Damon Lindelof is not a good writer

[mattepntr]

I stayed through the credits. There is nothing more at the end.

[MilesSmiles]

People are saying that it's not a prequel because it's not a related story.

it's like saying The Incredible Hulk is a sequel to Iron Man because they take place in the same universe and both have Tony Stark.

Yea, but that's different. We are dealing with the origin of those aliens from those movies.

[arta]

Lindelof talks a good game, is pretty convincing and knows what to say in interviews and podcasts, but his actual work sucks.

[Dago]

Engineer at the beginning of the film created man.

Engineer at the end of the film attempted to destroy man.

That is clear. This could either be explained one of two ways:

1. The Engineers changed their mind about man and attempts to destroy him.
2. There are two different factions of Engineers with two different ideas on how to handle man.

I really don't see how you can say the films doesn't present this evidence. If it didn't present this evidence, we couldn't have come up with this theory.

whats so clear about it? you cant really say with any certainty that creating man was his objective at the beginning. maybe the creating life on the planet was just the first stage of what they were doing and the guy at the end was creating life v2.

the film doesnt really have any evidence one way or the other and that was sort of the point of his writing style in this.

[indy42]

There were drafts that were more explicitly spelled out. I think Ridley’s instinct kept being to pull back, and I would say, “Ridley, I’m still eating shit a year after Lost is over for all the things we didnt directly spell out, Are you sure you want to do this?” And he said, “I would rather have people fighting about it and not know then spell it out.”

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/06/...s-and-sequels/

[henzINNIT]

Lindelof talks a good game, is pretty convincing and knows what to say in interviews and podcasts, but his actual work sucks.

Yup. He's one hell of a con man. That said...

Prometheus > Lost

Less time wasted thinking about answers or logic in general. Scott ensured it looked pretty and the cast were good.

[SunkenMysteries]

Prometheus was a movie that was ambiguous just to mindf*ck the audience and keep them talking. It was full of symbolism for symbolism's sake but didn't really have anything to say ABOUT the symbols and tropes that it invoked. And finally, the expectations before the movie were hyped up by a well-done viral marketing campaign centered around "in universe" material.

Be honest, all three of those things scream Lindelof.

[bongzilla]

Increasingly I just think Lindelof's a bit of a pseudointellectual; he evidently likes bringing big ideas into his scripts but in both Lost and Prometheus I felt he didn't really have anything interesting or original to say about those big ideas. Obviously there is an argument for leaving it up to the viewer but I like having something to work with and I felt the way Prometheus handled its big ideas was either trite or terribly on-the-nose.

Yes, Lindelof is a psuedointellectual and you're correct about his "big ideas." But for pop entertainment, he's perfect. He is untroubled by fully answering questions. He just wants to toss it out there and see what people make of it. This man is not Arthur C. Clarke or Ray Bradbury or Phillip K. Dick. He's an entertainer and he plays to his audience. So a story like Prometheus is right in his wheelhouse. It's science fiction with metaphysical and religious themes, asks and answers in a limited way. Why is mankind on Earth? The Engineers made us as part of some larger experiment far away from their homeworld. Why did they do that? Something involving creating a powerful ALIEN subspecies or something. Who created the Engineers? Well, Dr. Shaw and David fly off to find out BIG ANSWERS in the ending.

I think some of these ideas of Lindelof's were leftovers from LOST, when it switched from being a science fiction story to being a magical fantasy (change happened around Season 3 or 4). I enjoyed both. The ending of Prometheus, as rushed as it seems, is far more satisfying than the ending of LOST for me. Because an open ending is more satisfying to me than a trite ending for such a complex story.