How far would you go to get your answers?
-David
Yup saw it again. Went to see it with a friend that hadn't seen it yet, and believe it or not I enjoyed it even more the second time. My initial thoughts on the first viewing can be read here, where I ramble on for quite a bit. I fully believe the more times you watch this film the more you get out of it. This is one of those films where viewers will form theories about what it all means. I'll run just a few by you real quick.
I think the main theme of this film is "sacrifice for preserving/creating life versus preserving you're own life at the expense of others lives". The sacrificing theme is apparent from the beginning of the film, right up to the end with Jarek and his crew sacrificing themselves to save life on Earth. Could make an entire post just about different examples of this throughout the film.
The black goo. I fully believe that the good ingested by the Engineer at the beginning of the film is the same that is found in the vases. The goo creates life by destroying the host. We only see the goo clearly ingested twice in the film. The Engineer who takes a huge dose at the beginning of the film, and Holloway who has a small drop of it in a drink. The Engineer falls apart right away to create new life, Holloway on the other hand only had a drop... and he starts to die as well, but doesn't show ANY symptoms of anything being wrong until AFTER he empregnants Shaw. So my theory is, after he created new life that's when he started dying, just like the facehuggers in the original Alien and like the giant facehugger at the end of this film.
So the black goo isn't really WMDs, there more like a giant reset switch for a race. So the other question is if the Engineers created intelligent life on Earth, why would they suddenly decide to start over. We're actually given a hint to this. We know they were about to leave to get this done before they were all killed and we know that this event happened roughly 2,000 years ago. What major event happened on Earth roughly 2,000 years ago? The birth of Christ? The Crucifixion? Maybe Jesus was an emissary for the Engineers to steer us in the right direction and we crucified him. Before anyone tells me I'm off base keep this in mind. The main character of the film is religious and wears a crucifix, the bulk of the film takes place on Christmas day and Shaw's closing entry not only does she mention the year, but says specifically "in the year of our lord 2094".
I didn't even start in the whole Annunaki and Sumerian thing, or the whole Prometheus thing (the Titan, not the spaceship)... there's surprisingly a lot you can get into here seriously. Ok, enough for now.
@Amberfool: Quite right, I might have given the wrong impression with saying it had connections to "religions".
You might find this post interesting as supplemental reading. I stumbled across it a couple days after I saw the film and it gels pretty nicely with your interpretation.
@Jonathan Seamans: Made it to the second paragraph... gonna have to bookmark that for later. It's funny that the blanks left open for speculation seems to drive people to love or hate this movie.
@Jonathan Seamans: Very interesting read. Makes my post seem primitive lol
This may also be one of those times where by filling in the gaps with assumptions and extrapolations is a process by which we give considerably more credit to the filmmakers than deserved.
@Rahat Ahmed: Stop being a party pooper :-(
Seriously though, I find that article interesting to read, but I do think that a lot of what is being read into it is supposed to be left ambiguous. Like I think the 2000 year thing is supposed to suggest that religion (the creation of, or crucifixion) was the downfall of mankind, but I doubt they intend it to signify something specific like that article mentions.
You can take that anyway you want, whether it's trying to be old school sci-fi where there's more suggestions then answers... or whether it was their way of saying that religion is to blame without having to come right out and say it in the film. I understand some people could be touchy about that sorta thing.
In the end it seems a lot of people just enjoy it being ambiguous, while others see it as anything but clever. In the end it's all subjective to the individual.
All the theories and speculation aside, I friggin loved Michael Fassbender in this.
Great review, sums up my thoughts perfectly.
About to re-watch it!
Nice! I find it looks better in 2D... well compared to the "RealD 3D" at the theaters anyways.
I can watch it in both - got a new TV that supports 3D, a few months ago - but though films can sometimes look better in 3D, I'd rather not try it outside of theaters, for want of comfort.