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I think the thing I find most confusing about the film is the speculation about the plot. It was a stupid plot, but people are trying to pass it off as something much smarter. Lots of connections to the bible and Jesus was an Engineer and shit.

Bang on the money, fella.

I can't remember if I said it here or elsewhere online, but right from the start, I remember hearing the 'this movie poses deep questions' sales pitch, and I almost reflexively thought, 'Uh-uh. no way. It can't possibly hope to make good on that claim. Hollywood just wouldn't go for it.'

And, lookit that! We got a movie that posed those questions in exactly the same fashion as the cool kid at a student party, off his face on alcopops, tossing out nuggets like 'what if we were made by God? Eh? Eh? Or what if we weren't? Eh? How cool is that? Makes you think, eh?' And the reaction to that line is predictable: Some people nod in sage agreement, other roll their eyes and wander outside, and somebody nails the hot sloanie chick in the spare room.

I'm not gonna shift from my line of 'I enjoyed the movie', because, quite sincerely, I did. In spite of its myriad faults. But if there's one thing that I DO feel annoyed about, it's the throwaway, sub-cod-philosophy feel of it's oh-so-talked-about premise.

People say to me 'Prometheus was fun', and I agree.

People say to me 'it was flawed', or point out specific problems, and I (largely) agree.

But when they say to me that it was deep, I have to work very hard at not bursting into laughter.

As for the second C-section point, it was one of the strangest bits of the film. I was very bemused at how little was made of it. At that point it really started unravelling.

That part of the movie give me problems upon problems.

For one thing, it seems to be there PURELY for the 'ick' factor, and to get the squid-hugger into the movie.

For another - it makes no bloody sense at all. I mean, consider: [spoiler]Shaw anaesthetizes herself... but appears to still be in considerable pain during the procedure.

For yet another, we see her stomach expanding and doing horrible things... but when the squiddy is removed, IT'S COMPLETELY INANIMATE and even 'hatches' right in front of her.[/spoiler]

Personally, I thought the worst thing about Prometheus was having to sit through a disjointed and overlong extended trailer for the new Spiderman. Looks total shite.

Ay ay ay! Doesn't it just! The 3D on that really hurt my eyes.

WELL!

http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2012/06/ridley-scott-says-there-will-be-an-extended-cut-of-prometheus-on-blu-ray

Fellas - I'm *quite aware* that what I posted above was a big ask. Check again and you'll see I even stated that. So let's just bring things down a notch, eh?

Anyways - regardless of what peeps think of the movie, maybe this'll raise a chuckle:

Personally, I don't think it's a deep movie at all. Those 'big questions' are all handled to a one in a cack-handed, dumbed-down Hollywood fashion, just as I predicted when the chatter started way, way back. Radiator's last post puts better than I could have with regard to that. It's a monsters-jump-on-people-adventures-in-space movie, I think. Nothing more, nothing less.

On that, we're agreed. The problem is what little mystery there is in PROMETHEARSE doesn't unfold it simply gets explained. By superfluous and mostly annoying characters doing illogical things during random set-pieces borrowed from ALIEN thrown together in an unfocused, dramatically unsatisfying mess of a film.

I can't see another hour improving on that when there was already sufficient time to tell a fun, coherent tale about how life here began out there, far across the universe.

Well, I'm kinda musing over the miraculous possibility that, were that extra hour to suddenly appear in a new cut, maybe it would contain stuff that makes sense of the more frustrating flubs. Remember how the director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven was lauded as 'completely changing' the movie? It can happen. Although I certainly feel like that's a grasping hope in this case. I didn't think the movie was a mess - I certainly had no trouble following it, anyway - but I'd like to see it maybe re-jigged to explain itself and its characters a little better. There's TONNES of room for improvement in that regard.

On the point of characters doing illogical things, though... I actually think that's a bit of a trope of these sorts of movies anyway. The ol' 'why take a shotgun into the cellar when I can take a flashlight' thing. Again, there's stuff in Prometheus that made me wince, but some of it I could forgive.

Agh, can't sleep - had waaaay too much caffeine earlier...

Oh, I know that feeling! Just nodded off only to be awakened 15 minutes later by my neighbours doing God-Only-Knows-What next door.

I think there IS a little delusion going on with regards to this film in certain quarters, yes. A lot of people seem to want to bend over backwards to make allowances for the dreadful, nonsensical story (or 'speculating'), and are debating it in far deeper terms than the material warrants.

Trouble is, this is the sort of statement that causes trouble. 'Dreadful' and 'nonsensical' are surely expressions of personal taste / opinion? Granted, we're talking about a movie with faults, but some of the stuff that's been pointed out can be waved away with a 'just go with it' attitude.

Personally, I'm more inclined to believe that folks who are seeing the movie and saying they liked it might - GASP! - actually like it! Most of the folks I'm seeing who have positive things to say seem to have enjoyed the movie on the level I did - spotting problems but having fun with what works.

You could also turn the whole delusion / denial thing on it's head and aim it back at the more vocal detractors. I've seen comments criticising Fassbender's performance as 'wooden' and the SFX as 'naff'. Now, to me, that sort of smacks of 'what else could I possibly say about this movie to put across that I didn't like it?' Some folks are really losing their cool with each other over this stuff online, and that makes me alternately groan and giggle when I see it. Nobody gets to define the quality of something for somebody else. That's just stupid.

I should hasten to add: Not meaning these comments as a dig at / argument with you, Radiator. Just remarking on something I've observed some places where I've seen discussion of the movie.

I'm just noticing that I'm posting A LOT in this thread. Heh! Sorry fellas - I just find the reception of this movie fascinating.

AND! There's a lot of interesting stuff being said online right now.

I dunno if you guys are seeing any of the discussion about Prometheus' box office performance? There's apparently been a 25% drop in ticket sales already (although there are also still territories where the movie has yet to open, according to some websites). Sounds kinda grim. But then again, I think it's way too early to say whether that'll mean bad news for hopes of a franchise.

Lindelhof also has gone on record in an interview saying that a sequel is by no means a foregone conclusion, and even makes a veiled indication that he may not be attached as writer should it come to pass. Good golly gosh... could this herald the return of... M. NIGHT SHYAMAL-- Aaaahhh! I got ya there! [Chortle!] But no, seriously - everything before that was true.

I also see that there seems to be no let up in the viral marketing. Apparently there's a new website that offers a few teases as to what might be coming next... and when! Seriously, there's a date that seems to be having a big deal made out of it. That's sparked a fair bit of conversation and speculation. What could it mean? Some folks have suggested all sorts of ideas, including the home video release date. That seems unlikely in my opinion. Why go to that extra length to promote it? 

Could it be we've got more Prometheus stuff in store before the end of the year???

I want this image to be an out-take from the start of Prometheus. 

Adding another hour to the film's runtime would only make it more bloated than it already is. Those ideas need refining not more self-indulgence.

See, I didn't think the movie was 'bloated' at all. It felt to me like it cracked along at a fair lick, and whatever else I can say about the movie, whatever faults I perceived, I was certainly never bored. Remember - I'm in the camp that enjoyed the movie in spite of finding shortcomings left right and center.

I'd be intrigued to see how a longer cut of the movie played out. For one thing, I'd like to see if those big ideas that were being touted in the movie's pre-release fanfare would get any more exposure, or even if (whisper it softly) they were barely ever there in the first place.

For now, at least, what it is is what it is. I hope we DO get an alternate version at some point, because the movie's flaws really do detract from it quite noticeably, and my hope is that there's something on the cutting room floor that papers over some of the cracks. Optimistic? Possibly.

Radiator's point about people 'projecting' stuff onto the movie is interesting, because I've seen a lot of quite deep discussion online that's been provoked by it. I've also seen a few folks insisting the movie is a disaster, that people who like it are somehow delusional or in denial (ugh. Enough with that juvenile shit, already!) and conversely that the film is a masterpiece. I'm really quite surprised at the variety of different reactions to it!

Personally, I don't think it's a deep movie at all. Those 'big questions' are all handled to a one in a cack-handed, dumbed-down Hollywood fashion, just as I predicted when the chatter started way, way back. Radiator's last post puts better than I could have with regard to that. It's a monsters-jump-on-people-adventures-in-space movie, I think. Nothing more, nothing less.

Oh, but it's got Noomi Rapace in it. I fancy her. That definitely helps.

The writing was really shoddy and it was waaay too long. And I like long movies.

Can't say as I agree with your comments about the dialogue - although there are a few lines that certainly sound wonky to my ears, I won't deny.

But too long? Personally, I think the problem withthe movie is that it's not long ENOUGH! I could easily have watched another hour of it. Imagine if we'd got a 3-hour monster of a movie that allowed the time required to let some of those frustratingly under-developed ideas breathe and grow more organically.

Just to stress again, I liked this movie quite a bit. I've found myself wanting to see it again, in spite of my complaints against it. But I do think the comments that have been made about there being no director's cut later are disappointing. The theatrical cut we've all seen is something of a hatchet job.

And has anyone noticed how there were scenes in the trailers that never made it into the final movie? That's low. As is the whole 'misinformation' thing that seems to have become a method for promoting movies.

I was personally intrigued after reading on Wikipedia (ages before the movie came out) about Patrick Wilson's  role as 'The Coccooned Man'. And where does he show up in the movie? In a blink-and-miss role as Shaw's father.

That frustrated the hell out of me.

Director's Cut now please, Mr. Scott. Because your public are speaking voluminous words of truth about your movie, both positive and negative.

I do get the impression there's an untold story there regarding the Engineer's reaction to the humans.

That's what frustrates me about the movie. I'd have liked to get some inkling of that story, instead of the sense that it was a plot thread potentially waiting to be stretched out in the next episode.

So, anyway. That Space Jockey we see in ALIEN. What's the deal with that?

I was wondering if we'd get an answer to that question. Alas, no.

Prometheus DOES raise an interesting question in that regard. [spoiler]For one thing we know that the Engineer the crew revived isn't the same one as we saw in Alien - can't be. After all, he got mouth-molested and body-bursted (god that was hideous!) on the lifeboat, nowhere near the chair contraption.[/spoiler]

Also, [spoiler]remember when the crewmen found the pile of dead Engineers, some of whom had been burst open from within? Just WHAT happened with those guys? And WHAT were they running from in the holo-recordings? [/spoiler]

That's the sort of stuff I don't mind being left without a firm answer to. If Prometheus part 2 (or even 3) clears that up, I'll be happy.

I still like the flute.

I actually liked the flute. I thought it added a much-needed air of whimsy to the Engineers.

Shaw's faith vs science makes her the film's equivalent of Jodie Foster in Contact, doesn't it?

Oddly enough, I was thinking of that exact comparison before going to see the movie. After seeing it, I think Contact does a MUCH better job of handling that vein of characterisation.

That said, I REALLY like Noomi Rapace in this role. A woman who [spoiler]undertakes her own cesearian section and fights on for the rest of the movie with a brace of surgical staples holding her together...[/spoiler] kinda gets my approval. Also, her [spoiler]cheekbones [/spoiler]are MASSIVE!