FA+
Shop
Birthday! Also : Prometheus
13 years ago
29 today. One year off being "officially old".
It turns out that the lovely fluffster
cupcakecreature shares the same birthday, so we had a little giddy squee about that. I waddled off to go watch Prometheus, pausing to empty a large cola into my shoes due to some awesome badger fumbling action in the car. The movie was... good. Good in an odd way. Awesome atmosphere and theming for the first half, that fizzled out with the change to something of a creature feature. What I didn't quite enjoy as a film, I enjoyed as lore to the world of Alien. Anyway, aside from that, my beloved new treadmill is still stuck at my mother's place until we can get some rope or something to keep the hydraulic arm thingy in place while we transport it, and by the time we finished watching Prometheus, it was too late to go snag a slice of cake from the shop I had in mind. My router is still being an ass, pulling a Michigan J Frog every time I try to prove it is defective to get a replacement. Hnngh.
29 and an adept complainer and critic. Just wait until I get another 20 years under my belt. Juuust youuu waiiit~ >:D
I don't know whether to recommend Prometheus. The first half has an awesome atmosphere and really feels like your mind is going to be blown at any given moment. And then, the designs of some of the things they use in the second half, along with some plot holes only cause little breaks in immersion. It had some awesome set-ups for some really memorable horror moments, but it relied too heavily on cheap, squicky body-horror, totally blowing its chance. Fans could either love it for the glimpse of prequel lore of the Alien series' world, or they could despise it due to the lacklustre designs and resolution. I can totally understand why they did what they did with some of the designs, even from an in-world perspective, but most of it just really didn't work, for me. Still, with nothing better on, it might be worth sating your curiosity. I'm notoriously critical of stuff in general, let alone horror, my favourite~
Prometheus Spoilers and Rambling Ahead!
Quite a few things could have used more fleshing out, or a little re-think in design. Some of the designs were far too familiarly terran, such as the infection-child that just looked like a straight-out squid. Also, the preference for random 'deepthroat' attacks just came off as random squick attempts rather than serving any strong purpose to the bioweapon species. The old facehuggers worked because it wasn't a simple attempt to induce cringe. It rendered you completely vulnerable, and whilst it was blatantly alien and encroaching, the exact nature of its parasitism and invasion was obscured. That was what made it so unnerving. as opposed to "monsters that want to get in your mouth", because that just looked like they were trying to choke prey they simply wanted dead. The snake-thing started out promising with its grappling, but ended with another load of simple cringe.
They also missed great potential for actual horror with the medical pod, but instead opted to make it a variant of "gorn". Oooh oww screamy this hurts owwy owwy. That isn't effective. Cringey? Yeah. Horrific? Not as horrific as having the space-age painkillers taking strong effect, and making the pain she experienced slight, but as a trade-off her reactions very groggy and subdued. Enforced pain for survival is just a cheap shot. Helplessness in the enforced close presence with an unfamiliar entity, and being forced to crawl past it whilst your muscles refuse to cooperate from the anesthesia? That's more like it. Don't get me wrong, that scene had some solid set-up from the urgency, and the audio/visual design really helped it... I just felt it could have been way better. Especially if the damn thing didn't look like just an earth-squid. :V
In fact, a lot of the truer horror elements felt they took second place to gross-out attempts, and the movie fell prey to making its aliens far too relatable and terran in general. They had Giger's biomechanical stylings to work with for crying out loud. Even if the lore demands a certain look, you still have to be careful with what you do. The first half of the movie had some incredible set-up, but it felt a bit wasted, y'know? Still worth seeing, but I can't help but feel they missed a colossal hit. I would have loved a little more development or at least visual explanation of exactly what purpose the bio-ooze lifeform was intended for. I know some things are more effective left unexplained, but discerning exactly what was a normal part of the forerunner ship design, and which parts were due to leaked bioweapons (if that was even the actual scenario), then it would have been cool to just get more hints. Were human beings just a stepping stone in their terraforming, using the 'bioweapon' to convert us literally into them, making us a kind of tool? Did they just randomly decide they wanted to eradicate us? How/why did the bioweapon get out? Was the bioweapon actually a functioning part of the ship's intended lifecycle? I can't help but feel a little unsatisfied on this side of things, even if I loved seeing a little 'living lore' of the Alien world. I get that what we saw was supposed to be an early evolutionary step in what ultimately became the "xenomorph" species, but it was all a bit too scattered and not fully developed enough to leave me sated. Still, for my criticisms and nitpicks, it was worth watching. Not bad by any means, just lacking in certain areas (disregarding plot holes). For once, we picked a good cinema, with good audio positioning and quality (it's nice to feel your seats vibrate with the bass of a giant spaceship), and good environment control. Really helped draw you in.
Spoilers End
It turns out that the lovely fluffster
cupcakecreature shares the same birthday, so we had a little giddy squee about that. I waddled off to go watch Prometheus, pausing to empty a large cola into my shoes due to some awesome badger fumbling action in the car. The movie was... good. Good in an odd way. Awesome atmosphere and theming for the first half, that fizzled out with the change to something of a creature feature. What I didn't quite enjoy as a film, I enjoyed as lore to the world of Alien. Anyway, aside from that, my beloved new treadmill is still stuck at my mother's place until we can get some rope or something to keep the hydraulic arm thingy in place while we transport it, and by the time we finished watching Prometheus, it was too late to go snag a slice of cake from the shop I had in mind. My router is still being an ass, pulling a Michigan J Frog every time I try to prove it is defective to get a replacement. Hnngh.29 and an adept complainer and critic. Just wait until I get another 20 years under my belt. Juuust youuu waiiit~ >:D
I don't know whether to recommend Prometheus. The first half has an awesome atmosphere and really feels like your mind is going to be blown at any given moment. And then, the designs of some of the things they use in the second half, along with some plot holes only cause little breaks in immersion. It had some awesome set-ups for some really memorable horror moments, but it relied too heavily on cheap, squicky body-horror, totally blowing its chance. Fans could either love it for the glimpse of prequel lore of the Alien series' world, or they could despise it due to the lacklustre designs and resolution. I can totally understand why they did what they did with some of the designs, even from an in-world perspective, but most of it just really didn't work, for me. Still, with nothing better on, it might be worth sating your curiosity. I'm notoriously critical of stuff in general, let alone horror, my favourite~
Prometheus Spoilers and Rambling Ahead!
Quite a few things could have used more fleshing out, or a little re-think in design. Some of the designs were far too familiarly terran, such as the infection-child that just looked like a straight-out squid. Also, the preference for random 'deepthroat' attacks just came off as random squick attempts rather than serving any strong purpose to the bioweapon species. The old facehuggers worked because it wasn't a simple attempt to induce cringe. It rendered you completely vulnerable, and whilst it was blatantly alien and encroaching, the exact nature of its parasitism and invasion was obscured. That was what made it so unnerving. as opposed to "monsters that want to get in your mouth", because that just looked like they were trying to choke prey they simply wanted dead. The snake-thing started out promising with its grappling, but ended with another load of simple cringe.
They also missed great potential for actual horror with the medical pod, but instead opted to make it a variant of "gorn". Oooh oww screamy this hurts owwy owwy. That isn't effective. Cringey? Yeah. Horrific? Not as horrific as having the space-age painkillers taking strong effect, and making the pain she experienced slight, but as a trade-off her reactions very groggy and subdued. Enforced pain for survival is just a cheap shot. Helplessness in the enforced close presence with an unfamiliar entity, and being forced to crawl past it whilst your muscles refuse to cooperate from the anesthesia? That's more like it. Don't get me wrong, that scene had some solid set-up from the urgency, and the audio/visual design really helped it... I just felt it could have been way better. Especially if the damn thing didn't look like just an earth-squid. :V
In fact, a lot of the truer horror elements felt they took second place to gross-out attempts, and the movie fell prey to making its aliens far too relatable and terran in general. They had Giger's biomechanical stylings to work with for crying out loud. Even if the lore demands a certain look, you still have to be careful with what you do. The first half of the movie had some incredible set-up, but it felt a bit wasted, y'know? Still worth seeing, but I can't help but feel they missed a colossal hit. I would have loved a little more development or at least visual explanation of exactly what purpose the bio-ooze lifeform was intended for. I know some things are more effective left unexplained, but discerning exactly what was a normal part of the forerunner ship design, and which parts were due to leaked bioweapons (if that was even the actual scenario), then it would have been cool to just get more hints. Were human beings just a stepping stone in their terraforming, using the 'bioweapon' to convert us literally into them, making us a kind of tool? Did they just randomly decide they wanted to eradicate us? How/why did the bioweapon get out? Was the bioweapon actually a functioning part of the ship's intended lifecycle? I can't help but feel a little unsatisfied on this side of things, even if I loved seeing a little 'living lore' of the Alien world. I get that what we saw was supposed to be an early evolutionary step in what ultimately became the "xenomorph" species, but it was all a bit too scattered and not fully developed enough to leave me sated. Still, for my criticisms and nitpicks, it was worth watching. Not bad by any means, just lacking in certain areas (disregarding plot holes). For once, we picked a good cinema, with good audio positioning and quality (it's nice to feel your seats vibrate with the bass of a giant spaceship), and good environment control. Really helped draw you in.
Spoilers End
So don't see? *doesn't like gross out horror and prefers suspense*
There is plenty of suspense and slowly building tension. The first part of the film, before any actual alien contact, was brilliant. The set-up really hooked me back in, despite not having actually watched any Aliens stuff in ages (despite them being my favourites). The atmosphere was great. Then, it just kinda fizzled. Instead of a colossal boom, all that build up led to a "splang", which is like, only half of a half-assed boom. :3
The atmosphere is excellent, but the designs of several things under the spotlight felt like they had absolutely none of the magic of the original. Except maybe one of them. They relied too much on body-horror, and wasted a lot of what they built up in the first half of the film. I would still suggest watching it, even if just to sate your curiosity if there is no better movies on.