Prometheus [4K UHD]

This 2 DVD package is a perfect example of why you should purchase the set, rather than just viewing online from a streaming service.The movie is well written, the sets, acting and effects are top level and state of the art. It leaves one with lots of questions about the Engineers and why each alien doesn't look like the ones we saw in the Alien movies: those questions are answered in a beautiful example of leading-edge technology.If you have an iPad or Android tablet/phone, you can download a Prometheus app that will link with your Blu-ray player if it supports BD-Live! As the movie plays, background information is displayed on the tablet including production notes and sketches. At certain parts of the movie, the movie is paused while a video from one of the producers/directors/special effects editors, etc., is displayed on the tablet. The movie then continues.At other places, alternate or deleted scenes are added to the viewing experience at the exact place they fit in the film. You have an option on the tablet to skip the experience, but it is worth watching if you truly want to appreciate the time, talent and effort that went into making this film.The other add-ons on the second disk, including the SD version, Digital Copy and additional resources telling you about the movie are all worth watching. The history of how the movie came into existence is remarkable, as well as how the first Alien movie was completed with a few starts and stops. The production team and director made it all look too easy and polished when we all saw the first Alien movie...the story is an inspiration for all of us who aspire to be creative, jump hurdles and achieve goals over time.Noomi Rapace brings the same level of intensity and emotion to her role as she did in the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" trilogy. (She was good in Sherlock Holmes too, but the role did not offer anywhere near the challenge of this one.)Charlize Theron continues to amaze with her acting as a hard-core, highly disciplined, driven...but still-wanting-to-be-a-loved-daughter persona.Idris Elba does a great job of balancing out Theron's intensity with calm leadership, focus and demeanor: after all, it's Christmas!Michael Fassbender is both frightening and fascinating as the cyborg with a hidden agenda and a bad habit of listening in on other people's dreams.Guy Pearce makes good use of his screen time although there is not much of it: his movements and voice, along with remarkable make-up transformed him into a very old man with his own special, but not surprising, agenda.The rest of the cast does a good job in adding depth and texture to the story line.If you want to learn an interesting interpretation of the mural they find....watch the add-on info carefully.And....the ending leaves room for a sequel!

another masterpiece from the giger, scott formula. illustrates the positive future ai may be building for us & other entire worlds. an omen regarding what happens when science mandates not to look before you leap.

Really good movie,interisting.

I'll get the visceral reaction out of the way quickly. I was disappointed with the movie the first time I watched it, from a director who gave us the original "Alien" and "Blade Runner" plus gripping non-sci fi films such as "Black Rain" and "Gladiator". The best thing I can say for Director Scott is that I believe the primary problem is not with the premise, which had enormous potential, but in the plot and the line by line writing. But, I watched it a second time the next night, and some of the kinks were ironed out by noticing some lines. Also, the relevance of the Prometheus myth became far clearer, and through it, I realized an important back story explanation which was obscured by the characters' ignorance. Read the Prometheus story before watching the movie and pay very close attention to the opening (and think 2001 opening.)One indicator of how incomplete things seem is that the very old billionaire, Peter Weyland, is played by a fine middle aged actor, Guy Pearce, but we never see him younger in flashbacks, which were probably cut from the final editing. Without giving too much away, the Peter Weyland character adds very little to the story aside from being the person who funds the mission.I sensed something was seriously out of joint when the "away team" enters the cavernous artifact. After encountering something just a bit squeamish, the geologist Fifield (Sean Harris) and biologist Milburn (Rafe Spall) decide to return to the Prometheus (the name of the humans' interstellar space ship.) The remaining team does a fair amount of exploring. Among other things, they see a hologram of the intelligent giants, drawings of whom they found on Earth. they are seeking running from some unseen danger. I saw no clue to what triggered the hologram. Following the hologram, they find the decapitated head of one of the giants (as opposed to the 'aliens' we encountered in earlier films).The captain of the Prometheus sends them a message that a serious storm is approaching. The team, with the usual annoyingly distracting side efforts which slow them down, reach the entrance and begin driving their vehicles back to the ship. But, and here the train falls off the track, never to return, we find Fifield and Milburn still in the artifact, when they said they were returning to the ship. They found some kind of life which intrigued the biologist. But why didn't the team returning to the ship notice that none of their vehicles were gone. Why did they leave the other two behind? Somehow, the two truants don't get the warning about the storm, or ignore it, so they become stuck in the artifact.There are loose ends aplenty with the alien fauna on this desolate world. My expectation coming in was that the film would explore the origins of two creatures, the "Alien" and the race of the giant pilot discovered by the crew of the mining ship Nostromo in "Alien". We meet the giants soon enough, but we also encounter at least three other life forms which have a passing resemblance to THE Alien, but their connection to the life cycle of the Alien is never explained.I'm entering dangerous "spoiler" territory now, so I will not discuss any more of the plot except to say that there are a number of unexplained events. Mysteries are great in the middle of the film, but one expects most of these to be wrapped up and revealed at the end of the picture. Many are not, leaving a huge jumping off point for a sequel to "Prometheus".Part of the special attraction of this story is that the audience knows full well what will eventually happen, so there is a lot of mental "don't go there" and "don't do that" moments, because we already know what things that look like that can do. The problem with that is that there is too much "quoting" from "Alien" for my tastes. Most of it is done relatively well, but it becomes more and more obvious as time goes on, and increasingly annoying. There is also ample quoting from other major Sci Fi movies such as 2001: A Space Odyssey (both in situations and in dialogue). There are also some subtle cinematic (visual) quotes from "Avatar" and "Jurassic Park".One of the bright spots, aside from the imaginative, well done CGI and cinematography, is the acting, which I always thought was a weak spot in "Alien". The crewmen, such as Captain Idris Elba, are spot on (unlike Yahpet Kotto in "Alien"). Instead of the strong Ellen Ripley character, we have the physically smaller and less imposing archaeologist, Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) who sports a convincing English accent as the lead character. Charlize Theron's character is restrained and unlikable. Like both Scott and Cameron's "Alien" and "Aliens", this movie has an android (artificial person) as a principal character, in a role much fuller than in the earlier movies. The only thing which distinguishes 'David', Michael Fassbender's android from Scott's earlier android Ash (Ian Holm, Alien) and Cameron's Bishop (Lance Hendrickson, Aliens)is that David is ever so slightly stilted, somewhat like Data from "Startrek, The Next Generation."I will give this the benefit of the doubt for now, but I found a strong disjoint in the rationale between two early scenes and the climax. I sense Scott wanted to leave plenty of meat on the bone to support a sequel. (In contrast, Avatar is almost totally devoid of preparation for a sequel I suspect I will need to revisit this review after seeing the film again. If my suspicion about gaps and disconnects is born out, I may have to lower my rating to 3 stars.