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Watching this tonight!
*** Alien: Covenant ***
- Thread starter AshenEdge
- Start date
Me too, booked 8pm showing at the local Imax theatre.
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Tomorrow for me. Can't wait.
Soldato
I don't know that I can take anyone seriously that likes the AvP films but doesn't like Prometheus because of 'plot holes'
You can pick huge gaping holes in *every* sci-fi movie, they all sacrifice common sense and physics for storytelling. Prometheus was no worse than any others. I think what threw most people was that it wasn't Alien (sci-fi survival horror), and it wasn't Aliens (pulp scifi action), it was something quite different (primarily telling stories about people and the backstory of the xenos).
Understandable but if you look at it from my point of view the AvP films didn't have 'great' directors and you could tell from the trailers they would just be a typical slasher film with Aliens and Predators. Prometheus was supposed to be different, coming from Mr 'Way past his prime' Ridley Scott, exploring the origins in a scientific way with a huge budget, it was supposed to be a proper continuation of the franchise rather than a low budget cash in like the AvP films and for that reason it was a terrible disappointment, the plot holes I mentioned for a film that was supposed to be of that caliber were absolutely ridiculous. Most advanced space flight in history but no-one knows what they're doing there, highly intelligent scientists decide to play with a brand new alien life form, no-one on the entire ship monitoring what is going on inside the structure cos they went to get some nookie despite 2 of their team still being in there, random characters simply disappear, running in a straight line whilst a big circular object is rolling behind you but one of these highly intelligent people decides 'I know! i'll run to the side at the very last second'. AvP was supposed to be trash in just seeing the Aliens and Predators fight each other for the first time but Prometheus was supposed to be better.
Caporegime
Just seen it, hmmmmm, still many lose ends and unexplained stuff.
Soldato
Could you put the loose ends in spoiler tags, I'm interested to know what they are?
Caporegime
David and the neomorph interact, he says it trusts him (while breathing on its face like if it was a horse), yet this neomorph literally just came out of some guys mouth an hr or two earlier, so how does it trust him?
That mother juggernaught, where did it go, he docks with it, drops the cargo, then its not there anymore
Are the bold headed dudes on the planet the engineers? they seem to be waving to the Juggernaut as if they were worshipping it
What laid the eggs?
why does david teach walter the flutes (also mentions something about fingering, are these the same flutes from the alien ship?
How did the other alien get on the covenent ship before being impaled and blown out the airlock
If he created the alien, why was there that moral in prometheus on the wall
Theres so many more.
Oh heres another,
For such an advanced species why are they living in caves/simple rooms that look like they have been carved out of rock
Whats with the massive gate (that david/walter, the crew easily pass through), what is it keeping out
Caporegime
They need to make many more to fill the holes.
Where are the engineers shipyards to build such vessels, they all seem to be rag wearing cave dwellers.
Caporegime
that alien got trapped in that slow moving crane jaws a bit easily
Soldato
Bloody hell lol.
Just got out of the cinema - my thoughts!
Contains spoilers:
No spoilers - just my score out of 10.
Contains spoilers:
I was pretty hyped for this but sorry to say but I have really mixed views on it. The first third / half of the film was really disappointing. About mid-way it became laughably ludicrous (people were laughing in the cinema - including me) but, whilst it didn't have an excellent climax either, the end third was much more interesting.
The start really was a rehash of prometheus and did nothing particularly exciting. Just... scenes we have seen many times before in other films.
When the 'dust' started appearing my interest began to wane, as I then (correctly) expected that many of the teased plot nuances would go unresolved. The scene on the drop pod ship with the alien was surprisingly violent (more on that later) but in truth I'd rather be on the ship with the bloomin' alien than that ABSOLUTELY USELESS lady crew member who failed miserably in doing absolutely anything to rectify the situation. I laughed bemusingly when she was on fire stumbling out of the ship - as if anyone watching had the slightest bit of sympathy after witnessing such incompetence.
Then when David showed up, for an admittedly brief moment the film went turbo silly and at this point I was borderline irritated by the film. The way he swanned in like an action hero, and when revealing his identity looking like he served 'the many faced god' (Game of Thrones reference), it all seemed soooo out of place with the lore of the alien series. Then we were taken to a huge city with plenty of charred bodies everywhere and I genuinely burst out laughing at the line, delivered deadpan serious, "there are so many things that don't make sense right now", which was unintentionally hilarious - surely that was a post-Prometheus in joke?! By the time the flute scene came around clearly everyone else was feeling the same as multiple people were now laughing at how ludicrous and pretentious it seemingly was.
Then something really unexpected happened... it became... quite good. David's story arc was intriguing and I was really quite excited to see how things would resolve. His God complex was captivating and his character genuinely disturbing - a great villain. I won't go into ultra detail but the various specimens on display and the explanation for his motives, even his grisly sketches, were all really well done.
The 'final battle' was exciting but it was all resolved quite quickly and the remaining leads never really seemed in great danger. The 'final twist' was rather obvious but it left things on a pleasingly ominous note.
Other random comments... wow this film really went for it with the gore. No messing around - this is one violent / brutal film, easily the most brutal of the series.
Also, other than David and Walter none of the humans were particularly memorable... save for the aforementioned useless lady for the wrong reasons.
I can't bring myself to say this is a good film. What it did well it did very well but it was very unbalanced. Maybe it would be better on a rewatch in a couple of years.
The start really was a rehash of prometheus and did nothing particularly exciting. Just... scenes we have seen many times before in other films.
When the 'dust' started appearing my interest began to wane, as I then (correctly) expected that many of the teased plot nuances would go unresolved. The scene on the drop pod ship with the alien was surprisingly violent (more on that later) but in truth I'd rather be on the ship with the bloomin' alien than that ABSOLUTELY USELESS lady crew member who failed miserably in doing absolutely anything to rectify the situation. I laughed bemusingly when she was on fire stumbling out of the ship - as if anyone watching had the slightest bit of sympathy after witnessing such incompetence.
Then when David showed up, for an admittedly brief moment the film went turbo silly and at this point I was borderline irritated by the film. The way he swanned in like an action hero, and when revealing his identity looking like he served 'the many faced god' (Game of Thrones reference), it all seemed soooo out of place with the lore of the alien series. Then we were taken to a huge city with plenty of charred bodies everywhere and I genuinely burst out laughing at the line, delivered deadpan serious, "there are so many things that don't make sense right now", which was unintentionally hilarious - surely that was a post-Prometheus in joke?! By the time the flute scene came around clearly everyone else was feeling the same as multiple people were now laughing at how ludicrous and pretentious it seemingly was.
Then something really unexpected happened... it became... quite good. David's story arc was intriguing and I was really quite excited to see how things would resolve. His God complex was captivating and his character genuinely disturbing - a great villain. I won't go into ultra detail but the various specimens on display and the explanation for his motives, even his grisly sketches, were all really well done.
The 'final battle' was exciting but it was all resolved quite quickly and the remaining leads never really seemed in great danger. The 'final twist' was rather obvious but it left things on a pleasingly ominous note.
Other random comments... wow this film really went for it with the gore. No messing around - this is one violent / brutal film, easily the most brutal of the series.
Also, other than David and Walter none of the humans were particularly memorable... save for the aforementioned useless lady for the wrong reasons.
I can't bring myself to say this is a good film. What it did well it did very well but it was very unbalanced. Maybe it would be better on a rewatch in a couple of years.
No spoilers - just my score out of 10.
5.5/10
My company gave the same score.
My company gave the same score.
Soldato
My attempt at answering some of the questions you had, these are only my opinions
I believe the Neomorph sensed David was a synthetic, David at this point is potentially insane and mistook the lack of attack as trust.
That is a very good question about the Mother Juggernaut.. I have no idea.
I don't believe these are the engineers, I believe they are a civilisation created by the engineers. In Prometheus the engineers are far more perfect in appearance than these people, these appear to be a simpler race.
David manufactured the eggs, this does bode the question.. does he inevitably create a queen so that the species can become non reliant upon David to create?
I think this scene was David assessing Walter and trying to work out how best he can manipulate him, to figure out if he is friend or foe.
The Protomorph on the Covenant was implanted into Lope by a Facehugger, unsure how it survived tho given the brief time it had on him.
The Murial on the chamber wall was of a Deacon iirc, the head was pointed like that of a deacon. Not sure how the engineers knew of its existence or even why the mutual was there? Originally I suspected it was due to the pathogen ultimately resulting in the birth of a Deacon but the scene where David unleashes the Pathogen in Covenant discredits that theory!
I have no idea what that gate was to keep out.
Soldato
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Just back from seeing this at the cinema and I too have mixed feelings on it. It was better than Prometheus, a film that I really didn't enjoy, but certainly not a patch on the original films. Some general thoughts:
It was called Alien yet all the various types of alien that appeared in it seemed like an afterthought, David was the antagonist of the film and looks like he's set to continue to be.
I think the civilisation that David wiped out was just another race that the engineers created. Their remains didn't appear to be any bigger than that of the human crew of the Covenant and they appeared quite primitive, with no signs of the tech of the engineers. I presume it's just another world capable of maintaining life that the engineers created a species on.
None of the crew were overly likeable, so it was hard to care when they were killed off. At least Shaw was a likeable character in Prometheus, I can barely remember the names of any of the crew in this one, even the woman intended to be the Shaw of this film.
The first third of the film (the setup) was a bit slow and boring in parts.
The total stupidity of the characters was frustrating. The ship captain being casually lured into a trap by David having found him trying to tame the Neomorph was hilariously stupid, any idiot could have worked out that David was trouble. The captain didn't even ask David why he should trust him, he just blindly went along with it. Also, how none of the characters even thought of the David/Walter switch was staggering. Sure, they were distracted by trying to take off and the Alien, but I'd like to think I'd have entertained the possibility that he'd switched places.
David was by far the best part of this film, it would have been pretty atrocious without him imo.
Just came back from seeing this.
A lot better than Prometheus, which made no sense.
I liked it, would be a good standalone sci-fi but don't think it fits in with the Alien trilogy universe (Resurrection was just awful).
Good acting by Danny McBride and some others.
Just don't see how it would tie in with Alien.
I'd give it a 7/10 as it doesn't make sense in a few places and didn't have as many plot holes as Prometheus. Extra mark included for the fingering line...
A lot better than Prometheus, which made no sense.
I liked it, would be a good standalone sci-fi but don't think it fits in with the Alien trilogy universe (Resurrection was just awful).
Good acting by Danny McBride and some others.
Just don't see how it would tie in with Alien.
I'd give it a 7/10 as it doesn't make sense in a few places and didn't have as many plot holes as Prometheus. Extra mark included for the fingering line...
Went to see this last night, huge fan of both Aliens and Predator series. Seen all the movies multiple times. I think Alien Covenant was fairly good in some places. Cinematography for one was mostly outstanding. Acting was a bit ropy in places and despite the slow start to this movie, very reminiscent of Aliens in fact. Ridley really struggled to create characters we actually cared for. Top marks for giving H.R Giger prominent space in the credits also.
My further thoughts will leave in spoilers because they are more plot/scene specific
My further thoughts will leave in spoilers because they are more plot/scene specific
They needed to do more character building that Walter really cared for Daniels. Despite the very slow start there was just one scene that kind of showed he cared more about her than the rest of the crew.
I agree with thoughts further up in the thread. That planet David destroyed with the biological weapon didn't seem to be the Engineers. Was like they were living in Ancient Greece with just some basic farming techniques and living in caves.Very strange
Giving the Aliens to much screen time kind of kills the horror of them. I did enjoy the shot of the large grey Alien sitting outside, that was kind of creepy and the attack on the girl washing up was genuinely terrifying seeing this Alien just standing on two feed and tearing her head off. I did cringe when the baby Alien raised its hands to David. Ridley was being so blunt here about David playing god and creating life
That flute scene. Say no more, everyone in the cinema laughed :/ CRINGE
Kind of annoying that the species can be created with just that black dust being ingested, kind of makes you wonder what's the purpose of a Queen Alien and the facehuggers at all.
Soldato
Saw it this morning, it definitely had more of the original Alien feel to it than the last few films in the franchise that said I did like the nods to the soundtrack to Prometheus.
The whole David being on the ship twist was too easy to spot
Did we even get a true answer to how Shaw died? Did David kill her whilst experimenting or did she die then he preformed them?
Did we even get a true answer to how Shaw died? Did David kill her whilst experimenting or did she die then he preformed them?