Prometheus Sequel (ALIEN: Covenant)

[Jmek]

Got to see it last night.

Overall, I think it's a great sci-fi thriller. Visuals and music are gorgeous, the acting is solid, and the story and questions it raises are very interesting. I'm glad Scott didn't abandon the ideas he was exploring in Prometheus, although the movie feels a lot more like an "Alien" movie than Prometheus. The entire opening sequence is really cool in setting up the themes that will be explored throughout the movie.

It raises questions about love, duty, faith, the disappointment of children when they outgrow their parents, and, of course, the dangers of AI.
As an "Alien" movie, it's just not scary enough, IMHO. I think Scott just doesn't know how to make a truly scary movie anymore. For all its length, I felt it never took the time to really scare you, to just build up that dread of the first movie (and arguably the second and third).
That's not to say it doesn't have very tense moments and lots of excruciating gore, it has lots of that.

Fassbender is great, unfortunately Waterson doesn't have the charisma and presence of either Weaver or Rapace, which is a shame. The star here really is Fassbender as Walter/David, all others are just along for the ride. Nevertheless, I found this crew had more character that the Prometheus crew, and I felt more for them as each faced their inevitable demise.

The creatures were great, I especially loved the neo-alien. Truly scary beast.

Going back to the movie as a whole, it also seemed like a "hommage" of sorts to every single alien movie. I saw references and visual cues to Alien, Aliens, A3, Alien Ressurection and even AvP (no AvP-R, though, thankfully), which I thought was pretty cool.
So, again, it's a great sci-fi thriller, maybe a little lacking in scaryness in order to be a great "Alien" movie.

Gret review Abake

 

[GasparZizou]

Ditto.

 

[crows]

Got to see it last night.

Overall, I think it's a great sci-fi thriller. Visuals and music are gorgeous, the acting is solid, and the story and questions it raises are very interesting. I'm glad Scott didn't abandon the ideas he was exploring in Prometheus, although the movie feels a lot more like an "Alien" movie than Prometheus. The entire opening sequence is really cool in setting up the themes that will be explored throughout the movie.

It raises questions about love, duty, faith, the disappointment of children when they outgrow their parents, and, of course, the dangers of AI.
As an "Alien" movie, it's just not scary enough, IMHO. I think Scott just doesn't know how to make a truly scary movie anymore. For all its length, I felt it never took the time to really scare you, to just build up that dread of the first movie (and arguably the second and third).
That's not to say it doesn't have very tense moments and lots of excruciating gore, it has lots of that.

Fassbender is great, unfortunately Waterson doesn't have the charisma and presence of either Weaver or Rapace, which is a shame. The star here really is Fassbender as Walter/David, all others are just along for the ride. Nevertheless, I found this crew had more character that the Prometheus crew, and I felt more for them as each faced their inevitable demise.

The creatures were great, I especially loved the neo-alien. Truly scary beast.

Going back to the movie as a whole, it also seemed like a "hommage" of sorts to every single alien movie. I saw references and visual cues to Alien, Aliens, A3, Alien Ressurection and even AvP (no AvP-R, though, thankfully), which I thought was pretty cool.
So, again, it's a great sci-fi thriller, maybe a little lacking in scaryness in order to be a great "Alien" movie.

What are the nods to avp?

 

[Jester]

Anyone who hates Aliens has no business making more Alien movies. Watching it now. It's timeless.

Indeed.

 

[Wor-Gar]

Abake's review is somewhat reassuring but I'd trust his review more after a second viewing 2 days from now better.

Sad its not scary, glad it has gore. Hope it isn't too long. 2.5 hours of an Alien movie is too long... actually 2.5 hours of anything is too long.

 

[abake]

Gret review Abake

Ditto.

Thanks guys!

What are the nods to avp?

I felt the scene of the alien coming out of the recess in the wall was inspired by AvP's scene. Maybe it's just kinda generic, but along with other scenes that reminded me of other movies, I just felt it was there for a reason.

Abake's review is somewhat reassuring but I'd trust his review more after a second viewing 2 days from now better.

Sad its not scary, glad it has gore. Hope it isn't too long. 2.5 hours of an Alien movie is too long... actually 2.5 hours of anything is too long.

I'm planning on going again, there's a lot of stuff going on in the movie, and it merits a second viewing on the big screen.

 

[punisher1974]

Abake's review is somewhat reassuring but I'd trust his review more after a second viewing 2 days from now better.

Sad its not scary, glad it has gore. Hope it isn't too long. 2.5 hours of an Alien movie is too long... actually 2.5 hours of anything is too long.

How about this though she needs the second mouth that retracts

 

[GasparZizou]

Well, it was a good thing my expectations got a reality check from early comments in this place.

Was it bad? Definitely not, Mediocre? Eeeeh I don't think so.... It was just good, like plain good.

Yeah this does a semi-TFA for the franchise, like grabs random moments from all the movies just adds them in like elbow rubbing memba?, but they're not as blatant as in your average blockbuster, they're actually more understated.

The difference with TFA is that this movie doesn't depend entirely on rehashed plot points, some yes, but not entirely, and another difference, it contributes to the lore instead of leeching off of it.

Someone mentioned the origin of the Xenos, it happens in this movie, without any ambiguity you see it happen and fully explained, is it bad? No it's not, it's no worse than making the Xenos alien bugs like Cameron did, in fact, for me it makes the Xeno a bit endearing again.

I also went in expecting the movie to focus on the AI theme, not so, it's not about AI, or Aliens, or genetics, all of these are just semitones that are encompassed by an overarching theme of creation and destruction, and for that matter they're all blended pretty nicely.

Cinematography is fantastic, sound is great, well paced, a bit rushed at the beginning though, Sci-Fi was nicely done, everything felt right, nothing outlandish or poorly thought out like many bits in Prometheus, well, maybe one debatable bit.

Someone also mentioned plot holes, I didn't catch any myself, in fact, it feels like more care went into writing this one after after Prometheus script brain-farts.

There are only 3 things I didn't like, 2 of them were 2 dumb action scenes that were unnecessary and almost got me out of the moment, and the third one is that they did little to nothing with the Engineers and I can't blame that to personal expectations, since it was set up big time by Prometheus, but I don't know if it's the end of the story for the Engineers, I hope not.

So yeah, if this is The Force Awakens to the Alien franchise, I think this one did a slightly better job.

Also, lots of food for thought, that's always welcome, some things I can't figure out yet, it warrants a second viewing, I supposed we'll discuss as more people see it, no point in dumping everything in one post.

 

[Wor-Gar]

I'm more intrigued now. I hate that Europe gets to spoil movies now for me a week ahead.

 

[crows]

Well, it was a good thing my expectations got a reality check from early comments in this place.

Was it bad? Definitely not, Mediocre? Eeeeh I don't think so.... It was just good, like plain good.

Yeah this does a semi-TFA for the franchise, like grabs random moments from all the movies just adds them in like elbow rubbing memba?, but they're not as blatant as in your average blockbuster, they're actually more understated.

The difference with TFA is that this movie doesn't depend entirely on rehashed plot points, some yes, but not entirely, and another difference, it contributes to the lore instead of leeching off of it.

Someone mentioned the origin of the Xenos, it happens in this movie, without any ambiguity you see it happen and fully explained, is it bad? No it's not, it's no worse than making the Xenos alien bugs like Cameron did, in fact, for me it makes the Xeno a bit endearing again.

I also went in expecting the movie to focus on the AI theme, not so, it's not about AI, or Aliens, or genetics, all of these are just semitones that are encompassed by an overarching theme of creation and destruction, and for that matter they're all blended pretty nicely.

Cinematography is fantastic, sound is great, well paced, a bit rushed at the beginning though, Sci-Fi was nicely done, everything felt right, nothing outlandish or poorly thought out like many bits in Prometheus, well, maybe one debatable bit.

Someone also mentioned plot holes, I didn't catch any myself, in fact, it feels like more care went into writing this one after after Prometheus script brain-farts.

There are only 3 things I didn't like, 2 of them were 2 dumb action scenes that were unnecessary and almost got me out of the moment, and the third one is that they did little to nothing with the Engineers and I can't blame that to personal expectations, since it was set up big time by Prometheus, but I don't know if it's the end of the story for the Engineers, I hope not.

So yeah, if this is The Force Awakens to the Alien franchise, I think this one did a slightly better job.

Also, lots of food for thought, that's always welcome, some things I can't figure out yet, it warrants a second viewing, I supposed we'll discuss as more people see it, no point in dumping everything in one post.

Will they explain the queen alien?

 

[Wor-Gar]

Will they explain the queen alien?

If you want to simplify the beautiful xenomorph into nothing more than a space insect, then you have no justification for need of explanation.

 

[GasparZizou]

Not in this movie.

I was thinking, if there's a sequel to this, which most likely it will, it will be more action-y, like if this was TFA for Alien, then the next one is Aliens, and I'm actually curious what Scott could do with that.

I don't think that one needs explanation though, not that any of this (Xeno, Space Jockey, etc etc) needed any explanation either, the queen feels like a natural evolution to the Xeno.

 

[abake]

Well, it was a good thing my expectations got a reality check from early comments in this place.

Was it bad? Definitely not, Mediocre? Eeeeh I don't think so.... It was just good, like plain good.

Yeah this does a semi-TFA for the franchise, like grabs random moments from all the movies just adds them in like elbow rubbing memba?, but they're not as blatant as in your average blockbuster, they're actually more understated.

The difference with TFA is that this movie doesn't depend entirely on rehashed plot points, some yes, but not entirely, and another difference, it contributes to the lore instead of leeching off of it.

Someone mentioned the origin of the Xenos, it happens in this movie, without any ambiguity you see it happen and fully explained, is it bad? No it's not, it's no worse than making the Xenos alien bugs like Cameron did, in fact, for me it makes the Xeno a bit endearing again.

I also went in expecting the movie to focus on the AI theme, not so, it's not about AI, or Aliens, or genetics, all of these are just semitones that are encompassed by an overarching theme of creation and destruction, and for that matter they're all blended pretty nicely.

Cinematography is fantastic, sound is great, well paced, a bit rushed at the beginning though, Sci-Fi was nicely done, everything felt right, nothing outlandish or poorly thought out like many bits in Prometheus, well, maybe one debatable bit.

Someone also mentioned plot holes, I didn't catch any myself, in fact, it feels like more care went into writing this one after after Prometheus script brain-farts.

There are only 3 things I didn't like, 2 of them were 2 dumb action scenes that were unnecessary and almost got me out of the moment, and the third one is that they did little to nothing with the Engineers and I can't blame that to personal expectations, since it was set up big time by Prometheus, but I don't know if it's the end of the story for the Engineers, I hope not.

So yeah, if this is The Force Awakens to the Alien franchise, I think this one did a slightly better job.

Also, lots of food for thought, that's always welcome, some things I can't figure out yet, it warrants a second viewing, I supposed we'll discuss as more people see it, no point in dumping everything in one post.

I wouldn't go so low as "plain good", to me it is a great movie.
The thing is, Scott wants to say a lot more in these latter movies; whether that is good or bad is debatable. He himself said that the secret of Alien was that it was a B movie treated like an A movie. It is really a very simple movie, and the actors did a great job with what they had, as well as Scott. But now, Prometheus and Alien Covenant have loftier aspirations. They are no longer B movies. Scott and his writers want to explore some pretty deep ****, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.
I'm glad to have sci-fi thrillers that ask serious questions, but I also miss the simple, stark desolation of the first.
I hope this does well at the box office, I want to see more of this universe Scott is creating.

 

[Wor-Gar]

The beautiful mystery of the derelict ship and its enigmatic pilot has been *******ized for so long its hard to remember how wonderfully curious and haunting it was in 1979. So spooky and chilling with possibilities...

 

[GasparZizou]

I wouldn't go so low as "plain good", to me it is a great movie.
The thing is, Scott wants to say a lot more in these latter movies; whether that is good or bad is debatable. He himself said that the secret of Alien was that it was a B movie treated like an A movie. It is really a very simple movie, and the actors did a great job with what they had, as well as Scott. But now, Prometheus and Alien Covenant have loftier aspirations. They are no longer B movies. Scott and his writers want to explore some pretty deep ****, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.
I'm glad to have sci-fi thrillers that ask serious questions, but I also miss the simple, stark desolation of the first.
I hope this does well at the box office, I want to see more of this universe Scott is creating.

I don't know, my feelings towards this movie are still warm and malleable, I could flip either way right now, it's a process, but it's good that I'm still thinking about it, the large majority of new movies I see don't put me in this process.

The beautiful mystery of the derelict ship and its enigmatic pilot has been *******ized for so long its hard to remember how wonderfully curious and haunting it was in 1979. So spooky and chilling with possibilities...

Yeah, I think Prometheus was the way to go as a sequel to Alien, not Aliens.

A good version of Prometheus that is.

 

[Jester]

If you want to simplify the beautiful xenomorph into nothing more than a space insect, then you have no justification for need of explanation.

Tell that to Ridley Scott.

 

[crows]

I wouldn't go so low as "plain good", to me it is a great movie.
The thing is, Scott wants to say a lot more in these latter movies; whether that is good or bad is debatable. He himself said that the secret of Alien was that it was a B movie treated like an A movie. It is really a very simple movie, and the actors did a great job with what they had, as well as Scott. But now, Prometheus and Alien Covenant have loftier aspirations. They are no longer B movies. Scott and his writers want to explore some pretty deep ****, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.
I'm glad to have sci-fi thrillers that ask serious questions, but I also miss the simple, stark desolation of the first.
I hope this does well at the box office, I want to see more of this universe Scott is creating.

What are the odds to alien 3?

 

[Wor-Gar]

This just in:

Schumacher picked to helm Alien: Covenant follow up...













This just in: leaked Schumacher concept for Alien...



The Neon-morph

 

[DiFabio]

I'm buying the Hot Toys of that!

 

[crows]

This just in:

Schumacher picked to helm Alien: Covenant follow up...













This just in: leaked Schumacher concept for Alien...



The Neon-morph

TRON: aliens