If I Rant, Can I Get It Out of My Head?
Well, I guess I can give Prometheus points for making me think about it. Sure, most of the thoughts are negative, and I wish they would stop, but that's something. Right? Others have analyzed it more, so probably anything I can say will be a rehash of something else, but... ugh. It bugs me!
The whole genetic thing strikes me as questionable at best. Okay, I'm no expert, but claiming "engineer" and human DNA are a "match" when there are some pretty major physical difference seems a stretch. There's enough genetic difference between homo sapiens and neanderthals to consider them difference species or subspecies, and they're way closer physically than these 8-foot-plus-tall, bald, pale, ripped beings from another world. Was the initial scene meant to show they seeded animal life, or specifically human life? I guess I'll go with the latter, and say we're throwing evolutionary theory out the door.
The scientists are ridiculously reckless - slightly different music could have made much of the movie a comedy. Signing on for a multi-year (I think?) space trip with no idea why? Taking off helmets just because air is breathable inside an alien structure even when there's question about why the inhabitants are dead? A geologist with super-advanced floating mapping drones getting lost on the way out of the structure? Biologist who pokes obviously tense alien life form until it bites him? Android goes straight from examination to infecting someone with alien substance without anything between (like, say, something involving petri dishes and a few days of observation)? Everyone "we're putting you in stasis now" to "oh, you hit us with stuff and ran away to the medical pod - you must be fine, welcome back?" And running straight away from large falling objects? Really? That's cheesy cartoon material, there.
It seemed nearly every action taken by the characters took me out of the movie and made me think: What The Fuck?
If the "engineers" are given motivation, it's about as transparent as mud. Whether the primitive messages on earth were meant as invitation or just "we came from here," it doesn't make sense that it would point to a world that it some staging ground for gene warfare. I suppose over the thousands of years, LV-223 could have gone from welcome center to quasi-military base, but that still seems pretty messed up. From analysis and interviews, it seems the implication of the movie was meant to be that they sent an emissary to try to steer humanity back on track and he was crucified as Jesus, but that's drawn from the 2000-year mark mentioned in the movie, which was (if I recall) associated with when things went to hell on LV-223, not necessarily when the engineers decided to destroy humanity. And just what happened to them is never explained either. A recording showed one killed trying to flee TO one of the goo chambers. Bodies are shown with burst chests, yet we don't see anything that would do that until some bizarre infestation>inpregnation>birth>implantation>birth cycle later that's just a string of coincidence practically. Did the same thing really manage to happen before, and why are there no signs of the resulting pre-"xenomorphs?"
You could, perhaps, explain a bunch of this away, but it takes a lot of stuff from outside the movie. If interviews and design notes are required to get any reasonable feel for events central to the movie, that isn't a good thing.
I liked the character of David, though his actions don't really appear very consistent either. Vickers on the other hand... well, I get that she provides some contrast with him, but as others have said, she really contributes nothing to the movie by her presence. I want to like Shaw, but I have a hard time with it. Her survival feels more like fortunate coincidence at least as much as determination and way more than skill. As someone from Pixar once said: "Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating." Everyone else is pretty shallow. 17 official crew on the ship? It felt more like six or so, and I can't say I cared about all of them. That's probably a major flaw in the movie right there.
As for tying in with Alien, nothing's really answered. There's no hint at how any of this relates to LV-426 other than the setup of the engineers' outfits, ship design, and the proto-xenomorphs - the evolution of which is sketch at best. By the end of the movie, we get a couple forms that are vaguely similar to what's seen in the Alien movies, but still a good ways off. There's no sign of the eggs that the ship was seeded with (even if the goo urns are thematically similar). There's no hint at how these things might have gotten loose before on LV-223 or on the ship on LV-426. There are just no real answers here at all, just more questions.
Perhaps my favorite summary/analysis is here: http://www.toplessrobot.com/2012/06/robs_prometheus_faq.php
The whole genetic thing strikes me as questionable at best. Okay, I'm no expert, but claiming "engineer" and human DNA are a "match" when there are some pretty major physical difference seems a stretch. There's enough genetic difference between homo sapiens and neanderthals to consider them difference species or subspecies, and they're way closer physically than these 8-foot-plus-tall, bald, pale, ripped beings from another world. Was the initial scene meant to show they seeded animal life, or specifically human life? I guess I'll go with the latter, and say we're throwing evolutionary theory out the door.
The scientists are ridiculously reckless - slightly different music could have made much of the movie a comedy. Signing on for a multi-year (I think?) space trip with no idea why? Taking off helmets just because air is breathable inside an alien structure even when there's question about why the inhabitants are dead? A geologist with super-advanced floating mapping drones getting lost on the way out of the structure? Biologist who pokes obviously tense alien life form until it bites him? Android goes straight from examination to infecting someone with alien substance without anything between (like, say, something involving petri dishes and a few days of observation)? Everyone "we're putting you in stasis now" to "oh, you hit us with stuff and ran away to the medical pod - you must be fine, welcome back?" And running straight away from large falling objects? Really? That's cheesy cartoon material, there.
It seemed nearly every action taken by the characters took me out of the movie and made me think: What The Fuck?
If the "engineers" are given motivation, it's about as transparent as mud. Whether the primitive messages on earth were meant as invitation or just "we came from here," it doesn't make sense that it would point to a world that it some staging ground for gene warfare. I suppose over the thousands of years, LV-223 could have gone from welcome center to quasi-military base, but that still seems pretty messed up. From analysis and interviews, it seems the implication of the movie was meant to be that they sent an emissary to try to steer humanity back on track and he was crucified as Jesus, but that's drawn from the 2000-year mark mentioned in the movie, which was (if I recall) associated with when things went to hell on LV-223, not necessarily when the engineers decided to destroy humanity. And just what happened to them is never explained either. A recording showed one killed trying to flee TO one of the goo chambers. Bodies are shown with burst chests, yet we don't see anything that would do that until some bizarre infestation>inpregnation>birth>implantation>birth cycle later that's just a string of coincidence practically. Did the same thing really manage to happen before, and why are there no signs of the resulting pre-"xenomorphs?"
You could, perhaps, explain a bunch of this away, but it takes a lot of stuff from outside the movie. If interviews and design notes are required to get any reasonable feel for events central to the movie, that isn't a good thing.
I liked the character of David, though his actions don't really appear very consistent either. Vickers on the other hand... well, I get that she provides some contrast with him, but as others have said, she really contributes nothing to the movie by her presence. I want to like Shaw, but I have a hard time with it. Her survival feels more like fortunate coincidence at least as much as determination and way more than skill. As someone from Pixar once said: "Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating." Everyone else is pretty shallow. 17 official crew on the ship? It felt more like six or so, and I can't say I cared about all of them. That's probably a major flaw in the movie right there.
As for tying in with Alien, nothing's really answered. There's no hint at how any of this relates to LV-426 other than the setup of the engineers' outfits, ship design, and the proto-xenomorphs - the evolution of which is sketch at best. By the end of the movie, we get a couple forms that are vaguely similar to what's seen in the Alien movies, but still a good ways off. There's no sign of the eggs that the ship was seeded with (even if the goo urns are thematically similar). There's no hint at how these things might have gotten loose before on LV-223 or on the ship on LV-426. There are just no real answers here at all, just more questions.
Perhaps my favorite summary/analysis is here: http://www.toplessrobot.com/2012/06/robs_prometheus_faq.php
I just read the "Movies in 15 Minutes" recap (also on LJ, and probably other places) of the movie and thought it was delightful - and confirmation that I shouldn't watch it. Aliens gave me nightmares for months, that was enough, thanks. But the M15M was hilarious... and she shares your "wtf, explain please?" sentiments. :) Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. ;)
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