Alien:Covenant

[jab]

Saw it Friday. Was so-so. First two much better; all others, except Prometheus, worse. Prometheus more interesting, but messier.

Most characters are boring--interesting ones get killed off relatively early. Twist ending visible long before it happens, blatant set up for sequel; questions raised by Prometheus not answered very satisfactorily. Too derivative of Alien I & II.
Good parts: not sleep inducing or possessed of gratuitous/dull scenes; creepy robot; wonderful visual long shots; twist ending well-executed even though you know it's coming.
Apparently this movie had good opening weekend box office.

What did you think?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I saw that this was coming out and wondered, 'why is this coming out'?! Haven't they buried this franchise yet?

 

[Sarpedon]

What are you talking about? There are only two Alien movies.

 

[DBT]

All the faults listed in the OP are there, but still not bad as light entertainment, the visuals, scenery, etc. 6.5/10

 

[Philos]

Folks,

I will never forget the 'Alien' spoof in Spaceballs, when the little alien pops out of a tummy with a straw hat and cigarette, dancing away singing "Hello my darling.... " No amount of remakes will purge that image from the otherwise excellent first Alien movie. When watching the dvd we have to freeze and skip the sequence here at home.

Having said that, Alien 2 was pretty good and worth a rewatch. A good curry night blockbuster.

Some reviewers have said that the new movie is two movies in one; cumbersome but not as bad a Prometheus.

A.

 

[Opoponax]

What I want to know is if it's as stupid as Prometheus was. Prometheus had so many intolerably stupid parts, it was almost as if it was done on purpose.

With sci-fi horror being a popular genre, with vast unexplored potential, it's forever discouraging to me that they don't have great writing teams in the budget for these movies. Nor does it seem they're the slightest bit interested in it.

 

[OLDMAN]

What I want to know is if it's as stupid as Prometheus was. Prometheus had so many intolerably stupid parts, it was almost as if it was done on purpose.

With sci-fi horror being a popular genre, with vast unexplored potential, it's forever discouraging to me that they don't have great writing teams in the budget for these movies. Nor does it seem they're the slightest bit interested in it.

Yeah, were do they figure they can spend hundreds of millions on special effects, but don't need a descent story or at least descent dialogue between interesting characters?

 

[bilby]

What I want to know is if it's as stupid as Prometheus was. Prometheus had so many intolerably stupid parts, it was almost as if it was done on purpose.

With sci-fi horror being a popular genre, with vast unexplored potential, it's forever discouraging to me that they don't have great writing teams in the budget for these movies. Nor does it seem they're the slightest bit interested in it.

Yeah, were do they figure they can spend hundreds of millions on special effects, but don't need a descent story or at least descent dialogue between interesting characters?

Funny you should say that: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/entertainment/movies/flashback-our-original-star-wars-review-from-1977-20170524-gwcl0h.html

Technological fun and games and comic-strip fable on a giant screen, for those who don't wish to read or think, only absorb.
...
This film is dedicated to the proposition that comic strip people are easier and more assuming to digest than the real thing, and the special-effects department is more important than any of them.

Can you guess which sci-fi movie this was a review of? (Hint - it's not a recent review).

 

[Opoponax]

Yeah, were do they figure they can spend hundreds of millions on special effects, but don't need a descent story or at least descent dialogue between interesting characters?

Funny you should say that: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/entertainment/movies/flashback-our-original-star-wars-review-from-1977-20170524-gwcl0h.html

Technological fun and games and comic-strip fable on a giant screen, for those who don't wish to read or think, only absorb.
...
This film is dedicated to the proposition that comic strip people are easier and more assuming to digest than the real thing, and the special-effects department is more important than any of them.

Can you guess which sci-fi movie this was a review of? (Hint - it's not a recent review).

I don't think too many people think the original Star Wars is something on the level of say, The Godfather or The Deer Hunter, etc. But at the same time Star Wars holds up because it wasn't stupid. For the era, and considering the genre, Star Wars was pretty well written. A current viewing certainly reveals its age, but there aren't any laughers in it; it's just a little dated. Consider too, that it was still better written than the mega-prequels with the massive budgets.

Now take all the stupid shit from Prometheus. The idiotic crew members... I just found this quote that sums up Prometheus: "The guys from Scooby Doo seem way more systematic and reasonable than the crew of Prometheus."

And part of it, at least for me, is that these movies don't have to be this stupid. These aren't college film students with an iPhone trying to get drama students to act out their screen play in a public park by offering them free pizza afterwards.

This sums up modern movie making:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxgkXxa9c3s

 

[Underseer]

Funny you should say that: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/entertainment/movies/flashback-our-original-star-wars-review-from-1977-20170524-gwcl0h.html

Technological fun and games and comic-strip fable on a giant screen, for those who don't wish to read or think, only absorb.
...
This film is dedicated to the proposition that comic strip people are easier and more assuming to digest than the real thing, and the special-effects department is more important than any of them.

Can you guess which sci-fi movie this was a review of? (Hint - it's not a recent review).

I don't think too many people think the original Star Wars is something on the level of say, The Godfather or The Deer Hunter, etc. But at the same time Star Wars holds up because it wasn't stupid. For the era, and considering the genre, Star Wars was pretty well written. A current viewing certainly reveals its age, but there aren't any laughers in it; it's just a little dated. Consider too, that it was still better written than the mega-prequels with the massive budgets.

Now take all the stupid shit from Prometheus. The idiotic crew members... I just found this quote that sums up Prometheus: "The guys from Scooby Doo seem way more systematic and reasonable than the crew of Prometheus."

And part of it, at least for me, is that these movies don't have to be this stupid. These aren't college film students with an iPhone trying to get drama students to act out their screen play in a public park by offering them free pizza afterwards.

This sums up modern movie making:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxgkXxa9c3s

Star Wars was stupid as hell.

I couldn't see that until I stopped watching it for many years, then finally went back to watch it.

I think what happened was that I watched it very regularly, and every time I did, I recreated the mindset I had when I was a little boy sitting in a movie theater in 1977. This regular "brain reset" caused me to overlook its flaws somehow.

Anyway, I got angry at George Lucas for having a hissy fit with the DVD standards committee. He quite deliberately tried to harm the format for a pretty terrible reason. Because I was such a fan of the format, I stopped watching George Lucas movies for a long time and discovered I could live just fine without them.

When I finally allowed myself to watch it again, I was shocked that it was not at all like what I remembered. I couldn't stop noticing how awful the dialog was. It doesn't help that during my little haitus, I learned about how derivative it was of Joseph Campbell's monomyth and Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress. Sprinkle on a little Flash Gordon and a little cowboy stuff, add some flashy special effects and voi la! Star Wars!

 

[The Colourful Jester]

... What did you think?

I think the entire movie was made for two lines of dialogue to explain the genesis of the alien. That's it.

 

[blastula]

... What did you think?

I think the entire movie was made for two lines of dialogue to explain the genesis of the alien. That's it.

Well, spill it!

 

[Jayjay]

I think the entire movie was made for two lines of dialogue to explain the genesis of the alien. That's it.

Well, spill it!

It's made of people!

 

[Jayjay]

(Obviously I had not seen the movie when I wrote that, just making a joke on Soylent Green.)

Do we use spoilers here? Just in case...

Show

So, aliens or the goo they came from are a weapon now. Which kind of wipes out the ambiguity of Prometheus. I don't think that new interpretations can diminish the old ones, for me, Prometheus will always be a cooler origin concept, but I'm fine with this weapon theory as well. The upside with this is that you don't have to have some very troublesome aspects of aliens seeding life on Earth, so no harm, no foul.

I wish they had done the David killing Walter scene in a bit more ambiguous way to make the ending more surprising. For example, just have him look like he's killing Walter, when in fact it's his death throes or something. Also, David's motivation is a bit fuzzy but I can chalk that up to him being totally insane.

I'm not sure, but was one of the couples gay? The bearded fellow who got infected second, and some other guy? I didn't see very well who died there. But if that was the case, it wouldn't make any sense: It's a colonization mission meant to populate a new planet, why would they have gay couples? Individual gay men or women could statistically be included by chance, but the crew was clearly deliberately picked to consist of fertile couples and presumably most of the other colonists too.