can find.

Yes a 'cave' within an artificial structure that has oxygen producing equipment, powered doors (see how the head got removed), lights, a table/alter and murals on the walls. And also a structure that has stood up to sandstorms and the environment outside for around 2000 years.

Engineer Jesus is the most stupid theory I seen people come up with.

Except that it is strongly hinted at in the film and, as has been pointed out, Ridley confirmed this was something that was going to more explicitly laid out in the film. I can't say I like the idea a lot but saying that plot wasn't thought through at all is just demonstrably wrong. These hints are built into the film consistently through it.

See? That's the problem. The film had maybe four things that it COULD have been, but it jumped around so much, and gave nothing away, that people can read in to it as far as they want to. This in my opinion, does not make it "deep", it makes it sloppy and mishandled.

I really don't see how you are making this leap.

I don't remember saying that the film was set on LV-426. Now you're the one saying what I did and didn't notice. I said that it felt like it was supposed to be a prequel to Alien, as many of the PHYSICAL points were there, but that this was obviously changed at the last minute, hence the superduper quick Engy fight, the facehugger coming back to life and miraculously growing 100x for no apparent reason. And do you think the quick graphic at the start of the film that was the only time the plant was named, was actually finalised before the rest of the film was played out. This would have been done afterwards, when they'd changed their minds.

Given that atmosphere on LV426 was always described as completely primordial with much worse weather conditions and entirely different rock structures around the crashed ship then yes I think the plan was always to set Prometheus on a different planet from Alien. You are reaching here.

No, Prometheus is a film that clearly has parts of many storylines incorporated into it, making quite an incoherent mess. When we heard Ridley saying "it's a an Alien prequel", "it's nothing to do with Alien", "it's kind of an Alien prequel", I figured he was just doing misdirection. Now I see that this is what it actually was AT THE TIMES HE SAID THIS. It kept bouncing back and forth between ideas, and we got half a film because of it.

Prometheus has a pretty clear theme running through it of the children replacing their parents (humans vs SpaceJockeys, Androids vs Humans, David/Vickers vs Weyland) and of death, sacrifice and rebirth. These two themes are reinforced continually throughout the film and show that a fairly consistant attempt has been made to explore those two themes.

You keep saying that the film is a choppy mess that is shifting between ideas. I'd argue it is staying largely on track with those two themes but that it has issues with clunky dialog and characters doing stupid things as its major issues.

And I'll reiterate: The script and acting (bar Fassbender in the first half) are some of the worst I've seen in a film in a long time. And I watch B-movies for funs.

I am sorry Idris Elba and his two bridge crewmates managed to create a fair degree of sympathy and pathos for what were fairly small parts in the final film. Theron pulled off the nuances of feeling that her father valued an android more than her so that she basically learned to behave like one. The geologist and biologist again created fairly memorable characters in short roles. I really don't understand you here at all - the acting was fine. What the plot got the characters to do on the other hand is where I do have issue as I have already said.

[Scott_Arm]

Chronicle - Good movie. Pretty entertaining from start to finish.

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

New Total Recall trailer:

[Laa-Yosh]

I've seen the previz company's presentation on Total Recall at FMX and it seemed to be a very massive movie, far bigger than I thought from the initial location photos published on the internet. So it got me pretty interested, and this trailer seems like just a bit of all that's going to be there...

[Malo]

Very impressive trailer, definitely more interested in it now.

[NRP]

Originally Posted by Davros

I have a question : david talks to alien dude, alien dude pulls his head off why ?

The Space Jesus needed something with which to beat that old fart Weyland, and the robot dude's head was the closest thing?

[Laa-Yosh]

Stupid uninspired homage to the original Alien, that's all.

[Grall]

Originally Posted by Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.

New Total Recall trailer:

What irritated me about the first TR trailer I saw was how formula* the movie appeared to be, and I don't think I'm going to bother watching it. The original was pretty bad enough as it is.

* What I mean is, they appear to follow the abomination of a plot of the original movie - at least in broad terms - (as opposed to the book with the same name, which is completely different from what I've heard), and then just scale everything up. The hero goes into that dream machine, slightly altered in visual appearance but clearly recognizable, and then soldiers attack him right in that room. Missing, all of them of course, despite point-blank range, but shit, it's a movie. Scaled up from 1988, as if it really needed that...

They don't make something original, it's just more badguys, more guns, more bullets, more, more, more. Everything just the same more or less, except more of it.

Wonder if they'll keep the talking head? That'd be freaky. I guess what I really want to know though is, will Richter come armless to the party yet again?

[RobertR1]

Ted. 10/10. Loved it from start to finish. Really simple yet well done.

[Davros]

Get the gringo - Mad Mel is back
Its actually a rather good film imho, it has a certain charm.

[green.pixel]

Once Upon a Time in the West - 5/5.


I think I can rewatch it for the nth time just for the Claudia scenes.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp0d330bbxs
www.youtube.com/watch?v=526Uz_qwpm8
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWYIQJghPZw

[function]

I really enjoyed Prometheus.

The two guys that failed as snake charmers and the captain working everything out at once were a little jarring, but were no worse than the outright retardation of the captain in the first film. I actually enjoyed Prometheus nearly as much as Alien. I only wish it had been 30 minutes longer and developed characters and events more thoroughly.

After the frankly insulting Star Trek reboot - which insulted everything Star Trek stood for at it's core while looking shit - Prometheus has given me faith that big budget sci-fi that looks like sci-fi and aims above the level of "Michael Bays of the Caribbean 3" is still financially viable.

Originally Posted by banksie

Yes a 'cave' within an artificial structure that has oxygen producing equipment, powered doors (see how the head got removed), lights, a table/alter and murals on the walls. And also a structure that has stood up to sandstorms and the environment outside for around 2000 years.

Not just powered doors, but airtight biohazard control doors and a full on huge scale ship launching bay with massive retracting hanger doors.

And an Alien culture that sacrifices members of it's own race in an almost religious DNA spreading act uses icons and possibly practises idolatry? Oh shit, someone call for the sci-fi police because not everything looks clean and functional like it does with the current human military.

Prometheus has a pretty clear theme running through it of the children replacing their parents (humans vs SpaceJockeys, Androids vs Humans, David/Vickers vs Weyland) and of death, sacrifice and rebirth. These two themes are reinforced continually throughout the film and show that a fairly consistant attempt has been made to explore those two themes.

David even says something like "Don't all children want to kill their parents?" Oh yeah, and there's the thing about the infertile woman conceiving a monstrous baby that tries to kill her (more than once!). I'd argue that's about more than just replacing parents.

Contrast with Star Trek, where the theme is God making the Special Friends meet up no matter what (with child-kirk as their guaranteed boss and getting gifted the flagship just because).

You keep saying that the film is a choppy mess that is shifting between ideas. I'd argue it is staying largely on track with those two themes but that it has issues with clunky dialog and characters doing stupid things as its major issues.

Agree completely about both things.

I am sorry Idris Elba and his two bridge crewmates managed to create a fair degree of sympathy and pathos for what were fairly small parts in the final film. Theron pulled off the nuances of feeling that her father valued an android more than her so that she basically learned to behave like one. The geologist and biologist again created fairly memorable characters in short roles. I really don't understand you here at all - the acting was fine. What the plot got the characters to do on the other hand is where I do have issue as I have already said.

The plot got the characters to take shortcuts to keep the running time down IMO. The geologist and biologist were blatantly clunky (+ no-one on the bridge - pre-school level captain mistake) but everything else could have been fixed with more scenes and a longer cut.

I thought it was a great film. Fantastic ship too. Fucking Star Trek where everything in engineering looked like the inside of a large warehouse (with comedy pipes) was a like a hipster's version of a bad joke.

I hate the Star Trek reboot movie so much. I'm still cry myself to sleep while watching clips of Jean Luc Piccard arguing for android rights, educating Wesley Crusher on the value of truth to a Star Fleet officer and learning Q about mankind's struggle to better itself through its own efforts (note: no god co-incidences).

[Sigfried1977]

The Dark Knight Rises - great finale to an outstanding film trilogy. That said, I'm pretty sure that the return to a more Bruce Wayne-centric character study as seen in Batman Begins is not going to sit too well with the millions of fans who pretty much loved The Dark Knight first and foremost for Heath Ledger's Joker. TDKR is a Batman movie again, and, albeit almost overbearingly grim and dark (those little bits and pieces of humor which were sprinkled all throughout Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are pretty much gone now), a really good one too. It's incredibly engaging and tense. That said, it's even further removed from a traditionally entertaining block buster ride than the two prequels were.

[Laa-Yosh]

Oooh, you got me even more interested now. Already have the tickets for next Wednesday...

[Acert93]

You convinced me I need to see this for my birthday

[Mariner]

I watched the Spiderman film last night and though it was pretty well done so I'll be generous and give it a 7/10.

Plenty of typical daft comic-book plot devices and you can see what is going to happen from miles away but, in general, it was nicely done and acted.

I'm deliberately avoiding reading or watching anything about the new Batman movie as my enjoyment of The Dark Knight was spoiled by everything I'd read/seen in advance of watching it (not to mention the fact I thought it was massively overrated and the film didn't live up to the gushing reviews!).

I'd imagine it will be entertaining to see Anne Hathaway in a catsuit.

[Arwin]

What on earth inspired that idiot to go into the cinema with teargas and guns and shoot people?

Also, reports of the age of some victims, what were they doing in there?

[John Reynolds]

Nothing says good parenting so much as taking your 3-month-old to a midnight showing of a loud and violent action film.

[RobertR1]

Originally Posted by John Reynolds

Nothing says good parenting so much as taking your 3-month-old to a midnight showing of a loud and violent action film.

Yeah that made me scratch my head.

In other news WB is going on a knee jerk reaction spree and considering canceling premiers worldwide.