Prometheus Sequel (ALIEN: Covenant)

[abake]

Re: Prometheus Sequel (March 2016)

Hobbit battles got nothing on Pelennor fields/Minas Tirith or friggin' Helms Deep. Theoden's speeches alone are more compelling than anything in the Hobbit movies.

The tense build up before the Rohan archer accidentally lets an arrow go into an Uruk-Hai'a neck, the little touches of realism like the dude with the missing eye ball, the pounding Uruk-Hai theme as the latters spring up on the walls and the crossbowmen kill off Elves and the Berserker Uruk-Hai jump onto the wall, etc. Nothing like it. Hobbit had wild hogs doe . . .

"Where is the Horse and the Rider" is probably my favorite part of TTT. I need to watch that one again soon.

But regarding Hobbit battles vs. Helm's Deep or Minas Tirith, I count them equal but different. I think Helm's Deep is like Braveheart with organized resistance against rank and file troops brilliantly done. Dale to me is like Hadley's Hope's last stand against the Alien Hive. I find the Hobbit forces of evil to be more hellish and nightmarish than the Uruk-hai and Mordor forces. And you've got those nightmare creatures attacking a much more "civilian" population which kind of adds to the unpleasant vibe. So I really like both dynamics.

I don't know, the entire Hobbit trilogy lacked in emotional substance for me...

 

[Python]

Re: Prometheus Sequel (March 2016)

I'm sure part of it has to do with the fact that CGI was about the coolest thing ever in the early 90's and didn't have any stigmas against it brought on by the SW:SE's and so forth but still, pretty impressive that no one even in retrospect seems to have an issue with the T-1000's morphing abilities.

Well I'm a serial CGI complainer, don't get me wrong, in saome cases I love it, Star Trek for instance used it well. But when it is over used or relied on in place of a good practical effect, that is when it can really ruin a movie. I think the thing about the T1000 in T2 is that they kept it all relatively simple, it is quite a feat that a movie as old as that manages to model the same character better than the 2015 version...


Anyway, onto Prometheus 2, I am really happy it's happening, after some of the critical complaints I was worried it might not. There is so much potential for good story telling in the Alien universe. Some aspects of the first movie sucked, but I can't help but love it over all, here's to hoping we'll see a lot more of the engineers.

 

[Brainiac]

Re: Prometheus Sequel (March 2016)

My main problem with the first movie is the collective single digit IQ of the crew....

 

[Snake Plissken]

Re: Prometheus Sequel (March 2016)

 

[Khev]

Re: Prometheus Sequel (March 2016)

The tense build up before the Rohan archer accidentally lets an arrow go into an Uruk-Hai'a neck, the little touches of realism like the dude with the missing eye ball, the pounding Uruk-Hai theme as the latters spring up on the walls and the crossbowmen kill off Elves and the Berserker Uruk-Hai jump onto the wall, etc. Nothing like it. Hobbit had wild hogs doe . . .

I don't disagree with any of that. But I just don't find the BOTFA battles lacking because they don't match that tone. It's a bit hard to explain. The Dale mayhem is somewhere between the orcs invading Minas Tirith and Barbossa's crew invading the town at the beginning of the first POTC. Nobody really expects POTC battles to be Helm's Deep but they still work and are cool in their own way. I'm glad the Hobbit feels different.

 

[abake]

Re: Prometheus Sequel (March 2016)

My main problem with the first movie is the collective single digit IQ of the crew....

Indeed, that is one of my main peeves with the movie.
But I still enjoy it, even though it could've been so much more.

 

[Magpie 7]

Re: Prometheus Sequel (March 2016)

Indeed, that is one of my main peeves with the movie.
But I still enjoy it, even though it could've been so much more.

It was just so unlike anything Ridley Scott had done to that point, they never went further than had already been done in the Alien and Aliens. Visually, it was bland compared to the likes of Gladiator and even Black Hawk Down.

 

[spindrift]

Re: Prometheus Sequel (March 2016)

yeah yeah..we'll see if this ever is made- Ridley has revealed plans for about 54 films in the past few years...see how many got made?

 

[Brainiac]

Re: Prometheus Sequel (March 2016)

I think he's really lost a step....... but I think Lindelof had as much to do with Prometheus sucking as Scott did

 

[TURINS~BANE]

Re: Prometheus Sequel (March 2016)

Let's hope the characters in this have at least half a brain between them.

 

[Reinhardt]

Re: Prometheus Sequel (March 2016)

I think he's really lost a step....... but I think Lindelof had as much to do with Prometheus sucking as Scott did

Agreed, although it was Ridley Scott who hired the guy and approved all the Lindelof changes. I thought the film looked pretty, but that was about it. I kind of hope someone else does the next film and Ridley can work on his long gestating Blade Runner sequel (which I don't want him to be involved with either). He was amazing, but has really lost the edge he had back in the 80s and 90s.

 

[abake]

Re: Prometheus Sequel (March 2016)

Overall, I think the movie has some very interesting ideas, but there's just that bit too much lazy writing for it to work for me.
But I do respect the fact that Scott wanted to do something different and not just do a new Alien movie. Too bad the movie didn't quite deliver.

 

[a-dev]

Re: Prometheus Sequel (March 2016)

Overall, I think the movie has some very interesting ideas, but there's just that bit too much lazy writing for it to work for me.
But I do respect the fact that Scott wanted to do something different and not just do a new Alien movie. Too bad the movie didn't quite deliver.

Agreed on all counts.

 

[Khev]

Re: Prometheus Sequel (March 2016)

Since we're talking about various sequels and prequels in addition to Prometheus in this thread I have a question for Difabio that I'll post here instead of bumping the TDKR thread:

At what point while watching TDKR when you were still super excited about how the TDK story would continue did things cross the point of no return? I know you didn't like the 8 year gap and "peace time" and all that but I'm sure you didn't just assume that the next two hours would blow. At what point did you know that the movie was just gone, no hope, no turning back?

I just ask because some of us were talking about specific points in A:Res (which I'm strangely in the mood to see all of a sudden) where most of us checked out.

That and the fact that TDKR was on TNT the other night when I was taking down Christmas decorations and milling about in the living room and my office and I swear for two HOURS every SINGLE time I walked into the living room where the TV was there was absolutely no superhero characters or action on-screen. Obviously I didn't watch it all the way through but at least four times I entered the room and would be cleaning things up for 10-15 minutes at a time and all I ever saw or heard on screen was people standing or sitting in rooms talking to each other.

Bruce, Alfred, Gordon, Matt Modine, Robin Blake, Selena Kyle, prisoners down in the hole, not one moment in costume, no action, just people in freaking rooms talking. Now obviously that's not what happens the whole movie but I was really taken aback that it was eaven possible that I could just by chance keep entering the room when nothing was going on. If I had never seen TDKR I'd assume it was some 90's drama like Murder in the First or something.

 

[RIDDICK]

Re: Prometheus Sequel (March 2016)

I think Lindelof had as much to do with Prometheus sucking as Scott did

No. Lindelof was hired to simply polish the messy turd that was written and re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written-re-written and re-written again during Scott's involvement.

 

[DiFabio]

Re: Prometheus Sequel (March 2016)

At what point while watching TDKR when you were still super excited about how the TDK story would continue did things cross the point of no return? I know you didn't like the 8 year gap and "peace time" and all that but I'm sure you didn't just assume that the next two hours would blow. At what point did you know that the movie was just gone, no hope, no turning back?

Either Joseph Gordon Levitt coming to the house and saying, "yo, I know you're Batman cuz when I was a kid I could tell by your eyes and a feeling in my bones" or when Alfred goes on that weird ass rant (with flashback) about how he visited Italy for 7 years hoping to see Bruce there or whatever.

I haven't seem it in a while, but I know the first 45-50 mins are pretty tough to get through. Really tough. Boring characters monologuing and spewing exposition scene after scene after scene. Woulda made a helluva a play.

 

[Rambler]

Re: Prometheus Sequel (March 2016)

you missed one extra "re-write" in your total. You're one off.

 

[Python]

Re: Prometheus Sequel (March 2016)

Let's hope the characters in this have at least half a brain between them.

That would be the best way to make an improvement over the first... A biologist that is scared of a dead alien but happy to touch a living one that looks like an angry Cobra pen*s... madness. I do really like the movie though, it would have been even better if they'd left in some of the scenes they cut!

This one for instance, although this is only half of the deleted scene you'll find in the Blu ray extras....

 

[Xenoburger_]

Re: Prometheus Sequel (March 2016)

Well, Millburn liked alien life...just not intelligent alien life.

They should have left in the scene where he is ecstatic to find the small slug/worm things. That would have better explained his reaction to the hammerpede.

Plus, Steve Irwin constantly got up and close to dangerous, even deadly wildlife.


That scene, Janek and Shaw's speculation about what the planet is/what the engineers were doing there, and the Vickers + Weyland scene where she mentions the trilobite are the only scenes I think should have been left in the film, unless I'm forgetting any.

Though it's cool to hear the engineer talk, I'm glad that bit was left out. After he sees the humans and hears what David has to say, his facial expressions and gestures were far more impactful and telling than any anything David could have translated from his Dothraki-speak.

 

[Khev]

Re: Prometheus Sequel (March 2016)

Either Joseph Gordon Levitt coming to the house and saying, "yo, I know you're Batman cuz when I was a kid I could tell by your eyes and a feeling in my bones"

Ha ha, that was one of the "people talking in a room scenes" that I kept walking in on. It was really weird how they did it. "I saw you with your car and girls and instantly knew who you were because I'd scene that look before." What? You instantly knew he was BATMAN? Just because Bruce Wayne masked his emotions the same way Blake trained himself to? Why doesn't he just think that he himself is Batman then every time he looks in the mirror. So weird. It would have been one thing if they had at least said that he got rescued by Batman as a kid and was able to somehow connect the two personas but instantly jumping to Bruce's alter ego based on a visit to an orphanage is really out there.

or when Alfred goes on that weird ass rant (with flashback) about how he visited Italy for 7 years hoping to see Bruce there or whatever.

I do always love your comments on anything TDKR Alfred related.