Space is where the screaming starts.
March 17, 2012 8:06 PM   Subscribe

Hot, hot, hot new PROMETHEUS trailer! It looks to me that Ridley Scott has returned Paul W.S. Anderson's favors and gotten Event Horizon right, this time. Enjoy!
posted by vhsiv (294 comments total) 32 users marked this as a favorite
 
sweet
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:12 PM on March 17, 2012


Somebody sure liked Inception!

BUUUUURRRRRRRMMMMMMMM
posted by bpm140 at 8:14 PM on March 17, 2012 [11 favorites]


!!!
posted by Chekhovian at 8:15 PM on March 17, 2012


(And by 'getting it right', I mean telling the sort of story that EVENT HORIZON started out as, before the movie went around a corner and turned into HELLRAISER in SPACE with Sam Neill and Lawrence Fishburne.)
posted by vhsiv at 8:16 PM on March 17, 2012 [4 favorites]


The leaked summary still seems in line with this new trailer.
posted by leotrotsky at 8:16 PM on March 17, 2012 [2 favorites]


Hey now, Event Horizon's still pretty cool. In its own way.

But this.. Squee.
posted by pyrex at 8:17 PM on March 17, 2012 [4 favorites]



The trailer was pretty cool up to the last 30 seconds when they went into epileptic seizure inducing mode.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:17 PM on March 17, 2012 [6 favorites]


Post totally needs an "Idris_Elba" tag.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:18 PM on March 17, 2012 [16 favorites]


A part of me thinks it is not necessary to post every single thing that shows up on the web about this movie, but another part of me is OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 8:18 PM on March 17, 2012 [12 favorites]


EVENT HORIZON...HELLRAISER in SPACE

No no no, its a Warhammer 40K prequal in space.
posted by Chekhovian at 8:19 PM on March 17, 2012 [10 favorites]


I think you mean Idris "Sexgod" Elba
posted by elizardbits at 8:20 PM on March 17, 2012 [3 favorites]


Fuck yes, motherfuckers. This shit is ON!
posted by Saxon Kane at 8:21 PM on March 17, 2012 [6 favorites]


jesus lapdancing christ

i think i have a giant boner right now

like maybe it can be seen from space

that is how giant it is
posted by elizardbits at 8:23 PM on March 17, 2012 [12 favorites]


pleasebegoodpleasebegoodpleasebegoodpleasebegoodpleasebegood
posted by the painkiller at 8:24 PM on March 17, 2012 [6 favorites]


Ow! elizardbits just hit me with its boner :(
posted by Saxon Kane at 8:25 PM on March 17, 2012 [5 favorites]


That really has an "Alien" vibe to it.
posted by HuronBob at 8:25 PM on March 17, 2012 [5 favorites]


Nice. I like a trailer that doesn't try to spell everything out, just some teasers of plot points and cool images. Here's trailer for the original, definitely a similar feel.
posted by octothorpe at 8:28 PM on March 17, 2012 [4 favorites]


Yeah, that really looked like the seat the 'Space Jockey' was sitting in.

I will probably be seeing this.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:29 PM on March 17, 2012


Spoiler alert, whoop whoop



Check out May 14, xxxx (really, lots of spoilers in this one)
posted by lootie777 at 8:31 PM on March 17, 2012


Hellraiser in Space with Sam Neill sounds fine to me. Better than Hellraiser: Bloodline and Event Horizon combined.
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:31 PM on March 17, 2012 [5 favorites]


https://www.weylandindustries.com/#/timeline

Link Fail! Trying again...
posted by lootie777 at 8:31 PM on March 17, 2012


I want to watch it again but I'm legitimately concerned that I might swoon and/or soil myself from all the crazed glee.
posted by elizardbits at 8:33 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


LV-426 is calling.
posted by vhsiv at 8:34 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


Is it wrong that I ADORE that whooping shrill noise at the end and could listen to it on endless repeat for hours?

MAROOOO (beat beat beat) MAROOOO (beat beat beat) MAROOOO

I may have to attend the cinemar this summer to enjoy this visual treat.
posted by winna at 8:36 PM on March 17, 2012 [13 favorites]


Tell Me No Lies: "The trailer was pretty cool up to the last 30 seconds when they went into epileptic seizure inducing mode."

You mean LEGIT AWESOME MODE
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:36 PM on March 17, 2012 [23 favorites]


Im gonna see the shit out of this.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 8:36 PM on March 17, 2012 [7 favorites]


The guys who cut the John Carter trailer are all looking into alternative careers right now.
posted by unSane at 8:36 PM on March 17, 2012 [3 favorites]


and crying a lot
posted by unSane at 8:37 PM on March 17, 2012 [3 favorites]


All movies should have Michael Fassbender. That is all.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 8:39 PM on March 17, 2012 [16 favorites]


as well they should be
posted by elizardbits at 8:40 PM on March 17, 2012


Somebody sure liked Inception!

BUUUUURRRRRRRMMMMMMMM


They aren't the only ones. It's getting really cliche.

-----------------------

TRAILER FADES IN

EXT. Evening. New York City street. A man and woman face each other.

Woman: "Well, it's been .... interesting."
Man: "An interesting first date? I'm insecure already."

[BUUUUURRRRRRRMMMMMMMM]

Both Man and Woman look around, but are unable to locate the source of the sound.

Woman: "The part with the parrots was fun. And I'll always be fond of the duck."
Man: "Well, any means fair or fowl my dad always said."

[BUUUUURRRRRRRMMMMMMMM]

Woman: "Are you hearing that?"
Man: "Yeah, I'm not quite sure what it..."

[BUUUUURRRRRRRMMMMMMMM]

Man: "...means. This is supposed to be a romantic comedy right?"
Woman: "That's what my agent told me."

[BUUUUURRRRRRRMMMMMMMM]

Man: "Me too. Of course, neither of our agents are sitting here getting interrupted by tubas, are they?"

Tubas: [BUUUUURRRRRRRMMMMMMMM]

Woman: "Okay, screw this. Yo, horn section!"
Tubas: [BUUUUURRRRRRRMMMMMMMM]?
Woman: "Would you please knock that the fuck off? We do not need heavy handed grim foreboding here."
Tubas: [BUURRMM]?
Woman: "No, we don't need any light foreboding either. Comedy. C-O-M-E-D-Y."
Tubas: [Fart Noise]
Woman: "Yeah, okay, we can work with that. Where were we?"

Man: "...Well, any means fair or fowl my dad always said."
Woman: "A wise man your father. Maybe I should date him instead."

[....]
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:40 PM on March 17, 2012 [51 favorites]


winna, it sounds like a robotic creature's warning cry, to the others.

Very chilling.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:40 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


IT IS ON

My only fear is that even good movies suffer when you go in with really high expectations. I've got to calm down about this one somehow before it comes out.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 8:41 PM on March 17, 2012 [2 favorites]


The look of this movie based on the trailer is disappointing. It lacks the gritty organic quality of the original Alien.
posted by timsneezed at 8:44 PM on March 17, 2012


This movie better everything I've built it up to be in my mind or I'm seriously going to cry.
posted by Doleful Creature at 8:44 PM on March 17, 2012 [4 favorites]


AMC Prometheus Q&A with Ridley Scott and Damon Lindelof

I sure hope these guys are holding SOMETHING back, because the trailers sure do spill a lot.
posted by Artw at 8:45 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


If you guys like that noise, you'll love the fact that it's STRAIGHT outta the old Alien trailer. I noticed that with the first Prometheus one.

And I have to say, while this trailer is great, I prefer the old one because it mimics the original - with the type and everything. But holy shit am I seeing this movie.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 8:45 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


Prometheus Trailer #1 Image Breakdown, #37.
posted by vhsiv at 8:47 PM on March 17, 2012 [2 favorites]


winna, it sounds like a robotic creature's warning cry, to the others.

Very chilling.


Not necessarily! It could be some of those giant car-making robots from Detroit getting reading to crack open some cold Milwaukee's Best and have a giant robot lightswitch rave.

Think positive, man of twists and turns!
posted by winna at 8:47 PM on March 17, 2012 [7 favorites]


The look of this movie based on the trailer is disappointing. It lacks the gritty organic quality of the original Alien.

I don't think you need to worry about that, H.R. Giger has been involved, doing large murals, I'm sure they know they can get away (and are best served) by showing the least amount of alien in it until it hits theatres.
posted by furtive at 8:47 PM on March 17, 2012


If you are going to make comments about your boners, could you at least tie in with a joke about your giant boner popping a tinier boner which ejaculates acid?
posted by BrotherCaine at 8:49 PM on March 17, 2012 [56 favorites]


How I long for the SF epics of my youth. The ones where space is dark, mysterious and deadly, yet humankind is hungry for exploration. This may yet fit the bill.
posted by xigxag at 8:49 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


Oh hell yes. Please let this be good. I never use this tag, but..

Release date: Friday, June 8, 2012
posted by cashman at 8:50 PM on March 17, 2012


As someone who has pored over the concept art for Alien for hours on end, all the Cobb and the Mobeuis as well as the Foss and the Geiger, I can say it looks a lot like they took a lot form that concpet art and made a movie of it using modern moviemaking techniques, making it all weirdly familiar and unfamilar to me.
posted by Artw at 8:51 PM on March 17, 2012 [2 favorites]


Nice. I like a trailer that doesn't try to spell everything out, just some teasers of plot points and cool images.

Maybe it's more to it than it seems, but I felt that trailer actually revealed the whole plot: Scientists find invitation from "space jockey" alien race, go to meet them. Turns out invitation is trap, the jockeys want to invade earth and impregnate everyone with Aliens. Scientists are on board alien space ship when it takes off, but manages to sabotage its take off, resulting in the wreck seen in the Alien movie. Pretty formulaic and bland.
posted by ymgve at 8:52 PM on March 17, 2012 [6 favorites]


I would like to add that I vote that cashman's use of the blink tag be ratified as necessary and awesome.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 8:52 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


Blink tag apparently doesn't work in latest version of Safari. :(
posted by panaceanot at 8:54 PM on March 17, 2012


Not so much on the "bland" part, but yeah, the trailer is not exactly ambiguous about what the plot of the movie will be.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:55 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


Pretty formulaic and bland.

INTERNETS FISTICUFFS
posted by elizardbits at 8:58 PM on March 17, 2012 [3 favorites]


I think it looks great. My only nitpick would be the Minority Report style computer GUI. That's going to come back and haunt us just like the targeting computers in the first Star Wars.
posted by cazoo at 9:00 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


HEY, DID YOU READ MOUNATINS OF MADNESS? WELL IT'S *LIE THAT* YOU MONKYS WERE MADE BY SPACE WEIRDOS, EXPERIENCE ULTIMATE COSMIC HORROR! Only instead of the Antarctic it's space and instead of shoggoths it's mini-shoggoths in jars that turn you into space weirdos and OH NO,FOOLISH EARTHLINGS! YOU HAVE AWOKEN THE LONG DORMANT SPACE WEIRDO RACE AND THEY CAN ONLY BE RETURNED TO THEIR SLUMBER BY EXPLOSIONS!

It's not exactly been subtle in that regard, is what I'm saying. I kind of would have liked to see all that unfold as part of a movie, rather than having it as an understanding going in and just wondering what additional kinks have been thrown into it. But that's movie marketing for you these days.
posted by Artw at 9:01 PM on March 17, 2012 [5 favorites]


the targeting computers in the first Star Wars

A more elegant GUI for a more civilised age.
posted by Artw at 9:01 PM on March 17, 2012 [12 favorites]


>The look of this movie based on the trailer is disappointing. It lacks the gritty organic quality of the original Alien.

Presumably, the Prometheus is a fancier vessel than the Nostromo. The Nostromo was a hauling vessel; the Prometheus is a top-of-the-line, cutting edge, straight-out-drydock research vessel, complete with that new car smell.

Scott innovated that lived-in space thing with Alien 33 years ago. Let's leave him just a little space to grow, please.
posted by vhsiv at 9:02 PM on March 17, 2012 [7 favorites]


Graphics looks good, but the trailer is serious sold with sound effects and flash cuts, frankly (for me) it's hard to get a handle on the quality of the movie or acting based on this. May be stellar, may suck balls. Needs something other than BUUUURM, seizure seizure (oh hey that bit sounds like a STNG episode) BUUUURRRM
posted by edgeways at 9:06 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


Space Jockey chair at 2:03

Space Jockey itself at 2:13

fffffffffrikkin awesome
posted by Existential Dread at 9:14 PM on March 17, 2012 [3 favorites]


Forget Idris Elba for quality British actor; brief glimpse of Benedict Wong there, who has been on me A-list since his excellent turn in 15 Storeys High.
posted by Abiezer at 9:14 PM on March 17, 2012 [2 favorites]


Idris Elba! AKA Stringer Bell!!
Yay. So excited to see this movie.
posted by hot_monster at 9:15 PM on March 17, 2012


Jesus, they really show you 78% of the movie in the trailers nowadays...

I guess i'll +1 the comments claiming it'll be disappointing.
posted by palbo at 9:18 PM on March 17, 2012


Oh, the CGI, KILL IT! KILL IT!

The CGI bridge of the human ship looks like garbage. Almost as bad as V (2009). It almost looks like almost all the indoor areas are greenscreen. Forget that stuff.

The original Alien built a Nostromo with slide away walls so they can film like the camera was in the bowels of a space ship. Alien has aged so very very well (a couple of other contemporaries that also fared well in that regard are Bladerunner and Conan the Barbarian which shares the) because the sets were real and a *ton* of effort was put into physical models.

The CGI starships look goofy, especially when compared to the original space jockey spaceship model.

I actually like that the fancy floating holoscreen user interface is being flaunted. Since the sequels are all text interface (or voice, or through an android), I assume that's because of a massive backlash against Minority Report-style user interfaces that had cursed a generation with busted rotator cuffs.
posted by porpoise at 9:19 PM on March 17, 2012 [6 favorites]


ymgve, I'm impressed that you got all that plot out of the trailer, I didn't catch any of that. I was probably too mesmerized by the cool images or I'm just kinda dim.
posted by octothorpe at 9:21 PM on March 17, 2012


This is about the ship they find in Alien, right?
posted by Threeway Handshake at 9:21 PM on March 17, 2012 [5 favorites]


Pretty much. Although presumably there's going to have to be some kind of twist/everybody-dies ending to explain why every spacefarer for the rest of time wasn't shown a picture of that ship with a giant flashing red "DO NOT TOUCH" warning.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:23 PM on March 17, 2012




Wow, it's like the James Cameron thing never happened. This is a good thing. (To be fair, Aliens was not an utterly terrible film in its own right, but it was terribly un-risk-taking and formulaic compared to its source material; a rote summer action blockbuster rather than a gothic horror in space.)

Just stumbled on this Dan O'Bannon interview where among other things he talks about what the derelict spaceship was supposed to represent and how that got a little muddled in the movie. I'm not as convinced as he is that it didn't work, I certainly understood that the eggs and the "space jockey" were from different origins, and that was the whole point.
posted by George_Spiggott at 9:35 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


winna, I thought that noise sounded familiar
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:36 PM on March 17, 2012


I watched Alien for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and just that has left me falling-down excited for this film. Super intrigued and a tad creeped out by the shrill tone/noise/thing playing through the end of the trailer.
posted by Kaatridge at 9:36 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


If there's one thing reading hundreds of stories about Space Archeology has taught me, it's that Space Archeologists going around touching things is a bad idea for your themselves, their home planet and everybody else.
posted by Artw at 9:36 PM on March 17, 2012 [10 favorites]


Oh, the CGI, KILL IT! KILL IT!

No kidding, I hope those are unfinished blocking renders, because in those first scenes I immediately thought "fuck me, is this a Machinima film made on XBox?"
posted by George_Spiggott at 9:37 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


Pretty much. Although presumably there's going to have to be some kind of twist/everybody-dies ending to explain why every spacefarer for the rest of time wasn't shown a picture of that ship with a giant flashing red "DO NOT TOUCH" warning.

Not that it will happen, but it would be funny if the Prometheus expedition had been arranged by a rival company to WY. "Yeah, we found a planetary-level extinction threat, but we are NOT going to tell Weyland-Yutani, because fuck those assholes."
posted by ymgve at 9:37 PM on March 17, 2012 [14 favorites]


George: And aping Alien is risk-taking and mold-breaking? If we're looking forward to this for the craft more than the originality - which I don't think is a stretch given that after watching that trailer we all know, or believe we know, the plot of Prometheus - I don't see why we shouldn't judge Aliens by the same standard. And it was a very, very good action blockbuster.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:40 PM on March 17, 2012 [3 favorites]


Aliens by the same standard. And it was a very, very good action blockbuster.

Alien::Aliens as Lovecraft::The Atrocity Archives
posted by Chekhovian at 9:44 PM on March 17, 2012 [2 favorites]


I'm honestly not sure whether that's supposed to be a compliment to Aliens or an insult to this book I've never heard of until now.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:46 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


I don't remember a whole lot of world-underpinning racial paranoia in "Alien," though, so that analogy only carries so far.
posted by Earthtopus at 9:46 PM on March 17, 2012


If you guys like that noise, you'll love the fact that it's STRAIGHT outta the old Alien trailer. I noticed that with the first Prometheus one

BlackLeotardFront- this new Prometheus teaser is actually even more like the original Alien trailer than you might realize. The last 20 seconds or so seems to take it's entire editing and music scheme from the last third of the original (perfect) Alien trailer - down to the same (more or less) "alarm" sound being used over (more or less) silent footage. I was actually a bit disappointed with the first trailer for Prometheus because it had a lot to live up to... but was kind of weirdly psyched when they at least acknowledged in this one: if you can't beat yourself, imitate yourself! (and they did, and well!)
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 9:50 PM on March 17, 2012 [5 favorites]


It's some kind of adroit marketing job that can make me overlook my abiding conviction that Ridley Scott is a glorified commercials director who has botched, mangled and meandered his way through every story he's ever attempted to film, except for Alien, which just so happened to emerge from a perfect nexus of technical and artistic talent the likes which we have not seen since.

The chance for this to be another Phantom Menace-grade letdown is pretty damn high.
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 9:56 PM on March 17, 2012 [6 favorites]


hush, you
posted by Monochrome at 10:00 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


Are you talking about Alien or Aliens? Big difference.
posted by atomicmedia at 10:00 PM on March 17, 2012


No one asked you to do this Scott...
yet there is a smoothness... a certain smoothness...
posted by coolxcool=rad at 10:01 PM on March 17, 2012


Thank goodness all movies are as good as their trailers, or else we might be setting ourselves up for disappointment! Right?
posted by blue t-shirt at 10:01 PM on March 17, 2012 [5 favorites]


lalalalala i can't hear you
posted by elizardbits at 10:08 PM on March 17, 2012 [3 favorites]


Are you in space?
posted by LionIndex at 10:09 PM on March 17, 2012 [6 favorites]


....maybe
posted by elizardbits at 10:12 PM on March 17, 2012 [2 favorites]


if by "in space" you mean "under a blankie on the couch watching some like it hot and cackling wildly"
posted by elizardbits at 10:13 PM on March 17, 2012 [4 favorites]


That completely changes my opinion of astronauts.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 10:14 PM on March 17, 2012 [2 favorites]


I adore Ridley Scott and my hopes are positive but not Himalyan. The guy is human and he has done at least a couple of clunkers.

Cross your fingers!
posted by bukvich at 10:14 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


I shall cross the skittering claws of my chitinous exoskeleton!

i mean

what

who said that
posted by elizardbits at 10:15 PM on March 17, 2012 [11 favorites]


And he's in his mid-70's now. Not a great decade for directors.
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 10:16 PM on March 17, 2012


Hey, this comes out on my (ouch!) 40th birthday. Guess I know how I'm celebrating.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 10:18 PM on March 17, 2012


It's also the Ridley Scott who thinks Bladerunner would be better if Deckard were explicitly a robot because that's such a great improvement over all the underplayed subext regarding empathy in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

But still, I am kicking the shriveled facehugger husk of previous disapointments under my space-bunk and holding onto hope until the larval alien of disapointment bursts from my chest.
posted by Artw at 10:19 PM on March 17, 2012 [10 favorites]


Regarding the sound in this trailer (which is from the original Alien trailer:

1. Why is it the scariest sound in the world?

2. How in the world did I completely forget that it is the scariest sound in the world?
posted by Ducks or monkeys at 10:26 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


This movie looks like it's made for visceral thrills. The story line seems safe and not particularly groundbreaking. Looks like a money making film. Scott doesn't need to prove anything by taking risks. I would not get your hopes up.
posted by stbalbach at 10:26 PM on March 17, 2012


Did anybody else get a bit of a Firefly vibe off of the ship? It looked sorta like Serenity if it had a couple of extra engine grafted on the back.
posted by kmz at 10:26 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


Pretty sure Alien was made with visceral thrills in mind, what with the whole "trapped on a spaceship with an unseen monster hunting people down one by one" and all.
posted by Ducks or monkeys at 10:28 PM on March 17, 2012 [4 favorites]


Looks like a money making film.

So, a film.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 10:28 PM on March 17, 2012 [6 favorites]


They land on earth and it turns out that they're our ancestors. We are the aliens.
posted by Joe in Australia at 10:32 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


Whatever happened to that Ridley Scott Monopoly movie? Is that still on? Are they waiting to see how Battleship does?
posted by kmz at 10:34 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]




stbalbach: "Looks like a money making film."

Well, I hope so.
posted by brundlefly at 10:42 PM on March 17, 2012


PROMETHEUS OF MARS

There, ftfy.
posted by Artw at 10:47 PM on March 17, 2012


Did you see the part where they shot out those red orbs to scan the corridor? That was same heavy Cave of Forgotten Dreams type shit going on on there. I expect a Herzog cameo.
posted by quadog at 10:59 PM on March 17, 2012 [3 favorites]


From that AMC link: "undeniably one of the greatest directors of all time." What? He's made two excellent movies, maybe two more that were above average, and 25 shit ones. I'd say he's undeniably one of the most over-rated directors of all time.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 11:29 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


Sorry to spoil the party, but to me this smacks of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. I think it's a testament to Alien being a great movie that it provokes decades of conversation and allows the viewer to use their own imagination to fill in non-essential back story details. Instead what we have here is a movie that hand feeds us every minute detail, and, despite all its fancy CG modeling and "heart pounding action", looks incredibly pedestrian and quite possibly downright boring.

Fortunately, I won't have to be wonder if I will be disappointed by it because (as was mentioned upthread) the general plot of this movie is laid out completely in the trailer, leaving me with no real reason to see it. Thanks lowest-common-denominator studio marketing.

Also, I appreciate it if you would get off my lawn.
posted by bionic.junkie at 11:37 PM on March 17, 2012 [3 favorites]


Watched the new trailer, loved it, almost wished I hadn't though - I sometimes like to head into a new movie 'clean', without being pre-corrupted by trailer fodder.

Then I re-watched the original Alien trailer.

Someone was bemoaning the lack of 'gritty realism' in the new trailer, and by extension, the new and as yet not completely released film. If you look at the original trailer, it's highly influenced by the results that the Voyager probes were sending back at the time. Also, the limits of the tech meant that a spooky camera flyover of some dry mud was a distant planet.

Not to mention the fact that the good scary parts of Alien were shot in, essentially, a flying refinery.

If you want to apply the hallmarks of this disco-era "gritty realism" and tech, then go re-watch Terminator Salvation. I'll take well-done CGI, cool ships, cool control panel readouts, and a whole future design language influenced by what we have today. If anything, it makes for fun rewatching 20 years later so we can all see how far off things were.

To stretch the metaphor uncomfortably, all of the cool ideas behind the original BSG updated with new twists and characters, cool CGI, and fleshed out a bit more. More or less faithful to the original, dressed up in recent, relevant tech and social ideas. Just lets not talk about the ending.
posted by HannoverFist at 11:41 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


fuck fuck fuck why did I watch that. :( It gives away way too much plot.
posted by lastobelus at 11:57 PM on March 17, 2012


SPOILER ALERT: Batty facehugs Tyrell. MORE SPOILER ALERT: Batty only sidehugs JF.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:02 AM on March 18, 2012 [4 favorites]


It's funny how meta the whole Alien(s) franchise has become. The series itself is like the hero that started with high hopes, rose to a challenge, and then fell from grace. This prequel is like a final opportunity for salvation from the moronic sideshow of the Aliens v. Predators, et al. If anyone can return the concept to its former glory it has to be the director that started it off. I'd trust Ridley Scott to deliver on a story and vision more than many other Hollywood-types. Looking forward to the release.
posted by quadog at 12:03 AM on March 18, 2012


Maybe it's more to it than it seems, but I felt that trailer actually revealed the whole plot:

Did...did have to prove how smart you and spoil it for others, really?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:05 AM on March 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


Yeah the trailer doesn't seem to reveal that much. I've even been following this and remember the last thread yet watching the trailer doesn't really make me remember what the plot is supposed to be. The trailer is pretty vague.

Also in that Q&A video Ridley Scott tells someone to fuck off because they asked if he used a lot of CG or "old school" sets. He proceeded to talk about the limitations of filming against green screen vacuum, so I don't know about the talk of too much CG. Maybe he was lying and my eyes are getting bad.
posted by palidor at 12:12 AM on March 18, 2012


Haha if you couldn't connect the dots between "WHEEE AN INVITATION!" and "WE WERE WRONG OH NOOOO!" then I'm not sure even watching the movie could spoil it for anyone.
posted by basicchannel at 12:13 AM on March 18, 2012 [13 favorites]


Sorry for the unnecessary "Haha" as I was actually laughing as I wrote that.
posted by basicchannel at 12:14 AM on March 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


kmz - "Did anybody else get a bit of a Firefly vibe off of the ship? It looked sorta like Serenity if it had a couple of extra engine grafted on the back."

Hypothetical Person: I thought that "The Lord of the Rings" was supposed to be so great. WTH? It's basically just WoW fanfic or something.
posted by porpoise at 12:14 AM on March 18, 2012 [3 favorites]


Well, you know, here's hoping there's more to it.
posted by Artw at 12:15 AM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


Alien::Aliens as Lovecraft::The Atrocity Archives

I'm honestly not sure whether that's supposed to be a compliment to Aliens or an insult to this book I've never heard of until now.


A large part of the je ne sais quoi of Alien is the mysterious unknown and unknowable nature of the monster. In Aliens, its a sort of solved problem. There's this terrible thing and you can fight it, at least a little.

Lovecrafts works always have the eldritch terrors from beyond that are beyond the powers of reason. Stross's Laundry books have eldritch terrors from beyond that we can fight against and understand, at least a little.
posted by Chekhovian at 12:23 AM on March 18, 2012


Alien was arguably one of the best "haunted house" stories ever (look, it's a haunted house, just cast into space -- not scifi, not SF, just purest suspense/horror).

While a good haunted-house-style flick is filled with horror, the unknown, and (of course) the unknown horror, nobody really gives a shit how it was constructed.


That said... ohpleasedon'tsuckohpleasedon'tsuckohpleasedon'tsuck


Can I pre-purchase tickets now? Please?
posted by drfu at 12:26 AM on March 18, 2012


Noooooooomi!
posted by hal9k at 12:27 AM on March 18, 2012


Lovecrafts works always have the eldritch terrors from beyond that are beyond the powers of reason. Stross's Laundry books have eldritch terrors from beyond that we can fight against and understand, at least a little.

Well, they get bleaker as they go on. But A Colder War is probably closer to true Lovecraftian bleakness.
posted by Artw at 12:30 AM on March 18, 2012 [3 favorites]


I enjoy the Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?* Trope more than I care to admit.

*Warning TV Tropes Trigger
posted by Chekhovian at 12:38 AM on March 18, 2012 [4 favorites]




I kind of wish that he had stuck with the same user interface that nostromo had.

Also, we see the bad guys at least twice in the trailer so it's not like he's hiding them.
posted by dibblda at 12:52 AM on March 18, 2012


moronic sideshow of the Aliens v. Predators

Aliens v. Predators was actually better than Aliens 3 and that Alien Generations travesty. In fact Aliens v. Predators was not too bad.
posted by mattoxic at 12:57 AM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


Alien Resurrection sorry
posted by mattoxic at 12:58 AM on March 18, 2012


Every time I hear that horn noise, all I'll ever think of is

RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN
posted by Slackermagee at 1:24 AM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


OMFG I AM SUPERPSYCHED
posted by New England Cultist at 1:25 AM on March 18, 2012


From what I understand, this movie started as an Alien prequel, but is not, in fact, an alien prequel. It's a sort of reboot.. so yes, all the Alien purists (do these exist?) will be upset by the changes to the mythology. But honestly, I think it looks awesome. Though it is somewhat reminiscient of Mass Effect.... that there is some malevolent galactic author that has left a trail of breadcrumbs to our doom.
posted by mek at 1:29 AM on March 18, 2012


There's a xenomorph at 1:37. Or a statue or sculpture of one anyway. Scott said there wouldn't be any in the movie, but I expect that to be a lie.
posted by painquale at 1:36 AM on March 18, 2012


I don't watch movies often but Prometheus is a film that I wouldn't miss for the world!
posted by HeyHerman at 2:11 AM on March 18, 2012


I think that scary horn sound would be good for a burglar alarm. Klaxons and ringing bells don't make people wet their pants now, do they?
posted by Harald74 at 2:16 AM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


Also, I'm going to nerd out a little and wear my Weyland-Yutani T-shirt to the cinema...
posted by Harald74 at 2:17 AM on March 18, 2012 [4 favorites]


When they talk about giving electric cars soundtracks to make them safer, that scary horn is what they should be aiming for.
posted by maxwelton at 2:38 AM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]




Scary stuff. I blame this all on TED.
posted by lampshade at 3:04 AM on March 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


Did people really think the CGI was that bad? I watched the 720p version on fullscreen, and it looked fine to me.

I mean sure, you can tell it's CGI, but since when is that in itself a problem?

(I also I didn't realise Michael Fassbender was in this :D)
posted by anaximander at 3:45 AM on March 18, 2012


Also agreeing that the trailer gave away a little too much of the plot. (Of course, that won't keep me from watching it on opening weekend when it finally makes it to my side of the world.)
posted by Kevtaro at 3:53 AM on March 18, 2012


I don't know how the movie is, but that's a great trailer. Not too long, plenty of teases--but only teases--and has its own pacing and tension. Every other trailer I see these days seems to be a summary of the entire film, spoilers included.
posted by zardoz at 3:58 AM on March 18, 2012


"Sorry to spoil the party, but to me this smacks of the Star Wars prequel"

Hardly
. This does.

"Maybe it's more to it than it seems, but I felt that trailer actually revealed the whole plot"

So, you're saying that they let their feelings lure them into a trap, and though they stop the enemy's plan at great cost, the final outcome is left unresolved?

Yeah, I can see why that would be bad.
posted by markkraft at 4:13 AM on March 18, 2012


Also, this trailer makes me think that this movie should just be called "Beautiful People In Peril".
posted by the painkiller at 4:14 AM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


(I, for one, am hoping that this will be the first Best Motion Picture Oscar for a science-fiction film.)
posted by markkraft at 4:14 AM on March 18, 2012


I refuse to watch another movie where they translate the ancient inscriptions of a vanished civilzation unless it takes 30 years, is mostly done by grad students and it turns out to be just grain storage records and fart jokes.
posted by Dr Dracator at 4:19 AM on March 18, 2012 [40 favorites]


Time for my Alien Nerd hat to go on...

It's interesting that with Prometheus they've bypassed the AvP films completely according to the new timeline. However, Aliens gets a pass because both the Weyland Yutani logo and 'Building Better Worlds' is straight out of Cameron's film.

There's also a lot of conjecture about the alien ship with attempts to declare it as being the same as the derelict from Alien. I suspect that this isn't the case for all sorts of reasons, but mainly because the derelict was incredibly old when the crew of the Nostromo found it. The 'space jockey' was actually fossilised.

The new Prometheus trailer *does* give the plot away - and quite a few major plot points if you study it carefully enough. Also, putting Earth under threat also puts the writers into a corner, because we know Earth is still around by the time of Alien and Aliens. That's probably one of the reasons why they were trying to avoid the 'prequel' tag in marketing the film.

Despite that, it looks absolutely fantastic and I don't think we're going to be disappointed by the final film.
posted by panboi at 4:25 AM on March 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


All movies should have Michael Fassbender. That is all.

All movies DO have Michael Fassbender in them don't they?
posted by Summer at 4:27 AM on March 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


"I refuse to watch another movie where they translate the ancient inscriptions of a vanished civilzation unless it takes 30 years, is mostly done by grad students and it turns out to be just grain storage records and fart jokes."

Actually, if they do translate the ancient inscriptions quickly, it would kind of make sense, within the context of that universe.

From the Weyland Industries website corporate timeline:
August 9, 1960:
Weyland Industries introduces revolutionary, game-changing language tool. It is the first ever to require no actual learning on the consumer’s behalf.
posted by markkraft at 4:29 AM on March 18, 2012


Sure, we've all been disappointed by movies, books, games, really anything that gets hyped and that we're excited for. But I'm going to focus on all the positive stuff in this thread. I'd much rather be with a bunch of people who are expecting the best from this than a bunch of people who have already decided it blows. It's just more fun that way.
posted by Ducks or monkeys at 4:49 AM on March 18, 2012 [6 favorites]


Also, this trailer makes me think that this movie should just be called "Beautiful People In Peril".

Few will pay good money to watch ugly people run screaming for their lives.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:54 AM on March 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


They land on earth and it turns out that they're our ancestors. We are the aliens.

No, Joe. You are the demons.

And then Joe was a zombie.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 5:35 AM on March 18, 2012 [5 favorites]


Ah, so basically in this new movie, we will learn about how the Alien has very, VERY high midichlorians and we get to watch it grow from being a small boy into a monster.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 5:55 AM on March 18, 2012 [3 favorites]


Few will pay good money to watch ugly people run screaming for their lives.

YOU DON'T KNOW ME
posted by Sticherbeast at 6:00 AM on March 18, 2012 [3 favorites]


It's funnier in Dean Pelton's voice.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 6:03 AM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


Thank goodness all movies are as good as their trailers, or else we might be setting ourselves up for disappointment! Right?

Right! It's like hey, the trailer for Star Trek V was pretty good, so that's a good movie, right?
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:03 AM on March 18, 2012


Blazecock Pileon: "Few will pay good money to watch ugly people run screaming for their lives."

No one in the the original was what you'd call conventionally beautiful. I've had a huge crush on Weaver since 1979 but I doubt that she'd make it in today's Hollywood. With the exception Rapace, the current cast looks pretty boringly conventional.
posted by octothorpe at 6:13 AM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


the trailer gave away a little too much of the plot

I think that that is assuming that the current trailer is a linear summary, rather than a non-linear collage (which is what a lot of trailers actually are). Maybe they want you you to think that this is the plot.
posted by carter at 6:20 AM on March 18, 2012


I think it looks great. I'm glad the segment of fandom that derives its pleasure from pre-emptively pooping on anything it sees is also having a good time.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:30 AM on March 18, 2012 [3 favorites]


Hypothetical Person: I thought that "The Lord of the Rings" was supposed to be so great. WTH? It's basically just WoW fanfic or something.

1. My comment wasn't critical, I just thought it was interesting. 2. The Alien series was obviously an influence on Firefly, but I don't remember any Firefly-class looking ships in previous Alien movies.
posted by kmz at 6:31 AM on March 18, 2012


Here's another good PROMETHEUS trailer. It's more destructiony.

As for the SPOILER factor, I think people are getting overwrought because a comparison of the two trailers tells two different hypothetical stories -- one that seems 50/50 terrestrial and space-based and another that seems more interstellar.

The guys who cut the trailers are often working at cross-purposes with the studio, the director and the marketing people. There's no telling what this movie is really like until June 6.
posted by vhsiv at 6:36 AM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


I would give up every possession I have to watch ugly people run screaming for their lives.
posted by Renoroc at 6:50 AM on March 18, 2012


Can. Not. Wait.

Idris Elba! AKA Stringer Bell!!

What is that accent he's affecting? It's not British and it's not a Baltimore accent either. Not sure if I like. But wow is there an abundance of Idris in this trailer. Are they trying to dispel the tongue-in-cheek concerns that his character--as the resident Black guy--won't live until the end of the movie?

To be fair, Aliens was not an utterly terrible film in its own right

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the definition of "damning with faint praise". To be fair, Aliens was a better film than Alien.

All movies should have Michael Fassbender. That is all.

Meh. The guy looks like he was built by scientists to represent "the perfect specimen". He's a little too perfect. However, some butt shots would be nice. Also, I'm concerned about the possible relationship of his and Charlize Theron's characters in this film. Feels a little "master race"-ish.

Oh, the CGI, KILL IT! KILL IT!

Yeah, that's worrisome but then again, I'm hoping they'll release a 3D/IMAX version.
posted by fuse theorem at 7:07 AM on March 18, 2012


I don't know if this is necessarily spoilers, but at the Weyland industries site it mentions mouse over here for possible spoilers.
posted by codacorolla at 7:09 AM on March 18, 2012


He's a little too perfect

This might be appropriate casting.
posted by quosimosaur at 7:12 AM on March 18, 2012 [3 favorites]


After watching it a second time I wonder if the 'this is obviously what it going to happen' is a bit of a serve by quoting dialogue out of context.

And it continues to look all look a bit too sharply defined but that's a consequence of digital (and 3d), I just miss the lushness of old-skool film cinematography

And I don't mind the supposed prettiness of the cast. At least they can all act.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 7:19 AM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


I'm gonna go out on a limb and say, based on the trailers, that the planet Prometheus and the Space Jockey ship are on is not LV-426.
posted by gsh at 7:51 AM on March 18, 2012


From now on I'm going to refer to that horn sound as "the Ominous Goose".
posted by mhoye at 7:59 AM on March 18, 2012 [11 favorites]


From now on I'm going to refer to that horn sound as "the Ominous Goose".
posted by mhoye at 9:59 AM on March 18 [+] [!]

I am the terror that honks in the night...
posted by WinnipegDragon at 8:16 AM on March 18, 2012 [4 favorites]


How does it work when you want to get Guy Pearce to come in and do some backstory (Peter Weyland's TED talk from 2023) that probably won't appear in the actual film? Do you pay him scale?
posted by secretseasons at 8:32 AM on March 18, 2012


Eh it's probably part of the promo rider in his contract, same as, like, shooting the photos for the DVD cover.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:22 AM on March 18, 2012


How does it work when you want to get Guy Pearce to come in and do some backstory (Peter Weyland's TED talk from 2023) that probably won't appear in the actual film? Do you pay him scale?

He's in credits at the end of the trailer. Maybe it's just setup for the viral ads, but he might actually show up in the film. (hopefully in the subplot they kept out of the trailer so the whole thing wasn't spoiled. because otherwise, that trailer revealed WAY too much.)
posted by cnelson at 9:29 AM on March 18, 2012


He's a little too perfect

This might be appropriate casting.


Awww, is that a spoiler? Nooo!
runs away, covering eyes
posted by fuse theorem at 9:35 AM on March 18, 2012


From now on I'm going to refer to that horn sound as "the Ominous Goose".

Anyone have a good sound file for it? I want it for my ring tone.
posted by TwelveTwo at 9:44 AM on March 18, 2012 [5 favorites]


I think that including dialogue in the trailer was a mistake as it's the dialogue that's giving the game away. Compare to the original trailers for Alien and Aliens where it's all visuals (and "ominous goose") which keep you guessing.

There's other elements that are cropping up that are letting you fill in the blanks for Prometheus. Some of the background info talks about two opposing forces on Earth battling for dominance, which has to be Weyland and Yutani prior to their merger - and I suspect this will be a plot point.

Here's my take on the plot anyway based on what we've seen and what we can extrapolate from all the internet marketing:

Suspiciously similar iconography crops up in ancient civilizations that reveal a map that points to a distant planet. Weyland Industries sends the Prometheus out to investigate as part of 'Project Prometheus'.

They discover evidence of an alien species and trigger an awakening. The alien species is humanoid in appearance, but are biomechanical in nature and use biomech suits for different purposes (hence the 'space jockey'). Evidence suggests that these aliens either created life on Earth or assisted them in some fashion. This is learned either by communication with the alien or by deciphering the hieroglyphs via the handy Weyland Broca Dialectical Implant language tool.

During the investigation one of the team gets infected and becomes a threat. At some point, some of the crew - or possibly a separate crew - are revealed to be agents of the Yutani corp and come in armed to capture the crew and also the secrets of the world.

It becomes clear that the intentions of the aliens are hostile. Perhaps the 'invitation' was orchestrated to see if humanity had mastered spaceflight - at which point the species would need to be pruned back or wiped out altogether. In any case, the space jockey ship is leaving and it's heading to Earth. The Prometheus is a research vessel and isn't designed for combat, so Idris Elba does the honourable thing and plows it straight into the space jockey ship causing it to crash. Charlize Theron's character makes it to one of the escape pods and gets away.

I suspect that although some of the crew remain alive on the surface, none of them survive in the long run - with the exception of Michael Fassbender who is one of the 'David' series of cybernetic organisms. Perhaps being biomechanical in some fashion gives him a pass. Perhaps that was the long term goal of the space jockey species to begin with.

I'll go out on a limb here and also suggest that while we'll see glimpses of the familiar xenomorph aliens, they won't factor much into the film. I think it's more likely that they'll be used as a plot point to show how the space jockey species can get it wrong. They created the xenomorphs a very long time ago and they got out of control (wrecking one of their ships on LV426 in the distant past as an example). Hence the decision to cull certain species.

This is all conjecture, but I'd be very surprised (and more than delighted) if the main plot deviates much from that outline.

Some of this info is up on the Weyland website along with other snippets of info that I predict will be weaved into the plot (it's also worth noting that the Timeline on that site fills in some interesting background on the foundations for the Alien universe - and pretty much confirms that all of James Cameron's additions are part of that world: power lifters, Colonial Marines etc).
posted by panboi at 9:45 AM on March 18, 2012 [5 favorites]


I would talk to my phone as it rang, every statement more ominous than the last. "Who is calling, at THIS HOUR?" *RONNNGGG* "Could it be?" *ROONNGGG* "So it has come to this." *RRONNGGG* All the while, the people around me humor me impatiently, until eventually, they leave the room and the caller hangs up.
posted by TwelveTwo at 9:46 AM on March 18, 2012 [9 favorites]


Seriously, I want this ring tone. Let's make this happen. I will promise to put up a mefi project page up so others may follow. I just need someone to get me a real good and ominous dread goose horror honk.
posted by TwelveTwo at 10:44 AM on March 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


Okay, I complained about the "Inception sound" showing up in every trailer in the last Prometheus trailer thread. It didn't bother me as much this time and I really enjoyed the trailer except I feel like in the last 30 seconds they may have told the whole story for the film.

Okay but think about it, there's a whole plot in this one trailer, especially when combined with the last one (which was way more ambiguous)

HOVER FOR SPECULATIVE SPOILER

Now, maybe the plot is actually completely different, but I feel like there's already plot 'closure' and implied denouement within the context of the trailers that have been released. Of course, on the other hand maybe HOVER FOR MORE SPECULATION

panboi's version was a lot more complex then mine, and...

The original Alien trailer doesn't tell you anything about the plot.
As for the SPOILER factor, I think people are getting overwrought because a comparison of the two trailers tells two different hypothetical stories -- one that seems 50/50 terrestrial and space-based and another that seems more interstellar.
I think you're missing the fact that everything in the first trailer happens on another planet, the same one we see in the second trailer. The first trailer was good. It didn't really spell anything out and just showed images. The second trailer sketches out a complete plot, and given facts from the first movie give a clear picture of the ending.
Blink tag apparently doesn't work in latest version of Safari. :(
Blink has only ever worked in mozilla derivatives. Never chrome/safari/IE/etc.
posted by delmoi at 10:47 AM on March 18, 2012


HOVER FOR SPECULATIVE SPOILER

That's not so much speculative as a description of everything that's in the trailer.
posted by Artw at 10:50 AM on March 18, 2012


Watched the trailer right after reading Matt Taibbi's piece on BOA. Now it's a mashup in my head.

"...I think it's a prospectus!"
"LOAAAANS"
"If you don't let them fail there won't be an economy for us to go back to!"
"LOOOAAAANS"
"It's attorney general -- he says there's something corrupt in there"
"LOOOOOAAAANSSS"
"Big businesses start very, very small."
"LOOOOAAAAAAANSSSS"
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:55 AM on March 18, 2012 [14 favorites]


That's not so much speculative as a description of everything that's in the trailer.

Well, right. At the same time it's theoretically possible that what I outlined isn't actually what happens in the movie. I certainly hope not because if it is we'll basically know what happens :/

The other thing, the whole 'ancient hieroglyphs speak of alien race' thing is such a cliche at this point, although in this case it does seem like a reversal of the usual trope so maybe not such a bad thing.
posted by delmoi at 10:59 AM on March 18, 2012


That trailer's been up less than 24hrs and it's already got over half a million views (and that's not counting the copies).... unless the advance reviews are utterly poisonous I don't think they need to worry too much about box office.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 11:01 AM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


No kidding, I hope those are unfinished blocking renders, because in those first scenes I immediately thought "fuck me, is this a Machinima film made on XBox?"
posted by George_Spiggott


I was told that the FX guys from Starship Troopers decided to take a break from the deadline crunch, and go see a movie together. Then a trailer for Starship Troopers came on, and they all jumped up in a panic and ran back to work.
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:26 AM on March 18, 2012 [8 favorites]


There was talk about taking the story forward after this one so the final scenes may be open-ended.

Another interesting fact up on the Weyland site is the reference to Zeta 2 Reticula as a possible terraforming destination. That system is where LV426 (aka the original planetoid in Alien) is located. Weyland hope to reach it "within the century" which could conceivably put it in the frame for Prometheus.

There's a few issues here though - LV426 was a very harsh environment which wasn't made habitable until 50 years after the events of Alien. It's a little weird that they should discover a system and then just discard it for so long.

There's clearly no human habitation or evidence of human exploration by the time the Nostromo rocks up, so assuming that Prometheus does take place on the same world then there has to be a reason for the system being abandoned for so long.

That may be covered in the plot, but I reckon that would be too much of an obvious move by Ridley Scott, so my money is on the Prometheus landing on an entirely different world in an entirely different system.

The Weyland site is great, but it's sometimes tricky sorting out the shout-outs to Alien, Aliens (just figured out the Lifeboat one!) and what are obvious references to Prometheus.
posted by panboi at 12:04 PM on March 18, 2012


Seriously, I want this ring tone.

Someone who is actually a musician can come and school me, but it sounds like a transition from A#4 up to C5. It's just a matter of getting the timbre right.

I am playing with it, but I am all untutored in the ways of making musical thingies, so should someone do it instead of me that would be super.
posted by winna at 1:07 PM on March 18, 2012


Being generally out-of-the-loop regarding things like new films coming out, after watching this trailer I immediately went to look and see if it was supposed to be an Alien prequel. It seems that's not the case, but it sure does look Alien-esque.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 1:28 PM on March 18, 2012


Here's the audio file used with the Inception button. There is a little bit of a difference between the two, but it wouldn't be too difficult to extract from the video file. 11 to 14 seconds has a clean sample of it with nothing else in the soundtrack. You can download the video off youtube using keepvid (probably want to turn on adblock, though. I've heard that there are confusing ads that try to get people to click on them instead of the actual download links).

VLC will let you extract an audio file from a video, and from there you'd just need to chop it down to size.
I immediately went to look and see if it was supposed to be an Alien prequel. It seems that's not the case, but it sure does look Alien-esque.
It's kind of ambiguous whether it's an alien prequel, actually. Supposedly it's set in the same universe, but perhaps isn't necessarily 'connected' with the other aliens movies.
posted by delmoi at 1:32 PM on March 18, 2012


Ah, I am trying to do the robotic goose noise. The inception noise is not as thrilling to my soul, but I don't think I'd ever answer the phone with robotic goose. I'd just listen to it until the person was enraged and hung up.
posted by winna at 1:35 PM on March 18, 2012


The whole prequel debate seems like a foregone conclusion at this point—given how much attention has been paid to that, I doubt many in the audience will go in without thinking about Alien in some fashion.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:36 PM on March 18, 2012


The leaked summary still seems in line with this new trailer.

For those of you who haven't seen it:

SPOILER WARNING
Possible PROMETHEUS Synopsis
SPOILER WARNING

I think this is pretty close to what we will see in a few months.
posted by mrbill at 1:49 PM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


By the way, speaking of keepvid and VLC, I actually did end up downloading it and watching it in VLC rather then on youtube, one of the cool features is that you can actually slow down the video playback rate. The second half of the trailer just shows a bunch of high frequency images that are kind of hard to make out at regular speed, but there is definitly some weird stuff going on, especially around 2:03-2:05 Also around that same time you can see some things.

Also, I gave one theory, now I think it might be a little different, the plan may be different. Anyway, I guess there is a lot we don't know about what's going to happen, but it does seem like we were told a lot of the plot. Hopefully the story we see in the trailer is just the start of the movie, or something.
I think this is pretty close to what we will see in a few months.
Definitely not clicking that :P
posted by delmoi at 1:55 PM on March 18, 2012


I think this is pretty close to what we will see in a few months.

That's a very old synopsis that was doing the rounds last year. It doesn't match up with the info we already know, particularly with the trailer - absolutely with the cast (also, on a separate point, it's a badly written synopsis with some really terrible plotlines).
posted by panboi at 2:10 PM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


That's a very old synopsis that was doing the rounds last year.

I wouldn't be surprised if that's an old rough draft and bits / pieces of it survived to the shooting script.
posted by mrbill at 2:13 PM on March 18, 2012


kmz: "I don't remember any Firefly-class looking ships in previous Alien movies."

I always wondered if the Firefly design may have been influenced by "The Betty" from Alien Resurrection. Though I also kind of wonder if the birth of the whole Firefly/Serenity concept could be traced back to Joss Whedon's job writing the script for Aliens Resurrection.
posted by the_artificer at 2:22 PM on March 18, 2012


>I think this is pretty close to what we will see in a few months.

Do you think that the Frank Kelly who plays Aldritch is Father Ted's Frank Kelly?

I hope the feck it is.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 2:25 PM on March 18, 2012


What is that accent he's affecting? It's not British and it's not a Baltimore accent either.

Generic rural US.
posted by eddydamascene at 2:42 PM on March 18, 2012


Generic rural US.

Man, I really hope not. When I closed my eyes and listened with this in mind, I could sort of hear it, but he pretty much just sounds like John Luther with a slight drawl to me.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 2:52 PM on March 18, 2012


Some of the background info talks about two opposing forces on Earth battling for dominance, which has to be Weyland and Yutani prior to their merger - and I suspect this will be a plot point.

Does anyone remember the late '70s and early '80s, when the Japanese seemed to be buying up HUGE chunks of the US infrastructure? Sony bought Columbia Pictures, Matshutshita bought Universal and a few other corporations were on the bubble.

My semi-hazy memory of those years contain a notion that the creators of Alien (and Total Recall and RoboCop (Mostly Dan O'Bannon and Ron Shusett) were taking a piss on those foreign corporate takeovers.

(20th Century Fox has almost always been an American company, Carolco was a European-owned conglomerate. Fox brought us Alien and Carolco did the other two.)

(I honestly don't know why I remember details like this.)
posted by vhsiv at 3:25 PM on March 18, 2012


IIRC Weyland-Yutani was created by Ron Cobb, a composite of British Leyland and a generic zaibatsu named after his Japanese neighbour.
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 3:39 PM on March 18, 2012


eddydamascene: "Generic rural US."

Sounds like standard British actor American accent.
posted by octothorpe at 3:40 PM on March 18, 2012


The UK gets a different trailer with a less dramatic soundtrack. Glad I didn't see this one first.
posted by octothorpe at 4:00 PM on March 18, 2012


why are the UK versions always so much better.
posted by timsneezed at 4:05 PM on March 18, 2012


***SPOILER***

It was Iceland all along!!!!
posted by panboi at 4:31 PM on March 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


I didn't like the UK/International trailer ^above^.

MeFites should be discouraged from checking it out because that trailer is too linear and spoilery.
posted by vhsiv at 4:39 PM on March 18, 2012


I didn't like the UK trailer at all, makes the movie seem pretty boring and non-scary.
posted by octothorpe at 4:56 PM on March 18, 2012


The UK trailer seemed to want to avoid referencing Alien, for some reason.
posted by SPrintF at 5:53 PM on March 18, 2012


Yeah, found the UK trailer pretty bleh. It made it seem even more like a reheated version of stargate.

I did find this promo video, for one of the Weyland androids. though on related videos, that was kind of cool

One other thing, I don't know if anyone else noticed this but during the ted talk video there was a bitly URL in the backround at one point I'm pretty sure it points to http://bit.ly/fgwQvj, which points to a kind of random website. No idea if it actually ties into the movie or what.
posted by delmoi at 5:54 PM on March 18, 2012


I think this would be a better trailer if the soundtrack was "Sing, Sing, Sing".
posted by tumid dahlia at 5:55 PM on March 18, 2012


Hmm, there's a trailer soundtrack on youtube if you want 2:48 of progressively more intense "Brrrrrm" noises.
posted by delmoi at 5:58 PM on March 18, 2012


delmoi, try http://bit.ly/tgwQvj

Aha!
posted by twooster at 6:03 PM on March 18, 2012


Ah, just links to the iTunes trailers page. Boring.
posted by delmoi at 6:06 PM on March 18, 2012


I don't know if the Intl trailer is MORE spoilery or just DIFFERENT spoilery.

It does seem

(Potentially Spoilerish Suppositions in very small)

to play up the "tragedy of scientific hubris" story more than the "aliens have tricked us" story in the US trailer. Fassbender asking "How far will you go?" or whatever -- made it seem like the story was going to be about humans going looking for something beyond our power to comprehend, not getting tricked by aliens who want to harvest humankind or something
posted by Saxon Kane at 6:24 PM on March 18, 2012


fuse theorem: To be fair, Aliens was a better film than Alien.

I'm hoping that the fact that you haven't posted for about nine hours means that someone took you to task for harboring this loathsome opinion.

Aliens is a fine movie, but it ain't no Alien.
posted by invitapriore at 6:27 PM on March 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


Not to be Lil' Eddie Equivocal, but Alien and Aliens are two very different movies. The former is a great suspense-horror with some body horror elements and a gritty sci-fi patina. The latter is a gung-ho military sci fi action movie with a heavy dose of post-Vietnam darkness about it. Both are awesome, in many different ways.

Incidentally, I happened to see Aliens first, when I was a kid. Didn't see Alien for a few years later -- maybe not even until college? Anyone else go that route?
posted by Saxon Kane at 6:36 PM on March 18, 2012 [4 favorites]


Yeah, I saw Aliens first and didn't see the first film until my late teens. I prefer Alien personally, but Aliens is still one of my favorite films.
posted by brundlefly at 6:54 PM on March 18, 2012


Which Alien film was better? Oh, please let me sop a sponge on this eternal question.

First of all, to be fair, you cannot improve on "Get away from her, you BITCH" in a mech suit, and undeniably 1986 made good on some sci-fi enhancements.

That said, the original film benefits from the cast being mostly non-meatheads, whereas the sequel suffers from them being too numerous and largely such. As in, please kill all of these people, kill them before I hate them into exctinction, except for Ripley and the kid and the poor milky-gutted synthetic.

And the original film benefits from being the film upon which the sequel was slavishly and fairly predictably built. The aesthetic, the claustrophobia, the Giger, the underlying concept, everything that works.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 6:54 PM on March 18, 2012


Saxon Kane, regarding your small text, I noticed a similar thing in the surprisingly good Planet of the Apes remake.
posted by codacorolla at 6:55 PM on March 18, 2012


...brief glimpse of Benedict Wong there, who has been on me A-list since his excellent turn in 15 Storeys High.

SAME! (15 Storeys High is brilliant). But I caught a glimpse of a guy I thought was him and I was like "Oh no way would be be in another space movie because he was in Sunshine", which I have said before and will say again was great up until the last 20 minutes. But yeah it's totes him, and apparently he's in Moon as well! And I love him but whenever he was on-screen in Sunshine I just imagined him with a bunch of torn wallpaper down his pants.
posted by tumid dahlia at 6:56 PM on March 18, 2012


And he's in his mid-70's now. Not a great decade for directors.

Oh please. We all love Blade Runner and Alien, which are very similar films in a lot of ways, and I put to you that Woody Allen, who is approximately one-hundred years old and creepier than ever, has been making the exact same cripplingly unfunny fantasy wish-fulfilment movie again and again since day one, and everyone's still falling over backwards about him, so uhh, something something now, wise guy?
posted by tumid dahlia at 7:03 PM on March 18, 2012 [3 favorites]


Regarding how this might tie into Alien (1979), I have this fuzzy recollection of reading either the novelization or script for the first film and seeing a sentence or two about an eerie sound of laughter from the Space Jockey's remains when the Kane gets facehugged and the humans exit the derelict.

Does anybody else recall something like that, or is that just something I made up?

If it's true, that would kind of tie into the idea that the Prometheus crew awakened/angered them, and the space jockey race was gunning for Earth at some point before the ship crashed. Though I've always wondered, since the xenomorphs take on some characteristics of their host, what happened to the one that came from the space jockey?
posted by lord_wolf at 7:24 PM on March 18, 2012


mostly non-meatheads, whereas the sequel suffers from them being too numerous and largely such

Dude, they're space marines...what do you expect?
posted by Chekhovian at 7:25 PM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


Not to be Lil' Eddie Equivocal, but Alien and Aliens are two very different movies. The former is a great suspense-horror with some body horror elements and a gritty sci-fi patina. The latter is a gung-ho military sci fi action movie with a heavy dose of post-Vietnam darkness about it. Both are awesome, in many different ways.

Agreed, and my judgment up thread isn't based on the assumption that the two movies do or should occupy the same genre space. I just think that Alien manages a pretty stunning parsimony of form (really, of everything) that no sequel could hope to match. Aliens is good, but Alien is sublime.

That sounded less pompous-douchebaggy in my head, I promise.
posted by invitapriore at 7:26 PM on March 18, 2012


And he's in his mid-70's now. Not a great decade for directors.

Akira Kurosawa: Ran
Robert Altman: Gosford Park
Stanley Kubrick: Eyes Wide Shut
David Lean: A Passage to India
Sidney Lumet: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
posted by shakespeherian at 7:35 PM on March 18, 2012 [5 favorites]


Aliens is good, but Alien is sublime

If you don't send in the marines for the sequal, then WTH? We'd all be complaining, well they knew more less what they were going to encounter? Why didn't they just send in the marines.

Alien is all novelty. Aliens is blowback from the original, as it should be. Its humanities' attempt to deal with the hostile universe, but in a "prepared" fashion this time. That everything still gets fubared just makes the universe seem more hostile, as it should be.

Most sequels just try to remake the original, Aliens stays true to it and also grows the universe in an organic fashion. And C'mon:

"We've got to nuke the site from orbit, its the only to be sure"

Fucking Awesome.
posted by Chekhovian at 7:58 PM on March 18, 2012 [4 favorites]


Dude, they're space marines...what do you expect?

True, entirely consistent there. It is a subtle variation on a theme, one which deepens the haunting effect of betrayal by transforming the betrayed into people not particularly capable of human feeling in the first place, by exploding their calloused feelings into huge clots of dead skin, and littering unfeeling space with them.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 8:07 PM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


You mean LEGIT AWESOME MODE

No kidding. I fully expect the last 30 seconds of the trailer to be set on a loop at every rave around the world.
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 8:09 PM on March 18, 2012


If you don't send in the marines for the sequal, then WTH?

The problem isn't necessarily the basic premise, the problem is that Alien contained real characters and Aliens contains James Cameron-y cliche-spitting automatons.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:19 PM on March 18, 2012


I've only really sat through Aliens and Ailien Resurrection. The latter I saw in a nearly empty theatre. Tried a few times to start Alien, but never finished, and I couldn't get into the 3rd movie at all.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:03 PM on March 18, 2012


Aliens contains James Cameron-y cliche-spitting automatons

True, you don't go to James Cameron films for subtle meditations on the human condition. I just rewatched The Abyss, and its not exactly subtle, but in terms of look and feel, wow, just wow.

And world vision in Aliens is the same way. Its the little things, like all the space marine actors were given their armor ahead of time and told to customize it. Bill Paxton for instance glued a sardine can pull tab onto his cod piece armor thing.

Some how Cameron's films always manage to suggest this vast lived in future universe.
posted by Chekhovian at 9:18 PM on March 18, 2012


It's interesting that you say that, because I feel like, at least when comparing Alien to Aliens, that the former feels very real and lived-in and kind of exhausted, and the latter feels much more like none of these people particularly existed before they showed up in the film. YMMV.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:26 PM on March 18, 2012


Ever read the Aliens Colonial Marine Technical Manual? (you can find a pdf version in about 3 seconds if not).

It wasn't written by Cameron or anything, but rather by some guy that watched the two movies about 1000 times and integrated everything together into a sort of magnum opus. A lot of it is from whole cloth, but it fits with the feeling of the movies.

What I like about Cameron's Aliens is that it puts out plenty of information, but leaves things vague enough that it preserves a sense of wonder, you know, that thing that George Lucas systematically drained away from the Star Wars universe with his prequels.
posted by Chekhovian at 9:38 PM on March 18, 2012


I refuse to watch another movie where they translate the ancient inscriptions of a vanished civilzation unless it takes 30 years, is mostly done by grad students and it turns out to be just grain storage records and fart jokes.

I feel very strongly that this may be the greatest comment on the entire internets.
posted by elizardbits at 9:40 PM on March 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


Though it is somewhat reminiscient of Mass Effect.... that there is some malevolent galactic author that has left a trail of breadcrumbs to our doom.
Oh Jesus, do people really think Mass Effect invented the "mankind is a genetic experiment by a master race of evil gods" plot?
posted by deathpanels at 9:44 PM on March 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


LOL, well earlier someone wondered if they'd stolen the ship designs from Firefly.
posted by Chekhovian at 9:46 PM on March 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


I want a feature length film set in on-base housing solely devoted to the relationship between Vasquez and Drake, directed by Wong Kar-wai.
posted by eddydamascene at 9:50 PM on March 18, 2012 [9 favorites]


the problem is that Alien contained real characters and Aliens contains James Cameron-y cliche-spitting automatons.

I'd like to see Ingmar Bergman's Die Sjunde Ansiktekrama
posted by zippy at 10:20 PM on March 18, 2012


What I would like to see in a movie, just once:

HUMANITY: The knowledge that alien gods created us has given us purpose in an amoral universe!

ALIEN GODS: Um, what? You guys evolved from monkeys. I mean, really, just take a look at yourselves.
posted by Pyry at 11:01 PM on March 18, 2012 [12 favorites]


the problem is that Alien contained real characters and Aliens contains James Cameron-y cliche-spitting automatons.

Alien and Aliens are, necessarily, two very different films. It would have been very easy for Alien 2 to simply be the same story on a different ship. I think this is where the later Alien films fell down - they weren't really bringing anything new to the series and shifting the gears. Without even knowing anything about the plot of Aliens, the tagline "This time it's war" told you everything you needed to know about the film.

The marines always struck me as exactly what you'd expect from marines. The Vietnam touches really did a great job at giving some sort of reference point for the audience, instead of spangly Space Soldiers with pew-pew laser guns.

Plus, I think Cameron really knew how to create characters that appeared to be individuals. That's why you were cheering for Drake and Vasquez to survive - or for Ferro to rescue them all in the dropship. Hicks comes across as the unassuming and bored soldier who'd rather sleep his way through a mission, until he's forced to take control of the situation (even Wierzbowski, who you hardly see in the film, has his own online fanclub!).

I think that's a lesson that didn't carry over to Alien 3 in which everyone looks the same and behaves the same (it's Future Cockney Prison!). Cameron is very good at weaving in these little touches that make you connect with his characters (The Abyss is another good example).
posted by panboi at 3:02 AM on March 19, 2012


Hmm, regarding the CG, according to this interview with Scott, he says he actually built sets for all this stuff. Although he does give off even more hints about "the last few minutes" of the movie, so might want to avoid if you're worried about spoilers.
posted by delmoi at 6:27 AM on March 19, 2012


Just stumbled on this Dan O'Bannon interview where among other things he talks about what the derelict spaceship was supposed to represent and how that got a little muddled in the movie. I'm not as convinced as he is that it didn't work, I certainly understood that the eggs and the "space jockey" were from different origins, and that was the whole point.
I'm just working my way through that now. Just came across this part:
he took an entire day to film one short sequence. I was there and they had three cameras set up 'cause they wanted to catch it from all angles and all the cameras were covered in clear plastic tarps. The lenses were covered with flat optical class like underwater cameras and Ridley and the D.P. and all of the technicians were all wearing overalls up to their necks. It took them three to four hours to get the actor doing to do the stunt rigged because there was mechanical stuff involved.

Meanwhile the other actors didn't come on set , i don't know where they were, they had a room where the actors could hang out and talk to each other. Then they brought them in when they were ready for it, they haddn't seen all the preparation. all they did was they walked on, they saw all these tarps, and they saw huge hydraulic machines with hoses leading the this rigged man, and they saw everybody wearing coveralls. I looked at Sigourney Weaver, whose the lead, I saw her face as she looked at the tarp, coveralls and camera, and she seemed to go a little shaky. The actors looked real uneasy when they saw the set-up because it looked like they were trying to prepare for Vesuvius.

I don't even know if they're going to leave it in the picture. I understand they're getting a little chickenhearted in the cut. But eh amount of blood was just unparalleled. I saw Veronica Cartwright get drenched from head to toe in blood and scream her fool head off and fall backwards over a table and brained herself.
posted by delmoi at 6:50 AM on March 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


Is all this hate on Aliens an instance of the "Seinfeld Isn't Funny" Trope?
posted by whuppy at 8:00 AM on March 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


People also mentioned upthread the 'clean look' of the movie. In another QA on youtube Ridley Scott said it was just "a choice". He said the "Grunge" look, as he called it was kind of cliched and that he thought his movies (in particular Blade Runner) had been hugely influential in making everyone else adopt that kind of look, so he just wanted to do something different, apparently.
posted by delmoi at 8:16 AM on March 19, 2012


Haha if you couldn't connect the dots between "WHEEE AN INVITATION!" and "WE WERE WRONG OH NOOOO!" then I'm not sure even watching the movie could spoil it for anyone.

They thought it was an open bar, but it was actually BYOB.
posted by entropicamericana at 8:27 AM on March 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


Is all this hate on Aliens an instance of the "Seinfeld Isn't Funny" Trope?

I don't hate Aliens, but I do sincerely wish its characters weren't so cartoonish.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:37 AM on March 19, 2012


Even if Scott fails, his failure are still likely to be a notch above most of the science fiction cinema we've seen in the last decade.

Calling this equivalent to the Star Wars prequels is a bit premature, given that Scott has at least a half-dozen good films under his belt as director, while Lucas can really only claim American Graffiti and perhaps Star Wars.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 8:58 AM on March 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


THX 1138 was flawed, but interesting. Not something I'd expect from Lucas.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:43 AM on March 19, 2012


Those that think the characters in Aliens are cartoonish, then I suggest you go and watch Predator and/or Robocop... not that those films aren't fucking awesome.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:49 AM on March 19, 2012


In another QA on youtube Ridley Scott said it was just "a choice". He said the "Grunge" look, as he called it was kind of cliched and that he thought his movies (in particular Blade Runner) had been hugely influential in making everyone else adopt that kind of look, so he just wanted to do something different, apparently.

But the slick CGI heavy look is even more cliche at this point. I'm not saying Scott should repeat his old style but I do wish he had chosen a distinctive look.

I saw that portion of the interview and the impression I got was Scott just didn't give a fck anymore. Even his description of his old style as "grunge" seems to reflect a lack of understanding or interest in what made Alien and Blade Runner good. At some point he seems to have consciously chosen money making over artistry, hence the huge drop off in the quality of his movies.
posted by timsneezed at 9:53 AM on March 19, 2012


In other words, at the risk of repeating his old style and seeming outdated he chose a look that is pretty bland. I'm sure there are other alternatives if he he used a little creativity.
posted by timsneezed at 9:57 AM on March 19, 2012


But the slick CGI heavy look is even more cliche at this point.
Well, he said he actually built sets for all of these scenes, I'm sure there is lots of CGI overlay, but all of the scenes that people are complaining about being "bad CG" were actually shot on real sets (he claims)

It's not like in the pre-CGI era, stuff really looked more realistic. And nowadays you can get the CGI to look as real as you want. But if you're using traditional techniques, there are limits on how real you can make it look. So it may be that they built a set, and made it somewhat shiny looking - and the end result is that it kind of looks like what people think of as 'bad CG'. But all that stuff is supposedly real, not green screened.

I remember seeing the movie The Life Aquatic with a friend. It was obvious to me that almost all of the special effects were done with traditional techniques. After the movie my friend is like "Man, the CGI was terrible."
posted by delmoi at 10:01 AM on March 19, 2012


Whether the sets are CGI or real sets emulating CGI seems beside the point as they have the same visual effect.
posted by timsneezed at 1:03 PM on March 19, 2012


But the slick CGI heavy look is even more cliche at this point. I'm not saying Scott should repeat his old style but I do wish he had chosen a distinctive look.

Well, once you've gone dirty, and then clean, you're kind of out of options on that spectrum. Unless....

...LENS FLARES!
posted by Sparx at 1:50 PM on March 19, 2012


ALIENS - 25th Anniversary Cast Q&A: 1 2 3 4
posted by Artw at 1:58 PM on March 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


Some Thoughts On Prometheus - not one to look at if you're worried about spoilers extrapolated from trailers.
posted by Artw at 2:58 PM on March 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


I think this is where the later Alien films fell down - they weren't really bringing anything new to the series and shifting the gears. Without even knowing anything about the plot of Aliens, the tagline "This time it's war" told you everything you needed to know about the film.

Yes, definitely. This is also why Terminator 3 and Terminator Salvation suck, whereas The Sarah Conner Chronicles were, despite flaws, entertaining and had potential.
posted by Saxon Kane at 3:52 PM on March 19, 2012


The fun of a survival-horror plot (which this is almost certainly going to be) isn't spoiled by knowing in advance that almost everyone (if not everyone) is going to die, complicated by individual motives of cowardice, guilt, and greed. It's in watching the futile little micro-dramas play out in interesting ways.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 4:05 PM on March 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


I'm inclined to give Alien Resurrection a pass here because the first half is pretty good. You get Brad Dourif and Ron Perlman. You can't fault the design of The Betty and there's something intriguing about the alien study scenes - and then they hatch an ingenious escape plan. But then they bring in that goofy Hybrid nonsense and it all falls apart. Also a pity that Joss Whedon's input never really made it to the final film.
posted by panboi at 4:06 PM on March 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


I think, bar the hybrid, he's said that his input is all there, but they did it all wrong.
posted by Artw at 4:08 PM on March 19, 2012


The fun of a survival-horror plot (which this is almost certainly going to be) isn't spoiled by knowing in advance that almost everyone (if not everyone) is going to die, complicated by individual motives of cowardice, guilt, and greed.

Oh boy. I hope there's more it it than that. Hell, we've SEEN more to it than that.

I dunno, it feels like declaring it Survival Horror and everything in it just generic playing peices it's like when D&D became a WOW rip-off and everyone became Tanks and Brawlers and what-not.
posted by Artw at 4:11 PM on March 19, 2012


Sure, you could say that those elements are generic in the sense that they're the building blocks for some of the greatest stories ever told, books ever written, and movies filmed.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 4:27 PM on March 19, 2012


Let's just say I'm hoping for something conceptually interesting, no just some Sci-fi set dressing.
posted by Artw at 4:31 PM on March 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


Let's just say I'm hoping for something conceptually interesting, no just some Sci-fi set dressing.

I can think of very few conceptually interesting science fiction works that didn't also use some other plot structure. I suppose he could do something really weird like have an entire scene with an inexplicably naked woman, switch to 70s-style animation spontaneously with no explanation, spend the last 40 minutes with a long shot of a fixed camera while we see shadows of the main action, or break the fourth wall to deliver a sales pitch.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 4:42 PM on March 19, 2012


(I like Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, but I'm not certain I'd want to watch two hours of someone performing Memoirs Found in a Bathtub.)
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 4:44 PM on March 19, 2012


It really does seem like a lot of really interesting thought has been put into this, much more so then "John Carter" or "Cowboys and Aliens". Look at this list of supposed "sci fi" movies from 2011. Only some of those movies seemed to have any kind of real thought go into them. Maybe "In time" had some philosophical stuff but it was a pretty silly looking movie. Planet of the Apes looked like it was pretty interesting, but I never got around to seeing it.

I'm sure there will be plenty of action and suspense, but it does seem like they are at least trying to make a movie that explores some interesting themes and ideas.
posted by delmoi at 4:55 PM on March 19, 2012


Poor old John Carter...
posted by Artw at 5:43 PM on March 19, 2012


Saw John Carter over the weekend. Not especially good, but not that bad either.

The best I can say about the Lorax is that it looks only slightly less repulsive than the live-action Grinch.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 6:25 PM on March 19, 2012


It's going to be fun to compare this movie to the The Thing prequel. The Thing and Alien are two peas in a pod, so it'll be hard to keep from comparing what one did right and the other did wrong. Interesting that prequels to Alien, The Thing, and Planet of the Apes all came out in the same year.
posted by painquale at 7:27 PM on March 19, 2012


fuse theorem: To be fair, Aliens was a better film than Alien.

I'm hoping that the fact that you haven't posted for about nine hours means that someone took you to task for harboring this loathsome opinion.

Nah, I stopped posting in this thread because I wanted to stay away from the spoiler danger. Otherwise, I got no problem standing by my "loathsome" opinion.

Aliens is a fine movie, but it ain't no Alien.

Yeah, and platinum is a fine metal but it ain't no gold. Both Alien and Aliens are on my top 20 list on Flickchart but guess which one is higher?

"We've got to nuke the site from orbit, its the only to be sure"

And that line is just one of the reasons Aliens ranks higher for me. Alien is a great movie but it pretty much blows its wad so to speak after you've seen that scene (and innumerable still shots of it all over the interwebs). In my opinion, Alien doesn't stand up to repeated viewings.
posted by fuse theorem at 8:26 PM on March 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


Alien doesn't stand up to repeated viewings.
I feel that it does, and it does because it explores and exploits the idea that what is most familiar (the body) can also become the most alien, by processes that form our behavior, born of vulnerability and fear.

Also the portrayals of people, as mentioned above, are far more believable, with lines that are formed naturally (improvisation was big on set) rather than goofy albeit effective (in a sound-bitey, pre-fab Schwarzenegger way) one-liners that reveal nothing of that fundamental idea, but mostly serve to literally point out the direction of the plot devised by the writers.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 8:50 PM on March 19, 2012


After the mock TED trailer I was dubious about _Prometheus_. This trailer (FPP's) seems a perfect 21st century update to a venerable franchise as well as plausible context for the enigma of the space jockey and the derelict space ship.

I saw the trailer on a device with exceptional visual quality. The CG is superb.

Some have dissed the hieroglyphics decoding theme even though it is a direct quotation of the misinterpreted beacon sent by the space jockey. There are at least a dozen other visual and thematic quotations in this short trailer, sourced both from the franchise and the past 35-years of sci-fi since _Alien_ came out. Among other things, _Prometheus_ promises to be a rich cinematic intertext.

People straightfacedly proclaiming Scott only has two good films don't know shit. _The Duellists_ and _Blackhawk Down_ are two easy examples that bump that number higher. (Yes Scott has directed stinkers. So what?)

Iif you are talking smack about any of the Alien films except for Alien3 you really are just not paying attention. Instead of getting all academic on your ass and talking about maternal anxiety, sci-fi final girls, and and critical reception, I'll simply say you are wrong on this one.

I'm looking forward to Scott's new film with the hope it will give us another near-40 years of cinematographic something-to-really-think-about.
posted by mistersquid at 8:57 PM on March 19, 2012


Blackhawk Down always struck me as one of those rail shooters at the arcade where you have the big plastic orange gun and the bandits pop up from behind crates and balcony railings and you have to shoot them right away. Only the bandits were replaced with ethnic people.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:02 PM on March 19, 2012


I am nodding in enthusiatic agreement, shakespeherian. Scott was a research area of mine and what he is doing visually and thematically to Somalians in _BHD_ finds counterparts in Boyle's _28 Days Later_ and many zombie films. _BHD_ is overlooked for its political apocalyptic content, but then I never finished my book (and left academia).

LOL
posted by mistersquid at 9:19 PM on March 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


Anyway I'm surprised people don't mention American Gangster more, which I thought was pretty good.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:23 PM on March 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


"Another triumph for ALIEN!"

(I had one of those)
posted by Artw at 9:59 PM on March 19, 2012




What I find interesting about the whole Alien franchise (and then I will stop making pronouncements that no one buys) is that as good as it started out (and it started out as one of the best movies of all time), it is completely at the service of, and in the end, only a weak echo of the art of HR Giger.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 10:44 PM on March 19, 2012


mistersquid: "Scott was a research area of mine and what he is doing visually and thematically to Somalians in _BHD_ finds counterparts in Boyle's _28 Days Later_ and many zombie films."

Yep. I've described it before as a zombie movie with the zombies swapped out for black people. It's an impressive movie on a technical and visceral level, but I walked out of it feeling... icky.
posted by brundlefly at 11:07 PM on March 19, 2012


(In other news, I'm rather fond of Hannibal.)
posted by brundlefly at 11:10 PM on March 19, 2012


it is completely at the service of, and in the end, only a weak echo of the art of HR Giger.

Once, when I was ill, I had a nightmare / fever dream that was basically what I imagine a full on Giger film would be like. I don't want to have it again.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:38 AM on March 20, 2012


what I imagine a full on Giger film would be like

Imagine an ominous goose honking in your face - forever.
posted by panboi at 5:33 AM on March 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


You say this as though any goose anywhere is anything but extremely ominous.
posted by elizardbits at 5:53 AM on March 20, 2012


Imagine an ominous goose honking in your face - forever.

I think that's an actual David Lynch short
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:33 AM on March 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


It's an ad for Dior.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:04 AM on March 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


"Another triumph for ALIEN!"

(I had one of those)
posted by Artw at 11:59 PM on March 19 [+] [!]


MUST... BUY...

To the eBays!
posted by WinnipegDragon at 7:37 AM on March 20, 2012


This entire discussion makes me want Alan Moore to get his band back together so they can do a sequel to March of the Sinister Ducks.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 7:40 AM on March 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


Imagine an ominous goose honking in your face - forever.

I think that's an actual David Lynch short


Well my nightmares remember it slightly differently but I wasn't far off #humblebrag.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:06 AM on March 20, 2012


platinum is a fine metal but it ain't no gold

No, it's worth more.
posted by Edison Carter at 8:56 AM on March 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


Iif you are talking smack about any of the Alien films except for Alien3 you really are just not paying attention. Instead of getting all academic on your ass and talking about maternal anxiety, sci-fi final girls, and and critical reception, I'll simply say you are wrong on this one. Are you forgetting Resurrection? That movie was ridiculous.

I Actually I kind of liked Alien3 when I saw it, but I was probably like 13 or 14 or something.
UK Prometheus Trailer > US Prometheus Trailer
We've been through this, the consensus the US Prometheus trailer is way better. It's definitely a lot more intense, at least.
Yep. I've described it before as a zombie movie with the zombies swapped out for black people. It's an impressive movie on a technical and visceral level, but I walked out of it feeling... icky.
There were a lot of movies like that with Indians in that roll in the early days of cinema. I saw this movie on TV at one point, it was the same thing. And actually they had apparently shown old cowboy's and Indians movies to the Zulu they had as extras in the film. So really Zombie movies are continuation of the same theme of colonialists vs. natives movies from back in the day.

I guess you could say BHD could fit in that mold. I've heard interesting critiques of the movie, basically calling it pro-war and an attempt to 'rehabilitate' the idea of humanitarian military intervention. But at the same time, there's a bit of a difference between US troops where trying to defend food aide distribution and people who were there to take over the country.
posted by delmoi at 9:18 AM on March 20, 2012


it is completely at the service of, and in the end, only a weak echo of the art of HR Giger.

I was actually a little disappointed in the computer game Dark Seed. I'm not sure Giger translates well to all mediums.
posted by BrotherCaine at 9:30 AM on March 20, 2012


"I have a headache." "My head hurts" "I have a headche" "gee my head is throbbing." "urggh!" DEAD.

It may have taken me a while to get that you have to take the asprin at the beginning of that game. Possibly it's a tribute to the awful puzzles in Hitchhikers.
posted by Artw at 9:35 AM on March 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


UK Prometheus Trailer > US Prometheus Trailer
We've been through this, the consensus the US Prometheus trailer is way better. It's definitely a lot more intense, at least.


Folks who instantly feel the UK version is better seem to be the same folks who believe subtler is *always* better, even though that's not necessarily true. The value of subtlety depends on context.
posted by Edison Carter at 10:16 AM on March 20, 2012


Yep. I've described it before as a zombie movie with the zombies swapped out for black people. It's an impressive movie on a technical and visceral level, but I walked out of it feeling... icky.
Oh, the other thing... about that: Blackhawk Down came out in 2001. According to Wikipedia:
Generally the zombies in these situations are the slow, lumbering and unintelligent kind first made popular in Night of the Living Dead.[28] Motion pictures created within the 2000s, however, like the Dawn of the Dead remake, and House of the Dead,[29] have featured zombies that are more agile, vicious, intelligent, and stronger than the traditional zombie.[30] In many cases, "fast" zombies are depicted as living humans infected with a mind-altering pathogen (as in 28 Days Later, Zombieland and Left 4 Dead)—instead of re-animated corpses—to avoid the "slow death walk" of Romero's variety of zombies.
In other words, Claiming that Scott made a "Fast Zombie" movie with Black people in place of fast zombies is a difficult claim when it actually preceded the "Fast Zombie" trend. 28 days later came out the year after it.

It does bare a resemblance to former "White people v.s hordes of natives" films, though.
posted by delmoi at 12:41 PM on March 20, 2012


delmoi: "In other words, Claiming that Scott made a "Fast Zombie" movie with Black people in place of fast zombies is a difficult claim when it actually preceded the "Fast Zombie" trend. 28 days later came out the year after it."

Who's saying he made a "fast zombie" movie? My comparison has nothing to do with speed. It's a broader comparison. The soldiers in BHD are isolated and surrounded by a ferocious horde of mindless, faceless "others" with no fear of death. I'm a huge zombie film fan, and I mentioned the comparison to my friends as we were walking out of the theater.
posted by brundlefly at 1:34 PM on March 20, 2012


And yeah, "white people vs. hordes of natives" is certainly an accurate description of the film. They aren't mutually exclusive.
posted by brundlefly at 1:36 PM on March 20, 2012


It's a film that makes a case that RPG-7s are a formidable armament, especially when used en-masse, that's for sure.
posted by Artw at 1:39 PM on March 20, 2012


I remember borrowing the special edition DVD of Blackhawk Down from the library and having a very short wind of opportunity to watch it... at that time I was in my deepest DVD Extras addiction phase... I watched the film, all the commentaries (I think there was at least three - director, cast and the technical advisers) and all the other extras in one night. When I finished the sun was coming up. I don't think I've watched it since.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:37 PM on March 20, 2012


Folks who instantly feel the UK version is better seem to be the same folks who believe subtler is *always* better, even though that's not necessarily true. The value of subtlety depends on context.

Intensity is great, if it works. For me the US version falls flat and verges on unintentionally funny. I'm not in love with the UK version but at least it seems to accomplish what it's trying to do -- build quiet suspense.
posted by timsneezed at 3:29 PM on March 20, 2012


It looks like we're never going to be able to decide which is better, Alien or Aliens, until we have some sort of battle between them. Alien vs. Aliens. That seems a bit silly and redundant though. Perhaps we could come up with some sort of adjective that describes the Aliens and substitute it. They do hunt people... Hunter? Alien vs. Hunter? No, that doesn't sound menacing enough. They aren't just hunters... they PREY on other living things. Yeah, that sounds super sinister. Alien vs. Pred-- oh dammit.
posted by Saxon Kane at 6:15 PM on March 20, 2012


Alien ♥ Predator is the best franchise. You all know it's true.
posted by elizardbits at 5:33 AM on March 21, 2012


elizardbits: Is that the title of your Alien/Predator homo-erotic slashfic?
posted by Saxon Kane at 8:04 AM on March 21, 2012


Alien Loves Predator.
posted by cortex at 10:11 AM on March 21, 2012




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