Mendelson's Memos: Spoiler Thread: Open discussion for Prometheus and Madagascar 3...

Friday, June 8, 2012

Spoiler Thread: Open discussion for Prometheus and Madagascar 3...

You know the drill. It's open season below for anyone to discuss the two big movies opening this weekend, as I imagine a large portion of my readership will have at least seen Prometheus by weekend's end. One request: Since some people may have seen one film but not the other, please label which film you're going to discuss in your comment so spoiler-phobes know to avoid it if they haven't seen it yet. Obviously if you want to discuss the limited debuts as well, feel free but please label what film is being discussed. Thanks and go nuts!

Scott Mendelson

4 comments:

Aaron Neuwirth said...: Well the biggest question I think anyone has when it comes to the nature of humanity, where some beings truly come from, and other universal themes is obvious...Do the Madagascar Animals finally get back to New York!!!?; June 8, 2012 at 12:04 PM
Rick said...: About Prometheus:

I feel like when Ridley Scott started this project he honestly and truly wanted to tell an original story. But then he got half through the movie and said "Fuck it, this is the Alien prequel." I had heard the fan theory before that the xenomorphs were biologically engineered (which makes sense, given their ridiculous killing machine nature.) But the movie goes out of its way to make the original weapons not be the xeno-fetuses we all know and love. Instead it that last shot of the first emerging xenomorph from the Engineer and Octopus thing just feels like a tacked on continuity afterthought. But that general problem aside, the story just feels muddled and lacks cohesion.

For example,what was the point of Weylan being on the ship? He comes on the voyage to find the meaning of life and just get punched in the face? What relevance does that have to the story? "Be careful what you wish for?" "You can't always get what you want?" Or just how the movie seems to forget that the opening scene suicide ever happened and feels no real need to explain what the hell it was all about.

I really wanted this movie to be good, but there really isn't way for me to say it was.; June 8, 2012 at 9:53 PM
Liam_Ho said...: I thought it was because Weylan was so desperate to prolong life he was willing to fund this mission so he can ask an Alien creature to save him. Engineers were seen as "Gods" that created us, here's a "mortal" asking to save him.

For me the opening scene seems to be how life was created on Earth.; June 8, 2012 at 11:38 PM
Dave said...: Prometheus:

I also thought that the thematic point of Weyland coming and being beat with the head of his greatest invention was the parallel how humans treat the life that we created, androids. Ultimately, to them, we're just something that they created and can treat however they want because we were meaningless. It's like the "video" that Weyland made where he says that David is the closest thing he'll have to a son except for his lack of a soul.

I didn't like some of the more conventional aspects of the movie but there were parts that were cool/interesting. I did like how the Engineers used biotechnology as opposed to creating mechanically. It's a cool way to explain how they were able to create biological organisms even if it's a bit of a heavy-handed way to discuss the direction that technology should go in. The relationship between David and Ms. Shaw was AWESOME and is the part I'm really looking forward to in the sequel. On one hand, he killed her husband and put the crew in danger but she also needs him. He also seems to respect her ability to survive and like her for treating him like a human (the way that she apologized to him even though he was just a talking head likely led him to realize that she has respect for everything that she considers life even if it's not like her). Both actors did terrific jobs but I think Fassbender just got the more interesting character, desperate to be accepted by the creators he serves while also considering them inferior to himself.; June 10, 2012 at 7:23 PM