Critic Review Thread (79% fresh - 7.1 average rating)

[Winkie Bear]

I think that with 30-odd years to muse on the ideas, another 2-3 years of pre-production development, $130 million, the finest visual director on the planet (and indeed the man who brought us the original), two "hot" hollywood writers (I'm saying nothing), and a mind-blowing cast, then I think I have every right to expect something a bit special.
Certainly not to watch a piece of cliched old clap-trap.

I've just got back from my second viewing btw, and am feeling a little more favourably disposed. I revise my earlier 2/5 up to 3/5. I think that watching it with the flaws in my head already allowed me to enjoy the good bits a little more. I came out feeling vaguely positive - but it's still a load of old tosh.

Kate Dickie wins my wooden spoon award for worst performance (maybe she was the other robot). The line. "she's sedated, prepare her" sounded like it was read off a cue card - definitely channelling Tony Hancock in that scene.

And I stand by the complete unbelievability of the mission predicated on the belief (yes, the BELIEF - not apparently backed up by any evidence) that our makers exist on this planet. $1 trillion dollars are spent; the company boss AND his heir go off on this wild goose chase. And the crew appear not to be told anything about the mission, or even to know each other, until they wake up on arrival. Then they're in such a rush, they have their briefing (their ONLY briefing) right after breakfast - poor old Janek doesn't even get his, although maybe he should have done that before putting up the christmas tree!
They arrive on Dec 21 2093, and Shaw departs on Jan 1 2094. Did all that really happen over ten days!!!?

Weyland's aging prosthetics are THE worst I've ever seen.

But the design on all other aspects of the film - yes even the creature design - are top notch and perfectly realised. I never had any sense that I was looking at special effects, but at real images. The squid is ludicrous though. How it grows to fill half the med-room in what can't be more than a few hours when there's nothing to eat in there defies logic.

The time-line of the engineers is still not clear to me. Did they create all life on Earth 4 billion years ago? Or were they responsible for the Cambrian explosion in multicellular life 750 million years ago? Or did they create mankind much more recently? And why do they want to destroy us, or rather did they want to destroy us 2000 years ago before the outbreak on LV-223?  Maybe there wanted to come back and provide the next step in Earth's evolution rather than destroying us. Shaw seems not to have thought of that. If they did want to destroy us, why leave a map to their weapons base embedded in all these different cultures? Wouldn't you keep that a secret??

This film is really not satisfying at all.

[Gash]

I liked it on first viewing (not saying there aren't flaws) and now knowing that everything was in the trailer I'll go back for a second viewing and probably like it all the more without the expectation of seeing more. If there's sequel though, I'll either try desperately to avoid trailers or hope they learn to keep everything significant back.

We were wowed by the trailers and if I'd come to this stuff new, seeing the derelict fly, they face melt, the jockey chair et all I would have been all the more blown away.

I'm sure there's a big chunk of story missing between the second temple visit and the medpod scene. A director's cut is sorely needed to get some scares and character stuff back in. And I wonder if that Fifield expletive being covered with static wasn't so much a joke as a piece of ratings-based censorship?

[JaaayDee]

Slashfilm - 7/10
http://www.slashfilm.com/prometheus-review-ridley-scotts-overly-ambitious-entertaining-almostalien-movie/

[Blacklabel]

How it grows to fill half the med-room in what can't be more than a few hours when there's nothing to eat in there defies logic.

Well... kinda like the Xenomorph in the original film, really.

[Cvalda]

Well... kinda like the Xenomorph in the original film, really.

The Alien isn't locked in a room. It has the whole ship to roam around in. We don't see what it does--including whether it finds something to eat or not. This rebuttal is old and tired as f**k.

[Blacklabel]

"We dont see what it does".

...like the squidhugger.

(i remember reading somewhere about the xeno eating metal in the 79 film..
but for f**ks sakes.. that's just silly. Then again.... why didnt it eat Jonesy?)

[Cvalda]

lulz. I'm sure it finds tons of shit to eat locked in that little room.

You're absolutely right! We don't see what it does! The possibilities are endless!

[Blacklabel]

I was still editing my post about the really ridiculous theory that the xeno eats parts of the ship...

Just accept it. for good or bad.. Ridley seems to be of the opinion that they just grow "magically".

Now let's move on.

[SpeedyMaxx]

Well - we don't.

It's a giant alien squid baby.  What 'rules' can we possibly apply?  Who says it 'has' to eat?

[Winkie Bear]

"We dont see what it does".

...like the squidhugger.

True, but consider this.  It's locked in a room containing no food, that we're aware of. It grows to a mass of, what, eight hundred pounds (enough to smother a nine-foot engineer) by the look of it. Even if it ate the equipment in the room, it could not become so large. Also the time between Shaw's operation, followed by the trip with Weyland to the Juggernaut, and the subsequent take off and crash cannot be more than a few hours - let's be generous and say three hours. Really?? That big, from nothing so quickly??

In Alien, the creature is not locked up, it has the run of the ship so it can eat any stores (as indeed it does in the novelization). Moreover, it grows to about the size of a big man (200-300 lb) in a period of several hours.  This is still a bit mad, but more plausible than what occurs in Prometheus.

[Cvalda]

You can't generate what looks like half a ton of biomass in a few hours locked in a room with nothing to consume.

It's stupid. REALLY stupid. Much like 90% of this film's plot.

[ThisBethesdaSea]

There are several different species of insects that double in size just through metamorphosis alone. The butterfly completely transforms itself in a matter of months (I know, I know). Much like the chicken in the egg that feeds on yolk as it grows, it's absolutely plausible that squiddy boy has a similar biology where mass is increased exponentially by way of an internal feeding source. It doesn't matter that it was locked in a room, it has access to the same kinds of things the alien did in the original.

And this is science fiction, not science fact, the creature works within the same logic as the Xeno, whether locked in a room or not. This is not that big of a deal.

[Valaquen]

You can't generate what looks like half a ton of biomass in a few hours locked in a room with nothing to consume.

It's stupid. REALLY stupid. Much like 90% of this film's plot.

There is a bar 

[Cvalda]

There are several different species of insects that double in size just through metamorphosis alone. The butterfly completely transforms itself in a matter of months.

Caterpillars eat multiple times their own body weight every day before transforming.

Fail.

[Winkie Bear]

There are several different species of insects that double in size just through metamorphosis alone. The butterfly completely transforms itself in a matter of months. Much like the chicken in the egg that feeds on yolk as it grows, it's absolutely plausible that squiddy boy has a similar biology where mass is increased exponentially by way of an internal feeding source. It doesn't matter that it was locked in a room, it has access to the same kinds of things the alien did in the original.

Did IQs just drop sharply.... oh I give up.

Look, the chicken (am I really saying this FFS) eats the yolk and grows to have the same overall volume - this is called Conservation of Mass. It only grows bigger than the egg when it hatches and eats OTHER FOOD.