RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: Prometheus and Rock of Ages

Dave J

Some people love the "Battlefield Earth" book but upon seeing the film some didn't know that it covered only the first half of the book- some thought that the film was basically covering everything which I must admit even failed in addressing that as well!

Oct 9 - 02:32 PM

Total Stranger

Whoa. Battlefield Earth was a dynamite book IMO...And sweet Xenu above, a plague of locusts!? No tree or plant would remain!

Oct 11 - 06:11 AM

Tall Cool One !

Haha. You said "real god". Funny.

Oct 13 - 09:13 AM

Janson Jinnistan

I thought the same thing. It's Don McKeller, and he is. Spielberg's feel-gooditude reacted to McKeller's traumatic childhood as (his words) a "queasy false-memory syndrome". I dunno, maybe he was probed. But it sure sounds like a totally vibrant human being would say something like that, right?

Oct 9 - 12:17 AM

Gordon Terry

Big Brother, you must be BRAIN DEAD to continue to associate yourself with The Republican Party, a political party whose candidates (again) compare The First Lady to a Gorilla AND say that Rape doesn't cause pregnancy. SEXISM, RACISM, and CAPRICIOUS INTOLERANCE reside at the heart of The Republican Party's resolve and you still continue to support The Repubican Party's political ideals . . . SHAME ON YOU BIG BROTHER (it is you who is dead inside for PROMOTING RACISM AND SEXISM via your Political affiliation!)

Oct 9 - 09:15 PM

Infernal Dude

Because every Republican believes in those ideals, right? Another grand over generalization by Gordon! Now THATS reasoned discourse!

Oct 10 - 02:00 AM

Big Brother

Yep and that Racist/Sexist made your candidate look like a stumbling 5th grader at the debate without his teleprompter. What does that say about the Democratic party? I would have loved to have voted for a Democrat the last 12 years, but you guys just make it sooooo damn hard with the people you pick to represent you. It's like most protest movements. Even if I agree with the cause I don't want to be associated with 80% of the people there. You're a classic example of that Gordon, the fact that you're a Democrat and you're level of discourse is the best advertisement the Republican Party could ask for. BTW, I don't associate myself with either political party as I've stated repeatedly for those with the comprehension skills to understand. I vote for the person I believe best suited for the job. Bill Clinton was actually the first guy I ever voted for for President. One of these years you guys will figure it out. At least to the parties credit Obama was electable. I would have voted for him over Bush or probably Romney 4 years ago. Unfortunately as the last 4 years have shown and the debate underlined he's more style than substance. I make the personal choice not to stay the course this time. P.S. you can stop with the recruitment drive as well, I already sent in my absentee ballot. The die are cast for me.

Oct 10 - 05:46 AM

Infernal Dude

And he consistently makes good films.

Oct 9 - 12:49 AM

Janson Jinnistan

Lots of crazy people make good films.

Oct 9 - 12:51 AM

Infernal Dude

My point exactly.

Oct 9 - 12:54 AM

Christopher Kulik

Dark Overlord of the Universe? That must be quite a responsibility.

Oct 9 - 07:27 AM

Janson Jinnistan

@ID, but it wasn't my point, which is that Cruise's "crazy" is more related to his megalomania than to his religion. Most Catholics wouldn't kick a priest out of their home for supporting the Vatican II reforms, like Mel Gibson did. Megalomania is the delusion of a missionary sort, which usually manifests in religion. Cruise has used his ego-insanity to sell Scientology; Gibson wanted to use his "Maccabee" movie to convert the Jews to Christianity. Crazy is the cake, the religions are just icing for flavor.

Oct 9 - 12:33 PM

Big Brother

I'm gonna borrow "Crazy is the cake" line all the time now.

Oct 9 - 05:50 PM

Infernal Dude

Right, right. I understand what you're saying. Its just I don't read a lot of gossip and beyond the Vanity Fair article I know little about Cruise's Scientology shit and frankly don't care. I just think the guy makes good movies and am willing to look past his personal life. A lot of times crazy is all an artist has, without it they would just be a regular schmuck like you and me.

Oct 10 - 01:38 AM

Dave J

Just out of curiousity out of the last 5 movies Cruise has been in what else had you seen besides "Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocal" because as I recall some of his previous films weren't that appealing particularly "Rock Of Ages", "Lions For Lambs" and "Knight And Day"!

Oct 10 - 12:05 PM

Janson Jinnistan

Regular schmucks think Art=Crazy. I'm afraid I don't qualify.

Oct 10 - 12:07 PM

Infernal Dude

Did I say art=crazy? No, I said many artists are crazy and IMO that is what gives them a unique perspective and way of thinking. Get off your high horse.

And Dave, Collateral, Tropic Thunder, M4, and Valkyrie were all good films. I didn't even think K&D was as bad as everyone though it was. Plus Minority Report, Rain Man, A Few Good Men, Born on the Fourth of July, Magnolia. Should I go on? Who has a resume like that?

Oct 10 - 08:38 PM

Janson Jinnistan

"I said many artists are crazy and IMO that is what gives them a unique perspective and way of thinking."

So..."many" but not all. That's clarifying. But you're still citing the mental illness as the source of the creativity. I could claim that regular joes suffered from a neurosis of conformity, but I wouldn't be so presumptuous about something I don't understand.

Oct 11 - 10:53 AM

Infernal Dude

I certainly think you're crazy. ;)

Oct 11 - 01:30 PM

Brad Hadfield

Yeah, it's very weird, and his office is so damn dark. Not surprising that Elliot RUNS out of there when Ford says he's dismissed.

Oct 10 - 05:57 AM

Infernal Dude

Did you go to Battleship for sci-fi movie satisfaction? Bad move. It was more of an action movie with sci-fi elements.

Oct 9 - 11:50 AM

Christopher Kulik

I just watched it a few weeks ago as a Redbox rental. Speaking as someone who served in the Navy for eight years, it was pretty F*CKING STUPID. Nevertheless, you have an excellent point: it's basically TOP GUN at sea with aliens. The sci-fi elements are secondary to the gung-ho, jingostic, commercialized, video-game-inspired action scenes. I probably would have went deaf if I saw it in the theaters. To me, BATTLESHIP will always be THE CHICKEN BURRITO MOVIE.

Oct 9 - 04:16 PM

Infernal Dude

The implausibility of Looper is easier to withstand because we have characters we care about that act in a believable manner concordant with their character traits. Prometheus does not. Maybe Rapace and Fassbender, but everyone else is dumb as shit.

And, to me, the bigger questions proposed by Prometheus are fascinating but when they are not answered or thrown out the window completely then they mean nothing. I found the themes in Looper to be much more engaging, ie. the drug addiction, the parental acceptance and abandonment issues, and the consequences of ones actions.

Prometheus did look amazing though. I thought the engineers were awesome and their ship and suits were designed perfectly. I also am one of the few people who liked the inclusion of the xenomorph at the end. But it does deserve to be nit-picked because of the expectations preceding its release and the cinema changing big brothers it was suppose to make proud.

Oct 10 - 01:22 AM

Janson Jinnistan

"The implausibility of Looper is easier to withstand because we have characters we care about that act in a believable manner concordant with their character traits."

And, for me, "Prometheus"' flaws are easier to withstand because it conveys themes that I care about that were presented in an allegorical manner that is consistent and with its mythological inspiration. So I guess we can compare and contrast the issues that we're more willing to care about, but that wouldn't make for a very productive argument. Just drop the "we" business when you talk about your reaction. It isn't universal.

"And, to me, the bigger questions proposed by Prometheus are fascinating but when they are not answered or thrown out the window completely then they mean nothing. I found the themes in Looper to be much more engaging, ie. the drug addiction, the parental acceptance and abandonment issues, and the consequences of ones actions."

Interestingly, those last two themes - "parental acceptance and abandonment" and one having consequences for one's actions - are large chunks of "Prometheus"s overall structure. The first one is obvious. Why do they seek the Engineers? To confirm their validity in their 'maker's eyes. The same way David seeks (and is consistently denied) validation from his human creators. The Engineers (or God) abandoned us to fend for ourselves, banished from the 'garden' allegorically speaking. Humans have a habit of abandoning our "toys" (technology) once we get bored with them. What are the consequences of this abandonment? Like Frankenstein's Monster (are humans monsters of the Greek Prometheus?), the abandoned will come seeking answers. Nearly all of the dumb-ass behavior by the crew can be analogous to this inconsequential hubris, which, frankly, humans, or at least Americans, tend to show to a greater extent as technology insulates us. More people choosing to 'text-chat' rather than listen to a person's voice, much less face to face. It shields us from the instantaneous responsibility we would have in a "live" conversation. We can better engineer how we respond to each other, but that makes us more selfish, less empathetic.

Finally, these questions, as I mentioned earlier, are generally unanswerable, so it's a weak point to fail Scott for being unable to solve a problem dating from the dawn of human awareness. And I disagree that it was thrown out the window. It is potent in the scene between the Engineer and David, it is potent as Shaw is left still determined to find the answers for the Engineers' motives, for why they chose either the acceptance or abandonment of humanity.

Oct 10 - 12:28 PM

Infernal Dude

I agree that Prometheus tries to take a crack at those big questions but I felt it dropped the ball. I would actually compare Prometheus to Mission to Mars in a way. And no one gave De Palma a break for that crapfest so why should Scott get one? At least M2M tried to give an answer.

If you were able to decipher all of those things from Prometheus then kudos to you, but I didn't buy it in the end. A lot of people didn't. A lot of people say its one of the more disappointing movies of the year. I just heard Bill Maher tell a joke about how disappointing Prometheus was on Real Time the other night. And then the adds for the Blu-Ray say "questions will be answered"? They clearly aren't. But like you said, we're debating what WE (can I use that word now? Is it ok with you?) got out of these two films so no ones going to win this argument.

Oct 10 - 08:33 PM

Janson Jinnistan

Am I supposed to care about what Bill Maher thinks of movies now? I'm not one who finds solace in the solidarity of other people's opinions, but if this is the playing field that you'd like to pursue, I could tally your "a lot of people" disappointment and match it with the just shy of 3/4s approval ratings from both critics and audiences.

Oct 11 - 10:59 AM

Infernal Dude

I didn't say people didn't like it, I think a lot of people found it visually engaging but was a let down on plot execution. Thats what a majority of the critics reviews i read said. And Loopers at like 90% so if we're going off critical consensus then Looper is a better movie, eh?

Oct 11 - 01:20 PM

Bradly Martin

Exactly, in a way they all were and that squanders the epic-ness of it all. In "Epic" films nobody really has a "I'm cannon fodder" attitude.

Oct 9 - 11:51 AM

Janson Jinnistan

Anyone remember off the top of their head the name of Dave's co-pilot in "2001"? Dr. Cannon Fodder.

Oct 9 - 12:37 PM

Infernal Dude

No. But that doesn't mean the character's purpose to up the body count and show the seriousness of the situation wasn't presented well. Honestly, I worried about the crew of the Prometheus about as much as the team in AvP, which was not at all.

Oct 10 - 01:46 AM

Linda Burke

Frank Pool. Died on his birthday. Poor guy.

Oct 10 - 09:42 PM

Linda Burke

I didn't care about most of the characters in Prometheus, but I did care about Shaw, which is enough. Noomi Rapace has a gift for conveying agony and genuine sadness. She may not be ultra-beautiful in the traditional sense, but there is a definite soulfulness to her face that is truly rare nowadays. She made me care about the character.

Oct 10 - 09:52 PM

Bradly Martin

I actually thought Shaw was just as silly as the rest of them. She had the silliest Dialogue (though it was required to set up "twists") and the most convoluted character motivations. I will always believe and have faith! now lets go prove Christianity is a lie! What now?

She is a phenomenal actress though. Tom Hardy Jr just couldn't keep up with her acting.

Oct 11 - 07:58 AM

Janson Jinnistan

Bingo! Frank Pool is the correct answer. But it was one of Kubrick's jokes to make HAL the most emotionally complex and interesting character in the film.

Shaw is the heart and soul of "Prometheus". Her, um, "creative inadequacies" mirror David's human inadequacies, and it's fitting that they end up together. It's also fitting that *SPOILER* she becomes the mother of the life-negating xenomorphs. I think a lot of the distraction concerning her faith and her cross says more about religious allergies than it does about her character or purpose. (I swear, some people are as allergic to religious symbols as some religious people are to gay people - freaking out at the wiff of taint.)

Oct 11 - 11:07 AM

Bradly Martin

I realize Shaw isn't going to stop everything and explain what her faith means and why it is important to her, but other than fingering her cross every once and a while she as well as the characters as well as the script seem to know absolutely nothing about any organized religion. Just the basic pandering of organized religion. Virgin Birth! Jesus! Sacrifice! Cross Fingering! DEEP! meh

Oct 11 - 02:11 PM

Brad Hadfield

I had it to. It was called "The Art of Film." It was only open to seniors, and parents had to sign a form because we watched R-rated movies. It's been a long time, but a few I remember are Vertigo, Where Eagles Dare, Taxi Driver, and 2001.

Oct 10 - 06:08 AM

Brad Hadfield

Yeah, and Citizen Kane of course. The only time I've watched it.

Oct 10 - 06:09 AM

Infernal Dude

You guys got to watch taxi driver, damn I'm jealous! We watched 2001:SO, as well.

Oct 10 - 10:24 AM