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

firelogic

Member
Odd... I figured out it was David simply due to the injuries on his face. Walter's regenerates (exception of his hand), so the guy needing to staple his face together made me already realize it was David with the fact that they didn't show the conclusion of their fight.

Sorry but the characters were too stupid for me to put this up with the Alien movies. Mr. Captain realizes that David created these hostile creatures and how David was talking to it just after it beheaded that lady yet he was still willing to stick his head into the egg sac.

Then Walter realizes what David had done much earlier, but gives not a single warning to those working beside him.

Also sorry, if you tried to take a ship down to danger levels with 2K people, I am going to knock your ass out and put you into hypersleep (or try anyways even if I have to wake some Colonists), the rest of the people on the planet can figure out what to do later.

I know they were probably focused too much about the Alien that was loose, but I would be wondering how the hell it got on the ship right after I killed it/sent it off into space. There was no way I was going to go into hyperspace without dealing with those concerns.

Issue with origin movies like this, is you already know how it will end. As soon as I figured out it was the origin of the Aliens, I knew the crew and colonists were screwed in the end as if David failed, it would contradict the Alien movies.

I knew it was David when they didn't show any killing blow. If there are identical looking characters in a horror-ish style movie and they fight and the result isn't shown on screen, it's always the bad guy. But yeah, the rest of the crew were dumb as nails. And what's up with that awkward shower sex scene at the end of the movie? Ridley has completely lost his touch.
 

Monocle

Member
If you don't like to read negative reactions then all you have to do is stop reading them. You can't seriously expect a poorly constructed movie like Covenant to avoid hyperbole when it's trying to live up to one of the most iconic and beloved scifi movies of all time. If you put the Alien name on something then either deliver a quality product or expect to get ridiculed.
I like to talk about things I like, not do the backstroke in a cesspool.

And I disagree that Covenant isn't a quality product. I like good sci-fi and Covenant is damn good sci-fi that contributes twisted new layers to the Alien mythos, and works as a very fine horror-thriller as well.

I mean, sorry some people don't like thing, but endless inarticulate screeching isn't persuasive. There's not a lot of weight to hysterical exaggerations like "worse than the Star Wars Prequels!" It doesn't add to the conversation, it's masturbatory.

If all we're really doing here is looking for our preconceptions to be validated, I think I'd rather come from a place of appreciation and constructive criticism rather than reductive wall-shitting.

Ridley is delusional if he thinks he can just slap the Alien brand on his Prometheus 2 leftovers and shove some stupid xenomorphs into the last act. People wanted an genuine Alien movie, not a movie where Aliens appear briefly as a plot point.
You have a really selective memory if you think Covenant wasn't an Alien movie through and through. I marathoned the entire series last week. Covenant's thoroughgoing connection to the original Alien is impossible to miss it you're paying attention, from countless direct visual references to subtler parallels in the narrative.

Also who are these "people?" Literally everyone I've talked to about this movie in person had found Covenant to be a worthy addition to the Alien franchise. So much for anecdotal evidence, right?
 

JB1981

Member
I actually had no problem with her actions until she went back into the room with the gun. If she had just locked the other two in the medbay on the basis that she didn't know if the other woman was infected, that makes sense even if it's a brutal thing to do. But going back into the room? Nah man, that's just straight up dumb, and that's what they always do in movies.

Either way, her situation is the easiest to excuse due to fear and panic, but a lot of the other situations in the movie are characters being straight up stupid

They needed to come up with a scenario that ended up stranding the crew on the planet and this was that. Could have been executed better but I guess it gets the job done lol
 
I like to talk about things I like, not do the backstroke in a cesspool.

And I disagree that Covenant isn't a quality product. I like good sci-fi and Covenant is damn good sci-fi that contributes twisted new layers to the Alien mythos, and works as a very fine horror-thriller as well.

I mean, sorry some people don't like thing, but endless inarticulate screeching isn't persuasive. There's not a lot of weight to hysterical exaggerations like "worse than the Star Wars Prequels!" It doesn't add to the conversation, it's masturbatory.

If all we're really doing here is looking for our preconceptions to be validated, I think I'd rather come from a place of appreciation and constructive criticism rather than reductive wall-shitting.

How is whining about other people whining improving the discussion in any way?

There are posts in here that are negative which aren't really all that thought through. There are also plenty of articulate posts and reviews in this thread outlining exactly why people didn't like the movie. Like all movie threads there are a wide range of opinions and styles of posting.

Perhaps the reason that so many are flinging shit at this movie is because they genuinely didn't like it, not because they want to be edglords.

Plenty of movies on GAF get nothing but endless praise including many big budget films. It's not as if every movie gets this kind of reception.

There are people in this thread posting in depth reasons for why they disliked he movies. Maybe try responding to them instead of adding even more shit to the wall.
 

Monocle

Member
How is whining about other people whining improving the discussion in any way?

There are posts in here that are negative which aren't really all that thought through. There are also plenty of articulate posts and reviews in this thread outlining exactly why people didn't like the movie. Like all movie threads there are a wide range of opinions and styles of posting.

Perhaps the reason that so many are flinging shit at this movie is because they genuinely didn't like it, not because they want to be edglords.

Plenty of movies on GAF get nothing but endless praise including many big budget films. It's not as if every movie gets this kind of reception.

There are people in this thread posting in depth reasons for why they disliked he movies. Maybe try responding to them instead of adding even more shit to the wall.
No u, the post. I've backed up my opinions. I can't say the same for the shit-flingers who seem to think they can make this movie bad by fiat.

Where do you even begin with posters who outright dismiss everything the movie does right?

"That flute scene with David was stupid and awful!" Like, I can't make people appreciate it, much less transpose my personal delight for that scene into someone else's brain. I can point out that it develops David's personality and reveals something about his values. I can point out how well it works as part of his arc, from marginalized servant to tyrant obsessed with creation. But that doesn't really touch the heart of the matter, which is the fundamental contradiction between the view that the scene is laughable trash, and my view that it's intriguing and well made.
 

JB1981

Member
I enjoyed it up to the point shit goes bad, some cool scenes and tension, but once David arrives, movie goes downhill fast.

The whole movie also was just predictable, the marketing really showed off way too much of the movie, Davids twist was so obvious, everything was just too laid out. Movie would have benefitted from revealing less in the marketing possibly. But as it went on all I could think of, "oh they haven't gotten to that scene yet.... so they must...." and then yep it happens like I think.

And the chest burster, wtf was that mess? I expected ABC 123 to start playing and it to do a little dance. Stupid to change how the chest burster looks only to give it a silly looking meme worthy scene.

Also, the editing felt really choppy in the final 3rd of the movie. Everything moves incredibly fast, there is no indication of time either but the xenos becomes full sized from face hugger to xenos in a manner of like 6 minutes of film. Even in shitty AvP they do kinda note it's been hours possibly going by.

I think it's implied to have been hours because we see Daniels sleeping. Presumably she got a nights sleep and then they found that one dudes body? Also, I guess he got impregnated REALLY QUICKLY by that one facehugger that jumped on his face but he managed to throw it off?
 

rgoulart

Member
How is whining about other people whining improving the discussion in any way?

There are posts in here that are negative which aren't really all that thought through. There are also plenty of articulate posts and reviews in this thread outlining exactly why people didn't like the movie. Like all movie threads there are a wide range of opinions and styles of posting.

Perhaps the reason that so many are flinging shit at this movie is because they genuinely didn't like it, not because they want to be edglords.

Plenty of movies on GAF get nothing but endless praise including many big budget films. It's not as if every movie gets this kind of reception.

There are people in this thread posting in depth reasons for why they disliked he movies. Maybe try responding to them instead of adding even more shit to the wall.

This ^

I've seen several posts discussing in depth reasons why this movie fails to do what he sets out to do and why people didn't like it. I'm included in that group. I've had great discussions with other members on this thread, some have actually changed my mind on things I disliked or didn't understand at first.

Very few people that I've seen are actually calling this movie bad without giving reasons and arguments to back their opinions. And complaining about that won't help.
 
Bullshit negativity. Absolutely fucking worthless putrid nonsense. It's not even analysis. Just whining. You're jizzing diarrhea all over the place and asking others to join in. It's vulgar.

calm down ridley

just make sure gosling doesn't fuck up bladerunner
 

Monocle

Member
I have. You just don't like what I have to say Boo-Hoo.
What you have to say is obnoxious vitriol that's totally dismissive of a film with self-evident merit. Good production values. Ideas worth considering. High-tension scenes that put their own distinctive twists on time tested formulas. New information about the origin of the original film's creature.

There is a lot to appreciate in Covenant, and from what I've seen you're here only to tear the thing down and deny that it might possibly have some value. So yeah, I don't like what you have to say, because it's not just unpleasant, it's incorrect and it has a chilling effect on the kinds of conversations that make movie threads worth participating in.

calm down ridley

just make sure gosling doesn't fuck up bladerunner
Will do chief. First let me finish this latte.
 
I think it's implied to have been hours because we see Daniels sleeping. Presumably she got a nights sleep and then they found that one dudes body? Also, I guess he got impregnated REALLY QUICKLY by that one facehugger that jumped on his face but he managed to throw it off?

Dont remember any sleeping? Everyone was in panic mode cause of the Neomorph killing the one character, shit was going down, everyone was going around looking for each other, there is no sense of scale here either so how much time does it take them to find each other? For all we see, its just one room to the next, but it seems like people wandering around looking for each other and getting bumped off one by one. They are in panic mode to leave the planet and suddenly Xeno
 
What you have to say is obnoxious vitriol that's totally dismissive of a film with self-evident merit. Good production values. Ideas worth considering. High-tension scenes that put their own distinctive twists on time tested formulas. New information about the origin of the original film's creature.

There is a lot to appreciate in Covenant, and from what I've seen you're here only to tear the thing down and deny that it might possibly have some value. So yeah, I don't like what you have to say, because it's not just unpleasant, it's incorrect and it has a chilling effect on the kinds of conversations that make movie thread worth participating in.

This reads like a PR piece, amazing.

People in my cinema were laughing at the chestburster scene. Laughing. People groaned audibly when Oram looks in the egg and David reveals himself at the end. Straight away that indicates there is something terribly wrong with the movie. Unless Ridley sat in the editing room thinking "this will be fucking hilarious", the movie was a failure. All anyone was talking about when they left the cinema was how dumb those scenes were. If this were a good Alien movie people would be reliving the scares, the thrills, the badass moments, not giggling at how silly it all was.

If you had a different reaction then fair enough, but you only have to look at the middling box office numbers to see that word of mouth on this thing is not good.

In my theater what got the most laughs was the Flute scene, particularly that one line, you know the one. David trying to tame the Neomorph like it was a fucking horse also got several chuckles.
 

Ushojax

Should probably not trust the 7-11 security cameras quite so much
No u, the post. I've backed up my opinions. I can't say the same for the shit-flingers who seem to think they can make this movie bad by fiat.

Where do you even begin with posters who outright dismiss everything the movie does right?

"That flute scene with David was stupid and awful!" Like, I can't make people appreciate it, much less transpose my personal delight for that scene into someone else's brain. I can point out that it develops David's personality and reveals something about his values. I can point out how well it works as part of his arc, from marginalized servant to tyrant obsessed with creation. But that doesn't really touch the heart of the matter, which is the fundamental contradiction between the view that the scene is laughable trash, and my view that it's intriguing and well made.

People in my cinema were laughing at the chestburster scene. Laughing. People groaned audibly when Oram looks in the egg and David reveals himself at the end. Straight away that indicates there is something terribly wrong with the movie. Unless Ridley sat in the editing room thinking "this will be fucking hilarious", the movie was a failure. All anyone was talking about when they left the cinema was how dumb those scenes were. If this were a good Alien movie people would be reliving the scares, the thrills, the badass moments, not giggling at how silly it all was.

If you had a different reaction then fair enough, but you only have to look at the middling box office numbers to see that word of mouth on this thing is not good.
 

MoeDabs

Member
Dont remember any sleeping? Everyone was in panic mode cause of the Neomorph killing the one character, shit was going down, everyone was going around looking for each other, there is no sense of scale here either so how much time does it take them to find each other? For all we see, its just one room to the next, but it seems like people wandering around looking for each other and getting bumped off one by one. They are in panic mode to leave the planet and suddenly Xeno

Daniels was sleeping and John Legend and his wife were fucking in the shower. They were not in a panic at that point in the film.
 

JB1981

Member
Dont remember any sleeping? Everyone was in panic mode cause of the Neomorph killing the one character, shit was going down, everyone was going around looking for each other, there is no sense of scale here either so how much time does it take them to find each other? For all we see, its just one room to the next, but it seems like people wandering around looking for each other and getting bumped off one by one. They are in panic mode to leave the planet and suddenly Xeno

I'm talking about when they get back to the Covenant.
 

Monocle

Member
People in my cinema were laughing at the chestburster scene. Laughing. People groaned audibly when Oram looks in the egg and David reveals himself at the end. Straight away that indicates there is something terribly wrong with the movie. Unless Ridley sat in the editing room thinking "this will be fucking hilarious", the movie was a failure. All anyone was talking about when they left the cinema was how dumb those scenes were. If this were a good Alien movie people would be reliving the scares, the thrills, the badass moments, not giggling at how silly it all was.

If you had a different reaction then fair enough, but you only have to look at the middling box office numbers to see that word of mouth on this thing is not good.
Ehh, your audience's reaction could suggest a lot of things. It's a bit of a reach to read it as something being terribly wrong with the movie.

If we want to go that route, my audience's reaction seemed to indicate that the movie was an effective thriller with an engaging story. Silence when the movie was silent, audible surprise at sudden violence, tense murmuring when "Walter" returned from his fight with David. There was a single bro-ish chortle at David's "I'll do the fingering" line. Which is fair, lol.

So YMMV?
 

hokahey

Member
A few tboughts;

I've never understood the criticism of Prometheus and now this movie that the characters behaved abnormally stupid. If anything, when people in movies do stupid things it feels MORE normal to me. In real life, even the most educated of us do dumb shit all the time.

That said, this movie had a few really cool moments, but was mostly dull and pointless.

It felt like it was made simply so Scott could have a few things in Prometheus make more sense.
 
Daniels was sleeping and John Legend and his wife were fucking in the shower. They were not in a panic at that point in the film.

I'm talking about when they get back to the Covenant.

I was talking about on the planet, from the point of facehugger to full sized xeno, it's like 5 min of film. The growth period seems incredibly too fast, part of it can be awful editing as well as poor establishment of time progression here.
 

Monocle

Member
I was talking about on the planet, from the point of facehugger to full sized xeno, it's like 5 min of film. The growth period seems incredibly too fast, part of it can be awful editing as well as poor establishment of time progression here.
It was just like that in Alien. The full sized Xenomorph ambushed Brett minutes after the chestburster scene, apparently.

The series has always been sketchy about the aliens' miraculous ability to gain biomass insanely quickly. It's a plot contrivance you kind of just have to go along with.
 
I agree with most here, it was quite terrible. This is basically the slasher movie version of alien. The original is a true horror classic, this is the armature stupid version of that and some how it's by the same man?! But it's not just a bad slasher flick half the movie is a misplaced philosophical thriller about a creepy robot. None of it connects, it's all a mess.

Worse as a fan of this series this movie insults and ruins so much of the rules and origins of the alien. Plus think of the idea of how the alien came to be. Essencially this is the story of how a near perfect virus that is undetectable, airborne can infect and kill any organism in about an hour and create a new life form becomes a stupid bug. Instead of a silent killer now you have a damn egg that has to sit there and wait for some moron to stick its head in it then attach to his face and deposite eggs and then they have to wait like hours before it gestates and becomes a monster. It's all backwards! David had the ultimate killer virus and he decided to made a penis shaped bug instead.

The whole thing is stupid. Prometheus was better that at least had some mystery, it looked better, better actors, better action, better pacing which made up for the stupid.

And please the prequels are better than this.
 

Monocle

Member
I agree with most here, it was quite terrible. This is basically the slasher movie version of alien. The original is a true horror classic, this is the armature stupid version of that and some how it's by the same man?! But it's not just a bad slasher flick half the movie is a misplaced philosophical thriller about a creepy robot. None of it connects, it's all a mess.

Worse as a fan of this series this movie insults and ruins so much of the rules and origins of the alien. Plus think of the idea of how the alien came to be. Essencially this is the story of how a near perfect virus that is undetectable, airborne can infect and kill any organism in about an hour and create a new life form becomes a stupid bug. Instead of a silent killer now you have a damn egg that has to sit there and wait for some moron to stick its head in it then attach to his face and deposite eggs and then they have to wait like hours before it gestates and becomes a monster. It's all backwards! David had the ultimate killer virus and he decided to made a penis shaped bug instead.

The whole thing is stupid. Prometheus was better that at least had some mystery, it looked better, better actors, better action, better pacing which made up for the stupid.

And please the prequels are better than this.
The David stuff is internally consistent, so even if it didn't appeal to you, it doesn't fail on its own terms. Personally, I loved it. David was the most complex and ambiguous character in Prometheus. Covenant takes his arc to some fantastically dark places that logically follow from his relationship to humans and the philosophical questions he was grappling with. A central question being whether one should serve one's creator, despite being physically and mentally superior.

The previous Alien movies were never clear on the origin of the Xenomorphs. That was one of the questions Prometheus set out to explore and Covenant answered. Nothing was "ruined." You have more info now, and it's not shallow nonsense Ridley pried out of his back end. He bothered to picked organizing themes of purpose, origin, and creation, and then actually stick to them by writing characters who care deeply about the big philosophical questions those themes are tied to. Characters whose lives are changed profoundly by their efforts to find answers.

What's so bad about Xenomorphs being the result of hideous experiments by humanity's own misanthropic creation anyway? There's a nice irony there. It works with those themes I just mentioned.

The virus was a means to an end. The Engineers apparently used it as a genetic reset button to make organic life forms violently end themselves. David used it in his quest to create the perfect life form. The virus is a catalyst for biological chaos, not the perfect being David was after. David's thought process is pretty simple to follow. He used tools to get what he wanted.

There's nothing backward about the virus resulting in an exceptionally durable species with a horrific life cycle. Do you really want to watch an Alien movie about evil killer dust? The aliens are the whole point. Prometheus and Covenant make them meaningful. By demystifying the aliens in this way, these movies have pushed back the frontier of the unknown and broadened the possibilities of the Alien universe. We might know where the Xenomorphs come from, and maybe that feels like a loss to those who prefer to imagine them as something else, like natural products of evolution, but now there's another world of mysteries concerning the Engineers and their creations.

And anyway, for my money, the newly revealed origin of the Xenomorphs is every bit as sordid as I could have hoped for. They're children of genocide, of mutation courtesy of an exotic bioweapon, and of one serious god complex. Not bad.
 
People in my cinema were laughing at the chestburster scene. Laughing. People groaned audibly when Oram looks in the egg and David reveals himself at the end. Straight away that indicates there is something terribly wrong with the movie. Unless Ridley sat in the editing room thinking "this will be fucking hilarious", the movie was a failure. All anyone was talking about when they left the cinema was how dumb those scenes were. If this were a good Alien movie people would be reliving the scares, the thrills, the badass moments, not giggling at how silly it all was.

If you had a different reaction then fair enough, but you only have to look at the middling box office numbers to see that word of mouth on this thing is not good.
.....was that not the point of that David scene? We, as an audience, know exactly what's going to happen. David's playing it up like "nah dude it's totally cool really. nothing's gonna happen dude just stick your head in, for sure. Nothing to see here"

The thing bursts out of his chest, not to horrible screeching music to shock, but to a beautiful symphonic piece

They turned the disgusting Alien setpiece into a beautiful/endearing moment. It's hilarious and shows how warped David is

I loved the whole Dracula/Dr. Frankenstein deal with David. It might not be "Alien" but that was a fun character to me
 

Monocle

Member
.....was that not the point of that David scene? We, as an audience, know exactly what's going to happen. David's playing it up like "nah dude it's totally cool really. nothing's gonna happen dude just stick your head in, for sure. Nothing to see here"

The thing bursts out of his chest, not to horrible screeching music to shock, but to a beautiful symphonic piece

They turned the disgusting Alien setpiece into a beautiful/endearing moment. It's hilarious and shows how warped David is

I loved the whole Dracula/Dr. Frankenstein deal with David. It might not be "Alien" but that was a fun character to me
Yeah, I found that the movie manipulated my expectations in some pretty entertaining ways. Every last scene with a creature was wonderful. The baby Xeno was perversely cute and grotesque at the same time. The subversion of the classic chestburster scene was a cheeky delight.

I really loved David's descent into full blown Dr. Frankenstein territory. He's charming and terrible. Bit of a Mads Mikkelsen Hannibal vibe going on there. Always a good thing.
 

Miracle

Member
Thought it was very predictable and didn't really care about any of the characters. I actually joked about how it should just end with the alien killing everyone.

...well in a way, that did kinda happen lol. Also I chuckled at some of Fassbender's lines, especially when he's talking to himself. The fingering quote and him kissing himself. :p
 

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
So we all agree that the species of xenomorph is different in Covenant than the first 2 movies right?

- Facehugger implants embryo in seconds. Unlike other aspects of the creature's growth, this is not the result of editing. It literally does happen in seconds.
- Chestburster is not a chestburster at all but rather a tiny adult that gains mass rapidly.
- Fully organic appearance rather than biomechanic
- David looks disappointed when its blown out of the airlock. He obviously needs to make adjustments

Seems like its just a precursor. A beta test. The true xenomorph takes longer to incubate and reach adulthood but is smarter and stronger is the implication I think.
 

MMarston

Was getting caught part of your plan?
Well, now that I've had sleep and gotten more sober, I'm gonna go into a little more detail about my thoughts on the movie.


- I guess like a lot of sci-fi Scott movies made in the last few years, it's technically still "well-made." A lot of aesthetics and set design were really nailed in the movie. Soundtrack is also top-notch even if it's predominantly re-using and re-arranging motifs of the very first film. I can't exactly say the same for the cinematography though, which starts out beautiful and felt like it gave up somewhere around the latter half of the movie. Seriously, the last act was some of worst-shot stuff I've seen in this entire franchise.

- I don't mind the characters acting ditzy in this movie, especially since they're most average joes this time around (Billy Crudup's character is a complete fucking idiot though). I actually found the infamous slip-shotgun scene pretty understandable and appropriate fro the people involved, as silly as it was. What I really found problematic was that I was never given a reason to care for these people, even with that prologue scene released online earlier which was already stretching character development a little too thin (hell, trying putting your shoes in someone who didn't see that). Apart from Tennesee (who's got a really good performance by McBride btw; props to him) and Daniels, everyone else was nothing but walking Xeno steak. I can't even remember -- or didn't even find out -- what most of these people's names are. This is a Jason Voorhees/Michael Myers cast.

- Now I love Fassbender's acting and I also really like David's character in general. The film was really setting up some intriguing angle's to that character and I'm glad his strengths as an antagonist were exercised more here. That being said, Scott got too overindulgent with him, and it shows through how this character his tied up with the rest of the franchise. I don't mind David creating the Xenomorphs at all - in fact, I'm fond of the idea. But that aspect isn't even presented in such a compelling and is more like just an excuse to explore the character to an almost unecessary degree, especially since we already did a good deal of that in the previous movie. More broadly, the character in itself is an excuse for Scott to exercise his lore-writing skills "just 'cause," and even though there's not harm in doing that, again, it's just not that interesting here. As much I enjoy Fassbender's performance, the infodumps became redundant drivel by the end that incite a "Well, okay I guess" at most. Which leads me to the next point...

- Man, the aliens -- Xenomorphs and Neomorphs -- got done dirty in this movie. Like, there are two big things that I thought of in terms of making this movie better, and it's that you either double-down on aliens and squeeze as much potential out of them as you can or just don't fucking have them at all and double-down on being a Prometheus sequel. Instead, you get this dumb Alien fan film jammed into the entire thing. It relies way too much on what we've already seen, but that doesn't have to be bad thing -- what's bad is that it's presented in such a fucking half-assed, amateurish fashion. I don't know what the hell came over Ridley when he did these scenes. For example, even Alien-fucking-3 did the first-person Xenomorph view better.


This movie is a C- and it's mainly much of its stylistic decisions that are carrying it from being any worse than that.

EDIT: Also, it just occurred to me, the pacing of this movie was awful.
 
In what universe do you live in where the original movie isn't a slasher? This is like saying "The force awakens is the space opera version of star wars"...da fok.

Wtf? I have never heard anyone refer to alien as a slasher movie. It's the ultimate sci fi horror movie, good horror, the kind that sits with the exorcist and the shining and not with Friday the 13th and Nightmare. This movie is far more like the dumb entertaining 80s slasher movies than the slow burn classic horror of the original.
 
It was just like that in Alien. The full sized Xenomorph ambushed Brett minutes after the chestburster scene, apparently.

The series has always been sketchy about the aliens' miraculous ability to gain biomass insanely quickly. It's a plot contrivance you kind of just have to go along with.

Has more to do with the horrible editing of Covenant. In Alien, it had wonderful pacing, it felt like time was going on, it wasn't one event right after another happening without stop. The Alien did not suddenly kill Brett in Alien after coming out of the burster, alot goes on between these scenes, establishing footage that other things are going on, that time is passed.

Here everything felt disjointed in a timeline sense with no feel of time occurring. It's same issue you see in AVP2, where it's essentially supposed to be a 6hr period, but you essentially have characters drive from end of town to the other and hours have gone by apparently cause suddenly. Covenant is same, where guy goes after one guy, face hugged, sudden chest burster, looking for guy, hey found guy, oh shit giant xeno attack. There is no establishing shots for distance, scale, time, etc. Covenant's 2nd half is a mess of editing.
 
And anyway, for my money, the newly revealed origin of the Xenomorphs is every bit as sordid as I could have hoped for. They're children of genocide, of mutation courtesy of an exotic bioweapon, and of one serious god complex. Not bad.

I don't know. There weren't any other aliens in Covenant other than the ones that infected the humans, so it's almost like David didn't achieve much until the communications signal was picked up. If they delved in more to what he did to Shaw, it would have had a bigger impact.
 
It was better than prometheus. And the ending is mighty scary, at a psychological level. The next one will probably start with a military ship picking up the distress beacon of the Covenant.
 

zoukka

Member
Both fights with the xenomorph were pretty lame too. There just wasn't enough presence and slow tension to make them interesting.

Also the casual stroll to the engineer ship was hilarious. They just found out intelligent alien life exists and walk around in the ship like it's a mediocre art exhibition... WTF
 

GhaleonEB

Member
In Alien, we see the chestburster be born, and escape. Then there is a scene of the crew searching for it. Then they have the funeral for Kane. Then they get together and make a plan, and fashion some weapons. Then there are several scenes of them searching the ship.

In raw screen time, it's a few minutes, but the pacing and events in each scene demonstrate a fair amount of time passing. Cleaning up after Kane's death, wrapping him up, sending him out into space. Brett hacking together the cattle prods, Ash making the motion tracker. Scenes of them searching floors of the ship and not finding it.

Now, it's certainly fast. Maybe even the same day. But in this film the crew gets notified that there is another life form on the ship, and they run to the medlab. At that point the alien is already full-grown. That's single digit minutes.

I liked that when the woman who was washing her wounds was killed, we saw the...what are those called? Deacons? Thingies. Gnawing on her, implying they do need sustenance of some sort. IIRC that's the first time in a long while - ever? - we've seen them eating rather than just killing.

Both fights with the xenomorph were pretty lame too. There just wasn't enough presence and slow tension to make them interesting.

Also, the lead also tricks the aliens the same way, three times. It charges at her, straight into the maw of the crane. Then the other one follows her, through the cab of the truck, and gets trapped. Then it charges at her, and she ducks and it gets impaled. It all pointed to really dumb creatures that have tunnel vision and no awareness of tactics or their surroundings - not the "perfect organism". It made the alien seem pretty dim. In contrast to its steadily changing behavior in the first film, and cutting the power before assaulting the Marines in the second, I found that direction disappointing.
 

TheXbox

Member
The only thing that surprised me about this film was the soundtrack. Fitting that a movie which is bookended by Wagner should actually use leitmotif properly, but even still, the music here is way more prominent than in Alien or Prometheus.
 

zoukka

Member
The only thing that surprised me about this film was the soundtrack. Fitting that a movie which is bookended by Wagner should actually use leitmotif properly, but even still, the music here is way more prominent than in Alien or Prometheus.

Though the highlights were both from other movies, the amazing prometheus theme (best in the whole alien franchise) and the original melodies from Alien.
 

DiddyBop

Member
Just got back and I really enjoyed it. I think it's an interesting direction to take the series where it's focusing on David and his obsession with creation. Honestly, the appearances of the various aliens felt forced and kind of unneeded outside of the first chestburster from David's egg chamber. No alien creature in the movie compared to the sinister nature of the David character himself. He's a classic movie villain in the making.

I hope Scott continues with his vision because I'm intrigued to see how he connects this arc to Alien.

Agreed, I was worried Scott would have backed away from the lore of Prometheus and the theme of creation but he went right back in and I was pleased. Seems like the Alien action was put in to appease old Alien fans, those parts were really weak. David was perfect and his dialogue with Walter and whoever else would listen was the best part of the film. Hope to see more David and Engineer lore in the next one!
 
I just saw it and maaaan.

I guess if i'd have to find something good to say about this movie, it'd be that they have cool jackets when they go out on the planet.
 
Indeed, it wasn't hidden in any way. The way he looked at the distance when he stapled his face was a pure david-moment. And anyone who has any understanding of movie plot structure knew that Walter is dead when they didn't show the conclusion of their fight.

you saw it coming when

a) david cut his hair

b) when the fight just ended despite walter kicking ass

you don't even need to look at the face stapling scene.
 

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
- I don't mind the characters acting ditzy in this movie, especially since they're most average joes this time around (Billy Crudup's character is a complete fucking idiot though). I actually found the infamous slip-shotgun scene pretty understandable and appropriate fro the people involved, as silly as it was.

Yea that scene was great. It was a very human mistake to make and the tension was palpable. I don't buy Billy Crudup looking directly into the egg, though. His wife died, he was attacked by creatures previously, he just saw his teammate decapitated, annnnd he just saw David trying to communicate with one. It could've been more believable if David had just released a facehugger intentionally which had gotten'im. As you point out, David is full of info dumps. You already get expositions with Walter and Daniels, so the story wouldn't lose anything if a bit of exposition was just shifted further onto those 2 meetups.

For example, even Alien-fucking-3 did the first-person Xenomorph view better.

Neither Covenant nor Alien 3 managed to create a first person view as memorable as Predator. I think a big reason is sound design. Predator vision has recognizable sound cues, whereas alien vision is accompanied by soundtrack or has a simple static hum with this bizarre thin membrane overlay. Alien vision looked like a more distorted human vision rather than something which can sense humans through walls and in the dark which we know it can.

I liked that when the woman who was washing her wounds was killed, we saw the...what are those called? Deacons? Thingies.

I wish. Deacons are black and come out of Engineers. The white back-bursting things are Neomorphs. 1 is killed in wheat field and the other is killed in David's lair.
 

Rktk

Member
Neither Covenant nor Alien 3 managed to create a first person view as memorable as Predator. I think a big reason is sound design. Predator vision has recognizable sound cues, whereas alien vision is accompanied by soundtrack or has a simple static hum with this bizarre thin membrane overlay. Alien vision looked like a more distorted human vision rather than something which can sense humans through walls and in the dark which we know it can.

That's because Predator's heat detecting vision was a huge part of the movie plot.
 
Wtf? I have never heard anyone refer to alien as a slasher movie. It's the ultimate sci fi horror movie, good horror, the kind that sits with the exorcist and the shining and not with Friday the 13th and Nightmare. This movie is far more like the dumb entertaining 80s slasher movies than the slow burn classic horror of the original.

Slasher films can't be "good horror"? The original alien came out right on the coattails of the original Halloween, Ridley Scott even played The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for the cast before photography as it was one of his major inspirations for the film, not to mention how the movie hits nearly every single slasher trope in the book. It might have a sci-fi dressing, but the Nostromo is essentially a haunted house and just like in a haunted house the cast inexplicably splits up to get murdered one by one until there's only a final girl.
 

Jinroh

Member
I can't wait until some early scripts leak, there must be a reason why the ending was so rushed. Either it was initially much longer and they removed chunks of it (and looking at the trailers it might be the case), either they shoehorned aliens in there at the last minute.
 
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