It was beautiful to look at. Beautiful enough that I'm willing to play fanwanker and assume the plot holes only seem like plot holes and everything can be explained.

First off, I'm seeing it suggested in a lot of places that the creature at the end of the movie may be the first Xeno. This is clearly false. The eggs from Alien are sitting in the derelict waiting for the crew of the Nostromo to discover while this whole movie plays out. The xeno was not a novel result of an accidental mix. The derelict was ancient and the engineer fossilized.

The interviews out there with Lindehoff and Ridley hinting at the crucifixion of Christ as the reason they are pissed off - Christ was a disguised emissary of theirs that we tortured and killed - are a bit disappointing. But that conclusion can't really be ignored given the interviews and the anvilicious 2000 year old carbon dating segment, which exists explicitly to bring up this possibility.

If they are going to go this way, I'm preferring to think that rather than Christ as an emissary of theirs, he is some other deity-level being, and they are actually jealous of it's attentions to us. And perhaps mad at us for squandering it.

The Engineers clearly have some form of religion going on. They are worshiping the Xenos to a degree, though I'm not sure if it's as their monolithic god, or some sort of minor God representing the death and war side of things. It seems a continuing open possibility that the Xenos were naturally occurring species in the universe that the Space Jockey's discovered. I hope for this possibility because I still dream of and Alien homeworld movie. Although it is hard to imagine how they could ever be a part of a stable food chain.

And given all the Russian doll-esque levels of creation - they create us, we create robots - perhaps the creators of the Xenos are a mystery to them as well. Perhaps they think whoever created the Xenos created them. It wasn't a throwaway line that the android had about the futility in the question.

Anyway, I'm having fun with it and thinking about it. The life cycle of the aliens in this though is total mess. I would be shocked if this was really worked out all that well in Ridley and Lindehoffs mind. It just reeks of the kind of thing they never solved on Lost but acted like they had an answer to.

Just saw the movie and I loved it. It was exciting and beautifully shot. The CG was seamless and the 3D was unobtrusive. The acting was superb. I thought Fassbender was amazing with his less-is-more approach to David. I thought Charlize Theron was great as well.

There were obvious issues with the plot, but I think a good director doesn't have to show you everything. Scientists sometimes do dumb things. People might be unpredictable.

Ridley Scott didn't spell everything out, and that was fine. I enjoyed it and it was fun ride. I'll see it again next week.

I was not a fan of the film. Aliens excelled on the details whereas this film dropped the ball on pretty much every one of them.

**** Spoilers ****

You've got the insta-healing abdominal surgery (women must be stronger in the future because c-sections take 6 weeks to heal now), the lame-ass surgery machine that is not programmed for female anatomy (guess women are disposable in the future), the incredibly disfunctional crew, the absolutely zero protocols in place for exposure to an alien planet, the discovery of the alien site with 5 minutes of searching without clues or signals, the "no weapons allowed ... we're doing science" plot contrivance, the alien life form that looks like a cobra ready to strike ... let's see if it is friendly stupidity, the application of 40 Amps of current the the most important archaeological find in history (with predictable results), the execution of an infected crew member by the most horrible method possible, I could go on and on.

There was zero science in this fiction.

Saw it tonight. Not bad, but I'll not be seeing it again until I can stream it.

/Charlize is gorgeous.

I really liked the film. And it made me a fan of 3D, but not the post-conversion kind. I forgot I was watching 3D for the majority of it. The visuals are pretty much better than anything I've ever seen in a movie. There's a whole lot of explanations left hanging in the air and I can see why that bugs people, but knowing that they're planning sequels and continuing the story I can let it slide (for now).

I just got back from seeing it in an excellent 2d presentation and I have to say that my expectations were just too over-blown for it to meet them. I left feeling a bit meh, but the more I think about it, a lot of that is really my fault and not so much the movie's.

I really, really liked the very beginning, which I won't give away. It was such a nice, pure sci-fi sequence. I almost felt a little bit of Ray Bradbury in there for some reason.

Definitely worth seeing, but don't let your years of what-ifs get the in the way. I did enjoy it and it's certainly better than most sci-fi that makes the big screen.

Not bad at all.

SPOILERS

They've set up a sequel, possibly with Shaw heading to LV-426. Prometheans? My theory is that The Engineers are early humans that evolved faster or had some help from another race. They were than tasked with developing the xenos and once we were smart enough to develop FTL travel, they'd send a few ships to harvest us.

The xenos mimic whatever they're impregnated into. If they're put into a bunch of cavemen, they might not be terribly bright. If they're put into a bunch of well developed humanoids, they'd have brains too. Add to that the fact that a species advanced enough to develop FTL should have a reasonable population, and you'd have a perfect storm. Just put in a few hints of where to go, and wait for them to come to you. Shake and bake.

Then it would be a simple task to harvest the xenos, and deploy them where you needed. Unless something went wrong.

archichris: And it doesnt explain why the geologist turned into a zombie death machine. WTF did that come from?

*Spoiler-ish:*



Well, after his helmet melted he was left face down in the goo which seems to have some pretty random-ass results depending on what it comes in contact with. That's the only explanation that I could gather based on what we actually saw.

vrax: archichris: And it doesnt explain why the geologist turned into a zombie death machine. WTF did that come from?

*Spoiler-ish:*



Well, after his helmet melted he was left face down in the goo which seems to have some pretty random-ass results depending on what it comes in contact with. That's the only explanation that I could gather based on what we actually saw.

Except he walked from the site to the ship and they made it very clear at the beginning of the movie that humans cannot survive outside for more than 5 minutes outside. I guess zombies can though.

All black goo doesn't appear to be the same, if you remember the prologue scene on earth.

Captain sort of had it right that it seemed to be a military / testing facility where something went wrong. We never find out what, but it scared the crap out of the engenders, killed most of them, and then vanished.

I really don't have many questions on that stuff, nor need answers. My bigger problems were thing like the scene when the captain all of a sudden tells shaw what's going on, when David infects Holloway, and Vickers as a whole. Like I said, fells like a lot of characterization and a fe plot points were cut for eye candy and essential scenes.

Remember Kingdom of Heaven, the theatrical release was a bloody mess and made character actions made no sense. They went back and did a super long directors cut, and it's a much, much better film..... assuming you can sit through it's uber length.

Farking Canuck: There was zero science in this fiction.

Or logic, reason, rational characters, or a damn point.

I mean, yeah, we get answers about the origin of the xenomorphs (not a big surprise, really) and what/who the space jockey is, but in the end those answers don't really matter.

To put it succinctly, Alien was Lindeloffed.

The other thing is films like this really show why 3D is faltering at cinema, not because of the product, but because of business decisions.

Studios are too cheap to do it right with real 3D cameras, and directors are too scared to use them, or in a few small cases using them wrong. Post processing 3D just looks horrible in comparison, because quite frankly it is a pop up book. Which doesn't add anything and in the end distracts from the film.

It was fine, good escapist fare. The 3D wasn't annoying and the active glasses make it such much nicer and I don't get a headache.

The best part was seeing it in one of the luxury theaters around here where food and drink were brought to my seat, which was a recliner. Oh, and that this was during a work day and work paid for it!

aiiee: NeoCortex42: aiiee: I do like the possibility that the reason the Engineers are pissed is because we killed Jesus.

Was this implied in the movie somehow and I missed it? Seeing it mentioned in this thread is the first I've heard of it.

Apparently Scott and Lindeloff threw that out in an interview as a "possibility".

Also, the severed head is dated "2000 years, give or take."

It isn't science fiction. Alien wasn't science fiction. Alien was a haunted house story. Prometheus was straight up Lovecraft. They just wear the science fiction costumes, like your mom at last week's swinger party.

In defense of the lack of safety protocols and foolish behavior on the part of the scientists, this was not a crack team put together for an official historic mission. This was a secret team, made up of low-rent scientists who were in it mostly for the money, and weren't told what the mission was.

And the mission was not to safely research a potential alien culture, which might take years if done properly, but rather to discover and leverage biotechnology as quickly as was possible. Members of the team were chosen specifically because of their likelihood to cut corners. Weyland didn't hire a pothead by accident. These people were not the top names in their fields, their weaknesses were selected for in support of the real mission, for which caution was in no way a priority or desired behavior.

Not a fan of 3D, but I got to the theater as the Real3D version was starting, so I figured 'Why Not?' Gotta say that the 3D in this case was VERY well done. Would whole heartedly recommend this 3D version.

As far as the story, I read where the script was re-written to really reduce the prequel storyline. While many things were explained, the motivation of the Engineers' was not. I have a theory, but the timeline between the beginning of the film and the age of the artifacts seems way, way to wide.

After watching it last night me and friends who all love sci fi sat down and made fun of it for nearly an hour. Nearly all our points were covered in this thread except my biggest one; why did they just crush Theron? Wtf? Great visuals, superb acting but everything else was just plain awful. People defending are really stretching on their reasonings.

Tldr; nuke the movie from orbit

NeoCortex42: TyrantII: All black goo doesn't appear to be the same, if you remember the prologue scene on earth.


I figured it might be from the prologue guy swallowing a plate full of the stuff, while the human only got a single drop. Maybe that's why his body only partially went nuts (zombified) at a slower rate, instead of complete genetic breakdown. It still doesn't make any sense why when he ingests it, it leads to zombies, but having sex with Shaw leads to an embryonic face-hugger.

Well the one thing I also noticed was that the cases seem to melt when exposed to the outside environment, but they didn't while in the lab. David had to unscrew them to get to an ampoule of the black particle stuff that seemed to be the same stuff coming off/out of the engineer in the prologue. But the black goo itself seemed to be a bit different, and seemed to be from the containers themselves

It was probably one of the poorest shown parts of the flick, but most likely the "WTF were they doing and why did they decided not to go after Earth after the incident there" is for the next chapter.

NeoCortex42: aiiee: I do like the possibility that the reason the Engineers are pissed is because we killed Jesus.

Was this implied in the movie somehow and I missed it? Seeing it mentioned in this thread is the first I've heard of it.

There was a lot of subtle things going on.

David vs Vickers as "children"
Creation vs Evolution
Faith vs Science

The prologue was the tale of Prometheus

It really is crazy that a lot was shown and hinted at, but almost nothing was resolved. It's obviously by choice, and a comment on the same battles and questions were asking today. That the movie ended with Shaw asking the same question as the movie started with...

I liked it. It was good solid scifi, but it did have it's problems. But what movie doesn't now, especially ones without robots with balls doing hive and jive, or self depreciating slapstick?

dalovindj: In defense of the lack of safety protocols and foolish behavior on the part of the scientists, this was not a crack team put together for an official historic mission. This was a secret team, made up of low-rent scientists who were in it mostly for the money, and weren't told what the mission was.

And the mission was not to safely research a potential alien culture, which might take years if done properly, but rather to discover and leverage biotechnology as quickly as was possible. Members of the team were chosen specifically because of their likelihood to cut corners. Weyland didn't hire a pothead by accident. These people were not the top names in their fields, their weaknesses were selected for in support of the real mission, for which caution was in no way a priority or desired behavior.

Once you realize Weyland is on board, it becomes apparent that this was a one way trip to discover the fountain of youth, or to become a god, ect. There was really no plans to ever leave should they find something other then Weyland's savior from death.

Farking Canuck: vrax: archichris: And it doesnt explain why the geologist turned into a zombie death machine. WTF did that come from?

*Spoiler-ish:*



Well, after his helmet melted he was left face down in the goo which seems to have some pretty random-ass results depending on what it comes in contact with. That's the only explanation that I could gather based on what we actually saw.

Except he walked from the site to the ship and they made it very clear at the beginning of the movie that humans cannot survive outside for more than 5 minutes outside. I guess zombies can though.

Umm, he was face down in a mass of goo for hours. I think it's not beyond reason that his mutation allows him to do some extraordinary shiat. He was very obviously durable as all fark.

Also, it's complete bullshiat that it isn't science fiction. What an incredibly myopic view of probably the most broadly inclusive of all fictional genres. The search for and discovery of the genesis of human life doesn't fall squarely under the umbrella of sci-fi?! GTFO!!

NeoCortex42: Wait a sec. I thought the zombie was Shaw's boyfriend?

No, Shaw's boyfriend got crispified by Vickers. It was the geologist, whose body they left some way from the ship, that became the zombie.

(Why? Because they needed to dispatch like 8 people real fast, and zombie makeup is cheap.)

NeoCortex42: vrax: Farking Canuck: vrax: archichris: And it doesnt explain why the geologist turned into a zombie death machine. WTF did that come from?

*Spoiler-ish:*



Well, after his helmet melted he was left face down in the goo which seems to have some pretty random-ass results depending on what it comes in contact with. That's the only explanation that I could gather based on what we actually saw.

Except he walked from the site to the ship and they made it very clear at the beginning of the movie that humans cannot survive outside for more than 5 minutes outside. I guess zombies can though.

Umm, he was face down in a mass of goo for hours. I think it's not beyond reason that his mutation allows him to do some extraordinary shiat. He was very obviously durable as all fark.

Also, it's complete bullshiat that it isn't science fiction. What an incredibly myopic view of probably the most broadly inclusive of all fictional genres. The search for and discovery of the genesis of human life doesn't fall squarely under the umbrella of sci-fi?! GTFO!!

Wait a sec. I thought the zombie was Shaw's boyfriend? He was infected by David, and then started showing symptoms and they had to rush back to the ship, where he was voluntarily incinerated. The incinerated corpse than start killing people. Both of the guys that got trapped in the black-liquid room were dead-dead when the rescue team got there.

Shiat, now you've made me have to see it again. It comes down to who's name was associated with the camera that started transmitting. I thought that it was the guy who was burned by the acid and left face down in the goo. Ah, well. Either way, my previous post stands. I don't think that the atmosphere is a factor.

vrax:

Shiat, now you've made me have to see it again. It comes down to who's name was associated with the camera that started transmitting. I thought that it was the guy who was burned by the acid and left face down in the goo. Ah, well. Either way, my previous post stands. I don't think that the atmosphere is a factor.

It was the geologist, Holloway was burnt to a crisp by Vickers. Later geologist was able to take numerous bullet wounds, got run over by an APC, and only then when incinerated was killed.

Felt to me like an ape from Congo on steroids, and less of a zombie.

Well, images from the prologue storyboard have popped up, which directly show quite a big that I deducted. Hopefully this was shot and will be put back in for the DC:

http://lechib.free.fr/livreprometheus/P029.jpg
http://lechib.free.fr/livreprometheus/P030.jpg

I figured it was one rouge engineer (Prometheus, duh) or a large craft full of a different sect that gave Earth knowledge. Seems its a bit more complicated, and while there is one rouge, there's also a totally different species.

Also instantly makes the incident on LV-224 and the Xeno's more interesting.

more concept art stuff here:

http://lechib.free.fr/livreprometheus/

I thought it was a good movie. Very beautiful to watch. Some of the characters, as others have mentioned, were a little goofy for their particular roles. Took me awhile to figure out where the hell Guy Pearce was (I thought he was the Biologist with the Elton John glasses for a bit.)

I think the best part of the film was David. Michael Fassbender did a great job. He really sold the role of a soulless "being".