Prometheus: Giftbearer

I just wanted to thank Severian for this terrific viewing experience. I loved Prometheus from the get go, and didn't really think it needed a fan edit, but curiosity got the better of me, and I'm glad it did.

The new intro that adds in the Ted Talk was genius. I honestly don't know why it wasn't in the film; it adds so much context to Weyland's motivation. Its this addition and the addition/changing of a few other key scenes that has me agreeing with Severian that Weyland's motivation is purely materialistic in nature. Its through that context, seeing the contrast between Weyland and Shaw's faith and lack thereof that makes the film far more interesting to me. It just adds another layer.

And I'm reading a lot of people taking umbrage with the readdition of the Engineer scene, and the addition of the Scotland scene as dreams. I thought this too was brilliant editing. The death of Holloway has a number of links to these scenes that just make sense in this edit. Not only does it demonstrate Holloway and Shaw's deep connection to one another, its the discovery in the cave that eventually leads to Holloway's death. Placing the cave discovery here makes us wonder if Shaw feels guilt about Holloway's death, and perhaps its because of that guilt she allows the cross to leave her neck. Its an interesting idea.

In the other flashback we see the Engineer dieing in the same tragic way as Holloway does. The swallowing of the black goo and the Engineer's death brings about life, and in a twisted way the same is true of Holloway. But more importantly, the creation of life via the Engineer's death is left vague because its not really a flashback, it's now a dream. This addresses one of the big issues I read online by people who dislike Prometheus. A number of people have a hard time suspending disbelief, and feel that this scene can not be representative of reality. Now they can put that argument to rest because it didn't really happen.

Anyways, this is probably one of my top 5 Fan Edits of all time. Highly recommended!

So I couldn't stand Prometheus,
I hated how they apparently had a very simple story but then covered their tracks, cut out information and acted as if it was much more than was actually in the screenplay (sadly reminding me of Lost all over again).

What Giftbearer does is making things more clear - and less dumb.
I can't say I now like Prometheus now as a movie and while it is a much improved version I still wouldn't have been excited seeing this in cinemas.
The storyline is a very simple one and coming from Lost I tend to eyeroll whenever Lindelof adds stuff to make it seem as if there is more going on in this story.
BUT this version is much more honest about its intention.
While I still hate the entire idea of the angry engineer because Weyland thought of himself as a god at least it now is in the movie and clearly is the message of the film. The movie no longer pretends to be ambitious. it is a clear story about human greed and aliens being angry at us because of it.

There was one awkward use of the flashback to the engineer after Rapace's husband was killed but aside from that most of the rearranging worked just fine.

I still hate the complete disregard for biology (DNA 100% match) and some over the top characters but mostly this edition fixes many problems and presents Prometheus as the straightforward simple story that it was.

Congrats to the editor for a fantastic editing job and superb quality!

Most everything I have to say has already been said, and probably better than I could put it, but here goes anyways!

I enjoyed Prometheus when it came out. It wasn't quite what I was expecting or what the trailers had promised, but I felt that it was better for it. It's easily one of my favorite movies, and when I saw that Severian had added some of the viral clips to the film, I was ecstatic, as adding Weyland's TED speech as the opening was something that I had in mind for doing a Prometheus edit. I think the inclusion of Shaw's video might have been a bit much, but hey, I enjoyed it anyways.

The placement of the Dune and Scott Free logos felt a bit odd, but I've seen other films that have their logos in the middle of the opening, too! There was really only one edit that I thought could have been executed better: in the briefing scene, I think that Shaw's line could have been edited to "I believe they engineered us." Maybe Severian tried that and it didn't work out, and that's okay!

The integration of deleted footage was great. There were a few times I didn't even notice that new footage had been added, and the times I did, I was glad that it was. The dream sequence was a tad...odd, but incredibly well edited. Like others, I didn't even realize some stuff was cut until I read the list again.

Great job, Severian! If a Blu-ray version of this becomes available, you can bet I will be downloading it.

Prometheus always had one problem. It wasn't goofy biologists trying to pet Geiger-esque phallic symbols, nor was it running straight away from a gigantic wheel. It wasn't even Charlize Theron being, well, Charlize Theron.

The problem was the lack of character development that permeated the whole movie. Brilliant lines and revealing moments were dashed aside in lieu of ship captains accentuating their bitchiness or unnecessarily exploding heads and it ultimately turned every character that wasn't Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace (and to a lesser degree Idris Elba, who can't not be awesome even if he tried) into a barebones tool to push the plot on to the next special effect.

I am very pleased to say that Prometheus: Giftbearer solves this problem with gusto. So, let's tackle this one at a time, shall we?

Audio/Video Quality: 10

As Futurama's interpretation of God once said, "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all." This absolutely applies here. What recoloring was done to the deleted scenes fit flawlessly and had me questioning whether or not I'd actually viewed certain scenes in the initial cut.

Visual Editing: 9

This is one of the better visual editing jobs I've seen. The cut scenes were both welcome and necessary to the overall plot. The shortening of drawn-out moments and the removal of the sillier scenes were mostly spot-on. Also I can't stress enough how happy I was to see less Charlize Theron in this cut. I actually liked her character better as a result.

One complaint I've been reading in the earlier reviews was over the "In the Beginning" prologue turning into a dream sequence just after Noomi's character witnesses a horrible trauma. This is up to the viewer, of course, but I didn't find a single thing wrong with this decision. If anything it only spiced up the scene and ended up giving me a chill I didn't feel when I watched the theatrical cut (then I only felt confused), so no points removed there.

That said there was an occasional odd cut (I can count two welcome, albeit a tad clumsy, changes), but nothing that hindered my enjoyment of the film.

Audio Editing: 9

Changed and removed lines abound and for the better, though I did notice that it occasionally got very loud. I'm kind of stretching for a complaint on this regard, however. I did like how the creature at the end was muted, though. Nice touch there; added to the creepy factor a bit.

Narrative: 10

This is where I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this recut was absolutely necessary. As I said before the character development was completely removed from the theatrical cut of the film despite the fact that the very scenes that made one care about those characters were actually shot. Severian restored the hell out of the best of those scenes. Now you can see Guy Pierce sans old-guy prosthetics making a powerful speech about the importance of to going too far with science. Suddenly Idris Elba's stand against the alien menace is more powerful thanks to a beautifully spoken monologue that details a similar dark chapter of his past. I found myself actually emotionally engaged in the characters presented. They were people, not plot devices, and the whole movie was far far better for it.

Enjoyment: 10

Recuts like this are the reason I love fanedits. When someone takes his or her own personal time to turn a bad movie good or a decent movie great, and then brings it to the world, I have this odd feeling of being rescued. While I would sit around complaining about a bad movie someone out there would rather bite the bullet and actually do something about it. It's a beautiful thing.

As for this particular recut, I'll say that it was very aptly titled. This is a gift, and its bearer is Severian. Thank you.

This is a shining example of why I love this community. I cannot say much that hasn't been covered before. You have saved this film and I have recommended it to so many that did not care for the original. Thank you for your work.