Alien: Covenant - 2017 - Ridley Scott

[gizmo1990]

13 hours ago, Vorgot said:

We've got 2 more slices of this crap to watch.

 

I’m not sure that’s going to happen now is it? Last I heard, Ridley wasn’t getting his other films due to the utter bombing of this one.

[c-cat114]

I kind of hope we do get one more film. I hate what Ridley's doing to the universe but I do want to know what he had in mind to follow on from Covenant's ending. 

[Hanzo the Razor]

28 minutes ago, c-cat114 said:

I kind of hope we do get one more film. I hate what Ridley's doing to the universe but I do want to know what he had in mind to follow on from Covenant's ending. 

 

I want to know what he had in mind before the poor reaction to Prometheus. I'm sure this dogs dinner of a film is a reaction to that more than anything.

[c-cat114]

10 hours ago, Hanzo the Razor said:

 

I want to know what he had in mind before the poor reaction to Prometheus. I'm sure this dogs dinner of a film is a reaction to that more than anything.

 

Well. Yeah. But regardless this is set up with either the bleakest of ends with only one possible outcome or a hell of a cliffhanger. I suspect, seeing the next one, I'll be as disappointed with the journey as I have been with the last two.... But Alien remains my favourite film ever so at least he hasn't ruined that.  

[Alex W.]

The next one will probably be Ridley responding to whatever people superficially didn't like about this one, probably cutting down David and the body horror and monsters because the flute thing and medbay scene didn't go over well, while continuing to double down on his personal bargain basement Ancient Astronauts lore that is the real problem.

[womblingfree]

This was probably the worst Alien franchise film I’ve seen. Well, apart from all the others that aren’t Alien or Aliens. It’s pretty close to the bottom though.

 

I was very surprised it was written, at least in part, by the guy that did Blade Runner 2048, which is brilliant.

[JoeK]

There was a very small 'should I watch it or not' on a friends FB page, and I went into a fairly major (and wholly over the top) rant about why he really shouldn't.

 

I then had a small moment and thought maybe I should just try it out once more and make sure I wasn't being unfair in my appraisal of the film.

 

So, I put it on again this afternoon.

 

Nope - I was right. It really is one of the most appalling things to have been made. It is absolutely the worst kind of bollocks, and one that in other countries would have had Ridley Scott taken around the back and shot for crimes against humanity.

 

Words cannot express how much I think this film sucks, and how low Scott has fallen in my estimations.

 

 

[c-cat114]

I sort of agree... But that's more how I feel about Prometheus than Covenant.  Covenant had some likeable characters, sort of, and there were a couple of sequences that I vaguely enjoyed. Prometheus I get far more worked up about with the exception of the caesarean scene which at least felt fitting to the universe. 

 

Its still terrible though. Just slightly less terrible imo. 

[kerraig UK]

2 hours ago, JoeK said:

There was a very small 'should I watch it or not' on a friends FB page, and I went into a fairly major (and wholly over the top) rant about why he really shouldn't.

 

I then had a small moment and thought maybe I should just try it out once more and make sure I wasn't being unfair in my appraisal of the film.

 

So, I put it on again this afternoon.

 

Nope - I was right. It really is one of the most appalling things to have been made. It is absolutely the worst kind of bollocks, and one that in other countries would have had Ridley Scott taken around the back and shot for crimes against humanity.

 

Words cannot express how much I think this film sucks, and how low Scott has fallen in my estimations.

 

 

Ridley Scott is possibly the worst film maker on planet earth. If we're talking resources available vs final product. Maybe Luc besson can challenge him. But damn, if ever there was someone who did not know how to make a good film with millions of dollars, Ridley is that guy.

[Mr Cochese]

I reckon I could give him a run for his money on that.

[b00dles]

Ridley doesn't know how to pick good scripts or realise one is bad I think. I did like the Martian but the last one before that which I thought was good is American gangster which was 07.

 

He's still got an amazing eye and production design and all the technical stuff but the actual film/ story/ plot side of things have been so weak recently it's a shame.

[Vorgot]

2 hours ago, b00dles said:

Ridley doesn't know how to pick good scripts or realise one is bad I think. I did like the Martian but the last one before that which I thought was good is American gangster which was 07.

 

He's still got an amazing eye and production design and all the technical stuff but the actual film/ story/ plot side of things have been so weak recently it's a shame.

I think this is exactly it. And there is no consistency with the writers across the Alien movies, it's all just become a bit of a mess.

 

I loved the book of The Martian and thought the film was a great adaptation. Give Scott the right material and he makes a film look amazing. But you can only polish a turd so much.

[JoeK]

2 hours ago, Vorgot said:

I think this is exactly it. And there is no consistency with the writers across the Alien movies, it's all just become a bit of a mess.

 

I loved the book of The Martian and thought the film was a great adaptation. Give Scott the right material and he makes a film look amazing. But you can only polish a turd so much.

 

I'm just thoroughly amazed at how anyone thought that the script for Covenant was in any way good at all though? I'm more than happy to accept various lapses in logic that films do sometimes have to take to make things enjoyable, but there's literally nothing in this godforsaken wreck of a movie that works in any way, shape or form. 

 

Witness the merry landing onto a new planet where everyone just gets out without any helmets or protective gear on. I mean, I can't go into my bloody warehouse at work without wearing a hi-viz jacket, so I wouldn't have thought beyond the realms of logic to just play things a little bit safe and suit up.

 

I was also most upset to note that when the actual 'alien' gets born (the one that looks most like the traditional ones at least), that it didn't do some sort of merry little dance as he stood up and looked at the Lawrence of Arabia stand-in. All I could think of was that bit in Spaceballs with the alien in the top hat, exiting stage right.

 

It's so rare I get actually upset at these things - literally, I'll watch most things and get derive some sort of pleasure out of it - but Covenant is just so bad.

[luth714]

Despite Covenant being truly awful - I felt it was basically a big budget version of an Alien/ Aliens knock off, say something from New World in the early 80s - my mind has wondered what Scott would have planned as the next storyline and as we're (thankfully) being denied it I guess we'll never know.

 

I'd completely forgotten that it had to tie in to Alien, but I imagined something where David raises a new colony of humans who have no guidance except from him and he creates a society to worship and fear his creation....which would tie back into the original religious pyramid from the original Alien script, where there would be some sacrificial (perhaps chosen?) to become impregnated and keep David's creation(s) alive.

 

Being that we'd probably only be a few years from the timeline of Alien it might have to be all he's raised are kids, so think Mad Max with his Lost Boys but willingly giving themselves to the facehuggers.

 

No idea how you'd go from this to the end of Alien - perhaps the Engineers tracked him down and wanted their revenge on him and his new society, but underestimate his weapon which leads to engineer crash landing on LV-426.

 

I don't know why my mind fills itself with this malarkey instead of more important things...

[Hexx]

If Aliens didn't exist until the the "future" of Covenant, how did they happen in present time Aliens vs Predator (or flashbacks to the olden times)? 

 

[SpagMasterSwift]

Time travel

[Mr Cochese]

Different films.

[Spacehost]

30 minutes ago, Hexx said:

If Aliens didn't exist until the the "future" of Covenant, how did they happen in present time Aliens vs Predator (or flashbacks to the olden times)? 

 

We'll never know as no-one has ever been dumb enough to make an AvP movie.

[schmojo]

I enjoyed this as a bit of daft rubbish. Largely because now the Alien films, for me, are mostly just breathtaking production design showcases glazed with silly character decisions. There's nothing quite like the megalithic architecture they come up with - and having just watched Prometheus (after attempting to several years ago), I was thrilled to see some unused Giger stuff from Dune.

 

I do wish that Ridley Scott hadn't insisted on quoting his old films ALL THE FUCKING TIME. Maybe it was the studio who wanted it or something, but I'm sure I counted at least callback lines from the original trilogy.

[RubberJohnny]

From Indiewire via AV Club and Empire Magazine

 

Quote

As part of Empire Magazine’s special “Alien” anniversary issue (via AV Club), the publication confirmed screenwriter John Logan, who co-wrote “Alien: Covenant” with Dante Harper, has already finished writing “Awakening” and the film is now waiting to be made. Empire even spilled the beans on the next sequel’s plot.

Following the events of “Covenant,” in which it was revealed the android David (Michael Fassbender) caused a genocide on the planet Paradise that wiped out the Engineer population, “Awakening” would find a group of Engineers who survived the mass murder making it their mission to exact revenge and kill David. The Engineers were first introduced in “Prometheus” and are humanity’s forerunners. The fight was expected to bring both parties to LV-426, the planet featured in Scott’s original “Alien” where Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley first encountered the Xenomorphs.

The plot description for “Awakening” indicates Scott was planning to bring the entire franchise full circle with his next installment. Whatever went down in the battle between Fassbender’s David and the remaining Engineers would probably give rise to the Xenomorph population Ripley eventually encounters.

 

I watched Covenant on a plane and it was awful

[monkeydog]

48 minutes ago, RubberJohnny said:

I watched Covenant on a plane and it was awful

 

"Get these xenomorphs of of my GOD DAMN plane!"

[Mr Cochese]

They can’t make a new one - I’m still busy pretending this one doesn’t exist!

[Treble]

It's horrible when a franchise is rebooted, cobbled together from old scripts, and even worse when THAT film's sequel is so devoid of any quality whatsoever that you want to cry. 

 

...but enough about the Jurassic World franchise... 

[Talvalin]

6 hours ago, Treble said:

It's horrible when a franchise is rebooted, cobbled together from old scripts, and even worse when THAT film's sequel is so devoid of any quality whatsoever that you want to cry. 

 

...but enough about the Jurassic World franchise... 

 

If you're trying to suggest that Jurassic World was anywhere near as bad as Prometheus, then what the actual fuck? It was dumb and a retread for sure, but nowhere near Prometheus-level awful (I haven't watched the Jurassic World sequel to judge it, but Covenant set a really really fucking low bar)

[Spacehost]

21 hours ago, RubberJohnny said:

From Indiewire via AV Club and Empire Magazine

[Stig]

8 hours ago, Talvalin said:

 

If you're trying to suggest that Jurassic World was anywhere near as bad as Prometheus, then what the actual fuck? It was dumb and a retread for sure, but nowhere near Prometheus-level awful (I haven't watched the Jurassic World sequel to judge it, but Covenant set a really really fucking low bar)

 

Jurassic World 2 is even dumber than Prometheus

[Treble]

Yup, and although Prometheus and JW1 battle it out for which has the worst script (spoilers: it's Prometheus) at least the Ridley Scott film looks very pretty.

 

It's all a cow's opinion anyway, as they are both garbage. 

 

EDIT: not referring to anyone in this thread, but I find it amazing the knots people twist themselves in to defend an entry into a franchise they worship. Yes, we all love Alien and Jurassic Park, but it doesn't prevent their legacyquels being still-burning tyre fires. Describing the horrors that are the new Alien and JW-universe films as anything more than extremely poorly plotted, edited, scripted and directed is - quite frankly - extreme denial.

 

Expensive to hire and pleasant to watch actors soften the blow, as does the wonderful effort the costume and set departments put in to making these worlds convincing and visually arresting (the CGI folks too, to an increasingly lessened extent) but it's window dressing for offensive mediocrity. Rant fini!

[probotector]

I don’t think I’ve ever been more hyped for a film than Prometheus. It still had so many things that could have made it amazing.

 

in the end the whole thing just felt like Coke Zero.

 

It looks amazing. But doesn’t have that zing.

[ZOK]

It doesn’t even look amazing. It looks like an Aliens version of the BMX Bandits.

[Alex W.]

It looks amazing in a travelogue sort of way. I think the trailer had a lot to answer for. It really did a great job of selling the movie as all-out sci-fi body horror which very obviously wasn't what Scott had made. It's possible that it was meant to be more horror-oriented and Scott found the current Indiana Jones in the 25th Century version in rewrites/reshoots/editing but I find that hard to believe.