[Yossarian]

Intriguing Prometheus analysis here - http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html

(Probably best not to read it if you haven't seen it or have loads of important stuff to do, especially if you're easily distracted.)

[Paul B]

Intriguing Prometheus analysis here - http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html

(Probably best not to read it if you haven't seen it or have loads of important stuff to do, especially if you're easily distracted.)

DAMN!

I was fairly disappointed. Here's hoping the sequel is extremely enlightening. However, one thing is for sure; I won't be going to the cinema to see it.

With the amount of marketing hype before the film I wonder if it ever could have lived up to expectations?

Spoilers Within:

NSFW  :

[Fiend]

Johnny Mnemonic - drivel, terrible acted cyberpunk cliche fest.

Chronicle - great, nicely done spin on the superpowers concept with good characters and good escalation from lowkey beginnings to a cool ending.

[GCW]

The Devil's Backbone enjoyable Guillermo del Toro movie I'd not seen before.

I really like this. 

[jamiev]

Slightly alarming to see it's so long since American Beauty came out. Agree it's superb.

[tomtom]

Intriguing Prometheus analysis here - http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html

(Probably best not to read it if you haven't seen it or have loads of important stuff to do, especially if you're easily distracted.)

DAMN!

I was fairly disappointed. Here's hoping the sequel is extremely enlightening. However, one thing is for sure; I won't be going to the cinema to see it.

With the amount of marketing hype before the film I wonder if it ever could have lived up to expectations?

Spoilers Within:

Its interesting - I heard the best description (from my perspective) in a text read out on Kermode and Mayo

"I really enjoyed it though I can see why some people might be disappointed by it"

[Fiend]

Intriguing Prometheus analysis here - http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html

(Probably best not to read it if you have the slightest intolerance of mind-numbingly tedious anally retentive nit-picking micro-analytical drivel written by someone who could painfully contrive lifetime's worth of deep meaning in a 30 second advert)

[Fiend]

Prometheus: Liked it, really good sci-fi action, first 2/3 are brilliant, last 1/3 is okay, but quite a big mess joining the "plot" together. Style is great but it is let down by patchiness and inconsistency later on, and avoids the more interesting questions it raises.

Also:

Why was the Engineer infecting himself at the start? What was the ship at the start?
If this is supposed to be the Engineer dissolving himself to produce human life, why does the planet look like LV-whatever and why does the fluid look like their black fluid later on?

What were the Engineers in the holo-recording running from?

Assuming there are at least 3 stages of Alien micro-evolution (parasite via consumption, squid via secondary infection (impregnation by parasite host), Alien via tertiary infection)...
Why was there a bas-relief of an Alien behind the Engineer head?

Why the change in the nature of the lifeform?

Why did she "give birth" to a squid?

Assuming the oral infection of the abandoned human duo by the "cute" tentacle thing and the oral infection of the enginner by the squid were the same, how did the cute tentacle thing develop?

Assuming the cute tentacle thing is a black-fluid induced development of the maggot worms (similar to how the fluid mutated tattooed geologist), where did the worms come from?

How was David communicating with Weyland senior via a mask (before Vickers interrogated him)?

Why were Weyland also trying to infect humans and how did they know how to do that?
 Was this Weyland senior's instructions?

Why was Weyland senior kept a mystery?

Why did David want Weyland senior to die ("dont all children want their parents to die")?

Why is the surgery machine only configured for one gender and why does Vickers have it? If it was for Weyland, why was it in her quarters?

Why does Shaw have a change of heart and accompany the Weyland team even though Fassbender tried to use her as a host?

Why does no-one bat an eyelid about Shaw's near-birth experience?

 

[slackline]

Also:

Why was the Engineer infecting himself at the start? What was the ship at the start?
If this is supposed to be the Engineer dissolving himself to produce human life, why does the planet look like LV-whatever and why does the fluid look like their black fluid later on?

What were the Engineers in the holo-recording running from?

Assuming there are at least 3 stages of Alien micro-evolution (parasite via consumption, squid via secondary infection (impregnation by parasite host), Alien via tertiary infection)...
Why was there a bas-relief of an Alien behind the Engineer head?

Why the change in the nature of the lifeform?

Why did she "give birth" to a squid?

Assuming the oral infection of the abandoned human duo by the "cute" tentacle thing and the oral infection of the enginner by the squid were the same, how did the cute tentacle thing develop?

Assuming the cute tentacle thing is a black-fluid induced development of the maggot worms (similar to how the fluid mutated tattooed geologist), where did the worms come from?

How was David communicating with Weyland senior via a mask (before Vickers interrogated him)?

Why were Weyland also trying to infect humans and how did they know how to do that?
 Was this Weyland senior's instructions?

Why was Weyland senior kept a mystery?

Why did David want Weyland senior to die ("dont all children want their parents to die")?

Why is the surgery machine only configured for one gender and why does Vickers have it? If it was for Weyland, why was it in her quarters?

Why does Shaw have a change of heart and accompany the Weyland team even though Fassbender tried to use her as a host?

Why does no-one bat an eyelid about Shaw's near-birth experience?

 

Its a film, it doesn't have to make sense, as long as you were entertained (or so my wife tells me when I point out contradictions and continuity errors when we're watching films).

[Fiend]

Yossarian: No, no I'm not. Just can't be arsed with someone trying to create such waffle out of thin air.

Anyway, I enjoyed Prometheus as a good sci-fi film, despite some of it's inconsistencies. Did you??

[namnok]

Prometheus... I gave up after the abortion scene. An avid fan of the alien (predator and terminator) genre, I wasnt looking it as the prequal of the alien franchise as instructed but what a let down. Thank funk we got our tickets cheap from groupon.

Girl with the dragon tattoo...the Swedish original...recorded this off the tv and managed to watch it yesterday. Brilliant tho the slightly let down by the end twist and reunion. The sore bum part was funny.

[Yossarian]

Yossarian: No, no I'm not. Just can't be arsed with someone trying to create such waffle out of thin air.

Anyway, I enjoyed Prometheus as a good sci-fi film, despite some of it's inconsistencies. Did you??

I was impressed by the amount of effort he put into that analysis. I am also intrigued by the direction the sequel might take. There were plenty of unanswered questions in the film and there's plenty of scope for a cool sequel.

I liked the film - it could never have the same effect as the first two as the goalposts were always going to be set too high. Nonetheless - I thought it was stylish and ambitious.

I apologise for the bad karma. You didn't deserve it...

[galpinos]

I liked the film - it could never have the same effect as the first two as the goalposts were always going to be set too high. Nonetheless - I thought it was stylish and ambitious.

Visually I thought it was stunning (I saw it in IMAX 3D) but I struggled with the plot holes, the silly decisions but mainly, my lack of empathy for the characters!

I felt they had a lot of plot to get through so time for the back story/development of the characters was compromised and as a result, I didn’t really care who lived or died. I really enjoy films (and novels) where there is an emotional engagement with the characters. I don’t have to like them but in Prometheus, I was generally apathetic as to their fate and that spoilt the whole film. The only person I was bothered about was David, as he seemed to be a right bastard with ulterior motives which wasn’t what I was expecting form an android, the rest of them could go to hell in a hand basket (to quote my mother) for all I cared.

I got the feeling, and have since read, that there were a lot of scenes on the cutting room floor that would have improved the movie. I’m sure there will be a  Utimate/Director’s/Superdooper/etc Cut that will be released in due course that will explain all…..

[Fiend]

Total Recall (original). Saw this again on TV recently, forgot just how good it is. I remember it as a standardly entertaining Arnie sci-fi action thing, but I'd forgotten about all the plot twists (pretty good for an action blockbuster) and the one-liners and humour and stuff. Just a great film all round.

Now then....I know it's cool to hate on remakes, but....



....I think this looks pretty good. Sure it's derivative of everything, ever, including the original, but I actually think the fights / stunts / action look good enough on their own to warrant a cinema view. 

[Fultonius]

Caught the end of the Edinburgh International Film Festival with the lass on Saturday.

First film was Demain?  An artsy French tale about a young female poet, her horrible sycophant of a mother, getting stuck in a marriage and all other things French. Great acting and cinematography. Set in Montevideo in Uruguay. Moving, captivating and curious. Someone else's review here: http://www.cine-vue.com/2012/06/eiff-2012-demain-review.html

Second was a collections of short animations.  We both really liked The Maker, A little Suicide, 7 minutes in the Warsaw Ghetto and La Viande et L'amour the others were unmemorable/average.

The final film in our epic film-fest was It Looks Pretty from a Distance (Z daleka widok jest piekny).

Hmmm. Where do I start. Well - we both hated it. It was somehow very compelling, as in, we watched attentively hoping something, anything might happen!

It was almost devoid of dialogue and there was no score. It was dull, confusing and we both left with a sense we just didn't get it. We thought "maybe it's us" so we checked a few reviews. Two were glowing, full of praise such as "gloriously bucolic in its imagery and lush with breathtaking long shots".  Ah, those ten second long shots of nothing, where...nothing....happens!   One summed it up for us: Add in a deliberate lack of characterisation and dialogue and there’s little here for even the most hardened cineaste to really enjoy.

I recommended you go and watch it and tell me I'm missing the point...

[Stubbs]

....I think this looks pretty good. Sure it's derivative of everything, ever, including the original, but I actually think the fights / stunts / action look good enough on their own to warrant a cinema view. 

Total Recall/Minority report mash up!  Same producer as underworld, so I assume lots of overlong fight scenes.  The original is amazing, PKD has such a good back catalogue to base films on, especially the short stories.

[Fiend]

Total Recall / Minority Report / I, Robot / Blade Runner / Inception mashup, stylistically. I'm not sure there is anything original at all there But it still looks good to me.

[Fultonius]

In a way most films are now, at least in part, a vague hash-up of ideas, themes and plot lines. They're just going for it unashamedly!

I still can't believe the Steig Larsson trilogy in Swedish have been rehashed in RipoffWood already though....

[namnok]

....I think this looks pretty good. Sure it's derivative of everything, ever, including the original, but I actually think the fights / stunts / action look good enough on their own to warrant a cinema view. 

the cgi looked "too" cgi in that trailer esp when he fell thru the roof tiles, worth a watch tho. glad they kept the 3 boobie prostitute scene

[Falling Down]

I liked the film - it could never have the same effect as the first two as the goalposts were always going to be set too high. Nonetheless - I thought it was stylish and ambitious.

Visually I thought it was stunning (I saw it in IMAX 3D) but I struggled with the plot holes, the silly decisions but mainly, my lack of empathy for the characters!

I felt they had a lot of plot to get through so time for the back story/development of the characters was compromised and as a result, I didn’t really care who lived or died. I really enjoy films (and novels) where there is an emotional engagement with the characters. I don’t have to like them but in Prometheus, I was generally apathetic as to their fate and that spoilt the whole film. The only person I was bothered about was David, as he seemed to be a right bastard with ulterior motives which wasn’t what I was expecting form an android, the rest of them could go to hell in a hand basket (to quote my mother) for all I cared.

I got the feeling, and have since read, that there were a lot of scenes on the cutting room floor that would have improved the movie. I’m sure there will be a  Utimate/Director’s/Superdooper/etc Cut that will be released in due course that will explain all…..

Me and Galpinos chin stroked our way through various recent films over lunch on Saturday and talked about Prometheus at length.  It reminded me of Danny Boyle's Sunshine, a great existential quiet brooding sci-fi spoiled with action and horror.  I would have much preferred that both had stayed more in line with the 2001/Solaris/Event Horizon big-questions and skipped the horror/action plot and scenes.  The pod scene should have stayed, but all the other stuff could have been ditched and left a much more challenging and disturbing film.  I await the directors cut for more exposition and a more balanced film.

[magpie]

One summed it up for us: Add in a deliberate lack of characterisation and dialogue and there’s little here for even the most hardened cineaste to really enjoy.

I recommended you go and watch it and tell me I'm missing the point...

Sounds like my review of Drive, I think I might give it a miss.

[Fultonius]

If you thought that about Drive, my god, you'd only last 10 minutes...

[Falling Down]

Another +1 for Drive from FD. 

Watched Children of Men on Friday (by coincidences think it was on Tele last night) and was surprised by how good it was.  Aside from the occasional wooden acting and dialogue from the supporting actors which seems to be a feature in British films, it was really compelling.  Quite unusual and quite frightening in its potential realism.

[Dr T]

Not yet... but I have IMAX tickets 

and on the Sir Michael Caine front I'd second FD's appreciation of Children of Men

[Dr T]

Just finished watching Stake Land
Got it off love film as a silly vampire waste of an evening but actually...
really good little indy flick
well worth a punt