I'm a huge fan of the Alien franchise, with the first two being my favourites. I was also a big fan of Prometheus, even though some were not. I'm still deciding where Covenant lies alongside the others. It's certainly not up there with the first two, but I think it's up there with Prometheus, maybe.
It doesn't have the best start, however. The script does leave something to be desired. It feels lazy, and they've taken the piss a little. Especially expecting the audience to suspend their disbelief when they decide to make an unscheduled stop on an unknown planet. It's amateur hour in the extreme when it comes to assessing any kind of risks before setting foot on the ground and the gopros strapped to their shoulders made me piss. This is supposed to be 2104 ffs. I suppose they had to try and keep it as low tech as possible as it's a prequel to the original movie, although, if that was the idea, Ridley Scott is totally inconsistent with it.
Where the movie does work though, is the return to gore and horror. In quite a few nods to the original movie there is plenty of Aliens bursting out of humans, a psychotic synthetic and we finally find out how HR Giger's Xenomorph was created. The horror element wasn't as suspenseful as the original, more gore than jumping out of your seat.
I'm still undecided on the ending, one of the plot twists you could see coming a mile away. Once you knew that was coming, you could work out what the ending was going to be long before the end. It was well done though and still enjoyable.
For a movie a touch over two hours long, it certainly didn't feel that long. I had high expectations going in, and even though it didn't quite live up to them, I still really enjoyed it. It's flawed, especially the beginning, but get over that and it's quite a ride.
8/10
12th May 2017
DJ OD
Re: Alien: Covenant - *Beware* - Packed with Spoilers
Nice review. Cheers.
Im with you, big fan of the first two. Couple of the graphic novel spin offs as well. Saw Prometheus in the cinema, first film in the cinema in years and loved it. Really looking forward to this one.
DJ OD
13th May 2017
TJB
Re: Alien: Covenant - *Beware* - Packed with Spoilers
Right, I'm a massive fan of Alien & Aliens. Everything that has come after has been a bit of let down in one way or another. Alien:Covenant is a partial return to form but I have a number of issues.
The first act is pretty slow and aside from Daniels & Tennessee, the characters are fairly interchangeable. They're basically cannon fodder. Then about half way through, David from Prometheus turns up and from then, it's fairly obvious were the story is going. I think that the last 40 minutes is fairly exciting and visually it looks stunning but Ridley Scott is basically shitting all over his legacy by giving the Alien a back story. I personally find the Alien a far more frightening prospect as an unknown quantity. And finally, at no point was I scared. The series has moved from it's horror roots and is much the worse for it. 6/10 for me.
15th May 2017
Mystical_2K
Re: Alien: Covenant - *Beware* - Packed with Spoilers
Thank you both for the reviews, I quite enjoyed Prometheus (the mrs hated and fell asleep in the Imax) and im looking forward to this one and I figured it was gonna be a bit of a mix between the 1st Alien movie and Prometheus, sounds like its not too terrible, now jutst need to find someone go the Cinema with me to see it as the mrs has said very clearly that she wont be going :D
30th May 2017
Mystical_2K
Alien Covenant (Spoilers)
Right, got a copy of this at the weekend (it wasnt a good copy but i couldnt wait any longer and too lazy to go the cinema).
Please read below for my thoughts, spoilers ahead
Spoiler:
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!!!
If you enjoyed Prometheus like I did im sure you went into this thinking it would be a true sequel, it really isnt, Alien Covenant is a huge mess that doesnt know what its trying to be.
Firstly, the cast is shit and not a single person do you care about, the character development is non-existent, the only 2 people who's names I got were David and Walter - neither of which are technically people!
So we will kill off the only human survivor of Prometheus behind the scenes and display a lovely photo stating that poor Elizabeth was used as genetic material to grow the Xenomorphs, don't get me wrong she was fucking annoying in Prometheus (especially with her alcoholic rapist boyfriend) but deserved a better sending off than that.
Apparently David has created the Xenomorphs through tampering with the DNA of the Black Goo and mixing it with human DNA, so as far as timelines go this instantly discounts AVP (shame i rather liked it) and AVP:R (no fucking loss right there) - since the Xenomorphs are meant to be thousands of years old but if David created them then by the time the original Alien movie rolls around they are under 30 years old, also there was an Engineers mural in the urn room in Prometheus that showed the Xenomorph pretty much as we know it, if the engineers had already encountered it then how can David have created it recently?
Alien Covenant - 2093
Alien - 2122
This does raise the question of how they found a crashed ship in the original Alien full of eggs that had been there for a couple of thousand years (its stated in the movie that the original alien pilot they found (Space Jockey) had been there so long that it had fossilised)
So unless Time Travel is involved I dont see how that ship can exist with the eggs on it.
So back to Covenant, you have a ship with 2,000 people in Hypersleep and 1,500 embryo's onboard heading to colonise a new planet, apparently the captain thinks its a great idea to just stop off and inspect another planet that may be able to support them instead (are you fucking kidding me!)
Lets just scrap at the surveys, tests and simulations to just jump straight in and see whats down there, in real life im sure it would have just been flagged up and a message sent back to earth asking them to investigate and they would have continued on.
The whole final twist at the end with David and Walter, if theres someone out there who didnt see that coming the minute their was 2 identical looking androids on board was clearly not paying attention.
Some other minor gripes:
The Black Goo - this shit is truly magic as it does whatever is needed at the time
CGI - this was not very good
So in a nutshell I did not like it :D
thoughts?
30th May 2017
evilsatan
Re: Alien Covenant (Spoilers)
Spoiler:
Saw it in the cinema last night, couple of thoughts:
James Franco - I guessed he was a big fan and met Ridley Scott and it was a favour to a pal, couldn't understand why the only decent cast member (except fassbender) was killed off before he spoke a single line even though he was in the teasers. Read articles on this since but doesn't seem his original part was substantial either so seems a ploy to fill cinemas.
I agree about how eggs were on the ship on the original, had the same observation.
I was a bit pissed off that the story that follows on from Prometheus (Shaw travelling to the planet where the jockeys came from) was done in a short cut scene where we didn't learn a thing about if they created us, why they visited earth through the centuries, if/why they planned to destroy us. Instead David wreaks revenge for Shaw who he loved (who it later turns out survived and he used for his fucked up experiments...).
Everyone saw the final twist from a mile off but not sure how they would have concealed that. I can only assume David somehow finds the ship crashed in Alien,sets up the embroyos so the eggs are planted and then leaves the planet with the ship but this is a stretch, more likely they were setting up a sequel but given the poor box office not sure that'll happen.
I think the change in destination was plausible as the ship had suffered the shock in space, they could have all died, lost a load of people and the new captain didn't command respect so was doing what he felt had the most support and saved time. The fact the second in command stood against him shows there was protocol.
Disappointing compared to Prometheus, more action than plot, not a memorable cast apart from Fassbender, plot holes. Worth watching but would suggest waiting for HD and not bothering with cinema.
30th May 2017
EvilBoB
Re: Alien Covenant (Spoilers)
I haven't seen it yet but am not worried about spoilers so had a read
Spoiler:
I found this snippet that may help you...
Quote:
There’s an eighteen-year gap between Covenant and Alien during which time David will continue his manupulations and the true nature of the derelict from the original film will be unveilled. Ridley Scott has been typically open about what to expect from the franchise going forward, saying he has at least one more prequel planned that will bridge the new and old films, although has further stated there’s enough threads left open to tell three more movies besides that.
My bet is that the Alien xenomorph gets out of control in the future and the engineers attempt to travel back in time (right to the beginning!?) to fix it by stopping the original experiment from the beginning of Promethus however one of the Aliens gets on board and scuppers them.
30th May 2017
evilsatan
Re: Alien: Covenant - *Beware* - Packed with Spoilers
Merged threads, didn't realise there was one already!
31st May 2017
Mystical_2K
Re: Alien: Covenant - *Beware* - Packed with Spoilers
Quote:
Originally Posted by evilsatan
Merged threads, didn't realise there was one already!
Thank you
8th July 2017
DJ OD
Re: Alien: Covenant - *Beware* - Packed with Spoilers
Watched this pissed last night. Was doing a running commentary for a mate of mine in Canada, who has seen it already, but we both share interest in this franchise.
It's long, and makes little sense (I was pretty pissed)
