Prometheus trailer is finally up!

[Brian Hulnick]

Are the Xenomorphs actually going to appear in this movie?

[Chris Millar]

There is something possibly alien-ish in the trailers, maybe a kInd of proto-xenomorph. I'm taking a stab at saying they were formed part from David to fit nicely with all the 'bio-mechanical' descriptions of past.

 

Who knows though, could go anywhere really ;) I hope to heck there isn't time travel.

[Freya Black]

Are the Xenomorphs actually going to appear in this movie?

 

Hear rumours that maybe right at the end but mostly no.

I think to be fair to Ridley this is why they are saying its not an alien movie.

 

love

 

Freya

[Brian Hulnick]

That's a pity, I love my Xenomorph action. Still looking forward to it though.

[Chris Millar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwEtldZQNew&feature=youtu.be

 

I can never seem to post media...

 

Here is the link anyhoo:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwEtldZQNew&feature=youtu.be

 

(new viral)

Edited May 28, 2012 by Chris Millar

[Chris Millar]

ugh...

 

All I see is blank space where the youtube vid should be - not sure what is going on at your end.

 

Anyhoo, if you cant see it - search for "quiet eye prometheus"

[Rex Orwell]

Hear rumours that maybe right at the end but mostly no.

I think to be fair to Ridley this is why they are saying its not an alien movie.

 

I'll be disappointed if this film follows a recommended Hollywood model, ie;

 

We need this to accommodate an equal opportunities policy. Where's our 'Asian guy' have we auditioned for 'Asian guy'? With each member of the cast representing one 'minority' or another to help appease most people's denied internal issues regarding race / or to help strengthen that confusion about race within the viewer.

 

Obligatory love interests. Either in your face, or running subtly in the background. This would probably drive me crazy.

 

All crew are expendable and are a diverse and multicultural lot, but the Captain is American. Anyone in authority must be American. Do what you want at this point, but whatever route the story takes make allowances so that the world and the entire human race being saved by America is easily scripted in at the end. We know it's plausible, but make it look plausible.

 

The 'strong woman' role. Symbolic of the 21st century 'go-getting' female in business convinced that there's no glass ceiling, and there isn't!! honestly! "how does this 24 year old woman's brain function so logically. A natural leader, she's so good at saving this ship and the entire known universe from destruction, do we really need men for anything?... back on Earth"

 

If the words "kick xenomporph ass" are used I'll walk out of this I'm warning you.

 

As this gets closer the awful 'Alien vs Predator' (which also follows the above model) keeps coming to mind.

[Daniel Jackson]

In all fairness and having been to South East Asia on a number of occasions only a "Westerner" would consider saving his fellow human beings. Google Philippine crab mentality for a fair description.

[Phil Rhodes]

"how does this 24 year old woman's brain function so logically. A natural leader, she's so good at saving this ship and the entire known universe from destruction, do we really need men for anything?... back on Earth"

I'm not so sure. Weaver was 30 years old when she did Alien, and was entirely believable as a warrant officer on a commercial vessel. The thing is, I'm not sure how much that has to do with her age as much as with her performance and that of those around her, and the direction of those performances, and of course the extremely strong writing. And the fact that the sets were so great, and again entirely believable as this real environment.

All of which matters. Jessica Alba doesn't come off believably as a research scientist in Fantastic Four because the film is so... er...

There are many real military officers who are young women and end up being in charge of older, more experienced men. Happens all the time. Of course, there are ways that both parties can make the situation easier, but this does happen and it does work.

P

[David Mullen ASC]

IThe 'strong woman' role. Symbolic of the 21st century 'go-getting' female in business convinced that there's no glass ceiling, and there isn't!! honestly! "how does this 24 year old woman's brain function so logically. A natural leader, she's so good at saving this ship and the entire known universe from destruction, do we really need men for anything?... back on Earth"

 

 

So you'd be disappointed if there are strong men in it too, or just strong women? So you only want weak women in movie or else it is a Hollywood cliche? Putting a strong woman in a movie just means that the filmmaker is saying that the planet doesn't need men anymore? And you can't put a minority in any roles either? The only sci-fi movies you like have all white crews in space with strong men and weak women? Because by your logic, any other set-up is just pandering to minorities and women, so Hollywood had better just avoid putting them in movies. And an American had better not be in charge, particularly I guess not a non-white American woman. Honestly it that what you are really saying you want in sci-fi space mission movies -- no minorities, no strong woman, and no American in charge of anything?

[Phil Rhodes]

Sigh.

 

This is the oldest problem in the book. Representing minorities risks the appearance of tokenism. Failure to represent them risks the appearance of prejudice. There is no answer that can't be attacked on the basis of one or the other of those issues and therefore the entire discussion, at least in countries where there are no legal barriers to equality, is more or less pointless, even before we start considering the way appeals to emotion are often misused by commentators.

 

Personally I'd rather people just cast appropriately, or however they felt like casting, and had done with it. Especially in art, you can't legislate against prejudice very effectively.

 

I'll freely admit, albeit via argumentum ad misericordiam, that my views may be coloured by the fact that I'm a straight, white, able-bodied male, and I am thus subject to a degree of government-backed discrimination.

 

P

[David Mullen ASC]

The thing is that we've already had, in real life, space crews of mixed ethnicities, a woman in command of a space mission, and of course, Americans in charge of a space mission -- so I can't believe that those are the things that some people have trouble accepting in movies, not the part about an alien with acid for blood that lays eggs inside people's chests, etc. For some reason, they can believe that part.

 

Second, diversity of sex, race, belief, etc. in a closed space is dramatically and visually interesting. Strong women are dramatically (and often visually) interesting.

 

Third, the cliche in sci-fi movies was the screaming woman assistant that always needed rescuing, so if you don't want to use that cliche and you think that a strong woman in charge is a cliche, what does that leave for women's parts? A mildly competent woman who isn't in charge of anything and isn't too independent nor too needy? Who I guess must also be white and non-American, maybe British? So the ideal movie would have James Bond in charge of a crew of white men and one white British women who was mildly competent? Or is it also a sci-fi cliche to use British actors? Maybe a mix of Scandinavians and Belgians with Stellan Skarsgard in charge of the crew?

[David Mullen ASC]

 

Personally I'd rather people just cast appropriately, or however they felt like casting, and had done with it. Especially in art, you can't legislate against prejudice very effectively.

 

 

Sure, but no matter who you cast, someone is going to ascribe negative motivations that may or may not be true.

 

I'm sure the casting process is like most movies about a group of characters in a closed environment -- the director wants to see a wide variety of types so that they all are visually / physically differentiated, match the script/characterization needs, and he wants to hire people who can act, and enough of the cast also has to have some box office appeal unless the studio is OK with a bunch of unknowns (in which case they may be even more interested in getting certain types in there, a pretty girl, a handsome guy, etc.) Yes, the process of elimination can get a bit predictable, you find a black male actor you like for a part, you probably will look for some other type to play against him (though the cast often seems to end with more white guys in it than any other group.) Truth is that to some extent there is a vague feeling in casting that the group should visually represent a cross-section of humanity that you may run across on a busy street in a major city.

 

Filmmaking is about making decisions, and in casting, you cast for physical appearance as well as for acting ability -- the director has to be able to "see" that actor in that part, whether because the person conforms to a cliche or plays against it.

[Phil Rhodes]

Well, it's probably a cliché to use British actors as the villain!

 

But I think you've just remade my point, really. There is no decision that can't be criticised for being either excessively traditional or excessively tokenistic in its depiction of traditionally-unlikely race or gender disposition.

 

The mildly-competent thing, though, is interesting, because it speaks to character realism. In real life, most people aren't experts at everything, brilliant leaders, perfect people who succeed at everything and never make mistakes. Weaver's character in Alien is competent enough for the audience not to dislike her, but it's easy to support the idea that she's actually a bit of a prick towards the engineering team to the point that I might not choose her as a warrant officer on my ship, and during much of the movie she is obviously terrified. So, mildly competent? Maybe, but certainly realistic. This really is character writing 101, inasmuch as people need flaws to be interesting, and that makes it even more clear that trying to create one-phrase descriptions of chracters is probably a bad idea, regardless of whether they're a minority or whatever else is going on.

 

P

[David Mullen ASC]

Yes, mildly competent is realistic, but then what about fantasy movies? Super-hero movies? Even over-the-top action movies? If one is going to give near-super-human abilities to characters anyway, and use various cinematic tricks to make it believable on screen, then I don't see why it can't be a woman in the part, as a hero or villain. If people are going to complain about a woman saving humanity, then why don't they complain about any person, male or female, saving humanity? When a male character saves humanity, there isn't an accusation that the filmmaker is saying that the world no longer needs women, but for some reason, if a woman saves humanity, it's the filmmaker saying that the world doesn't need men???

[Rex Orwell]

Jessica Alba doesn't come off believably as a research scientist in Fantastic Four because the film is so... er...[/size]

 

Yeah.

 

@ David. I wouldn't take what I posted too literally. What I mean is I hope the casting is realistic. That the chiselled cast Phil describes here can be a real downfall. I mean, have a ship full of Ugandans that would be more interesting to me. It's the forced, obligatory pigeon holes a lot of films are built around. Real characters, not... well, the cast of Fantastic Four on a spaceship called Prometheus.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYOrFUrzvQM

Edited May 29, 2012 by Rex Orwell

[David Mullen ASC]

Imagine trying to market a movie with the tag line: "See mildly competent people attempt to do slightly difficult tasks and achieve mixed results!" :lol:

[David Mullen ASC]

The other day, Howard Hawk's "Rio Bravo" was on TV and I was musing on the fact that the women in Hawk's movies are very strong, tough-talking, and even sexually aggressive -- but I don't think that was because Hawks was an early feminist, I think he just thought that type of woman was sexy!

[Phil Rhodes]

"See mildly competent people attempt to do slightly difficult tasks and achieve mixed results!"

Are you referring to the movie itself, or the process of making it?

[John Holland]

Rex sorry but you are talking a load of Horseshit !

[Freya Black]

Or is it also a sci-fi cliche to use British actors? Maybe a mix of Scandinavians and Belgians with Stellan Skarsgard in charge of the crew?

 

Gotta say, that would be kind of interesting! Maybe with some people from baltic states and the like too.

 

Strangely tho, in the context of a film like Prometheus, set in the future where presumably globalism has continued in the direction it is going, then wouldn't we be likely to see a wide range of people to represent different parts of the global society? Isn't that even a little bit what we have now with the I.S.S. ?

Wouldn't they select people to be representatives. Guess it depends how much it's in the public eye.

Alternatively if you select a random bunch of people wouldn't you get a diverse collection too?

 

Dunno.

 

love

 

Freya

[Chris D Walker]

The US has to wait another week before they see the film. I've seen it and I am crushed. I had lowered my expectations before stepping into the theater, but I didn't lower them enough. I want to sound off about everything that made me pull a sad face for 97% of the running time, but I won't ruin the disappointment for anyone else. Maybe I'm dwelling on the bad when I should be praising the good, yet I'm struggling to think of anything worthwhile about the story or the creature design. From a technical view (cinematography, production design) the film is excellent (except for a certain makeup job) but the story must come first, and it didn't. It was ham-fisted and didn't provide one scare.

 

My instinct was proven correct: Ridley Scott was lying. I won't say what about, though many of you know what I mean, and it was the one heart-pounding moment in the entire film.

 

If and when you go to see the film you may very well picture this in your mind: albino with the mumps.

[Chris Millar]

Solution:

 

Make YOUR film and cast as YOU like ;)

 

I imagine it'd be a he'll of a lot more gratifying than posting on an online forum about someone elses film.

 

I don't mind the 'international' cliches so much personally, for whatever reason it's can be a nice compliment to popcorn, pure manufacture with saturated fat and salt melted on top. Last sci fi example that sticks in my mind was Sunshine. As David touched on, it's prudent to remember it's all fantasy anyway - Hulk Hogan usually won the royal rumble :D

[Chris Millar]

Oh dear?

 

Really?

 

No good ?

 

 

Nooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

Hmmm, still going To see it though (egad)

 

Did you go 3D or 2D ? Any comment on that appreciated but please no spoilers ;)

[Chris D Walker]

Oh dear?

 

Really?

 

No good ?

 

 

Nooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

Hmmm, still going To see it though (egad)

 

Did you go 3D or 2D ? Any comment on that appreciated but please no spoilers ;)

 

I saw it in 3D; it was good except for miniaturization in the wide vistas and some amount of strobing in the busy shots.

 

"I wanted to like it." I've said this about other films before, and it's the worst thing I can do because it ends with me seeing the faults that much more. It hurts me to say that I didn't enjoy 'Prometheus' because of how much of an 'Alien' lover I am; I was wearing my USCSS Nostromo t-shirt in the theater while watching the film. But hey, maybe you'll love it and I'm being overly negative with memories of how amazing it all began.