Prometheus: Do You Like It Or Hate It?

[Snagret]

Mixed feelings leaving the theater, liked it less and less upon several rewatches. It has absolutely no idea what kind of atmosphere it wants to go for, no idea what kind of questions it wants to audiences to ask, and it's held back by bad slasher genre tropes.

I think Annihilation is actually a very successful take on a (loosely) similar sort of concept. It's the kind of movie I wanted Prometheus to be but Prometheus was too busy trying to be three different movies and also clumsily tie itself to an established franchise in completely unnecessary ways that doesn't add anything important to its own plot or the Alien mythos.

I don't think "it should have never been made", because it's a weird sci-fi movie and I think we need way more of those, but I don't think it's a successful film beyond how gorgeous it is. It's like, aaaaalllmoooost there, but it's a real death by a thousand cuts situation where there's just so many small things about it I don't like.

Also, an inconsequential and completely subjective quibble but I really dislike the soundtrack and specifically that one little horn riff that repeats throughout the whole movie. It feels like the first three seconds of a swelling melody and then it just...fizzles and it happens SO MUCH throughout the film and it never fits what's happening on screen and it drives me nuts lmao

 

[ElfsborgEra]

Beautiful movie, but the moment the some of the smartest people on the planet started doing suicidal shit it lost me.

 

[Star-Lord]

God damn this poll is quite spread out :p

 

[Chemo]

Can't stand it.

 

[HappyTask]

The trailer was good.

 

[Many]

Great movie.

 

[Dremorak]

I loved it :D

 

[Officer Big Mac]

I have no strong feelings about it. I saw it once and that's enough.

 

[Tavernade]

Every death felt SO stupid and forced that I felt insulted, even if I liked a lot else. Let's see...

-Two guys too afraid to keep exploring find a cave full of alien eggs and decide to check em out instead of continuing to run away in fear...
-Highly intelligent scientist does not understand 3D space.
-Ship crew dies because they didn't pack any weapons for no reason other than the writers wanted them dead.

Also it's dumb that the big white aliens are us except big and white. They should have looked cooler.

 

[Scarlet Spider]

Fuck Prometheus. It ruined the Space Jockey. Don't give me that "it's a suit" bullshit either. The creature on the Derelict in ALIEN had visible teeth and a fleshy overall body, it was far more organic that whatever shit Ridley made in Prometheus. I'm sticking with my head canon that the Engineers based their flight suits off of these creatures.

 

[Cass_Se]

It's a gorgeous, gorgeous film. It is tremendously stupid though.

Alien Covenant is the bigger offender here because the only positive quality of Prometheus that got carried into it was Fassbender. The art direction is nowhere near as good and the film suffers from it.

 

[Laughing Banana]

I am indifferent towards it. Covenant, however, I truly dislike.

 

[Dexterous Gambler]

My two favourite fictional universes are Star Trek (up to DS9), and Alien. Alien Resurrection I can stand when I view it as a comedy, kind of like those TV shows that have a musical episode. Same with Star Trek V, as well. lol
Prometheus showed a lot of promise initially, but I wasn't a fan of the changes they made to the Alien universe, and then Covenant was like seeing the mask slip, and that was that. Dreadful! :)

 

[Commander Jameson]

It's a good-looking movie where nothing makes sense.

 

[Chance Hale]

Amazing opening and monster design that is pretty handily ruined by some of the worst writing and line deliveries I've seen in a big budget film.

And that's saying a lot.

 

[Alrus]

Utterly disappointing movie. But it sure looked good.

 

[AncientReptileBrain]

haven't seen it since it was in cinema, but i remember being very underwhelmed. but it's obviously gorgeous.

 

[Deleted member 10612]

Stellar concept, great cinematography but poor and at times nonsensical execution. So much potential... wasted.

 

[Amnixia]

Definitely not great, but I do enjoy watching it.
Now Covenant was a big miss for me.

 

[DeltaRed]

I convinced a,group of friends to see this instead of Avengers at the time and felt I had to apologise after.

 

[Erigu]

Obligatory link to Lindelof's script, 'cause you're missing out on some of the stupidity if you've only watched the movie.

Fuck Prometheus. It ruined the Space Jockey. Don't give me that "it's a suit" bullshit either. The creature on the Derelict in ALIEN had visible teeth and a fleshy overall body, it was far more organic that whatever shit Ridley made in Prometheus. I'm sticking with my head canon that the Engineers based their flight suits off of these creatures.

Click to shrink...

I remember the first time I heard Scott wanted to make a movie about the Space Jockey(s). That was years before the actual release of the film, but just that pitch, that idea that "oh, yeah, we should totally tell a story about how that species had another run-in of some kind with mankind, what a coinkidink, it's a small universe"... why?

(I mean, I was already a bit annoyed that Aliens went and showed us that the titular monster was "a bit like familiar animals such as ants or bees, actually!", never mind, y'know, the freaking title of the original movie and how that was a huge part of what made the creature so horrifying... So of course, I wasn't exactly anxiously waiting for "answers" regarding the Space Jockey.)

 

[Juraash]

Prometheus was a neat concept, and I think I enjoyed it overall. But I feel like it's made retroactively worse by Covenant, which I actually hate.

 

[Famassu]

I do think it's a horrible movie but I'm not invested enough in the Alien franchise to hate it.

 

[TripleBee]

Visually it's excellent. That goes a long way.

 

[XaviConcept]

60% of it was pretty good and then 40% of it was very meh, I mean geologists getting lost in a very normal looking cave? Come on now

No strong feelings, just a movie that didnt live up to the hype is all.

 

[CloudWolf]

A very good looking, but incredibly stupid movie.

It's crazy how the very first scene in Alien Covenant manages to do more to set up David's character and his motivations than the entirety of Prometheus.

 

[mbpm]

Some good action/horror scenes and some real dumb characters.

I'm indifferent to slightly positive on it.

 

[LossAversion]

It's not great. It's nowhere near as bad as Covenant though. I can't even fathom how that movie came from the director of the original Alien. Anything remotely interesting that Prometheus set up, Covenant squandered entirely.

 

[CloudWolf]

It's not great. It's nowhere near as bad as Covenant though. I can't even fathom how that movie came from the director of the original Alien. Anything remotely interesting that Prometheus set up, Covenant squandered entirely.

Click to shrink...

Covenant is a much better movie, both horror and otherwise, than Prometheus though.

 

[LossAversion]

Covenant is a much better movie, both horror and otherwise, than Prometheus though.

Click to shrink...

Not for me. The first half was just a mediocre Alien rehash and the second half has all of the problems that Prometheus had while also shitting all over the Xenomorph. Scott had the perfect opportunity to connect everything together but instead we got a little mini-xenomorph instead of a chest burster because Scott needs his overt symbolism and then the Xenomorph is defeated by fucking doors. DOORS. The creature known for using ventilation systems to move around is blocked by doors and watched on cams for the entirety of the climax.

 

[Deleted member 26526]

I liked it. Sure it had its flaws. But I felt it gave a decent platform for some serious exploration of the origin of engineers and aliens.

Then the next film came out....

 

[Hagi]

Good looking stupid movie. Covenant is on a whole other level of dumb though.

 

[kiriku]

I remember liking it, but then I don't have much of an investment in Alien lore. Hell, I don't even think I knew it was Alien related before watching it.
Also, why is one of the poll options "it's a fun movie"? I like the movie but I wouldn't call it "fun".

 

[rude]

I think Covenant having an unoriginal, rehashed plot and really dumb cardboard cutout characters are legitimate criticisms. That said, I see a lot of hate for it boil down to how it chose to handle the origins of the Xenomorph and the Shaw plot from Prometheus.

And...idk. I've seen all of the movies, but I have basically no investment in the overarching plot (because it isn't that interesting), so those things didn't mean much to me. The modern Xenomorph being created by David is fine. Shaw is a boring character so her getting murked offscreen is fine. I think Covenant is probably the third best Alien movie. It's like a really dumb Bela Lugosi homage that succeeds in being pretty entertaining.

It's definitely better than Prometheus, which is just boring half the time.

 

[Forkball]

Great art design. The rest was either forgettable or incomprehensible. Remember Guy Pierce in the old man makeup?

Also what was the deal with the xenomorphs? It's implied that they were created by mixing black goo with human DNA but we also see imagery of them when the scientists explore the canister room.

 

[Deleted member 22750]

3rd best alien movie IMO

but alien and aliens are way above it in quality

too much hate

 

[janusff]

When I saw it that one time years ago, I didn't like it or hate it. It was just there. A mediocre film that's pretty much forgettable

 

[Pyramid Head]

Some decent visuals, even if it did look cribbed from a Tool music video, just with a bigger budget.
Its attempt at conveying any semblance of a coherent story or portraying fleshed out, believable characters and motivations was embarrassingly poor though.

 

[Finaika]

Love it.

 

[Dan-o]

I agree with Ebert:

Prometheus movie review & film summary (2012) | Roger Ebert

Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" is a magnificent science-fiction film, all the more intriguing because it raises questions about the origin of human life and doesn't have the answers. It's in the classic tradition of golden age sci-fi, echoing Scott's "Alien" (1979), but creating a world of its own...

www.rogerebert.com

And Zoller Seitz:

Alien: Covenant movie review & film summary (2017) | Roger Ebert

This is the third best Alien movie after the first two, but don’t be surprised if repeat viewings kick it up a notch.

www.rogerebert.com

 

[Tya]

I was happy when characters died because they were so dumb. Is that what the movie was going for?

 

[CaptainBojangles]

It's pretty decent. I do think Alien Covenant is horroble though

 

[mhayes86]

I guess I'm indifferent because I don't remember anything about it.

 

[TaterTots]

I like it and have seen it several times. Wish it got a proper follow up and some of those questions answered.

Oddly enough, I went into this film only seeing 1 trailer and had no idea it was tied to the Alien universe. Didn't really bother me. I don't view it as a Alien movie.

 

[ReginaldXIV]

I mostly like it. The ending could have used some work.

 

[Huncho_Houdini]

Cool concept and lore, great cinematography, lots of potential, but bad execution. Dumb characters.

 

[Hale-XF11]

Forgettable, except that I do remember it being extremely confusing and convoluted.

 

[Abaddonn]

this was a horrible movie that had a decent beginning until it all just turned into shit, I think its worse than Covenant because when I watched Covenant I had no expectations for the franchise anymore so I watched that movie at home with some friends and knew that it would probably not be great but atleast at home with some friends you can laugh at all the stupid stuff in it.

 

[cowbanana]

I liked the visuals. That's pretty much it. The story is a complete dumpster fire that relies on its characters doing unbelievably stupid things to propel the story forward. I cringed every time one of these scientists makes yet another completely bone-headed decision in service of the paper thin plot.

 

[Deleted member 30544]

Neither.

I don't like it, I think that has some cool ideas that were not developed properly and what Scott wanted to do is gutsy. Only that, and the visuals

The movie has lots of stupid shit to give it a pass. But I don't HATE it, I just don't enjoy it as much.

A still own it tho...for my Alien collection.