David sorta had a weird thing with Shaw especially with him watching her dreams while she was in cyro. It's weird cause he seems to point out her kindness towards him. Would seem fucked up to turn against her especially after he praised her for giving him back his body and everything. Then again, like Ash, maybe his programming is just hardwired to preserve alien life and Shaw is just expendable no matter how kind.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Alien: Covenant - The Prologue footage
- Thread starter jett
- Start date
- Status
fierrotlepou
Member
Great prologue. I'm still sad that we're not getting Prometheus 2, but another typical horror movie.
Who knows, but Ridley can take my money.
BotoxAgent
Member
My guess is that David turns on Shaw after Shaw discovers what he did to the Engineers and his fucked up plans.
Spiritwalker
Member
That was better than I expected.
His body was left on the other dude's ship so she probably went to retrieve it before leaving. As for the learning their ways stuff, David already knew their language and fooled around with their technology during the events of Prometheus. It would be pretty straightforward to figure out how things work from there, since the interface of the ship should be the same as the other one.
TheWorthyEdge
Member
Do I have to watch Prometheus before this??
PowderedToast
Junior Member
this was how they dealt with ripley's character in the first alien 3 script by william gibson and hicks became the protagonist instead. that said, while they've been revisiting old discarded concepts since ridley came back I can't see a reason for it happening here w shaw. but who knows.that's the one thing I don't want to happen
she should just sleep and be the main character again in the next movie
as one of the few people who liked prometheus, I enjoyed this prologue a lot
I've long come to terms with the fact these won't be the alien sequels i want, but this was pretty cool regardless. the series has flirted with showing full blown civilisations for ages, so it was nice to finally see one.
Prometheus is a super polarizing movie. Personally I loved it and think it is very much worth watching. No matter what, odds are you've wasted time on much worse movies or shows.
Pretty much, yeah. Both the short and Alien Covenant are direct follow-ups to Prometheus.
I saw 15 minutes from first act as well...and I'm not impressed, especially when compared with what came before it (original Alien movie).
Cinematography and camera work are amazing and they aren't afraid to have shots that last longer than 3 seconds but CGI effects (Alien, its attack) look so fucking cheap now and I can't imagine they'll hold up in 40 years time. Original is still outstanding and I've felt legitimately grossed out by it.
I hope sound wasn't final, super generic and lacked any kind of atmosphere.
Ship design - computer screens look nice, but there's absolutely no sense of place, no immersion. Original felt like living, breathing organism (and opening shots highlighted that!), this one is bland spaceship no. 4567. Maybe this gets better.
Oh, in those 15 minutes characters managed to make at least 2 decisions that didn't make any sense, unless they are all androids.
At this point, I'm just hoping for cool popcorn flick.
Cinematography and camera work are amazing and they aren't afraid to have shots that last longer than 3 seconds but CGI effects (Alien, its attack) look so fucking cheap now and I can't imagine they'll hold up in 40 years time. Original is still outstanding and I've felt legitimately grossed out by it.
I hope sound wasn't final, super generic and lacked any kind of atmosphere.
Ship design - computer screens look nice, but there's absolutely no sense of place, no immersion. Original felt like living, breathing organism (and opening shots highlighted that!), this one is bland spaceship no. 4567. Maybe this gets better.
Oh, in those 15 minutes characters managed to make at least 2 decisions that didn't make any sense, unless they are all androids.
At this point, I'm just hoping for cool popcorn flick.
CassidyIzABeast
Member
Well Shaw's whole goal was the find out why the Engineers wanted to kill us and David goes scorched Earth on them while she was asleep. I dunno how she's going to take that, maybe he spares her because of her kindness but I'm doubting that's what happens.
quackamole
Member
I can buy that he bombs one of the engineer colonies or something but the homeworld? Presumably the center of their government and military, which would be appropriately defended by their military, including war ships? For a race so much more advanced than us, even if the android figured out their tech, it would have been hard for him to just be left alone to land and then bomb the place, no? And let's assume he does succeed in sneaking in and bio bombing them, are the no other ships in orbit/the system able to figure out what's going on and shoot him out of the sky?
Hesemonni
Banned
Oh, knew it sounded familiar! Thanks
Warm Machine
Member
Not if he knows how to talk to them. You are also under the belief that they have a similar or same social setup to how humans do. They may have no reason to ever fear themselves.
wesleyshark
Banned
So good
We make missiles and bombs in factories.
If the Aliens are bio-weapons, maybe David just decided to be more efficient and built the Queen as a factory of sorts. This way he doesn't have to oversee the process himself.
And this in an antiquated war ship more than 2000-years-old. No one on this planet, or in the surrounding system thought this unusual, or dangerous?
Bobby Roberts
Banned
I can see that (and it would make sense) but I'd also like the idea of queens sort of evolving out of his design without his forseeing it. A "Life finds a way" moment maybe? "Oh. This is 100% out of my control now."
Meet the new god same as the old god. Which is where I feel Ridley's going with this anyway (I still think this whole venture ends with David as the jockey on LV-426)
Meet the new god same as the old god. Which is where I feel Ridley's going with this anyway (I still think this whole venture ends with David as the jockey on LV-426)
wesleyshark
Banned
I think so as well.
Melon Husk
Member
Prometheus 2it is, then? Sigh... I'll still probably watch it.
I can't be let down if I expect nothing.
Inceptional
Member
Okay, I'm sorry but some of you haters are really pissing me off so let's fucking do this shall we:
-The parts with David and Shaw interacting on the Dreadnought with the voice-over is not in the movie. The movie opens with the last bit of footage of David bombing the engineer homeworld.
-Covenant takes place on the Engineer homeworld only.
-Yes actually, Shaw did bring David's body along and the reason she fixes him is because she needs him. He picked up on thier language and learned how to control their ship. He guides her through it and even says, "They made is as simple as possible."
-David is a fucking advanced AI, who picks up on shit pretty damn quick. You don't think he would learn a literal fuck-ton after 10 years aboard the Dreadnought?
-Shaw knows David has issues but if you were in her situation, you would save and fix the know-it-all A.I. too. Besides the fact that she'd be fucked without him, She also has a good heart and David respects that about her. He even says no one has ever treated him like she does, not even his creator.
-And everyone saying how fucking dumb everyone acts in Prometheus and Covenant(which people haven't even fucking seen yet), just remember that Kane touches an Alien egg, they constantly split-up and Ripley goes back to save her fucking cat. This series was built with horror conventions in its acidic blood.
-Finally, and this is just my pride talking, I called the fact that Shaw becomes the first Queen Alien months ago in the Alien Covenant trailer 2 thread. It's pretty obvious that between the set-up in Prometheus of her hating herself for the fact that she can't make life and David's affection for her, that he will give her the gift of being able to give life. Just not the way she may have hoped. It mirrors what David did to Halloway in Prometheus when he straight asks him how far he would go before dropping the goo into his drink.
Sorry about all that but there is so much hate for this and I don't get it. It's the director of the original and best film in the franchise making the best looking Alien film since 1986 and all everyone can do is complain. I feel like I'm living in an alternate dimension or something.
-The parts with David and Shaw interacting on the Dreadnought with the voice-over is not in the movie. The movie opens with the last bit of footage of David bombing the engineer homeworld.
-Covenant takes place on the Engineer homeworld only.
-Yes actually, Shaw did bring David's body along and the reason she fixes him is because she needs him. He picked up on thier language and learned how to control their ship. He guides her through it and even says, "They made is as simple as possible."
-David is a fucking advanced AI, who picks up on shit pretty damn quick. You don't think he would learn a literal fuck-ton after 10 years aboard the Dreadnought?
-Shaw knows David has issues but if you were in her situation, you would save and fix the know-it-all A.I. too. Besides the fact that she'd be fucked without him, She also has a good heart and David respects that about her. He even says no one has ever treated him like she does, not even his creator.
-And everyone saying how fucking dumb everyone acts in Prometheus and Covenant(which people haven't even fucking seen yet), just remember that Kane touches an Alien egg, they constantly split-up and Ripley goes back to save her fucking cat. This series was built with horror conventions in its acidic blood.
-Finally, and this is just my pride talking, I called the fact that Shaw becomes the first Queen Alien months ago in the Alien Covenant trailer 2 thread. It's pretty obvious that between the set-up in Prometheus of her hating herself for the fact that she can't make life and David's affection for her, that he will give her the gift of being able to give life. Just not the way she may have hoped. It mirrors what David did to Halloway in Prometheus when he straight asks him how far he would go before dropping the goo into his drink.
Sorry about all that but there is so much hate for this and I don't get it. It's the director of the original and best film in the franchise making the best looking Alien film since 1986 and all everyone can do is complain. I feel like I'm living in an alternate dimension or something.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
Was it revealed anywhere that this is actually a thing? We're just speculating as to how a queen might show up in this movie. So far as I can tell there's no evidence one has been folded into this movie at all, much less that Shaw IS one.
(which is... like... how)
Turns out that was a Deacon, I guess. Not a xenomorph. Which still doesn't really make any sense, but there you go.
Inceptional
Member
It's still just a guess but it's too poetic to dismiss. And how...really?
ROUGE_BLOCK
Member
That wasn't a Xenomorph that was a Deacon, a fully grown version of what we saw at the end of the film.
Edit: beaten like a drum
Bobby Roberts
Banned
Then you probably shouldn't be backbursting with applause for yourself just yet
And the how is due to the fact flat-out transforming Shaw into a queen is a level of weird beyond what this series has suggested. Like, turning a person into an egg is beyond the pale for some fans (Deck'ard once went full-bore apeshit on me for suggesting it was a cool idea) and this theory necessitates turning this:
Into this:
And I don't know that I'm seeing David being that advanced in genetics. And if he can just turn people into that, that's... that's fuckin' nuts.
Snkfanatic
Banned
Wow that was pretty awesome.
That's like Jango Fett bumping his head: "see, that's why the Prometheus characters were all so fucking dumb: they take after their creators!"
Oh, let's not pretend Shaw is being smart, there. Or she wouldn't have put herself in that ridiculous situation to begin with.
"Should I wait to be rescued and tell people about that alien race that apparently (for some reason) wanted to annihilate us 2000 years ago? Nah, I should simply leave a hilariously vague warning, use another of those super-advanced alien ships, pray very hard that whatever infected my boyfriend won't kill me, and go find those aliens' homeworld to remind them that we're still around!"
As has been said a thousand times already since the release of Prometheus: those were space truckers completely out of their element, not top scientists who were meant to contact an unknown alien species.
Inceptional
Member
Then you probably shouldn't be backbursting with applause for yourself just yet
And the how is due to the fact flat-out transforming Shaw into a queen is a level of weird beyond what this series has suggested. Like, turning a person into an egg is beyond the pale for some fans (Deck'ard once went full-bore apeshit on me for suggesting it was a cool idea) and this theory necessitates turning this:
Into this:
And I don't know that I'm seeing David being that advanced in genetics. And if he can just turn people into that, that's... that's fuckin' nuts.
It was in jest bud, jesus.
Also, have you ever looked at the Giger artwork? She doesn't have to look like Cameron's queen to give birth to an alien brofessor.
http://www.cgsociety.org/CGSFeatures/CGSFeatureSpecial/custom_story/5894&page=1
Bobby Roberts
Banned
he kinda has to, now. David creates the xenomorph. We know the xenomorphs life cycle thanks to Cameron creating a queen (now that the Alien using organic material to transform things/people into eggs is out via Ridley cutting the scene from the original), so now, considering this entire series is all about taking vague, inexplicable "lore" and turning it into prequel fodder, he's gotta figure out a way to squeeze the queen into these movies somehow.
Unless he's planning on pushing ALIENS out of the canon. (such as it is)
what
And yeah, she's probably gotta look like the queen, because otherwise queens don't make any sense. (not that making sense is obviously a priority anymore)
Plus good luck explaining how a human body shoved out the eggs we see in the trailer.
wesleyshark
Banned
I would be absolutely okay with him having the balls to do that haha.
Holy shit,David is dropping the black goo bombs for real.
What other choice does she have? She will never reach the planet in her lifetime unless she uses stasis chamber,and someone needs to take care of the ship.
What other choice does she have? She will never reach the planet in her lifetime unless she uses stasis chamber,and someone needs to take care of the ship.
Metalingus5150
Member
I don't think Shaw knew that David was the reason why Holloway got infected.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
The reactions would be interesting.
"Oh, I don't consider that to be part of the story I'm telling. Fabulous movie, absolutely, yes. Great pace. Great movement. Visceral. Thrilling. But what James did on those movies, what Jimmy was going for... it just doesn't fit with this vision, you know? It's not where I see the series going. It was never my plan, you see. It's a good idea. But I'm using these films as an opportunity to get things back to the themes and ideas we had back then, you know?"
(Ashes cigar. Sips wine)
"Oh, I don't consider that to be part of the story I'm telling. Fabulous movie, absolutely, yes. Great pace. Great movement. Visceral. Thrilling. But what James did on those movies, what Jimmy was going for... it just doesn't fit with this vision, you know? It's not where I see the series going. It was never my plan, you see. It's a good idea. But I'm using these films as an opportunity to get things back to the themes and ideas we had back then, you know?"
(Ashes cigar. Sips wine)
IdreamofHIME
Member
I'd be more than ok with this.
Inceptional
Member
I meant jest. You seem to have a hate-on for this already so I won't be reading your review man.
Then you probably shouldn't be backbursting with applause for yourself just yet
And the how is due to the fact flat-out transforming Shaw into a queen is a level of weird beyond what this series has suggested. Like, turning a person into an egg is beyond the pale for some fans (Deck'ard once went full-bore apeshit on me for suggesting it was a cool idea) and this theory necessitates turning this:
Into this:
And I don't know that I'm seeing David being that advanced in genetics. And if he can just turn people into that, that's... that's fuckin' nuts.
Not entirely. The first Alien movie did have the creature taking along some characteristics of the host. And the scrapped idea was one person being turned into an egg, the other the host. While the latter was cut and the former completely ignored by Cameron in favor of the Queen/Drone.
I could see something of that form making it into the film. Specifically, the characteristics of the host being transferred to the creature. Add in something about David wanting to fuck her or be more human to be with her. And you got yourself the Ridley Scifi script for Alien explaining the birth of the Queen. Explains why she is more intelligent and resources and whatever shit he feels like doing. Doesn't go against Aliens.
Ridley Scott is the David of the Aliens franchise.
I enjoyed it and I want to know why the engineers decided to wipe out humanity. Will that ever be answered? Why did the engineer they woke up in Prometheus just bounce and not kill them, but tried to continue his mission? He was going to let them live but shit on Earth? Or was he going back to his home planet? That's the most confusing thing for me. The rest makes sense, but a lot of people in here are way over thinking and analyzing a sci fi movie lol.
Not as far as we know, indeed.
So either she learned about that off-screen (David did appear to know what it was that infected Holloway, so... follow-up questions, perhaps?) and is somehow betting on the murderous android to not kill her off as well, or she still doesn't know what happened to Holloway exactly and is merely hoping those pesky alien germs will spare her during the entire journey.
Top scientist.
(Note that I kinda have to ignore the latter parts of Prometheus where the characters are suddenly super concerned about those urns of black goo ("OMG, an entire room of those urns, and they were heading for Earth, so logically it means that [...]"), because only David should have known that stuff was dangerous, at that point. That fucking movie, I swear...)
Moff
Member
the alien 2 and 3 queen could always be explained by some rogue strain that had a queen
I always liked the egg morphing, it makes the xenomorphs just much more unpredictable and explains their natural aggressiveness and it's just generally a very creepy idea
but the signs seem to point at her becoming a queen, she already gave birth to one after all
I always liked the egg morphing, it makes the xenomorphs just much more unpredictable and explains their natural aggressiveness and it's just generally a very creepy idea
but the signs seem to point at her becoming a queen, she already gave birth to one after all
Bobby Roberts
Banned
I strongly disliked Prometheus because it was a poorly thought-out film, and Ridley Scott's worst storytelling tendencies were indulged to their fullest. I really liked the Martian however, so it's not as if he's incapable of still making good movies. He obviously can.
I'll be watching the thing hoping for a good film. That's not facetiousness or disingenuousness. It'll get a fair shot.
oh shit
wesleyshark
Banned
There's a throng of individuals running/moving to the center of the "arena" as David's ship docks. It's like they are anticipating- or perhaps surprised- by the arrival of the ship in general, no? A standard docking procedure wouldn't draw such a crowd.
I haven't read any spoilers so I'm just speculating
I haven't read any spoilers so I'm just speculating
- Status