Thursday, April 12, 2012

What can you see on the new picture from "Prometheus"?

By s. Thursday, April 12, 2012 ,
(click to enlarge)
Few days ago a whole bunch of usual character pictures was released in part of the promotion for "Prometheus". Whenever there is something new connected to the movie online I always hold my breath since I anticipate it so much, but with those pictures I wasn't impressed. But, hell, I am now. The above picture has been playing with my mind for two days now. But let me fill you in on the details.

Do you guys remember this scene from Alien?
That dead thing in the chair is Space Jockey. That scene came out of nowhere. After "Alien" ended we didn't know anything about Space Jockey, except for the fact there is a hole in its chest. Now, what can make a hole in the chest? What could burst from it?...

Ridley Scott himself was always surprised as to why nobody did anything with Space Jockey's character in Alien franchise. As much as he likes the direction James Cameron chose in "Aliens", he always felt that Jockey's story should be told. And guess what? It will be, in "Prometheus".

The official synopsis for the movie says: "a team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a thrilling journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race." What have been speculated for a long time is that the origins of mankind, the very first people in this movie were...created by Space Jockeys, the engineers. So the humanoid on the picture is most likely one of those.

But if you look closely, there is something coming out of his arm and forming into a creature. Also there is a weird tear in the rib area of his body. Clearly Jockey is creating something. What is it though?
The whole controversy about what the rating of the movie will be aside, Scott's and Lindelof's favorite way of teasing fans is saying there will be no aliens in this one. Yet Lindelof recently started his usual incoherent ramblings filled with metaphors saying that if you going to see the Stones, you want to hear new hits but you are hoping they will play "Sympathy for the Devil".

Is the teasing fun? No. Will it work? Yes. If they persistently keep saying "no Aliens" and then using their metaphors and there will be no Aliens in the movie, they will be able to say "Hey, we told you so'. But in this moment, it seems we can expect to see our beloved creatures. I'm basing it mostly on final words of the article published in Empire.

What are the new hits? Based on the trailer alone, quite a few:
There is someone standing above Elizabeth Shaw and it doesn't look entirely human,
The worm going inside the eye,
The things on the urn causing David to smile ever so creepy,
The creature above Elizabeth Shaw's head,
The mural depicting our old buddy,
 Finally the Space Jockey's suit itself. But who is in it?

At the screening of the new footage in London few days ago a particularly interesting thing was shown - Chris Hewitt at Empire said: "[...] a tiny thing which, true to form for this franchise, has a mouth that is redolent of female genitalia – rearing up, presumably while the Prometheus crew is completing their first sweep of the planet. What does this mean? It’s not a facehugger, or an Alien, but something else entirely" The thing he is describing is probably the creature we briefly saw in the trailer getting into someone's suit:
By the way, at the screening of 8 minutes of the movie in Paris yesterday it was announced that the running time of the film is 119 minutes and there are 17 additional minutes we will see on DVD. I'm mad there will be cuts. But I do not want to change this post into another R/pg-13 rant. The cuts made to Alien weren't that bad - although the additional scenes that were cut were good, Scott's explanation for cutting them was completely satisfying. However as I have seen his director's cut of "Kingdom of heaven" I couldn't believe how much the movie lost due to cuts. Let's hope it won't be the case with "Prometheus".

12 comments:

  1. Wait, a longer cut of the film will be on DVD?

    Boo!! I want to see the longer cut in theaters? Fucking MPAA.

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  2. I don't know if it's MPAA yet, the film haven't been rated yet. Maybe it's Scott's decision, same as with Alien "to keep the pace of the film". That's why he cut out the scene with Ripley burning the captured members of the crew.

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  3. Deeply sad I cancelled my subscription to Empire a while back now. Might have to run out and buy this issue. The pictures are looking amazing. Shame we won't get the longer cut in cinemas though. I think we could all more than handle an extra 17 mins.

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    1. There is a terrific article in the issue with Prometheus on the cover, I think it's 12 pages long and has interview with Scott himself. Lucky bastards from the magazine actually were on the set of the movie.

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  4. I simply cannot be more excited about this movie. It feels like it has been coming forever. Great insight and thoughts Sati

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    1. With this insane marketing and still very little known for sure about the plot, it's just driving me crazy day by day :) Thanks!

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  5. Those images have made me more excited about Prometheus. I just hope there will be set pieces like in Alien, and not all CGI.

    I'm still confused if Prometheus is an official prequel to the Alien franchise, because I heard them deny it at one point?

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    1. Yes, it's official prequel - the events in Prometheus take place around 30 years before those in Alien. And the last 8 minutes of Prometheus will tie it to Alien, although probably not too directly - Scott expressed desire to shoot a sequel to Prometheus.

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  6. I have to appreciate your love and persistance when it comes to this movie- you're probably going to give it 100/100:) just be careful and don't go in to see it with high expectations, sometimes that can ruin the experience!

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    1. Haha, probably not 100/100 since Alien got 98/100 and I doubt it will be better. But if it makes me scream or at least stop my heart for a moment, who knows.

      Oh I know. I anticipated Inception so much and ended up disliking it. But Prometheus has a lot of my favorite things - scary creatures, horror, weird set pieces, Fassy... :)

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  7. This is so awesome I can hardly contain myself.

    The teasing is awesome and I love how they have inserted the fact that the DVD will have bonus features [wink and nod, eh]?

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    1. It really pisses me off how they always tease us about DVD even before theatrical release ^^ The marketing for this movie is insane, let's just hope Scott knows what he is doing.

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