Alien: Covenant |SPOILER THREAD| With more Christian subtext than BvS

Just got back. I really enjoyed it. I think it had a little bit of an identity crisis in trying to be like Alien, Aliens, and Prometheus in different scenes.

The question I have pertains to the (I'm assuming it was a ) flashback scene where the black mist was released on the crowd in the town square. What was that about? Were the Engineers experimenting on their own people?
 
Freezasaurus said:
Just got back. I really enjoyed it. I think it had a little bit of an identity crisis in trying to be like Alien, Aliens, and Prometheus in different scenes.

The question I have pertains to the (I'm assuming it was a ) flashback scene where the black mist was released on the crowd in the town square. What was that about? Were the Engineers experimenting on their own people?
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No that was David arriving and dumping their black goo on them.
 
Alebrije said:
The ending was so predictable. A much better one would be the girl just going sleep thinking all is fine and the David walking to the incubator room smiling and then liying the eggs while your hear some Opus creepy music.
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Not even that, just Walter-David walking away and asking the computer to play some Wagner as he walks away smiling would do it.
 
brandonh83 said:
Don't really agree with this. I thought she was pretty awesome and felt vulnerable. It also took the time to explore her character some and I liked her way more than Daniels.
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Her insistence on "oh our benevolent alien creator gods must have so much wisdom for us!" As everyone around her is dying because of said creators is literally comical. She's one note and her one note is stupid.
 
ExVicis said:
Not even that, just Walter-David walking away and asking the computer to play some Wagner as he walks away smiling would do it.
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Yeah I would have preferred an ending like that. This ending felt similar to the one from life earlier in the year though it felt more fiting for what was basically a B level horror movie.
 
Isaac Otherworld said:
Her insistence on "oh our benevolent alien creator gods must have so much wisdom for us!" As everyone around her is dying because of said creators is literally comical. She's one note and her one note is stupid.
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What

She straight up changes her mind on it all after the c-section and Holloway dying, and is what ultimately leads to the ending. Her frustration with the Engineers is what gets us the ending of her flying out to ask, basically, "You made us, now you hate us. What the fuck?"
 
Metalingus5150 said:
That was in one of the test screenings.
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I was actually thinking about that after watching the movie, how an ending like that would've been more effective. I hope they include that on the Blu-ray as an extra.
 
ExVicis said:
Either that or David's really good at getting dressed fast with one hand
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I mean he could have killed Walt, got dressed, then cut off him hand.


On topic: did anybody have to fill a questionnaire when watching the movie Thursday? There were people at my theater with some kind of questionnaire to fill but I didn't have time so didn't look at it.
 
ExVicis said:
Either that or David's really good at getting dressed fast with one hand
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Well, it's possible I guess. I didn't really think about the timing. I was trying to look at the face scars while watching it, but I couldn't remember who hit who where. If they were on the same page though, why would they be at eachother's throat's at the end instead of working together? Is it because Walter considered David obsolete? Jesus fucking Christ it was Walter. I'm a fucking idiot.
 
Toa TAK said:
What

She straight up changes her mind on it all after the c-section and Holloway dying, and is what ultimately leads to the ending. Her frustration with the Engineers is what gets us the ending of her flying out to ask, basically, "You made us, now you hate us. What the fuck?"
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That she thought she would get anything other than being killed on sight proves my point.
 
geardo said:
Well, it's possible I guess. I didn't really think about the timing. I was trying to look at the face scars while watching it, but I couldn't remember who hit who where. If they were on the same page though, why would they be at eachother's throat's at the end instead of working together? Is it because Walter considered David obsolete? Jesus fucking Christ it was Walter. I'm a fucking idiot.
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The log cabin line clues you in on it not being Walter
 
Isaac Otherworld said:
That she thought she would get anything other than being killed on sight proves my point.
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Not at all.

We don't know that exactly. Maybe, but everyone seemed pretty psyched to see the Juggernaut come back thinking it were its own. If David stepped out maybe it could've gone differently. Had they continued that thread, they likely wouldn't have.
 
It was okay, but definitely not what I wanted. I would have liked some actual interactions between the Engineers and humans. It's hard to believe that every single Engineer that ever lived just happened to be on the planet at the time. You'd think you'd have some off-world that returned to see everything gone to hell. The series never really went into the existence of other intelligent life as far as I know so the Engineers seems like a wasted opportunity.
 
Isaac Otherworld said:
Her insistence on "oh our benevolent alien creator gods must have so much wisdom for us!" As everyone around her is dying because of said creators is literally comical. She's one note and her one note is stupid.
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I mean, she dropped that stance when people started dying and bad shit was happening and she didn't know how any of it would turn out. They were there to hopefully find answers to the origins of mankind and as humans we're sometimes illogically curious. They were thrilled to the core when they found the star charts, how different civilizations deducted the charts without having any connection themselves.

You can argue that it was dumb of them to go on the expedition but people have different perspectives; to them it was exciting, the potential discoveries they could run into and Weyland hired them and funded everything because he was dying and their discovery to him was a sort of last ditch effort into the hope that whatever they find could provide cures and whatnot. They didn't know they'd run into benevolent beings, just like how in Jurassic Park they were thrilled that they could make dinosaurs but didn't stop to think things completely through.

I don't think it makes a character stupid, but it's easy for we, the audience, knowing that it's a science-fiction thriller that bad shit is going to happen and therefore everything they do is dumb because to us they're obviously heading for trouble, but the characters aren't the audience. At any rate, even if I agreed with what you're saying in general, I still liked Shaw enough to where I wanted this movie to continue her character arc and I was into her more than anyone here.

It's like, if the characters knew they were in a horror film or what they're about to run into they probably wouldn't make some of these decisions. But then, you wouldn't have a film :p I don't think this excuse works for everything obviously and there was some legitimately dumb shit in Prometheus, but on a basic character level I thought Shaw was fine. Daniels... give or take.
 
Toa TAK said:
Not at all.

We don't know that exactly. Maybe, but everyone seemed pretty psyched to see the Juggernaut come back thinking it were its own. If David stepped out maybe it could've gone differently. Had they continued that thread, they likely wouldn't have.
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Prometheus made it abundantly clear the engineers wanted humanity exterminated. No one is going to their homeworld and having a talk ober tea.
 
Isaac Otherworld said:
Prometheus made it abundantly clear the engineers wanted humanity exterminated. No one is going to their homeworld and having a talk ober tea.
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I guess we'll never know.

I'm under the assumption that if the sequel actually followed up on that instead of Robo-Satan, she and David wouldn't have died outright.

I mean, you *could* take out your protagonist early in the film, but I doubt that. Then again, we got Covenant and something even less satisfying to Shaw's arc then seeing a living, working Engineer planet, which would've been a lot more interesting.

To me, the idea is akin to an orphan who wants to find their parents who didn't want them. Or a kid for being their biological parents. It's fascinating and a little sad, and it could've been this in a film that followed through with Shaw's confrontation with the Engineers.
brandonh83 said:
Fuck me for waiting five years for the Prometheus sequel to pick up where the first left off with that annoying ass cliffhanger.

It's literally another god damned Hicks and Newt situation.
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Right? The only solace in this movie is that it's at least better than Alien to the third power.
 
Just saw this shit, that ending was trash B
pacspit.gif
 
Honestly the only good thing I can think of regarding this movie is that hopefully we'll get an Aliens-type movie with those colonists on board the ship. After four fucking movies (Alien 3, Resurrection, Prometheus, and Covenant) of convoluted plots/backstories (moreso with the latter two movies) and having one Alien thing at a time, it would be nice to go to a balls out action movie again. It could be the dumbest, most simplest movie ever and I'd still probably like it better than these two prequels that literally do nothing but fuck up the origins hard.

Then again, Ridley Scott seems to fucking hate mentioning anything regarding Aliens so I guess I'm just wishing for something that will never happen.
 
Saw it this afternoon. It was an Alien flick; which I liked but didn't love.

Aliens is my favorite movie of all-time followed closely by Alien (yeah.... shut up...) and thus here is my take on the movie:
- Ridley has got to work on something besides distress call, go to planet, get infected, wait for the drama to unfold.
- Having watched pretty much all of the trailers and the prologue, the movie felt like "oh hey, when is this part going to happen..." which kinda sucks to be honest.
- The beginning of the movie with Weyland and David was great but tbh, it belonged in Prometheus. I get the subtext of driving the point home of "meeting your maker..." which was the overall theme of Prometheus however, this movie was about terraforming and exploration.
- The fact that Franco died without saying a line was actually kind of amazing.
- The fact that two people died a crispy death is also kind of a amazing.
- The cellular goo that penetrated the two colonists was as expected.
- The reaction to those sick colonists was to be expected.
- David with long hair was epic. In fact Fassbender stole the show to be frank. Whether it was Walter or David, each scene with either or both was on point. Also, not going to lie... hot android kissing.

Mythos:
Now for the "Mythos" part of the movie which I feel like Ridley fell flat on.
- We wanted to see the prologue of what Shaw and David did, didn't get to see it.
- We wanted more details as to what happened with the Engineers (we saw it). However, the context seems wholly at question. In the film, they (The Engineers) appear to be welcoming back their ship only to have the black plague dropped on them. This seems to be tied to the love story sub-plot that develops between Prometheus and Covenant. Would have loved to know more about this as it was alluded to in the convo. with Walter and David.
- Shaw herself. Obviously she died a horrible death by one of David's failed experiments or perhaps his greatest. Her body torn apart was most likely David researching any areas of the body affected after the black goo caused a generation of a creature inside. It goes to show Ridley's odd attention to detail given the fact that David had a human (or perhaps Engineer) body that you'd find in a biology class in his "secret" lair. I also hate that what most people expected going into this movie was a tying up lose ends from Prometheus of which Ridley is most likely (I would assume) save for Alien: Paradise.
- Art style was on point along with musical queues from all Alien movies but I noticed that this movie missed a chance to have a unique flair of music. I also think it should have followed some queues from 'Alien' and used the atmospheric noise as the soundtrack rather than anything used to cut or create tension.

Lastly, the Xeno's.
- David able to talk to them was fascinating. The fact that what he was doing when he found the Covenant crew was really putting them in his jar for his experiments since clearly he no longer feared them and they no longer viewed him as a threat. This was almost a harp back (ironically) to Alien Resurrection where Ripley felt a biological connection to the Xeno's.
- The shape and rapid growth was also interesting. Instead of the "chest burster" we get in 'Alien' that grows into a full grown Xeno, we get baby Xeno's that grow into larger versions quite quick. We only get a hint of the Xeno growth in 'Alien 3' when the Xeno is shedding its skin like snake. I would venture a guess that because the black goo was perfected by David and that the eggs that were laid by..... "...It must be something we haven't seen yet...." (*coughs*) Queen, then it make me wonder how exactly the eggs were laid for the facehuggers. Anyways....

Final thoughts:
Ridley checks all the boxes but the movie (to me at least) lacks a bit of a soul in terms of it identity within the 'Alien' cannon. It screams for attention as it has some great visuals and good mechanics but it lacks a long lasting punch to be remembered. The irony is I find myself liking Prometheus now MORE than I did simply because the interaction with the Engineer and the whole "how do we live forever" mythos seemed to be a bit more interesting even tho Prometheus is filled with a bevy of plot holes. Which movie is better? Neither, honestly. They each have their pro's and con's of which the story again is centered around David. Without him as an anchor, we don't really have a story to follow due to his mandate from Weyland of "..Try harder.". I will say this, the next Alien movie needs something more in common with District 9 than it does 'Alien'. It needs to be about the story telling and characters rather than the events of action or horror that happens to them. Perhaps Ridley will find that perfect combination in his next chapter.
 
Toa TAK said:
To me, the idea is akin to an orphan who wants to find their parents who didn't want them. Or a kid for being their biological parents. It's fascinating and a little sad, and it could've been this in a film that followed through with Shaw's confrontation with the Engineers.
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I don't understand this. If your parents are trying to kill you should try to get away. Going back into their house after escaping to talk things over is stupid.

There was no potential at the end of prometheus. We got all the answers. We know the engineers created and were expirimenting with the black go to create biological weapons. We know there was never any grand plan for humanity. We know they're trying to kill us. There was no outcome or answers aside from Shaw being killed or them dropping the black goo on the planet. Any one who thought otherwise are deluding themselves. Just like Shaw.
 
Isaac Otherworld said:
I don't understand this. If your parents are trying to kill you should try to get away. Going back into their house after escaping to talk things over is stupid.

There was no potential at the end of prometheus. We got all the answers. We know the engineers created and were expirimenting with the black go to create biological weapons. We know there was never any grand plan for humanity. We know they're trying to kill us. There was no outcome or answers aside from Shaw being killed or them dropping the black goo on the planet. Any one who thought otherwise are deluding themselves. Just like Shaw.
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Umm what? Do you wholly support everything your government and military does? Why should a military blacksite perfectly reflect its citizens?
 
Just got out of this movie. Can't say much yet since I'm on my way to a party, but here's my super short review for now.

It was worse than Prometheus and writing-wise, reminded me of those Star Wars spinoff fan films.
 
Isaac Otherworld said:
I don't understand this. If your parents are trying to kill you should try to get away. Going back into their house after escaping to talk things over is stupid.

There was no potential at the end of prometheus. We got all the answers. We know the engineers created and were expirimenting with the black go to create biological weapons. We know there was never any grand plan for humanity. We know they're trying to kill us. There was no outcome or answers aside from Shaw being killed or them dropping the black goo on the planet. Any one who thought otherwise are deluding themselves. Just like Shaw.
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I dunno. I thought it would've been really interesting to see an entire species beyond a single crashed military ship. Or how exactly the black goo works since it seems to be wildly inconsistent in Prometheus. There's a lot they could've explored beyond the perceived obvious and having Shaw and David go there would've been neat.
 
Just got out of my showing. The fingering line and android kissing was fucking comical. So awful.

The movie was fine, overall. The audience was really into David, especially that ending. "Fucking savage" and "Got 'em!" were just a few things I heard them say, which made me laugh.

Danny McBride was surprisingly good, and James Franco didn't annoy me, thankfully.
 
So now that David has the embryos and a ship can we assume that the next movie is based around the idea of him crashing on Acheron (LV426) or something? The pod ovomorph from the first movie being produced from all of the specimens he has left on board the Convenient ship.

We don't know if Walter is dead or alive at this point, but my theory and just hold on a sec with me is this. So I think Walter will be the focus of the next movie and he will fix the Promethean ship and come after David and his ship of horrors. Tennessee and Daniels aren't harmed and are the only crew rescued, their baby is none other than Ellen Ripley.

Yeah I know it's a reach, but damn do I want another movie now...

Movie was better than I thought it would be going into it and really was good. I don't get the negative stuff people keep saying about it, but different strokes.
 
KeyBladerXIII said:
Just got out of my showing. The fingering line and android kissing was fucking comical. So awful.
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I saw that as a callback to Roy kissing Tyrell before killing him in Blade Runner.

Mobius 1 said:
I fucking KNEW that people would now be expressing love for Prometheus, after years of shitting on it (rightly so).thisisneogaf.gif
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There've always been people here vocally expressing their love for Prometheus before Covenant came out.

BeardyChan said:
So now that David has the embryos and a ship can we assume that the next movie is based around the idea of him crashing on Acheron (LV426) or something? The pod ovomorph from the first movie being produced from all of the specimens he has left on board the Convenient ship.
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I thought Alien: Awakening was a Covenant prequel? Or is that still up in the air?
 
Prometheus works for me as a slasher-esque movie where idiotic people die in inventive ways, even if it makes a big show of asking questions it never gets around to answering.

Covenant actually answers a few of this franchise's questions and reveals that those answers are kind of boring and uninspired; it's also not as good of a "watch people die" movie as Prometheus because it's not nearly as creative in that regard by limiting itself to just the xenomorphs. Say what you will about the Prometheus characters poking at snakes they shouldn't, but at least there was a giant squid thing.
 
Doctor Decimate said:
Prometheus works for me as a slasher-esque movie where idiotic people die in inventive ways, even if it makes a big show of asking questions it never gets around to answering.

Covenant actually answers a few of this franchise's questions and reveals that those answers are actually kind of boring and uninspired; it's also not as good of a "watch people die" movie as Prometheus because it's not nearly as creative in that regard by limiting itself to just the xenomorphs.
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Didn't even utilize the Xenomorphs that well at all anyway. This movie seemed like Scott really stroking his need to expand on the lore for some unnecessary reason.
 
So here is why I think its actual Walter on the ship and not David. The "David" at the last part of the movie has no wound under his chin, where she stabbed him with the nail. Anyone else catch that? All his other wounds are stitched up but there was no marks under his chin. There is a few scenes after their fight where there is close ups and there is nothing.
 
Alien is a pretty weird series, isn't it? A lot of different focuses, yet the structure remains pretty dang similar each time. David's a bit of a tryhard philosophizer, but at least we see Walter call him out on that. The real issue is that the series is laid out in a way that Fassbender and Weaver can't easily meet, though would that really have much potential? I don't really know what Blomkamp movie was going to be.
 
Honestly, the only great disappointment for me was the lack of more physical effects and a larger reliance on CGI by Scott. That was somewhat uncharacteristic for him.

Otherwise, I enjoyed it and will post more about it once my thoughts settle. It's not high-art, it's not Alien/Aliens (those are never happening again, embrace it), but it was entertaining enough. Fassbender steals the show as expected, and because of it I'm actually onboard with David-Walter becoming the center point of the films. I'm ok with the film opening up the storyline for more possibilities and inviting some speculation. Honestly, some of the most fun I've had in film conversations was during the gap between Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions. It turned out to be shit, but the speculation and theories about the plot were so interesting and creative.
 
Rsinart said:
So here is why I think its actual Walter on the ship and not David. The "David" at the last part of the movie has no wound under his chin, where she stabbed him with the nail. Anyone else catch that? All his other wounds are stitched up but there was no marks under his chin. There is a few scenes after their fight where there is close ups and there is nothing.
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Nah probably just visual continuity hiccups.

Mobius 1 said:
Honestly, the only great disappointment for me was the lack of more physical effects and a larger reliance on CGI by Scott. That was somewhat uncharacteristic for him.
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Hated how the Neo infants had rough CG and ran around smashing nameless characters in the wheat field, so amazingly void of tension. It's just not what I expect from ALIEN and was nothing more than rampant and thoughtless violence. The snake in Prometheus looked awesome and it was effective how it wrapped around Millburn's arm, proceeded to break it to make a point of entry, went up through his arm and out into the helmet then into his mouth.

That was fucked up and effective. Nothing in Covenant was nearly that good IMO.
 
So the bio organic nature of the Xenomorph..........what are the odds it will be from David/Walter somehow getting infested and giving birth to one of those creatures. Maybe spawned after he does something to change himself.......say........be a space jockey maybe? Only as said, he gets infected, crashes, the Xenomorph burst out of him and is a Queen that plants eggs down in the ship.
 
I think that's clearly David because the idea that "turning" Walter involves getting him to talk with a British accent for no reason except for the benefit of Daniels and the audience is really fucking silly
 
ronaldthump said:
The next movie is a prequel to covenant - so we won't see what happens after this til the movie after that movie? By which point Ridley Scott might possibly already have kicked the bucket being this old??
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It's dumb as hell. But if it brings back Noomi and actually gives us the continuation promised then I dunno we'll see but I'm pretty detached now after being upset with Covenant.
 
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