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

It's funny how they probably think that viewers don't want to get bogged down with scienfic details while contemporary audiences actually value that shit over mostly eveything else as criticism toward both Prometheus and Covenant indicate.

Seriously, is it that hard to make characters behave like normal, rational human beings and manage to advance the plot as well? I'm still laughing at the lady who just saw her crew decimated by eldritch abominations sprouting from them and went to take a bath by herself in an unknown, unguarded place.
 
I got it on redbox (didnt see it in theatres and almost considered buying it on bluray) and i have to say, this movie was pretty bad.

Beautiful visuals, but the movie pretty much bored me to the point where i didnt even finish it...


Disappointed big time....
 
Just watched this and i'm so confused.. Is David just crazy?


So he wants to create a species that kills everything else... so what happens if he succeeds and it does kill everything else.. how does his species survive?
 

Vengal

Member
Just watched this and i'm so confused.. Is David just crazy?


So he wants to create a species that kills everything else... so what happens if he succeeds and it does kill everything else.. how does his species survive?

Walter pointed out that David was malfunctioning, but the movie went nowhere with it.
 

Toa TAK

Banned
Walter pointed out that David was malfunctioning, but the movie went nowhere with it.

I kinda thought that's how the whole thing ended.

A malfunctioning machine is exactly what David is and how he ended up making that leap from the beginning of the film to the events of Covenant.
 

Vengal

Member
I didn't think he was ever malfunctioning in Prometheus or even early stuff in this film, just a synth given more freedom then others and coming to pretty logical conclusions that I think any robot would regarding their creators. However Walter was able to find that one smallerror which probably is just the tip of the iceburg.
 

mm04

Member
Yep, just finished this. Knowing the fate of these folks from the get go because of the original flicks, okay that's fine. But could Oram be more stupid? First, his wife is killed by one of these creatures. Oram should be on HIGH ALERT. Second, he catches David trying to tame one, but Oram summarily kills it because F that noise. That's reasonable. The creature he kills had JUST killed another crew member, evidenced by the floating head in the water which Oram sees, yet David was still upset that Oram killed the creature. Alarm bells should be ringing in Oram's head by now. Already suspicious of David, he asks David for the scoop at gun point. David then sounds like a damn mad scientist explaining his experimentation and so forth. Any reasonably intelligent human has heard enough and is probably shooting David to hell. But no, lets follow him down into the lair with these giant eggs, which trust me, are TOTALLY safe to touch. We get it, the Alien is supposed to "win" in these prequels. But damn, at least be clever in tricking the humans in this story. This is what did the five fingers say to the face Rick James slapping Charlie Murphy obvious.
 
Just watched it. How do you approach a planet that has a massive storm covering basically the whole planet and decide YEAH LETS SET UP A COLONY HERE. From then on, I felt the movie had no intelligence behind the story and everything just snowballed with ineptness.
 
I sorta want to see the BluRay because it seems that the theatrical release is missing a lot of stuff in the novelization.

A lot of the problems folks have with the movie were answered in the book, and I assume were probably answered in scenes that did not make the final cut.

Q: Why did they take off their helmets?
A: I the novelization they do extensive testing and find zero pathogens on the planet. When they land, they stay helmeted up until Walter does an extensive set of scans locally. Then later in the book David explains that the Engineer WMD is designed to be dormant and even if scanned directly evade most advanced methods of detection.
 

SMG

Member
I didn't think he was ever malfunctioning in Prometheus or even early stuff in this film, just a synth given more freedom then others and coming to pretty logical conclusions that I think any robot would regarding their creators. However Walter was able to find that one smallerror which probably is just the tip of the iceburg.
It is 100% the Data Law stuff from TNG.
 
Just watched this last night...pretty meh overall.

I enjoyed the first 30-ish% of the film but then it just got stupid.

But one thing....why is everyone saying that the original Xenomorph from Alien/Aliens was biomechanical? I mean it's been a long time since I've seen either but I don't remember any mention of that.

We know that the creature has an armoured exoskeleton kind of like an insect, we know it has acid blood, matures fast, learns quickly and has predator insticts.

But I don't remember anything to do with it being biomechanical, like I said maybe I missed something obvious? But as far as I know the Xenomorph in this film is the same type as the ones from all of the other films.
 
D

Deleted member 325805

Unconfirmed Member
I binged every alien film over the past couple of days and finished with Covenant yesterday and overall I was expecting more from the series, I don't know why but I always thought they were supposed to be scary but they weren't at all. Plus the acting in the earlier films was atrocious, I wanted to throttle Lambert in the first film. Covenant was OK, I didn't really like the story and it was all very predictable but at least the alien looked awesome, they really nailed his look.
 
I watched this last week. And I don't know how they managed to pull it off, but they did. Making something worse than Prometheus is an impressive feat. I did like seeing Danny McBride in the movie, but that was about it.
 

Ferr986

Member
Just watched this last night...pretty meh overall.

I enjoyed the first 30-ish% of the film but then it just got stupid.

But one thing....why is everyone saying that the original Xenomorph from Alien/Aliens was biomechanical? I mean it's been a long time since I've seen either but I don't remember any mention of that.

We know that the creature has an armoured exoskeleton kind of like an insect, we know it has acid blood, matures fast, learns quickly and has predator insticts.

But I don't remember anything to do with it being biomechanical, like I said maybe I missed something obvious? But as far as I know the Xenomorph in this film is the same type as the ones from all of the other films.

It's mostly because of the design, if you look closely you can see tubes and stuff. But yeah, no movie says anything about the Xeno being biomechanical.

Still, Covenant Xeno design is different than the original one, it's more organic in that regard. It's more noticeable when you look, for example, his arms. But I remember reading it's not because of the story but just that they wanted to update the design.
 
Just saw this, finally. Whereas Prometheus was more frustrating because of the things it got right, this was just whatever. I don't care. It sucked and I don't care.
 

FiggyCal

Banned
Saw it yesterday, why do so many of the soldiers have terrible aim?

Also how did the planet just not show up during the planning phases of the mission? Planets don't usually just pop up out of nowhere.
 
I agree with the other guy, I think it was probably better than Prometheus. Which I didn't hate, but clearly both have issues.

It's absolutely better than Prometheus. That doesn't make it very good, but Prometheus is not a high bar, either.

But it's definitely still better in most respects.
 

Veelk

Banned
It's absolutely better than Prometheus. That doesn't make it very good, but Prometheus is not a high bar, either.

But it's definitely still better in most respects.

I think the reason it was a worse experience for many people than prometheus is because of exceptions.

I can remember being atleast excited and wanting to love the new prometheus movie. Ridley Scott back to direct showed good promise for the franchise. And as much as the idiocy of the Prometheus crew was immediately evident, there's also a lot of stuff that only dawned on you later as to how stupid it was.

Meanwhile, I was tepidly optimistic of Covenant at best, namely in how I didn't bother watching it in theaters once I heard bad things about it as opposed to the opening night I saw Prometheus. I was prepared for Covenant being terrible, and it met those expectations with gusto, so fewer instances of good memories with it.
 
Yeah, I've mentioned earlier in this thread (going back to the beginning is interesting!) that I think a lot of the real venom being spat at the film is basically the sins of Prometheus being visited on its follow-up. There's more than a few people who have basically copped to believing Covenant would somehow retroactively fix Prometheus, so when it didn't (it in fact basically sidestepped it whenever it could) all the anger at Prometheus got doubled up and splattered all over Covenant. Not only was it not very good by itself, but it didn't do the one thing people wanted it to do, which was make a completely separate movie be better.

But it was never going to do that, either.

Prometheus was always going to be the severe mistake it was and forever will be, no matter what Covenant did.
 

Veelk

Banned
But it was never going to do that, either.

Prometheus was always going to be the severe mistake it was and forever will be, no matter what Covenant did.

Yup. And that goes for every bad movie/book/story/whatever.

Things are either gonna stand on their own or they're not. Any movie can't is not a bad movie.
 

Jinroh

Member
By the way I'm watching the bluray and I think the version I saw in the theater was different.

Before Walter drinks during the burial ceremony he says "When in Rome...". I'm pretty sure in the version I saw in the theater he talked about howling with the pack or something like that.
 

Jedi2016

Member
By the way I'm watching the bluray and I think the version I saw in the theater was different.

Before Walter drinks during the burial ceremony he says "When in Rome...". I'm pretty sure in the version I saw in the theater he talked about howling with the pack or something like that.
Extended version of the scene, it's on the disc. They had them all up on YouTube a while ago.
 

RedStep

Member
Saw it yesterday, why do so many of the soldiers have terrible aim?

Also how did the planet just not show up during the planning phases of the mission? Planets don't usually just pop up out of nowhere.

- They weren't soldiers, they were colonists that brought weapons.

- Perhaps the fact that until shortly before they arrived, the planet was full of hostile lifeforms. Might have removed it from the all-knowing corporation's "we should colonize here" list.
 

Cooter

Lacks the power of instantaneous movement
Saw this the other night and it wasn't half bad. I think all the negativity made it better only because I was expecting trash.
 
I thought it was slightly better than Prometheus but both are bottom tier movies.

I understand not wanting to put hard (dry) sci fi into a blockbuster movie but how do you land up at the other extreme with everyone being so incompetent? All the drama, all the story... It happens because the characters in both movies are world class imbeciles.

It's crazy.
 

rekameohs

Banned
Yeah, I've mentioned earlier in this thread (going back to the beginning is interesting!) that I think a lot of the real venom being spat at the film is basically the sins of Prometheus being visited on its follow-up. There's more than a few people who have basically copped to believing Covenant would somehow retroactively fix Prometheus, so when it didn't (it in fact basically sidestepped it whenever it could) all the anger at Prometheus got doubled up and splattered all over Covenant. Not only was it not very good by itself, but it didn't do the one thing people wanted it to do, which was make a completely separate movie be better.

But it was never going to do that, either.

Prometheus was always going to be the severe mistake it was and forever will be, no matter what Covenant did.
Prometheus being one of the most disappointing movies ever still doesn't keep Covenant from being a big load of poop
 
Prometheus being one of the most disappointing movies ever still doesn't keep Covenant from being a big load of poop

Covenant is a better movie than Prometheus though. I'm not arguing that Covenant doesn't deserve any shit. I've flicked it a lot myself. I was one of the first to lob some fecal matter in its direction, in fact. But hitting Covenant for not fixing Prometheus is a dumb thing to hit it for. You can't fix Prometheus with a completely separate movie. And it really does seem like a lot of people are basically just porting over their Prometheus anger and applying it to Covenant.

Covenant's a better made film in pretty much every way. It's an okay movie at best. It's barely better than Alien 3. This isn't a huge amount of praise I'm pouring in its lap here. I mean, you just quoted me saying "It's not very good."
 
I re-watched Aliens last week, and boy are those Marines fuckin' dumb.

Nah, they were basically complacent. They had been on several "bug hunts" where either they were chasing ghosts or what they encountered were petty shit. So their complete arrogance was contagious. Under better command they would have had much better success.

Sarge was a real world leader, Gorman was a book experience, military school elite. Couple that with their firearms being taken away due the reactor, and once ambushed Crow's flame thrower set Wierzbowski on fire, lighting the entire bag of explosive tip rounds. Frost trys to save them, but then him and another are blown up. 4-5 marines down in seconds, without knowing the enemy. Once Sarge gets hit, the unit buckles for a moment before their training kicks in. Gorman is a lost cause, Ripley gets in motion to save the team... all the while the remaining ultimate badasses kick into high gear and establish a decent retreat. Drake, Vasquez and Hicks all perform well, Hudson's fight or flight kicks in and he's a bitch. All of a sudden they ain't so badass.

From this point forward "most" of the marines actions are fairly sound in the context of a hollywood script that requires mistakes in order to progress the plot. The entire idea of the first alien encounter was to pit this elite unit of space marines.. overly confident and complacent against the greatest weapon in the universe. They get rocked and the battlefield is leveled.

Marines made some dumb mistakes and had some dumb members... mainly Gorman. Hudson is comedic relief 101, so he gets a slide IMO. In general though, they were reactive to an enemy they underestimated or thought never existed.
 

everybodylies

Neo Member
Covenant is a better movie than Prometheus though. I'm not arguing that Covenant doesn't deserve any shit. I've flicked it a lot myself. I was one of the first to lob some fecal matter in its direction, in fact. But hitting Covenant for not fixing Prometheus is a dumb thing to hit it for. You can't fix Prometheus with a completely separate movie. And it really does seem like a lot of people are basically just porting over their Prometheus anger and applying it to Covenant.

I think besides the moment to moment character motivations and their disregard for their own safety or common sense the main issue people had with Prometheus was the illogical nature of the lore elements and the lack of connection to the previously understood Alien universe.

There was an expectation of sorts that Covenant would be a more satisfying build up to the original. Of course none of this means anything when it comes to the reality of what Ridley Scott wanted to do or thought he was doing...or thought people wanted.
 
Watched this tonight and it was really really bad. I just hate what's been done to the lore. I also thought those new white xenomorphs looked really bad.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Just watched it and although I’m sure 60 pages has already more than covered this ground, I feel compelled to write anyway - maybe it’ll be cathartic.

- ok so David is crazy. Fine - reasonable enough plot device.
- but why doesn’t he just kill the two remaining crew after escaping the planet? That would have kept both aliens alive. The long con approach seemed completely unnecessary except to keep the audience guessing - but we were just waiting for the inevitable ‘twist’, it wasn’t a surprise.

- in the initial med-bay scene, why did she lock that other crew member in there, under the pretence of keeping things locked down? The one outside had blood splattered on her from the victim, and the victim puking blood/gunk all over her. The one she locked in was completely untouched!
- How can Tennessee pilot a cargo lifter through an ion storm but can’t take off from a completely calm planet surface? That thing is all over the place for no reason.

- Why does David think he is creating a perfect creature? Weren’t the creatures the engineers created already pretty much that? I don’t see what he changed that was so amazing - the basic ones are already good enough to wipe out fauna on a planetary scale.

- in the part where they show the inhabitants of that planet being wiped out - I’m assuming David is there metaphorically not literally? It was engineers that did it really? But aren’t they also engineers on the ground?
- not specifically covenant, but why were the engineers wiping out life anyway? Just a terraforming thing and their logic was way above the importance of the puny life already there?
 
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