Alien: Covenant (REVIEW) | Projector | In a cinema, everyone hears you scream in frustration
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- Опубліковано 17 тра 2017
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Film Brain is furious with Ridley Scott's continuation of Prometheus, that's so damaging to the Alien series it makes that look better in retrospect...
#Alien #AlienCovenant #Prometheus #RidleyScott #KatherineWaterston #MichaelFassbender #GuyPearce #BillyCrudup #JamesFranco #DannyMcBride #Alien1979 #DemianBirchir #NoomiRapace - Фільми й анімація
Am I the only one who thinks that an Alien film does NOT need an Ellen Ripley clone character?
Alien Isolation had a Ripley clone as an antagonist, so you might have a point there.
Does the daughter of Ripley count as a clone of Ripley?
I mean its really just genetics at this point :P
No, I meant Marlow.
One of the beautiful things about the original is that you don't even know that Ripley is meant to be the main protagonist until later in the film. Up until his death, one assumes that Tom Skerritt is meant to be the "hero", seeing as how he plays the captain who is trying to keep his crew alive, and has the most screen time. Plus, he was already a well-known star in the film industry, whereas Sigourney Weaver was a virtual unknown, who'd only had a bit part in a Woody Allen movie, two years prior. She really doesn't take centre stage until late, when it's just her, Lambert, and Parker (and Jones, the cat) remaining.
No. Even Ripley's actual clone was a horrendous idea. It's the old Hollywood problem: if it worked once, keep repeating it no matter how many times.
Parts that made me and the audience at my showing laugh.
- Slipping on the blood and shooting at the ceiling instead of the alien.
- That "Fingering" comment.
- The dancing mini Xenomorph.
There was so much laughter where I'm sure it wasn't intended.
The baby alien wasn't dancing. It held it's arms out, mimicking David's gesture.
Haha oh yeah, the dancing baby xeno. That was bad. And it's such a shame, because the chestburster scene in Covenant was my favourite scene up until it stood there, like a tiny copy of the adult, dancing. I liked that they chose that piano tune to the scene, it was almost poetic, instead of going with super dramatic tunes. But then then had to do that... thing. Not good.
i feel like you could redo the blood scene by just having her grab the table to hold herself rather than just completly busting her ass
@Cian Abroad Not if the film intends a scene to be scary or serious, then it just looks stupid.
I feel like the biggest fail of both these and the Star Wars prequels are in their reach. Both the original Star Wars and the original Aliens were very simple moves when you really think about.
Star Wars was just a retelling of the hero's quest with space nazi's as the bad guys. Alien was just about a crew of people surviving on board a ship with a monster. Very simple plots.
Both the Star Wars prequels and these Alien prequels try to throw in a lot of philosophy and complexity and explanation of how everything works that simply isn't needed and bogs both prequels series down.
For the Alien films, I agree. But Star Wars, not so much.
When looking at what Lucas was trying to do with the prequels, where it was about the fall of Liberty, Democracy, and the Republic itself, there is a story to be told there that can be simple enough. The problem was that Lucas didn’t know how to tell it.
At this point, it actually makes me a little mad when people talk about "Ridley Scott's Alien". Sure, he had tremendous influence on how the final product ended up, but Scott did not 'invent' the first Alien movie. Many of the cornerstones of that production were established before he was brought on board as director, and even after that a bunch of other talented people did their part to turn it into what it eventually became. This includes the producers reigning everyone in once in a while.
Bringing only the director back 30 years later, letting him do whatever he wants, your shouldn't be surprised that you get something more along the lines of the Star Wars prequels - where basically the same thing happened.
So are you implying he's just a no name guy that happens to just point a camera well?
I guess blade runner, black hawk down and the Martian coulda been and end any old schmuck eh?
@Pfc. Grady Travis "Coon-Ass" Please tone back you language, no one's gonna take you seriously if you swear around like that unprovoked.
The point is simply that something like Alien or Star Wars is not created by one man but often a collaborative effort. Ridley had big influence on the project, but it wasn't him alone. It was merely the criticism that people often forget that. And sure, he can do whatever he wants. But the result is THIS then.
As for Blade Runner, Black Hawk Down and The Martian. All of these are based on popular books that Scott adapted very well (although Blade Runner REALLY drags a lot). He is not some talent less schmuck who only points cameras well, but he is also not that creative genius that can do no wrong.
Atleast I know a lot of people that like the SW prequels
I've been watching TheDukeReport the last few months and Peter Duke has worked in Hollywood for decades. He believes that Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg are actually told what to make in exacting detail by whoever controls things (intelligence agencies, most likely). Peter actually has a lot of stories that support this belief and there's even a book called Kubricon about Kubrick.
I've recently come to the conclusion that most, if not all, conspiracy theory books are also nonsense made up by the powers that be. I just watched Film Brain's Beatdown of Prometheus. It's hard to imagine that the movie could be that badly scripted and planned out if it wasn't done on purpose. Or at least Ridley Scott wasn't actually directing. Unless he's brain damaged from decades of substance abuse or has had a brain injury, how could these two disasters have come from the same director as Alien?
At the very least why wasn't someone, somewhere, steering the ship? Is Hollywood run by people that have no idea about story and no life experience? This is the sense that I get from conspiracy theory books, that they're written by people with limited life experience and who invariably leave all sorts of tells about the books being fake (it's as if they want you to realize it's a lie if you have just a shred of skepticism in you). But this must be done on purpose just like these movies being made badly must be on purpose. Maybe I could see movies being bad because corporations and management are almost always terrible at everything. The pressure and costs and risks and number of people involved are so high that things get messed up. But a conspiracy theory book that purports to tell a true story and is supposedly told by one person shouldn't have the same sense of fakeness about it. But there's the exact same character of inanity about them.
I have a theory about what might be - at least partially - responsible for this "Lucas" phenomenon.
Maybe we overestimate the importance of the director in relation to the team he works in as a whole. Maybe some directors do their best work before they become famous, BECAUSE they don't have solitary control over the movie. They are just *one* part of a bigger process and they are aware of that and respect that.
People approach work differently, when they still have something to prove:
They are more modest and still believe they have things to learn. They are more likely to listen to what other team members have to say.
Once everyone calls you a genius, once you're surrounded by sycophants and by people blinded by admiration, noone will tell you when you had a bad idea.
I think it's a mistake to believe, that a good movie can be achieved by anything but a team effort. That would explain why the same person responsible for a great movie was unable to bring back the magic of the original. Either the team did not work well togehter. Or the team was simply untalented. Or maybe the director had a good team but had too much of an ego to have them do good work.
I'd like to get some feedback on this, btw. What do you think?
I think it makes a lot of sense. I think Scott, like Lucas, is very possessive of his "baby" and he sees this as reclaiming it (he's been on record as disliking everything bar Aliens). Scott is very much the driving force of these new movies, and some of their existential themes I can imagine as being quite personal to him, but Scott's always been hit or miss as a director and this only goes to show - we just tend to overlook his misses because the hits are so good.
Thing is though, unlike Lucas and Star Wars, Alien was never just his to begin with. The original story was was the brain child of Dan O'Bannon, the man who specifically wanted to create a story that "scared people sexually". And it was Giger who imbued the creature with that exact sort of sexual imagery and symbolism that could convey that fear. Further along, it was other people like James Cameron who fleshed out the mythology further in ways that the original team may not have even considered. Hell, even the shittier entries in the series contributed something (Alien 3 with its quadruped xenomorph).
Treating the franchise like its just Ridley Scott's baby goes against the collaborative element that's always been present in it, and for the studio to hand over the reigns solely to him has already proven its undoing.
a great point
Your theory makes a lot of sense, I wrote something related to that on AngryJoes review of the movie:
Watch any documentary of the making of Alien, The two screen writers Dan O'Bannon and Ron Shusett heavily pushed their script, got Ron Cobb and H.R. Giger on board which eventually convinced the studio to hire Ridley Scott to direct the movie.
During the late 70s, the writers had influence, they prowled the sets during the shooting and continually gave their advice, they loved their script, they wanted to see it succeed, I doubt Ridley Scott loved it as much.
Ridley Scott brought good atmosphere and a horror twist, with great direction, but the main parts of the story, the characters being reasonable and trying to solve a problem with the tools at hand, the Alien and it's mysterious origin, all that was the artists and the writers. Ridley Scott is great at directing talented artists and creative writers, but he isn't one of them.
How did people not pick up on the warning signs when Ridley Scott admitted he liked the premise of AVP 2004, and proceeded to copy the creatively bankrupt pseudoscience of Chariots of the Gods, making a god of the gaps lack of imagination argument as the foundation for his movies.
Ridley Scott and the writers of Prometheus and Covenant have no imagination, Space Jockeys are boring humanoids in suits, Alien origins apparently were X-Files black goo and now created by a retarded android(?), filled with boring horror tropes and characters showing the amount of thought that went into writing them in their actions.
What's funny is that apparently Aliens was almost only by James Cameron and his wife, documentaries about the making of that tell of him being quite the control freak, dictatorial, and it caused some conflict on sets.
He's a weird one, he did cheapo movies with Roger Corman, then on a very small budget made Terminator, and then the studios gave him full control to make Aliens, and he did the scripts, all sorts of story boards, concept art, cool practical effects and stunts he learned whilst on tight budgets etc.
I'm not sure if I'd trust modern day James Cameron though with an Alien(s) sequel, but at least one can pinpoint in Aliens a single creative source. Alien was a collaboration and sometimes the writers had to struggle to get their opinions heard, because studios don't usually like their voice in the creative process.
What you say makes sense. I am, admittedly, not that into Alien as I should be (I'm checking out these reviews to see if I should go and see it, thanks for saving me some money, Matthew!), but as someone who is studying English Lit at the moment, I understand the value of having dissenting voices. Obviously, there are going to be times where you should stick to your guns, or at the very least, try and reach a compromise, but having people who can raise problems with what you're doing can be very helpful.
Now obviously, I don't have the experience of working on a movie. Perhaps then, it is completely different. After all, sometimes movies that bring back the same people who made it so successful have failed badly to recapture the magic. But it also doesn't help how much the hype machine goes into action. Ridley Scott returning to the Alien franchise for the first time since the original? That's hype that can go to a man's head. Same for Lucas with regards to the Star Wars Prequels (Even if, admittedly, they were what got me into the franchise to begin with, and I still have a soft spot for them.) And taking into account that Scott is credited, rightly or wrongly, with being in charge of a movie that changed the direction of an entire genre forever....yeah, your theory sounds quite plausible.
The poster for this movie was more faithful to the series' routes than the _actual_ movie. I'm not even kidding, it's an amazing tribute to H. R. Giger. Speaking of H. R. Giger, anyone else excited for Scorn?
Personally, the scenes with David and Walter were some of my favourite in the entire film. Hell, Michael Fassbender really redeems most of the movie for me.
Haha, did you also like the "fingering" scene?
Call me stupid, but yes, I did. Mainly because I was really unaware of the implications behind it.
I liked him as Walter, but I hate where they went with David. He became a hammy cartoon villain, even spouting one liners when he was throwing Walter around. He was so obviously unhinged that it made it unbelievable for me that anyone from the Covenant crew would trust him for even a second.
Fassbender is mostly good in the performance he's asked to give, it's just that the material is poor, and his director didn't really help him put a lid on it.
OK, I'll agree with you there. The fight scene between David and Walter was bloody stupid, but up to that point, I quite liked the relationship between the pair of them. And I gotta say I liked how they portrayed David in this film.
Danny Quinn he's really the best character out of this whole mess.
I am glad someone else is talking about the horrendous CGI; it really was distractingly bad.
Christopher Weir its insane that the first two movies' aliens from almost 40 years ago look so much more real and alive then the shiny wet cgi things in this.
It was shockingly bad. It's been a while since I've seen these levels of special effects failure in a major studio release.
It felt like I was watching a video game...a horrendously bad video game at that! The scene of it on the drop ship (which they even used for the film's poster) was laughably bad.
I didnt notice this in the cinema but HOLY SHIT, did parts of the alien CGI at 2:30 just go straight through the floor and NOT through the actual hole in the ground???
Great spot!
Man, this sounds like a real chore to sit through. I'm thinking I'll just use the $15 I would have spent on this to get Aliens off of iTunes and have a double feature w/the original.
I’m just pissed off that Shaw got nixed. She was a great character and deserved better.
Just got out of the Theater. Disappointed. The movie got boring several times for the reasons mentionned in this review. Very interesting review. I'm done with new Alien movies. Beautiful CGI and photography is just not enough. What a waste of money.
qwertz asdfgh They want visuals to blind us of story and characters
Exactly, that's what I thought.
I totally agree with the CGI. When the first baby came out of that guys back, I was immediately taken out of the movie... the CGI was so bad! But yeah... I was kind of hoping the androids were the main characters, not the woman, because... they are. Walter is basically the main character of this movie which made it interesting for me to see if he would really protect the crew or not.
David is the midichlorians of the Alien franchise. The answer to a question nobody was asking about the origins of an otherwise mysterious entity.
When you say it like that ... god damn it.
Andrew Welter oh man. The sad part is, I actually adore David purely on Michael Fassbender's performance. He's so captivating and the most unique, fully realized character of Prometheus. But jeez if Ridley Scott didn't screw that all up with trying to give idiotic "answers"
Yeah it is certainly not Fassbender's fault he is great as David. It is just sad the David character has inhabited to awful scripts.
Right. I'm not blaming Fassbender. But his character has taken this mysterious alien race and turned it into David the Murder-Bot and Friends.
And it's especially egregious because NOBODY mentions him in the rest of the franchise.
Well, it is also bizarre that a character that demonstrated an obvious affinity for human cultural achievements (music, cinema and literature) is supposed to see the Xenomorphs as literally 'perfect'
Ridley Scott had nothing to do with the original script or Xenomorph design. That was all Dan O'Bannon and H.R. Geiger. Ridley is just a visual stylist, that's all. Give him a good script and he can direct a good movie. But he really has no clue about storytelling or suspense or characters... All those elements in the original film were no thanks to him. Plus the limitations of the original alien suit made it impossible to SHOW the creature much, making it much scarier! The more you show it, especially in glorious CGI, the less scary it becomes!
Funny how practical effects limitations actually created the best part of the original, which I re-watched for the first time in twenty years after suffering through Covenant. The xenomorph has at most two minutes of screen time, and the whole adage "Less is more" is masterfully used. The 1979 original still holds up and grips you by the throat, even when you've seen it a bunch of times and know what's coming. There was absolutely no suspense in Covenant at all. Everything was telegraphed, which made it as boring as the annoyingly dumb characters who serve as nothing but xeno fodder. Heck, even though Aliens was meant to be an action flick, there was still tons of suspense. Example: Right before the final battle, when Hudson is motion-tracking the Xenos and they're getting closer...and closer..."That can't be, that's inside the room"...then they slowly look up at the ceiling and the entire audience's heart stops. And when Hicks does see them, the swarm is only on screen for a split second before all hell breaks loose. Following the Covenant format, you would have seen tons of crappy CGI xenos crawling into the air ducts and ceiling well beforehand.
*sigh* At least we have "Alien: Isolation". Easily the best thing to happen to the franchise in recent years, between all the blunders like "Colonial Marines" or "Covenant". -_-
You mean "opening doors" the game?
@@WarlockX4 Opening doors was never so thrilling! Seriously, though, I love that game.
So is it bad to say that Ridley Scott has now become the George Lucas of the Alien franchise judging by the polarizing reception of the prequels starting with Prometheus and now Alien: Covenant? I am not looking forward to the other upcoming Alien prequels that Scott has planned judging by these two.
Lycosyncer Aliens Franchise died when Alien 3 came out. This franchise is now about philosphical bullshit about creation of the Xeno,Neno,Proto, Neutros,and Atoms flippy floppy shit. Ridley Scott put so much icing on his cake that it has lost relevance and quality of the cake. This is why Predators and Aliens franchises need to just die already. This isn't the 80s anymore😐😐
Judging by how David Fincher treats Alien 3 as the black sheep in his filmography, I am sure that he wouldn't mind having someone retcon that film out of existence because hell, he would have preferred to never acknowledge that film ever again after all of the hell that he went through that troubled production. Hell, I would have preferred Neil Blomkamp's Alien sequel where Newt and Hicks lives and pretend all of the other Alien films set after Aliens don't exist.
As for Ridley Scott? He should have left the Alien franchise alone because these prequels he's pushing on us is not very good at all by answering the questions we don't need answered and when the questions we do want get answered, it just ended up being pretty lame. He really is the George Lucas of the Alien franchise now.
Agreed. Aliens 3 was complete shit!!! I read the trilogy of books of the Earth invasion...basically, the story that would follow Aliens. It was far superior to Aliens 3.
Yeah, everyone would have preferred that than what we actually got for Alien 3! The invasion of Earth would have been so cool but now, what the hell is Scott trying to do with these prequels?
He's wiping his ass on the franchise. I guess it's his way of telling Hollywood he doesn't want anyone else to touch his baby: smear shit all over it to get people to run to the hills to avoid the stench.
When he said "I'm a man of faith", I was like, that's 1 fact I know about this guy. That's 1 more than I know about any other character. (No, the faith thing never came up again)
Thanks, Film Brain, for confirming my suspicions about COVENANT. I've been a long-time fan of the Alien franchise-- or at least the first 2 Alien films. At this point, the idea has been done to death and I don't think anything more can be milked from it. Giger must indeed be trembling in his grave.
The Alien franchise started off great but then went off the rails trying to reinvent itself in incompatible ways, crossing over with Predators and now have become beautifully shot sci-fi slasher films masquerading as existential art. For me, the Alien universe was once fascinating but now I have to put it away like old comic books I've outgrown.
I think I'll be giving this iteration a miss.
Oh, no... It's Aliens: Colonial Marines the Movie!
that would actually be a better movie
Dont they actually kill the Alien the same way as in the movie in that game?
My favourite bad characterisation moment was when Danny McBride said that he had never heard his wife so scared when all that had happened at that point was that someone had started coughing up blood. Like had she never had to deal with a medical emergency before? Or been trained to expect health issues on an alien world (especially when you wear no protective equipment)?
I agree with this review 100%. The movie was visually stunning but the plot and the behaviour of the characters left a lot to be desired. I did walk away from the cinema at the end of the movie feeling very frustrated. I really wanted to see some answers regarding the engineers and more on Shaw. I'm holding out some hope that some of these unanswered questions are addressed in the next upcoming movie or two. Totally agree with your point on them walking around without spacesuits on and getting contaminated. Should have had a bit more attention to detail in places and the movie would have done so much better.
Film Brain, I have to say you are one of the very best Internet film reviewers. Extremely well reasoned reviews from a guy who clearly understands the art of film making. I'm not going to see 'Covenant'. I don't need to see an Alien re-make shoved into a reduced sequel to 'Prometheus' to know that there is no master plan with the prequels beyond extending the franchise for the sake of the studio's finances/marketing strategy. Scott is an exceptionally talented visual film maker and visual stylist with a very mixed filmography, but his main concern has never been story.
why is this movie named "Alien"? it should be named "The David Show" horrible movie don't waste your money
David Horror Picture Show ?
TheMad Mexican or how bout just 'Robot'.
Because all the older Alien films are about the Aliens, not David.
I haven't watched the film, but I know that David dropped the black goo on the Engineer city and from there he begins to experiment and that results the "neomorph", at least if I recall right. Remember in Prometheus they found the carving of the alien queen with the green crystal? What was that shit about? Clearly xenomorphs had to exists prior to David's experiments, so I'm confused how they are trying to "explain the origin"
(Something nobody wanted, but Scott doesn't seem to care)
Mate397 The xenomorphs already existed before the characters in Prometheus. You can hear the ginger dude saying, when he and his friend find the bodies next to a door, that something burst out of their chests. Watching the film, it's obvious they managed to create Xenomorphs, but they truned on them. Perhaps David is recreating what the Engeneers did.
Nope. Sorry, I wish that were how David being the creator could be handwaved off as not actually being the case - however, in Covenant it is clearly stated David 'perfected' the classic model aliens out of the backburster/hybrids created by the airborn goo.
Scott has given interviews where he admits the engineers were originally going to have created the aliens, but he changed his mind when it occurred to him it would be 'more interesting' if David did it.
rockheimr God damnit, Ridley Scott! Why didn't he just continue what he was doing in Prometheus? There are still a lot of people that like that film and if he continued the story and awnsered some questions, people who didn't like Prometheus would probably like if concepts were explored.
Good God, how is it that Alien Covenant actually made me appreciate what Prometheus either got right or was at least trying to do?
Ryan Robotham yup
Ryan Robotham I found Prometheus moderately enjoyable however after Covenant All Good Will towards that movie is gone Ridley Scott should be flogged for this abomination
Even though I enjoyed watching _Covenant_ in the cinema with my Pops (who enjoyed it as well, which makes me happy that *_he's_* happy), but there was another part of me that was thinking, "Wow, they really stopped giving a f*ck, didn't they?"
Thank you! Excellent review of this film, your critiques are spot on. When others ask me to explain why I was so disappointed with Alien Covenant, I'll just refer them your review as you've detailed it much better than I could have.
Ridley doesn't understand what made the original movie so good. Prometheus annoyed me enough with how mundane it made the space jockey design, making it just a guy in a flight suit. But what it does with the Xenomorph origin in Covenant is unforgivable! Stepping on the toes of Alien far too much. Destroying everything that was mysterious and intriguing in Alien.
Yeah but in Prometheus they took off their helmets, A guy got lost despite making the map, didn't want to bring guns, a guy who's afraid of dead aliens but wants to play with a live obviously aggressive one. Oh and lets not forget the genius idea of waking up the last engineer, or how about opening the door for a guy who's supposed to be dead without checking the security cameras who then proceeds to kill half the crew. Also Vickers not understanding the concept of lateral movement and the "I believe It's an invitation" BS despite not having one bit of evidence to back that up. Oh and the whole peter weyland hiding in cryosleep for like literally no reason.
Also I want to make this clear the Xenomorph was NOT in the film the alien in this was called the Protomorph it's like a step away from the Xenomorph. Also the explanation to me at least was vague enough to interpret it as David 8 was merely rediscovering something was already there. My evidence for this is the Space Jockey in the original Alien it was fossilized meaning it predated this film by centuries yet the Alien eggs where fully evolved to the monster we all know and love David didn't create the Alien he just thinks he did.
Both films were awful.
Here's a radical idea: Alien should've never become a series. Aliens was a fluke, 3 could've been great but wasn't and it only went downhill from there.
This desperate origin story was doomed after like 30 minutes of Prometheus and I have little hope for the wrap up of it.
I also have zero hope for the Blomkamp movie that desperately wants to retread the Ripley story, that already had four more or less perfectly fine endings, yet again.
That movie's been shut down.
Holy shit you're right! I completely missed the reports from earlier this month.
Well, I think that might be for the best. Maybe let the entire franchise rest in well deserved peace, though I'm afraid it's gonna catch rebootitis in like a decade.
I guess to be fair to Blomkamp, retconning Alien 3 was the best chance IF you're desperate to keep the franchise alive. Or how about movies/a series that focuses on the fictional world and sinister company politics rather than the monster?
Nah, better let it all die.
Honestly, I had doubts over Neill doing Alien 5, since I had issues with Elysium and Chappie, but considering how Covenant turned out I would rather have watched that movie instead. At least I think we would've gotten something a bit more interesting and not as dumb as Prometheus or Covenant.
I love your eloquent commentary. Your reviews improve my ability to express myself in english.
Excellent review Mathew! You have some of the best intelligent movie reviews on UA-cam 😎
Hi. This is a friendly reminder to everyone that Ridley Scott’s involvement with the Alien series has been greatly exaggerated over the years. Scott did not kickstart the original. He was a last minute replacement for Walter Hill.
It sounds like Scott let the praise go to his head. As if he wanted to expand upon this universe but didn't want to alienate the fans and inserted shot for shot recreations and homages of one of his greatest works purely for the fanservice.
I'm working on my portal gun to transport myself into an alternate universe where Neill Blomkamp's Alien Film happened instead.
I remember deciding to buy the movie, having avoided all spoilers and reviews, and then deciding whether to get the cheap DVD or more expensive BluRay, and thinking: It's Alien and Ridley Scott, how could that go wrong. Went for the DVD anyway. And glad I did.
To me, this is a writing disaster. The writer seems to have had no formal training or experience in this field, making so many basic mistakes, like introducing a character.
And Why didn't Scott do anything about? Surely a director of his stature could've flown in a script doctor or heck, insist a complete rewrite.
It's sooooo comforting as a major fan to hear that the Alien franchise now has it's own equivalent to the Star Wars Prequels -__-
in 10 years you'll see articles about how prometheus and covenent were misunderstood and not that bad
Or in 5-8 years you'll see detail-by-detail reviews of them that are over an hour longOH Wait Film Brain's already done the first one of those. Get the Pizza Rolls ready Matthew.
"In fact Neil Blomkamp should have directed Covenant, and Ridley Scott should have directed people to their seats in the theatre." - rim shot
Bob Tipping Kinda like how critics at first said the original alien was bad then over the years they called it a classic.
I actually have a new appreciation for the prequels. But only because recent events have shown how scary accurate they were is showing how a madman rises to power.
Truly incredible - EXACTLY my point: the source of the Alien being terrifying is not knowing what is is and where it comes from. IT'S A FUCKING ALIEN! This also makes you look differently at the world: if the Alien exists, what else can be out there? It's about mystery, terror and a warning.
It's actually unspeakable that Scott doesn't acknowledge that. It's painful and extremely egoistic from him, what he has done with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. He made one of the best movies in cinema history - and now he's forcing us to ignore his other movies to still enjoy it.
Great as always, why do you still have so few subs!? Brian you are amazing.
The ending seriously pissed me off, it was SO obvious that i was left flabbergasted by the end credits that they actually did it. I convinced myself and was initially relieved beforehand that they wouldn't be so dumb to do it...but then...**sigh**
I didn't think it was obvious, but I did spend the beginning of the climax thinking that it could be the case that what happened with David and Walter would turn out the way that it ultimately did. To me, the ending was actually pretty chilling, though that is largely due to the performance that Fassbender gave, which pushed the film up several notches, along with the good writing for David's character.
(SPOILERS) I guessed it pretty much the first moment David appeared. And hoped things wouldn't be so blatant, but was soon resigned to spending an hour waiting for the twist to happen so I could go home.
I'll give the story credit that David still came across as ambiguous in his motives for most of the film, but I can understand it being easy to guess, at least once the Xenomorph becomes more prominent. Though I really should have guessed it based on the opening scene alone (Which genuinely hooked me).
That awkward cut away man (from Walter and David)...it was like they weren't even TRYING to hide it. Also, facehuggers are just as removeable as that ant crawling on your hand now.
There were moments where I was getting Stranger Things and Pitch Black vibes to some degree whilst watching it...this shouldn't be happening in such a seminal franchise.
Yeah, the opening scene with the cryopods is very Pitch Black. The whole switch with Walter/David is so annoying because not only is it telegraphed, they *keep* alluding to it in case you missed it: when David emerges, he has a pause before he goes down that instantly gives it away, and then they have that scene where Daniels staples his cut face, which likely wouldn't be needed on Walter because he seems to have a healing ability (seen when his flute wound heals and he reactivates, because he can suddenly do that now). There's almost no moment where they allow the audience to be fooled.
You’re 100 percent correct. This was a disaster
Fantastic recap Matthew. You've highlighted everything that I found profoundly wrong with this film.
I prefered it when xenomorphs were mysterious.
1. Why did he return (hunger/passion product, a studio paycheck, audience/peer pressure)
2. How similar was the process to his original turn (collaboration, studio input, audience expectations to shoot for)
3. Is he still the same person, or time changed (vision - his or someone elses, mindset same or diff, aged out)
Colonists visit alien planet without wearing their spacesuits...and I'm out.
This may sound weird, but I never thought of the flute scene the way you described it until you brought it up.
The crew in Covenant is even dumber than Prometheus crew. I didn't expect this to be possible...lol
This was sooooooo good. Loved every part of it! It was nice that there was no Ripley facsimile this time, just interesting people.
Thank you Matt !! I appreciate you have a great day.
I know Scott wanted a Prometheus 2 and the studio wanted Alien 5, but maybe don't try to make them both at the same time?
It's a great channel, I really like to watch him. The reviews are always so close to how I think.
Thanks for the vids!
On the CG front, I think the biggest problems were with poor fluid simulations for the blood work. And, secondly, I think your complaint about the fake looking surface materials wasn't the materials per se, but bad subsurface scattering - which is incredibly CPU and time intensive to render. They probably ran out of time and money and just accepted poor results as necessary to get the job done on time and on budget.
But I agree the real problem was with incoherent story, a total lack of continuity with even the previous Prometheus. And also, terrible characterization. Like with Prometheus, you just can't believe the stupid decisions these characters make. They act in ways to service a predetermined plot, not organic to the situation, and it just destroys suspension of disbelief.
One point I'd like to make. Prometheus is assumed to be a reference to the Greek myth, Prometheus stealing fire from the Gods blah blah blah. But there's a real Shelly aspect to this story, that of man creating machine which creates alien that destroys man, which is derived straight from Shelly's Frankenstein. It should be noted the subtitle of that book was, "A Modern Day Prometheus".
But for those who've actually read Frankenstein, they might remember the book spends considerable time through the POV of the monster. A sympathetic perspective. The monster is outcast because he's ugly. Gruesome even. So he faces prejudice by townfolk, who organize a posse against him not for what horrible things he's done but for who he is. And in time he transitions from reasonable and kind even to deadly in self-defense, and finally murderous in revenge. Becoming a true monster only after facing monstrous behavior from so-called civilized man. (you'll notice the same reversal of ethos and role between man and his creation in Spielberg's AI as well) Anyway, the point here is that Shelly's monster has real motivation and a full character arc across the story.
Anyway, in contrast to what these latest Alien films aspire to, through the lens of Shelly, what we see with the monster of Alien is that the Xenomorph has no motivation. Originally, in the first Alien films, the monster had an obvious reproductive motivation. It was organic and visceral. But by turning the Xenomorph into a bio-weapon, created first at the hands of the Engineers and then at the hands of David. (what next, actually it was Colonel Sanders seeking alien acid for KFC special sauce?!?! Don't get any ideas Scott). But this strips the Xenomorph of motivation. Now it's acting out the motivations of its creator. Not its own motivation. And therefore, it has no purpose other than to be a killing machine. Like Jason or Freddy Kruger or whatever. It's become a stand in for evil and thereby has been diminished to the role of character automaton.
I don't think any of the writers saw this gaping conceptual hole in trying to tie the Alien franchise to Frankenstein. And now they've written themselves (and filmed themselves) into a box. It just gets worse and worse with with more this makes no sense, nope, that makes no sense, this all makes no f*cking sense! each iteration.
Anyway, I've written too much here. People hate long comments on UA-cam. But hopefully, you - the video maker - will read it and get something from what I'm trying to say.
When they decided to break course for static that may have resembled music,
when they decided to then investigate the signal, fly down in their ONLY shuttle IN a major plasma storm so bad they knew they would have troubles communicating in a non emergency situation,
when they didn't test the planets air,
when they entered the environment without containment suits,
when there was a crew member who smokes,
when they didn't wear surgical suits gloves or masks let alone sedate the severely ill crew member,
when the doctor despite having blood sprayed on her face locked the other woman in the room to contain whatever it was,
when the tiny alien broke right through the glass with out regard for physics and also grew 4 feet in about 8 minutes,
when low ranking crew members decided to risk 2000+ lives and the entire space craft "orbiting" so close to the surface the plasma storm was shaking the vessel in outer space, to get better reception because they couldn't wait until the storm passed in the first place,
when they got to David's lair and didn't fully explore his research and what he had been doing the entire time,
when it was painfully obvious that David was David and not Walter because they showed Walter healing up injuries immediately and David still had cuts...
Do they not consult anyone for scientific space exploration accuracy or believably, let alone script QA? I mean I'm just a normal idiot, and these things left me in awe of the stupidity of every Weyland employee...
It truly saddens and pains me that the Alien franchise was converted from greatness into mediocrity. Alien and Aliens were fantastic movies. Hell, I wouldn't have minded if Alien Isolation was a movie instead of a game because it's that faithful and dedicated to what Alien is truly about.Not this prequel, Alien 3, A.R., AVP 1&2 bullshit. One to two more movies to go....
Could not agree more. I was mad that I went to go see it in the theater. Literally they spent like what 5 seconds on the engineers?!?! That's it he just goes to the planet and drops the black go and then that's it?!?!?! Wtf
If you could choose one film to excise from canon, but the other would be kept as indisputable canon, which would film would you excise between Covenant and Resurrection?
I could not understand why they landed half the ship in a lake and then elected to walk miles to the ancient complex. They could have landed on the spot (complex) and sent the survey team into the woods to get infected without the long hike. lol
@ 11:01 A reference to Jean Luc Picard's playing his flute in STNG episode "The Inner Light"? I wonder.
Excellent comments. Thank you.
i miss the days when alien was actually scary.
This is the most concise version of this that I've seen, thanks for boiling it down well.
I really like your thoughtful reviews, far more than the exaggerated FilmBrain stuff.
Nailed the problems with this shoddy film. And it is sad, when it could've been so much more. Cheers, fella.
I feel like at this point Ridley Scott is one of those guys where the quality of his movies depends less on him and more on the script he's working with. And the fact that they'd booted Lindelof and brought on John Logan, who has a more consistently solid track record (Gladiator, Last Samurai, The Aviator, Sweeney Todd, Rango, Hugo, Skyfall) gave me hope that this would be an improvement on Prometheus. Sucks to hear that's not the case (at least from what you're saying; I'll see for myself when I get around to seeing it soon).
Great review and excellent points. I think you got a lot of things bang on but I would differ in saying I enjoyed it. I didn't have expectations for this other than the trailer which made it look like a straight forward horror movie and I was hoping it was better than Prometheus. I also would've been happy to just get Ridley visuals, excellent scare scenes and an alien to handle. The ship battle at the end was great I think, as for the rest of it it was okay. It felt like everything was an excuse to make this film but the film didn't really say anything. It just tried explaining things from Prometheus and Alien so it was doing a lot of "clean up" work which I didn't feel it did it particularly well. I DEFINITELY liked it more than Prometheus and its better than Resurrection. It was more entertaining than Alien 3 so I'd say its a tie for third best but I think there is only one true Alien movie and that's the first just like Robocop.
The idea of couples as the crew could have been great!
The part that p!sses me off about this movie is that we were so close to getting Neil Bomkamp’s Alien 5 film (aka Alien 3 soft reboot), which would have seen a new timeline be created where Ellen Ripley, Newt, and Hicks return. But Ridley Scott wanted his prequel series to continue and made sure that didn’t happen.
You nailed it. Merry Christmas!!
The whole "Alien" concept was that of an unknown lifeform that was the apex predator and a menace like no other before it. Its origins were shrouded in mistery, with just scraps of informations you, as the viewer, had to collect while watching the movie. Even then, you kept thinking of the xenomorph as something COMPLETELY alien, mysterious and absolutely deadly. As Ash said: "I admire its purity. A survivor... unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusion of morality." That was the whole point of the xenomorph. A deadly hunter you can't simply reason with. You have to outsmart it.
With Prometheus and Covenant, Ridley Scott basically took away everything that made the Alien franchise so interesting and compelling. The mystery is gone. You know the origin of the species, you know that it was a, forgive my use of the term, fucking android who basically engineered it (and here Covenant basically retcons Prometheus too, with its dumb xenomorph "altar" scene.) Why does the movie industry have this need to go back, take perfectly working franchises and rape them to death instead of try something that fits with the lore and with the original spirit behind what made the movies famous in the first place?
TFA was another gigantic turd, a polished, well-formed turd... but still fecal matter.
Hey Brain, any danger of a Bad Movie Beatoff when the Blu-ray comes out?
We'll see. I wouldn't rule it out.
Gay ain't an insult.
Han Shotfurst Beatdown!
2:00 I agree, I didn't think anything could be worse than Promethious.
10:03 i I think this sums up why i saw the movie as a mixed bag. the idea that walter, the more subservient android is presented as the good one, whereas david, who could be interpreted as taking his human oppressors is portrayed as a monstrous mad scientist, really left a bad taste in my mouth when I walked out of this movie. however the friends that I saw it with brought up the fact that david's villainy can be interpreted as coming from the fact that he's "more human" than walter. in this respect, it stands in contrast to a lot of sci-fi movies which portray the colder, mechanical characters as inherently evil because of their lack of emotion, especially in the alien franchise. so a lot of the philosophical elements of the film can be read differently depending on whether or not you read it textually or metatextually.
that said, having not seen prometheus but watched your review, i agree that covenant has a lot of the same problems. the majority of the characters are shallow, the plot is predictable and formulaic, and the aliens themselves are presented as both fake looking and parody-like.
i enjoyed michael fassbender and katherine waterston's performances in this film, but holy shit that fingering scene. i almost fell out of my seat in the movie theater laughing. beyond the fact that it's another example of the villainous gay stereotype, it is beyond memeworthy.
Lol good point on space suit part. They needed to wear those as they walk outside.
You mentioned Tennessee. Even though I agree with you, he's obviously called Tennessee because there was Dallas in the first Alien, right? And I'd REALLY like to see an interview where Scott comments on this review. Unfortunately, I'm sure he believes he's far to important to care about a UA-cam reviewer, but Brain's review is so on point that he should. I'm sure he is in Shyamalan levels of denial, thinking the audiences and critics that are all evilly in league against him and his "great work", though.
BTW, great review, man! And don't ever think of the first Alien in light of Prometheus and Covenant. They make no sense chronologically. David will have to get his hands on a time machine or Ridley will have to put the Nostromo on at least the year 12.400, as it takes at least 10.000 years for fossilization to occur. I'm sure Ridley, Shuster and O'Banon didn't know that at the time, but I'm also sure it's clear that the original Space Jockey was VERY old, at least many centuries old. And it was NOT an Engineer, it was clearly a completely alien life form that had the bad luck of getting afoul of the xenos by picking up some of their eggs and putting them in their cargo bay - xeno omelets make for a very bad diet! Why do I know that? Because Dallas says it looked like had grown out of the chair, perhaps implying it was an individual engineered to be a ship pilot and nothing else. And that is totally in line with Gigger's biomechanoid aesthetics that prevails in the first movie. One VERY important thing to be kept in mind about ANY piece of fiction is that, as said piece of fiction's universe is NOT real, we MUST take all information provided at face value, unless countered at some point by the SAME fictional text. If we don't do that (what ifs) we're in fact creating a NEW piece of fiction, because there are no what ifs in fiction, because it's not real. What if is as a viable alternative to a single event from a single reality only possible in real life. Like the What if questions. Did the original Ripley have a daughter? We don't and can't know (Aliens is an unplanned sequel written by other people, as such, a completely different piece of fiction), and it's irrelevant to the story because it's not mentioned there. And so on and so forth.
Given the thumbnail I have reasonable suspicions to believe that Film brain is in fact a Xenomorph
Honestly, I found myself just laughing at do much of this movie. It felt like it was a weird parody movie at some points; The two characters slipping on the exact same blood pool to hilarious effect (after grabbing a shotgun and then now running all the way back to grab another shotgun, seriously what was the point of making her get the gun twice), the dancing alien, the lady going ape shit with the shotgun and somehow exploding the entire landing craft as a result, the captain stupidly following the obvious bad guy as he does bad guy things and trusting him when he says the egg is perfectly save even though he's lied with that exact same phrase repeatedly already (I gave up watching for a while at this bit, it was just too much. I expect people in these kinds of movies to hold the idiot ball once in a while but holy shit), the characters repeatedly splitting up to wander around alone despite the obvious danger they're all in (Why couldn't she have cleaned her wounds with the others? Seriously, why did she feel the need to go off alone?), the total lack of quarantine protocols which they explicitly mention as if to say "Haha oh we're stupid", how ham fisted the villain is, the captain who keeps whining about his men not trusting him (For good reason) despite them... Never actually doing much which suggests they distrust him except for asking for a service for their dead friend?
It all just feels like a bad joke.
I look forward to your 2 hour _Bad Movie Beatdown_ review of this film.
Watched the movie yesterday and agree on all points. I'd also mention some bad moment to moment editing, like blood that disappears from someone's face only to reappear later.
They reported that the next Alien movie is called Alien: Awakenings and will be about the story of David and Elizabeth Shaw going to the Engineer's homeworld and cover what actually happened. Although we already know how it ends. I also read that Alan Dean Foster is covering a prequel to Alien Covenant called Alien Covenant - Origins, I think that is the story that is going to cover all of the characters in the film and so on....basically fill up all the gaps in the movie. Due in Sept 2017. Foster already released the Alien Covenant novelization yesterday, so I ordered a copy to see how many of the gaps in the film get filled. Should be interesting.
I believe they wanted to draw out the origins of the aliens to make more movies. there will more than likely be 2 more films I don't know how long from now but they will want to establish the crash landing and the distress signal to link it to Alien and Aliens. Then to further have David plant specimens on other planets to help establish backgrounds for more sequels since resurrection was an awesome movie. The only thing covenant did was set the premise stated above, clarify David being born with super intelligence ( knowing his place in the world and that humans have some nerve ) and explain why the aliens in Prometheus didn't look like it's predecessors nor did they in covenant but he was trying and had 2000 more specimens to try with. I did like it for it's clarification of Prometheus. As a movie itself worst one but necessary.
I honestly don't think the 'fingering' line was meant as a joke, as that's an actual musical term in regards to woodwind instruments. I just think the audience has their head in the gutter. And when David kisses Walter, I think it's more of a foil to when Judas kissed Jesus before he betrayed him.
Going from what I found out about the movie without even seeing it, the reveal of who created the Xenomorphs is midi-chlorian levels of fuck you to the mythos. The idea of the Space Jockeys creating humanity is, while it _is_ a _gigantic_ coincidence that the crew in the first film just so _happen_ to come across a being that was part of a race responsible for humanity's creation, it's still an interesting concept and has tons of story opportunities, and going from what's been established in Prometheus and the original ideas for the sequel very early in development before Scott changed his mind about not having any Xenomorphs, it seems like they did have some good ideas. But sadly, Scott and Fox are gonna act like every paranoid, stubborn studio that owned the Halloween series post-Season of the Witch, where they try to appeal to everyone who hated Prometheus for all the wrong reasons, the ones who hated it _not_ because of poor writing, idiot characters, etc., but the ones who hated it _simply_ because "The Xenomorphs aren't in it, it barely has any connections to the series, who's Weyland and the Space Jockeys? I have no idea what you're talking about!" And because of this, like every studio that owned the Halloween series post-Season of The Witch, they'll refuse to do anything different or change despite people thinking it's better if they do, because they're worried they'll lose that _precious dough._ At least the Friday The 13th series had fun with bringing Jason back by making him a zombie with superhuman abilities, the Halloween series refuses to do that despite Michael burning to a crisp at the end of the second movie, _I guess_ because they're afraid of ripping off Friday The 13th.
I just saw Covenant. So now I'm going through the various reviews on UA-cam. I agree with every word you said. Spot on. So disappointed with this movie.
Wish you still did Beatdowns :(
14:20 thank you FilmBrain, perfect!
Scott needs to realize Alien isn't Star Wars. Can't wait for that Hudson movie!
Filmbrain i think the word for that flutescene you are looking for is called "selfcest" and yes that is a somewhat common genre of art and fanfiction on deviantart
Aye. Well spoken. I can't remember ever shaking my head and face palming so much in the theater.
When, oh when will this crossover between Alien and Idiocracy end?
Tbf the only reason the crew of prometius had their suits on was because they couldn't breath in the atmosphere. As soon as they got the chance the removed their helmets. So I believe that if there had been a more welcoming atmosphere in that movie the crew wouldn't have bothered with the suits at all.
You are completely right about spacesuits and everything else.
This really is a great review. I agree on pretty much every single point. Well done! It seems to me Ridley Scott's blatant arrogance is ruining the Alien story/culture we all fell in love with. This movie almost seems like Scott's angry response to the negative reviews of Prometheus and in so many words saying - Fine you want this crap - here you go. And in trying to prove he was right in the Prometheus movie, he gave this movie a subparf effort... Weak
so true thanks for the review filmbrain
A BMB of this would be amazing!!
Took the words right out of my mouth!
THANK YOU +Film Brian ! You read my mind!
They did a scan of the air when they landed, and it was supposed to scan the smallest particles in the air. The spores only showed up when the fungus was disturbed
I feel that the aliens in covenant was just David’s attempt to create his own. Prometheus already suggested the original xeno exists, and maybe the jockey on LV-426 is something completely different while the engineers are just a creation of a more ancient and advanced civilization. I’m hoping what ever they do next, it would at least try to bring the mystery back. Idk, I always try to wait till the trilogy is complete before I decide if it’s wholly bad
On point review.
Like I said in the previous movie's comments, Universal should just grab Michael Fassbender for "Dark Universe" like they've been wanting because these films proved he's much better off playing the Phantom of the Opera. I just can't see FOX keeping this series as is.
I will say that the one thing that might give the xenos some fresh energy would be to infect something else. To make new monsters. And not the self-parodying genital snakes of Prometheus. Sure making them effective killing machines can help, but I think some new forms might help too.