The Energon Pub

I started talking about this in my collection thread, but thought maybe it would be better in it's own thread to generate conversation. I'm going to put spoiler tags in this post, but figure after this that the thread will be spoiler-tastic. You're warned, discuss!

I can't say I didn't like it, because I absolutely did. But it's one goal (to me) ends up being it's greatest strength and greatest weakness: laying out in black and white, the Xenomorph's (as we know them) origin. The way they did it was good, but not what I expected and now the mystery (which is part of the horror) is gone.

Basically, the android David from Prometheus, for lack of better description, created the Xenomorph we know through selective engineering. What he calls a "perfect organism". He and Shaw found the "Engineers" home planet(?), I assume he'd already killed Shaw, and unleashes the bio-weapon onboard to their populace, decimating them. He then remains there (because he's stuck? I'm not sure) for 10 years before a new wayward crew of humans find him by accident. They land to investigate and through cause and event instigate the awakening of some other primitive versions of Xenomorph's and are picked off one by one. A handful remain and run into David, he gives them shelter appearing to be a nice fella (even to another David unit named Walter) until he's revealed to be the architect of this new string of Xenomorph. Walter and David fight while the humans scramble to escape, and they pull a switcharoo just before they're all safely away. I'm leaving a lot out, but it end with David escaping the planet and in charge of the human ship, and stowing away a handful of Xeno embryos, on the way to some planet the crew was originally intending to terroform.

I was left with a few questions....
-The "primitive" Xeno was spread and impregnated through cracking small eggs and being air-born. How is that less perfect than David's creation? My niece (who I saw it with) pointed out that the facehugger can go straight through a space helmet (ie: Alien 1) but still. Airborn things seem much scarier no?
-They show David releasing the bioweapon in the Engineers city square, a successful sneak attack since it's one of their ships, they don't fight back so the ship must still be functional, but the ship is found by the terrorforming crew up in the mountains pretty far away from the city. Why did he move it? Why did he not leave? If the ship works then he's not stranded, but he stays there for 10 years?
-It's clear that David was disillusioned with his creators, but what did he have against the Engineers?
-Did the Engineers only have one settlement on this entire planet? Or did David do this to whatever cities they had there? If so then it seems like that would be a too big of a campaign for him to handle.

Honestly, I was hoping to find out more about the Engineers (they were literally a foot note) and not the Androids. So again, great movie, but not what I was expecting.

Remember that e-mail I sent to staff a few months back asking staff to get into other areas of the forums to get conversation happening?

Yeah ... you guys really should explore.

I think a lot of your questions can simply be explained by Ridley Scott trying to force a cohesion between Prometheus and Alien, whilst other things (like the ship and why he's stuck) is probably something that he would explain in a Directors Cut.

Was it good? Yeah, it's no Alien or Aliens, but thankfully it's not Alien 4.

Burn wrote:Remember that e-mail I sent to staff a few months back asking staff to get into other areas of the forums to get conversation happening?

Yeah ... you guys really should explore.

My bad, I searched for a thread on the topic, but only for "Alien" specifically. But I'm going to keep this thread going in hopes of it becoming an Alien Franchise general discussion thread.

Burn wrote:I think a lot of your questions can simply be explained by Ridley Scott trying to force a cohesion between Prometheus and Alien, whilst other things (like the ship and why he's stuck) is probably something that he would explain in a Directors Cut.

Or maybe right now it just feels like forced cohesion? There are 2 (3?) more movies coming out to bridge the gaps apparently. Hopefully more light is shed. Apparently there's a prologue too with David and Shaw as I found out while researching AC.

Burn wrote:Was it good? Yeah, it's no Alien or Aliens, but thankfully it's not Alien 4.

I really liked Alien Resurrection, aside from the silliness of her being able to be cloned WITH the alien inside her. That makes zero sense. But I let go of that one detail and find AR quite enjoyable.

In fact, in the whole franchise (Predator included) the only one I find to be truly bad is AVP Requiem.

I was never a big fan of the Alien franchise, as I thought them to be mediocre at best, as both horror and action, so I was going to skip this one. I do like the 1st AVP better than any of them, but that has to do more with the Predator than the Xenomorph. However, my girlfriend is a big fan, and I like getting laid, so I went to see it on Monday. I actually liked it. It wasn't great, but I didn't feel like I wasted my money. My girlfriend also had some of the same questions as shajaki, regarding the Engineers, and how David came to be on that planet and not leave when he possibly could. I never finished Prometheus, so some things didn't make sense to me, especially when Shaw was shown/referred to. Nonetheless, I thought it was overall a good movie, and there is at least 1 more coming, right? Hopefully that ties everything up and perhaps leads up to the original. Hopefully Sigourney Weaver makes at least a cameo, perhaps as some relative of Ellen Ripley (maybe her mother?) who is somehow involved in the Nostromo's voyage.

There was a lot about Shaw that wasn't explained, but as I said there's some sort of prologue short that bridges the gap. It's speculated that she may have died from the initial infection (from doing it with her infected beau) but it took a while. Another theory is that David professed his love, she rejected him, and he killed her. Also she was used in his experiments and may have birthed some of his early attempts at the Xeno.

I'll leave these couple videos I watched. There's some good stuff.





And here's the prologue. I just watched it. After watching it I have a feeling that he didn't kill Shaw until after they arrived, and likely laid waste to the Engineers before waking her up. Most of his experiments looked like they took place in his little "home" on the planet and not on the ship, thus if she was an unwitting part in such she would have had to have been alive and there with her. And likely would not have been kind to their genocide. Just my thoughts though...

Even without watching the prologue I took it that he killed her. Whether it was before or during experimentation I wasn't sure, but it was clearly malice on his part and it was done to further his experimentation.

Burn wrote:Even without watching the prologue I took it that he killed her. Whether it was before or during experimentation I wasn't sure, but it was clearly malice on his part and it was done to further his experimentation.

But do you believe that he loved her, as he claimed? I do based on evidence in those videos.

shajaki wrote:

Burn wrote:Even without watching the prologue I took it that he killed her. Whether it was before or during experimentation I wasn't sure, but it was clearly malice on his part and it was done to further his experimentation.

But do you believe that he loved her, as he claimed? I do based on evidence in those videos.

I believe he had some faulty programming.

I'll check the videos out over the weekend some time. Didn't have time before work this morning.