Prometheus Writers Audio Commentary Preview

[Cvalda]

And Cvalda: There is nothing new under the sun. And that X-Files television show was the banner waving weekly embodiment of that notion.

Says the guy who never watched it

[Nightmare Asylum]

And Cvalda: There is nothing new under the sun.

But under the ground...

[Local Trouble]

I actually think that the urgency of the medpod scene makes more sense in the context of the original draft.  Halloway's death would have shown Shaw what was in store for her if she had failed to get the alien removed in time.

[SpeedyMaxx]

I could never stand most of The X-Files, but it has its fans, including several ex-boyfriends.  How the show got from its origins to their last movie ending on a Hawaiian luau is beyond me.

[Ash 937]

The only thing it takes to call a film good is an opinion.

Very true, so long as we can remember too that the only thing it takes to call a film "bad" is also an opinion.

But anyways, prior to the movie's release, Scott was the logical choice for a director from both the fans' and the studio's perspective. And Scott wanted Lindelof, so obviously Fox was going to let him have him. It was Scott's film, and he was free to alter it as he saw fit. No one was going to tell him otherwise.

This statement sounds so similar to the logic that Star Wars fanboys love to default on when they justify Episodes 1-3 and/or defend the Special Editions for Episodes 4-6 that it makes me cringe. 

[Cvalda]

I could never stand most of The X-Files, but it has its fans, including several ex-boyfriends.  How the show got from its origins to their last movie ending on a Hawaiian luau is beyond me.

...so that makes it okay to appropriate one of its most famous and recognizable plot points?

Because a malevolent black goo that had a hand in shaping the ancestors of mankind, that takes over and mutates its host--and is intended for the purpose of eventually wiping out humanity by a humanoid extraterrestrial race that walked the Earth before we did--is kind of a glaringly egregious lift.

[Local Trouble]

Maybe Lindelof tried to explain that to Ridley, just like he did about Weyland and AvP, and got the same arrogant response.

[Bat Chain Puller]

And Cvalda: There is nothing new under the sun. And that X-Files television show was the banner waving weekly embodiment of that notion.

Says the guy who never watched it

And Cvalda: There is nothing new under the sun.

But under the ground...

http://img1.bdbphotos.com/images/orig/c/t/ctom61jjnatvmo1v.jpg

Chaos theory predicted you'd both respond as such! 

Cvalda.

Spoiler

I tried. I really did, initially. And over the years since I've managed to see every episode with the main draw Scully/Moulder dynamic intact. Even saw the first film in the theater.

[close]

[SpeedyMaxx]

I could never stand most of The X-Files, but it has its fans, including several ex-boyfriends.  How the show got from its origins to their last movie ending on a Hawaiian luau is beyond me.

...so that makes it okay to appropriate one of its most famous and recognizable plot points?

Because a malevolent black goo that had a hand in shaping the ancestors of mankind, that takes over and mutates its host--and is intended for the purpose of eventually wiping out humanity by a humanoid extraterrestrial race that walked the Earth before we did--is kind of a glaringly egregious lift.

Actually, I never made that association myself.  I was just commenting on my not being much of a fan of the series.  I do think that kind of plot element - an alien device or organism which infects humanity - well-predates The X-Files or its mythology.  We can quibble about the visual, but gooey ichor isn't really a stranger to this franchise, either.  This is the first I've heard of the outrage from the X-Files fan base, certainly.

[Local Trouble]

Just watch the first X-Files movie and you'll see.  You don't even need to see the rest of the series.

[Cvalda]

Actually, I never made that association myself.  I was just commenting on my not being much of a fan of the series.

And that was relevant how?

I do think that kind of plot element - an alien device or organism which infects humanity - well-predates The X-Files or its mythology.  We can quibble about the visual, but gooey ichor isn't really a stranger to this franchise, either.  This is the first I've heard of the outrage from the X-Files fan base, certainly.

It's not quibbling, it's pretty much the exact same thing--the purpose of it, the function, the visual look, everything. Moreover, it was something that was done fairly recently on a very visible scale by a wide audience. For something like Prometheus, that was supposed to be some kind of "creative rebirth" and a work of visionary science fiction to just go and lift wholesale an entire concept from The X-Files just smacks of creative laziness at its most extreme.

Just watch the first X-Files movie and you'll see.  You don't even need to see the rest of the series.

Exactly. It's almost comical. Prometheus is basically just Fight the Future in space--except crap, with no wit or likeable characters, right down to the female lead being a scientist/Christian whose crucifix necklace proves to be a plot point.

[Local Trouble]

I like to think of it as a mash-up of the first AvP and X-Files: FTF. 

[SpeedyMaxx]

Actually, I never made that association myself.  I was just commenting on my not being much of a fan of the series.

And that was relevant how?

Forgive me, I'm searching for the appropriate Oprah gif to continue the discourse.  Please hold.

It's not quibbling, it's pretty much the exact same thing--the purpose of it, the function, the visual look, everything. Moreover, it was something that was done fairly recently on a very visible scale by a wide audience. For something like Prometheus, that was supposed to be some kind of "creative rebirth" and a work of visionary science fiction to just go and lift wholesale an entire concept from The X-Files just smacks of creative laziness at its most extreme.

I don't think it even remotely resembles The X-Files beyond a cursory glance at that oil - an old trope - and to be very frank, while I respect that the show has its place in pop culture history and its many fans, I think the inescapable truth is that only hardcore fans or sci-fi buffs remember or care about that dense mythology today.  It's been gone awhile.  And I was forced to sit through quite a bit of that show in the name of love and friendship, including the first film which IIRC wasn't bad but wasn't genius either. (I don't want to talk about the second one.  I feel like the showrunner was trying to stave off unemployment and maybe hoping to rebrand the show as a Criminal Minds spinoff.  That was just embarrassing.)  But the later seasons, dear God.

My point, though, is that that whole gigantic plotline that evolved, particularly in the show's latter years, with its consortium or coalition or whatever it was, and the various men in dark rooms, the Native Americans, all the clones, poor Veronica Cartwright - I don't see what on Earth any of that has to do with Prometheus or the Engineers.  I don't see what it has to do with anything, and obviously, at least 95% of the moviegoing audience didn't see any real connection to The X-Files either.  I think it's apples and oranges at best - and the idea of aliens seeding the world, harvesting humanity, all of that predates both this film and that television show.  And Ridley, certainly, has been banging on about the space jockeys being terraformers of life and planets since at least the early '80s.  No one's accusing The X-Files of ripping him off, nor would they; it's nonsense.

It may mean very much to you, and that's fair.  But I think we can both acknowledge that this is, at best, a comparison that has come up pretty rarely even online, and it's possible, just possible, that for both the filmmakers and most of the larger audience, the mytharc of The X-Files may not have even remotely come to mind re: Prometheus.

[T Dog]

I could never stand most of The X-Files, but it has its fans, including several ex-boyfriends.  How the show got from its origins to their last movie ending on a Hawaiian luau is beyond me.

...so that makes it okay to appropriate one of its most famous and recognizable plot points?

Because a malevolent black goo that had a hand in shaping the ancestors of mankind, that takes over and mutates its host--and is intended for the purpose of eventually wiping out humanity by a humanoid extraterrestrial race that walked the Earth before we did--is kind of a glaringly egregious lift.

[Cvalda]

I don't think it even remotely resembles The X-Files beyond a cursory glance at that oil - an old trope - and to be very frank, while I respect that the show has its place in pop culture history and its many fans, I think the inescapable truth is that only hardcore fans or sci-fi buffs remember or care about that dense mythology today.

Really? The Black Oil is an old trope? Please identify the work of fiction that came before that features a malevolent black goo of extraterrestrial origin capable of possessing, mutating and destroying human beings, used by a race of extraterrestrials that had a hand in shaping humanity, with the intended purpose of the black liquid as being unleashed on all of humanity to destroy us.

And it doesn't matter if Riddlez was talking about Space Jockeys terraforming or whatever--none of that above was ever something he talked about. The X-Files got there first, and did it better.

Prometheus was supposed to be an original science fiction epic. Instead its just a lazy rehash of suspiciously specific ideas that have been done better many times elsewhere--even by its own series before it.