[Binder of Demons]

Just saw it. Overall impression, decent movie. Visuals were impressive (as I expected from a Ridley Scott movie), and the very end made me happy (watching the ship leave, and the birth of the xenomorph). And Fassbender was excellent.

But......the sheer stupidity of so many characters made it difficult to enjoy. As a sci-fi fan, I like my science to be at least moderately believable, but I am willing to forego my nitpicking if you basically get the smaller stuff right (or at least attempt to be consistent). I don't think that's too much to ask. But here you have a whole group of people acting like morons from start to finish.

They were at least aware of the notion of contamination since they had some protocols in place for when they arrive back at the ship. And yet, dopey removes his helmet, doesn't immediately die and everyone else joins in (they also conveniently manage to not notice their faces freezing considering that AFTER the helmets have been removed and the CO2 levels have dropped, one scientist proclaims the temperature to be -12c). And then everyone starts doing their own thing and it goes downhill from there.

I am willing to give the guys getting lost a bit of leeway, since the captain on the ship was rambling on about static interference and an intermittent blip, so maybe their sensors were on the fritz. I've had a wonky compass underwater myself. Whatever. But then their behaviour becomes wildly inconsistent for the sake of plot development.

There are plenty of nice ideas in the film, and some lovely vignettes (like David copying Peter O'Toole), but the dialogue was often poor, and plenty of scenes seemed liked they were poorly edited (removing whatever nuance might have been there).

The sad thing is, it could have been so much more. But, I'll still watch the sequels when they get around to making them.

Here's hoping the Batman finale won't disappoint as much as this.

[dktorode]

dktorode, on 13 April 2012 - 06:22 PM, said:

I bet you 100 bucks this movie ends with an alien egg opening....

SO CLOSE!!!



finaly saw it.
should have gone with the old "chest burst/alien tongue"....sigh



anyways...thought the movie was well pretty good...cept i duno what the fuck was going on at the end there?....do you guys?

This post has been edited by dktorode: 28 September 2012 - 10:28 PM

[QuickTidal]

Depends what you mean by end. Basically David and Shaw use an Engineer ship to head towards the Engineer homeworld to find god and answer their questions.

I'm excited to watch the BluRay stuff, deleted scenes et al, and it apparently has a cut with a different beginning and ending as well. Very curious.

[dktorode]

QuickTidal, on 29 September 2012 - 01:27 PM, said:

Depends what you mean by end. Basically David and Shaw use an Engineer ship to head towards the Engineer homeworld to find god and answer their questions.

I'm excited to watch the BluRay stuff, deleted scenes et al, and it apparently has a cut with a different beginning and ending as well. Very curious.

Yea... not the end...more like the entire 3rd act.

not enough info for my liking...spose there will be a sequel.

[QuickTidal]

dktorode, on 29 September 2012 - 10:11 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 29 September 2012 - 01:27 PM, said:

Depends what you mean by end. Basically David and Shaw use an Engineer ship to head towards the Engineer homeworld to find god and answer their questions.

I'm excited to watch the BluRay stuff, deleted scenes et al, and it apparently has a cut with a different beginning and ending as well. Very curious.

Yea... not the end...more like the entire 3rd act.

not enough info for my liking...spose there will be a sequel.

Ah. Yes, it's very obscure on purpose I think. Which can be aggravating.

[McLovin]

QuickTidal, on 29 September 2012 - 10:12 PM, said:

Ah. Yes, it's very obscure on purpose I think. Which can be aggravating.

The end made perfect sense to me. Of course they would take off for the Engineer homeworld. Even in spite of what happened. It's in our nature to swim as far upstream as we can. That's where the movie worked best. Are you interested in the upstream merely to get what you want (Weyland) or for enlightenment and understanding (Shaw)?

[QuickTidal]

McLovin, on 01 October 2012 - 12:40 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 29 September 2012 - 10:12 PM, said:

Ah. Yes, it's very obscure on purpose I think. Which can be aggravating.

The end made perfect sense to me. Of course they would take off for the Engineer homeworld. Even in spite of what happened. It's in our nature to swim as far upstream as we can. That's where the movie worked best. Are you interested in the upstream merely to get what you want (Weyland) or for enlightenment and understanding (Shaw)?

No I think the misunderstanding was with the 3rd act (not the final act of taking off for the Engineer homeworld), the portion aboard the Engineer ship with David saying things in a language only that thing understood and us not really knowing what was transpiring there ect.

[drinksinbars]

Binder of Demons, on 11 July 2012 - 12:46 AM, said:

Just saw it. Overall impression, decent movie. Visuals were impressive (as I expected from a Ridley Scott movie), and the very end made me happy (watching the ship leave, and the birth of the xenomorph). And Fassbender was excellent.

But......the sheer stupidity of so many characters made it difficult to enjoy. As a sci-fi fan, I like my science to be at least moderately believable, but I am willing to forego my nitpicking if you basically get the smaller stuff right (or at least attempt to be consistent). I don't think that's too much to ask. But here you have a whole group of people acting like morons from start to finish.

They were at least aware of the notion of contamination since they had some protocols in place for when they arrive back at the ship. And yet, dopey removes his helmet, doesn't immediately die and everyone else joins in (they also conveniently manage to not notice their faces freezing considering that AFTER the helmets have been removed and the CO2 levels have dropped, one scientist proclaims the temperature to be -12c). And then everyone starts doing their own thing and it goes downhill from there.

I am willing to give the guys getting lost a bit of leeway, since the captain on the ship was rambling on about static interference and an intermittent blip, so maybe their sensors were on the fritz. I've had a wonky compass underwater myself. Whatever. But then their behaviour becomes wildly inconsistent for the sake of plot development.

There are plenty of nice ideas in the film, and some lovely vignettes (like David copying Peter O'Toole), but the dialogue was often poor, and plenty of scenes seemed liked they were poorly edited (removing whatever nuance might have been there).

The sad thing is, it could have been so much more. But, I'll still watch the sequels when they get around to making them.

Here's hoping the Batman finale won't disappoint as much as this.

similar thoughts myself, it seems nowadays instead of putting in geniune suspense or drama writers instead make people act out of character to get conflict. the two getting lost was prime example, the guy who mapped the cave system couldnt wake back the way he came? and the biologist is looking at an alien lifeform on an alien planet that looks a lot like a king cobra and wants to pet it yet two seconds before him and the other bloke were near shitting themselves at the thought of something moving a mile away?

the lacxidaisecal nature of the captain and crew about flyiong a trillion dollar spaceship to another planet and putting a science team down on the surface. no one was watching the cameras? no one? or a vital sign monitor? or the fact that the two blokes are screaming about something?

fassbenders motivations were also a little odd, though some characters really deserved everything they got which was good sad though it sounds you do think things would have worked better on that trip with a good project manager and someone from hr or governance pointing doing a risk assessment

[Dolmen 2.0]

Anyone else find it ridiculous (whatsername?) was running around with a cessarian cut and freshly stapled abdomen? all that anaesthetic and she seemed fresh as a daisy. hmmmn. No, I found this movie very hard to take seriously, a bit disappointing really as I really liked the premise.

[dktorode]

Dolmen+, on 01 October 2012 - 05:56 PM, said:

Anyone else find it ridiculous (whatsername?) was running around with a cessarian cut and freshly stapled abdomen? all that anaesthetic and she seemed fresh as a daisy. hmmmn. No, I found this movie very hard to take seriously, a bit disappointing really as I really liked the premise.

she did put on a that very tight rubber one-peace space suit thing that im sure would have held in her guts sufficiently to move about

[Dolmen 2.0]

yeah I could accept the suit keeping stuff together but either she was super numb and unable to walk (think gummy dentist feeling, but everywhere) or literally crippled in pain as abs are needed to stand and turn and she did that in spades. One scene had her leap and grab a ledge! Can you imagine? But now that I think about it maybe the anaesthetic was that good? I'm not a doctor but I thought anasethetic always compromises muscle movement.

This post has been edited by Dolmen+: 02 October 2012 - 08:34 AM

[McLovin]

In the future, anesthetic acts fast and wears off fast. And sutures and staples hold perfectly in place. Yet still, bandage underwear.

Anyway, that whole scene was done purely for gross factor. (The audience's reaction in my theater was priceless.) When it was over, they moved on. Suspension of disbelief, advanced technology = magic, etc.

[QuickTidal]

Yeah, I think we are meant to assume that the anesthetic, stapling ect. is all a tad advanced....we are talking about almost 100 years into the future. One would think that medicine has advanced at least a little.

But yeah, McLovin is totally right. It was done purely for gross out factor to make us squirm. I for one...squirmed in my seat.

[drinksinbars]

the pregnant wife really didnt like that scene.

[QuickTidal]

drinksinbars, on 02 October 2012 - 01:57 PM, said:

the pregnant wife really didnt like that scene.

I would expect ALL the Alien films to be off her "watch" list actually. Considering all the John Hurt-ish stomach bursting going on.

[Illuyankas]

I'm impressed how well the male anatomy only programmed automed dealt with operating on the female exclusive organs.

Still hung up on the YOU HAVE A DIRECT LINK TO THE SHIP AND YOU MAPPED THE FUCKING PLACE HOW ARE YOU LOST part.

[Dolmen 2.0]

Illuyankas, on 02 October 2012 - 04:38 PM, said:

I'm impressed how well the male anatomy only programmed automed dealt with operating on the female exclusive organs.

Still hung up on the YOU HAVE A DIRECT LINK TO THE SHIP AND YOU MAPPED THE FUCKING PLACE HOW ARE YOU LOST part.

For some reason I was a bit Meh about that. I get lost often enough in malls and I was on a team that designed one...

@ Mclovin and QuickTidal: Its true, there was cringing aplenty in my apartment. weird tentacular birthing is wrong on so many levels so I guess I over thunk it.

[QuickTidal]

@Dolmen, you're not the only one who had those issues. Lots of folks did.

I overlooked and handwaved large portions of films nonsensical stuff myself, but I'm in the minority.

[McLovin]

Illuyankas, on 02 October 2012 - 04:38 PM, said:

I'm impressed how well the male anatomy only programmed automed dealt with operating on the female exclusive organs.

Right there. That tidbit captures the essence of what was wrong with the film. They tried to be clever (the male-only thing is a hint, right?) in some ways, but to do it, they had to make things dumb in other ways. I get the feeling if they had just went through one more draft of the screenplay before shooting, they would have had a good film.

[tiam]

Has anyone seen the new special features on the DVD edition and do they explain anything at all? I thought this film was average but the more I read this thread on what inconsistencies it had the more I disliked it.