Comic Fury Webcomic Hosting - Prometheus & General Alienverse Talk [They mostly come at night... mostly]

Before we get started, yes I know there is already a thread about movies that you want to see. The problem is that I really want to see Prometheus. There is a lot I want to discuss about this film and it's universe, so I rather not derail that thread with my nerdouts and discussion about this film.

Also while the primary discussion within this thread is about Prometheus, feel free to talk about the other Alienverse movies. Oh, and this isn't a spoiler free zone, so put spoilers in spoiler tags.

About Prometheus
For those of you who don't know Prometheus is Ridley Scott's first foray back into the Alien universe since, well Alien. It takes place before Alien, but this isn't a film about Xenomorphs. There is a brand new menace with a whole new set of rules.

Things to Get Excited For
*Androids
*Weyland-Yutani
*Space Jockey

Trailers
Peter Weyland's TEDtalk

Happy Birthday David

Official Trailer 1

Official Trailer 2

As a huge fan of the Alien quadrilogy I gotta say this is really exciting.

The thing is though...

there was little to no description on the Company and Earth, which was actually one of the things that worked in the series' favor. It emphasized the uncaring nature of the company and the solitude and isolation of being on a spaceship on a long journey. I sorta fear if the universe is explained too much it'll lose some of that feel.

IDK.

Its going to be interesting to see how much of post Aliens Ridley is going to consider canon. Already developments that were made in the AVP2 ending seem to have been made moot.

e: i am having a really hard time typing out Ridley instead of Ripley

I never got around to watching Alien Resurrection because Alien 3 kinda bummed me out... but now I'm feeling like I really need to see it.

Ohmygosh he did the thing with the letters on the title again.

I saw the first Alien movie on my birthday a few years ago. After wanting to see it since I was like ten or something. The next year I watched Alien 2, and this year I plan to watch 3. I really really loved the first two movies, but I've held myself back from the rest! I dunno, I want to keep a tradition, haha.
Oh, and I quite enjoyed AVP!
Either way I'm excited as hell for Prometheus. Like, oh man. I'm so excited. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa dnksdfnjk.

I also liked the first two a lot, but have never seen the rest (I have them all on DVD though).

I don't watch a lot of movies these days, but maybe this will be neat (I think I look forward to the androids the most).

I haven't been able to watch any videos of this yet though, because of dial-up internet.

It is good to have a big Sci-Fi movie to look forward to.

I was under the impression that "Prometheus" started out as a prequel to Alien, but then became just its own thingy that's only "spiritually-related"?

Nah, its a prequel. Not only does it take place in the same universe and Weyland-Yutani plays a part in it, but it also explains what was up with the space jockey from Alien (The Space Jockey was the alien pilot of the crashed ship they found in the first film)

ALIEN blew my mind, saw it over 20 times in the theatre, plus maybe half dozen more on
the VHS tape. ALIENS (James Cameron) was OK but hundreds of aliens totally failed to have
the terrifying effect that the lone alien had in Ridley Scott's masterpiece. The 3rd and
4th films (nothing to do with Scott) were just quick money-grabs. Scott followed up with another sci-fi masterpiece, BLADE RUNNER. The visuals in both films were stunning and without the aid of CGI. I cannot wait for June 8th, and I just hope it's another mind-blower from R. S.!

I can't tell you just how much I want this film to be "RIGHT". The director inspires that confidence in me, but I've had mixed feelings on the Alien franchise.


ALIEN: Seen in the cinema on date of release. Loved it of course. Defines the canon of course. But also, was the first SF film after Star Wars that created a SubGenre or paradigm for later films. Prior to that the last ones had been 2001 and Logan's Run. This film can still scare me, even though I've watched it more times than I can remember.

ALIENS: Seen in the cinema on date of release. Enjoyed the Military vs Creature idea, but what really got me about this film was how Ripley manages to "beat her demons" by rescuing Newt and and the others and offing the queen. Had the franchise ended with this film I would have been happy.

ALIEN3: Seen in the cinema on date of release. Always suspected that this film was meant to be in 3D. Hated it with a vengeance because it destroyed the resolution of the previous film off-camera! Apart from Ripley, there were no other characters in this film that I cared about whether or not they were killed/inseminated by the alien.

ALIEN RESURRECTION: Because of #3, I deliberately didn't watch this film until last year. When I did (on free-to-air TV) I realised I'd made the right decision. When the only characters you can care about are a clone and an android, the suspense around the other deaths becomes just noise and tedium (as I found from the previous film). Have read a bit about How Joss Whedon was brought in to save the film, but suspect it was too late.

PREDATOR VS ALIEN: Saw this years after release on a public library DVD because the sequel was just about to be released. I liked it because it gave both a rationale for what the aliens were and also why Predators were coming to Earth in particular. It was passable, and an improvement on the previous two films. But - there are problems of continuity here as well, and something that PROMETHEUS may or may not address (probably not).

PREDATOR VS ALIENS: I had thought that this might have been a good film, but the scene in the maternity ward was JUST TOO MUCH for me. By the end it seemed that the law of diminishing returns had already taken effect on this.


So while I'm looking forward to PROMETHEUS I have to wonder just what will and won't be assumed to be in the ALIEN continuity. See, the film must take place before ALIEN, but also has to take place after ALIEN VS PREDATORS. Will there be a reference to that later film? Prequels (which both PvA films are) are an odd thing really. With the exception of something like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (which pretty much could have taken place after the first film) for an audience it just doesn't pay to watch the films in "time-line" order. If we did that with these films, we'd probably have to watch them as follows (assuming that any of the Predator films are part of the ALIEN universe):

PREDATOR
PREDATOR 2
PREDATOR vs ALIEN
PREDATOR vs ALIENS
PROMETHEUS
ALIEN
.
.
.

By the time you get to the original film where's the suspense? So, while I'm hopeful about this film I expect to be disappointed, but will be very pleased if I'm not!

Theory time
theory 1:
Everyone who has seen the TEDtalk trailer can figure out that one of the themes of Prometheus seems to be about the advancement of technology, and the good and bad of it. Of course there was a bit of this in Alien, and more so in Aliens, but this time around it seems to be much more prevalent.

Anyway, in the TEDtalk trailer Peter Weyland talks for a bit about the Prometheus myth. Looking at what we know so far of the film, it seems there are going to be two main aliens. Space Jockeys and whatever the fuck this new thing is. Space Jockeys are probably going to be the "gods" of this film. It will turn out they helped kick start the human race and shit. Anyway, Prometheus and its crew play the part of Prometheus of course. So what is the fire?

The fire is the technology it takes to get to the planet the star maps point to. The Space Jockeys figure by the time humans could reach the planet they would be too technologically advance. So they decided to leave a trap. Once the humans arrive they would infect the humans with whatever the monster is in this movie, and send a ship to earth. And assuming the ship we are seeing in the trailer is the same crashed ship in Alien, then that is the bomber ship filled with alien eggs.

What we saw of the space jockey in alien was supposedly just a suit according to Ridley. So the new alien infects the crew of Prometheus in this one, controls them, and then forces them to wear the suit and pilot the bomber ship to earth.

theory 2:
The space jockeys actually play the role of Prometheus. It has been said before the xenomorphs were created by them, so maybe they also created whatever the fuck the monster is in this movie and got killed by it. The humans just happen along it later.

It's my secret suspicion that years after they stop all the aliens, androids technology is replaced by replicants, and then Blade Runner happens. Mostly because of the videos with Dave.

Ignoring that Blade Runner is set in 2018.

Yes all these sci-fi movies seem to over estimate our space-travel and technological advancements. 2001 should actually be retitled 2201 as were not even close to having moon
bases, mainly cuz we haven't found anything up there making the financial committment worthwhile. If we found gold, diamonds or oil we would be there as we speak. Both Alien and
Blade Runner? involve interstellar space travel and that is at least a thousand years ahead
if even possible, I don't think any solid matter could come even close to withstanding light speed. Forget the propulsion necessary, the navigation would be mind-boggling.

Aliens yes hello.

I'm a huge fan of the general verse, as I'm sure Frosty might tell you if he were to ever stumble into here.
I have a massive collection of merch, but I won't get into that since I'd be talking forever. Anyway, back to the main point.

I am eagerly looking forward to Prometheus. Given the alien series first came out when I wasn't even conceived, well, I am truly looking forward to a REAL alien film that I may view on its release.
That being said though, I'm being careful not to tie this film too closely to my beloved alien series.
The director and various others have clearly said that while it started as a direct prequel, it took on its own form and mutated into something else.
Direct quotes state that there is definitely the same alien DNA in there and things that will tie the series together, but its ultimately its own story.

The main aliens seem to focus mainly around the space jockeys, no surprise there, but also some sort of theme of people 'changing'. We can see an eerie figure stalking around in quite a few of the trailers, quite clearly very humanoid but still very off.

The eggs from the former movies seem to be spiritually reincarnated into the strange 'jars' in the trailers and there is certainly a lot of architectural links to the xenomorphs in the scenery.
We again have an android in the casting, this time portrayed almost as the ultimate innocent. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out, to say the least.

I think we're in for something new. Something different, something just a little bit further out so that it's still surprising, but still with its links to the magnificent universe its clearly been built into.

One problem I have is that the technology seems so much more clean and streamlined compared to what we've seen in Alien and Aliens, but you could argue that this was due to the nostromo being a mining vessel, though probably not as much a case for the Sulaco.

Also, its confirmed that Prometheus discards Alien vs Predator and Alien vs Predator; Requiem as non-cannon, thank goodness.

Edit; Just in! Prometheus has been confirmed to indeed have an R rating rather than the rumoured PG-13. In the UK, this means likely a 15+ rating.
From 20th Century Fox;
"Steve here. 20th Century Fox has confirmed Prometheus will be rated R for “sci-fi violence including some intense images, and brief language.”"

I wet my self,change my trousers and then wet my self again every time i see a new trailer for this movie...it looks so,so,so good...creepy and dark like a good (alien?) prequel should be... Mr Scott back to his best and the added bonus of Mr Fastbender can't go wrong.

del, throw in Charlize and Noomi and it's a no-brainer for sure!

Alright then, my interest in this is rekindled.

The fact that this movie has to discount the AvP franchise as non-canon, plus all the trailers, pretty much already told me what the story will be about: Event Horizon + Sunshine, in the Alien universe. In a nutshell.

And we'll ultimately learn that the Xenomorphs are alien-technology-engineered creatures based off of human DNA, and this movie is the beginning of their existence in the Alien universe.

The more and more I look at the trailers for the film, the more I start to realize that the thing I am most excited for is David. Of what we seen so far from Michael Fassbender looks to be simply brilliant.