That's true actually. Very easy to get swept up in all the 'hack' director chat. He's still, for the most part, a superb Director. He's banked enough good will for the rest of time imo with Alien and Bladerunner, so...
*** Alien: Covenant ***
- Thread starter AshenEdge
- Start date
That's true actually. Very easy to get swept up in all the 'hack' director chat. He's still, for the most part, a superb Director. He's banked enough good will for the rest of time imo with Alien and Bladerunner, so...
People have strange rose-tinted specs when it comes to some things. Alien was not a complicated film, it was just a straight up sci-fi horror. What made it excellent was the cinematography, the performance from Signourney Weaver, Giger's artwork, the sets and lighting.
It's full of intensely stupid things. Guy comes back from an alien planet with a parasite attached to his face. Guess it's off now we should just send him back to live with the rest of the crew without so much as running a scan on him! An interstellar space ship doesn't have *any* weapons on board? Dodgy home-made motion trackers that can track 'micro changes in air density' through blast doors? It's the year 2100+ and we send teams of meatsacks on deep space freighting trips? A friggin spaceship designed with an air ventilation system that means you can't seal off sections of the ship air-tight? I meant WTF. You suspend your disbelief to enjoy sci-fi because most of it is daft....especially so the Alien films that have especially contrived scenarios.
Prometheus was a weak Alien film because it tried to be all about the origins of life and creation nonsense and made the Alien take a back seat.
Alien : Covenant is a much better Alien film imo. It's a horror movie about an Alien exploding out of people and pursuing people in spaceships. Back to basics, and it was all the better for it.
It's full of intensely stupid things. Guy comes back from an alien planet with a parasite attached to his face. Guess it's off now we should just send him back to live with the rest of the crew without so much as running a scan on him! An interstellar space ship doesn't have *any* weapons on board? Dodgy home-made motion trackers that can track 'micro changes in air density' through blast doors? It's the year 2100+ and we send teams of meatsacks on deep space freighting trips? A friggin spaceship designed with an air ventilation system that means you can't seal off sections of the ship air-tight? I meant WTF. You suspend your disbelief to enjoy sci-fi because most of it is daft....especially so the Alien films that have especially contrived scenarios.
Prometheus was a weak Alien film because it tried to be all about the origins of life and creation nonsense and made the Alien take a back seat.
Alien : Covenant is a much better Alien film imo. It's a horror movie about an Alien exploding out of people and pursuing people in spaceships. Back to basics, and it was all the better for it.
Man of Honour
I don't think the criticisms are unfair. A large part of Prometheus was the philosophical side. Who Humans are and where they came from. This was touched on very well in Prometheus but they seemed to just abandon this premise in Covenant.
As someone who wanted to learn more about that, who the Engineers are and why they wanted to wipe Humans out after seemingly creating them, I was left wanting by the pointless gore and killing.
As someone who wanted to learn more about that, who the Engineers are and why they wanted to wipe Humans out after seemingly creating them, I was left wanting by the pointless gore and killing.
You think? I felt Prometheus missed the mark so hard on all of it's supposed themes. Hell, one of the central characters who'd made it his life's work to find the engineers gave up entirely after an afternoon searching in the MASSIVE SPRAWLING UNDERGROUND CITY THE ENGINEERS ACTUALLY BUILT!! Absolute twaddle.
David was the only character who we could project those themes of 'being human' onto (and I'm sure that's by design) and Covenant just seems to continue that particular arc, but better. He's a genuinely interesting character and great villain imo. I'm not saying he's Ledgers Joker or anything, but Fassbenders performance is good enough to cover over the occasionally shoddy script.
I actually think Covenant improves Prometheus.
I actually really enjoyed that aspect^^^ of Covenant. It's a shame the film was otherwise rather duff. Someone at work mentioned they laughed at the same line as I did: "there are so many things that don't make sense right now." Good grief!
Prometheus was obnoxiously vague as to why David deliberately infected the crew member. Was it the company and another dastardly scheme? In light of Covenant... actually not at all. It was David just being David. His 'awkening' in the intro to Covenant shows he was immediately bemused by the idea of being created by and serving a mortal... his God complex spiralling from there.
I actually really enjoyed that aspect^^^ of Covenant. It's a shame the film was otherwise rather duff. Someone at work mentioned they laughed at the same line as I did: "there are so many things that don't make sense right now." Good grief!
Watched IMAX at the weekend.
I enjoyed it to be honest, there were silly aspects but it was nice to have a bit of alien horror and David wondering about doing what he does. I think my main disappointment was the gap in the stories from prometheus and this film, I wanted more of what had happened, not just a few flashbacks.
I enjoyed it to be honest, there were silly aspects but it was nice to have a bit of alien horror and David wondering about doing what he does. I think my main disappointment was the gap in the stories from prometheus and this film, I wanted more of what had happened, not just a few flashbacks.
Agreed, without the mini prologue on YouTube you would be none the wiser at all, as you say it needed more.
I watched it over the weekend, and was a bit non-plussed. It seemed to be missing "something". I didn't like Prometheus that much, but thought it was better than Covenant. It seemed to be a mix of Alien and Aliens, and not in the same league as either.
Soldato
I saw this today and have mixed feelings. On the one hand it was an Alien film (yeah!) and I did like it but the Dolby Atmos and XPlus theatre might have something to do with it. A clever way to show how the "Alien" was brought into existence. Then on the other hand things started to go slightly south when Daniels I think said "I've got a bad feeling about this" was Star Wars the inflight movie ? Plus they were meant to be terraform/colony engineers did no one at the briefing say "whatever you do this is still an alien planet do not go near the fawna until its been checked out".
One final thing did anyone think "Mother" was too advanced ? If you remember "Mother" from Alien it was a lot more basic yet the one on the Covenant seems more advanced ?
Finally did no one think when "Walter" came onboard to check it was "Walter" and not David. Its not like anyone saw them fight at least they could have checked his serial number ! 
Be interested to see how the next film develops and what David does with the 2000 colonists ? Eggs anyone ? Are we also going to find out that David with his new God complex manages to get back to earth and creates "Ash" !
Be interested to see how the next film develops and what David does with the 2000 colonists ? Eggs anyone ? Are we also going to find out that David with his new God complex manages to get back to earth and creates "Ash" !
One final thing did anyone think "Mother" was too advanced ? If you remember "Mother" from Alien it was a lot more basic yet the one on the Covenant seems more advanced ?
Soldato
Maybe mining ships just get the bare basics, or maybe it's because it was the 70's.
Nostromo from the original Alien was a bare bones hauler, similar to some of the old ships we have on our oceans now, Old ships that have constant repairs rather than new state of the art affairs. Both ships in Prometheus and Covenant have a lot more money thrown into them due to the nature of their missions.
Soldato
My point was the Covenant computer looked too modern.
So what you are saying is the Nostromo is older than the Prometheus and Covenant ?
Possibly, there is no real canon information on this.
A real world example, I work in a company that's a world leader in dvd production, distribution, etc...however our inventory and stock management system is AS400, IBM licensed in 1980, close to 40 years old.
Soldato
Yes, I know.
Most of this stuff can be explained or is well within reasonable boundaries for suspension of disbelief. It doesn't even remotely compare to the utter stupidity in Prometheus.
The crew in Alien are essentially normal, everyday people finding themselves in a situation that is way out of their depth. Ash is basically the scientific and medical expert. The rest of the crew look to and rely on him on these issues. Obviously he has alterior motives so he deliberately engineers the situation in service of his motives.
All the technology and ship design quibbles are minor and well within normal realms of suspension of disbelief.
In Prometheus however you have what is supposed to be the most important mission in human history, a trillion dollar mission hiring the best of the best yet the crew are the most idiotic, unprofessional bunch of ***** you'll ever see. It's just full of nonsense. Nothing rose tinted about it.
I haven't seen Covenant so I can't comment but I suspect it is full of the same kind of ridiculous garbage.
As far as I'm concerned the Alien franchise ends with Alien 3. Ridley Scott has lost it and needs to stop making films.
Caporegime
The entire premise for the film breaks every single rule and regulation that would be in place for a mission of this type. Its beyond ridiculous after ten minutes.
Man of Honour
Lets abandon our planned, checked and double checked target planet to go chasing after this potential radio echo, what could go wrong
?