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Alien: Covenant |SPOILER THREAD| With more Christian subtext than BvS

Cth

Member
RE: Stupidity of scientists, etc.

Just retcon that they emit a pheremone that causes brain disruption or something pseudo-scientific sounding. Explain that certain people have a higher immunity to them (ala Ripley unless you wanna Ridley Scott it and say her lineage was engineered with a specific gene that made her immune, etc)

But that's midichlorian'ing things..
 

20cent

Banned
I refuse to accept the Engineers thing was wasted. To me that planet that was gooed is just another earth with a different kind of "humans" created by the Engineers. The population we saw looks more human than engineers, minus the hairs, plus they are way too excited to see the ship landing. The wheat just shows that the engineers taught them how to grow food, just like they did with "us"... right?
And that planet consists of... hundreds of people?
 
In a recent interview Ridley said that the Engineers created a creature (humans) that would rebel aginst them so I think that might be the closest thing to a reason we'll have for now as why they wanted to destroy humanity.

Apparently the reason David created the Xenomorph is because he was dissapointed in both humanity and the Engineers, so he seized the 'weapon of the gods' to try his own hand at creating the perfect organism.
 
I wasn't even sure what was happening inside the crane there. It's just that at some point, the bug exploded and the crane opened back up and I was like "oh, I guess this setpiece is over now."

It was not directed well, that bit.

Didnt the girl injured the alien enough to wound it so its own blood set him free?
 

Jezan

Member
Can't wait for the movie that shows how David traveled back in time and created humanity. David is God.
Can we get that cross over Alien vs Terminator so there is so much time travel to retcon both franchises?


Btw late to the conversation but in the scene we're the engineers are dying one of the guys that falls down intoxicated (?) has some spikes like the guy infected on the med bay coming out of his back. Unless I was hallucinating, I'm sure of that,though the fast cuts didn't allow to make out the details.

I have the same complaint of the stupid people. Having intelligent gent people is not a detriment to a good villain or a good stalker-like enemy as the main antagonist, if anything , well written intelligent protagonists and co. would elevate the enemies.

Fucking sad ending, Daniels was NOT that stupid to not notice the change. Played for shock value I'm sure.

Also, David was doing experiments with various organisms, I thought one looked like a bee, how? There were no animals on that planet. Or was I seeing things?
 
Watched the movie today, I'm disappointed. Why they have to make the Alien origin so complicated and that ending....

People is going to kill me but I enjoyed Prometheus more, yes the movie is full of problems but I found it more entertaining than Covenant.
 
Well i saw Covenant and i'm disappointed, it had a decent enough cast of main characters (aside from the Cannon fodder), the sets and props seem brilliant and in keeping with the universe (aside from mother being more advanced) and Fas is always good to watch - but it felt disjointed, like scenes were created before a plot to tie them together.

I was left with far too many questions, far far too many
Why were the scientists complete idiots - no hazard protection on an unknown world? no scans of pathogens and caution around plant/wild life? Christ they seem like they were in left over rebel soldier costumes from Rogue one, just wandering around on an alien world having a piss in the woods trampling big bulbous mushroom pods, what can go wrong?

The pilot locked the other woman in the room with the backburster? no "his back exploded leave the room i'm getting a gun!" nope, just lock the door and then listen to the protests, could have let her out and then locked it again!

Why the hell was all the glass on windows, doors and space vehicles so weak a headbutt could crack it?

Why didn't we explicitly find out how Shaw (the more interesting heroine) actually died? she seemed ill in the promo, did she die and David went over the edge deciding when the only person who showed him love and kindness died revealing the fragility of human life it should all die? or did he just snap and rip her jaw off (as depicted in a hand drawn picture)

What did he use her body for? was she used as a host to create the Xeno eggs?

Was that actually the Engineer homeworld? the aliens didn't seem the same as the Engineers, they were human sized (or their corpses were), so was the architecture, so was it just another of the Engineers experiment worlds? only they had been visited by the Engineers? (it looked like they were worshiping the engineer ship).

How was it not immediately obvious to them it was David near the end? he wasn't healing and he'd freaking just shown he healed quick, the crew must have known?

and Why even have Noomi and James Franco in the film?

ehh its a solid 6/10 movie that whilst i enjoyed it, it just needed work or a lot of plot is on the cutting room floor
 
Saw this a few days ago, like most people here I didn't think it was very good. I didn't exactly have high exceptions either but it turned out worse than I thought.

For me, as soon as they land on the planet (aka most of the film), the movie takes a nosedive and never recovers. The dumb scientists are back in full force from prometheus, and then when David appears the movie slows to a crawl and drags on even more.

Maybe it's because I only saw prometheus the one time and don't remember it very well, but I honestly don't get what the hell is wrong with David, none of his actions or what he says make any sense to me, only way I can roll with it, is say he's just plain old crazy.

The movie barley even has any good xenomorph moments, every kill and every time it appears is the most predictable, cliche, boring thing you can imagine. Girl washing up in the cave, slowly looks behind her, surprise! alien, you're dead! two people in the shower, look behind surprise! alien, you're dead!

Speaking of predictable, who didn't see that ending coming a mile away, they beat you so hard over the head with it, I was somewhat expecting Daniels to figure it out before it was to late, but nope.
 
I just left the cinema severely disappointed, really gutted.

Talk about sticking the title 'Alien Covenant' over what is pretty much clearly the Prometheus 2 script.

I was sold a horror and presented with what felt like PG13 scyfy (channel) movie.

The whole thing was very predictable, the pacing was rubbish, and not once did I feel tense and jump. The jump scares were there, but I felt so bored that they failed to actually make me jump.

The story of how David went from being intrigued by the Creators to deciding 'do you know what fuck it, let's press the big button with genocide written on it' was pretty fucking absent, which feels like the brunt of this plot.

Mehhhhhhhhhh
 

watershed

Banned
In a recent interview Ridley said that the Engineers created a creature (humans) that would rebel aginst them so I think that might be the closest thing to a reason we'll have for now as why they wanted to destroy humanity.

Apparently the reason David created the Xenomorph is because he was dissapointed in both humanity and the Engineers, so he seized the 'weapon of the gods' to try his own hand at creating the perfect organism.

Ridley Scott sucks at telling stories. I don't want interviews to fill in the gaps in his crappy scripts.
 

Mr. Sam

Member
I refuse to accept the Engineers thing was wasted. To me that planet that was gooed is just another earth with a different kind of "humans" created by the Engineers. The population we saw looks more human than engineers, minus the hairs, plus they are way too excited to see the ship landing. The wheat just shows that the engineers taught them how to grow food, just like they did with "us"... right?
And that planet consists of... hundreds of people?

It was super dumb and lame. It was also definitely the engineer homeworld.
 
I think it's worth noting, the Prometheus extra materials (might've been the 'the furious gods' documentary IIRC) say that the Engineers are a dying breed, they are all male because they genetically manipulated themselves.

Sucks none of this is explained in the movies themselves but it might explain:

-Why there were so few of them in their homeworld.

-Why they were so happy to see the Juggernaut coming (since it seems their military or whatever sailed off 2.000 years ago and never came back, they might think they bring good news for the survival of their species or something similar)

-The height difference, maybe civilians are engineered to have a more human-like height but military are bigger and the one in LV-426 might be another, even bigger still 'breed'.

Just stray thoughts.
 
I appreciate Vickers more after seeing this, she can only run straight, but at least she has the smart to not let any pressumably contaminated human back on the ship.

The acts in the film felt like entirely different movies and still a lot of plot holes, that said, I enjoyed the Neomorphs design, they look so beautiful in an uncanny way, and that scene in the bathroom with Rosenthal was chilling.
 

Jinroh

Member
I think it's worth noting, the Prometheus extra materials (might've been the 'the furious gods' documentary IIRC) say that the Engineers are a dying breed, they are all male because they genetically manipulated themselves.
I've never read anything indicating it's a dying breed. They aren't really all males, they became genderless through genetics engineering and thus don't reproduce normally anymore. Their civilization being so small might be their solution to overpopulation, breeding new members of their community only when needed.

Anyway, I was expecting follow up movies to address these details about their civilization and culture, but Alien Covenant is a bit of a fuck off to people who expected answers Ridley originally planned to deliver before he strayed and decided to just turn it into a slasher movie.
 

Donthizz#

Member
these so called " scientists " in the movie are stupid as fuck. maybe AI is advanced people don't need to be smart anymore.

" we came into contact with a alien virus/life forms, now please come and get us, fuck quarantine"
 

Carcetti

Member
In a recent interview Ridley said that the Engineers created a creature (humans) that would rebel aginst them so I think that might be the closest thing to a reason we'll have for now as why they wanted to destroy humanity.

Apparently the reason David created the Xenomorph is because he was dissapointed in both humanity and the Engineers, so he seized the 'weapon of the gods' to try his own hand at creating the perfect organism.

Here, I'll predict the plot of the next movie:

David manages to create his army of Aliens but they rebel and kill him, because that's the theme and it's really not heavy-handed at all.
 

Machina

Banned
Just got back from seeing this. Two words come to mind: Predictable retread. It had all the hallmarks of an Alien franchise cash grab:

- Stupid scientists diverting to a planet they haven't studied or prepared for

- Infection leads to first Xenos

- Android gone looney

- Everyone dies bar 1 or 2 crewmembers

- Alien comes aboard ship after they did everything possible to prevent it

- Alien killed (with an airlock no less)

And then the most predictable of all, David was posing as Walter. What a surprise that happened when you have two characters that look identical to each other. And now it's open to a sequel with 2002 fresh hosts ready to be incubated.

No thanks. I've seen this same movie about 4 times now.
 

Bishop89

Member
these so called " scientists " in the movie are stupid as fuck. maybe AI is advanced people don't need to be smart anymore.

" we came into contact with a alien virus/life forms, now please come and get us, fuck quarantine"

are they scientists?
Unless i missed something at the start, nothing is really specified.
 

Grazzt

Member
are they scientists?
Unless i missed something at the start, nothing is really specified.

Doesn't matter if they are scientists or not. They are colonists and they should have been trained. So many plot holes. Why do they choose to land when there is a huge storm going on?
The movie is trash. I agree that despite of its many problems, Prometheus was a better movie and its crew were much smarter...
 

RulkezX

Member
Saw it last night.

Wasn't impressed. It failed as either a slasher/horror movie or as an Alien prequel furthering the mythos.

The David parts were zzzzz and dragged. The practical effects were shit as well. The outside shouts of the ship looked like a model filmed on a phone camera
 

Eccocid

Member
i enjoyed the movie (just saw 2 hours ago) and i think whole movie was full of symbolism.

Tho in one scene i was like GOD DAMN! the scene when david and walter go outside near the grave of shaw. Camera zooms out and it is god damn ISLE OF DEAD painting! one of my fav paintings! Ridley is a god!
 
David manages to create his army of Aliens but they rebel and kill him, because that's the theme and it's really not heavy-handed at all.

He experiments on himself. He is his final work of genius. He is become the biomechanoid engineer who will finally, now that his weapon is perfected (by gifting it a lifecycle that doesn't need him anymore to help it advance) fly the derelict to Earth to finish his creators off and punish them for their disappointing existence. Only he is infected himself, and is crashed on LV-426 by someone who sets a warning beacon before they are also killed.

Only the next ship to come across the beacon mistranslates the warning just a bit too late...

(I'd imagine whoever crashes David manages to suicide themselves and whatever xenomorph pops out of him)
 

commish

Jason Kidd murdered my dog in cold blood!
Just got back from seeing this. Two words come to mind: Predictable retread. It had all the hallmarks of an Alien franchise cash grab:

- Stupid scientists diverting to a planet they haven't studied or prepared for

- Infection leads to first Xenos

- Android gone looney

- Everyone dies bar 1 or 2 crewmembers

- Alien comes aboard ship after they did everything possible to prevent it

- Alien killed (with an airlock no less)

And then the most predictable of all, David was posing as Walter. What a surprise that happened when you have two characters that look identical to each other. And now it's open to a sequel with 2002 fresh hosts ready to be incubated.

No thanks. I've seen this same movie about 4 times now.

Yeah, have to agree that these movies tend to follow the same formula. And I also agree with everyone else that the scientists were so dumb that it bordered on lunacy. The dumbest thing of all was that, ON AN ALIEN PLANET, some guy walks up to them and says "follow me" and they say "sure thing!" No one was even surprised that he was there.

All that said, I'd be lying if I said i didn't enjoy it. It was one of those movies that's not a "good" movie but one that I enjoyed nonetheless.
 

watershed

Banned
Ridley Scott is good at telling stories (i.e. Being a director); he's just terrible at descerning what a good story is (i.e. Picking good scripts & working with good writers)
He's a good director in terms of strong visuals, but he is the major creative force behind these movies. It's not just picking bad scripts. These are his stories.
 

Hystzen

Member
Whats funny about last act is how uninterested Daniels looks over the Xenomorph. On the escape barge she just like *sigh* suppose I should go kill it pass me that shotgun while i prepare to swing on a cable. Oh another Alien *sigh* take it to terraforming bay so i can kill it with vechile impalment.

How can viewers be scared when actors look so bored and disinterested. Also Daniels doesn't scream solider gun type girl why is she super soldier all sudden apart from its Alien we need a badass female hero now
 
Whats funny about last act is how uninterested Daniels looks over the Xenomorph. On the escape barge she just like *sigh* suppose I should go kill it pass me that shotgun while i prepare to swing on a cable. Oh another Alien *sigh* take it to terraforming bay so i can kill it with vechile impalment.

How can viewers be scared when actors look so bored and disinterested. Also Daniels doesn't scream solider gun type girl why is she super soldier all sudden apart from its Alien we need a badass female hero now

This movie is super confusing, like different people wrote whole different sections of the script without cross-referencing their work.

Incredible coincedences aside, like suffering from that ion explosion in the exact area where they would get the distress signal or batlanty stupid stuff like the guy touching the spores, the first act until they get to the temple is pretty great. The medbay scene really sells how these people are overcome with the situation and how they're freaking terrified of these Lovecraftian beings sprouting from their crewmates' bodies, the battle in the field is intense and believable.

BUT as soon as they get to the temple, everybody is super trusting of this werid stranded android who is clearly disturbed and they all act completely nonchalant towards these abominations roaming everywhere. Danny McBride's character's reaction after seeign this insane creature headbutting his vehicle is a simple whoah! then Daniels goes all "where is it?", "I've got youu! like she's suddenly some sort of killing machine.

It would have been less aggravating if they'd stuck to one of the two tones.
 

Jinroh

Member
How can viewers be scared when actors look so bored and disinterested. Also Daniels doesn't scream solider gun type girl why is she super soldier all sudden apart from its Alien we need a badass female hero now
The strange part is the all the scenes cut from the movie and showed in the trailers feature her terrified and fighting the alien alone when she's in the ship.

Why they would cut (or change) that in the movie is something I can't understand. When your trailers have more tension than the final cut of your movie there's a problem somewhere.
 

rgoulart

Member
I think it's worth noting, the Prometheus extra materials (might've been the 'the furious gods' documentary IIRC) say that the Engineers are a dying breed, they are all male because they genetically manipulated themselves.

Sucks none of this is explained in the movies themselves but it might explain:

-Why there were so few of them in their homeworld.

-Why they were so happy to see the Juggernaut coming (since it seems their military or whatever sailed off 2.000 years ago and never came back, they might think they bring good news for the survival of their species or something similar)

-The height difference, maybe civilians are engineered to have a more human-like height but military are bigger and the one in LV-426 might be another, even bigger still 'breed'.

Just stray thoughts.

That is VERY interesting, thank you. I just wish it was explained in the movies.
 

TAD

Member
Didn't think it was particularly great but why is everyone going on about the "dumb scientists"? I was under the impression that most of the people were just ordinary and there as muscle or pilots, at least in this one I could understand the guy touching the plant and the dude stepping all over it because they struck me as muscle or something, at least they weren't trying to get friendly with an intergalactic snake like Prometheus.

But to be fair some of them clearly ARE scientists so it still doesn't explain why you'd go onto a random unexplored planet and not at least wear some sort of breathing apparatus or protection for this exact purpose, it just screams of "eh, I can't think of a better way of people getting infected". I mean you could have had them fall over and rip their suit at the same time as crushing the spores, at least then it's an accident and not just ignorance.
 

Zutrax

Member
As far as quality of the film goes, that's up in the air until I watch it.

But can someone let me know if this at least has more horror/gore than Prometheus? That movie really lacked in tense moments and any actual good antagonist or horror elements. Prometheus, had a vague octopus monster, a weird zombie ape man, and a kind of comedic, slow, dopey Engineer. None of which were particularly scary at all, and from a "body horror/gore" standpoint it fell flat, even the surgery scene wasn't all that over the top to me.

As long as I get the Xenomorph or some other relatively cool antagonist messing some shit up, I'll be relatively happy with it.
 

Floex

Member
Watched the movie today, I'm disappointed. Why they have to make the Alien origin so complicated and that ending....

People is going to kill me but I enjoyed Prometheus more, yes the movie is full of problems but I found it more entertaining than Covenant.

Not in the slightest. I thought Prometheus was a better movie, for sure.
 

Floex

Member
I think it's worth noting, the Prometheus extra materials (might've been the 'the furious gods' documentary IIRC) say that the Engineers are a dying breed, they are all male because they genetically manipulated themselves.

Sucks none of this is explained in the movies themselves but it might explain:

-Why there were so few of them in their homeworld.

-Why they were so happy to see the Juggernaut coming (since it seems their military or whatever sailed off 2.000 years ago and never came back, they might think they bring good news for the survival of their species or something similar)

-The height difference, maybe civilians are engineered to have a more human-like height but military are bigger and the one in LV-426 might be another, even bigger still 'breed'.

Just stray thoughts.

Why...why is none of this in the movies. It's so frustrating as some of the concepts are extremely interesting but the execution is so, so poorly thought out
 

Floex

Member
As far as quality of the film goes, that's up in the air until I watch it.

But can someone let me know if this at least has more horror/gore than Prometheus? That movie really lacked in tense moments and any actual good antagonist or horror elements. Prometheus, had a vague octopus monster, a weird zombie ape man, and a kind of comedic, slow, dopey Engineer. None of which were particularly scary at all, and from a "body horror/gore" standpoint it fell flat, even the surgery scene wasn't all that over the top to me.

As long as I get the Xenomorph or some other relatively cool antagonist messing some shit up, I'll be relatively happy with it.

More gore, maybe. Horror? Not in the slightest.
 

Toa TAK

Banned
Why...why is none of this in the movies. It's so frustrating as some of the concepts are extremely interesting but the execution is so, so poorly thought out
This is 100% Prometheus. Not just concepts, but the film's themes as well.
 

Prologue

Member
So the person who created the alien species, was a disgruntled android with Daddy issues? How did we go from the premise about humans being engineered by an ancient race, to this?

I mean, I'm no where near a fan of the movies, , but how is that connection in anyway satisfying or appropriate for a viewer/fan of the series? Why would you even do something like that for them?
 
but how is that connection in anyway satisfying or appropriate for a viewer/fan of the series

Why would you think any of this is being done for fans?

this is being done because it's what tickles Ridley's fancy. And so that fancy gets tickled.

Whether you like it or not isn't really on his mind, I don't think.

This is going to become really apparent if he decides there's no such thing as an Alien Queen in the next movie.
 

Prologue

Member
Why would you think any of this is being done for fans?

this is being done because it's what tickles Ridley's fancy. And so that fancy gets tickled.

Whether you like it or not isn't really on his mind, I don't think.

This is going to become really apparent if he decides there's no such thing as an Alien Queen in the next movie.

Because any decent writer that is doing work on series, has to have his fans in mind. If you're not giving satisfying or thought provoking conclusions , whats the point?
 
Because any decent writer that is doing work on series, has to have his fans in mind.

Nah.

He doesn't have shit on his mind but "what makes me interested/satisfied."

If you like it, great. But he's working out his weird old man shit through this series right now. And he's not doing it all that well. This movie does it better than the last one did, yeah. But his obligation is not to the fans at all, and its obvious in the decisions he makes.
 

Croash

Member
Just watched it, and halfway through the film I started laughing more and more at the stupidity of it all, as if I had suddenly reached a point of no return.

It became "The Adventures of David or How I Killed Everyone To Pass The Time".

It's like a midquel I didn't ask for about a larger story.

Characters were bland and disposable. The plot barely moves. The Covenant isn't featured enough. The final battle was ridiculous and unecessary. The gore was fine, but without caring about anyone it doesn't hit.

I can't remember one particular scene that stood out as a classic. My enjoyment and excitement reached its peak with the introduction's catastrophe, and then it felt like fan service, fan fiction and self aware character stupidity all blended together.

I did like the Weyland/David scene, and I understand its significance for the movie's themes, but it was the best part that I expected from a "Prometheus sequel", and it's a bloody prequel scene. Wasted opportunities with Shaw :/

Still had a good time, it's not like the movie itself is a badly directed joke, it's a competent mess I gladly laughed at with friends! However, like Prometheus, this feels like a movie I'm glad to have watched to satisfy my curiosity, but will not rewatch as a fan, unlike Alien.

Third time's the charm?

Edit: I think in the end, it's slightly worse than Prometheus. That movie had more character, and there were thrills of discovery. Covenant is just oh hey it's that ship oh hey it's David oh shit it's that alien oh fuck a facehugger the end.
 

Roders5

Iwata een bom zal droppen
Just got back from the cinema and I'm annoyed that I'll never get those few hours of my life back again. Just awful. I can't even be bothered dissecting it but everything that's wrong should be extremely obvious to anyone who has watched it. It might even be worse than Prometheus.
 

daviyoung

Banned
Because any decent writer that is doing work on series, has to have his fans in mind. If you're not giving satisfying or thought provoking conclusions , whats the point?

Fans of Island of Dr Moreau have finally got their faithful movie adaptation though
 
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