Jun-23-2012 12:37 PM

Wish I could draw like this, you have a very unique mind's eye...I like your vision a lot...really nice.

Jun-19-2012 1:25 PM

A vineyard...now that's class. Classy and elegant, in a rich, yet understated way. Probably has a fine variety of yields, many examples including pinot noir, merlot, chardonnay, riesling.....riesling, wait....I feel...feel..a touch of Jeff Goldblum coming on...yes...yesssss..oh yeah, right!
Ridley has a vineyard in which he grows riesling grapes which he loves..which are German grapes, but he wouldn't want them if they were as crappy as this drooling rant posing as thread and in keeping the little riesling buggers he clearly shows appreciation for what comes from Germany and by extrapolary theory...there is no anti Germanic bent from Ridley in regards to Prometheus.

Wonder if Clint has a spread of grapes in Carmel Valley?

Jun-17-2012 10:08 AM

Waiting for the DVD to be able to conclude what is and isn't a plot hole

Jun-13-2012 8:13 AM

Engineering I see what you are saying. But if their agenda is to wipe out life as we know it on earth including my own I have to classify them as "bad"-as bad as can be actually. Hadley you are suggesting their are two kinds of aliens: The space jockeys who obey the powerfull beings known as the engineers whom we have not yet seen (Maybe in the next film). I didn't infer that additional class of aliens from the movie but I like concept. I like how the monster aliens from the old movies are really just advanced biological weapons. I think the engineers are the ones that turn out to be the "good" aliens in the end. My guess. Shinobi I don't know who is the darkskinned humanoid you are reffering to.

Jun-13-2012 8:12 AM

Engineering I see what you are saying. But if their agenda is to wipe out life as we know it on earth including my own I have to classify them as "bad"-as bad as can be actually. Hadley you are suggesting their are two kinds of aliens: The space jockeys who obey the powerfull beings known as the engineers whom we have not yet seen (Maybe in the next film). I didn't infer that additional class of aliens from the movie but I like concept. I like how the monster aliens from the old movies are really just advanced biological weapons. I think the engineers are the ones that turn out to be the "good" aliens in the end. My guess. Shinobi I don't know who is the darkskinned humanoid you are reffering to.

Jun-11-2012 2:40 PM

So far the best information seems to point at LV-223 being located in the Gliese 86 system which is NOT in the neighborhood of Zeta 2 Reticuli. They are in neighboring constellations that are separated by several light years. LV-426 is not in the six-star cluster shown in the movie Prometheus.

Jun-11-2012 2:06 AM

Those theories certainly do make sense; Charlie got infected and David wanted Elizabeth to keep the fetus alive for extra insurance, or so Weyland could create his own biological weapons. Personally, I like the biological weapons angle, because as it was mentioned before, it ties in so nicely with the rest of the Alien mythology. It also shows how utterly greedy and ruthless Weyland is; he is on death's door, but is still consumed with turning a profit. Finally, it shows that Weyland had some knowledge of the Engineers that Elizabeth and Charlie didn't have, he knew they had weapons. This is something that can be expanded upon in an interesting way (between David and Elizabeth) in the probable sequal.

@ Caffeinated Anonymous: I thought that David and Weyland didn't attack Elizabeth when they saw her because they already knew what she did, and thought it was too late. I assumed that they knew of the operation through the ship's internal sensors/surveillance, and figured that since the alien was decomtaminated, it must be dead. It's interesting to note how caring David was towards Elizabeth in this scene - he helped her sit down and wrapped her in a towel. Unlike some of the posters here, I don't think he hated humanity, or that he was growing evil. I believe that he was innately good, as seen by how he spoke to the crew, even while they were insulting him. The only times he was angry in tone or actions, was when he was following Weyland's orders.

@ LV-001: I think the other posters here are correct. At first, I thought, "Why would the operating table be for males only, if it belongs to Meredith?", but it must actually belong to Weyland. It makes sense, considering what poor health he was in. Meredith was covering for him, and knew that he was alive and on board the Prometheus, given her "try harder" conversation with David. It also explains why she was so quick to tell Elizabeth not to touch the table earlier on in the film. She wasn't just being her mean self, she didn't want Elizabeth to stumble upon the truth.

Jun-14-2012 8:25 PM

@Dan, on David, I never got the impression David had an agenda either. It seems that he has objectives programmed into him (probably by Weyland) to gather as many specimins/objects of importance as possible. Peter Weyland being as powerful as he was probably looked at the mission as something he would return to earth with success and assumed he would survive. Perhaps his ego didn't leave room for doubt about his success. So on his return, he could examine what David brought back for him.

Also, David appears to be programmed to not act violently toward any human. I noticed when David was confronted by Vickers in the hall about what Peter Weyland said to David, Vickers shoved David into the wall and threatened him in order to find out what was discussed. David didn’t bother to even slightly resist her attack. I don't think David would have been shoved into a wall if he were to intentionally stand still.
Actually, I don’t think David ever acted against anyone at all. His comments might seem like he intends to cause harm eg. “Doesn’t everyone want their parents dead?” But we know David does not ‘want’, so this doesn’t include him. David’s actions toward Halloway could be considered “against humans” but perhaps it was one of those ‘loopholes’ you mentioned, in order to bring back a specimen in a human for further study, he wittingly aroused Halloway’s emotions and spiked his drink. (Perhaps analyzing that he could put Halloway in hypersleep to take his body back to earth for study) Then he gets lucky after Halloway is killed, and finds that Shaw is impregnated, (I don’t think he planned on the two to mate and plant a seed) and attempts to put Shaw into hypersleep until they return home. Shaw is one of David’s specimens.

One more thing… At the end of the movie, when Shaw tells David that she is planning on going to the Gardener’s home planet instead of earth, you can see when she asks him if he can direct her there, he pauses and answers “yes”, but I think the pause was him processing all of the actions it would take to do what she intended and still getting back to earth with as many specimens/objects of importance he was programmed to collect for study in the first place. Even with Weyland dead, he's a slave to his programming.

Sorry for all the rambling, looking forward to hearing any thoughts

Jun-03-2012 11:11 AM

So what did you really understand from that movie.

I do not mind watching or reading spoilers and from your reviews I understand that is a very confusing movie.

After 35 we still don't know a thing about that race.
We just know that the one in alien was just a suit and the real engineer was in.

Why the engineer at the beginning of the film sacrificed his self;
Who killed the engineers in the temple.
Why the last engineer did not left the planet after the deaths of his mates;
What was the thing that came out of the engineers chest;

If alien fans have so many questions imagine how confused and frustrated would be the people that just love to watch science fiction movies.

Jun-03-2012 11:10 AM

So what did you really understand from that movie.

I do not mind watching or reading spoilers and from your reviews I understand that is a very confusing movie.

After 35 we still don't know a thing about that race.
We just know that the one in alien was just a suit and the real engineer was in.

Why the engineer at the beginning of the film sacrificed his self;
Who killed the engineers in the temple.
Why the last engineer did not left the planet after the deaths of his mates;
What was the thing that came out of the engineers chest;

If alien fans have so many questions imagine how confused and frustrated would be the people that just love to watch science fiction movies.

Jun-03-2012 11:07 AM

So what did you really understand from that movie.

I do not mind watching or reading spoilers and from your reviews I understand that is a very confusing movie.

After 35 we still don't know a thing about that race.
We just know that the one in alien was just a suit and the real engineer was in.

Why the engineer at the beginning of the film sacrificed his self;
Who killed the engineers in the temple.
Why the last engineer did not left the planet after the deaths of his mates;
What was the thing that came out of the engineers chest;

If alien fans have so many questions imagine how confused and frustrated would be the people that just love to watch science fiction movies.

May-26-2012 1:44 PM

Neurion.....or anybody else for that matter....

If I was flying along through space and suddenly realized that I was infected with a deadly parasite that in a short space of time was going to kill me, I would land my ship and set a beacon warning anybody and everybody not to attempt to board my vessel because I know the exact nature of my little buddy....he always comes groups.

After that I would kill myself, not waiting for what I know will be a worse death.

But there's a problem...there's no way to kill myself because I'M GROWN INTO MY SHIP ....WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO, STRANGLE MYSELF WITH THESE ARMS BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL I GOT????
Sure would be great to be able to get out of this chair....TOO BAD I AM FULLY INTEGRATED INTO THE SHIP ITSELF...guess I just have to just sit here and die horribly, ...if only...

May-26-2012 10:47 AM

I know what you mean....when I first heard Ridley talking about the derelicts Space Jockey wearing a suit, that blew away a really great idea in my mind....a living space ship. Why didn't he just get up out of the chair when he realized he was infected? I would have if it was me....we'll see what Riddles has got....

May-10-2012 11:20 AM

@Neurion

Not to sound like a total suck up....those are my thoughts exactly without one hair out of place.
I always ramble into my theory at some point but here I'll resist that....except to say that Shaw does see her faith rewarded, but not how she expected.
.....putting up the whole enchilada if and when more new PR comes out...if not, 2 days before opening

May-09-2012 1:40 PM

My thoughts go to the fact that the derelict had a warning beacon going...to me that's a display of concern and empathy for others. And I'll go with Dallas' observation, maybe not millions of years old but by no means fresh. This is a captain with no lack of experience, evidenced by his being in command of probably one of the most sophisticated vehicles yet built by mankind. I can't dismiss that level of recognition by the Company.
If Dallas says "bones bent outward", observing from a foot away....those are bones.
I do think the derelict's position was probably known by his or its peers..and considered by them a quarantined vessel.

I don't think the last few minutes are going to tie directly to the derelict in Alien..I think what Scott was referring to was a generalization...how those ships were created or their routine role in their civilization...you have to depict and visualize concepts and ideas without reading a lecture to the audience...the film must have a flow....there are a great many wonderful incredible ideas, so creative online...but complicated to depict and dialogue cannot bridge every gap.

Just my cheap ass 2 cents here..

May-07-2012 11:48 PM

I still want to believe this isn't a direct prequel. However, I think it's obvious that there will be at least two types of Xeno's never seen before along with mutated humans.

The first xenos being solely derived from humans. Even though humans played host throughout the franchise the origin was from the SJ. Whatever laid the eggs in Alien most likely chest burst out of a SJ and when we are hosts the resulting Xeno just takes on our humanoid shape and relative size.


POSSIBLE SPOILER BELOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(cont.)











I would imagine the ones spawned from Shaw would probably look kind of like the xenos from Aliens but smooth and fleshy like us. The second xeno(s) come from the SJ's which should look like the ones from all other movies but massive.... All Queen size or larger. Even if it's not a direct prequel seeing a SJ get infected and the resulting Xeno would explain where they came from and why they look like they do.

Also, the white snake in the preview looks like a face hugger of some kind. Perhaps it's a face hugger in raw form created by the SJ and not laid by a Queen(Egg before the chicken so to speak). Perhaps they are inside the ampules and one just happened to get out of storage or the Prometheus crew did something to initiate it's release. I'm thinking the temples were dormant until the crew walked in and screwed up whatever the SJ's had going on.

Just some thoughts...

May-07-2012 8:22 PM

What if they're actually revealed halfway through to be the ancient Atlanteans who disappeared from the Earth after the myths tell of a massive catastrophe wiping them out i.e. an alien plague, and then a worldwide flood created with the terraforming tech. And they are us. Well an earlier, larger line of hominid that's had thousands more years to advance. Only, some of them escaped to this waystation. Their Earth kingdom is destroyed from above and vanishes into the ocean, but some of the Atlanteans from Greek myth head over to Olympus, or do some island hopping. And what if the end reveals that we were both created by another more mysterious race of beings such as the Titans, much like the ending to At the Mountains of Madness.

Put yourself in Shaw's shoes. As an archaeologist she's studied hominids and the variations between them, how they evolved, which ones could have possibly interbred. Yeah she believes in God, but as an anthropologist she will at least understand the principles behind evolution. She'll know almost immediately that we are not directly created by the tall guys and that they somehow evolved, even if it was sped up by genetic meddling etc, and it's more like we're both evolved from the last common ancestor between our species. If they can be classified as non-hominid she'll be able to tell us after studying the engineer and their very human-like culture for awhile. Unless they create us from scratch by cloning their own genetics there has to be some sort of interbreeding and a long period of interaction for the Sumerian-like hieroglyphs to get passed from us to them, or them to us. That one engineer by the waterfall could have had a whole mythical kingdom. I have a feeling this movie isn't going to go against evolution and that the engineers are actually more like our brothers or cousins. No one turns into them. They turn into the horrible fish-man hybrids that the Atlanteans were creating and received the technology for from the Titans/Zeta reticuli. In myth the father of Zeus and of Poseidon is a a Titan.

The Atlanteans were said to have flying machines and conduct genetic experiments in some versions of the myths. it's only much later that we think of them as mermaids. Original descriptions match that of the other so-called ancient astronauts worldwide depicting them as men, as well as the tall bald guys in the movie. Here's the kicker, a few of the ancient Hebrew peoples would say these guys appeared from the sky much later, announcing they'd been here before as the Raphaim, giving some of the ancients rudimentary boating technologies.

After Shaw starts believing some of these myths it becomes all about everything. The Atlanteans and humans were given a paradise on earth by the Titans, but the Atlanteans came to misuse the gifts they'd been given. Poseidon/Atlantis is punished by the Titans while Zeus survives due to Gaia hiding him in a cave, and he grows up and overthrows Kronos. Much of the Earth was changed in the war with the titans. With Zeus now in control of what's left, he prevents us humans from advancing to their level to retain control of the Earth until they eventually wandered further out into space to meet our true makers. They left the god-kings behind leaving only traces of the alien astronauts and Atlantean/Lemurian myths many traces of Atlantis or the Titans creating us both. Just instructions to where they were going to deal with the Titans who had been giving us the fire. The place they got their amazing gifts from. These beings want their kingdom/garden back and know Earth must be completely habitable again. This guy may want to pose as a god and alter the population of the Earth to turn them all into servants & reestablish dominion over the earth. But only because he knows the Titans are still pissed and needs our resources. See they took all the Titans resource's, the bio suits etc, but kept devolving and are a hybrid race of Neaderthal man and cro-magnon man who were given extraordinary gifts and abused them. They're sterile and need our genetics to fix their own, which caused them to slowly die out over time. They thought they could fix themselves by lashing out and stealing the fire from the Titans.

May-07-2012 8:15 PM

Thank God somebody posted this.

My girlfriend and I were invited to a test screening (NOT an "advance screening") of a movie back in the 90's, for a film called "Wings of the Dove." And yes we did get cards to check off boxes on and also did a Q&A in the theater afterwards with the people who (I assume) were the people running the test screening. Interestingly, some of what I remember as my own negative response to certain scenes was actually exactly what the filmmakers wanted the audience to feel at those moments, so you can never be sure exactly what they're looking for... but I digress.

The point is this: that test screening took place MONTHS before the film hit the theaters - in fact it was far earlier than even the trailers were released. The movie we saw was missing the musical score, and the opening titles were crude and basic (I don't recall there being any end credits shown). We were basically a focus group.

IF "Prometheus" already has its rating (R, it seems) then that means the final cut/cuts were already submitted to the MPAA for approval. They're the ones who could theoretically go back to Ridley and say "If you want a PG/G/X/whatever, you need to cut this, and this, and this." Then Ridley would make the cuts and re-submit it for approval for whatever rating he was trying to get. But that has nothing to do with a test screening in front of a "test audience." So, no, she didn't see a "test screening" of a "new Alien film" the other night. Fox would have been finished with those a while ago. This film is less than a month from release.

In other words - they're not going to submit the final cut/cuts to the MPAA, get the rating, and THEN go back and show more test screenings to audiences to get their reaction and see what they should change. It doesn't work that way.

Now, it's slightly possible that she might have been at some kind of industry insider preview showing, or something that the marketing department wanted to put together at the last minute now that they know the film's rating, but what kind of industry insider who gets invited to sucha screening is going to then go tweeting the films plot the way this person has?

I call complete B.S. on the Twitter spoiler nonsense. Just one more oddball looking for attention.

May-07-2012 6:46 PM

thanks for the information azalard! much appreciated, that sounds like a fun job

May-07-2012 6:22 PM

erm, I'm going to let out a mix of non-sourced potential spoilers (cause the source is a french magazine I'm translating to post here soon but don't have with me for now as I left it somewhere) and some of my carefully crafted thoughts about that. Everything comes with a warning, for spoilers, where I am from so don't worry if you want to avoid those.

To me, it seems well supported now that Engineers are shaped like humans. Or, as pslock was right to note, that humans were created by the Engineers in their image. I'm personally quite fine with that cause it makes sense on several levels. First, real or not, sophisticated creations often end up looking like their creators. Doesn't mean Engineers can't do other stuff (seems likely they created the rest of life too) but think how we're battling to make proper working anthropomorphs robots. We do other robots (quite better, up to now) but we keep doing our best to achieve a human-looking robot though in many regards it's really not ideal, if you're given the luxury of choice (I work on locomotor biomechanics and can tell you bird hindlimbs are a much more efficient/stable design if you're to make a bioinspired bipedal robot). Second, in a movie, it avoids the potential gooffy effect of representing our creators with a silly face and also make emotions hit stronger (think fear/terminator).
Finally, to me, it become obvious when Ridley Scott says he wants to add a philosophical frame a la Blade Runner to the Alien horror. We are building androids, and a lot of questions arise from their point of view. How do they perceive us? How do they perceive themselves? Can they end up having emotions or turning against us? Well, it gets better it you reveal we're nothing more than the Engineers's equivalent to androids. We think of ourselves as high end, emotional, moral and intelligent beings but how sure are we to not just be a mock-up of something more 'complete'

Now I'll post something about that from the magazine, and my take on what it means. May be a spoiler for those who really want to stay virginal, so read at your own risk
**SPOILER**
it's from memory as I don't have the source or my draft of translation with me. First, it's at some point stated, by someone central in the film crew, the Engineers and SJ are the same only SJ is how they called Engineers wearing the pilot suit. I remember one article/interview stating the Engineers created us just like they created many other anthropo-SJockey-morphic life forms that they put colonies of on many worlds in the galaxy. No explanation onto why though. My take is they use us as 'functional units' with many similarities to them, just like we use androids, after they terraform planets so that we organise/clean up the place according to our needs, quite similar to theirs to an extent. Hence, they can then come and find a secure friendly new planet to settle one of their own new colony in. Just like we'd do sending antropo-androids ot Mars to prepare the place before we make it there. Now how ready are we to accept we're only just that?

I stop here cause I have a more thorough version of my 'plot theory' I'll post soon enough. However, here's why they have their massive head exposed, in my opinion, they're quite proud of themselves, just like us but even better (or worse?)

May-07-2012 5:56 PM

Also new SJ is smaller and shorter then the old one. It was huge and more scary. May this one be a teenage SJ sucks the processes

Mr. Scott couldn't keep Giger's proportion cause when Weyland get inside the suit he could be lost in it before lost in space.

May-07-2012 5:41 PM

Booyaa!

May-07-2012 3:55 PM

Galzu,

Actually, there's a part of my that agrees with Alalard too, since the original hype was that this would be an ALIEN prequel. Even Ridley admitted this, so he's right on the money with his concerns. When I saw the humanoid Space Jockeys walking around, I got really pissed off. I wanted to see the original behemoth from ALIEN, and all that transpired leading up to his ultimate fate. When I learned why fans were angry at Lindelof's involvement, I almost gave up on the movie (I never saw Lost). I kept saying to myself "One day, somebody in f***ing Hollywood will give their fans what they truly want and not go off on silly tangents". I mean, Star Trek fans got what they wanted with Wrath of khan- so what's up?

But the thing to keep in mind is that the backstory to the xeno was never entirely coherent, even to the original creators. The pyramid, the transforming hosts into eggs, etc.- all these things are true canon elements but never made it into the final cut, and in many ways ALIEN came out better for it. I like the idea of the egg chamber embedded within the Derelict for example, it adds a sinister element to the ship that wouldn't have been there if the pyramid concept survived. So sometimes, changes can be good things. Maybe, the changes Ridley made with this film will also result in something better, but you won't find out unless you see it first-hand. Reading about it is not going to cut it. And as for Lindelof... well, maybe he has considered all that negative feedback and approached this differently- he's dealing with ALIEN and Ridley's reputation, he can't f**k this up and pull the same manuever. The movie has *got* to make sense, especially at the end.

And if I'm wrong, then I'll purposely trip onto a few xeno eggs as punishment... LOL

May-07-2012 1:18 PM

Here I am, I am one of those who hate the use of the term xenomorph. I never use it myself, but I don't hate the word itself, but its inappropriate (ab)use.

First off, a clarification.
I LOVE Aliens. It's not my favourite movie because Alien is, but it is a close second. I see it all as canon (even though I am not a big fan of the queen or of the insect-like behaviour of the alien, but that's secondary).

And from my (poor?) analysis skills I deduce that they never call the aliens "xenomorphs", not even once. They call them "things", "hostiles", "animals", but definitely never "xenomorphs".
You'll now object "LOL, have you seen the film? They say xenomorph, you asshole!".
Yes, Lt Gorman uses the word indeed, I have seen the movie more than 100 times I reckon (the nerd I am!).
What I hear in the movie is that in his briefing, Gorman says to his squad that they are going to face "an unknown, possibly hostile, alien lifeform" suggesting that in his military training as an officer he learned about engagement procedures against unidentified alien lifeforms, and for the sake of clarity and synthesis the placeholder term "xenomorph" is used. The term xenomorph is used in the same way as UFO is used for flying objects.
Gorman has a poor leadership, is insecure, and he tries to impress his unruly squad by using academic terms (failing miserably).
He doesn't say "xenomorph" referring to the alien we all love, but to a generic alien threat. He, like everybody else, doesn't know or hasn't ever seen/studied these creatures, let alone have a name for them.

The movies (all of them) have already given these creatures a placeholder name. A beautifully simple and generic name, unpretentious and mysterious at the same time.

Alien

I'll stick to that.

And the working name for the aliens during filming has always been "alien", "creature", or "big chap" (in Alien), according to the various "Making of..." documentaries.

As somebody else wrote on some forum, the term xenomorph identifies a generic alien not THIS alien specifically.
Trivia: the word xenomorph is real life identifies a mineral.

As far as I am concerned the Engineers and the cobra thing are as much xenomorphs as the Giger's aliens.

These are my reasons. Feel free to call them xenomorphs. Just don't expect me to, until the canon proves me wrong. Then I'll happily jump on the X-word bandwagon.

Peace!

May-07-2012 12:38 PM

After watching an interview with Ridley which took place just after 9/11, he was asked about coming back in the Sci Fi genre. With hindsight I now find his answer back then quite interesting. he also gave his opinion on the differences between the role of the movie maker, and the role of those who are responsible for marketing which he felt required two very different skill sets entirely, along with the fact that he does like to be involved with every aspect of film production, right through til release. I have felt for some time that Prometheus has been in the pipeline for quite a long time and that Ridley has been waiting for the right opportunity to make it. It this is the case then Ridley, and everyone else involved in its production have put in an extremely large amount of patience and effort, and i dont think they would want to see all that effort being ruined by ill thought out trailers and spoilers.
I find that some films, do seem to give away too much, and by the time you get round to watching them you discover that the trailers were better than the movie. There are of course films ( which I believe Prometheus is ) that have trailers specifically designed to throw you completely off the scent, and may even have scenes in them that may not appear in the movie.
As for how long this movie has been planned over, I am convinced that Niell Blomkamp has been using small elements of Prometheus in his films, District 9 and soon to be Elysium, but is being careful about the timing of his marketing because of Prometheus. From this I think Prometheus is going to be the vangaurd for a lot what is to come down the line for movie goers and its level of success will determine the nature of future releases. There is a lot riding on this film, I am sure of it. I think its a pure case of go see the movie.