Tendo City

So I just got back from this movie... Hard to say where to begin here. There was a lot I liked, but there were things I didn't like too.

First of all, this movie explains why the people are there with an incredibly boneheaded excuse. This is stated in the first 5 minutes of the movie, so I'll just out and say it because this REALLY bugged me.

On the one hand, they're going to this star system because they found it matched a bunch of cave paintings and murals from all sorts of civilizations. They think they're going to find their creators. So, I'm going to just ignore the fact that a superficial resemblance to a star system is itself a huge leap to think that's what those civilizations are drawing, and ignore that there's probably thousands of star systems that match that configuration in our galaxy alone. I'll just focus on the MASSIVE jump to the idea that the creators of humanity MUST be in that star system. The matched up star system thing? That's literally ALL they are going on to reach this conclusion. The rest of the crew at this point is just as confused as I am right now and ask what the hell they base that on, and the "scientists" literally say "faith".

Was that intended to be profound? At that point, I can't suspend disbelief. That's just plain stupid. They all gave up everything they ever knew because a couple of nut jobs convinced someone to give them billions of dollars for a mission to what amounts to a "cloud that kinda looks like a city". (I should note at this point that the movie also very quickly establishes that, yes, time dilation exists in this universe so everything they ever knew on Earth has been gone for thousands of years.)

From here, yes, they turn out to be right, but WOW that is a VERY bad way to start a movie. I'm so sick of directors tossing out lines about "having faith" like candy in these things. They never make sense and just end up making characters look stupid rather than profound. The movie DID draw me into it later, but it was making up for lost ground right from the start.

So the movie DOES get a lot better, and even in that introduction the characters are otherwise very likable and interesting.

I'll tell you right now though that you should go into this movie expecting more questions to be raised than answered. In fact the ratio is probably 10:1. This is clearly intended to be the first part of a series of movies.

I'll also add that you should expect some classic horror movie dumb choices to be made. I really wish directors would find out different ways to write these things so they don't have to rely on people making dumb choices at the worst possible times. That's kinda why I've always preferred Predator to Alien...

That said, they do raise some interesting questions, and the big reveal about "why" is actually incredibly depressing, though again it opens up about 5 more questions beyond that which leads to the rather strong push towards a sequel.

So yeah, I'd say it was a fun experience. It got me into the world and interested in the characters. It got me wanting to know more. It had tense moments and some good scares that weren't dependent on "jumps". It certainly wasn't one of the best things ever though, and that introduction was just REALLY insulting. I HATE that sort of thing. I also hated it when something similar was used as the main character's "defense" in the ending of the movie Contact.

Quote:(I should note at this point that the movie also very quickly establishes that, yes, time dilation exists in this universe so everything they ever knew on Earth has been gone for thousands of years.)

Was this really established? Because I honestly don't remember them talking about time dilation.

I think the movie amounts less to a mission led by a couple of nutjobs and more to an old man's last gasp [an old man who happens to be incredibly rich and incredibly powerful]. The idea is that he's poured everything into living as long as possible, but it's still not good enough. The mission is basically his last chance to be immortal, by being the first human to make contact with an alien race [the same alien race that was responsible for creating humans in the first place]. Remember that Vickers made it clear that the two scientists were to have no contact with the aliens, they were only to report back what they'd found.

That's true, but it all hinges on these two pseudo scientists actually being right in what the movie pretty much tells us was a billion to one hunch. I was able to ignore it, but it still is a mark against the movie right from the start.

It's very tenuous, yes, but I think that's the point, as far as it's related to Weyland. He has no other options left open to him because he's tried everything else. So pours billions of dollars into an educated hunch, because at that point in his life the money is absolutely meaningless.

And it being pseudo-scientific fits with what we're shown of the nature of the expedition. It's very likely that the two scientists told the world about what they've found, but they're not sponsored by any Earth government and they're not some multi-national crew. It's bankrolled entirely by a corporation. Most likely they had little success in convincing anyone of their findings until they were suddenly visited by a Weyland representative, who offered them the chance of a lifetime. Even Vickers didn't seem too convinced that they'd find anything, but she was going along with it because that was what Weyland wanted.

the fact were actually discussing & debating plot points proves that Prometheus did not suck, I think it qualifies for third place in the franchise although not by much.


I think it was quite evident that Weyland knew allot more then he was willing to disclose,that David alone was privy too. "David" seem to be overly successful in operating the space jockey controls then one would expect even from an android,

I don't buy the idea that something "sparking discussion" saves it from the "suck" file. That said, I don't think it sucks. I also don't think that them being "rebels who the ESTABLISHMENT wants to shut down" saves that plot point at all. I caught all of that and filed it all under "typical cliche pseudo science hero" file.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_R2ou028j18" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

So nice I watched it twice!

The movie, that is, not the Youtube video.