youtu.be/XeMVrnYNwus
After everything that happened....you put David back together....and allowed him to roam the ship unsupervised...
Alien: Covenant
Re: Alien: Covenant
youtu.be/XeMVrnYNwus
After everything that happened....you put David back together....and allowed him to roam the ship unsupervised...
Re: Alien: Covenant
Yeah, I was kind of wondering about that, too.
"Black care rarely sits behind a rider whose pace is fast enough."
-TR
-TR
Re: Alien: Covenant
The big problem with Prometheus was that people were doing things because the script said so, and if they had a purpose behind it, it was not revealed to the audience. IE, was David honestly asking the Engineer the questions Weyland wanted him to ask, or was he openly insulting the Engineer's mother to provoke a violent response?
Or, did Weyland hire the cheapest, most disrespected scientists he could find because their work leaves a lot to be desired?
Example:
"We need a character to get infected. okay, but we don't want it to be our main leads."
"I know, let's make our two side characters, the professional cartographer/mapmaker, along with the ship's biologist, get lost and decide to approach a wild animal defending its territory like it was a puppy."
The problem with doing this is that, unlike previous Alien franchise films, this was supposed to be a ship full of professionals and scientists, not truckers or enlisted grunts. There is NO reason they shouldn't have acted carefully, taken their time, and not acted like they were at a frat party. But, if they acted like that, the plot wouldn't have happened.
This is why I think Ridley Scott is making a film about colonists, and giving us a long time to get to know the characters. So that A) we should be attached to them when they start getting killed by the monsters, and B) we have a reason they break protocols like crazy, as they're civilian colonists who would want to break the rules if a loved one's life was on the line.
Or, did Weyland hire the cheapest, most disrespected scientists he could find because their work leaves a lot to be desired?
Example:
"We need a character to get infected. okay, but we don't want it to be our main leads."
"I know, let's make our two side characters, the professional cartographer/mapmaker, along with the ship's biologist, get lost and decide to approach a wild animal defending its territory like it was a puppy."
The problem with doing this is that, unlike previous Alien franchise films, this was supposed to be a ship full of professionals and scientists, not truckers or enlisted grunts. There is NO reason they shouldn't have acted carefully, taken their time, and not acted like they were at a frat party. But, if they acted like that, the plot wouldn't have happened.
This is why I think Ridley Scott is making a film about colonists, and giving us a long time to get to know the characters. So that A) we should be attached to them when they start getting killed by the monsters, and B) we have a reason they break protocols like crazy, as they're civilian colonists who would want to break the rules if a loved one's life was on the line.
Re: Alien: Covenant
That is why I am more excited about this film. It seems to be more about the characters and not the backstory. But I agree with letting David8 run free. And the film leaks are saying he releases all the canisters of black goo onto the Engineer homeworld and watches them die in agony as they are transformed by the chemical. Maybe Shaw was killed by the Engineers, and he did it by retaliation?
Re: Alien: Covenant
Caught the movie earlier today. I'll have a spoiler filled rant later.
Unfortunately I would just call it "more of Prometheus".
Unfortunately I would just call it "more of Prometheus".
Thread ends here. Cut along dotted line.
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ChiggyvonRichthofen
- Captain
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Re: Alien: Covenant
I haven't seen the film yet, but I was sufficiently pessimistic to go ahead and read some spoilers. Without going into details, I'll just say that Ridley Scott really isn't much of a storyteller imo. Even in his best movies, he doesn't seem to understand what actually makes them work thematically. When he doesn't get a good script, the result is pretty but vacuous movies.
The owls are not what they seem.
Re: Alien: Covenant
So, thoughts on movie from yesterday.
Opening was good. The Covenent is definitely an aliens universe vessel, with industrial and practical designs. Acting is good to great. Fassbender is a standout playing both Androids. Walter and David.
Movie itself looks fantastic.
SPOILERS
It's just that everyone is a damned idiot again.
Instead of the professionals with character flaws we came to love from the original Alien and Aliens we have some paper thin characters we barely care about.
The captain. He's a man of faith, we know he's a man of faith because he tells us he is. What's more he tells us he's not trusted because of this. Now this is an important thing to note because throughout the movie, this doesn't have any relevance to the plot or inform his actions whatsoever.
He dies because after seeing David the Android, who interacts with a "neomorph" and has a mad science lab with a carved up human body and multiple H.R. Giger artworks covering the walls, he puts his head over an alien egg on command and gets implanted. After which, the Alien gestates and bursts from his chest appears with unfitting triumphant music.
The crew lands on a planet that has a near Earth habitat. Instead of wondering at the marvel of such a world so perfect for human life, and encountering it with the bare minimum of biological protection. They go out on a hiking trip and don't ask a single question. A couple of them poking spores and breathing them in because... what's the worst that can happen?
After which, crew who get sick don't report it until it's far too late. Then they get back to the lander, where the medic acts like a panicky idiot, eventually shooting a shotgun around fuel canisters and blew the thing up stranding them.
At this point, the movie has effectively devolved into an 80s slasher flick. Largely a number of characters you don't care about getting killed by stock horror monsters.
Then, the obvious cliche is brought it. They discover David the android on the planet, he cuts his hair to match Walter's. He seemingly kills Walter in private, only Walter being a newer and more advanced model has regenerative abilities and we see the wounds in his flesh heal.
David fights Daniels, another character who stabs him under the chin with a rusty nail.
Walter re-appears, fights David again. The outcome is off-screen, so obviously horror movie cliche, the one that comes back is the evil twin wearing the good twin's clothes.
Back on the Covenant, the Android repairs this wounds with some sort of wound stapler. Not regenerating of course. No-one questions this. No-one even bothers going through the most rudimentary checks to confirm this is actually the right Android.
Now one might think for a second, that there might be a double bluff, perhaps they're going to be smart. It's not actually David. If you look there's no wound on his chin from the nail. Perhaps this is just Walter and somehow your distrust of him turns out to be... nope. It's totally David. Screw you for actually paying attention.
Just came out of this movie thinking it was dumb, dumb, dumb.
Summing it all up though. The entire thing looks like it's trying to be a smart high concept piece of sci-fi but peel away the pretensions on the surface and it's just a run of the mill horror flick that you could make a few drinking games from.
Not worth seeing in the cinema. Maybe worth a rental if you're bored or catching it on netflix.
Opening was good. The Covenent is definitely an aliens universe vessel, with industrial and practical designs. Acting is good to great. Fassbender is a standout playing both Androids. Walter and David.
Movie itself looks fantastic.
SPOILERS
It's just that everyone is a damned idiot again.
Instead of the professionals with character flaws we came to love from the original Alien and Aliens we have some paper thin characters we barely care about.
The captain. He's a man of faith, we know he's a man of faith because he tells us he is. What's more he tells us he's not trusted because of this. Now this is an important thing to note because throughout the movie, this doesn't have any relevance to the plot or inform his actions whatsoever.
He dies because after seeing David the Android, who interacts with a "neomorph" and has a mad science lab with a carved up human body and multiple H.R. Giger artworks covering the walls, he puts his head over an alien egg on command and gets implanted. After which, the Alien gestates and bursts from his chest appears with unfitting triumphant music.
The crew lands on a planet that has a near Earth habitat. Instead of wondering at the marvel of such a world so perfect for human life, and encountering it with the bare minimum of biological protection. They go out on a hiking trip and don't ask a single question. A couple of them poking spores and breathing them in because... what's the worst that can happen?
After which, crew who get sick don't report it until it's far too late. Then they get back to the lander, where the medic acts like a panicky idiot, eventually shooting a shotgun around fuel canisters and blew the thing up stranding them.
At this point, the movie has effectively devolved into an 80s slasher flick. Largely a number of characters you don't care about getting killed by stock horror monsters.
Then, the obvious cliche is brought it. They discover David the android on the planet, he cuts his hair to match Walter's. He seemingly kills Walter in private, only Walter being a newer and more advanced model has regenerative abilities and we see the wounds in his flesh heal.
David fights Daniels, another character who stabs him under the chin with a rusty nail.
Walter re-appears, fights David again. The outcome is off-screen, so obviously horror movie cliche, the one that comes back is the evil twin wearing the good twin's clothes.
Back on the Covenant, the Android repairs this wounds with some sort of wound stapler. Not regenerating of course. No-one questions this. No-one even bothers going through the most rudimentary checks to confirm this is actually the right Android.
Now one might think for a second, that there might be a double bluff, perhaps they're going to be smart. It's not actually David. If you look there's no wound on his chin from the nail. Perhaps this is just Walter and somehow your distrust of him turns out to be... nope. It's totally David. Screw you for actually paying attention.
Just came out of this movie thinking it was dumb, dumb, dumb.
Summing it all up though. The entire thing looks like it's trying to be a smart high concept piece of sci-fi but peel away the pretensions on the surface and it's just a run of the mill horror flick that you could make a few drinking games from.
Not worth seeing in the cinema. Maybe worth a rental if you're bored or catching it on netflix.
Thread ends here. Cut along dotted line.
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Re: Alien: Covenant
Unfortunate, but not unexpected. Now I regret even more that we won't see Blomkamp's take.
Re: Alien: Covenant
There's so much potential to it and future movies, but they're compromised and further releases will only worsen things.
Sadly the fanbase is a big problem, if only indirectly.
The push for stereotypical prequel dishing out of answers will destroy this franchise for the time being. People will get answers to questions they've sought a long time for but should never have been given.
It's a lost art today it seems, leaving things better unsaid for each of our individual imaginations to fill the blanks in. Whatever answers they provide will not compare to what our imaginations will have concocted both in grandeur and quality.
The talk of Dave's role to play in the movie is a good indication of all of this, as, if true, it will take a nice juicy steaming one on the first film and, you know, that once ironic title - Alien!
Sadly the fanbase is a big problem, if only indirectly.
The push for stereotypical prequel dishing out of answers will destroy this franchise for the time being. People will get answers to questions they've sought a long time for but should never have been given.
It's a lost art today it seems, leaving things better unsaid for each of our individual imaginations to fill the blanks in. Whatever answers they provide will not compare to what our imaginations will have concocted both in grandeur and quality.
The talk of Dave's role to play in the movie is a good indication of all of this, as, if true, it will take a nice juicy steaming one on the first film and, you know, that once ironic title - Alien!
