Episode 60

33 Replies to “Episode 60”

1. Hmmm. Just listening to the podcast now, but Prometheus does not take place on the same planet as Alien.

   1. Could swear that Matt corrected me on that point, but it might have been edited out.

      Least I pronounced your name right this time.

   2. Yes, much better, thank you very much. As for Prometheus, I’m growing less satisfied with it the more I think about it.

      Still liking it more than the feminist film critics, but it seems to be beautiful visuals in services of a poor plot. I wag my finger at Lindelof.

   3. Got a link or two of feminist film critics that don’t care for it? I’d love to read the other side of the coin.

      And what’s your take on the Pixar question for next episode’s feedback?

   4. I’ll see if I can dig it up. I recall a link off of my LJ, so that sight’s moribundness should come in handy for once.

      As for Pixar? Their weakest film? That isn’t Cars? I’m going to have to go with the general consensus and pick A Bug’s Life. It was still a really good film (I’ve got a huge weakness for Magnificent Seven/The Three Amigos pastiches), but felt like a lesser effort than the rest of their catalogue.

      It’s not as good as the Toy Story series, the Incredibles, Up! or Wall*E. I’ve got a huge weakness for Monsters Inc, but they’re closer together.

      Sorry, Bugs.

2. Well, I was geared up to listen, but since you guys spoil the film (the warning much appreciated) I will have to put the remainder of the Matineecast on hold till next week, since I won’t be seeing Prometheus till Friday.

   I can however answer your question about my least favorite Pixar movie: Up. Every time I think about it, I like it less and less. And don’t give me that song-and-dance about the first 10 minutes. No denying it was excellent, but everything that came after was dreadful, particularly all the damn talking dogs. They’re everywhere!!! And not at all humorous. I’m getting angry just thinking about it again, so I’ll leave it at that.

   1. Yeah, and it’s not even like I can tell you to skip past the review, since we digress over and over on how KINGDOM OF HEAVEN and CONTACT relate back to what we watched in PROMETHEUS.

      Do come back to it though, as I was pretty proud of the discussion in the back half – plus I’m curious how the whole episode works with the new segment.

3. Yeah I’m not listening to the rest of the podcast till I see Prometheus. I have skipped every tv spot and whatever since the “Happy Birthday David” one. It has released here, thank the lord! So very excited.

   Now for the Pixar question, I’ll have to say A Bug’s Life, but it’s strictly because “something has to finish last” and Cars isn’t counted. I actually fell asleep during Cars. But yeah, I feel A Bug’s Life is lovely and sweet, but it’s not as brilliant or midblowing or touching as the other Pixar stuff. And I love Pixar to bits. Like one of my dream wacky jobs is to waitress in their cafeterias or whatever(since I’m not remotely smart to actually work there) and be surrounded by all the geniuses there and I’m convinced I’d get to wear Pixar character costumes as part of my job. And I am very serious about this.

   1. yeah, I can appreciate wanting to go into the movie fresh. It took a lot of doing for me to get to it with an open mind.

      As I mentioned to Rachel, hopefully, you will come back around to this episode, since I’m curious to know your thoughts on the second half of the show.

   2. Yes so. The podcast actually helped me think about a few of the things. I do like the spiritual questions asked in the film, and Fassy was very much the best part of the film for me, along with the way it looks. It looks amazing, and very realistically so, which is really mindblowing.

      The story jumped around a bit for me, which is something I didn’t enjoy as much. I don’t think it is better than Alien. More ambitious- yes. But I like it when the area where such films are set are smaller, because it just adds to the dread so much more. It’s the same with Hitchcock films for me. I think Alien was much cleaner and Ripley was a great character to get behind. Apart from Rapace and Fassy, and maybe a bit of Elba, I felt as though everyone else in Prometheus was really useless. And the majority of them dying by Holloway’s corpse or whatever was such a forced scene. These were some of the things I did not like about it.

      If I were to take away anything from it, it’s a robotic Fassbender *obviously*. I also really liked the scene with him in the control room of the Engineers and all the holograms- so stunning.

   3. Funny thing though: That sort of dynamic is at play in all Alien films. usually only Ripley, the android, and *one* other crew member have any facets to them. The rest are mostly walking, talking, snacks.

      As a regular listener, what’d you think of The Other Side segment in lieu of a Top Five?

   4. This is true. I’m still processing this. I just think that so many of them die so suddenly out of nowhere, that it felt really forced for me. Also I cared more about Ripley than all the characters in this film put together, barring David maybe. So even when all of the other characters in the Ripley movies die, you don’t care as much because she still survives.

      Also, I think a sequel will be interesting, because up until maybe the last scene, I did feel that this was very much a separate story.

      I haven’t watched either Kingdom of Heaven or Contact. So though I’ve heard about them in the podcast, I was a bit blank. With Top 5 I think there is a greater chance of me knowing at least some of the movies. I hope that helped 🙂

   5. Part of me thinks that Ripley has just become so iconic over the years, that even if someone is watching ALIEN for the first time, they come in predisposed to love her. Her role within ALIEN and Adams’ role in PROMETHEUS are actually quite similar. I truly believe that what’s needed most to balance the scales is time.

      Not to pepper you with feedback questions, but one more query on the segment change: Was the feature still interesting to listen to despite not having seen the films? Further, did some small part of you come away thinking “Hmmm…I should check those out”

   6. Na it’s fine. It’s been five hours since I saw this movie and I am still mulling things over in my head. It was an interesting feature, especially since I really liked the whole spiritual discussion in it. Maybe if the films you talk about have the capacity for deeper discussions, then this will be a really cool feature. I do still like the top 5 because as a listener I get excited if some film I really like gets a mention.

      Also I didn’t really know about Ripley before I saw the films, and wasn’t much of a Sigourney Weaver fan either. She just is a very captivating character.

4. People can call dibs?

   Do you have anyone booked yet to discuss The Dark Knight Rises?

   1. I get grumpy when people call dibs.

      THE DARK KNIGHT RISES show was set a few months ago. I’ll add you to the long list of people who have offered to come off the bench.

   2. Yeah, I already figured as much. Doesn’t hurt to ask.

5. Cool show, Ryan. I also skipped the Prometheus discussion because I’m really trying to avoid spoilers and had to bail again in the last segment when you went back to it. Glad to hear some love for Contact, which is a favorite of mine.

   Cars would be the obvious choice for worst Pixar film, so it was wise to take that one out. I haven’t even seen Cars 2. This is a tough one, but I have to pick A Bug’s Life because it’s the one that I remember the least. It’s possible that if I go back it might surprise me, but it hasn’t stuck with me like some of their other movies. Still, I do remember it being an entertaining film.

   1. Do come back once you’ve seen PROMETHEUS – I’d love to hear your thoughts on the rest of the discussion.

6. Interesting timing, I have just re-watched Kingdom of Heaven again. I think it’s a really solid film that is aging really well and stand as a testament to its time.

   I didn’t love Prometheus the way I do Alien and Aliens but I did really like it. Four stars out of five for me! The one criticism I have is the Charlize Theron character came across as a bit of a waste, they created a great character and didn’t really use her. Having said that I did really like her interaction with Idris Elba.

   Out of interest in an interview on UK radio Ridley Scott has said that if they get made there are another two films to fill the gap between Prometheus and Alien. On the subject of the android names, how about Eve for the next one!

   1. I spent time this weekend fixing up some of my old reviews. (Long story short, as I brought them over from Blogger there were details like the rating and the photo size that aren’t uniform with what I’ve done here). In going through some older posts, I realized that there a lot of films that I’ve grown to love dearly (THE SOCIAL NETWORK, THE ROAD, STAR TREK, IRON MAN) that I gave 3.5 out of 4. It’s the subsequent viewings that have filled in whatever misgivings I might have had on first look.

      Guess what I’m saying is that maybe, whenever you come back to PROMETHEUS, you might find that it’s jumped from a four to a five.

      I made a similar comment on the podcast post – but I’d love to see those other two films that occur between PROMETHEUS and ALIEN. Maybe someone can convince Christopher Nolan to direct!

7. Points to Brown for liking Kate Capshaw. Note the extended conversation we had, Ryan, last pub night. We Are Legion.

   1. Enjoying this episode immensely.

      Albert Einstein on Religion/Science: “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

      I am also atheist (or at least agnostic) and I think that there is a major distinction between ‘religion’ and ‘faith’ but I’d substitute the latter in that quote at the removal of the former, but otherwise I am on board with that take.

      CONTACT kind of chews on this quite well.

   2. Last thing, on the name Elizabeth Shaw, I don’t think it is a play on Ellie from CONTACT, I think it is a play on Herman Melville (Moby Dick)’s Wife. Either that, or the Dr. Who character…

      🙂

   3. This is like a running commentary track – I love it!

   4. So Kurt, I take it you liked the double-feature comparison…each choosing a film to compliment PROMETHEUS, in lieu of The Top Five (especially since we happened to choose two films I know you dig)?

8. I really have enjoyed listening to the talk and rants about Prometheus. Your show was no different. Good discussions and good pairing with especially Contact. That line about “did you love your father, yes, prove it” is great. Myself, I liket Prometheues a lot despite the big script blunders. It’s like I knew they were there but chose to ignore them while I was watching the film in the theatre. It’s afterwards that they, the blunders,… haunt me.

   You mentioned the later release in the US. As I understand it it was was because of the Euro 2012 championships in soccer (or football as we call it Europe ;)). They (it always “they” isn’t?) didn’t want the movie to drown in all the hype around the start of the championship, so they decided to release it a week earlier in Europe… which was great for us! 😉

   1. Welcome to The Matinee Jojenito! I’m rather proud to have yet another international listener, and I hope you come back for more!

      I’m like you – I noticed a few blunders, but for me, I chose to embrace them rather than get hung up on them. Plus, there have been very few of them I wasn’t able to reasonably explain in my head.

      Ahhhh Euro 2012 – I should have guessed. That is a great tactic, getting it in before so many people’s attention turns elsewhere. Pity they don’t do you the same favour with THE DARK KNIGHT RISES.

   2. Thanks! I’ll be a regular listener for sure. I just got a new smartphone making it easier to listen to podcasts so now I’m exploring what’s out there.

      Haha, you just had to mention TDNR, hadn’t you? 😉 Well, I think The Avengers was out earlier in Europe just like Prometheus but 99% of the time the opposite is true (and usually it’s a matter of months which can be annoying).

   3. Well that’s too bad. The next two episodes are films I’m *pretty sure* we’ll all be getting at the same time. Monday my podcast for BRAVE will be going up, and two weeks later we’ll be discussing SPIDER-MAN.

      Of course, if you haven’t seen them yet, I’ve included chapter stops so you can easily skip ahead 🙂

      Hope you enjoy the show! If you’re looking for a good back episode, dial up Episode 53 where your fellow Swede Jessica joined me to discuss WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN.

9. I agree totally that “Prometheus” has more ambition and scope than “Alien.” But…I am a firm believer that ambition and scope don’t automatically make it a “better” movie. I still think “Alien” tells its story better than “Prometheus” tells its story regardless of what each story is about.

   Anyway, I just wanted to get that on record. Good show. As usual.

   1. I can’t remember now – did one of us say this was better than ALIEN? That sounds like something I might have said, but if so I was just getting caught up in the excitement.

      I might grow to love this more than ALIEN, but need to let the buzz die down and allow it to settle.

      Ask me again in a few years…and thanks for listening!

10. ‘A Bugs Life’ would be my least favourite Pixar film, although I can’t really articulate why. It just didn’t captivate or enchant me in the same way the other films have (note – I have not seen ‘Cars 2’).

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