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Alien: Covenant

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#1 Morgan

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Posted 24 May 2017 - 07:43 PM

So I went to see Prometheus 2: Tokyo Drift, was pleasantly surprised by most of it. (I had been, like a crazy person, rewatching Prometheus every couple of months expecting it to start making sense, and searching for clues for why those people held actual positions on that ship. I had concluded that they were all suffering, decades later, from the effects of the Trump presidency in the early 21st century that made them all incompetent and spazzy).

 

But Prometheus 2: Tokyo Drift was actually pretty good. It was like a mulligan that Ridley Scott got from the studio. They called him in and said -- I have the transcript here actually:

 

- Okaaaaay, sit down Scott. Listen, uhh, people are still ripping their hair out on the internet about Prometheus and why those people were in any way qualified to be on that ship in the first place and why they weren't too impressed by an alien structure on a far off planet to begin with. Sooooo....yeaaahh..... we made some notes and we're sending you back in with the rewritten script and Michael Fassbender, and you're gonna do it right this time, because people are still irate on the internets and are emailing us and leaving voicemails on landlines just bitching about it -- do you wanna listen to some of these voicemails? They're calling us while we're shopping at Whole Foods, and it's just getting to be too much, so you have to do it over.

 

Michael Fassbender carried this movie singlehandedly and like a boss, I think it's safe to say, and the cameo at the beginning was pretty sweet too. Good story that's a tad predictable in places, but the visuals were great. Without giving too much away, there was a certain horror-flick aspect to it that was slightly grindhouse, though I think it may have been a bone that was thrown to the fans. A few people get redshirted by obvious dangers and there are still a few plot holes and some just plain unexplained behavior, but it holds together far better than its prequel.

 

The best part: all the characters, including the one played by Danny McBride, seem like they're supposed to be there and their motivations are easily understood.

 

What was funny personally was the fact that I had just seen "Datalore" for the first time ever (yes) just a few days prior.

 

4 stars out of 5



#2 djc242

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Posted 24 May 2017 - 11:24 PM

Oh man. I had the opposite reaction to this movie. Prometheus had its flaws but I was hooked on the concept of the Engineers and their story. I was really let down with the direction this one took. I'd have rather this been just another story in that world and saved continuing Prometheus for a different film.

Even from a thriller perspective I was never really tense or nervous for the characters. I'm an easy mark for those sudden jerk moments too. So on the basic scare front this one fell flat. I laughed out loud at so many moments when that's not what was intended.

Fassbender had the best moments for sure but also a few of the most cringeworthy.

Opinions = IDIC I guess. :)

#3 Jay K

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Posted 25 May 2017 - 12:19 AM

Alien is the only other 'universe' I love as much as Star Trek. They're polar opposites, but equally gorgeous, and vast. My favourites are Alien and Alien 3's assembly cut (the cast makes Alien 3 for me, love them all too much - the actors that is!), followed by Aliens.

Resurrection I put into a different category, the same one as AvP and AvP Requiem - jokey/comic-book-come-real. I don't mind watching them, but I freely admit they're generally awful.

 

Then we come to Prometheus and Covenant. My opinions on both can be summed up quite easily:

I find the crews to be too unrealistic. Alien and Aliens had actors who perfectly fit the bill for their roles, and wrote them incredibly well, and dare I say it, for adults - not teenagers (same for Alien 3 but they were prisoners, and I'm comparing ship crews here). Prometheus had some decent characters, and some characters that felt more caricature-y than they should've been. However, if they were written to be believable, there'd be no problem for me. Covenant's crew just didn't do it for me though. In no way did they feel like what I'd expect the crew of humanity's first deep-space colonisation vessel to be like. If it were a tug like the Nostromo? Maybe. But they just didn't feel real in that way.

Idris Elba and his two guys were a great exception to this in Prometheus though, they were brilliant (him and the two pilots of the Prometheus I mean).

Both films excel in one area, and that's beauty. I could watch them again and again for this reason, and it's the only real connection to the earlier films. Although nothing will top Ron Cobb and Syd Mead's designs overall, these do an amazing job of bringing the feel of those designs up to modern day standards. That being said, I much prefer Alien: Isolation's art style to these two films.

The saviour of both films - Michael Fassbender. Ash and Bishop have definitely met someone who's an equal to how great they were, with David and now Walter.

 

I could very easily accept these films into the Alien canon no problem, but that depends on one thing from Covenant:

Spoiler

 

Their scores are both amazing as well, even if Covenant's is almost a re-use of Jerry Goldsmith's Alien work! The main theme from Prometheus by Harry Gregson-Williams is something I still hum to myself from time to time:

 

Spoiler

 

The Neomorphs are a great addition to the series, and would be a quite believable penultimate step, before the Xenomorphs were brought into existence.

 

Basically, these two are to Alien/Aliens/Alien 3, what JJ nu-trek is to the Star Trek I grew up on. However...they're my guilty pleasure in that way, and I still love them. The writing may be dumb in some places, but Michael Fassbender is in them they're not as radically different from the originals as the Kelvin-verse films are from old Trek.

 

As a random aside, if you both (or indeed anyone else) haven't played Alien: Isolation, I'd strongly suggest you do. Never before has a game captured the look, feel and quality of its source material so well. ;)



#4 Gothneo

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Posted 25 May 2017 - 10:59 AM

So... I was disappointed with Prometheus... most because of the asinine behavior of the characters... and the lack of cohesion... you just didn't care who lived or died. All that aside... the rest of the premise was solid IMO... and its a gorgeously shot movie.

 

Covenant attempts to fix some of the issues from Prometheus by giving us characters that care.. in some respects for their crew mates... but they still all do really really dumb and asinine things that just made me roll my eyes and sigh.

 

Basically I felt the 1st act was solid. good setup, solid character development, and the reasoning and rationale generally worked to get them to  the planet. After they arrive, it starts sliding downward... and they end up destroying many of the good aspects setup by Prometheus.

 

My final analysis... this movie made me enjoy Prometheus more... and I rank Prometheus as the better of the two. 



#5 Jay K

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Posted 06 June 2017 - 06:59 AM

So, having seen the film a second time, and having had time to mull over the story and read up on all the (amazing) differences in the novelised version, I'm posting this here:

https://www.ipetitio...kamp-for-alien5

 

I confess, I usually hate these sort of petitions because 99% of the time they don't lead anywhere, but if there's any small thing that could help get this project green lit again, then I'm all for it.

 

Finding out that with some certainty that it was Ridley Scott himself who got Fox to drop this project is really disheartening. Neill Blomkamp's films have been a mixed bag I know - highs and lows, but the concept art he showed for his revised version of Alien 3 is something I'd honestly love to see. It immediately instilled the same feeling within me, as seeing concept art for a final TNG movie would, especially if it showed the Enterprise-E docked at DS9 for example.

Anyway, just thought I'd share for anyone else who's willing to believe in something that will never happen! :(

 



#6 Whirlygig

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Posted 07 June 2017 - 11:01 AM

I never had a problem with Prometheus.  In fact, I like it, while still having some issues with it, because it is different from the other films and therefore was inherently fresh in some sense.  Covenant felt effectively like more of the same, bringing nothing new with it, so, it seemed pointless.  The climactic "battle" scene was also a bit of a let-down.

 

They've taken the whole "perfect organism" thing too far.  It was a nice, eery line, originally, which demonstrated that to some people, a chaotic, destructive force is a beautiful thing and perhaps arguably the essence of all life anyway.  But to try and amp it up into the central tenet of the entire mythology is going overboard.  They're really no more demonstrably "perfect" than any other predator, including man (man is obviously more perfect since he is harder to fool), and, their life cycle / evolution seems to be getting a bit crazy (to be honest, it was from the beginning, but we put up with it because it was cool).

 

The most interesting thing about the new films is David / Walter.  I'd watch a movie just about those two.  I'd have liked this movie more if they had been allowed to occupy more screen time together.

 

I can't help but feel angered now and then that the mysterious, gigantic space jockey was reduced in both mystery, and, apparently (to my senses) size.  "Flight suit" my a$$, that original creature was meant to look more like fossilized/decomposed, organic, partially skeletal remains of some creature potentially even more terrifying than the Xenomorph.  We were meant to feel like "if this thing could burst out of THAT thing's chest and kill it, we have no hope".  Prometheus robbed all that away from the poor space jockey.



#7 Gothneo

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Posted 07 June 2017 - 11:08 AM

I never had a The only problem I had with Prometheus...

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.

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... We were meant to feel like "if this thing could burst out of THAT thing's chest and kill it, we have no hope".  Prometheus robbed all that away from the poor space jockey.

 

Fixed that for ya!  :roflmao:



#8 Whirlygig

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Posted 07 June 2017 - 11:16 AM

Lulz...I noticed that as I hit post.  But that isn't the *only* problem, and still, I sweep all of them under the rug when out in public to wear my "Prometheus is a decent film" face.



#9 Gothneo

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Posted 07 June 2017 - 05:36 PM

I knew what you meant... was just fun'in you!







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