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norton ash wrote:I think it's thoroughly worthwhile to discuss a shite Hollywood movie in terms of the zeitgeist, and Prometheus is particularly interesting in terms of Ridley Scott, the big budget and art direction, and its creation-of-an-awful-world aspect in the context of our awful fucking world.
norton ash wrote:This summer, the message is that we're at the mercy of monsters and it was all set up that way, I guess.
Why the fuck was I ever stupid enough to let myself get geeked about this movie? This dumb motherfucking piece of shit summer tent-pole action/sci-fi stupidfest? Why? Have I learned nothing from my many disappointing movie experiences? Did the whole Star Wars prequel fiasco followed by the Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Alien Buttfuckers mess not provide ample evidence that I should lower my expectations if not eradicate them altogether, replacing them with a stone-faced impassivity like that of an Indian watching from a butte while the white men slaughter the buffalo upon which his people depend for their very livelihood? Am I not clued in to how the whole Hollywood thing works by now?
Evidently not, because I let this movie geek me. I let the cool-looking trailers and the neat little viral advertising stuff and just the whole "Holy Shit Ridley Scott is Returning to Sci-Fi and There's Michael Fassbender as an Android and Dragon Tattoo Girl as a Bad-Ass Chick and Charlize Theron as Another Bad-Ass Chick and Stringer Bell as The Negro In the Movie" thing get me all charged up. I bent over, in other words. I bent over and let Hollywood once again ass-rape me so deep that it ruptured the lining of my esophagus. I blame myself for this mess. I should know better. My rage is all focused inward. Against myself. My own gullibility and feeble-mindedness.
snip
But a funny thing happened in the midst of the Lost meltdown, and it happened to Damon Lindelof. Mr. Lindelof the hack TV writer who worked on Crossing Jordan and Nash Bridges before getting lucky and hooking up with J.J. Abrams learned a very profound and important lesson about the fine art of writing for geeks. He discovered, to his amazement, that when creating a TV show that trades on mystery and expectation and encouraging the audience to engage in all kind of creative speculation, the very things that geekdom thrives on, it doesn't really fucking matter if any of it makes sense. Because by the time people realize it doesn't make sense, the show will already be over and you won't have to answer for any of it. You will have already cashed all the paychecks and made your name for yourself in Hollywood and the geeks can kiss your lily-white ass.
The trick Damon Lindelof discovered is not that much different than what the Catholics discovered many many centuries ago when they started doing their masses in Latin even though most of the people attending mass didn't speak a word of Latin. It doesn't matter if it makes any god damn sense to the people out there, the important thing is to string along the faithful, filling them with a sense of awe and mystery, until you've gotten all their money. Damon Lindelof and the pope would have a lot to talk about if they ever met. And not just about footwear.
This discovery of Lindelof's - how to exploit the naive faith of those who've come to be ensnared in your meticulously crafted web of bullshit - would come in handy on his first big movie gig as the writer of Prometheus. In fact, this skill of Lindelof's, acquired completely by accident I believe, was the entire reason he was hired to write the movie in the first place.
Twyla LaSarc wrote:Had to throw this review into the mix:Why the fuck was I ever stupid enough to let myself get geeked about this movie? This dumb motherfucking piece of shit summer tent-pole action/sci-fi stupidfest? Why? Have I learned nothing from my many disappointing movie experiences? Did the whole Star Wars prequel fiasco followed by the Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Alien Buttfuckers mess not provide ample evidence that I should lower my expectations if not eradicate them altogether, replacing them with a stone-faced impassivity like that of an Indian watching from a butte while the white men slaughter the buffalo upon which his people depend for their very livelihood? Am I not clued in to how the whole Hollywood thing works by now?
Evidently not, because I let this movie geek me. I let the cool-looking trailers and the neat little viral advertising stuff and just the whole "Holy Shit Ridley Scott is Returning to Sci-Fi and There's Michael Fassbender as an Android and Dragon Tattoo Girl as a Bad-Ass Chick and Charlize Theron as Another Bad-Ass Chick and Stringer Bell as The Negro In the Movie" thing get me all charged up. I bent over, in other words. I bent over and let Hollywood once again ass-rape me so deep that it ruptured the lining of my esophagus. I blame myself for this mess. I should know better. My rage is all focused inward. Against myself. My own gullibility and feeble-mindedness.
http://www.thedailycrabbie.com/2012/06/ ... being.html
Caveat, I have not seen the movie, but I've heard all about the plot holes. Most of the co-workers are giving middling reviews and some were downright confused, although that could be charitably said to 'just be them'.
I'll see it on streaming. Or Rifftrax. Whichever comes first.
Great mythology discussion here though!
8bitagent wrote:
Pretty much sums up my thoughts. I asked my friends who liked it where they saw it, as I want to see the good cut of it. Evidently the version shown in my theaters was the super sucky one
Simulist wrote:I still love LOST and Twin Peaks.
Twyla LaSarc wrote:But I knew right away I was being toyed with and I never was able to loosen up to enjoy them.
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