Close

Results 1 to 10 of 10
  1. #1
    VIP Member CzarJunkie's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Location
    Atlantis
    Posts
    13,754
    Thanks
    832
    Thanked:        3,225
    Karma Level
    1991

    Film Alien: Covenant - *Beware* - Packed with Spoilers

    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

    6 Thanks given to CzarJunkie

    DJ OD (12th May 2017),  elephantsoup (20th July 2017),  JonEp (12th May 2017),  Mystical_2K (15th May 2017),  piggzy (12th May 2017),  prezzy (12th May 2017)  


  2. #2
    DF VIP Member DJ OD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2001
    Location
    On da decks.
    Posts
    10,114
    Thanks
    1,008
    Thanked:        2,254
    Karma Level
    1103

    Default 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

  3. #3
    DF VIP Member TJB's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Hibaldstow
    Posts
    942
    Thanks
    197
    Thanked:        314
    Karma Level
    273

    Default 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.

    2 Thanks given to TJB

    I Black Belt (13th May 2017),  Mystical_2K (15th May 2017)  


  4. #4
    DF VIP Member
    Mystical_2K's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Location
    Sunnyvale
    Posts
    4,660
    Thanks
    1,192
    Thanked:        978
    Karma Level
    671

    Default 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
    You know he grew up as a little shitspark from the old shitflint and then he turned into a shitbonfire and driven by the winds of his monumental ignorance he turned into a raging shitfirestorm. If I get to be married to Barb I'll have total control of Sunnyvale and then I can unleash the shitnami tidal wave that will engulf Ricky and extinguish his shitflames forever. And with any luck he'll drown in the undershit of that wave. Shitwaves.

  5. #5
    DF VIP Member
    Mystical_2K's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Location
    Sunnyvale
    Posts
    4,660
    Thanks
    1,192
    Thanked:        978
    Karma Level
    671

    Default 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

    thoughts?

    You know he grew up as a little shitspark from the old shitflint and then he turned into a shitbonfire and driven by the winds of his monumental ignorance he turned into a raging shitfirestorm. If I get to be married to Barb I'll have total control of Sunnyvale and then I can unleash the shitnami tidal wave that will engulf Ricky and extinguish his shitflames forever. And with any luck he'll drown in the undershit of that wave. Shitwaves.

  6. #6
    DF Super Moderator
    evilsatan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Location
    Essex
    Posts
    20,078
    Thanks
    1,105
    Thanked:        3,241
    Karma Level
    1540

    Default 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.

    2 Thanks given to evilsatan

    Mystical_2K (30th May 2017),  piggzy (31st May 2017)  


  7. #7
    DF Moderator EvilBoB's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2001
    Location
    Bedfordshire
    Posts
    6,353
    Thanks
    583
    Thanked:        620
    Karma Level
    606

    Default 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...


    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.
    Source : http://screenrant.com/alien-movie-se...s-explained/2/


    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.
    Last edited by EvilBoB; 30th May 2017 at 03:56 PM. Reason: Fixed formatting
    DF Moderator
    XBox One | Panasonic 4k | MS Surface Pro 3 | 3DSXL | WiiU | RPi3
    XBL : TheSumOfAllEvil

    Thanks to EvilBoB

    Mystical_2K (30th May 2017)  


  8. #8
    DF Super Moderator
    evilsatan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Location
    Essex
    Posts
    20,078
    Thanks
    1,105
    Thanked:        3,241
    Karma Level
    1540

    Default Re: Alien: Covenant - *Beware* - Packed with Spoilers

    Merged threads, didn't realise there was one already!


  9. #9
    DF VIP Member
    Mystical_2K's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Location
    Sunnyvale
    Posts
    4,660
    Thanks
    1,192
    Thanked:        978
    Karma Level
    671

    Default Re: Alien: Covenant - *Beware* - Packed with Spoilers

    Quote Originally Posted by evilsatan View Post
    Merged threads, didn't realise there was one already!
    Thank you
    You know he grew up as a little shitspark from the old shitflint and then he turned into a shitbonfire and driven by the winds of his monumental ignorance he turned into a raging shitfirestorm. If I get to be married to Barb I'll have total control of Sunnyvale and then I can unleash the shitnami tidal wave that will engulf Ricky and extinguish his shitflames forever. And with any luck he'll drown in the undershit of that wave. Shitwaves.

  10. #10
    DF VIP Member DJ OD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2001
    Location
    On da decks.
    Posts
    10,114
    Thanks
    1,008
    Thanked:        2,254
    Karma Level
    1103

    Default 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)

    Spoiler:

    So... got a 1080 of Alien Covenant

    Sails/rechargers = gay

    Cast good. Acting good. FX good
    Fire in stasis pod was good, fuck that
    As a standalone film, maybe gonna be just another boring sci-fi.

    As an Alien prequel... not sure. Not enough connection for me yet.

    Only at 40 mins tho

    Scientific samples in 33mm camera film cases
    Fucking hell... and I've had an ear infection this week

    Agree 3D pointless

    Would totally just leave after finding the ship and the cunts getting sick

    Awww. Baby Alien! Good scene. No way let her out lol
    Fuck me it got out...

    Oh ... no spaceship

    Hardcore little bastard... oh. Obi wan kenobi just rocked up

    Android with long hair.

    "Watch me I'll do the fingering " they actually left that line in?!

    "Now put ur fingers where mine are"

    Captain Chris is a dick

    Android montage bit dull

    Yes casualties nob head....

    It's not a fucking horse.

    1:26 bit bored now

    Gay robot kiss death... interesting. Milk

    Android fight good, very matrix

    Bet they wish they had Star Trektransporters

    Seems like token action scene to make up for the dull android bit 1:38

    Sure these aliens move a lot quicker in this...

    Hood flicked up, clearly wrong droid?

    Staple face

    But of course there is an 'unidentified life form onboard'

    Magic airlock shoes love it

    Yeah some of the floaty shit in the there was for the 3D. There were a few scenery bits that mY have looked good but essentially it's not needed

    End dull and predictable tbh... have a cabin and sleep tight

    No wonder ripley hates androids

    5/10


    Upon reading back, i think its a good review.


    DJ OD

    Thanks to DJ OD

    EvilBoB (10th July 2017)  


Similar Threads

  1. Alien: Covenant
    By TJB in forum Movie Talk
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 1st March 2017, 11:17 AM
  2. [NEW] Alien: Covenant Trailer
    By josweet in forum Movie Talk
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 28th December 2016, 08:29 AM
  3. Alien: Covenant release date announced.
    By cyprus in forum Movie Talk
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 25th November 2016, 08:51 PM
  4. Replies: 6
    Last Post: 18th April 2004, 02:03 PM

Social Networking Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •