And part of me wants to say that this is an event movie, not a character movie. Like Rogue One. But no. I want solid characters in a movie like this. It makes me more invested in what's happening.
Spoilers Alien Covenant Review Thread
- Thread starter Mage
- Start date
And part of me wants to say that this is an event movie, not a character movie. Like Rogue One. But no. I want solid characters in a movie like this. It makes me more invested in what's happening.
Anthony Lane's review of the movie references Swiss Symbolist artist Arnold Böcklin's Isle of the Dead paintings as an inspiration for the ruined city:
These paintings, according to this neat weird sci-fi blog post, inspired a Rachmaninov "Symphonic poem", which, at 18:00, seems to foretell the Fellowship of the Ring theme:
Alien: Covenant may be a glorified slasher flick, but hey, at least I Learned Something Today.
(And now I'm irritated there doesn't seem to be any indication that somewhere, some rich prick has sculpted/converted an actual small island into a one-person/family graveyard based on the paintings' look and scale. How freaking badass would that be?)
These paintings, according to this neat weird sci-fi blog post, inspired a Rachmaninov "Symphonic poem", which, at 18:00, seems to foretell the Fellowship of the Ring theme:
Alien: Covenant may be a glorified slasher flick, but hey, at least I Learned Something Today.
(And now I'm irritated there doesn't seem to be any indication that somewhere, some rich prick has sculpted/converted an actual small island into a one-person/family graveyard based on the paintings' look and scale. How freaking badass would that be?)
I just couldn't really bring myself to care about Waterson or Crudups characters even though their acting was good. The whole crew needed like two more minutes of backstory each. I wonder if there were any Franco flashbacks that got cut.
Even if the movie opened with a Waterson dream and she woke in her pod I would have gotten more out of it. MCBride ended up getting more of a rounded character than some of the other crew.
The thing that made Alien / Aliens great (to me) was that I bought into the camaraderie and didnt want people to die.
Both this film and prometheus were pretty big disappointments to me personally, it feels like an existing world is being warped to fit a narrative Instead of a living, breathing story being allowed to develop. Dumb logic, casts that look like they should be on reality TV instead of regular looking people. I can get sucked into the first 3 films because they feel so organic, these latter two are just paint by numbers plots really, things we've seen before under the guise of suedo-intellectualism.
Anthony Lane's review of the movie references Swiss Symbolist artist Arnold Böcklin's Isle of the Dead paintings as an inspiration for the ruined city:
These paintings, according to this neat weird sci-fi blog post, inspired a Rachmaninov "Symphonic poem", which, at 18:00, seems to foretell the Fellowship of the Ring theme:
This was on the cover of a book on surreal art I have somewhere.
A Giger type version
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zuKg9DRLT...ABsQ/fUoPd6Cgyxk/s1600/Giger_Landscape_02.jpg
Thumbs down for me. They answer few questions they themselves ask/suggest is the point of the movies, the characters again act unbelievably stupidly, the monsters themselves are distractingly CG, the ending was obvious halfway through the movie and was shouting at everyone but the idiot characters how it would end the closer it got to it.
I wasn't scared of the aliens themselves because if these idiots survived them, I could be their king.
Scott's very talented at the things he's interested in but amazingly bad at the things he's not, and they undercut the first category. If you're expecting the first two Alien movies, you're going to be sorely disappointed. If you liked Prometheus, you'll like this. I recommended to a friend he get high before he goes. I think it works, if you're not quite all there. Certain scenes and visuals and performances are good, but too much undermines all that.
I wasn't scared of the aliens themselves because if these idiots survived them, I could be their king.
Scott's very talented at the things he's interested in but amazingly bad at the things he's not, and they undercut the first category. If you're expecting the first two Alien movies, you're going to be sorely disappointed. If you liked Prometheus, you'll like this. I recommended to a friend he get high before he goes. I think it works, if you're not quite all there. Certain scenes and visuals and performances are good, but too much undermines all that.
Just watched the movie. It was ok, not great. It was much better then Prometheus, with more tolerable characters and unlike Prometheus I was never really bored. That said it was only an ok movie. The stuff it didn't take from the old films was kind of bland, and the Xenomorph CG looked pretty mediocre. There were a few interesting kills, though. Overall I don't regret watching it. It was better then Prometheus and slightly better then Alien Resurrection (although AR might be a more entertaining movie). I'd watch it again, which is more then I can say for Prometheus. C+
I just watched this as well. Michael Fassbender stole the movie as Walter and David. The protomorphs (while obviously CGI) were pretty creepy. I was disappointed the movie didn't delve deeper into the Engineers and their society as I thought that was an interesting idea from Prometheus.
The ending was creepy as fuck as well... "Don't let the bedbugs bite!"
The ending was creepy as fuck as well... "Don't let the bedbugs bite!"
A great movie.
Spoilers.
The scene with David unleashing the weapons of mass destruction above the Engineer city was one of the best uses of CGI that I can ever recall.
Spoilers.
The scene with David unleashing the weapons of mass destruction above the Engineer city was one of the best uses of CGI that I can ever recall.
Just saw this tonight. David is one evil bastard. He's rather crazy also.
Watched it last week and while it's might be an improvement over the flawed Prometheus (need to re-watch the 1st film), it continues to take the franchise down a route were I feel they should scrub the Alien part out of the name. Fassbender was superb and continues to be one of the most talented actors of his generation and David is easily one of the most compelling characters in years on the Silver Screen but sadly save the film he can't.
Ridley clearly forgot how much we hate off-screen deaths from Aliens/Alien 3 and decided to pull one with Shaw, a complete waste of an actress & character. Ridley then decides to just knock off the Engineers within seconds of a flashback that's awkwardly shoved in out of nowhere. You wouldn't be laughed at to suggest the handling of Shaw & The Engineers was Ridley's attempt at a joke by highlighting how most people felt about Prometheus.
The characters are made to act like TOTAL IDIOTS to forward the story with such cracking ideas as go down to an Alien world with no protective gear (unlike Prometheus) so they can all catch whatever pathogens are down there. Then we will split up at times for no real reason inside David's temple home leading to our deaths. The switch of the Androids couldn't have been more telegraphed if they tried and how Daniels didn't even have a hint beggars belief.
The Xenomorph we know doesn't show up till late (Seeing one in daylight really takes away from the creature's menacing presence) and then is easily defeated on two occasions though who doesn't love seeing an Alien get blown into space, a very fitting franchise death so kudos to that scene. I have really mixed feelings about David creating the Xenomorphs that we know and I don't buy how this story is serving as a proper prequel to the events of Alien. It had some nice moments but it was not good enough and the whole prequel story feels like a complete spinoff, nothing more.
Still Fassbender is awesome!
C+
Ridley clearly forgot how much we hate off-screen deaths from Aliens/Alien 3 and decided to pull one with Shaw, a complete waste of an actress & character. Ridley then decides to just knock off the Engineers within seconds of a flashback that's awkwardly shoved in out of nowhere. You wouldn't be laughed at to suggest the handling of Shaw & The Engineers was Ridley's attempt at a joke by highlighting how most people felt about Prometheus.
The characters are made to act like TOTAL IDIOTS to forward the story with such cracking ideas as go down to an Alien world with no protective gear (unlike Prometheus) so they can all catch whatever pathogens are down there. Then we will split up at times for no real reason inside David's temple home leading to our deaths. The switch of the Androids couldn't have been more telegraphed if they tried and how Daniels didn't even have a hint beggars belief.
The Xenomorph we know doesn't show up till late (Seeing one in daylight really takes away from the creature's menacing presence) and then is easily defeated on two occasions though who doesn't love seeing an Alien get blown into space, a very fitting franchise death so kudos to that scene. I have really mixed feelings about David creating the Xenomorphs that we know and I don't buy how this story is serving as a proper prequel to the events of Alien. It had some nice moments but it was not good enough and the whole prequel story feels like a complete spinoff, nothing more.
Still Fassbender is awesome!
C+
Actually, it doesn't look like we can put this one on Ridley. 'The Crossing' was just part of twelve minutes of David/Shaw footage* that would have opened the film instead of the David/Weyland scene (originally meant to be - ironically - a viral). And Fox execs ordered Ridley to rip it all out and keep it out. It was all he could apparently do just to get the Engineer bombing back into the film, as well as put out the heavily trimmed-down 'Crossing' as a viral in place of the David/Weyland scene.
* Scott's editor, Pietro Scalia, confirmed it in an interview. He successfully lobbied to have the David/Weyland scene open the film instead.
I couldn't bring myself to sit all the way through this mess of a film. A travesty from start to finish, made mercifully shorter by virtue of the skip function. Why Ridley Scott feels the need to shit all over the Alien franchise is beyond me. Between Prometheus and Covenant, we see the artist at his nadir. Retirement should be his next best move.
I used the skip function because, like Prometheus, the film was predictably formulaic and utterly dull.
I used the skip function because, like Prometheus, the film was predictably formulaic and utterly dull.
It's what he does.
If - IF - 'Awakening' happens, I think you'll get your wish. With Daniels now all-but-guaranteed to be a mutated lab rat/ProtoQueen by the time the Covenant arrives at Origae-6 (whether or not she's long-dead like Shaw), that leaves sassy 'ol Tennessee to take up the hardened Bug-hunter role.
I did. Covenant felt very much like a Star Trek story to me, one that I thought drew on "The Cage" and especially "Datalore."
I felt that, by only showing us what was... left of Shaw, Scott actually heightened the horror. David did... that, and my mind went to some very dark places trying to figure out what he'd done and why. I was quite disturbed by Shaw's death.
I was never annoyed by the off-screen deaths of Hicks and Newt.
Similar threads
