Gazz

Pretty much. Prometheus is a spin-off of the alien series that beyond providing a living and breathing example of the Space Jockey, provides no new information that would impact the events, characters or creatures in those films. That may change with future films (it probably will), but as of yet pretty much all of the same mysteries remain.

Sure Prometheus shows the Engineers being capable of creating a form of Alien creature through experimentation (I have no argument there and have said as much more than once), however the results are nothing like we've seen previously or what we would recognise as being traditionally alien. From what we're shown it does not need an Egg to reproduce, instead treating humans as a form of egg to grow facehuggers. It a confused life-cycle, far less natural than the one we're used to. By the end of Prometheus we do not know that the creature as seen in Alien is a result of experimentation. It's both visually different and the life-cycle is far removed but to go further, the derelict craft in Alien also predates any outbreak that would have occurred on the outpost. The events of Prometheus cannot lead into Alien as they're separated by thousands of years. I would argue from the information we're provided that the alien creatures are certainly focus of Engineer experimentation (much like WY's bio-weapons division would have done if ever they had successfully captured the beast) but Prometheus provides no answers as to the source of the creature itself, it just illustrates once more that it can't be contained or controlled. We're left with the same questions we had when Alien first drew to a close. One of which being whether the alien beast we know an artificially created bio-weapon or a naturally occurring one? We know that the Jockeys use them in some capacity, but we still do not know to what end (terraforming, war, worship or simply just because?). That the figure is seemingly a point of worship leaves me asking more about the Engineers relationship with the xenomorph than any of the Alien films do. Prometheus poses no certainties in that regard, but I too would very loosely argue the Ultramorph is a form of egg-layer (just because). Though again, this does not dispute anything I've mentioned previously and impacts Alien not at all. You seem to think the Ultramorph is a direct lead into Alien, when in fact it is not. Looking beyond the time-issues present (like the derelict craft crash long predating the outbreak on this Engineer outpost), the room in which the urns are kept is surrounded by imagery that suggests the Alien pre-exists long before human contact. It includes murals of an alien looking being (the Deacon/ Ultramoprh/ Whatever) and pictures of the alien eggs we know being presented like gifts by hands that are also completely alien. An offering? Who the fuck knows? It seems important enough to the Engineers they would paint it on their ceiling.

Straight off the bat and you're already wrong. There's nothing in Prometheus that tells us the aliens are the result of experimentation. All we know is that they are experimented on/with by these space-gods. We don't know to what end or purpose but we do know that they can't be contained in either form (natural egg(?) Alien/ bio-weapon urn: Prometheus) . The film poses many questions as to the Engineers relationship to the alien (some of them appear religious) but it doesn't provide answers to the creature's origins at all. Exactly that still stands after Prometheus. Of all the possible sticks to beat Prometheus with, why choose the one that has no impact?

You didn't read any of that, did you? It wasn't just an implied back story, it was the justification the working writers and director used to justify thier vision. I understand completely, but since Prometheus asks plenty more questions than it answers (barely anything whatsoever) where does that leave us? And I ask again; in verifying this "great secret" that everyone already knew and talked about openly (ie. the film's makers), what has the Alien been stripped of? The exact same mysteries are still in play even now (Why is the Space Jockey towing alien eggs? How did he come to be infected? Who was the target of said eggs? What happened to the creature that hatched from his chest? Where is the rest of the crew? Was there anymore crew? Did the Space Jockey create the alien or was it born of an experiment like a bio-weapon?). The only question that has been explicitly answered by Prometheus is simply 'what did the Space Jockey look like?' since we still know so little about their race whatsoever. Technically Aliens demystified Alien by providing solid answers such as 'what laid the eggs' and 'were the creatures indigenous to LV426'. Yet you're not waxing lyrical about how there's been some great injustice has been done by that film. The 'cargo' question has been a non-entity for decades, that it now has a solid answer impacts NOTHING in Alien whatsoever. It's still the mysterious creature it was before with a completely unknown origin.

Ridley Scott vocally stated he saw the eggs as being a cargo of the Space Jockey (you can listen to him state as much on the DC commentary and the 1999 DVD commentary). David Giler and Walter Hills first re-write of O'Bannon and Shussett's Alien stripped the creature of it's alien-origins and made it a bio weapon (found in 'urns') on a far away human outpost facility (known as 'the cylinder'). Ridley Scott's first act when jumping on board was to bring back the alien-origins (Space Jockeys/ Spaceships etc) but he kept the eggs as a cargo, due to a need to economise (the original draft had several jaunts to a downed alien spaceship and an alien pyramid). You can find more here: http://alienseries.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/the-pilot/ People have argued some specifics about the set up and they can continue to since Prometheus impacts Alien in no significant way whatsoever for many of the countless reasons I've already mentioned. Tell me, in verifying this great secret that everyone already knew, what has the Alien been stripped of? The exact same mysteries are still in play even now (Why is the Space Jockey towing alien eggs? How did he come to be infected? Who was the target of said eggs? What happened to the creature that hatched from his chest? Where is the rest of the crew? Was there anymore crew? Did the Space Jockey create the alien or was it born of an experiment like a bio-weapon?). The only question that has been explicitly answered by Prometheus is simply 'what did the Space Jockey look like?' since we still know so little about their race whatsoever. Sure you can continue to argue about how some Darth Vader level of injustice has been done to the aliens, but (and i don't mean offence) in my opinion you've yet to provide a sensible reason as to why? So far you've shown you're not even sure what questions Prometheus does or does not answer.

It's a prequel in the broadest terms (in that it's based before Alien). But Prometheus is really a spin-off of the Alien series as bar turning the Space Jockey into Engineers, the story or characters have no bearing or impact on the events in Alien whatsoever. Nothing changes, very little is answered and the same mysteries remain intact. My point was that Prometheus doesn't answer those questions. I was listing questions that Prometheus leaves completely unanswered. Heck, some of them are questions Prometheus sets up directly, adding but further layers of mystery. It's more than heavily spelt out, as was the desired intention of the writers and filmmakers at the time. I don't disagree that Prometheus has it's criticisms. It has more than its fair share (some of which I have mentioned myself and I agree it's certainly clunky) but you seem to be falling over yourself to make this one. Simply put, at no point does Prometheus make the argument that the creatures as seen in the Alien series are "pets" of the Space Jockey, nor does it provide answers as to the source of those creatures.

I mean you keep talking about the alien being experimented on as being a great demystification of the species when in Alien it's first introduced to us Space-Jockey cargo and not the god-like being it becomes. I could easily write a piece about how the Alien from the first film is stripped of it's power because it's first seen as the cargo of an alien species' space-truck, but i know that would be disingenuous. No it doesn't. At no point in Prometheus is the source of the Alien creature revealed. We simply know it's species has been experimented upon and that the creature is quite likely a focus of worship for the Engineers. We also know they cannot be contained, even by such supreme-beings. Pretty much all the same mysteries are still in play by the end of Prometheus, including the ones it sets up (which is a major flaw in my opinion). I agree that the Engineers are far removed from their Alien counterparts, but there's still plenty of mystery left in those beings as Prometheus fails to provide answers for most of it's set ups. Why do they worship the aliens? If they have religion on what is it based? What other beings have they created across the gulf of space? Where are they from?

Because it wasn't that in Alien. It was cargo. Prometheus alludes to them as being a point of worship for alien-gods, whereas Alien simply leaves them as a mysterious cargo.

I absolutely agree with you but I have read that both O'Bannon and Giger saw the alien creature as developing into an insect order if they were to explore it in future films. So there are already foundations for that in the original Alien film (notably it's life cycle is somewhat parasitic). Though I think James Cameron's sequel is a near-perfect action film and a clear crowd pleaser, I much prefer the terrifyingly sexual creature shown in Alien to the swarming insect hordes in Aliens. Prometheus alluded to some sexual nastiness (resulting in a rather striking attempt at alien abortion) but it didn't fully deliver in that regard in my opinion.

Most of what you're rallying against is already evident in the original Alien film. It no more devalues the alien creatures than Ridley Scott's first film, that introduced them to us not as the apex predator it later becomes, but merely as a mysterious alien cargo. But, as demonstrated in both films, the Aliens simply cannot be contained and whoever would seek to do so will meet a grissly end, even if they are apparently Gods of the universe. And by the end of Prometheus the source of their being is still a complete mystery to us. We know they have been experimented on (we also know they're a point of religious worship) but we don't know that they were born through such experimentation. Other than the creatures religious importance it's no more than what Alien left us with. Don't get me wrong, I think the whole Von Daniken storyline adds an overblown importance to the space-jockey that simply was not needed nor asked for, but it snatched nothing away from the aliens creatures themselves. And it certainly didn't make them out as domesticated "pets".

Edge of Tomorrow2014, dir. Doug Liman Since 2002’s The Bourne Identity, Doug Liman has established himself as a fairly competent action director though poorly written scripts and production problems have often mired the quality of his blockbuster films. The aforementioned Bourne film was wrought with production issues, ultimately salvaged by extensive reshoots, while Mr and Mrs Smith crumbled under the weight of its own star-power. And though Jumper featured some promising but pulpy sci-fi ideas, it unfortunately took them nowhere with a typically underwhelming David Goyer script (ie. piss poor dialogue and characters). Liman’s blockbuster films may pop on screen but they merely fizzle away on the page and from the outset the unfortunately titled Edge of Tomorrow (sounding more like an American soap opera than a sci-fi war film) looked typical of the director’s oeuvre. The explosive Saving Private Ryan meets The Matrix aesthetic of the trailer engaged, while the already-done sci-fi take on Groundhog Day set up hung over the film like a damp rag. But with Edge of Tomorrow Liman has delivered where so many have failed, by bringing smart filmmaking to a simple story and refusing to neglect a sense of fun. Based on the novel ‘All You Need is Kill’ by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, Edge of Tomorrow begins during the midst of a war against a race of alien creatures that have overtaken Europe. They’re known as ‘mimics’ due to their ability to predict their opponents every move. Refreshingly Liman avoids covering the initial invasion almost entirely, introducing us to the situation through use of interviews and news footage. We’re informed that humanity has begun to fight back and win in their war against these tentacled mechanical monsters. This is thanks in no small part to seasoned warriors such as Emily Blunt’s Rita (or ‘Full Metal Bitch’ as the propaganda posters call her) who has tallied more confirmed kills than any other soldier. During this montage Liman introduces Tom Cruise’s Cage as the media face of the military, who is seen beckoning young Americans to war with the promise (and grandeur) of a sure victory. Before the title sequence is over the players and world has been effectively set up. It’s efficient, to the point and allows for cutting straight to the meat and potatoes of the story. After the attempted blackmail of a senior officer, Cage’s cowardice lands him in trouble and with a first class ticket to the front-line. Out of his depth on a battlefield that is increasingly looking like a well-planned trap and surrounded by hardened grunts that are counting down the remaining the seconds of his life, Cage stumbles from one action-beat to the next until meeting his inevitable demise. But by a twist of fate Cage is forced to relive the day over and over again, meeting his end in a whole manner of violent, shocking and often funny ways. That is until he meets Emily Blunt’s Rita, who holds information that may help Cage both break the cycle and end the war for good. Unlike Duncan Jone’s Source Code (that other Groundhog-Day science fiction picture) there is no thriller style mystery to unravel in Liman’s film. Starting from a similar platform, Edge of Tomorrow instead takes inspiration from Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Trooper and James Cameron’s Aliens, both in story and character (and not to mention an actor in Bill Paxton). Much like with those sci-fi classics, the marines here are all action and little thought military clichés, running gung-ho to their own slaughter at the hands of an enemy they’ve vastly underestimated. But whereas Starship Troopers has the dumb but strong Rico and Aliens’ the overlooked but brave Ellen Ripley at their centres, Edge of Tomorrow’s Cage is the coward who’d rather sit this one out, forced into action only when the inescapability of his situation becomes starkly apparent. It is easy to hate such a yellow-bellied individual as Cage, and the film practically asks us to early on. He’s cowardly, uncaring and knowingly admits to sending thousands of young soldiers to their deaths through his own propaganda tactics. By making him dislikeable, his many demises become an effective focus for comedy. But Cruise imbues Cage with just enough charm that one finds them self endeared to him as he grows. It helps that he has the always-dependable Blunt to bounce off in many of his scenes, providing the film with a couple of fleeting but decent emotional beats. Blunt’s Rita is the core of the film; she gets the best lines, the best action and is easily the most likeable character on display. Her performance in Edge of Tomorrow had me asking the question, when will Emily Blunt become the blockbuster star she’s been threatening to for years? Most interesting is how Liman has implemented the time-loop narrative mechanism to explore videogame culture; capturing both the frantic energy of the initial play and the careful planning undertaken by players when plotting a course of action against an impossible foe. Liman even somewhat examines the bonds that are forged between gamers and the heated exchanges that arise as they're forced to repeat actions over again due to one players error or the other. Time-loop films have been seen before, but never has such a mechanism been used to explore the respawn-replay nature of videogame culture and- however briefly- its players. Despite a few ham-handed scenes of exposition, Edge of Tomorrow succeeds because Liman and his writing team (Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth) have focused their efforts on telling a simple story in the most engaging way possible, centring on timing and structure to deliver effective action, comedy and character beats. There’s a great deal of knowing restraint on display from Liman, allowing for the same battlefield to feel fresh an hour in to the film despite us having witnessed the action a countless number of times. But for their attention to structure, Edge of Tomorrow’s greatest attribute is instead its playful tone. In another filmmakers hands it would have been a grim-dark slog through murky battlefields with tortured souls as our guide. Instead it’s a well-structured and fast moving rollercoaster ride replete with action thrills and more than a few hearty laughs. Rating: 4/5

That fan art may tell us that the Aliens are pets, but Prometheus certainly doesn't (it also doesn't allude to there being female Engineers but tis the way of fan-art). The Engineers couldn't make the alien a "pet". From what we're shown, their attempts to turn the Alien into a bio-weapon ultimately resulted in their deaths. Not even alien-Gods like the Engineers could contain them.

It's a piece of fan art designed and sculpted by Simon Lee. I've seen it before (sometime last year). Lee also made a couple of other Predator/ Alien related sculptures.

It's already been said, but Prometheus isn't an original film. It's very much part of the ALIEN universe and despite some 'this is not a prequel/ sequel' talk from writer and director it was very much marketed as being part of the ALIEN series. Even the trailers defining moments were direct references to the first Alien film (a Space Jockey chair rising in a giger-esque chamber/ a crashed alien ship set against an alien landscape). Technically it's a prequel (in that it's simply set before Alien) but really Prometheus is simply a spin-off/ off-shot from the ALIEN series. The audience is certainly split (though even the recent Empire 301 Greatest Films poll tells you that the film clearly has it's vocal fans) but I don't see why the sequel can't do similar or better numbers providing it improves on Prometheus. To use an example of a similar scenario of a sequel to a film in a spin-off series, X-Men Origins: Wolverine received a toxic reception but the following film, The Wolverine did better at the box office worldwide and also surprisingly well with critics too. It's certainly well within Scott/ Fox's grasp to improve on Prometheus but whether they will is certainly up for debate. As a fan of Prometheus but a recogniser of it's many flaws, I remain cautiously optimistic. The roll Fox are on with the X-Men and (hopefully) the Planet of the Apes series gives me hope that things are improving there for franchise films.

I'm pretty sure that's just the front page of a fansite. It popped up around the time of Prometheus' initial release. http://www.prometheus2-movie.com/ (Main Site) http://www.prometheus2-movie.com/paradise/ (Image Above)

There were promotional sales images?

Australian Telegraph are reporting that he's scouting for The Martian. I thought as much. The Australian outback could provide some ready-made Mars-like landscapes. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/sydney-confidential/ridley-scott-is-in-australia-scouting-locations-for-a-martian-blockbuster-featuring-matt-damon/story-fni0cvc9-1226927300254

Ridley Scott shooting Prometheus 2 in Australia? It's the daily mail so who really knows? Could easily be The Martian but I'll remain hopeful until we get official word. At the moment it looks like Ridley Scott could be directing Prometheus 2 after all. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2636101/Sir-Ridley-Scott-Australia-scouting-locations-Prometheus-2.html

According to Spaiht's the decision to de-Alien Prometheus came from the studio. Source: http://www.empireonline.com/interviews/interview.asp?IID=1563 I'm hoping that whatever Scott does next with the series that he doesn't fall over himself in an attempt to drive the series into the beginning of Alien. It's only going to mean writers will fall over themselves to reconcile completely separate plot threads and ideas. I want to see some new Giger-esque monstrosities and landscapes belonging to this universe now that the series has been opened up to a larger sci-fi canvas.

Excited for this. Prometheus fumbled on many levels but it also opened the universe for this long naff series up for further exploration (It's my favourite film series but everything post Alien 3 sank in quality, right up until Prometheus). I just hope that Paglan and Green don't get bogged down trying to level out all Lindelof's left overs and rather just move onwards.

To be honest, I wish I had seen the awful film a few people above did. Anything to muster some kind of strong reaction.For me it was just middle of the road average. Better than the last film for sure; some of the action works well enough and there are a couple of scenes with great emotional impact (largely thanks to the actors). Unfortunately Webb again wastes his great cast of talented actors on a poor script that spends half the time tying up the last film's loose ends (and some damage done to the character) and the other half promising more next time around. It's just the same tired cycle set up to repeat itself again. Too many eyes are on the films ahead and not enough are on the script at hand. Overall TASM2 certainly has it's moments but they are undercut by an average half-finished script.

So I hear there are actual awards somewhere between the montages, pizza jokes and twitter selfies.

Rightio! Cheers for the breakdown! Looks like DOS probably going to make less than AUJ in the international market save for it doing some incredibly surprising business in Japan.

Is DOS open in all the same markets AUJ was at this point in the release schedule?

Initial thoughts (no spoilers): There's certainly no denying that Desolation of Smaug is overlong and features a good few unnecessary characters and scenes, but despite these issues it's hard to resist being swept up in the great adventure of it all. Middle Earth is again realised with the high level of creativity and imagination we're used to from Peter Jackson and crew, with each locale bursting with it's own particular brand of beauty. Speaking of those new locales, Desolation benefits a great deal from the fact we're exploring new ground in the series, adding a freshness that many felt was lacking from An Unexpected Journey. Despite a handful of awkward stops in the narrative that primarily serve as set up (Beorn), DOS moves at an exciting pace towards a finale that feels both a treat (Smaug is jaw-dropping!) and a bit of a cheat (you're ending it THERE?!). Sure DOS isn't airtight but it's very often too exhilarating to notice. 4/5 (