I didn't say this was his worst film, and I agree with you that he's made other stinkers (and that he shoulders much of the blame in this instance which cannot easily be deflected). There are plenty of stinkers out there, this was just another on the heap.

And yes, Prometheus would sit with those other low-points of Alienism to my mind.

You're wrong, if I missed it, it's because you have my point wrong. I never said it deserved an F. The score I gave was C / C-, but which in itself may sound higher than it deserved. But if I did give an F, your characterization of that as extremist is an unorthodox use of the word- one might say extreme. See below:




People don't usually use the word extremist when referring to whether they like a film or not, usually that's reserved for the realm of politics or interpreting organizational doctrine or something. I loathe potato salad, that's not extreme or extremist, even if I existed on the fringes statistically for my matter of taste. Most people I know hate the smell of rotting garbage- that's not extremist, though. The way you reserve the word really loads the issue.





Not the issue being debated here. Irrelevant, or a red herring.

Jedi, I guess my confusion is that you seem to imply there is something wrong with me not liking the movie, period. I think others have that impression as well, whether it's the one you meant to give or not. If I just said I didn't like it, and left it at that, I think it would have been unfair, so I'm providing more detail. You seem to think that's a bad idea, but I'm not sure.

I think we may also disagree on what constitutes a story, vs. the telling of that story. A joke can be funny if told well, or not funny if told badly, even it it contains the same basic components, and I think telling stories is the same.

I think there's a core story to be told, and key concepts to convey of that story, and then different scenes, characters, etc., are utilized to tell that story. If I think the overall story is bad, I may actually still like the process used in telling it. Conversely, if the basic story concept is good, I feel the process of telling it can ruin it. That's closer to what I think happened with Prometheus. The idea of discovering the Engineers, who created or had a hand in creating humans, and going off on an adventure to find them, and what finding them may reveal, is interesting to me. How they went about trying to tell that story didn't work for me.

Wow, I can't think of any film that has garnered as much heated debate on SimHQ as Prometheus. Lol

Well anyway, i have provided my input wether its right or not to others is besides the point.

It fell short of the mark, by how far i guess is a personal opinion.

So i will leave it at that.

Ditto

Ok, I'm cherry picking quotes now Jedi, so apologies, but this stood out enough that I couldn't resist. How about of these movies (off the top of my head so these may be wrong/incomplete) Elysium, After Earth, Oblivion, Pacific Rim, Ender's Game, Gravity, World War Z, Riddick as in all sci-fi and all due 2013. I had heard the 2013 was pretty much the 'Year of Sci-Fi' etc. in that way that hollywood likes to cluster around the same genre like a pigs around an apple.

As for the debate on Prometheus, I personally enjoyed it. Flawed with some crazy character development and dialog but still pretty good. I hope they do more.

I know it was a while back but does anyone remember the joke Seth McFarlane said about Prometheus during his hosting of the Oscars?

I remember him saying something like

'what the hell what was going on there'

..to some of the cast (Charlize T etc) and getting a laugh. It was kind of a cheap gag, in that superficially it's funny but underneath it's a bit sad, in that he reinforces the point that today's movies that require thinking are weird enough to point at. Casablanca 2 would probably tie up the 'loose ends' in the first 5 minutes

Yeah, that was the basic gist of it. I was watching the Oscars that night with a group of friends which consisted of several sci-fi fans so we got a good laugh out of it.

I watched it to be entertained and have fun. It did not disappoint.

I watched it once with my daughter, and then with my buds where we laughed and critisized. It was good for our egos.

I am watching this right now again for the 4th time.

Still a lot of unanswered questions.

I still like it. Once you get over the first viewing and what "isn't" in it, you're free to enjoy it more on later viewings. A lot of movies are like that.
Chronicles of Riddick and Riddick were the same way. Man of Steel too, but I loved that one even to begin with.

The good aspects of Prometheus:

- Great cinematography
- Great set design
- The performance by Michael Fassbender



The bad aspects of Prometheus:

- Completely irrational behavior by some of the characters, namely the geologist, the head researcher and xenobiologist.

- The whole deal with Weyland concealing the fact that he's alive and secretly on the ship.

- For a multi-billion dollar expedition, Weyland-Yutani sure managed to hire a bunch of incompetent people.


Having said all that, I've seen many sci-fi films that were a LOT worse than Prometheus. This has everything to do with the belief that I think Prometheus could have been so much more.

I agree the bit with him concealing his presence was pointless, it seemed to purely be for the "oh, look, he's there" tiny moment that was not really important.



The Jedi Master

And you could tell by the way Charlize Theron delivered her line of "Father!!" that it was intended to carry a lot of dramatic gravitas but imho it fell flatter than Keira Knightley's bust.

I'm not sure if that problem would've been fixable in editing or not, but it was still early enough in the film that there hadn't been enough character development for it to matter.
When they reveal Sarek to be Spock's father in Tower of Babel at the start of the episode, it resonates because we've already known Spock for a long time before that. The appearance of Sarek in The Man Trap would've meant nothing.



The Jedi Master

You mean "Journey to Babel"?

Isn't that what I said?


Oh, I guess I didn't. I don't usually post so early in the morning.





The Jedi Master

No prob. I've been there, done that, got the t-shirt!