GungFu: Mugato: Heron: Not to mention that Lucas' "remastering" of the old films to make the locations just as shiny and dirt-free as they were in the "prequels" totally disproves Mugato's theory that the difference made sense/was intentional.

Which locations?

I'm sure he means that Cloud City place as well as others.

Cloud City was pretty dirt free to begin with. They added some exteriors to the windows.

Shrugging Atlas: The Plinkett reviews of the prequels by Red Letter Media really hit upon this as their key fault. At the end of the day, while there was certainly a story to be told in the prequels, why in the hell make it revolve around Darth Vader? There's really nothing in the original movies that show him to be all that big of a deal at the end of the day.

Yeah... In A New Hope, he was really just a Bond-style mini boss -- a scary henchmen with a gimmick, like Oddjob or Jaws. He looked creepy, wore a robot suit and could choke people with his mind. That's badass.

But imagine if someone made a whole trilogy out of how Oddjob became Oddjob, just because he was the most popular James Bond henchman? .....that sounds stupid.

Well, Lucas took that premise and ran with it. I don't think Empire or Jedi would have been written the way they were if Vader wasn't such a massively popular character. Sometimes I wonder how they would have turned out if Vader had stayed on the station and was killed off with Tarkin at the end of ANH. I guess we'll never know.

Shrugging Atlas: He's so non-vital he's sent out in a single seat fighter from a base that literally has thousands and thousands of fighters and pilots. Whether or not he's ordered to do s

I'm pretty sure he sensed a disturbance in the Force -- that staying on the station was dangerous. Also, he probably sensed Luke at that distance, so he was curious to go out meet this other Force-sensitive pilot whom, if he's as competent as the Force lets him be, would make quick work of any Tie Fighters out there. So Vader would naturally have to deal with this rebel pilot himself. It works when you think about it, regardless of whether Lucas had that in mind or not.

Mugato: In the period between Attack of the Clones when the war started and Revenge of the Sith was like two years. What changes exactly were you expecting to see and where?

I would like to see some suffering SOMEWHERE.

Remember in the first movie when the Trade Federation was blockading Naboo and the Queen says "Our people are dying, Senator" ....where? Where are the people dying? We don't see any death anywhere. Are they all dying in that fancy, opulent, pristine palace they all live in? I don't see any scarcity of people struggling to get by. The entire planet looks like farking Eden. So how are they dying? Are droids killing civilians left and right? Have they destroyed the crops and there's a famine? Are people choking of pollution being poured into the air? Have they not received their crucial weekly shipment of space supplies vital to their survival? ...Just how the fark are they dying? And it's all off-camera too. Not a single shot of a single suffering Naboo civilian. Planet looks perfectly fine and left alone. Where is the desperation!?

It doesn't take much to impose scarcity on a foreign population in a total war conflict. You're asking what I'm expecting to see in two years? .....Sherman wrought despair, poverty, hunger, misery and homelessness across the entire South in six weeks.

Howabout some suffering or a reduced standard of living? War has consequences -- resources are rationed, food is not as plentiful, buildings are decrepit and falling apart from lack of maintenance and upkeep. Everyone must make sacrifices, yet we see Coruscant is the same bastion of ostentatious wealth at the end of the third film as it was in the first film. So is Naboo, and it was in the center of the entire farking conflict. The only destruction we see is Jedi Temple being set on fire, and it was Anakin who caused it.....

You watch Deep Space Nine? You see what the Dominion did to Cardassia Prime? ...... and that was a farking 90s television show.

That's what you should see in a war. Some motherfarking band of brothers shiat. Not aristocracies slowly and gracefully talking to each other in calm, steady tones while sitting on plush couches, in massive rooms with working lighting and cleaning crews, being attended to by pristine droids. How can there be any sense of urgency in a galaxy-engulfing conflict if it has no direct affect on these people's lives?

fark you, George.

9beers: There's a new viral video out too.

Link (new window)

That looked almost like a Verdian Dynamics commercial.

Have you seen the Weyland TED Talk 2023? (new window)

Shrugging Atlas: Stupid question, but has it been firmly established this actually takes place before Alien?

That is a good question. You'd think in 57 years since the Nostromo went missing they'd send out SOME sort of search party to find out what happened. I know the Company doesn't actually care what happened to those stupid truckers, but that's still a long time to go without some sort of followup mission. If they know it went missing around Zeta Reticuli, then obviously what it found may be more interesting.

Ishkur: Shrugging Atlas: The Plinkett reviews of the prequels by Red Letter Media really hit upon this as their key fault. At the end of the day, while there was certainly a story to be told in the prequels, why in the hell make it revolve around Darth Vader? There's really nothing in the original movies that show him to be all that big of a deal at the end of the day.

Yeah... In A New Hope, he was really just a Bond-style mini boss -- a scary henchmen with a gimmick, like Oddjob or Jaws. He looked creepy, wore a robot suit and could choke people with his mind. That's badass.

But imagine if someone made a whole trilogy out of how Oddjob became Oddjob, just because he was the most popular James Bond henchman? .....that sounds stupid.

Well, Lucas took that premise and ran with it. I don't think Empire or Jedi would have been written the way they were if Vader wasn't such a massively popular character. Sometimes I wonder how they would have turned out if Vader had stayed on the station and was killed off with Tarkin at the end of ANH. I guess we'll never know.

Shrugging Atlas: He's so non-vital he's sent out in a single seat fighter from a base that literally has thousands and thousands of fighters and pilots. Whether or not he's ordered to do s

I'm pretty sure he sensed a disturbance in the Force -- that staying on the station was dangerous. Also, he probably sensed Luke at that distance, so he was curious to go out meet this other Force-sensitive pilot whom, if he's as competent as the Force lets him be, would make quick work of any Tie Fighters out there. So Vader would naturally have to deal with this rebel pilot himself. It works when you think about it, regardless of whether Lucas had that in mind or not.

Mugato: In the period between Attack of the Clones when the war started and Revenge of the Sith was like two years. What changes exactly were you expecting to see and where?

I would like to see some suffering SOMEWHERE.

Remember in the first movie when the Trade Federation was blockading Naboo and the Queen says "Our people are dying, Senator" ....where? Where are the people dying? We don't see any death anywhere. Are they all dying in that fancy, opulent, pristine palace they all live in? I don't see any scarcity of people struggling to get by. The entire planet looks like farking Eden. So how are they dying? Are droids killing civilians left and right? Have they destroyed the crops and there's a famine? Are people choking of pollution being poured into the air? Have they not received their crucial weekly shipment of space supplies vital to their survival? ...Just how the fark are they dying? And it's all off-camera too. Not a single shot of a single suffering Naboo civilian. Planet looks perfectly fine and left alone. Where is the desperation!?

It doesn't take much to impose scarcity on a foreign population in a total war conflict. You're asking what I'm expecting to see in two years? .....Sherman wrought despair, poverty, hunger, misery and homelessness across the entire South in six weeks.

Howabout some suffering or a reduced standard of living? War has consequences -- resources are rationed, food is not as plentiful, buildings are decrepit and falling apart from lack of maintenance and upkeep. Everyone must make sacrifices, yet we see Coruscant is the same bastion of ostentatious wealth at the end of the third film as it was in the first film. So is Naboo, and it was in the center of the entire farking conflict. The only destruction we see is Jedi Temple being set on fire, and it was Anakin who caused it.....

You watch Deep Space Nine? You see what the Dominion did to Cardassia Prime? ...... and that was a farking 90s television show.

That's what you should see in a war. Some motherfarking band of brothers shiat. Not aristocracies slowly and gracefully talking to each other in calm, steady tones while sitting on plush couches, in massive rooms with working lighting and cleaning crews, being attended to by pristine droids. How can there be any sense of urgency in a galaxy-engulfing conflict if it has no direct affect on these people's lives?

fark you, George.

It's kind of sad that you get a lot more of that drone the Clone Wars cartoon...

Shrugging Atlas: Stupid question, but has it been firmly established this actually takes place before Alien?

Unless it takes place on an identical derelict alien spaceship full of eggs and the chair thing it pretty much has to be. Possibly takes place between "Alien" and "Aliens" (Ripley was frozen and adrift for something like 50 years)

Shrugging Atlas: Ishkur: That is a good question. You'd think in 57 years since the Nostromo went missing they'd send out SOME sort of search party to find out what happened. I know the Company doesn't actually care what happened to those stupid truckers, but that's still a long time to go without some sort of followup mission. If they know it went missing around Zeta Reticuli, then obviously what it found may be more interesting.

Agreed. I did some searching with teh Google and didn't come up with anything saying either way whether this is before of after Alien.

There's two reasons I wonder if this may actually take place after Alien:

1. The increased level of tech in the trailers. But it could be it's just a better ship or more likely Hollywood just wanting to pretty it up.

2. As you said, the Nostromo goes missing without a trace. Would seem a good idea to go looking for the valuable ship. And were that the case, Prometheus would detect the same beacon that prompted Nostromo to land.

I'd still bet it takes place prior to Alien, but I don't think I'd be surprised to see it take place after. Either way, can't wait to see it.

Wikipedia says "Alien" takes place in 2179. The Weyland Industries corporate timeline here (new window) states that the "Prometheus Project" was started in 2073. So it's a pretty safe bet "Prometheus" takes place before "Alien".

And as has been already stated in this thread: the shinier tech could be explained by the fact that Prometheus is a research vessel, not an ore tanker.

hubiestubert: It's kind of sad that you get a lot more of that drone the Clone Wars cartoon...

Did you accidentally this whole sentence?

fusillade762: Wikipedia says "Alien" takes place in 2179. The Weyland Industries corporate timeline here (new window) states that the "Prometheus Project" was started in 2073. So it's a pretty safe bet "Prometheus" takes place before "Alien".

Fair enough.

But still, if WY is so obsessed with possessing a Xenomorph, why didn't they follow up after the Nostromo went missing?

Ishkur: fusillade762: Wikipedia says "Alien" takes place in 2179. The Weyland Industries corporate timeline here (new window) states that the "Prometheus Project" was started in 2073. So it's a pretty safe bet "Prometheus" takes place before "Alien".

Fair enough.

But still, if WY is so obsessed with possessing a Xenomorph, why didn't they follow up after the Nostromo went missing?

Well, they sent colonists, didn't they? And who knows, maybe they did send an S&R party but they didn't find anything. Though I got the impression that they knew about the beacon and it's location, so they could have just sent a proper research party to snag a xeno.

But it's a fair point to ask what happened to the beacon after the first movie.

Forget the postage stamp-sized teaser in the link, check out the gloriousness of the Full HD Trailer. (new window)

/and i'm spent

buckler: NeoCortex42: Ishkur: fusillade762: Wikipedia says "Alien" takes place in 2179. The Weyland Industries corporate timeline here (new window) states that the "Prometheus Project" was started in 2073. So it's a pretty safe bet "Prometheus" takes place before "Alien".

Fair enough.

But still, if WY is so obsessed with possessing a Xenomorph, why didn't they follow up after the Nostromo went missing?
They did, and they even made a film about it: Aliens

Well, yeah. Ripley's escape craft is found drifting fifty years after her escape, and she's hauled before a Weyland-Yutani board to testify about the loss of the Nostromo. They find her negligent, don't believe her story, and can her ass. When contact with LV-426 is lost, they put two and two together, reinstate Ripley as a consultant to the Marine team dispatched to investigate, and off she goes. It doesn't get much clearer than that.

Except for the fact that Ash seems to have explicit instructions to bring back a xeno, so they knew they existed on LV-426. What made them seemingly forget about it until Ripley got back?

Trocadero: So, ignoring AvP/AvPR (please!), we've seen Mr. Weyland, but who is Mr./Ms. Yutani? Or is Yutani some non-person based corporate word, like Google or Apple?

From the AvP wiki:



Ms. Yutani was the CEO of the Japanese Yutani Corporation during the early twenty-first century. She came into posession of a Predator's plasma caster, which Yutani Corp further used to advance earth tech. Her company would later merge with Weyland Industries to form the Weyland-Yutani Corp. (new window)

buckler: NeoCortex42: Ishkur: fusillade762: Wikipedia says "Alien" takes place in 2179. The Weyland Industries corporate timeline here (new window) states that the "Prometheus Project" was started in 2073. So it's a pretty safe bet "Prometheus" takes place before "Alien".

Fair enough.

But still, if WY is so obsessed with possessing a Xenomorph, why didn't they follow up after the Nostromo went missing?
They did, and they even made a film about it: Aliens

Well, yeah. Ripley's escape craft is found drifting fifty years after her escape, and she's hauled before a Weyland-Yutani board to testify about the loss of the Nostromo. They find her negligent, don't believe her story, and can her ass. When contact with LV-426 is lost, they put two and two together, reinstate Ripley as a consultant to the Marine team dispatched to investigate, and off she goes. It doesn't get much clearer than that.


Still has questions.

/Is this another bug hunt sir?

Heron: The destruction of Sherman's march to the sea tends to be over-played.

Fine, but that's not the point. Total War has consequences. We should at least see some of the debilitating costs and effects of the war in the Star Wars prequels rather than these pristine scenes of Naboo/Coruscant nobility blissfully meandering around without so much as a dirty wall or broken droid in their midst. The war has been completely externalized.

I would think that General Grievous is at least half as competent as Sherman.

buckler: fusillade762: Except for the fact that Ash seems to have explicit instructions to bring back a xeno, so they knew they existed on LV-426. What made them seemingly forget about it until Ripley got back?

The xeno return request was a standing order for Ash only. They never established that he'd contacted the Company with news of what he discovered, and may not have had a chance to (or may have been under orders of communications silence, so the commo would never be recorded or logged by the ship's computer). W-Y may never have known of it until they heard Ripley's story.

That's kinda what I've started thinking. Sounds as good as anything. Mother also could have had contingency plans that she issued to Ash.

fusillade762: Well, they sent colonists, didn't they? And who knows, maybe they did send an S&R party but they didn't find anything. Though I got the impression that they knew about the beacon and it's location, so they could have just sent a proper research party to snag a xeno.
But it's a fair point to ask what happened to the beacon after the first movie.

I believe I read somewhere that there was a volcanic earthquake shortly after the Nostromo left the planet (or maybe due to its presence there... pretty heavy ship on that rockbed) which damaged the derelict and shut the beacon off. It also made a new hole in the derelict that Newt's parents later find and climb into.

So piecing it altogether, likely story is this:

- Nostromo goes missing, WY sends follow up research vessel.
- Research vessel finds derelict, does not proceed under orders, fearing that what happened to Nostromo might happen to them
- WY sends colonists to establish "bait" colony for derelict's contents.
- Ripley returns, warns them not to go near the derelict.
- Burke uses Ripley's information, tells colonists to explore derelict.
- In a matter of weeks, all contact with colonists is lost
- WY sends marine squad of expendables to check out colony. They add Ripley to the squad to shut her up.

Dunno what they were expecting the marines to do. It was obvious that they didn't send the best of the best -- the squad itself seemed mostly capable and competent, but their CO was inexperienced and thrown to the wolves. So after the marines fail, were they going to send more? ...or a team of androids to gather specimens?

It's hard to gather what, exactly, WY's objective was, mostly because we're still not sure how much WY actually knew. Did they know exactly what the xenomorph was and the purpose of the colony was to incubate an army of xenomorphs? Or did they just know something dangerous and valuable was there and they wanted it but didn't want to risk valuable personnel so they kept sending expendables? It seems like half the company really REALLY wanted a xenomorph specimen while the other half tried really REALLY hard to pretend it didn't know anything about it, in that bureaucratic way typical of most corporations.

buckler: The xeno return request was a standing order for Ash only. They never established that he'd contacted the Company with news of what he discovered, and may not have had a chance to (or may have been under orders of communications silence, so the commo would never be recorded or logged by the ship's computer). W-Y may never have known of it until they heard Ripley's story.

I don't buy this. It's too much of a coincidence for them to try and terraform a nondescript Reticulian volcanic planetoid with no indigenous life. Surely there's more hospitable planets out there. Acheron was dark, cold, and lifeless. Who'd want to live there, even after it was terraformed?

They must have known. They just pretend like they don't.