So I saw Prometheus

[cleolinda]

@cleolinda: TODAY \;;;/

@cleolinda: #leavingthehouseomg on the Good Ship Nobody Dies in ten minutes; have not figured out a Cthulhu Doing the Cabbage Patch emoticon

@cleolinda: IT HAS BEEN SEEN. FIVE TENTACLES UP. \;;;\ /;;;/ ~;;;~ \;;;\ /;;;/ #prometheus

@cleolinda: I have a few distinct thoughts about wtf the movie was trying to do, and as

Comments

[litlover12]

Oh my gosh oh my gosh, THE WE DO NOT SPEAK OF IT TAG. My day is made.

[cleolinda]

I can't ever promise anything with certainty, but some things happen more easily than others. I wouldn't post anything I did manage until next week at the earliest, to give people time to see it, not to mention, me to write it. I've been wrestling with the Avengers for two weeks now.

[litlover12]

No pressure, I promise. I'll just be very happy to see it, if and when it comes along. :-) I always enjoy these so much.

[cleolinda]

It's been very hard for me to write these things the last couple of years or so, so two in a year, much less in the same month, is kind of astonishing. I do want to put out the Avengers first, though. I have a feeling I might want the one that feels more effortless second. But I'd have to finish the Avengers to do that.

[ceilidh_ann]

I love Picnic at Hanging Rock. The first time I watched it was during high school exam leave and my mum joined in about a quarter of the way through. By the end of it, the tension and mood of the film had gotten to the point where we were a tad jumpy

[cleolinda]

I'm sorry, I just kept choking down hysterical laughter at the head-in-a-bag bit. He was just so understanding. I just could not find him attractive at all, or maybe 98% of the time, because he was so goddamn creepy. Which is a compliment, I guess.

[ceilidh_ann]

The blond highlights to suit him wonderfully.

I was mainly pleased to hear him sticking to an accent this time. Last week I watched X Men: First Class, and about 20 minutes from the end he just gives up on the lightly accented German and reminds everyone he's Irish. It was a bit of a tension killer.

[cleolinda]

I don't know, I thought the blond sort of dipped (pleasantly, effectively) into the Uncanny Valley. Like, it just didn't look natural. Or like there was some moment when Ridley Scott looked at him, then looked at the makeup department and said, "Ken doll. Make it happen."

[greyduck]

Regarding Ebert... I don't think that his "inevitable sequel" is quite so inevitable. I mean, you do this movie, you purposefully leave unanswered the unanswered questions... what do you follow that with? Were I Scott (which, obviously, I'm not) I'd let this go and move on to another let's-come-at-this-universe-yet-another-way project. Because really, that seems to be working out rather well.

[ceilidh_ann]

I think a sequel will happen, but it's heavily dependent on box office (Prometheus is up against Madagascar 3, which shouldn't be looked at lightly, those films make cash). Not sure Scott would direct it either, unless he really wanted to.

[cleolinda]

Hm. It seems to have done really well for an R-rated movie up against a massively popular kids' franchise; it was making slightly more per theater, and even though it came in at #2, it seems to have made a bit more than they expected. I don't know if there'll be a larger-than-normal drop next weekend or what.

[cleolinda]

Well, Damon Lindelof said that IF there was a sequel, it would be Prometheus 2, not Alien, as it were. I could see sort of the pattern of Alien/Aliens--people don't get Heroine's message, or at least not until it's too late, and try to go after them to recover their trillion-dollar investment, or in an attempt to rescue Weyland; shit gets real. You might not necessarily see Shaw or David ever again. (Well, you could see A David, just not THAT David.)

[whiski_sour]

I think Alien 3 is more drama and Alien: Resurrection is more of an action film. I'm basing these genre deductions on the Charles S. Dutton/Ron Perlman factors in the movies because I couldn't genre my way out of a paper bag with a genre GPS.

[melchar]

IMO 'Alien 3' was a prison flick in a 'Lord of the Flies' or 'Papillion' sort of way. It is the 'Ripley had a really bad dream and none of it was real' movie to me.

'Alien Resurrection' was the 'corporation gets hold of the survivors of 'Aliens' and makes the evidence 'go away' so they can try to bioengineer an alienesque Ripley. It's a fantasy with the 'genetic memory' ... but if the aliens can do it, I'm glad Ripley can, as well. Plot holes you can drive a freighter through, but I still liked it.

Given the basic silliness, I even like 'Alien v Predator' in its attempt to 'explain' what sort of race would voluntarily transport aliens.

[whiski_sour]

I was going to say that Alien 3 was a prison flick, but I wasn't sure if that counted as a genre.

Is Ron Perlman a genre? Because if he is, that's Alien: Resurrection. It's badass without taking itself too seriously. I love that movie, plot holes and all.

I really appreciated how much canon from both franchises they put into AVP. Most movies wouldn't have made such an effort. And I loved the shifting pyramid, too. The ending was pure cheese. Great fun.

[londonsparrow]

SPOILERS to follow:

I loved it a lot. Everything with Fassbender of course. Picturing the very end, with Shaw piloting an alien ship with David's Head propped up on a seat next to her, is some hilarious stuff. They were really the only two characters I cared anything about. "Sorry I didn't help you abort your monstrous space beast baby." "Sorry I have to put your head in a duffel bag." Comedy. (No, but seriously, since the Weylands didn't really go anywhere, those two were the most compelling.)

Special memorial note: the spectacularly un-self-preserving pair of scientists were played by Rafe Spall (who I enjoyed thoroughly as William Shakespeare in my guilty pleasure Anonymous) and Sean Harris (who is one of the best parts of The Borgias).