Jun 14, 2012
The Show Notes
Prometheus Boo
Intro
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The History Chunk
- June 14th
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Mentioned in the Show
On Twitter: #prometheusboo
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As soon as you started the bit about the Unicef study, I knew what you were going to it was going to do.
Hi. I'm posting so late because I only got around to seeing "Prometheus" a few days ago, and I've spent much of the intervening time consoling myself by exploring others' accounts of all the multifarious ways in which it sucked.
I've listened to this five or ten times so far, with no signs of stopping. Thank you. Your snark is part of my healing process.
GEO!! SPOT ON!! They lost me at 'Darwinism' W-T-F!! Having seen the original on the big screen... I *cried* at how far this fell short of the mark. Way way short. Worse yet in 3D.
Using Ray Bradbury's definition, this is NOT science fiction, it is FANTASY. [i.e. it could never have happened with our current understanding of science]
It was SO obviously passed through the >Christian Friendly< filter in order to not have the fundie websites ban it .IMHO.
BTW - the helmets and space suits in the originals had 1/2 inch thick glass... not cheap looking plastic! UUUGGHHH!!
And how did the android know how to activate the alien glyphs on his first go?
eeeeeshk*... Wow, Geo, I have to say I completely understand your complaints about Prometheus and I agree with a lot of them. Watching the film last night, there were loads of things that made me groan all of which can be tracked back to two things:
1. Many things happened because of outright stupidity.
2. Someone writing this didn't understand science or scientists. But then, I guess they were trying to say these were scientists who were too swept up in their work and hence weren't "good scientists"? But then, as you say, "on a trillion dollar spaceship?"
Arrrrgh, that sounds like I hated the film - I didn't, I actually really enjoyed it, despite all the script problems. I guess I was doing a whoooooooole lotta disbelief suspension. But then I also enjoyed the Star Wars prequels (genuinely and non-ironically), so feel free to treat my opinion with skepticism and/or outright contempt. Your mileage, as they say, may vary.
My favourite will always be Cameron's Aliens. Damn, I wish I'd seen that at the cinema twice in one day.
*that is a genuine word in my culture.
I waited to see the movie before listening to this 'cast and damn, if you didn't pretty much go through the entire list of problems that I had with it!
I've been reading several online reviews and analyses, and while some have very interesting interpretations, none of them overcome any of these issues, and most of them are extrapolations that do not seem to be specifically supported by the film itself.
There's a lot of interesting material in the film, not just the technical/visual brilliance, but basically it falls back on what Don and Maggie Thompson used to call an "idiot plot" - the plot proceeds only because the characters all behave like idiots.
Very very disappointing.
Such a great review of Prometheus. Made me feel that I'm far too kind regarding my own reviews. =)
Prometheusboo indeed. It's a shame that it was labeled scifi, because illiteracy among those "scientist" was rampant; they did carbon dating on another planet on which they have been 1h... a kid in high school could tell you that this is bs. It could have been great but apparently real scientist consultants are hard to find.
I couldn't disagree more with your review of Prometheus. Nearly every point brought up in the review was explained quite well during the film, either explicitly or by inference. It almost seems as though those who didn't like the film fell asleep during large chunks of it. I don't have a full list of the points you addressed in front of me (there is no transcript that I can find and I don't type well enough to make transcribing it myself be anything other than painful) but if people are willing to address their complaints here I'll try to defend the ones that have a defense. Some points can't be defended. There were a few bad parts of the script, but far fewer than most people seem to think there were.
So do you recommend seeing Prometheus? :-D
Bravo, Sir, Bravo! I could have listened to hours of that. Summed up my feelings exactly and even brought up some stupid stuff I missed. Thank you for another fine episode.
If you have a shitty script and want to make a shitty movie to generate some quick cash:
1: Don't base it on a franchise that will cause people to have high expectations.
2: Don't create a viral marketing campaign that will cause people to have even higher expectations.
Of course, the best thing to do is to give the script to a script doctor and have him rewrite it into something that makes a bit more sense, but whatever.
#prometheusboo