Mike Russell is on point, and laser-focused. That sprawling, tangential show you’re used to hearing on Fridays? Not today, my friends: We talk Django Unchained, we talk Wreck-It Ralph, we talk Chiwetel Ejiofor and Idris Elba being the next Pitt/Clooney if someone would just give them the chance, and then? PROMETHEUS. For about 45 straight minutes, we dig into the enchanting, yet frustrating; annoying, yet intriguing; disappointing and yet successful ALIEN prequel (because it is) in as much detail as we can. If you saw it? Join us as we put the film on the slab and start poking at it like Ash’s facehugger on the Nostromo. If you didn’t? We’ll be here waiting when you have. Because the only thing we all agree on regarding PROMETHEUS: you’re gonna wanna talk about it once you see it.
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m listening to that shit ASAP.
Great episode. You guys were a little harsher on “Prometheus” than I would probably have been, but at the same thing, I didn’t disagree with much of anything you said.
My own thoughts: it’s a movie with huge problems, and all of the problems bother me if I think about them. And yet, I kinda loved the movie. I watched it two nights in a row (once in gorgeous IMAX 3D and once in less-gorgeous-but-still-fine regular 3D) and was just as entertained the second time as I was the first.
I’m going to withhold final judgment until I see a director’s cut, or a sequel, or both. Which is WAY more lenient than I ought to be. I know this. And yet…
I’m at the exact same stance, though I’ve only seen it once. Thinking of seeing it tomorrow at the Roseway though…
Harry Dean Stanton in a Tarrantino movie would make me giddy.
This topic took on a life of its own after the show. The actors named amongst my friends.
Jeff Bridges
Christopher Eccleston
Clint Eastwood
Bill Cosby
Bill Pullman
What no ladies?
Girls? In a Tarantino film? Ha! C’mon. Like that would ever work.
Carrie-Anne Moss
Robin Wright
Scarlett Johansson
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Marion Cotillard
Highly enjoyable 15 minute show…. damn, I have got to see Prometheus soon.
Prometheus (and Damon Lindelof in general, I feel) fails rather badly at the “And Then” test, a story-writing test I saw with Film Crit Hulk’s Screenwriting 101 articles (just run “film crit hulk screenwriting 101″ through Google, sorry, trying to dodge the moderation-required hammer).
He links to a great video of Matt Stone and Trey Parker crashing a NYU screenwriting class (which I will do here: http://lockerz.com/d/9405573 ), and they talk about this test: Every beat of a story should be connected with either the words “therefore” or “but”. *Bad* stories use the words “and then”. It makes sense, since “therefore” and “but” are words that create causality, either through character choices or the world you’ve established. But “and then” simply is the next thing that happens in a sequence, it’s the phrase you use when random shit just occurs because the plot requires it to in order to move forward, and Prometheus is all ABOUT the “and then”. Discussing any specific incidence would be spoilery, but the story development flaws with the WHOLE movie fall into place when you look at it through that lens. I also think it failed to really stick the landing with its deep-thinking philosophy stuff, but that’s not as egregious a sin.
I did like the movie, though, if you take it as pure candyfloss entertainment.
I haven’t seen Prometheus yet and I don’t care about spoilers, but it occurs to me that perhaps the reason why Weylon was in this movie is because Weylon was in, and was killed off in the first Aliens vs Predator movie. So is it possible that his appearance was just to fly the high middle finger at AvP in specific and the parts of the Alien universe that Ridley Scott did not have any control over in general?
When I left the movie, I was thinking the dude at the very beginning of the movie WASN’T trying to kill himself. Maybe he was drinking the black goo to enhance himself into a more “perfect” being, the thing the goo seemed to do to everyone except him and Shaw’s boyfriend? Still leaves holes, but it makes more sense than the alternative. I’m purely spitballing here.
Also, follow me here;
A series of short featurettes, about ten minutes in length each, Just following David around the ship for the two year journey to the planet. No music, no dialogue. I’d watch it.
Also, I’m surprised no one mentioned Johnny Depp. I actually went through IMDB twice, just to make sure he’s never been in one of his movies. He just seems like an incredibly obvious choice to me. Or RDJ. In fact, let’s get those two, together, chewing on Tarantino dialogue. A little on the nose? Maybe. I’d watch the FUCK out of it, though!
David’s methods are explained in one of his quotes, “Doesn’t every child want his parents to die?”
I mean his motivation, not his methods, sorry.
I mean his motivation, not his methods, sorry.
I let my imagination run with the movie and really enjoyed it. I agree on the character Edits. it was refreshing to get a movie that didn’t hold my hand and left some space for us to draw our own conclusions. The ideas of what certain actions in the film meant was varied and quite fun to discuss after with friends. This summer of movies already has me spoiled. Moonrise and batman still to come!
This needs to be part 1 of 3 on the topic of Prometheus.
If there is one very important thing that we’ve learned from Tangled its that Disney trailers are a poor judge of what the actual movie is like. There was major upheaval over Tangled when its trailer first hit because Disney decided to attack marketing from a Dreamworks-eque angle. That angle brought people into the theaters, and we still got a great movie out of it.
I don’t think that Wreak It Ralph will be on the level of Rodger Rabbit, and might not be on the level of Tangled, but its good to recognize that that trailer is trying to hit tones with every audience to fill in seats, rather than give you a good idea of what the movie is about. Disney has also brought in John Lasseter to oversee all their animation projects, so there is a lot of Pixars influence within Disney.
Also: Jane Lynch as FemShep, is now my favorite thing ever.
Just watched Prometheus, and I mostly agree with both Cort and Fatboy, although I probably enjoyed the movie more than they seem to have. What I’m surprised is that none of you mentioned the Judeo-Christian mythology references scattered throughout the movie:
-The Engineer they autopsied had been dead for about 2000 years, which means that about 2000 years ago we did something that led to our engineers decision to wipe us out. What happened approximately 2000 years ago in human history? Hint: it involves Romans, a cross and a carpenter’s son.
-Shaw is barren, and yet becomes pregnant. In the Bible, there’s also another impossible pregnancy: Mary. In Mary’s case it was “impossible” cause she was a virgin, yet she becomes pregnant because “the power of the Most High” overtakes her. There’s no stronger power than the power of creation, and that seems to be the black ooze ability is to create life (destruction of previous life seems like an inevitable side effect). Also interesting is that Mary is told of another barren woman who has been made pregnant by divine intervention: her cousin, Elizabeth (Liz anyone?). That child turned out to be John The Baptist, who is quoted as the “messenger, who will prepare your way before you.” The creature that comes out of Shaw turns out to be the face hugger, and the creature it bears is the first xenomorph as we know it. A Queen “preparing the way”? Maybe. Also interesting is that there’s no reference to anyone’s “faith” except for Shaw’s, and they made that reference more than once, even going as far as David openly taunting her for still believing after being “forsaken”.
-On her last log entry, Shaw refers to the date as “in the year of our lord”. That expression is almost completely obsolete in our day, yet it is also used on the Weyland TEC speech.
Of course, all of those things can be merely coincidences. But on the pictograms Shaw/Holloway present at the mission briefing, they show humans worshiping the tall beings (Holloway uses the term “worship” even though you could barely see the people on the graphics). I think the movie is hinting… what if J.C. was one of them? He’s been called in different religions as a prophet, and emissary, and is generally considered by those who subscribed to christian theology as a conduit to salvation. But what if we, unlike those ancient civilizations, destroyed that emissary? What if that pissed the Engineer/Creators/Gods to no end?
Of course, that interpretation doesn’t help with the movie’s many, many flaws. But I think it’s definitely an interesting angle.
Just listened to the podcast and agree with much of what was said. Two thoughts, though…
1) Weyland wanted to meet his maker in person and didn’t want to experience it second-hand. Desperate to cling to life and thinking himself superior to all others, why on earth wouldn’t he be on the ship?
2) Regarding Shaw’s pregnancy, David, unlike the actual scientists onboard, used the scientific method to determine the nature of the goo by infecting Holloway. I don’t believe it was David’s intent for Shaw to become impregnated, it was just merely an outcome of his experiment.
Just my two cents.