Prometheus

(Caution:  Spoiler filled commentary!)

Who knew?  In Prometheus, Producer/Director Ridley Scott's "Alien" prequel, we learn that Mankind was saved from total destruction by a primitive form of the creature that terrorized Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in the 1979 landmark film.

Well, that's what I took away from the 3-D experience of Prometheus.  Movie making technology is awesome.  Even the 2-D versions are absorbing.  Yet, as always, it's the story frontier that excites the imagination.  Sadly, Prometheus pulls an Avatar and opts not explore that frontier.

In a nut-shell (gotta love that phrase), a dying billionaire funds a stellar expedition to visit the postulated "Engineers" of  Mankind.  In a frustratingly brief opening scientist/explorer Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace)  and colleagues discover ancient cave art in Scotland depicting giants pointing to a cluster of stars.  It's an image found worldwide.  That plot element, with an assist from any Graham Hancock work, is thrust enough for the imagination frontier.  What we have here is the businessman hiring Shaw and a crew to find the Engineers and have a chat.

So the tale of Prometheus, the name of the ship traveling to the distant planet, is about the chat that never happens.  The planet is found, and ancient structures located and explored but, alas, the old ones, the Engineers, are all dead.  Shaw finds and keeps the helmeted head of one of the deceased and, surprise, their DNA is a perfect match.  There may be no one to talk to, but proof positive that Mankind descended from them.  So, why are they dead?  They who traverse the universe and seed life?

David figures it out

The odd structure is revealed as more a military outpost, an isolated place for the development of the ultimate weapon of mass destruction.  Exploring on its own slightly separate mission, David (Michael Fassbender),  the humanoid created by the billionaire, discovers the flight plan for the voyage that never occurred by the Engineers.  With a cargo of thousands of killer life forms, the great ship was on its way to Earth to eradicate Mankind.  Happily (well...) the killers manage to break containment and kill all but one of the Engineers.  One lies in suspended animation awaiting launch of the ship and arrival on earth.

Wonder Woman

In the meantime the relentless killers are getting around, including Shaw's womb.  A tumble in the bed with her infected colleague/lover results in a three month pregnancy overnight.  It's Wonder Woman time and Shaw manages to self-direct a cesarean section just in time.  Quickly stapled, and isolating the what-ever-it-is, she leaps tall ships, mountains, and other rigors with an occasional wince and grunt.

David learns how to manipulate the alien ship controls and brings the lone Engineer to consciousness.  Many people when suddenly awakened are a bit grouchy and it's usually best to leave them alone for a bit.  The cranky giant (think a tall, husky albino from DaVinci Code) is immediately pestered by several of the small Human creatures he's prepared to destroy.  So, he goes about killing them.  So much for a conversation with a higher power.

The Engineer launches his giant craft to complete the mission.  Human heroics and the sacrifice of the Prometheus, bring down the craft.  The giant survives and now stalks the lone human, Shaw.  I'll leave it there.  Suffice to say we finally reach the point where Ripley's tormentor arrives.

One inside moment:  Noomi Rapace played Lisbeth Salander in the first movie versions of the Stieg Larsson novels.  In Prometheus she's Elizabeth Shaw.  But, of course, in one passing tribute line, she's called "Lisbeth."  Hey, I liked it.  The line, that is.

The movie, alas, is alongside Avatar with great cinema, cardboard characters, and a totally missed opportunity to race along the imagination frontier.

Thinking About The Law...

The Law of Attraction, that is.  Gathering notes for some upcoming discussions.  The article is a bit long for this format, but you can read it here at The Thinking Place.  In a time when "justice" and "fairness" are overused buzz words, they are characteristics of the Law of Attraction (just not in the manner that some would imagine.)

Perspective strikes again!

OMG!  Two galaxies tearing into each other, ripping suns and systems to bits...
or, not.

The Hubble views a grand universe and, with all visual perceptions, space and position can be deceiving to the eye.  For instance, kicking around the moon...

 

It's all about how we view things. 

Calvin Coolidge got it right. “If you see ten troubles coming down the road,” he said, “you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you and you have to battle with only one of them.” With an outlook like that, it’s easy to understand why Silent Cal was seldom anxious. Unfortunately, many people see the ten troubles and leap into action ten different ways.  Perhaps the President was more aware of the perspective - what may appear to be a major threat, or hassle, turns out to be merely a perception.

What are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes?

What is real?  From day one you’re involved in a great circus of attention seeking – those seeking it from you, and your attempts to get others to focus on (agree with) you.  At the meeting (family meeting, Board meeting, business meeting, etc) those present may agree on an item.  Yet when each member is asked, individually, about the agreed upon item, each will have a different slant.  It can’t be otherwise.  (You know the story:  “But, we agreed that…”)

It’s a feature of our lives – subjective views on reality.  No two people can have the same, identical, image (perception) of something.  Each individual is unique and interprets his/her experience in their distinctive manner.  There’s nothing new about this human feature.

Epictetus  was a Greek Stoic living in the first century CE who noted that men are not disturbed by things but by the view they take of them (emphasis mine.)  Obviously an idea that rode the centuries.  We find it proclaimed on stage in Hamlet:  “…for there is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so.”  And, from Bishop George Berkeley, The only thing we can perceive are our own perceptions.  Berkeley was writing in that glorious time just prior to the founding of this nation.  It was a time of bold thinking, opening perspectives for what would later be comprehended as quantum physics.

For instance, Berkeley followed a perception that what is considered a material universe is but an observation (perception) of the idea of material universe.  His syllogism:

(1) We perceive ordinary objects (houses, mountains, etc.).

(2) We perceive only ideas.

Therefore,

(3) Ordinary objects are ideas

That’s heady thinking for the 18^th century, yet “We inhabit a cosmos made real in part by our own observations…our observations influence the universe at the most fundamental levels,” stated the late physicist John Wheeler - the man who coined the phrase “black holes” and “wormhole.”  I imagine what a lively discussion he and Berkeley might have.

Our own observations (attention) influence the universe… now that’s something for a movie!  The movie was titled Rashomon, directed by legendary Akira Kurosawa, and released in 1950.  The plot involves four witnesses to a rape and murder.  Yet each testimony differs, often dramatically.  Yet each presents the event from his/her observation (perspective.)  Thus, a “subjective view” to the reality of the rape and murder.  (One witness is the channeled victim who one would think would know the reality, but then…)

Adventures in thinking…

…to be continued…