Why Does Prometheus Reuse Images from Alien?

[SHISHKABOB]

at the very beginning of the film, when they showed the weird white alien guy right off the bat, I got a bit of a sinking feeling.

I think the movie was too much on the side of just throwing things in our faces. And I also felt that some of the decisions made by the people (namely the captain and the two bridge guys deciding the fly into the other alien ship) were a bit confusing.

I give it a... C to B. I really wanted it to be an A+++. Oh well.

 

[Antiphon]

There are more layers to this onion.

I believe Weylands 's daughter is a robot. She never showed true anger or humor. When the captain's gut instinct was that she may be a robot he was right. And when she "challenged" him to meet her in her cabin that clinched it- a real person would have taken the question as an insult. An undercover robot that's fully functional would have done exactly what she did to maintain her cover. His real daughter is back home waiting to take over the company. If the mission hadn't gone south it's pretty clear to me she (the robot) was there to make sure the old man never came home.

 

[alba_ei]

Where all these holographic visions come from? They appear to magically pop up and vanish out of nowhere.

 

[aquitaine]

I just it yesterday, and I have to ask, was this supposed to be the direct prequel to Alien? I would hope not given several major continuity problems.

 

[ME_student]

Originally Posted by 04LTtacoma
It was a good movie, but it left me confused. There are so many unanswered questions.

This movie is suppose to be a prequel to the Alien movies?
It is not a prequel to Alien but they stories are related in the same scifi universe. A lot of people miss this and expect another Alien/Aliens.

1. What was the relevance of the opening scene and the portentious drinking from a cup? No eplanation was given.

The most popular theory is that the Engineer sacrificed himself (his DNA) to terraform a planet. It's suspected the planet was Earth. The movie was full of open endings and little explanations, which is part of the appeal. Some people want the movies to spell everything out and they get mad when they are incited to think.

2. What was the relevance of Daddy Shaw dying from the Ebola virus?? OR Dr. Shaw's childhood memories in general?

IMO, the childhood memories were just character building. The reference to Ebola was a tie-in. Her Dad died of a virus and she (hinted by David) was going to die of a alien “virus.”

3. Why did the android infect Dr. Holloway with some blood drop?

This was explained in an earlier post, and better explained HERE. Also, did you notice that David asked him a series of questions before he dipped the alien goo into his wine glass from his finger tip? I suspect that Holloway’s answers were going to sway David one way or another. OR, David’s own questions to him were his own: “How far would you be willing to go to find your answers? What would you be willing to do?” David was willing to go all the way and sacrifice one of his own members (Holloway) to find his answers.

4. How, and on what basis, did the captain suddenly realize that everything was a military installation and factory for producing biological weapons?

Nobody knows for sure. The military installation and bio-weapon statement is just theory given by the pilot. A lot people think the explanation (even if the general assumption is wrong) was given just to solidify the story/plot.

5. How did a tiny tentacle creep, securely locked in a room without access to food suddenly grow into gargantuan proportions??

An acid-based organism is allowed greater expansion based on gases, not muscle and skeletal tissue like humans (which can only grow based on consuming other matter, i.e. food). Just kidding, I don’t have an freaking clue.

6. Why did a military installation "hide" a spaceship beneath a big mound shaped like a head?? Why not just as some unobstrusive boulder?

Good question. This is why I think the planet may have been a burial ground for the alien virus, not a bio-weapon facility. Maybe the engineers there were wardens to ensure the "prisoner" alien goo didn't escape. This gives another theory as to why the Engineer flipped out when he was woken up.

7. How did the geologist become imbued with superman powers after infection, while the biologist just died?? Why didn't Holloway develop superman powers?

I suspect Holloway, if allowed to die, would have ended up just like the geologist: alien zombie. Remember when they amplified the engineer head back on the ship? The “virus” just took over and *splat*

8. Didn't Prometheus even have metal detectors to find out that the whole ground was a huge launching pad, or something??

You would think so right?

I have tons of questions too, all subject to interpretation. I would also like to know what the deal was with the big head statue and the alien murals on the wall.
__________________Copy and pasted from another forum I am a member of.

 

[Antiphon]

Where all these holographic visions come from? They appear to magically pop up and vanish out of nowhere.

They would seem to be part of the facility's data system but clearly aged and in disrepair. The idea is you walk into a facility where there's been a catastrophic industrial accident. Rather that pour over computer logs and movies at a console, the facility simply shows you what happened and where in 3D. The quality is poor because the technology is very old and only marginally functional.

 

[Antiphon]

I just it yesterday, and I have to ask, was this supposed to be the direct prequel to Alien? I would hope not given several major continuity problems.

It's a distant prequal. It's like watching Star Wars Episode 1 after episode 6. You don't yet see the genesis of the Alien in the form we know it but it's going to happen, just like you didn't see the creation of Darth Vader as we knew him in episodes 3-6.

 

[SHISHKABOB]

There are more layers to this onion.

I believe Weylands 's daughter is a robot. She never showed true anger or humor. When the captain's gut instinct was that she may be a robot he was right. And when she "challenged" him to meet her in her cabin that clinched it- a real person would have taken the question as an insult. An undercover robot that's fully functional would have done exactly what she did to maintain her cover. His real daughter is back home waiting to take over the company. If the mission hadn't gone south it's pretty clear to me she (the robot) was there to make sure the old man never came home.

she showed true terror, though, right before she was crushed. IIRC Ash and Bishop from Alien and Aliens never showed terror either.

 

[nucl34rgg]

It's a distant prequal. It's like watching Star Wars Episode 1 after episode 6. You don't yet see the genesis of the Alien in the form we know it but it's going to happen, just like you didn't see the creation of Darth Vader as we knew him in episodes 3-6.

It's like Episode 1 in more ways than that! >D >D :D :D :D

 

[surajt88]

This is why I think the planet may have been a burial ground for the alien virus, not a bio -weapon facility.

This and the military installation hypothesis beg the question as to why its location was in various ancient star maps instead of the aliens' home planet.

 

[jostpuur]

Prometheus was very good! Folks, don't believe the complainers!

It doesn't make sense to accuse the movie of "plot flaws", since the movie is clearly intended as a kind of puzzle.

One theory is that in the beginning the engineers created life with a sacrifice ritual, but it could also be that the creation of life was accidental, the main purpose of the sacrifice being an execution of some dissident or criminal.

It could be that the engineers in the beginning were not as advanced as the engineers later in the film. Perhaps they were messing around with stuff they didn't understand?

The origin of the cave paintings seems little mysterious, considering the sacrifice scene in the beginning, and the hostility of the engineer later in the film. One possibility is that the cave paintings were instructed by some third humanoid party, and were not an invitation. Perhaps some third humanoid party attempted to deliver a warning message: "That's where your creators are, and that's where your death will eventually come from".

 

[Ryan_m_b]

One theory is that in the beginning the engineers created life with a sacrifice ritual, but it could also be that the creation of life was accidental, the main purpose of the sacrifice being an execution of some dissident or criminal.

I'm short on time but a quick point about this; the idea that an incredibly human like organism could dissolve itself into a primordial soup and then billions of years later a near identical sentient species evolved is ludicrous to the extent that my suspension of disbelief is ruined.

 

[daveb]

Take a look at the name folks...Prometheus, and look to the myth of Prometheus. In the myth, Prometheus made mankind out of clay and stole fire from the gods, giving it to mankind. As an allegory, Prometheus was an archetype for the quest for scientific knowledge and truth.

So, take this and place it within the conext of the movie. Here's my theory.

The Engineer at the beginning is a terrorist who opposes his militaristic civilzation's use of the bio-weapon (the black ooze) that causes drastic mutations in other species (but not their own species probably). He takes some of this and seeds life on earth. Keep in mind, only a little bit of the ooze managed to create an antire planet (i.e., earth) full of life. The ship at the beginning are his "comrades" who are also part of the terrorist organization.

Cut to the evoluation of mankind (yes, a big glass of BS to swallow unless you also assume that all the mass extinctions throughout history were also engineered so as to get life to the point where humans could evolve), and the terrorist engineers visit ancient cultures to both warn them of the military installation (the one on the star maps) as well as prepare us when we eventually develop the scientific knowledge to become what we were meant to be - a weapon to be used against the engineer's civilization.

Of course, in the meantime, the civilization has collapsed under its own weight, or due to their bio-weapon getting out of control (as is shown by the drastic and rapid evolution of the worms and of the geologist when exposed to concentrated amounts of the ooze). My guess is there were other military installations as well. The other planets that were shown in the bridge of the alien ship were other planets the terrorists had also seeded (and most probably destoyed by these other military installations). The crashed ship in Alien was such a world where the ooze got out of the military's control (remember in the first Alien, Ash stated the xenomorph was a "perfect" organism because it was so adaptable in the way it propogated the species). Fortunately (for us) the military never managed to get to Earth before their own creation destroyed them.

Now, were there plot holes in this one - definitely, especially in the stupidity of some of the characters. If the geologist was so expert at mapping, how did he get lost? But "playing" with the small wormlike creatures by the biologist is perfectly natural. After all (if I were thinking like him and not aware I was in a movie where I'm expendable under seemingly contrived cirumstances), it's small, I'm in a protective suit (I have my helmet on at that time), so what harm is there in examining the tiny little creature. I have no idea that a) it's bigger than it appears; b) it's composed of mostly muscular fibers (otherwise, how did it break an arm?); and ) it has acid for blood.

I could go on, but you understand what I mean. I think some people didn;t like the movie because it didn't answer any questions and made you come up with answers yourself.

 

[Borek]

I feel cheated.

 

[arildno]

I feel cheated.

It was a horridity and a frightfulness.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

I know it's a bit late but this is a very interesting review
http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/2012/06/10/prometheus-pandering-to-anti-science/

 

[Borek]

I know it's a bit late but this is a very interesting review
http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/2012/06/10/prometheus-pandering-to-anti-science/

They behave in such stupid and illogical ways you wonder how they qualified for the job of traveling to an uncharted world on a voyage funded by the biggest corporation on Earth in the first place.

Couldn't say it better.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Looks like I made a good decision to wait for this on DVD. Any word on a sequel?

 

[SHISHKABOB]

Looks like I made a good decision to wait for this on DVD. Any word on a sequel?

I've only heard from secondary sources that they heard that there will probably be a sequel.

 

[Gordianus]

Saw Prometheus last night on DVD. I´m extremely thankful I didn't go to the theater because the movie looks like a super long Three Stooges chapter. Or perhaps Moe, Larry and Curly had more brains than the characters in Prometheus. I can hardly believe the same Ridley Scott shot Alien or Blade Runner.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Just saw it's on Netflix instant! I'm off to watch it!

 

[Borek]

I'm off to watch it!

Poor Greg.

 

[Gordianus]

Yeah, I pitty him.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Just watched it on a plane. I see there were several big "idiot" moments and can understand why some were turned off by them. Overall though I got into the atmosphere and enjoyed it. Looking forward to the next movie!

 

[fizipl]

This film should be better but its OK:) worth to see :P

 

[Vierstein]

Hollywood releases films abroad before the US.

When did that started happening? I still remember the pre internet times, when months or even almost a year would pass before a movie that premiered in America hits Europe.

 

[vjk2]

Prometheus made me seriously doubt the talent of Ridley Scott. It was so disjointed, and the horror aspects felt forced and boring.

But, basically, the idea is that there's this group of super-beings that goes around basically seeding planets with life. That's what the opening scene is. To create life, a super-being sacrifices itself so its DNA can seed life. Earth is one of those planets. Earth went off track. So, 2000 years ago, the super-beings send one of their own to Earth to get people on the right track again. The people of Earth seriously screwed up, which got these super-beings really angry and so they planned a super-weapon to wipe out life on Earth.

And so when the movie begins, the humans have discovered this super-weapon. They don't know it yet, of course.

Also, try and guess what happened 2000 years ago that might greatly offend a race of super-beings.

 

[1977ub]

As someone who is over-familiar with nearly every second of the original "Alien", I had an objection to Prometheus that I never had to the sequels: It frequently attempts to reuse exact images from Alien, pasting them together somewhat incoherently. I made a list: http://1977ub.posterous.com/even-critical-reviews-of-prometheus-dont-ment