TV/Movies Megathread

[jimmy olsen]

Me, I enjoyed it. But I can certainly see why some do not.

Well, I did enjoy it as I watched it, but as soon as it ended and I started thinking about it I was like "Whaaa...?"

[Malthus]

Me, I enjoyed it. But I can certainly see why some do not.

Well, I did enjoy it as I watched it, but as soon as it ended and I started thinking about it I was like "Whaaa...?"

I had that reaction while watching it. 

SPOILERS

I think the first serious "wtf?" moment, aside from the initial "oooh it's a star map" foolishness, was the "we have travelled many lightyears in coldsleep to get to this mysterious planet - oh, park the spaceship right over there, looks like a nice spot' 

[Tamas]

Regarding Prometheus. Two things which kill it for me (altough I did enjoy the visuals when watching, and the full-blown suckiness of it only sunk in later):

-the only hard scientific thing they want to insert totally blow it: 100% DNA match. How? What about them monkeys then? Either the Engineers planted life as a whole in which case it is fucking impossible to get a 100% DNA match civilized species, or they just planted humans down, in which case you have a hard time explaining the DNA matches with other species here. The "constant intervention" argument is equally bogus, why have a random system you must constantly tweak when the end result you seek is what you get if you mate with a female of your kind?

-"IT IS NOT THE SAME PLANET AS IN ALIEN" Yeah. Right. Sure. I am pretty sure that was the decision after they filmed the "queue in sequel" ending. But: the same kind of planet. Orbiting the same kind of gas giant. The fucking alien ship ends up lying there exact same fucking way.
Face it: their plan was this to be the exact fucking planet and ship making this a proper prequel, but changed their mind halfway through and didnt bother re-filming these parts. They just changed the planet name in the briefing Ms. Hottness holds.

[Martinus]

Anyone else watching the new season of True Blood? It's so gay.

[Eddie Teach]

Anyone else watching the new season of True Blood? It's so gay.

Well, it does have vampires.

[Grey Fox]

Anyone else watching the new season of True Blood? It's so gay.

I do.

Lilith & the Rick Santorum plot.

I'm angry that Tara is still not true dead.

[Malthus]

Regarding Prometheus. Two things which kill it for me (altough I did enjoy the visuals when watching, and the full-blown suckiness of it only sunk in later):

-the only hard scientific thing they want to insert totally blow it: 100% DNA match. How? What about them monkeys then? Either the Engineers planted life as a whole in which case it is fucking impossible to get a 100% DNA match civilized species, or they just planted humans down, in which case you have a hard time explaining the DNA matches with other species here. The "constant intervention" argument is equally bogus, why have a random system you must constantly tweak when the end result you seek is what you get if you mate with a female of your kind?

-"IT IS NOT THE SAME PLANET AS IN ALIEN" Yeah. Right. Sure. I am pretty sure that was the decision after they filmed the "queue in sequel" ending. But: the same kind of planet. Orbiting the same kind of gas giant. The fucking alien ship ends up lying there exact same fucking way.
Face it: their plan was this to be the exact fucking planet and ship making this a proper prequel, but changed their mind halfway through and didnt bother re-filming these parts. They just changed the planet name in the briefing Ms. Hottness holds.

Yeah, you kind of have to overlook the biology in the same way as you overlook the archaeology.  Again, this is one of those issues that a creative rewrite could have made much more believable - say, the discovery of alien gene sequences spliced in at various points in the past, rather than "100% match". Never mind that the aliens looked like they were considerably larger than ordinary humans and were apparently super-strong as well. 

I didn't get the impression it was the same planet as in Alien. For one, in Alien there was no huge pyramid right next to the spaceship. Of all the plot problems in the movie, that possibility ranks pretty low, I'd think. It certainly isn't glaring or obvious in-movie, like the whole "I just had a squid-baby by cesarian - think I'll not bother to mention it to anyone and go do a few athletic stunts" thing. 

[Kleves]

Red Tails. You know, if the Nazi had won, this movie and Pearl Harbor wouldn't have been made. That's got to count for something.

[Ideologue]

Regarding Prometheus. Two things which kill it for me (altough I did enjoy the visuals when watching, and the full-blown suckiness of it only sunk in later):

-the only hard scientific thing they want to insert totally blow it: 100% DNA match. How? What about them monkeys then? Either the Engineers planted life as a whole in which case it is fucking impossible to get a 100% DNA match civilized species, or they just planted humans down, in which case you have a hard time explaining the DNA matches with other species here. The "constant intervention" argument is equally bogus, why have a random system you must constantly tweak when the end result you seek is what you get if you mate with a female of your kind?

-"IT IS NOT THE SAME PLANET AS IN ALIEN" Yeah. Right. Sure. I am pretty sure that was the decision after they filmed the "queue in sequel" ending. But: the same kind of planet. Orbiting the same kind of gas giant. The fucking alien ship ends up lying there exact same fucking way.
Face it: their plan was this to be the exact fucking planet and ship making this a proper prequel, but changed their mind halfway through and didnt bother re-filming these parts. They just changed the planet name in the briefing Ms. Hottness holds.

Yeah, you kind of have to overlook the biology in the same way as you overlook the archaeology.  Again, this is one of those issues that a creative rewrite could have made much more believable - say, the discovery of alien gene sequences spliced in at various points in the past, rather than "100% match". Never mind that the aliens looked like they were considerably larger than ordinary humans and were apparently super-strong as well. 

Indeed.  If it said we had a one percent match, that'd still be a shocking, amazingly important discovery.

[11B4V]

Red Tails. You know, if the Nazi had won, this movie and Pearl Harbor wouldn't have been made. That's got to count for something.

Wisely put.

[Ideologue]

I am discarding the spoiler tags, since they're terrible and the movie's been out for a while.  If you don't like it, skip this post.

1.  It's possible that the facility changed purposes at some point over the last 30-odd millennia.

I suppose.  Actually, one of the things that really bugs me about stories which require a civilization to have endured for even thousands, let alone millions or billions (!) of years, is that it implies a profound changelessness d stagnation that goes against our experience of how development and innovation works.

Likewise, the idea of seeding life on Earth in the late Hadean suggests a pretty shitty biotechnology.  An idea I find amusing involves a species capable of interstellar travel and seeding life on a lifeless planet, and does, but comes up with far, far quicker processes in the intervening billions of fucking years.  It's the biotech equivalent of the sleeper warships briefly referenced in Hitchhiker's Guide that wound up fighting battles centuries after their conflicts ended.

2.  Kinetic impactors are rather hard on the planet.

Only briefly.

3.  It seems to me that the black goo is sufficiently lethal by itself and that the monsters are just a terror weapon.  Then again, if the side effects of your biological weapon involve filling the target with all kinds of dangerous monsters, then maybe kinetic impactors are a better choice.  LOL Starro.

It looked just like him, except it wasn't purple (Silver Age) and lacked the giant eye on the back (modern).  The point is, I want to see a Justice League movie with that effect.

3a.  Given her sterility, I wouldn't think it would be important.  She could have had a squid growing in any cavity in her body.  The real question would be:  If they never had sex, would the squid have gestated spontaneously in his balls?

Yes.

I want to see that scene.  Because that guy was an asshole.

4.  Because, as is usual for the genre, wise precaution and clever thinking would make for a short, dull movie.

5.  I was just thinking the same thing.  I don't know what she's injecting herself with, but when her abdominal cavity is being held closed with staples, it would seem unlikely that she would be able to engage in a grueling athletic display.  Still, her mind seems to be sharp enough that she realized that she should move perpendicular to the rolling ship's axis of advance.  They didn't teach Charlize that in the boardroom.

But, yeah, according to Prometheus a normal abortion takes more out of you that having your rectus abdominis carved up by a laser.

6.  I assume that the scene at the opening of the movie takes place roughly 3.5 billion years ago, and that scenes like it happened on more than one world.  There's no way that they would spend countless millions of years developing a species, and leave it all to chance in some cosmic accident.  We're looking at a potentially very friendly universe for mankind, which seems to fit with the universe that the Alien movies took place in.  Imagine thousands of worlds around the galaxy stocked with life that we share a common ancestry with.

That's a pretty cool idea; on the other hand, other planets have been explored, and it would be completely common knowledge that Earthly life was seeded, almost certainly by a preexisting intelligent species, if planets light years distant had life with a clear common ancestry.

The plus side to this idea is that Shaw doesn't seem like nearly as much of a complete moron, merely inarticulate, since the line "It's what I choose to believe" would be a mere malapropism, as a better response to the scientists' stupid question would be to ask if he got his biology degree off the back of a cereal box.

[The Brain]

There are many plot-related issues with Prometheus. Some people respond "yeah you have to think yourself, this great movie doesn't spell shit out for you", but if so the movie gets all kinds of problems if you are indeed supposed to take a lot of the obviously silly stuff seriously. And who could convincingly say "well this part is thought through and left for you to figure out, while this part here is lazy writing"? Not Ridley Scott, I'm sure.

[Malthus]

But, yeah, according to Prometheus a normal abortion takes more out of you that having your rectus abdominis carved up by a laser.

I don't think you'd want to try a normal abortion with that squid-baby thing. 

[garbon]

I'm angry that Tara is still not true dead.

I had been hoping that she was brain damaged enough that she'd never be able to speak.

[CountDeMoney]

"Flight"

Looks like another Denzel gem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOndE1qTTDc&feature=relmfu