Forum Topic
Gimm-e
MemberOvomorphNov-12-2013 9:37 PMI watched Prometheus again since I had nothing better to do and wrote some things down. First have a look here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambiguity
Now, from what I can make of this, ambiguity means that a concept/statement/ object…that is ambiguous, can be interpreted in TWO different ways. Not 3 or 15. Then it becomes vague.
The eggs in ALIEN are a perfect example of ambiguity: are they a bio-weapon or not? Simple as that. It’s one or the other. We don’t get an answer to this question in the entire Quadrilogy. And remember that the Queen also came from an egg and that Hudson’s statement: ‘How can they cut the power, they’re animals, man’ doesn’t count either because he’s just a ‘grunt’. No offense Hudson.
The only thing that comes to mind that’s ambiguous is the freaking cover: Is the head a representation of the engineers’ power or ours? Here are some things in Prometheus that are not ambiguous, but vague/ unclear:
*The green egg/crystal/ bio-weapon/ ornament.
*The alien-mural: multiple explanations.
*The black goo: I’m not even going to start with this one…
*Why did Weyland hide on the ship the entire time?
*Shaw crying in front of the mirror: I got this from the ‘everything wrong with Prometheus’-clip that’s on Youtube: ‘ Is she crying about her dead dreams, her dead lover or her dead faith?’
*The engineer ripping David’s head off: Was it because they asked him to tell them the secret for eternal life? Was he angry that they woke him up/ didn’t get his coffee? Or that they made an android and that he felt threatened by our inventiveness. Did David offend him? Did he think David was a Nazi? Lol
Other flaws:
http://www.moviemistakes.com/film9292
Some others I noticed:
*Shaw looks through a crevice in the rock and by the time Charlie gets there, it’s already a massive hole sealed with plastic. She even has already dated the drawing to be 35.000 years old. O.o
*In 2089 some people don’t even know what a Christmas tree is anymore…
*Scientists can’t tell if a structure is natural or not…
*’JESUS. THE SUNLIGHT IS HEATING THE WATER…’ WELL DUH!!
*’Ellie, I’m not wearing this thing anymore (helmet)’ Was it really that uncomfortable to wear? Well, then die if you really want to take the risk.
*’Just another tomb?’ What the hell, dude?
*Holloway doesn’t care at ALL about David’s safety, yet he’s the one who yells at him that they’re leaving.
*no contamination protocols whatsoever…
*How come there’s cell growth on the engineer’s head?
* DNA match? As in: ‘when you look for the culprit of a crime’- DNA-match?
*Holloway getting drunk, ah sr*w it!
Conclusion: Man, this is may be my third of fourth viewing but this is amateur hour…at best! Never have I come across so many stupid faults in a movie of this caliber that has such a famous name in cinema-land attached to it. Not even the amazing visuals can save it. Prometheus is vague as **** and definitely not as ‘ambiguous’ as some people believe it to be. This movie has only one leg it can stand on and it barely even succeeds in doing that. It NEEDS a sequel to give answers to the billions of questions raised here. It cannot stand on its own because the story can be interpreted in a million ways. I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact how unbelievably unsophisticated it all turned out to be. It raises SO many questions, they’re now having trouble to write a sequel, of which I’m not surprised at all. I honestly don’t get that nobody mentioned these flaws in basic movie-making 101 to Ridley. I tried to list it all but it’s just too much and I gave up when I wasn’t even halfway.
And we are being spoon fed:
Janek says it’s a weapons-facility. BAM!
You don\\\'t see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage!
Even though I am on your side you are slightly wrong with ambiguity - it can have unlimited meanings the difference is that ambiguity can have specific meanings vague has no specific meanings. Promethues has both of these and too many vague ones!
Part 2 hopefully will patch up some! The best might even be ridley planned it all as some kind of master plan and he'll end up looking like a genius :p . I must admit I have renewed faith in him after seeing the counsellor even though its not a master piece its definitely brave and a great try at something new.
"It's almost as if they are making it up as they go along" :D
Even though I am on your side you are slightly wrong with ambiguity - it can have unlimited meanings the difference is that ambiguity can have specific meanings vague has no specific meanings. Promethues has both of these and too many vague ones!
Part 2 hopefully will patch up some! The best might even be ridley planned it all as some kind of master plan and he'll end up looking like a genius :p . I must admit I have renewed faith in him after seeing the counsellor even though its not a master piece its definitely brave and a great try at something new.
"It's almost as if they are making it up as they go along" :D
Omfg just wrote a massive post with explanations and accidentally came out of this page on my phone and lost it.
Ok so basically ambiguous just means more than one meaning it is not limited. Your forgetting about context and perception. With these you can quickly have many more meanings which are not vague an so are ambigiuos. Ill give u a simple one : I cant tell you how I enjoyed seeing your wifes fany. Now that has 3 meanings 2 to any good english speaker in its self plus 1 more because americans call a bum a fanny but engkish call a vagina a fanny so depending on the audience it has 3 total meanings. Then if you move on to more complex stuff like visual time frames ie what year it is were you are what you are etc etc it get really complex.
Also notice dictionaries always say more than one meaning and never limited to two.
Ps surely the first rule in archeollogy is dont contaminate the scene as much as possible ie keep helmet on...spaights said logic dictates keep helmet on on the blu ray even the makers were saying this!!
"It's almost as if they are making it up as they go along" :D
Not sure what you are getting at - your saying bisexual has 2 or 3 meanings?
"It's almost as if they are making it up as they go along" :D
Yer ok I see what your saying but you still can have more than 2 ways of looking at anything that's in a film and ambiguous you could for instance have two obvious ways of looking at it and many hidden ones. For instance that sentence I said is obvious to the audience and the maker so its 3 obvious meanings. But yes it is rare to use more than 2 as there is not much point as most films are trying to make things simple for the audience and nowa-days they are international so things can have multiple meanings in different countries as you know :D .
Again the word 'good' is ambiguous : "Good", for example, can mean "useful" or "functional" (That's a good hammer), "exemplary" (She's a good student), "pleasing" (This is good soup), "moral" (a good person versus the lesson to be learned from a story), "righteous", etc. " I have a good daughter" is not clear about which sense is intended. from that wikki page - good has many meanings more than two but is still ambiguous.
And anyway it doesn't really matter I reckon I merely look at most of what I saw in Prometheus as vague not ambiguous the important definition being : "An ambiguous concept It is generally contrasted with vagueness, in that specific and [u]distinct interpretations[/u] are permitted (although some may not be immediately apparent), whereas with information that is vague it is [u]difficult to form any interpretation at the desired level of specificity[/u]."
And I reckon most lovers of prometheus generally think prometheus is ambiguous and there fore intended to be the way it is and haters see it as vague and unintended :P .
"It's almost as if they are making it up as they go along" :D
Oh dear hes had a mental break down - come back when your making more sense. Your getting angry because I agree with you LOL?! And what your typing is not making sense in parts could I say that you are vague - no I cant you are vague only in parts like the film lol :D ! And yes you do see it as vague but someone else sees it as not im afraid this is reality you just don't understand the sentence! It was explaining the different view points not what might actually be!!
"It's almost as if they are making it up as they go along" :D
And yer dave this is like the 'plot hole' vs 'mistake' etc. arguement all over again - I ended up not using the word and just talking about the specifics which is the important thing :P ...
"It's almost as if they are making it up as they go along" :D
LOL hes still attacking me for agreeing with him - language barriers are so funny sometimes ...so hes telling me to get the thing that I already think is right through my skull :O how do I do that? Hahahhaha
"It's almost as if they are making it up as they go along" :D
