Thursday 13 December 2012

Prometheus Redeemed in the afterlife?

In June I had this epic rant about Prometheus, Ridley Scott's overpowering Alien prequel. It is a visual and audio spectacle which could keep you glued to your seat by the sheer force speed, light and noise if not for and endless stream of glaring glitches.

Even this Engineer had lost the script

I was exasperated at the inconsistencies, flaws and stupidities in the movie. More so because it is a.spectacular movie in sight and sound, and it poses the interesting questions about the origin of the aliens.

This is by the way very similar to the way aliens have been introduced in Jim Wallman's scifi Universe. Genesplice 9, anyone?

It ripped me up so much I dug in to several theories available online to make sense of it all. This gave some satisfaction, but now finally there is proof, damning proof if you ask me, that everything was there to make this a brilliant movie,.fully consistent and believable. Scott just chose not to make it so.

Comicbookgirl brings together two elements of new knowledge in three youtube videos. They last about 45 minutes in total but are well worth the watch. Start with the first:


First of all, there's a bunch of deleted scenes on the new Blu Ray edition that would have explained a lot about the characters' actions. Much of this is so elemental, you have to question Scott's ability as a director for leaving it out.

Second, the original screenplay has been leaked, and it's very different from the later version. The first version was written by Jon Spaihts, the latter by Damon Lindelof. As Comicbookgirl says, there is a lot to say for the changes in the later script, because they make it a lot more interesting, but the original had more character depth and consistent storytelling. But that would have probably been a bit dull.

At least having the original screenplay around helps understanding the final version.



A different Fifield than we have come to know (and love). A clue to the goo!


For a second I felt this was exactly what Scott had wanted: to release the information necessary to understand the movie bit by bit to maintain the interest (among hardened fans of course, most people will not have bothered with the discontinuities and inconsistencies in the first place). This kind of worked with David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, which I went to see twice in two days because I felt the clues were all there and I just needed to pay attention better. Maybe the same was intended for Inland Empire, but that was just so far off I gave up halfway.

So if you still care for Prometheus go and see these videos by Comicbookgirl

2 comments:

  1. Hello,

    I saw Prometheus when it first came out and complete trashed it. I am still not happy with it, but it is interesting some of the theories coming up about it. Maybe one day I will watch it again after listening to several more of the different theories. Oddly enough, I am a huge fan of David Lynch and will sit and watch several of his movies and see different things that I missed the last time, but Prometheus just seemed bad. Maybe I need to see all of the deleted scenes. I did watch the following theory and thought that it open up some more ideas then what was brought up by Comicbook Girl. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u94wR0NfewE

    Cheers,

    Joe

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  2. Well, after watching several interpretations, some of this stuff is making more sense to me. Especially, the ComicBookGirl stuff.

    Your video is cool because it show lots of footage concerning the Von Daniken Space Gods theory. I've never seen any of that. Thanks

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