Synopsis:
Incorporated deleted, alternate and supplementary footage and made numerous edits to original scenes to strengthen story, clarify character motivation, and address some often-mentioned issues viewers had with the original theatrical release.
Intentions:
Watching the excellent deleted and alternate scenes in the Blu-Ray extras convinced me Prometheus could be a better movie with those scenes included, and then making my own changes followed naturally from there.
Change List:
- Instead of starting with the engineers, we begin with the two human drivers of the mission: Weyland (his TED talk) and Shaw (her call to Weyland). New title card. Shaw's call scaled and cropped to fit film's aspect ratio, new background (generated + line animation from 'Prometheus transmission') fills sides of frame - David watching Shaw's dream now happens in the middle of the David-alone-on-the-ship sequence instead of at the beginning - Included extra dialogue in Vickers and Janek's first conversation - During the briefing, cut Weyland's "what happens when we die" line - nothing in what Shaw and Holloway have found on Earth has to do with the afterlife (Shaws says mentions afterlife in her call, but Weyland's stress should be different) - In theatrical release, during the briefing, Shaw states that the engineers created humans as if it's a fact, and then when asked by a fellow scientist to back that up, then gives her "what I choose to believe" line, which renders this important aspect of her character ridiculous. Here, she makes it as a direct statement of belief straight up, which then gets mocked by Fifield. - Cut a couple of Vickers lines that were redundantly underlining bitchiness - A few small edits to Holloway dialogue to make him a bit less douche-y - Trimmed a few bits of exploration scenes to increase pace (includes removing silly "it's minus 12 in here" line - they'd all be putting their helmets back on in that case) - Included Millburn discovering (non-dangerous) alien lifeform scene - Included Shaw's "not alone" speech to crew - Shaw and Ford no longer pump the engineer head with electricity until it explodes - Stitched together new line for Fifield to explain why the keeper of the "pups" gets lost: "I can't connect us to my pups' map" - Tightened up "probe picking up life form" scene - Millburn no longer treats the alien worm as if it's a cute animal at a petting zoo - David now spikes Holloway's drink just before handing it to him, instead of *right* in front of his face - After Holloway's death, while out on the table, Shaw remembers the dig in Scotland with him (archeological site scene) and has a vision of the engineers on earth (the engineer-sacrifice scene) - Included Janek's talk with Vickers, which gives him a much better reason for sacrificing himself at the end. It intercuts the scene of David talking to Shaw about her pregnancy. Added music. - Additional music to second half of David talking to Shaw about her pregnancy scene - Included alternate Fifield return scene, which I think is far superior in the way he looks and moves (including a hint of xenomorphism with the head elongation) - Included extended conversation between Vickers and Weyland, a good character moment for both of them, especially giving some nuance to Vickers, and also has acknowledgement that Weyland's circle is aware of Shaw's "child" on the ship, via Vicker's "thing squealing next door" line. Added music and sfx. - Included the extended conversation between the humans and the engineer. Mix of theatrical and alternate footage. Added music. - Removed Shaw's long leap across the widening plates. She's already been asked to do so much in her post-operation state - The co-pilots no longer crack a joke right before making the ultimate sacrifice - Shortened juggernaut-rolling sequence, to try to mitigate this issue: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/06/13 (safe to say I liked the film more than they did, but they make a good point ) - Included Shaw's melee with the engineer - Included alternate end conversation between Shaw and David, which is *so* much more fitting in tone given what Shaw has been through. Some theatrical footage mixed with alternate - Added bit of 'space jockey' music from original Alien and callback to the xenomorph-mural to very last scene - Small adjustments at various other places - Made color-corrections in all added footage to try to match it with theatrical.
Additional Notes:
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Other Sources:
Special Thanks:
njvc, white43, and darth_xenu for invaluable advice on improving important edits/scenes, Neglify for sheperding me through the submission process, and njvc again for making an awesome motion menu that will be used for an upcoming DVD version.