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Corpsesarefun wrote:The OP was wrong, that doesn't make it a good film.

It was terrible.

Hmmm, bugger. Cheers for the warning, but the tickets are already booked so we'll have to see.

sebster wrote:

Corpsesarefun wrote:The OP was wrong, that doesn't make it a good film.

It was terrible.

Hmmm, bugger. Cheers for the warning, but the tickets are already booked so we'll have to see.

It isn't awful and is perfectly watchable in its own way, it just isn't in the league of Alien/Aliens, hence the disappointment. You should still have a decent night out

I wasn't disappointed as much as annoyed, there are a great number of plot holes and what plot it does have is fragmented. It doesn't even build tension for more than a second.

warpcrafter wrote: Ridley Scott, in my opinion has gak on the memories of the previous movies (With the exception of Alien: Ressurection, which was its own flavor of horrible.) to a degree that even exceeds what George Lucas did to Star Wars.

To be fair, Ridley Scott has not to my knowledge changed fundamental aspects of his original film to satiate a burning desire to rectify a critical opening scene for a character to make it child friendly. Nor did Ridley Scott tell his company to organize a hierarchy of canonicity of his lore, starting with him making the final decisions about what fits inside the universe he created.

No matter what Ridley Scott does with Aliens universe, he still has a mountain to climb before he reaches Lucas-like levels.

warpcrafter wrote: to a degree that even exceeds what George Lucas did to Star Wars.

That is impossible. Nothing will ever exceed that, nor come close.

I personally enjoyed the movie. It didn't give any direct answers, and created new questions. Yes there were gaping plot holes, but I gave it a pass as I felt the good things about the movie (acting, pace, scenery) were brilliant.

The film is based off the original Alien script, yet tries not to be an Alien film

Disappointing is the right word. It wasn't terrible but it certainly wasn't good, either. Frankly the only part I really enjoyed about this movie was the fact my mom is in town and unexpectedly paid for the tickets and the pocorn.

It appears that folks either love it or hate. I quite enjoyed it myself, and my son was babbling about how great it was all the way home. The 3d was great, and the movie looked gorgeous. There are plot holes, but no other science fiction movies this year come close.

Mr Hyena wrote:
It topped the charts in many countries. It isn't a failure to any degree.

Its also the sort of movie that anyone even slightly interested in science fiction was going to see, so that's not great barometer of success.

It would be more remarkable if it had bombed.


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Flashman wrote:
It isn't awful and is perfectly watchable in its own way, it just isn't in the league of Alien/Aliens, hence the disappointment. You should still have a decent night out

That's basically my assessment.

I'm still looking forward to seeing it, but Dogma's right. I would have been surprised if this film didn't do well, especially after all the hype.

Am I the only one who wants the captain's Weyland corporation t-shirt?

dogma wrote:

Mr Hyena wrote:
It topped the charts in many countries. It isn't a failure to any degree.

Its also the sort of movie that anyone even slightly interested in science fiction was going to see, so that's not great barometer of success.

It would be more remarkable if it had bombed.

For movies like that it is the second week stats that are going to be an indication about how good or horrible it is.

Plenty of movies opened strong based on expectations, and then tanked on week 2 when word of mouth gets around.

Hordini wrote:I'm still looking forward to seeing it, but Dogma's right. I would have been surprised if this film didn't do well, especially after all the hype.

Its not a bad movie by any means, its just incomplete. It definitely feels like the first movie in a trilogy, but not in a good way. Most of the questions left unanswered feel like story arc questions that will crop up again in a sequel. If you can imagine Star Wars, but with the first Death Star battle as the intro to Empire, you get the idea.

dogma wrote:

Hordini wrote:I'm still looking forward to seeing it, but Dogma's right. I would have been surprised if this film didn't do well, especially after all the hype.

Its not a bad movie by any means, its just incomplete. It definitely feels like the first movie in a trilogy, but not in a good way. Most of the questions left unanswered feel like story arc questions that will crop up again in a sequel. If you can imagine Star Wars, but with the first Death Star battle as the intro to Empire, you get the idea.

Hmm, I continue to be intrigued. I'll definitely have to check this out. At this point I'm just curious to see how it all fits together (or fails to fit together as the case may be).

After leaving the theater with a group of friends, it was funny. Everyone was complaining about all these minor details like what happened in what year, and how it's not like such and such, etc. etc.

I went into it as a casual watcher, just like I did the other aliens movies. I liked it. It was a solid sci fi movie, and I havent seen one of those in a while. There were a few things that we're stupid to me. Where did that ladder come from? Why didn't she just stop running in a straight line and not die? However, these didn't ruin the movie for me.

Also, in regards for tying the movies together, if the jockey would have just walked back to the chair before the event happened it would have tied everything together more or less enough for me.

Also, in regards for tying the movies together, if the jockey would have just walked back to the chair before the event happened it would have tied everything together more or less enough for me.

Even when its a different planet? I'm not expecting a proper tie-in to Alien till the third movie.

Necroshea wrote:After leaving the theater with a group of friends, it was funny. Everyone was complaining about all these minor details like what happened in what year, and how it's not like such and such, etc. etc.

I went into it as a casual watcher, just like I did the other aliens movies. I liked it. It was a solid sci fi movie, and I havent seen one of those in a while. There were a few things that we're stupid to me. Where did that ladder come from? Why didn't she just stop running in a straight line and not die? However, these didn't ruin the movie for me.

Also, in regards for tying the movies together, if the jockey would have just walked back to the chair before the event happened it would have tied everything together more or less enough for me.

who says she is dead? its hollywod, if you dont see a corpse with its head missing, chances are it can and will come back in a sequal.. and sometimes even if it does have its head missing lol

The whole film I couldn't get this out of my head. Talk about pandering to popular culture.

Other than the absurd premise (and minor plot holes). Its okay.

d-usa wrote:
For movies like that it is the second week stats that are going to be an indication about how good or horrible it is.

Plenty of movies opened strong based on expectations, and then tanked on week 2 when word of mouth gets around.

Sort of... but in this day and age, a big film - i.e. one that can expect a ready made audience due to hype and/or good will towards a franchise - tends to open in so many screens that anyone who feels moved to watch it can easily do so in the first week of release. The second week drop is almost unavoidable because anyone who was going to watch it already has. Word of mouth (positive or negative) makes no difference either way.

There were a couple of plot holes*, but overall I really enjoyed it. I thought it referenced the earlier movies artfully and well, and I loved seeing Scott go back and really draw on the genius that gave this series its enduring horror and interest- Giger's designs. Good performances all around, especially by Fassbender.

*I don't count the wound; abdominal injuries really are very painful and pretty incapacitating, but the character was using painkillers and looked to be in agony during some of the running. More realistic than in most sci fi or action movies, IMO.

After seeing the movie tonight, I have to say it was in the main quite good. I agree with some of the negative statements, I didn't really feel any connection to any of the characters, and when they died it was pretty much a clinical experience for me. I wish they would have done more to elaborate on the opening scenes, and why the Alien (Human) was seen to be intentionally poisoning himself....that really made no sense, and considering this was a film that was aiming to "answer" some big questions, giving us a context to the opening events isn't too much to ask.

The only thing that left me a bit disappointed though was the ending.....with the pilot lying dead on the floor with the first Xenomorph shaking off his intestines, who then was the guy in the pilots chair in the original Alien film?? I feel the scene where the Alien (Human) goes after the scientist to be almost comical with regards to tying the story-lines together. I think the writers could have gotten the characters to where they needed to be and still had the pilot dying in his chair.....

I would definately recommend seeing this film though, and I could see myself watching it again at some point in the future.

Love the concept of the Alien (Humans) though, that could be something the franchise expands on in the future (i hope)

The scene in Alien took place on a different planet than the one in Prometheus.

Delephont wrote:After seeing the movie tonight, I have to say it was in the main quite good. I agree with some of the negative statements, I didn't really feel any connection to any of the characters, and when they died it was pretty much a clinical experience for me. I wish they would have done more to elaborate on the opening scenes, and why the Alien (Human) was seen to be intentionally poisoning himself....that really made no sense, and considering this was a film that was aiming to "answer" some big questions, giving us a context to the opening events isn't too much to ask.

Looked to me like a way of combining a ritual suicide with seeding a planet with life. He took a genetic cocktail which broke down his own body and DNA to create the initial building blocks for evolution to begin. That part seemed obvious. The sacrifice of a life to begin life could work as religious symbolism in almost any culture. It also parallels the myth of Prometheus, who sacrificed his life (was chained to be eternally tortured by the gods) to give us fire. An Engineer sacrificed his life in kicking off life on Earth.

This is the biggest plot hole/unanswered question for me, though, in how could it really work? Did they somehow kick off the entire chain of evolution, starting with primitive forms and somehow resulting in humans? The genetic match thing also doesn't explain their enormous size difference from us or their eyes.

Delephont wrote:The only thing that left me a bit disappointed though was the ending.....with the pilot lying dead on the floor with the first Xenomorph shaking off his intestines, who then was the guy in the pilots chair in the original Alien film?? I feel the scene where the Alien (Human) goes after the scientist to be almost comical with regards to tying the story-lines together. I think the writers could have gotten the characters to where they needed to be and still had the pilot dying in his chair....

Different planet. Different Engineer. Same style of ship/pilot's chair.

What I found really odd was the only time you see the whole crew together was the briefing. As the situation deteriorated there was no lets all get together and figuer out what to do scene, everything got bizarrely lesse fair and no one seemed at all concerned about ice queen murdering buddy. It was also odd that few people knew eachother and there was somehow no time for introductions before they all went into criosleep or whatever it is, I mean I get the whole "The pay is good, I won't ask questions" vibe but is wayland yutani like looking for people on craigslist for a freakin trillion dollar exploration team? Also, Charlize Theron was supposed to be the control freak ice queen corporate bitch and yet no one seemed to listen to her. Wayland seems surprised that she was there, I would think the head of a massive corporation would be a bit of a control freak himself. I did enjoy it, it still had some really bizarre plot holes though.

d-usa wrote:
For movies like that it is the second week stats that are going to be an indication about how good or horrible it is.

Plenty of movies opened strong based on expectations, and then tanked on week 2 when word of mouth gets around.

Agreed, though its rare for a big 1st week opening to tank, even people only go to see what all the noise is about.

Mannahnin wrote:That part seemed obvious. The sacrifice of a life to begin life could work as religious symbolism in almost any culture. It also parallels the myth of Prometheus, who sacrificed his life (was chained to be eternally tortured by the gods) to give us fire. An Engineer sacrificed his life in kicking off life on Earth.

It also explains...



That's just speculation, though.

Mannahnin wrote: The genetic match thing also doesn't explain their enormous size difference from us or their eyes.

Well, as far as I understand genetics, you can be quite different in terms of "surface" attributes, because these are mostly initiated by outside influence, but your building blocks can be the same!!

Just got back from seeing it. Not that bad, had a nice amount of suspense near the first half then decent action towards the end. Interesting that the face hugger thing just transformed the guy instead of the usual.

Rbb wrote:Am I the only one who wants the captain's Weyland corporation t-shirt?

Nope and do not doubt it will pop up somewhere.

Delephont wrote:

Mannahnin wrote: The genetic match thing also doesn't explain their enormous size difference from us or their eyes.

Well, as far as I understand genetics, you can be quite different in terms of "surface" attributes, because these are mostly initiated by outside influence, but your building blocks can be the same!!

I doubt it would be a 100% match like it appeared to be though, you'd be able to see the basis of it but it would also have some distinct differences. But, that looks into it too far because at most it's supposed to be a shock for the general public which will have little to no knowledge about how it should be. Sometimes you just have to take things at their face value.

sebster wrote:I saw the thread title and got worried, as the reviews have been generally positive but still somewhat mixed, so negative response from a fan would be a bad sign. Especially considering tickets for me and the mrs are already booked for Saturday.

Then I saw the complaints given by the OP and was relieved. 'The plot was confusing' and 'I don't like how it changed the backstory from some comic spin-off' and 'I am confused as the relationship between this movie and another work by the same director' absolutely, 100% doesn't bother me in the slightest.

....

What I was going to say...

Perhaps the only criticism I would have levelled at it, is that it suffers from Scott's usual problem of having films cut back drastically for the theatrical release. Things move rather quickly, and if I had to guess I would say that the original running time would have been in excess of 3 hours, rather than the 2 hour running time we have been presented with. I await the 'director's cut' with interest.

Otherwise I can't see what the complaints are about. It was a good, solid sci-fi horror. It made me turn away from the screen a few times, and there are moments of brilliances in it, among some great performances by Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace. Certainly, I think it is laughable that anyone is comparing it to the AvP movies, in terms of content or style.

Mannahnin wrote:

Delephont wrote:After seeing the movie tonight, I have to say it was in the main quite good. I agree with some of the negative statements, I didn't really feel any connection to any of the characters, and when they died it was pretty much a clinical experience for me. I wish they would have done more to elaborate on the opening scenes, and why the Alien (Human) was seen to be intentionally poisoning himself....that really made no sense, and considering this was a film that was aiming to "answer" some big questions, giving us a context to the opening events isn't too much to ask.

Looked to me like a way of combining a ritual suicide with seeding a planet with life. He took a genetic cocktail which broke down his own body and DNA to create the initial building blocks for evolution to begin. That part seemed obvious. The sacrifice of a life to begin life could work as religious symbolism in almost any culture. It also parallels the myth of Prometheus, who sacrificed his life (was chained to be eternally tortured by the gods) to give us fire. An Engineer sacrificed his life in kicking off life on Earth.

This is the biggest plot hole/unanswered question for me, though, in how could it really work? Did they somehow kick off the entire chain of evolution, starting with primitive forms and somehow resulting in humans? The genetic match thing also doesn't explain their enormous size difference from us or their eyes.

Delephont wrote:The only thing that left me a bit disappointed though was the ending.....with the pilot lying dead on the floor with the first Xenomorph shaking off his intestines, who then was the guy in the pilots chair in the original Alien film?? I feel the scene where the Alien (Human) goes after the scientist to be almost comical with regards to tying the story-lines together. I think the writers could have gotten the characters to where they needed to be and still had the pilot dying in his chair....

Different planet. Different Engineer. Same style of ship/pilot's chair.

I swear there were plants on that planet already...

Yeh there was tons of grass. But don't plants and animals have different looking cells anyway?