tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33813337.post6964006393542137551..comments2023-09-12T06:18:38.552-04:00Comments on The World in the Satin Bag: 10 Things I've Learned From Prometheus (Or, Prometheus: A Testament to the Stupidity of Mankind)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13571452656553970472noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33813337.post-83088622476656118472013-06-04T05:36:26.443-04:002013-06-04T05:36:26.443-04:00I think the reason they made a "male only&quo...I think the reason they made a "male only" medipod is so they could avoid pro-lifer/"moral" questions of why it would be so easy to get a caesarean (aka "abortion") in the future. This way, the audience doesn't know what the options in a "female only" medipod include; Shaw just made an override and gave herself an "abortion."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33813337.post-48340615502863229042012-07-02T22:53:12.141-04:002012-07-02T22:53:12.141-04:00"In the future, evil people can't figure ..."In the future, evil people can't figure out how to make right turns to escape threats coming at them."<br /><br />That bugged me the first time, but when I saw the movie again it made sense: burning chunks of the ship were falling everywhere, mere meters to the right and left... the ship that was about to crush them was also shielding them from the debris, if they had turned they would have been toast.<br /><br />Also they were running toward the ejected module, and when Shaw got there her suit was telling her she was out of oxygen... running any other direction, she wouldn't have made it.<br /><br /><br />"androids use hair coloring for no good reason"<br /><br />David was styling himself after Lawrence of Arabia (or rather Peter O'Toole, playing Lawrence of Arabia), who famously declared that nothing is written, we can make our own destiny. David, for obvious reasons, is quite taken with that idea; changing his hair was his way of declaring his individuality, his separate existence, rather than staying the way his creator had made him.<br /><br />Kind of important to the plot, if you think about it that way.<br /><br /><br />"heads of androids and a human can fly a ship meant to be flown by an alien species"<br /><br />David watched the hologram using the lower controls (Engineer version of a siren and flashing lights, BTW) and knew how to bring up the map. He could instruct Shaw to repair him, then put her in a sleep pod. This is not a deal-breaker, especially if they actually incorporate it somehow into a second film.BenPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33813337.post-53691542881502396132012-07-02T22:41:17.934-04:002012-07-02T22:41:17.934-04:001. cave paintings; hypothesis based on no scientif...1. cave paintings; hypothesis based on no scientific evidence; mission funded by rich American businessman who has bought into the evidence-less hypothesis<br /><br />The website showed that Weyland had received a transmission from the Engineers and had replied. In the film Vickers asks David if they received a reply. Weyland had reasons for going that were validated by, not based on, Shaw's discoveries.<br /><br />2. medical pods: women aren't important<br /><br />The ship and the pod in it exist only to get Peter Weyland to the Engineers. There was a scene from before the TED Talk video where Weyland quotes Nietzsche: "I am a law only for my kind, I am no law for all." His 'kind' doesn't even extend to his daughter; he had that pod set up for himself alone.<br /><br />3. future scientists are incompetent<br /><br />Fifield was smoking pot in his helmet. Milburn tried to pet a cobra-penis-monster. Holloway removed his helmet. These all show us THE main theme: hubris. The Engineers thought they could use the goo without it biting them on the ass; Weyland thought he could storm the walls of heaven; Holloway thought he could groove with the gods; Shaw thought that her faith had meaning beyond this rock.<br /><br />"I guess you can't expect to nab a few decent scientists"<br /><br />Vickers explains this... the mission is to get Weyland there, nothing else matters.<br /><br />4. Humanity hasn't learned anything from SF stories... Case in point: David<br /><br />I'd add d) he aimed the first ship for Earth, because what he wants from his creators is to be free of them. (He triggered the map and selected Earth; when the map turned off the hologram of the Earth moved over to the top of the control panel. And David didn't care.)<br /><br />5. magic-Aryan-sperm-seeds-the-Earth ideology<br /><br />The funny thing is that in real life something similar happened... no sign that it involved sentient aliens, but life on earth did not originally have mitochondria, we were infected with it, probably via a virus. That enabled the mammalian revolution. We (really) have alien (mitochondrial) DNA in us.<br /><br />6. There are no female aliens<br /><br />No female Engineers. The 'Alien' at the end is a female, which explains why there are other planets with face-hugger eggs by the time of the first Alien film.<br /><br />7. an Engineer sacrifices himself so his DNA can seed the Earth. Only we had to *evolve* from that DNA<br /><br />Most of our evolution WAS THEIR evolution. The rest of our evolution explains why we are smaller and less gooey-looking<br /><br />8. Nobody keeps track of long-distance spacecraft in the future<br /><br />Shaw left a quarantine message at the end of the film, and for Weyland Industries to become Weyland-Yutani it was necessary for Weyland and his daughter to be gone.<br /><br />9. Infecting someone with alien goo means their sperm becomes super-alien-sperm<br /><br />This is THE reason that the Aliens exist. The Engineers use the goo to create life, amplifying their own DNA into a planet worth of life. When the humans released the goo (body temperature and CO2 from breathing without a helmet warmed up the vessels) small worms in the dirt turned into to cobra-penis-monsters. Goo + Holloway = nasty tentacle baby; NTB + Engineer = an actual Alien which learned a lot from the Engineer's and our DNA. This is why the Engineer needs to destroy Earth, because us + goo = something that can kill Engineers (and everything else). It is Genesis Goo.<br /><br />10. The weather... shows up out of nowhere<br /><br />They flew through epic stormclouds to land, and the captain told them they only had a few hours until the storm hit. Hubris, again.<br /><br />"convoluted, nonsensical plot"<br /><br />Convoluted, yes. Nonsensical? Not inherently.<br /><br />"Stick with basic rules of biology? Nope"<br /><br />The premise is that we don't really know the basic rules of biology... all of the Alien films show this. Prometheus shows us *how* (not 'why') the weird biology of the Aliens, and their inherent danger to humans, came about.BenPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33813337.post-70368488160728532782012-06-24T20:37:50.079-04:002012-06-24T20:37:50.079-04:00Paul: You're trying to rationalize the movie ...Paul: You're trying to rationalize the movie based on logical thinking, but the way I recall it, we're supposed to be exactly like them. There's no indication in the scientific language *within* the movie that we're only related.<br /><br />I get what you're saying. Technically, we can't be genetically identical, but that's now how the movie treats it.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13571452656553970472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33813337.post-48712133425425152042012-06-24T20:27:00.966-04:002012-06-24T20:27:00.966-04:00I thought that bit was a more generic comparison o...I thought that bit was a more generic comparison of the genetic material, and realizing it was nearly the same as theirs. <br /><br />But wasn't it not precisely identical? Which would explain the physical differences to be sure...Paul Weimerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02444942522624902562noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33813337.post-34531735727607213362012-06-24T19:14:33.425-04:002012-06-24T19:14:33.425-04:00You are wrong. The screen where they show us that...You are wrong. The screen where they show us that "we're them" makes clear that the DNA is the same. It's an exact match. So maybe we're to assume we're related, but not exactly the same; if so, then Scott screwed up double time.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13571452656553970472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33813337.post-50778657066196200672012-06-24T19:01:05.888-04:002012-06-24T19:01:05.888-04:00what did I learn?
In the future, evil people can&...what did I learn?<br /><br />In the future, evil people can't figure out how to make right turns to escape threats coming at them.<br /><br />Also, learned that androids use hair coloring for no good reason. <br /><br />And don't forget...heads of androids and a human can fly a ship meant to be flown by an alien species...possibly to a destination<br />years away. What is she going to eat? Hell, she may not know where the bathroom is on that thing.Paul Weimerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02444942522624902562noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33813337.post-13003169392801075892012-06-24T18:58:35.772-04:002012-06-24T18:58:35.772-04:00We're told in Prometheus that the Engineers ar...We're told in Prometheus that the Engineers are us, and we are the Engineers<br /><br /><br />Not quite, Shaun. I think the implication was that we had similar DNA, but not that we were the same species.Paul Weimerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02444942522624902562noreply@blogger.com