Prometheus Footage Screening and Q&A

Started by shamash, Apr 10, 2012, 10:37:23 AM

Author
Prometheus Footage Screening and Q&A (Read 69,505 times)

shamash

shamash

Just confirmed via twitter


https://twitter.com/!/prometheusnews/status/189655057367703553


Full collection of twitter and blog reactions here



Quote
The footage was presented in 3D, but we'll discuss the pros and cons of that later. For now, let's talk about the content. There's one spoiler in here, but it's nothing you haven't seen if you've been watching the trailers closely.

We open on the shot from the trailers that show Elizabeth Shaw, as played by Noomi Rapace, clearing dirt and small stones out of a crack in a cave wall someplace. She's looking through the crack, right at us.

After we cut outside to a verdant mountainside, a title card announces that we're in Skye, and that it's the year 2079.

The remainder of the scene features Shaw uncovering an ancient illustration on the cave wall and showing it to her fellow archaeologist and apparent romantic partner, Charlie Holloway, played by Logan Marshall Green. As well as the now well-known "star chart" element in the image, with a taller figure (representative of the Space Jockey) pointing to the heavens, one of the cave drawings shows a big, deadly looking... something, attacking a group of smaller human figures.

This thing is not humanoid, nor does it look like the standard Alien series xenomorph. It's pale, too – not coloured in like the Jockey. For now, there's no telling if this is just a red herring or a little bit of set-up.

A dissolve to deep space, and a new title card introduces the spaceship Prometheus. It's now 2083, and we're somewhere in deep space. The last line of the title card is a tease too – the spaceship's mission is classified as "undisclosed."

Note the name of the destination planet: it's LV -226, possibly 223. Not LV-426, as featured in Alien and Aliens.

And neither is it Zeus.

On board Prometheus, the ship's computer (no reference to Mother, MuThUr, Father or any of the other Alienverse fan-bait computer names) is sounding an alert that they are reaching their destination. David the Android, as played by Michael Fassbender, makes his way to check in on Meredith Vickers, as played by Charlize Theron. She's the only passenger on board to have woken from hypersleep yet.

And she's doing her morning exercises, dripping phenomenal amounts of sweat as she does push ups. You've seen a close-up of her at work in the trailers. Charlize Theron appears even more statuesque than normal, if that's possible.

Vickers asks, and with apparent dispassion, if any of the other passengers died during their two and a half year journey. When David confirms that everybody is still alive, he's sent to wake them all, and so he does.

Freshly awoken and sitting on the side of her hypersleep bed, Elizabeth Shaw does not seem, just yet, to be made of the same tough stuff as Vickers. She's retching and puking into a little bowl – and like everybody else, absolutely drenched in sweat.

Holloway seems to be rather more composed, drinking what appears to be milk.

Once everybody is up and dressed, they have a little breakfast. The echoes of Alien in this scene are plentiful. Shaw is wearing a grey uniform that positively screams its callback to the original designs, complete with sewn on patches. Even the table looks familiar.

Next up, a briefing. This scene takes place in a room seen in the trailers, with the crew sitting on basic little chairs. Vickers greats the crew, commenting on how she personally hired some herself. But there's another message for everybody...

Vickers starts the play back of a holographic recording. Half of the room is taken over by the virtual representation of a well-appointed, luxurious room, somewhere back on Earth.

And into this room walks a holographic representation of Peter Weyland, as played by Guy Pearce. But it's not the young Weyland we've seen in the TED talk, this is him many years later, near the end of his life. The message was apparently recorded shortly before the departure of the Prometheus.

Pearce's makeup was not the most convincing I've ever seen, but he's giving it his all under the rubber. Unfortunately, his costume, bald head and little dog on a leash conjured up images of Dr. Evil. It's likely to be no more than an accidentally comic coincidence, but I did wonder for a second if Scott was trying to make Weyland look like a villain, perhaps to later confound this.

During his recorded presentation, Weyland refers to the fact that he'll be dead by "now", and even cracks a joke about it. At the end, when he cedes the floor to "the scientists", Holloway makes his own quip about having to follow a ghost.

It's misdirection: there are other shots of Weyland, at this age, corporeal and very much alive, in one of the earliest trailers.

Holloway calls up the holographic presentation we've seen in the trailer, showing the various cave paintings, carvings and ancient archaeological finds that show, again and again, the space jockey figure pointing to the stars. He projects it, somehow, out of a shiny, relatively featureless object that looks like a Rubiks Cube. I had difficulty understanding the functionality of this item – it seemed like it would be nearly impossible to use. Perhaps it's supposed to be a secure way of storing data, and the complex series of actions that were needed to fire it up, and through touches to a mostly unmarked interface, are some kind of security measure.

The climax of the scene has been seen in the trailers. It's the moment where Shaw explains her interpretation of the recurring "star chart" images. These aren't just maps, she believes – they're invitations.

And then we cut to a minute or so of fast-cut, sizzle footage. Almost all of this seemed to be stuff from the trailers. One sudden image aside, there were no obvious surprises or revelations in this sequence – or, indeed, any new mysteries.

This single, sudden image is hard to explain, and it flashed by so quickly that I'm not sure how accurate my memory of it is, but I want to try and describe the thing I saw.

This thing was clearly some kind of life form, probably alien in origin, though it's believed that mutated humans will feature in the story too. It looked a bit like a flower crossed with a sphincter and it had sharp claws or teeth or other protrusions of that kind. And it seemed to be reaching up and coming towards the screen. There was undoubtedly a touch of "Facehugger plus" about this thing.

It's fair to say that the audience were impressed with this morning's presentation. The appearance of a pale cave painting monster and "Dr. Evil" Weyland aside, there were no great plot revelations in what we saw, but the sequence certainly impressed as well as teased – with it's pace, it's mood, with great production design and Dariusz Wolski's superb lighting.

But more about the look, style and craft of the thing when I come back with details of the Q&A later."

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/04/10/ive-just-seen-bunch-of-scenes-from-prometheus-want-tell-about-them/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BleedingCool+%28Bleeding+Cool+Comic+News+%26+Rumors%29

Darkoo

Darkoo

#1

T Dog

Hi, I don't really want to read these as for spoilers. I was just wondering if they commented on if the music is good or not?

Thanks.

Eva

Eva

#3
Thanx Darkoo...  :)

I might as well check it out as it is almost impossible not to hear about the new details, considering there's still almost 2 months to go..

PS: thanx Valaquen - much appreciated  :)

T Dog

They say there aren't many spoilers but there seems to be a god few details relating to the feel of the film. I skimmed it. Didn't read it word for word.

And Scott pretty much confirms in the Q and A what we all were thinking regarding Rapace and a creature. Great. It's my own fault for looking at the trailer too much. Or is it their fault for providing us with certain information?

Kev Loaf

I wonder if the cave painting monster is the proto alien..

Kol

Quote from: tmjhur on Apr 10, 2012, 12:28:26 PM
And Scott pretty much confirms in the Q and A what we all were thinking regarding Rapace and a creature. Great. It's my own fault for looking at the trailer too much. Or is it their fault for providing us with certain information?

QuoteAt this point, people are so vested in the experience they're going to have watching the movie that many of them are actually pushing back against the release of information.  It's such a rare experience, these days, to walk into a movie without having been fed most of it already.  Years ago, I was lucky enough to be working very, very hard at the time The Matrix came out, and I hadn't seen TV in months.  I had had my head in a computer, the entire time.  And, when I went to see The Matrix, I didn't know anything about it.  Nothing, at all.  And, I had one of the most amazing experiences in a movie theater, ever.  All the surprises really were surprises, and my mind was completely blown.  I think that someone who gets to walk into Prometheus tabula rasa is going to have a similarly thrilling ride.

Jon Spaihts

Valaquen

Nipping this in the bud - any more unwarranted passive aggressive baiting and more than posts will be deleted. I've deleted the unnecessary posts. Keep on topic.

Vickers

There's not too much that is news to us apart from piecing together some of the footage we've seen already and bits of information on connecting footage.  But I'm glad they didn't reveal too much.

I'm curious about the score though.  Did any of the scenes presented have score attached to them?  Sometimes less score is more and can really help create an unsettling tone when there's long periods of silence (musically speaking) and only sound effects and dialogue.

I've only skimmed through the summaries so maybe I missed something but interestingly enough they don't mention anything score related.

shamash

http://www.prometheusforum.net/discussion/525/prometheus-new-20-min-footage-updates-coming-in-fast

a collection of twitter comments and impressions i can't be bothered cut and pasting them all.

zuzuki

WTF. i believed it was made out of stone

Spoiler
Quotethe revelation that that giant head "is moving"
[close]

from TOTALFILM link

Eva

Eva

#11
Also glad that it now seems to be confirmed that this film does not take place on LV-426.

A detail... Shaw is having her 'chestburster-inspired' scene with no other actors involved. That's pretty insane if no one is aware of that huge 'thing' growing inside of her or her being infected at all...

@Vickers - nice looking avatar/sig you've designed there - Shamash too  8)

shamash

shamash

#12
Quote from: zuzuki on Apr 10, 2012, 01:02:00 PM
WTF. i believed it was made out of stone

Spoiler
Quotethe revelation that that giant head "is moving"
[close]

from TOTALFILM link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOROvO2fxTc#

Quote from: Eva on Apr 10, 2012, 01:09:15 PM

@Vickers - nice looking avatar/sig you've designed there - Shamash too  8)

Girls gotta wear the best outfit she can get her hands on : )

alex.isonfire

Quote from: zuzuki on Apr 10, 2012, 01:02:00 PM
WTF. i believed it was made out of stone

Spoiler
Quotethe revelation that that giant head "is moving"
[close]

from TOTALFILM link


I know right? How xan the other reports leave such a major twist out? And the cave painted portrayel, as well as creature jumping at screen? Come on, we saw the discovery into in the trailers... I want deets on the lifeforms

fiveways

Quote from: alex.isonfire on Apr 10, 2012, 01:35:16 PM
Quote from: zuzuki on Apr 10, 2012, 01:02:00 PM
WTF. i believed it was made out of stone

Spoiler
Quotethe revelation that that giant head "is moving"
[close]

from TOTALFILM link


I know right? How xan the other reports leave such a major twist out? And the cave painted portrayel, as well as creature jumping at screen? Come on, we saw the discovery into in the trailers... I want deets on the lifeforms

That will probably be on the facebook update of the day.

And I always thought ZARDOZ the moment I saw the Giant Head.  Love that horrible movie.

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