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Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

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Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

Old 05-22-17, 09:03 PM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

Originally Posted by TheBang
Can I see this film without having watched Prometheus? I've watched all the other Alien films, but I know literally nothing about Prometheus other than Fassbender plays an android and it's some kind of origin film.
Watch Prometheus first.
Old 05-22-17, 09:15 PM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

Originally Posted by fumanstan
I missed Shaw too, I think bringing her back would have given the audience a character to care about. I just don't care to see the David story continue in to more movies. The mention of Weyland and Yutani is honestly more interesting to me and how the corporation figures in to the universe.
Agree 100%. I'm bored to tears with David at this point. Maybe because we got both David and Walter in "Covenant". It felt like overkill to me. Also, I didn't give a shit about a single character in this film. I've read this past year several opinions and theories as to why Ridley decided to scrap Shaw. When he cast Rapace, she was hot off the heals of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". And it seemed like every major director was banging on her door. But she didn't exactly set Hollywood on fire. So with a combination of that and fans wanting more Xenos and less Engineers, he went back to making another "Alien" film. Sadly, a remake of his original. But this was no "Alien". And while watching it, I was stunned it was the same director.
Old 05-22-17, 09:20 PM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

Gaaaaa! One guy (me) thinks David was the highlight of the movie. The other guy was bored to tears with him.

Think about how hard it must be to make movies based on audience input.
Old 05-22-17, 09:22 PM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

Originally Posted by Troy Stiffler
Gaaaaa! One guy (me) thinks David was the highlight of the movie. The other guy was bored to tears with him.

Think about how hard it must be to make movies based on audience input.
Troy, I explained why I was bored to tears with him. One David was enough IMO.
Old 05-22-17, 11:31 PM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

Don't get me wrong, Fassbender is fantastic as David and it's nice to see more background about synthetics and how his creation lines up with the Aliens. I just didn't really need two movies focusing him as the lead character and as I mentioned earlier, disappointed that he's the one moving the story and lore forward, and what appears to continue to future movies as well.
Old 05-23-17, 11:59 PM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

Really liked Prometheus a lot.
Didn't really like this one much at all.
Old 05-24-17, 12:25 AM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

All this movie has me left thinking about is that Michael Fassbender could probably play a pretty good Iggy Pop in a biopic. That hair.
Old 05-24-17, 08:38 AM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

Originally Posted by Hazel Motes
All this movie has me left thinking about is that Michael Fassbender could probably play a pretty good Iggy Pop in a biopic. That hair.
That's a pretty awesome idea, actually.
Old 05-24-17, 02:30 PM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

Originally Posted by Osiris3657
I dug it. I kind of want to see it again already. I wasn't surprised in the least though when it turned out David was pretending to be Walter at the end.
I enjoyed it enough for a $6 tuesday showing. This "twist" at the end really bothered me though. It seemed so damn OBVIOUS that was going to happen, I was 1/2 expecting them to double psych us out and have it actually be Walter.
Old 05-26-17, 12:12 AM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

Saw it this afternoon and have been wanting to think about it all day. Unfortunately, I haven't. I actually thought it was rather bland and generic. It wasn't god-awful but it wasn't anything special either.

It wasn't an out-and-out horror film as some have said. I didn't think it recaptured the tone of the original at all. While A:C was slow and deliberately paced (and not painfully so), it was as if it was slow and deliberately paced on a treadmill -- we never really got anywhere. The slow burn didn't build any tension and it definitely didn't do any substantial character building.

The characters were not developed, yet they weren't just cannon-fodder either. This was an exercise in "tell not show" as virtually ALL character development was done through dropped lines of dialogue. Everybody was married to somebody, I'm just not sure which husbands went with which wives. I know this because everybody kept talking about their spouses, yet I don't think we ever saw most of them together. Did anybody even catch the gay couple?

It wasn't the hot mess Prometheus was but it also did not seem like a Ridley Scott film. The look, the feel ... none of seemed to have his mark on it. It felt like the type of film a competent "work-man" director would turn in ... on budget, on time, but no panache.

It borrowed HEAVILY from the films before it, but not necessarily the good parts. I didn't feel any of the Alien (or not-Alien) designs were anything new. It was pretty much a rehash of the creature in Alien 3 -- from the "Bambi-burster" to the final Alien. The tampering with the life-cycle and evolution pissed me off, but we had also seen that before (AvP)

Once again, Scott fails to deliver the intellectual film he claims this story (the Prometheus cycle) is telling. He adds in a spiritual leader (Crudup) and it goes nowhere. He adds human procreation (couples) into the mix, but still has to brow-beat the whole creation aspect with David and flutes. He mentions David's love for Shaw but fails to use that in the creation arc (or even jealousy that she was able to "create" alien life). We see David commit genocide, but still don't have any good reason why (other than Walter's observation that David is just bat-shit crazy). So many dead-end lost concepts.

I don't know ... I could go on with the astonishing level of mediocrity that was attained here. However I don't feel strongly one way or the other so I will leave it with this: It was a decent Thursday afternoon diversion but I'm not clamoring to see it again and don't think I will be buying it on BluRay. I wouldn't rank it above Alien 3 or Resurrection.

Last edited by Abob Teff; 05-26-17 at 12:25 AM.
Old 05-26-17, 08:57 AM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

Originally Posted by Abob Teff
Did anybody even catch the gay couple?
If I hadn't read there was a gay couple I would have missed it. It was the second guy who was exposed to the virus. (the guy who was hiking and smelled the spores under the ship). After he puked up the alien, his husband was cradling him and crying.

It did seem strange that there wasn't more back story with all these couples. Maybe all that stuff got cut along with most of James Franco's stuff? I'm sure there will be an extended director's cut with that stuff back in.
Old 05-26-17, 09:59 AM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

I had no idea there was a gay couple in this.
Old 05-26-17, 10:27 AM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

Rightfully so that they didn't smack us over the head with it. Maybe they'll work Billy Eichner and Andy Cohen into the next one.
Old 05-26-17, 10:28 AM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

I only caught a throwaway line about the couple towards the end. I too wish they established the couples more.
Old 05-29-17, 03:49 AM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

I've changed my mind and decided I will see this. Two things swayed me. First, as I posted about in the Prometheus thread, I watched the Agent 9 cut of the film and it proved there was actually a good movie hidden inside that pile of crap, and now I want to see it continue. Second, I noticed Film Crit Hulk, who gave one of the more thoughtful critiques of Prometheus, was conditionally praising Covenant, saying it's less of an Alien prequel and more of a course correction from Prometheus. That intrigued me enough to at least give it a chance, although like with Prometheus I expect I'll like it a lot more after the SE Blu-ray comes out and Agent 9 works his/her magic on it utilizing deleted scenes and integrating the Last Supper sequence, etc.
Old 05-29-17, 10:56 AM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

What is this "Agent 9 cut" of which you speak? I am intrigued. (I am an internet simpleton.)
Old 05-29-17, 12:27 PM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

https://ifdb.fanedit.org/prometheus-special-edition/
Old 05-29-17, 04:47 PM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

This was definitely better than Prometheus. More focused and with more relatable characters. Yes, there's still some stupidity but most of it is excusable given that these were colonists stuck in a high stress situation, not scientists who were expressly going to find evidence of alien life and civilizations. Of course, there is one glaring plot hole, which is that there's no way they would have gone to that planet without full body gear to protect against pathogens. It's so utterly basic that it did take me right out of the movie, but once David showed up I didn't care, because Fassbender is so fucking exquisite in that role.

Personally I would have happily watched a film where David and Shaw arrive at the Engineers planet and watch David take them apart and develop the Xenomorph for a decade. His drawings were such a tantalizing peek into the Giger-ian world of the Engineers and the alien life cycle that I really wish there had been more of that, as the Giger stuff was always my favorite part of this franchise.

Overall, it's good, not great, but dumping Lindelof was a very smart move and at this point I'll watch any sequels just for more Fassbender.
Old 05-29-17, 05:02 PM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

Oh and my ranking is:

Alien
Aliens
Alien 3 (either cut)
Alien Covenant
Alien Resurrection
Alien vs Predator
Prometheus
Alien vs Predator: Requiem

I would place the Agent 9 cut of Prometheus above Resurrection, but the Scott cut is so, so bad.
Old 05-30-17, 03:53 PM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

The more I think about this film, the more I think it was a major missed opportunity. Instead of having Shaw already dead, it would have been more interesting if David had grafted Shaw into a Giger-esque biomechanical monster that was the main heavy of the film. Give David a line about how he's been creating multiple species with the help of the goo and then they could have kept the ending with the eggs.

The production spent so much timing coming up with cool xeno concepts for David's workshop but didn't actually do anything with them. Looking at my ranking above, I'd probably say Covenant is actually on par with Resurrection, not above it. Resurrection is less narratively interesting but is more creative and unpredictable. Covenant is more cohesive but misses a huge opportunity to be truly creative, a bit ironic given how the major theme of the film is creation.
Old 05-31-17, 02:40 PM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

After viewing Alien: Covenant, Mark Kermode comments about why the original film is so good and how sequels/prequels can ruin things.




Here is his review.


Last edited by inri222; 05-31-17 at 02:46 PM.
Old 06-02-17, 05:51 PM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

I don't disagree with any of his points, but at the same time I also don't necessarily mind. Kermode admits that for him Alien is something of a sacred cow, and I completely understand that as it's one of my all time favorite movies as well, but he seems to harp very strongly on the idea that the events of the first film happened by accident. They didn't. Weyland-Yutani knew that the alien ship was on LV-426, and deliberately sent the Nostromo there on their way back. Ash was programmed to ensure a Xenomorph specimen made it back to earth.

Now, if the next film or two tries to tie Ripley in somehow, that would be really shitty.
Old 06-03-17, 01:04 PM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

Originally Posted by Supermallet
They didn't. Weyland-Yutani knew that the alien ship was on LV-426, and deliberately sent the Nostromo there on their way back. Ash was programmed to ensure a Xenomorph specimen made it back to earth.

Now, if the next film or two tries to tie Ripley in somehow, that would be really shitty.
I think that's veering into Lucas-prequel territory, how everything and everyone is connected, which makes the world seem small.

"The Company" was just another asshole corporation that put profits before human lives. But now "The Company" is THEE company, apparently pulling the strings and masterminding everything from the beginning: making contact with the creators of all human life, indirectly creating the xenomorphs, somehow knowing that one particular, random planetoid had another crash landed engineer who was carrying xenomorph eggs, and they programmed an android to be stationed on one of their trucking operations to bring the specimen on their way back to Earth...
Old 06-03-17, 07:28 PM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

The only element that makes the universe seem small is having David create the Xenomorphs. Because everything else from the original film indicated that Weyland-Yutani already knew what was on the planet, knew what the Xenos were, and specifically programmed Ash to get it. They had to know about it before the film starts somehow in order to put that programming into Ash and Mother.
Old 06-04-17, 01:58 AM
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Re: Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) — The Spoiler Filled Reviews Thread

Originally Posted by Supermallet
The only element that makes the universe seem small is having David create the Xenomorphs. Because everything else from the original film indicated that Weyland-Yutani already knew what was on the planet, knew what the Xenos were, and specifically programmed Ash to get it. They had to know about it before the film starts somehow in order to put that programming into Ash and Mother.
Actually that's a good point. He goes out of his way to let in the compromised Kane very early in the film. But it's also possible that he's programmed to give priority to Company directives ahead of regular Company employees. I think it's best left up to the viewer to decided, rather to have the Company be there from the beginning (Prometheus) and have everything all planned out by this evil organization.

Why use inexperienced truckers to obtain the xenomorphs on their way back? Why not send a special team directly to the planetoid?

Either way, I'll have to re-watch Alien.

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