Alien Covenant - the thread WITH SPOILERS for them what have seen it

TimmyO

seriously, spoilers in here - turn back if you need to

TimmyO

Saw it this morning, and I see some others have seen it too.

so the 'twist' at the end - anyone else see that coming from the very moment it evidently happened? 

sweepy

That bit was telegraphed a bit but it was still a cracking film 

thomasross20

Saw the end coming from a mile off, didn't think it was as good as it could have been. What scary bits! I'd say 6/10.

TimmyO

I liked that it really does start to join things up.

The Facehugger being genetically engineered by a nutter.

Hope we have one more film coming - sitting between this and the fate of the original crashed ship found by Ripley's crew. 

thomasross20

Yeah I hope so, too! 

I thought it linked to Prometheus, which was a bit dull, too much. 

I get it - man's own image is more terrifying than the Alien etc...

But the originals were so great because there wasn't too much "deep meaning" - it was down and dirty in little corridors vs this terrifying creature. Loved the "tech" in the old one, with the proximity scanners - and Sigourney Weaver did a great acting job.

The end alien was pretty cool... but didn't see enough of it, and it was too "out in the open." Also, it would have been good to have learned more about this other race that got wiped out.

RobDavies

I quite enjoyed it. (I quite liked Prometheus, too). It's getting panned elsewhere....

Yep - I could see the end coming as soon as David appeared, and I thought he was a twat as soon as he started talking.

Basically an action movie that provides the link between Prometheus and the next film.... which should knit everything together nicely.

TimmyO

I really really really wanted Prometheus to be great - and I was an apologist for it for ages. But it really was a bit of a tangle. 

Covenant was immensely satisfying in its moving of the story, but if I'm being picky it wasn't a strong experience. Even 'Aliens' has a bunch of quotable or memorable moments. 

TimmyO

thomasross20 said:

 Also, it would have been good to have learned more about this other race that got wiped out.

You know they were 'the engineers' right? 

TimmyO

Thinking : I wonder if the reason the Engineer in Prometheus immediately topped Weyland and ripped David's head off was because he somehow knew that they would be the death of his planet? 

thomasross20

The Engineers as in the ultimate creators of all life? 

thomasross20

They look like electronics engineers...

TimmyO

thomasross20 said:

The Engineers as in the ultimate creators of all life? 

life on Earth, yes 

thomasross20

Thanks
TBH I must have missed that reference..!

guitarfishbay

I was pretty disappointed.

I felt the trailers gave away the best alien scenes, thus removing their impact. That's my fault for watching the trailers. But save for the scene where David is pissed that the captain shot the Alien I didn't really feel suspense from the other Alien scenes.

The David ending was super obvious, again no real impact though it was well acted by Daniels. Wather should've self healed so why didn't Daniels notice he was stapling himself and question then. Also why didn't Walters hand re-gen if he could self heal.

The Engineers? Brushed under the carpet in seconds. It was like they thought 'oh the fans didn't like these guys so let's kill them asap'. When actually the concept of that race was potentially quite interesting. Guess they won't explain it since David didn't seem to care about them and anyone else connected is dead.

The conflicted faith of the captain? Not explored. In fact he got reduced to an idiot that walked in to a trap that would've been too obvious for a pantomime. It just feels like the only reason he was in there was someone wanted to set Franco on fire.

The reason for the aliens and how that tied in with the Prometheus Engineer, not explained, unless I missed that?

David's story was interesting but it didn't expand on what happened with Elizabeth and why. They bailed on that for the 'I'll do the same to you' line. 

I'll get flak for this but I preferred Prometheus as a standalone sci-fi film, if you remove the expectation of aliens I think it's decent. This would've been pretty weak without the alien tie in. Though Daniels and David were both good characters, overall it's a middle of the road film to me and not as good as I'd hoped.

thomasross20

It wasn't just me then - phew!

guitarfishbay

thomasross20 said:

It wasn't just me then - phew!

Likewise! Everyone else seems to love it

absolutpepper

It was okay, some wonky pacing and some issues with how it ties into the canon.  I did however have one question...did anyone see the promo pictures that 20th century fox released and promptly deleted?  These were x-rays which showed all of the crew with various aliens in their chests.  I wonder if it'll turn out that Daniels and Tennessee have actually been infected by David all along....hmm

stickyfiddle

I haven't seen it yet but I'm interested in the comments so far. I'm put off two things:

a) the fact that it's an Alien movie that isn't Alien. Every single one has been worse than the last in a perfect decline so far
b) Mark Kermode says it's annoying close to being not shit but still manages to be quite shit, with some of the canon-fuckery actually having the potential to change the context of Alien itself. And he's usually spot on for my tastes. 

I'll probably go see it at the weekend. Will report back...

guitarfishbay

Didn't see the pic but I assumed from the ending that the whole ship would end up infected.

Incubation period was supposedly short so I don't think all along makes sense

fretmeister

stickyfiddle said:

I haven't seen it yet but I'm interested in the comments so far. I'm put off two things:

a) the fact that it's an Alien movie that isn't Alien. Every single one has been worse than the last in a perfect decline so far
b) Mark Kermode says it's annoying close to being not shit but still manages to be quite shit, with some of the canon-fuckery actually having the potential to change the context of Alien itself. And he's usually spot on for my tastes. 

I'll probably go see it at the weekend. Will report back...

Not quite.

Alien3 Director Cut is far better than Aliens.

But I do agree that Prometheus was worse than AVP. But not as bad as AVP:R.