Judging by the visual look of this film, I've come to the following conclusion:

given that the technology we're seeing in the trailers is more advanced than what we see in the original Alien film, I think Prometheus must take place at a time after the current Alien movies.  This, coupled with the fact that the derelict vessel is still intact, would further indicate that this film will involve some element of time travel, wherein the derelict vessel, which is actually from the future, somehow manages to crash in the past...

that, or Sir Ridley Scott has completely lost his mind and is about to make a terrible movie.

Seriously, what's with the floating CGI computer screens in every science fiction movie made in the last 15 years?  Where's the low-tech CRT monitors, switches and dials?  I really hope Scott doesn't drop the ball on this film.  We've all seen what can happen when a formerly well-respected director revisits a movie universe after an extended leave of absence.

I hope I don't leave the theatre thinking that Scott should have left well enough alone.

Maybe Mr. Scott has been talking with Mr. Lucas about how to make prequels. o_O

I don't think it's the same ship.

For my theory of what I think is going on look up the Doctor Who episodes The Hand Of Fear and City Of Death and try and juggle them together with a bit of Milton's Paradise Lost.

I'm kinda hoping it's not the same 'derelict' ship either, purely because there are some distinctive design changes between it and the version originally seen in ALIEN.

On the other hand, there are also quite a few differences to the detailing of the 'Spacejockey', it's 'chair', and the 'base' surrounding it also, so this could just be a sign that Ridley isn't too fussed with 'continuity issues' with the original movie, and wanted to tweak things a little.  And the more 'futuristic'-looking screens could just be another thing that doesn't matter to him in the overall scheme of things, since he's now got the improved technology (and budget) to do them this way for today's audiences.

These obvious design differences will no doubt bother me a bit if this turns out to be the case...but I'm just glad this particular movie is being directed by him rather than anyone else I can think of, as I know I'm in for a visual feast either way.

All I know at this point is that this is all going to look terrific in decent 3D.

And here's an interesting 'timeline' chart that's appeared on the 'weylandindustries' site now, which shows when developments like the 'Spectagraph' (red floating 'mapping' ball seen in latest trailer) came along... 

(scroll down to the bottom and work your way up to the top of the page) - https://www.weylandindustries.com/#/timeline

UK trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9jRaa4Wkbk&feature=player_embedded#t=14s

ChainsawAsh said:

As such, remember that the Nostromo was essentially a mining/transport ship, whereas the Prometheus is a heavily-funded research vessel.  Of course the technology onboard the Prometheus would be newer and more expensive than the technology onboard a ship whose sole purpose is to haul shit from point A to point B.

Noticed something about the ship while watching the different versions of the trailers.

doubleofive said:

 

The Nostromo may very well predate the Prometheus.

 

Interesting... I hadn't considered that possibility.

Bingowings said:

I don't think it's the same ship.

 

I agree with this/ think this is the case. I've only seen the trailers and read the recent Scott/Lindelof Q & A.

It's my belief that there are multiple 'derelict' ships, as seen in Alien, around the universe and this movie focuses one one (or more) of the other ones. Maybe they go around the universe 'giving fire' to humans and/or other species. So the space jockey we see in the trailers isn't the space jockey, just the pilot of another ship, so to speak.

I also think that Scott was intending on making an alien Prequel but when Lindelof came on board and the script changed this tangent was created.

Either way I'm pretty excited. I love the cast.

Wow! good eye ;)

The skin of the ship looks more organic now though, doesn't it? Or maybe it just looks that way because of the color timing.

Yes, in that scene alot of the flame debris crashing down on the surface is much different than the earlier version, stuff like that. It's pretty fascinating to see this.

TV-Spot ahoy!

Nothing new (I think) but a nice mix of what we have already seen.

see you auntie said:

It's my belief that there are multiple 'derelict' ships, as seen in Alien, around the universe and this movie focuses one one (or more) of the other ones. Maybe they go around the universe 'giving fire' to humans

Speaking of;  That's something I wanted to ask you guys earlier.  Do we know yet what the correlation is between Prometheus and the film title?  Is there even going to be any similarity?  Just curious. 

see you auntie said:

It's my belief that there are multiple 'derelict' ships, as seen in Alien, around the universe and this movie focuses one one (or more) of the other ones. Maybe they go around the universe 'giving fire' to humans and/or other species.

There are obvious links in terms of theme between the film, the myth and other related stories.

For example Prometheus made man out of clay (Athena put the spirit in).

Zeus had already destroyed five previous races of men and Prometheus was keen to prevent this from happening again so when his brother ran out of positive attributes after giving them all to the animals Prometheus stole some fire from the sun to keep man alive and taught man the skills necessary to form civilisation.

Prometheus was punished by by having his body tied to a rock and his liver was pecked out by an eagle but being a Titan it regenerated (incidentally the human liver does have amazing regenerative abilities) making the torment eternal. Eventually he turned into rock.

Man was punished by having to endure woman (a common theme in most creation stories).

The first woman, Pandora is given to Epimetheus (Prometheus' brother) with a wedding gift of an urn.

She is told not open it but she has to take a peek (now you know how Greek e-mail viruses get spread around).

This releases all forms of torment on humanity except for hope.

The story as far as we know has evidence of an alien that instructs humanity in basic technology, urns containing all forms of nastiness and the human responsible is a woman.

The story was a big hit with the Romantic poets, Milton was a big hit and Prometheus was equated with Lucifer.

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein Or The Modern Prometheus and the film has an artificial man at the heart of the story.

Bingowings said:

The story as far as we know has evidence of an alien that instructs humanity in basic technology, urns containing all forms of nastiness and the human responsible is a woman.

I haven't been reading anything nearly that in-depth about the plot.  I just figured the tie was an alien giving us technology (akin to stealing the fire from Zeus).  I wasn't aware of a Pandora link as well. 

I can see the human responsible is a woman angle though, now that you mention it.  There is a scene in the trailer where a woman appears to be struggling with some sort of inner turmoil (I think she's looking in a mirror or something). 

So far, it's the single most intriguing scene in the trailer to me, by far.  I'm much more of a cerebral story guy, as opposed to an action story guy.  Hence the fact that Alien is in my permanent Top 5 of all time.

Hey - I thought you were staying spoiler-free?  ;-)

I said I was attempting to post as spoiler free as possible.

It would be impossible to answer your question without any kind of spoiler but it's pretty basic stuff that you can't really avoid noticing from the trailers and the posters which are popping up all over the place.

People tend to forget that Prometheus made mankind's physical form ergo the connection to Frankenstein making a man.

The tagline to the film links into that too.

It could just be that the ships name is Prometheus ;)

But I doubt it's that simple.

DuracellEnergizer said:

If this turns out to be a stealth reboot of Stargate, I will be perplexed yet intrigued.

I haven't seen Stargate in a long time, but maybe more akin to the monolith in 2001.

Anchorhead said:

I'm much more of a cerebral story guy, as opposed to an action story guy. 

Which is why I liked the U.K trailer more. A lot less action orientated and a lot more intrigue.

Here's the 24 minute Q & A. Not very spoilery other than a little bit about Guy Pearce's Weyland character. But the trailers are way more spoilery in comparison.

see you auntie said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

If this turns out to be a stealth reboot of Stargate, I will be perplexed yet intrigued.

I haven't seen Stargate in a long time, but maybe more akin to the monolith in 2001. 

I don't know if I posted this before, but last year a rumored plot synopsis leaked. I think certain elements of it have been debunked by what we've see, but the framework does seem plausible. This could have been based on an early script prior to revisions that Scott and Lindelof made, or it's completely bogus. Still, interesting read.

http://boxofficebuz.com/news_full.php?id=287

That synopsis was penned by a guy on IMDB, I remember him posting it as a fun bit of speculation and then noting with amusement when it went viral as a leaked story line.

It's been all over the place including the usual scummy red top tabloids over here,