Alien : Covenant (2017)

[dahyl]

This movie was a massive disappointment for me. It completely lacked any soul and structure

[ukade2327]

47 minutes ago, nefilim said:

MEH !

maybe  1 1/2 or  2 stars ....

No ...Really..... That's disappointing....had such high hopes for this as well......?

[nefilim]

14 hours ago, ukade2327 said:

No ...Really..... That's disappointing....had such high hopes for this as well......

You haven't seen it yet ?

[ukade2327]

15 minutes ago, nefilim said:

You haven't seen it yet ?

No not yet .......does this mean you are going to cancel your SB preorder ... I'm not , ill still get them whatever .... Surely it can't be that bad .....

[nefilim]

Just now, ukade2327 said:

No not yet .......does this mean you are going to cancel your SB preorder ... I'm not , ill still get them whatever .... Surely it can't be that bad .....

No. I'll keep my Nordic steel order in. But lost interest in digibooks etc.

But, isn't there a chance you might like it ? Any idea when you are going to see it.

Btw my missus hated it too with passion. she almost angry when we came out ... lol. ?

 

[nefilim]

Ridley Scott Cut Approximately 20 Minutes of Footage From ‘Alien: Covenant’

[jaferris]

I enjoyed this, it was better than Prometheus.
Danny McBride was better than thought would of been played his character well. 
I'm looking forward to the next one in the series

[nefilim]

‘Alien: Covenant’ Has 6 Minutes of Gore and Monsters Removed for China

One viewer who attended an advance screening called the censored version “extremely frustrating” to watch, estimating that the film’s monsters are only shown on screen for a total of “one to two minutes.”

Calling himself “ xxxx” the poster said the “distinct” cuts are most noticeable in two scenes in the film’s second half, explaining that all gory images of aliens covered in blood have been removed as have scenes in which humans are attacked.

One scene from Alien: Covenant that involves a “broken back” has been changed so that “in the China version you can only see the scared expressions of the people outside the door.”

 

So no money from China ! What does that mean ? Alien franchise dead for now ... ?

[nefilim]

Ridley Scott Says Engineers Will Be Back in Next ‘Alien’… If it Gets Made

[nefilim]

From recent interview of R.Scott  :

" I think the evolution of the Alien himself is nearly over, but what I was trying to do was transcend and move to another story, which would be taken over by AI's. The world that the AI might create as a leader if he finds himself on a new planet. We have actually quite a big layout for the next one. "

Disagree. That is not alien movie any more ...

[FN-2187]

Alien: Innovation Lost*

*before the title of the film was changed to Alien: Covenant- the original title of this was "Alien: Paradise Lost"- based, of course, on the idea behind John Milton's biblical tale "Paradise Lost". Despite the title of the film being changed, Milton and Paradise Lost were still referenced in the film... hence the joke.... anyways- on to this long winded review:

 

I pride myself as a fan of the Alien Franchise- a fan of most Alien films- someone who likes 2 of the Alien Films. Both Ridley Scott's original Alien and James Cameron's subsequent Aliens are prime examples of how a franchise can transcend the confines of the genre that it is placed within. Alien (1979) is a fairly by-the-numbers horror film, the caveat of the film being lumped in to the horror genre (while not subverted) provided distinctive attributes of the world crafted around its premise that served to create not only a feeling of authenticity- but a feeling of realism that translated to genuine suspense and horror.  Aliens (1986), while retaining some of the same ideas and H.R. Geiger designs of its precursor- provided the same premise of Alien while having the approach and execution revamped by James Cameron... and while this film, like the previous, did not subvert the tropes associated with the action/ horror genre- the flawless directing and concise direction of every scene still proves to create a dramatic and intense experience. 

 

Which brings us to Alien: Covenant. Alien: Covenant, I feel, can best be described as a hesitant step backwards. While the debate as to the succession of Covenant in terms of being either a prequel to Alien or a sequel to the spinoff Prometheus is academic- the resulting film appears to be a haphazard slap together of the superficial elements retained from the previous Prometheus guised in nostalgic attempt to distract the audience from the shallowness of the film. Prometheus, while having many (MANY) issues, was still a film with a defined protagonist- thematic elements consistent throughout the film, and posed prominent questions that previous Alien films had not asked, creating a unique experience. Now, despite Prometheus not working as film- it is hard to deny that Prometheus tried harder to stand on it's own in comparison to Covenant, of which the latter seems to merely perpetuate the existence of the franchise as opposed to providing a compelling experience or anything resembling what I would call entertainment.

 

The entire existence of this film seems to serve as a nostalgia fueled 'thrill-ride' aimed at reminding the audience of the highest points of the previous entries of the Alien franchise- this compilation of greatest hits feels entirely undeserving in that the payoff of this film completely misses the set-up that made previous films memorable.Covenant feels like a BlumHouse film lacking any form of (dare I say) wit or intrigue: characters are irrelevant, performances are compelling only to the extent that they're required to be, the premise of the film seems to be lacking any sense of motivation; the 2 hour runtime of the film seems completely unnecessary when the entire third act of the film tells same Alien-on-a-spaceship story that we've all already seen. I find it hard to give the film any minuscule amount of my attention, as the premise seems so contrived that I could have mistaken this film for a mishandled remake of the 1979 Alien before considering it to tell its own "story". Mind you, even James Cameron's Aliens could be considered to be contrived (as it does fundamentally retread some of the same narrative plot points outlined in the original Alien film) however, even admitting that the narrative arc of the film is repetitious in nature- Aliens offered many dynamic characters and set pieces that distinguish it from it's predecessor in many ways. Covenant just seems to struggle with finding it's own identity- it recycles the aesthetic of Prometheus, the plot of Alien, the character deaths of that one horror movie no one bothered to see- until the film ultimately hits its proverbial high point in being a mediocre remake of the original Alien film. 

 

Bafflingly enough, Covenant seems to have a complete misunderstanding of the point of the Alien franchise: Covenant does not understand the purpose of the use of the word "Alien".

In 1979- audiences were introduced to so many things that were Alien- the Derelict, the Space-Jockey, the Face-Huggers... these things were frightening because they were unknown, and the title of the film reflected not only the monster stalking the halls of the Nostromo- but the monster itself was merely a microcosm of the culmination of how the audience is fearful of that which is unknown to them. Covenant gives a rather in-depth backstory and even retrofits it's own explanation to encompass the events of Prometheus- but in doing so- it provides a tangible history to what was previously maliciously foreign... and such explanation only leaves me to wonder to whose benefit was this explanation for? To so explicitly define the undefinable reduces the horrors of the unknown to something far more sterile and scientific which is, in of itself- not scary. Disappointingly, Covenant entertains the notion that people want to know the why instead of just delivering a memorable experience- and creates the same befuddling mistakes that I can only harken to what removed the magic from Halloween by turning the "Scary Murderer" in to an "devil-infused, cursed individual who passes on this evilness via cursing other people and has their own cult following" in Halloween 6 or what turned the idea of a "killer shark" in Jaws to the "brother of the killer shark psychically connected to it's victims and out to avenge it's kin from the previous film" of Jaws: The Revenge. 

 

On a positive note, Michael Fassbender's performance is enjoyable- I just wish that his character arc and actions had not happened off-screen. 

 

No- it's not an inherently terrible film- it's just a waste of time. At this point, hearing about another Alien movie is just as exciting to me as hearing about another Shrek film.

 

3/10

 

[nefilim]

@FN-2187 Thank you. This could have been so much more. All the rumours when it was called Alien : Paradise Lost ... then it became this. I love Prometheus even with it's troubles.