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Fun fact: this episode was the hardest I've ever worked to re-assemble a glitched episode, because it's just too awesome to let go. So from the scattered remains of a bunch of quadruple failures, and with the help of Snail from the forum, I present Prometheus: The Commentary That Nearly Killed Me In Post.
Enjoy y'all.
+1 
Anytime, sorry I couldn't help with the other gap.
Hip, hip... (say Hooray)
hip, hip...(say Hooray)
Good job, Teague.
*runs to listen*'
Edit: Quick question, Teague- what software do you use to record and compile the episodes?
Last edited by fireproof78 (2012-12-24 07:03:12)
Finally, the hour has come. I admit Prometheus almost single-handedly crushed my enthusiasm for movies and made me stop caring about upcoming releases, but the pain is behind me and I am ready to move on.
I am putting on this DIF, and then I move forward renewed and never have to think about this movie again, and it can go nicely into the "never-happened" part of my brain along with Alien 3 (which is a vastly better movie btw).
I probably would have been driven to kill and eat a hobo had we lost this ep. Good it won't come to that.
Just finished the commentary. Most fun. With the number of commentators, it was almost a case of too many cooks wishing to spoil the schlock.
The production design was universally praised as a sole positive, but I would separate out the VFX from the design.
On the positive side, the entire atmosphere entry and landing sequence is gorgeous. Maybe the most jaw-dropping landing sequence ever. The crash in the finale is also most impressive.
On the negative side, the interior of the Prometheus is fairly bog-standard. The space-suits are meh. The dirt strip between the landing site and the first Engineer croissant is like a quarry (and this was the setting for most of action & movement) and the Giger interiors we've seen before and got repetitive. The med-pod had salad tongs. And the creature design throughout was uninspired. And, as stated, the make up job on Weyland was amateurish.
In other words, take out the scenes where the ships are air-borne, and it's a very ordinary looking movie.
According to Last Tango In Paris, butter has more than one function.
And just to kick this movie while it's down, the plot takes place THIS CENTURY despite us not having returned to the Moon for over 40 years. And suddenly we've developed faster-than-light travel (but can't fix infertility) where missions to other stars are routine (note the casual behaviour of the old 'sea dog' captain).
The real issue is... Prometheus doesn't really know what it is and where it is going. While it's still a moderately entertaining movie that can be enjoyed on some levels, it's a shame to see the wasted potential. Story-wise it was incoherent, the writers simply didn't focus on the job.
It must have been written with LV-426 in mind, since it used all the classic imagery from Alien. Changing the location to LV-223 is probably the most egregious example of sloppy writing in the movie.
Erich von Däniken's theories make an interesting movie premise. Is it really so hard to execute it in an interesting manner? Writers of the Stargate franchise had an uninterrupted run of 14 years and they didn't explore the premise very well (they just preferred to play it safe and focus on the action & humor).
Most of the bad science doesn't really bother me - I guess at this point I've gotten used to it. Remember the supernova that "threatened to destroy the galaxy" in Star Trek (2009)? It was way worse than anything in Prometheus... And we've seen FTL travel and artificial gravity in all other Alien movies (we simply didn't know the exact date). It's just very hard to portray interstellar travel without them.
Last edited by MartyJ (2012-12-24 20:18:51)
May I just say bravo Teague, you did a really impressive job of moderating what was a very large and intense panel and keeping discussion flowing smoothly.
Thanks man. They make it pretty easy on me, the panelfolk are good at this. 
It must have been written with LV-426 in mind
It absolutely was. It was meant to be the straightforward origin of how and why the ship discovered in ALIEN crashed. Ridley developed it in such a way that he kept the major plot beats but removed the context that made sense of them.
To be fair, I think it would've been even more terrible if it was the exact same ship. I hated hated hated the idea of seeing what happened to the original ship, and the notion that humans had been on it before.
They should've never even started with that as the main idea to begin with, because it's an idea that's destined to fail.
I'd repressed how furious this thing made me. Listening to Mike's opening statement brought it all back.
It's not even all the egregious stupidity the movie exhibits; it's the horrifying waste of what could have been a generational experience.
"that system has a sun" was what lost me. There was no coming back after that.
"that system has a sun" was what lost me. There was no coming back after that.
For me, the point-of-no-return groan came early on, with a scientist saying 'I'm only in it for the money' - which is like a big 'fuck you' to all the scientists out there. Not only does Scott ignore scientific consultants for his science fiction movie, he trashes the biological and astronomical sciences as well as trashing scientists themselves.
Anyway, that's what I choose to believe.
This just in: Ridley has hired the kid to write the Prometheus sequel.
THE EVOLUTION?!
Instead of 'The Evolution', the box set should have been called The Good, The Bad, and the Incompetent. You could teach an entire Film Studies semester on the examples from those films.
You guys never brought up the reason I was excited about this movie before it came out, which I guess was my own misinterpretation of the pre-production rumor mill, a medium I've since learned to ignore (mostly).
From stories I read at the time, Ridley Scott announced to the Hollywood money people, "I want to make a prequel to Alien. It isn't even going to have humans in it. Still, the name alone will mean box office gold. Give me all of the money." I was disappointed, because the fact that stuff like the space jockey are never explained is one of the things that makes the first film so fascinating. Then Ridley started actually making the movie and announced to the press, "Psych! It's not a prequel at all. It just explores some of the same ideas and also happens in space." I thought he actually had an original idea and got the thing green lit by playing off his past success, using the studio sequel obsession against itself and tricking them into funding original IP. The director of Alien and Blade Runner was about to show us a new vision of the future.
When the movie came out and reviews started to surface, I realized I had to ignore the whole thing. I might have enjoyed it more if I had seen it on a larger screen than my TV, but I think Avengers was out at the time, and I stand by my choice to see that one more times in the theater.
When I finally saw this movie, my expectations were lowered enough that I hoped to at least find something to like. At some point after the first act, I shrugged and asked the screen, "So?" But I never did figure out what the characters cared about or why I should care about any of them.
Good commentary though.
"that system has a sun" was what lost me. There was no coming back after that.
I recently discovered the 1978 Japanese film Message from Space, in which the aliens discover that Earth is in "The Solar System". A very enjoyable film
Prometheus - the gift that keeps on giving. Only the Innocence of Muslims provoked a more enthusiastic reaction.
The real issue is... Prometheus doesn't really know what it is and where it is going. While it's still a moderately entertaining movie that can be enjoyed on some levels, it's a shame to see the wasted potential. Story-wise it was incoherent, the writers simply didn't focus on the job.
It must have been written with LV-426 in mind, since it used all the classic imagery from Alien. Changing the location to LV-223 is probably the most egregious example of sloppy writing in the movie.
Erich von Däniken's theories make an interesting movie premise. Is it really so hard to execute it in an interesting manner? Writers of the Stargate franchise had an uninterrupted run of 14 years and they didn't explore the premise very well (they just preferred to play it safe and focus on the action & humor).
Most of the bad science doesn't really bother me - I guess at this point I've gotten used to it. Remember the supernova that "threatened to destroy the galaxy" in Star Trek (2009)? It was way worse than anything in Prometheus... And we've seen FTL travel and artificial gravity in all other Alien movies (we simply didn't know the exact date). It's just very hard to portray interstellar travel without them.
Bad science unfortunately has become par for course of late. I'll be curious to see, with all the science fiction movies due out in 2013 how much worse the science will get 
I agree with Marty because I just can't get a sense of what Prometheus wanted to be either. I mean, I watched the trailers and felt vaguely horror-ish (Especially the part of lead lady staggering around the ship, which I am guessing is from the C-section scene.)
*Quick aside-kudos to Eddie for bringing in the C-section knowledge on that part. How it should have ended.com had a great bit about that too 
*
I think it is like Chronicles of Riddick vs. Pitch Black. Pitch Black is horror movie with scifi twist-Chronicles is more epic space fantasy. Alien is horror in the most creepy way possible-Prometheus is bad science wrapped up in pseudo-scientific fantasy speak.
Hopefully, that made sense, because the movie didn't. Best way I could put it.
Also, Teague, what do you use to record and edit the episodes because a friend of mine just showed me a new program which is pretty neat looking?
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