Quote from: zuzuki on Sep 19, 2012, 01:27:37 PM
you forget the fact that the engineers visited earh many times and are shown in various cultures around people. surely they teached the people their language. also the language they are using in the film was indo-european or something like that, a real reconstructed language. there is nothing ''hand-wavey'' about that.
It was hand-wavey from the point of story-telling, IMO. So were Lucas' ewoks and they had a language especially thought up for them, too.
Quotemy belief is that the engineer get's insulted because he comes from a culture that welcomes death, doesn't run from it, in a way similar to tibetan monks-they love live, but don't try to live forever,they welcome their death. weyland was just a smug human, who thinks he has the right for longer life just because he created something, and even called himself a god. and because of his arrogance and his demand he gets punished for it.
The Engineer was only told of
some of that, via David 8, though.
And even if he/she/it
could have understood the entirety of what Weyland says, the reaction is completely over the top and nonsensical. Could've just gone, "No." Instead, it turns into the Hulk - which makes any inference of moral superiority a mockery. By contrast, Weyland's being sensible, not smug.
Quote from: Snowblind on Sep 19, 2012, 02:41:37 PM
I didn't say compasion, although pity is close, you are correct. Poor wording on my part; I mean't the engineer saw David as something which shouldn't exist, like a greek god seeing a man weilding fire, something ''wrong'' which had to be erased. I see some significance in the fact he only kills David ... do you?
As others have said, the Engineer tries killing everyone, but regardless of that, I really can't agree.
What's so special about synthetics which made them some form of cultural red line? This is what I don't understand and the '
Alien' films, themselves, make it clear that they don't really lead to anywhere special. The entire industry apparently just falls apart, economically. Anyone trying to apply Skynet-like philosophies to this film is contradicted by the continuity.