ALIEN: COVENANT (2017) - Take 2 Retrospective (Review)
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- The inaugural episode of my Take 2 Retrospective series. Come along with me as I dive into one of the most polarizing and divisive films of recent memory, Alien: Covenant. Here, we discuss the production, the film itself, the reception, the backlash, and the future.
Music - Jed Kurzel & John Denver
Footage owned by 21st Century Fox
Please don't sue me UA-cam, I don't have any money.
P.S: This project has been gestating for months now, so I can't tell you how glad I am to finally share it with you. Please support the film industry by renting, streaming, or purchasing Alien: Covenant with any of the choices listed below. Also, give me options for future retrospectives. I want this series to be the showcase for films, tv shows, and music that have gotten an unfair reputation over the years and are in need of a second look. A "Take 2", if you will. Thanks again, and I'll see you soon.
- The Lone Wolfe -
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Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.
Studio interference has destroyed many a movie.
Now with Disney owning it I'm afraid all is lost.
Great job my friend! So well done! Much appreciated.
Sadly I think you’re right. I’ll always have that small ray of hope though. Thanks for stopping by, glad you enjoyed the video :)
Wow, I adore this video. I’ve been an unabashed fan of this film since its release, so to see someone who shares so much of the often unspoken opinions I have towards this film is refreshing. Also to see your appreciation for Alien 3, a film I’ve never quite understood the scrutiny for, is equally rewarding. Well written, edited, and performed script my friend!
Thanks for the kind words! I love A:C, it ranks now as probably my second favorite of the series, after the original Alien. I’m sure Covenant will one day be seen as a cult classic or at least grow a large dedicated fan base like Alien 3 did. They both have amazing cinematography and music, and take bold risks with the mythology.
Good stuff man, it's pretty clear that you're passionate about the material you're taking on. The transmissions between you're talking points were a nice touch and pretty spot on. The vid planted a seed that I need to go back and watch it, I've only seen the film once and I thought it was fine for what it was. I definitely need to go back and give it rewatch.
Always a fan of film essay videos for a different perspective. Keep up the good work, hope to see more in the future.
Thanks for the sub and for the feedback! Be sure to check out Covenant on any of the platforms mentioned. Gotta support movies the old fashion way!
- The Lone Wolfe-
I know Im kinda randomly asking but does anybody know a good place to stream new series online?
Aw, man. It's amazing to see someone give this film some love. Beautifully articulated and edited, thank you!
Thank you 😊 more are coming!
It's a good looking film, and its technical aspects are usually a treat. Having said that, it's execution in story telling came up wanting. It felt like a step back for the mythos and genre.
I really liked this film for what it was. I, like you would have liked to see Ridley Scott's original ideas for the prequel trilogy. If it was a stand alone film or would have picked up right where Prometheus left off I think it would have been received by the masses a little bit more. I just hate that we will probably never get a conclusion that leads into the original Alien film.
Was this not Ridley's vision? :O
I really like how you objectively looked it as the beautiful film that it was but also so much of a sharp turn that it still polarized fans (including myself).
I wasn’t - nor am I now - a fan of this film or the prequels in general; I saw it as something that tried to change what made sense about the canon, in addition to making questions that the film seemed not to be able to answer. Even though I absolutely respect the reasons someone would love the film (hell, I’m in the camp of liking Alien Resurrection & can at least see AVP as part of the film timeline), I’m currently doing a fan fiction rewrite to make this film & Prometheus actually make sense in the established universe before they came along.
Keep up the awesome work! I really like the deep dive!
Totally respect that opinion bro. Alien: Covenant will go down as one of the most divisive films of our time. I just hope is Alien fans get a new film, rather it be another Ridley prequel or a reboot. We deserve it! Take care Jordan, I appreciate the kind words :)
@@LoneWolfeMedia oh without a doubt man! Definitely appreciate the words from your end. Like any fandom, there are people on one side or the other. I float in the middle & talk about things that I may not even like. I know there are people who wish they had something else, which is why I’m going on a limb with my fan fiction trilogy. I’m almost done with Prometheus & then heading straight into Paradise Lost.
These conversations, above anything, showcase the similarities between the differing opinions. But I’ll absolutely agree that I’m hoping the new FX series & film will hone everyone in. It’s a great universe with vast potential!!!
It's a great work, and I agree with it. It's a crime that it's not as popular.
Give it time, it’ll be seen as a cult classic in a few years, mark my words. :)
@@LoneWolfeMedia it already is imo.
Really Really enjoyed this, very refreshing to hear and was extremely interesting to watch. I also loved the ending song homage to the film, very Erie and overall the whole video was very well edited, good stuff man!
Thank you! I'm very proud of that part. I think it's the best part of the review.
I love this movie. It works great as a prequel to Alien and sequel to Prometheus. I would've preferred the physical F/X but still love the film. I hate that we'll never see the last part of the trilogy with David going up against the engineers. That would've been EPIC.
Don’t say that!! There’s still hope however small :)
Good job, thanks for your perspective!
Always happy to give it. Thanks for coming by :D
Fassbender and Ripley showdown would be good
Great review mate! Keep them coming!!
Very well done! Totally agree with your review and comments and sure hope we get more !!
Adolfo Pablos Meza thanks man!! I’ve already choosen the subject of my next review so be on the look out!
Good job! Great alternative takes and opinions on the Alien Covenant film.
Still after Prometheus and the killing off of Shaw I wasn't a huge fan of Covenant. I really liked the questions Prometheus were asking. Where did we come from? Why did the Engineers want to destroy us. And it was kind of easing the audience back into the Ridley Scott Alien universe.
Thanks for the feedback Andy! Yes, killing Shaw and jettisoning the Engineers and all those questions was a massive mistake. Cardinal sin for Covenant and what keeps it from being a complete masterpiece for me.
I've gone off Ridley Scott due to not holding to the original vision, killing off Shaw, featuring budget white humanoids that are clearly not at all engineers such is the massive drop in their quality, the abysmal city art style, the terrible characters, the aliens, the deleting of key scenes in Prometheus, most notably the engineer scenes. The calling of the film Alien Covenant was when I knew it was going to go off the rails. You call the sequel 'Paradise' as it fits with the original and doesn't give us what we already bloody have seen. Aliens doing the same shit.
Lone Wolfe Media It's the diametric opposite of a masterpiece.
I have never got into the Alien movies. I didn't watch the first movie until just a few years ago and just couldn't, for some reason get into so I never watched any of the sequals or prequals.
I really want to watch them all I just find it hard to get through the original movie. Alien to me just doesn't stand up against the other classic horror movies, such as Halloween, Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, Childs Play and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I don't whether it's because I left it way too late to finally watch the original or whether it really wasn't as good as those already mentioned. Whatever it is I am eventually going to watch them all.
You gave the film too much credit. And why say the location was otherworldly where it was immediately recognizable as New Zealand, fjordland?
It’s a scenic location with many valleys and lakes. Idk it’s not like many places here in the US. Iceland too. They look like relics of a lost era from Earth’s distant past.
@@LoneWolfeMediaFair enough. I guess I was comparing it to Alien (the original 1979) planet which was one of the most alien planets ever shown on film. Everything else feels like either Earth or too CGI (Star Wars).
Great video
I'm glad I stumbled upon this. I watched Prometheus when it was released. I was torn and kind of gave up on the franchise (yet I'm one of the weird ones who hold Alien3 near and dear to my heart as his favorite...I know, I know)
But yeah, when this movie came out I looked up a few spoiler free reviews and the videos I watched completely thrashed it so I figured what's the use. But for whatever reason the franchise popped into my head and I found your review. It was refreshing to hear a positive spin on it, and I'm going to watch the movie on my next night off from work (going to rewatch Prometheus as well - who knows, my views may have changed, that was almost a decade ago). Your video has me excited to discover, and rediscover, something that meant a lot to me in my teen years. Thanks, man.
Thank you for your comment! I hope you enjoy your revisit to the prequels. Try to look at them as their own thing and not linked to Alien. Try to enjoy them for what they are and all the things they do right, not what they do wrong. Best of luck :D
Also Alien 3 is a lowkey masterpiece. For all its flaws and legendary production woes, it's still iconic and gave birth to David Fincher's career.
you saw a very different movie from me :) i was not surpriced by one twist, and whenever i thought "he/she is going to die" they died, every time i thought "nah, too telegraphed" they died. whenever i thought "nah, too telegraphed, but they do that here, so they die" they die.
Dumb decision making in horror films doesn’t really bother me because it’s often required for the plot to begin. The crew of the Nostromo made idiotic choices, the cast of Star Trek regularly landed on various alien worlds without helmets and no one ever batted an eye.
Movies with the idiot plot can be forgiven when they’re as well acted, well filmed, and composed as they are with Covenant. Scott’s signature visual ambiance is fully intact, the music is probably the best of the series, and Fassbender gives the PERFORMANCE of his career as David/Walter.
My point is there is plenty to love outside the admittedly dumb characters and questionable storytelling.
The Critical Drinker ripped this film a new one!
I recall, when I saw the film in the theater, that it wasn't as good, to me, as Prometheus, even though Prometheus had its issues too. Of the three Alien films which Ridley helmed, the first was his best. The crew, in the first Alien film, was a way better and cohesive crew, than the other two crews in the later sequels. There also was some ridiculous scenes and dialog, in the later films, which caused some implausible and crazy stuff. In the end, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant did not complete the Alien canon and back story.
Yeah he’s a pretty hard ass on a lot of movies. We don’t share the same opinions but this movie was certainly divisive to say the least. I just don’t think it’s as bad as some make it out. And I agree they shouldn’t have tried to tease the story out more instead of really giving us the Alien prequel we all wanted
Everyone is going to have their own opinion but what it worth, I was disappointed with the film. Too many undeveloped characters which lead to me feeling nothing when they eventually died. The alien pregnancy cycle seemed to be sped up just to keep the pacing of the film going. Shaw unceremoniously being killed off screen just echoes of the Hicks and Newt treatment in Alien 3. Either poorly edited or poorly written or perhaps some combination of the 2. I wanted so badly to love this film that it is to say it disappointed me. Still I really liked parts of it and wouldn’t mind seeing a conclusion of the story.
Awesome totally agree
Ridley Scott rules.
Can’t wait for the next one!
SAME!!! Hopefully Ridley Scott gets a chance to finish his trilogy :)
Alien fans confuse me. Honestly I thought this movie was amazing. Gutted were not gonna get more from this series.
Fans: Prometheus had too much philosophy, who are these Engineers, we want an Alien prequel.
Ridley: here’s a great mixture of an Alien prequel and philosophy with the Engineers mostly gone.
Fans: omg the Aliens are played out it’s so dumb, where are the Engineers?
Ridley - ❓
This review is just as good as Oliver Harper's review of Prometheus. He has 1000 times the subs though?
I love his videos. He’s more consistent than me and he’s been doing it longer. But if I can get even a 10th of his subscribers that would be amazing. His Prometheus retrospective actually drove a lot more traffic to this video. I can’t wait to see his review of Covenant.
@@LoneWolfeMedia Maybe you should do more Alien series reviews or Ridley's Raised By Wolves. If you have an ongoing series, people are more likely to come back.
I do have an “Alien ranked” video that will hopefully be out soon
If I were Ridley Scott and that producer told me what he planned to do with the effects, I would say "F*** you I'm Ridley Scott."
I always want to know how these suits think shitty cgi is better than a man in a suit...
So nice to hear so much praise for Covenant for once. True, most of the general criticism is warranted, unfortunately. But Covenant despite the criticism still has so much to offer & you bring all of that up beautifully! No film in the Alien franchise has let me down deeper than what Prometheus did. I even told myself that i would never watch the sequel in the cinema. But the short film The Crossing won me over! My God, if only that feeling had been in Prometheus! And would it be in Covenant? It didn't, not really no. But it still brought me to the theater premier night & I left with a smile! After that first viewing my own criticism has increased, I am not blind to the huge problems. Covenant is a guilty pleasure. But the atmosphere of this film, this stunningly beautiful film with its fantastic score, wins a lot of points! Sure, the crew of the Covenant has its full share of idiots, too, but they all seem a lot more professional in comparison to how everybody was in Prometheus. And, very much unlike in Prometheus, on the Covenant everybody cares for one another, regardless if they are couples or not. They are a unit & when somebody dies it affects everybody & was never waved off like a minor inconvenience. What the characters feel WE feel! This time Scott seemed to have remembered that.
One very major improvement was David, for sure! He, honestly, made not much sense for me in Prometheus since he just lets the whole impregnating Elizabeth thing go once she has taken it out. But here the mad scientist android's agenda makes total sense. Many complain that David is directly or indirectly responsible for the Xeno's creation. I have never understood that criticism, not even in Prometheus. This is a prequel. If you don't wanna know the origin of the Xeno's why even watch the very films that tell that tale? No one is forcing you. For me, the Xeno's have always been a biological weapon, a creation in a lab anyway so the black goo + David, especially his direct link to Weyland, is literary the superglue that binds the whole Alien saga together. It does not bind it together well but it does bind it. And then the magnificent mirror image that is Walter! What a magnificent android, the literal Data of the Alien saga. Both androids showing the horrors of AI but also the strong hopeful use of AI, & dips heavily into what Scott always said with Blade Runner & how we must decide what to do with AI even before we create it for real. The "twist" of Walter actually being David all along at the end was never any surprise to me, I knew it was going to happen before they even started filming since they announced that Fassbender would play both & one would be the evil David. This event was predicted light years in advance. I agree, the horror in this is not the shock that Walter is in fact David, it is when the rest will realize it & how.
The only thing I firmly don't agree with you if Ferris. Yes, she starts off as a brilliant character. Ferris the pilot is bloody awesome. Hence why I can't accept that she falls into such immense total hysteria so swiftly & far too much to the point that she does once the shit hits the fan. How could she be so calm, cool & collected & then become worse than Lambert? I get she would freak, all of us would. But this was way too much. She gave the impression of having training under pressure in her background. Her reaction to the Neomorph breaks all realism to me. Her outcome could have been exactly the same but far more honorable & far less hysteria. We all love Vasquez in Aliens for a reason. Why could not Ferris had been the same & gone down like a champ trying to save the day rather than the pathetic hysterical woman they transformed her into. There was nothing wrong with the acting, it's not from anybody. But here the script failed the most. Also, the Alien life cycle is now on super speed passing even the first AVP. It's sad that the franchise never learns from famous past mistakes, they just keep repeating them. This includes the extra marketing scenes they filmed that is outside of the film only existing to promote it, but the sad irony is that in Covenant's case, THERE is where the real horror of this story lies! The Xeno almost spotted in the docking bay by a tiny robot on wheels or Daniels searching the Covenant by herself guided by Mother to find the alien, far scarier than what the film gave us.
Loved your wonderful montage at the end with Country Roads in slow-motion mixed with the haunting track from the score itself, a perfect blend! So well done! Could work beautifully as a trailer for the film itself. I really appreciate getting some love & support for this film. No, Covenant wasn't good but it was far from that bad either! It did try to do more & better than Prometheus & for me it succeeded. Still missed the target but it was a good step in the right direction. If only they had done more, had had a better focus on Engineers, Xeno's & humans in a perfect mix, as we all expected to get, then this could have been a winner. But Scott let the Engineers go because Fox demanded more aliens while Scott didn't wanna go there at all, & in the middle the humans were kind of neglected as well. The only thing that got proper focus was the AI. If the rest of Covenant had been as magnificent as David & Walter then this could have rivaled Alien & Aliens, easily! The fact that I felt that they at least tried to do that was why I left the cinema smiling.
Loved reading your comments. I totally understand the backlash against the prequels, it was inevitable really. I can still appreciate them for what they all, warts and all, and I really do think both Covenant and Prometheus are good films. Their ambience and contributions to the overall world of Alien were engaging and leave the door open for more. I just wish Scott fought harder for his original vision and didn’t cave to typical Fox meddling. I have to at least give Disney a chance and see what they do with the franchise. A tv series is just what we need, and maybe some day we’ll get to see a continuation of Scott’s trilogy.
Well done, well done👌
But what about the bonus situation?
You get what you contracted for like everyone else.
@@LoneWolfeMedia Hol' up
@@LoneWolfeMedia This disturbance wasn't in the contract.
@@LoneWolfeMedia I'd like to revise the terms of the contract or else the repairs might take a while....
Oh dear. Covenant is all over the place. The characters are more wooden than wood.
I didn’t think every character was wooden myself. Certainly some of the background characters were more forgettable than others, but they cut a lot of extraneous material from the film, and the limited screen time certainly didn’t help either.
@@LoneWolfeMedia I just think it sad that the sheer isolation of the first film and its steady pacing, that entire sense of alienation, hasn't been continued. Now maybe that's our short attention spans but somewhere, someone is hopefully writing a script that can prove filmable and does credit to the first -and second - Alien films. Yes, Covenant looks very impressive but it tries to pack too much in and the need to provide answers to everything is not required.
Great video. But this movie was just meh for me. ALIENS set the bar wayyyy to high
Glad you liked the video! ALIENS rocks! At least it wasn’t as bad as some of the past few Terminator films lol
Alien covenant 2is going to happen alien covenant sequel Ridley Scott 2and alien tv series eventually .....
Cool video! On first viewing the movie somewhat disappointed me. It was enjoyable, but it got rid of most of the things that made Prometheus so great. David was also much more villainous and less ambiguous than in that film. But on rewatch Covenant has grown on me. There are cool themes being explored, and I dig the whole classic mad scientist angle that it takes with David. Feels like an homage to the classic Universal monster movies of the 30s. I'm still a bit mixed on the last act and think the story would've been better without the actual alien showing up, but in the end that's just a minor complaint. Of course it's got the beatiful shots of Ridley Scott and his excellent world building and tech design. Those ships look gorgeous, the tech believable, which makes for an incredibly immersive experience. I wouldn't rank it in my top alien movies, it falls somewhere in the middle for me, but it is a worthy chapter in my favorite film series!
Thanks for the kind words! I agree, Covenant helps make Prometheus better by making retroactively about David. Love the gothic Frankenstein vibes.
Good and fair review !
thanks my man! What did you think of A:C?
@@LoneWolfeMedia hated it when I first saw it but grown to love it.
Covenant was for Alien what The Last Jedi was for Star Wars.
You might be on to something. I also liked The Last Jedi for many of the same reasons I liked Covenant. Divisive movies tend to be my bread and butter.
@@LoneWolfeMedia Not only because it was divisive, but also because it was the middle part of a planned trilogy that didn't continue the story as originally intended, because the studio and director focused on ticking off checklists rather than simply telling a coherent story.
Jesus Christ you actually thought the film was written good?
It’s not without its flaws (which I did discuss as well) but yes I do think Alien: Covenant is good.
The most generic cast ever to Don the big screen.
Our main antagonist is called...
*DANIELS* which kinda tells you all you need to know about these "characters"
They are 100% generic af.
The only name I remember is Tennessee, because it's similar to Dallas. 🤷🏻♂️
But terrible movie.
So sick of David becoming the creator of the Xenomorph. Why?
How did he make a facehugger egg out of Elizabeth Shaw's body???
Seriously?
How did he make an *ALIEN EGG* from Shaw's body?
It's just nonsensical crap.
And apparently there's a Covernant 2 in the pipeline.
Yay! 🤦♂️🤦♂️
I’m not sure I understand your complaint about Daniels name. If I understand it correctly, it’s a reference to Ripley and how her character was originally written to be a man. They wanted a traditionally masculine name for Daniels to carry on the legacy of Ripley. Horror movie characters are oftentimes named after other characters from other movies or key figures in the industry. It’s apart of the genre. I understand your feelings though and wish you had a better experience.
I hate the people who like the mystery of the alien and don’t like these prequel movies. Just don’t watch them if you wanna stay in your little original trilogy bubble
“nods in Jack Nicholson”