[DDTempest]

Originally Posted by Mr. Blonde

Let's start with David, the android.

Right so he's basically a computer -- why in the hell would he need to *learn* languages, or learn anything for that matter? I can appreciate the idea of him intaking art (such as the movie he was mimicking near the beginning) in the same way humans do; this is important to relating to us. But languages? Why couldn't he just plugin and download that shit? That's sort of how computers work. They copy information from other sources. It's called "input", and I would think that if we can build lifelike artificial intelligence down to nosehairs, we should have the data replication thing covered.

The idea of making a synthetic human being is to have them learn and act like a human being. Sure they are going to learn quicker and in a distorted way, but he is programmed to be curious and to always improve himself.

The "mission briefing".

Do we really need the hologram of Weyland? What purpose at all did he serve? He didn't even relate to us the importance of the mission at hand -- he left that to the doctors to explain. So, other than to obviously prep us for later on in the movie, he had no purpose at all. This seemed superfluous to me.

So you didn't like it because in the future they make use of presentation technology that is available in the future? Half of science fiction is postulating on what basic technology has evolved to in the future. Additionally, this sets up the fact that he is "nearly dead" ... which makes the later reveal make sense. You can't just have an unknown entity pop out of an ice coffin later in the movie can you

On top of that, he said something akin to "for all intents and purposes, Dr's Holloway and Shaw are the boss". Um, alright. Even before this we already have a power struggle foreshadowing made pretty obvious between Vickers (Theron) and David (android). What purpose does it serve for Weyland to muck up the leadership waters even more, especially given his role later in the movie? Part of me wants to assume it's so he guarantees they are not hindered in finding what they are looking for, but then why would he let someone like Vickers on the ship at all? Yes, it's his daughter, but wouldn't he be able to put some kind of preventative measure into her being on the ship at all? I mean for fucks sake, he just spent a TRILLION DOLLARS on a mission to another galaxy, he can't prevent his moneygrubbing bitch daughter (or anyone with an authority role like her who may prevent the Dr.'s from doing their job, or become a nuisance for him later) from boarding the ship? I mean, god damn man.

I would assume that he was put into the icebox before the ship left. Line of succession would give her "ownership" of the company in the event of his death, but since he is not dead she couldn't stop the mission from happening so she went along to make sure the negative financial impact to "her" company was kept to a minimum. He was probably in cryosleep before she decided to even come along.

In the future where mining / terraforming / and deep-space travel is possible, a TRILLION DOLLARS is going to be more comparable to millions of dollars today than a trillion dollars today.

Right, so on top of the mucky leadership planning, which is terrible for what I can only guess is likely the most wealthy corporation on the planet, it appears that most of the crew doesn't even know what they're doing. This makes a terrible amount of sense, it doesn't give the crew any time at ALL to emotionally prepare themselves for, oh I don't know, being in another galaxy and possibly finding the answer to the biggest question mankind as ever asked. And as long as we're on the subject, why are there so many emotionally fucked people on the crew anyways? That badass looking mohawk tattooed head geologist dude I thought would be calm, cool, and collected (although possibly violent and crazy) and he ended up pussying out at the first sight of some holograms and a suit of armor. Pretty sure psychological stalwartness is one of THE most important things about long-term space travel. Even moreso for a mission like this. So why hire crazies? In reality, almost none of the "zany and individualistic" personas on the ship would have made the cut. Vickers, Shaw and Ford are the most realistic personality types to be selected for such a mission -- the rest seem to be a huge liability.

Space travel in the future is a more casual affair. Jobs are just jobs and the need for stalwartness is removed once you put someone in hypersleep. You go to sleep, you wake up, you do a simple job, and you go back to sleep ... you are removed from every day life for years at a time, people willing to do that are probably not the most mentally stable anyway - think more like oil platform workers today than astronauts.

Also: not everyone in a science fiction movie has seen science fiction movies ... while we know what to do in an alien discovery, zombie apocalypse, or armageddon ... they do not.

I gotta go to work ... will comment on rest later