Alien Covenant - Spoilers
Was it me or was anyone else disappointed that David created the Alien? Also thought the ending was pretty shit with Daniels realizing it's David and not Walter...what's the sequel gonna be, "Alien: Experiment Fun Time with David"?
I have generally liked or loved every Alien film, including Prometheus but this is the first I was ever "meh" after seeing one.
I have generally liked or loved every Alien film, including Prometheus but this is the first I was ever "meh" after seeing one.
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I think the fundamental issue with these pre-Ripley adventures is that no matter what happens, the characters can't be quite heroic or iconic enough because we know that they don't solve the problem.
I enjoyed Covenant for what it was, Michael Fassbender is undoubtedly the MVP, Katherine Waterston as Daniels is a forgettable heroine, nothing compared to Ripley or even Shaw, it feels like the filmmakers felt they had to pay homage to the traditional Alien character tropes when really they just wanted to have Walter/David front and center.
Ridley Scott has said that the next movie is going to fit between Prometheus and Covenant in the timeline, showing more of David arriving on the Engineer planet and fucking up Shaw I guess.
The main goal of these prequels was to fill in the wider Alien story, but I feel like the mythology being laid down is getting further and further away from a satisfactory explanation to the presence of the huge Space Jockey at the beginning of Alien.
There were some awesome gory set pieces in the movie, but I definitely came out with more questions than answers.
I'll agree that Daniels was blah as a heroine, wasn't really invested in any of them except Walter.
My one worry is how they are going to eventually tie everything back to Alien. Obviously neither David, Daniels or Tennessee will love to get there. Knowing there are sequels I guess the ending just wasn't good at making me look forward to what comes next.
But they most definitely tried to pass it off as a twist. They cut away from the Walter/David fight as Walter has the upper hand. Which is the part that bugged me. It was always painfully obvious what was going on, why the need to do that sort of cut?
Disappointing "Prometheus" sequel.
I enjoyed it. It was fun and entertaining and dammit I love me some aliens. As part of the Alien universe I thought it was prettt typical. I was just disappointed with how it relates to Prometheus. But I think that is a result of my own expectations. We spent all of Prometheus wondering why these beings created humans and BOOM, fucking David obliterates them all. I gotta say, I was pretty pissed at that point. But then we got his story and it became clearer and I enjoyed the rest of the ride. I just hope we can somehow go back to who the Engineers were. I mean they clearly had a history.
And Shaw, disappointed that she was basically useless. At least compared to the last movie.
As to the point about the twist, I think it was summarized perfectly above. I think everyone was 99% sure that it was David for the final act. It was more of suspense building than a twist. The twist was more or less when it would be revealed to the characters. When would David reveal himself to Daniels, not us.
If I'm being honest though, I think this might hurt the franchise. Prometheus is a hit or miss for most people because of all the questions the movie left us. As a result, this movie doesn't do a much better job. They answer some but now leave us with more questions.
Sorry about the rant, ya'll.
Characters in the original movies were over the top. They did stupid shit. I mean these are part horror movies, part of the draw is the tension when you know something bad is going to go down.
I for one love slower burn more realistic sci fi. Now if only we could get someone to fun a new IP with this kind of money behind it.
Ridley Scott still has it, the scene where Walter was playing the flute with David had me at the edge of my seat.
I also have zero problems with David creating the perfected Xenomorph. I really enjoy the irony of Wayland creating life to help him search for the meaning of his own existence which has to have some higher meaning and telling David his purpose was more or less to bring him his tea.
I really don't see how a sequel could fit between Prometheus and this movie though. I'm not sure I need a whole film of David slowly dissecting things and falling deeper into nihilistic madness.
Also we have all the answers we need. Humans were a fluke. We already knew in Prometheus that if it were not for the Engineers ship crashing Earth was to be rebooted with the black nano weapon.
Now we know where the eggs came from and why they would just be stashed around the galaxy waiting for people to find them. David has full control of a colony ship full of people to turn into alien Queens.
I'm not a super duper hardcore Aliens fan or Ridley Scott fan, but I'm definitely a fan. Man I liked it. I didn't even go in needing a bunch of dots connected. A few connecting threads here and there is good enough. I went in blind and didn't even know they were going to connect Prometheus so I was pleasantly surprised.
There were some tropes that had you rolling your eyes a little bit. Just like Rogue One we had the good guy that you thought was a goner but then he comes back at the last second to save someone from death. And of course the Walter / David mix up. But everyone knew that was coming. It was a slow suspense right from the whole "step into my lair said the spider to the fly" that was done twice - them following David to that fortress, and Chris following David to those eggs.
But all the thrills and chills were solid. A great rollercoaster ride. Big cinema. I felt like I was 8 at Universal Studios on the Aliens ride again, especially during the action-packed evacuation sequence with the crane.
The jump scares really got me and they were not cheesy in my opinion like most jump scares can be. I think I yelled out 3 or 4 times, and that's 3 or 4 more times than my wife so yeah I'm "that guy."
Maybe my only minor gripe I noticed myself grimacing over was when the CGI took over for the spores and they started swarming into the ear and nostril. Just an artistic choice but I thought the bokeh effect on the spores explained it plenty and looked cool. They didn't need to hand hold us with CGI mist drilling into the inner ear wall.
Also the fingering part was hilarious. I was laughing. Some other dudes were laughing.
And the James Franco cameo had us laughing but Mr. Franco sorta always makes me and my wife crack up with his Franco-isms ever since Freaks n Geeks! Ha ha and now I just realized Danny McBride and James Franco were in that movie.
I didn't watch the first Alien movie until my last 20s (it's old enough that it was "old" when I was in my early teens, and not on TV much I guess, so things just never worked out) and only watched Aliens and Alien 3 a couple years ago. So I have no nostalgia associated with them.
I mean the dang thing is on a ride at Disney World. It is so mass market and diluted and has been done to death. He has maintained that the more interesting story is the origin of the Space Jocky.
So I see Covanant as the bone he had to throw to the studio that has a Xenomorph in it.
He has already said the next movie will follow Shaw and David on their journey to the Engineer homeworld.
Considering Michael Fastbender was probably the best part of Covenant I'm up for another film in this Universe. Basically anyone upset that this movie wasn't more like Prometheus be patient, I think that film is still coming.
David mentioned how during all his DNA splicing etc, he never had any test subjects. So the end of Prometheus is not the first Xenomorph because it came from an Engineer and not a human.
I hope that clears it up. It's seems like the easiest way to look at it because its the prequels.