*** Alien: Covenant ***
- Thread starter AshenEdge
- Start date
Caporegime
Saw it last night.
It's alright but just stupid, predictable and more stupid.
It's alright but just stupid, predictable and more stupid.
Right having seen all the films over the last few days here's my ratings - some minor tweaks to my thoughts earlier in the thread. If anyone cares 
Alien - 8
Aliens - 8.5
Alien 3 - 3
Alien Resurrection - 5.5
Prometheus - 6
Alien Covenant - 5.5
Resurrection is quite fun but falls shy of being anything better than what it is - a B movie. I always think that ripley baby looks weird / off too. It was interesting watching the special features as 3 things were clear - the studio had a clear direction of what it wanted it to be (I.e action / mass appeal), the individuals involved wanted it to be less serious and the script for the ending had to be changed several times due to costs.
Alien - 8
Aliens - 8.5
Alien 3 - 3
Alien Resurrection - 5.5
Prometheus - 6
Alien Covenant - 5.5
Resurrection is quite fun but falls shy of being anything better than what it is - a B movie. I always think that ripley baby looks weird / off too. It was interesting watching the special features as 3 things were clear - the studio had a clear direction of what it wanted it to be (I.e action / mass appeal), the individuals involved wanted it to be less serious and the script for the ending had to be changed several times due to costs.
one of the many things that just makes me want to shout at the screen... a loose end that could have so easily been avoided... they could have detected the transmission from earth... it could have said "safe planet come here"... that cuts out several stupid events / coincidences...
Don't really think that's that big an issue...
Earth could be sending out dozens, if not hundreds of colony ships. May just have been a matter of time before someone picked it up. Or could be the accident that woke the crew early wasn't an accident.
To my mind there is a difference between:
a) a 'plot hole' - a contradiction that doesn't make sense; and
b) gaps in explanation - something which could be explained but isn't.
To be Prometheus and Covenant have lots of b) but not much a).
Perhaps it is b) that is actually a 'plot hole' but that's have I've always thought of it.
a) a 'plot hole' - a contradiction that doesn't make sense; and
b) gaps in explanation - something which could be explained but isn't.
To be Prometheus and Covenant have lots of b) but not much a).
Perhaps it is b) that is actually a 'plot hole' but that's have I've always thought of it.
Soldato
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- 11 Sep 2013
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As I understand it,
they picked up a transmission which they then traced to the planet. Possibly not a coincidence, either, if David set that as a deliberate trap...
I get the impression it wasn't that strong a transmission.
Covenant, certainly... Prometheus has a lot of b) too, but it does have a fair amount of a) - A couple of things are just too far fetched, however good your imagination. People just don't behave like that, unless they have a mental disorder that causes them to utterly switch in a single moment.
Soldato
Well got tickets for tomorrow lunch time, hope it lives up to my expectation.
Yeah I get they picked up the transmission, but was that a known area / system, or just a wild coincedence that in the vastness of space they happened to be right next to the planet David and Elizabeth reached after the end of Prometheus?
Associate
Watched it on Monday (very empty cinema has to be said) and overall I was left disappointing.
Some of the silly things from AC for me
Anyway, these were my main gripes with the film. I'm generally concerned the direction the film is going now. I had hope that this film would fill in the gaps from Prometheus (and the silly stuff) and would expand on the engineers/universe, but it just doesn't. It has just as many holes in it still, with so much stupid i face palmed!
5.5/10 from me, Prometheus was a 6.5/10
I generally think Prometheus is slightly better, and that purely because I believe the story was a risk, but very intriguing. But for me, Ridley got scared off following on due to the backlash that it wasn't an "Alien" film, so he pretty much binned most things from Prometheus and created a general sci-fi film.
Some of the silly things from AC for me
Going off course with 2000 colonist's just because of the faint transmission, seems silly to me. would have preferred that being their original destination maybe?
Not wearing suits on the planet to start with.
Splitting up on the planet as soon as arrived.
While the medi bay scene was very well done, stupid silly women going back in the room after seeing what just happened...
Why did David commit genocide?
Where did David get all the creatures for test subjects?
How did David know bright light scared them off?
More splitting up once in the "safe" place with David (IE going to wash themselves...)
Stupid captain sticking head in Egg!
How did the Eggs get there?
How did a facehugger get made?
Baby Xeno Jesus birth scene with David was terrible!
How did Daniels not notice Walter was David? his hand was chopped off cleanly not acid burnt. And why didn't she just suspect he could have been moment they got to the ship, just incase
Half of your crew are dead from multiple different Aliens and first thing is, lets have sex in the shower......not even slightly upset by it?
Not wearing suits on the planet to start with.
Splitting up on the planet as soon as arrived.
While the medi bay scene was very well done, stupid silly women going back in the room after seeing what just happened...
Why did David commit genocide?
Where did David get all the creatures for test subjects?
How did David know bright light scared them off?
More splitting up once in the "safe" place with David (IE going to wash themselves...)
Stupid captain sticking head in Egg!
How did the Eggs get there?
How did a facehugger get made?
Baby Xeno Jesus birth scene with David was terrible!
How did Daniels not notice Walter was David? his hand was chopped off cleanly not acid burnt. And why didn't she just suspect he could have been moment they got to the ship, just incase
Half of your crew are dead from multiple different Aliens and first thing is, lets have sex in the shower......not even slightly upset by it?
Anyway, these were my main gripes with the film. I'm generally concerned the direction the film is going now. I had hope that this film would fill in the gaps from Prometheus (and the silly stuff) and would expand on the engineers/universe, but it just doesn't. It has just as many holes in it still, with so much stupid i face palmed!
5.5/10 from me, Prometheus was a 6.5/10
Commissario
Just got home, some bits were OK, some were just silly beyond belief.
Man of Honour
I felt like I wasted two hours watching this. I like it when stories develop, but at the end of this movie, we're pretty much exactly where we left off. David off developing aliens.
I wanted to learn more about the Engineers but we got absolutely nothing on that. Was just two hours of gore and jumpscare attempts.
I wanted to learn more about the Engineers but we got absolutely nothing on that. Was just two hours of gore and jumpscare attempts.
Soldato
Very disappointed, I was hoping for something that built on what was laid down in Prometheus, but the closest we got was ~2mins telling us what David did when they arrived and his later experiments. What Scott filled the other ~117mins with was nothing new and a very dubious plot, with some shockingly bad alien costumes that would not look out of place in 1970s Doctor Who!
Some answers to the spoilery points...
I'd have the scores the other way around. The character stupidity in Prometheus was inexcusable, in this one most of it was a little more rational (except for the 'follow me geez, promise nothing bad will happen' bit). I'd be emptying the clip.
I liked the
but really would have liked to have explored the engineers more - that was the promise at the end of Prometheus, to go and get some answers.
If they're planning 2,3 or 4 more movies then I doubt that'll be the last we see of them. It's certainly not to late for them to turn this new series of movies around from average (Prometheus), to above average (A:C) to good with the follow ups. Potential is still there.
Edit again:
Also really liked the relationship with David and his creator and the father son dynamic. Reminding David he's nothing more than a slave at the end in an act of pure spite.
I'd have the scores the other way around. The character stupidity in Prometheus was inexcusable, in this one most of it was a little more rational (except for the 'follow me geez, promise nothing bad will happen' bit). I'd be emptying the clip.
I liked the
fact it was a human creation, David that engineered the xenomorph
Hopefully they're not all gone with the genocide, that'd just be a massive lost opportunity.
I still would have liked for him to slowly pull his still attached hand out of his sleeve and slowly wave to her as she's being put to sleep.
Edit again:
Also really liked the relationship with David and his creator and the father son dynamic. Reminding David he's nothing more than a slave at the end in an act of pure spite.
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Admittedly I've yet to see this but is the planet that they arrived at definitely the Engineer's homeworld? The "Engineers" you do see seem to be living in caves in basic clothing so could this instead be another planet that they have seeded? Or are we just looking at some kind of caste system maybe with "higher" and "lower" Engineers?
its not relevant question... don't even think about it... there is no continuous carefully thought out story... the only way you will enjoy the film is ignore the stupidity and lack of story and just think sci-fi ALIENS GORE... people say the SFX were crappy but I never noticed... maybe I was too focused trying not to scream at the morons on the big screen
One of the reasons Alien worked well was because we didn't get to see the Alien completely until the end, and so it built up the tension/atmosphere. Same is partly true for Aliens and Alien 3 - for the most part we didn't get to see them completely or they were shown in low lighting/dark areas. The lack of, and cost, of special effects such as CGI made the directors focus on utilising camera angles etc to get the scares across. Alien was also great in that it showed humanity's tech in the future not being all shiny and 'futuristic' like Star Trek and so felt a bit more realistic and Alien Isolation captured that perfectly. These days however, it's all about showing what CGI can do - Prometheus and Covenant are perfect examples of films which look [mostly] good but lack essence - comparable to how CGI/effects were used heavily in Star Wars Eps 1-3 but which lack what made Eps 4-6 special.
I don't think Alien would have been such a great horror film if it had the Alien jumping all over the place etc.
I don't think Alien would have been such a great horror film if it had the Alien jumping all over the place etc.
Soldato
This is easily one of the worst movies I've ever seen.
I can't believe they released this utter abortion...
I can't believe they released this utter abortion...