Alien: Covenant (2017)

[BetterButter]

Quote

idley Scott returns to the universe he created, with ALIEN: COVENANT, a new chapter in his groundbreaking ALIEN franchise. The crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world. When they uncover a threat beyond their imagination, they must attempt a harrowing escape.
 

[millennium]

I hope it introduces some new element, because so far all I see is a lot of the same.   The threat may be beyond the characters' imagination, but not ours, not for the last 30 years or so.

[bluvelvet]

Is this the sequel to Prometheus?

[AimingforYoko]

9 hours ago, millennium said:

I hope it introduces some new element, because so far all I see is a lot of the same.   The threat may be beyond the characters' imagination, but not ours, not for the last 30 years or so.

C'mon, the previous movies had the xenomorph bursting out of the chest, this one has it bursting out of the spine. That's completely different. 

[joelene]

I just hope there will be some likeable, believable characters this time around. The Prometheus had 90% assholes onboard. I don't worry about the monsters as much as the characters. That John Logan's the writer gives me more hope than Damon Lindelof did, but my expectations aren't too high.

[VCRTracking]

Katherine Waterston Stole Her Alien: Covenant Hairstyle From Her Fantastic Beasts Co-Star

I admit when I saw her hair in the movie I did really think "Um........why?"

[snickers]

I saw the trailer, I was not impressed.

I'm a fan of the Alien franchise, but-my all time favorite is Aliens followed by Prometheus, I know a lot of people didn't like Prometheus-but I loved it.

I'll have to wait to see what the reviews are on this before deciding if I will see it or not.  It looks like they are trying to return to the more horror version that made the franchise so popular.

[SimoneS]

I saw that Jussie Smollet is in this. I hope that he has a substantial role. I also like Demián Bichir  so I am glad that he is in this also.

Edited December 28, 2016 by SimoneS

[Bruinsfan]

I still think the original is the best made movie of the franchise from a critical standpoint, but Aliens is definitely the most enjoyable. There are in fact very few movies that I'd rank alongside it in terms of thrill ride excitement as a viewer—the first two Star Wars movies, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws, maybe Terminator 2 and Big trouble in Little China.

Edited December 28, 2016 by Bruinsfan

[ShadowHunter]

I love Alien and Aliens is one of my all time favorite movie but I did not care for Prometheus.  This one could be better but my expectations are low.  I felt Prometheus had a lot of flaws but the main one being I did not like or care about anyone in the film. The again maybe that was a good thing since I never 100% got over the fact that Hicks and Newt were killed off screen at the start of Alien 3.

[KnotsLanding]

Promethus kinda fell apart, but was visually stunning and had good concepts. Instead of trying so hard to recreate Ripley I wish they'd made Charlize's character the final girl. She was such a bitch, but the only truly smart one in the film. It would've been interesting to have her survive. Only time will tell with this new one though. I'm not too crazy on the trailer. I need to see how they map it all out.

[BetterButter]

Alien: Covenant | “Prologue: Last Supper"

[millennium]

Remember when there was all that buzz about a new Aliens movie, one that was going to star Sigourney Weaver and pretend Aliens 3 never happened?  

[SimoneS]

On 2/4/2017 at 5:24 AM, KnotsLanding said:

Promethus kinda fell apart, but was visually stunning and had good concepts. Instead of trying so hard to recreate Ripley I wish they'd made Charlize's character the final girl. She was such a bitch, but the only truly smart one in the film. It would've been interesting to have her survive. Only time will tell with this new one though. I'm not too crazy on the trailer. I need to see how they map it all out.

I didn't understand why they killed off Charlize Theron's character either. They should have kept her and Idris Elba's character alive. They along Fassbender would have been strong anchors for the next movie in the franchise.

[BetterButter]

[snickers]

On 1/31/2017 at 10:19 PM, ShadowHunter said:

I never 100% got over the fact that Hicks and Newt were killed off screen at the start of Alien 3.

I will forever be traumatized ;)

[BetterButter]

[ShadowHunter]

On ‎2‎/‎28‎/‎2017 at 9:50 PM, snickers said:

I will forever be traumatized ;)

We must find a support group !

6 hours ago, BetterButter said:

Okay this is a great picture.

[ApathyMonger]

I thought it was okay, but nothing great. Fassbender's definitely the main reason to see it.

Aside from being too prequel-y, my main problem was the characters, none of whom were very memorable, and more specifically the relationships between those characters.

The sort-of gimmick that it's a colony ship, so all the characters are pairs of married couples, is good, but it's completely wasted.

Spoiler

I could never tell which characters were paired up until the movie explicitly said so. Demián Bichir seems to have almost no reaction to his husband's death, nor Billy Crudup or Danny McBride to their wives'. Jussie Smollett and Callie Hernandez have all of their scenes together, but I didn't realise they were a couple until we see them having sex near the end.

[BetterButter]

Honest Trailers - Aliens

[jcin617]

Just saw this and I enjoyed it well enough as an extension of "Prometheus", but wasn't quite sure how it bridged to "Alien" (if it is indeed supposed to serve as one).   Also the fact that David engineered the xenomorphs doesn't make a whole lot of sense since we know they've been around long before that from "Predator v Alien".    Unless the Predator species just engineered them the same way - or we're supposed to ignore that storyline.

Is there supposed to be a third movie in this series?   (Thought I read that?)  I guess that one could connect and explain how the Engineer ship got infested and crashed on LV-426.

[ZoqFotPik]

On 5/12/2017 at 11:17 AM, ApathyMonger said:

I could never tell which characters were paired up until the movie explicitly said so. Demián Bichir seems to have almost no reaction to his husband's death, nor Billy Crudup or Danny McBride to their wives'. Jussie Smollett and Callie Hernandez have all of their scenes together, but I didn't realise they were a couple until we see them having sex near the end.

I thought the couples thing was unnecessary and for the most part didn't know who was with whom. I didn't even realize Hallett and Lope were married until I read it on Wikipedia. I disagree that Oram and Tennessee never reacted, we see Oram freeze and try to get to the lander after it explodes and while we don't see it entirely we get a quick glimpse of Tennessee breaking down in the corridor before Ricks turns off the screen. As for Ricks and Upworth's relationship there was the scene when the lander is prepping for launch when T, Farris, and Upworth are all joking around Ricks says something about how he can hear them and to stop talking about his wives breasts or something. 

Overall, I thought the movie was just okay. It had a lot of the same "Why are you doing this stupid thing?" and "WTF?" moments from 'Prometheus'. Sure touch the strange plant life without any kind of protection. Sure follow the creepy android that seems to be friendly with the aliens down into a darkened basement alone and then stick your head over a weird egg thing. What's the worst that can happen? Hooray! A giant city where we can take refuge that is within walking distance from our landing site that we couldn't see from orbit or on our way down to the surface for some reason.

Finally, David actually killed and replaced Walter! What a completely and utterly shocking twist that you could not have possibly seen coming from a mile away!

[PrincessPurrsALot]

I was feeling sort of lonely yesterday so I thought, "Why not create the perfect killing machine?  Best cure for loneliness  - kill all humans!"  Wait, that's not what I was supposed to take away from this movie? 

There were so many plot holes I found the movie both annoying and dull.  It seemed like it would drag on, then there would be some kind of gory moment in an attempt to spice things up.  For all the time spent at the beginning of the movie to establish the characters, they were really weakly drawn and often annoying without being funny.  I didn't expect deep meaningful explorations of every relationship.  However, I also didn't expect to feel absolutely nothing if the characters died. 

And then there were the scenes that seemed to be taken from a list of horror movie tropes.  Character follows creepy killer into a dark, secret location where he is killed.  Check.  People in clearly unsafe environment decide to split up.  Check.  People treated poorly for enacting quarantine protocols.  Check. Couple having sexy times at an unlikely moment making it easier for creature to attack.  Check.  In that moment making it look like the creature may penetrate the female character.  Check. Ability  to cut hair into exact style of doppelganger, including a color correction.  Check.  People who have lived with a being not noticing that their doppelganger has replaced them even though there is a really obvious clue.  Check.   Eeeeeeeeeeevil android.  Check. 

This movie was so disappointing.  I am sorry I contributed to the ticket sales.  It will encourage them to make another.      

[raven]

1 hour ago, PrincessPurrsALot said:

This movie was so disappointing.  I am sorry I contributed to the ticket sales.  It will encourage them to make another. 

OMG so much this!  What a terrible movie; worse than Prometheus (which I kind of liked).

I started getting a feeling it wouldn't be good from the long, boring opening sequence with David and his "father".   Really, the biggest sin in this movie, besides the truly incredible stupidity of the characters, was how dull it was for long stretches.   Ooh look, Fassbender teaching Fassbender to play the flute zzzzzzzzzzzz.  Oh look, stupid captain follows obviously-insane David down a creepy tunnel (no tension, zzzzzzzzzzzzz) and STICKS HIS FACE INTO THE ALIEN EGG.  

Stupid guy wearing a hat brings the ship with 2,000 innocent people into a danger zone with only some weak protests by the other crew members.  Hope those colonists didn't have to pay anything to travel with those jackasses!

Even the one decent scene, with Ripley-lite trying to kill the alien on the outside of ship, went on too long.

 

20 hours ago, ZoqFotPik said:

Finally, David actually killed and replaced Walter! What a completely and utterly shocking twist that you could not have possibly seen coming from a mile away!

I know, right?  Why even try to make the audience guess?

Seeing the alien city was cool and the visuals good but really, this was a very bad movie.   

[Robert Lynch]

I finally saw it and it was nothing to fawn over, despite Fassbender's presence. 

And all the killing of the characters...oh, my God! Reminds of those SNL/Mad TV bits from the 90s where naive characters fall to their deaths due to their stupidity. And the killer is on the loose still when all else fails. I never thought that would happen in this movie, but the writers from those shows were right on the money within this type of disaster. When all else fails, don't question the person next to you. Which is exactly what happens at the end.

[PrincessPurrsALot]

@raven I had blocked from my memory the enthralling Fassbender teaches Fassbender how to play the flute scene.  It was around that time that I became sorry I saw this at a theater with drinks and food served at your seat.  I couldn't leave until I could pay. By then we were near enough to the end I got to watch moptop be the ball on a paddle game while Danny McBride smashed the ship into big stone objects. 

[snickers]

ok so when i first saw the teaser trailers i had no interest in this movie....when i saw the other trailers i still had no interest....then i saw the RT scores and reviews and i decided to see the first showing today because it is the cheapest ($5.50 a ticket)......I see I am in the minority because i really enjoyed it!

I agree that the crew was blah...i wasn't into them either....the only couple that didn't annoy me was the couple that got killed in the shower at the end!

I guess what i liked about it was how the evilness of David really came full circle...I mean he started it all on promethesius....and then to see how he killed the engineers and shaw.....and then of course how predictable.....he was going to overtake the ship but when Daniels realizes it is him and then falls into hypersleep, I thought that was a pretty good scene.....you gotta give it to Fassbender....but then again I'm a huge fan so I'm biased ;)

I also liked how this movie explained more about why the aliens looked the way they did....but it left a lot of stuff unanswered....which i knew from the stuff i read.....hopefully the sequel he has planned gets made.....something tells me Fassbender will be in that one too

As far as Billy Crudup's character goes....yeah he was pretty stupid....but it sounded like he was a man of faith.....and it appears he had a history of making bad decisions...hence why he was never captain.....had that been daniels she never would have willing stuck her head in.....and he never listened to Daniels....he didn't trust her judgement not to go to that planet.....i think the movie spoke a lot about being careful what you wish for....the engineers wanted to wipe out the humans (who they created) so they created an organism that killed them on that remote planet......humans created artificial intelligence...that artificial intelligence in turn wiped out (most) of the engineers and is trying to make sure the humans don't have a chance of life beyond earth.....for Crudup's character....he wanted a chance to lead and the first chance he gets he leads them to disaster

The reason i say most of the engineers got wiped out is because i'm guessing this isn't the last we hear of them....Scott has a lot more sequel's planned if allowed and I'm assuming he will someday explain why the engineers created humans and why the engineers created the black goo stuff....

Oh and one thing that bugged was how fast the xenomorph things were growing this time! made no sense......the only thing i can figure was the atmosphere of the planet?

the next movie better tie into the movie Alien...no plot holes please LOL

[Couver]

I saw this today and snickers I'll pull up a table with you in that I also enjoyed it overall. I thought it got more to the roots of the original 2 films than Prometheus ever did. One thing both movies have done well are the visuals. There are so many beautiful scenes. The unfurling of the solar sails was beautiful as was the Engineers city (though why were their buildings so primitive? It looked like Ancient Rome). 

With that said the film could have been so much more. The biggest weakness with this film and the previous one were the characters. Alien and Aliens worked so well because the characters had some life to them. It made you invested in their lives and their struggle for survival. Covenant did better than Prometheus in that the characters were more likeable but still one note. I think if more time had been devoted to the couples it would have helped. It was very awkward how often the film had to have someone say 'my wife' or 'my husband' to tell the audience when they could have just shown us. And while more likeable the character were still so stupid. Even if an planet has breathable atmosphere wouldn't you want to take precautions against alien pathogens? Even a lay person would have that thought so when trained specialist don't it's ridiculous. The film had a good cast that could have handled more material though.

The xenomorphs in this looked fantastic but I was left with so many questions. How did the black dust create the first 2 xenomorphs? In Prometheus the goo/dust just  mutated the hosts it didn't birth any aliens. I would have liked if the film at least kept to its own established continuity. How did David even create the facehuggers? Was he experimenting with the Engineers and the animal life on their planet? Or did he use Shaw to birth a queen? 

[voiceover]

I say: Death to all "Origin Stories".  They're as overdone as TV season-ending cliffhangers, and about as tedious & predictable.

Get off my lawn Ridley Scott!!

[psychoticstate]

10 hours ago, voiceover said:

I say: Death to all "Origin Stories".  They're as overdone as TV season-ending cliffhangers, and about as tedious & predictable.

Get off my lawn Ridley Scott!!

God, do I agree with this.  100%.  I hated Prometheus.  As I told a friend, I don't care where the aliens came from, etc.  They are far more scary in NOT knowing how they came to be.

While I thought Covenant was far better than Prometheus, neither deserves to be part of the Alien canon.  Alien and Aliens were far superior to anything that followed.  Stories were good, you got to know the characters and were invested.  The characters also didn't do stupid things that were clearly only to move the plot line along. 

I hated the beginning of Covenant, with Fassbender in the all-white room.  Point?  I didn't get any.  I also thought the ship should have been forced to land on the "bad planet" versus Captain Billy making the monumentally dumbass decision of landing there - - especially after it was disclosed that the ship had 2,000 colonists on board and a decade was spent researching their initial destination.  So much trope was utilized in this film.  Both women on the scavenger or whatever it is was slipping in blood and gore, costing them their lives (and eventually everyone else, since it led to the scavenger ship's destruction.)  Exploring a new planet without protective gear.  Automatically trusting David. The survivors splitting up -- constantly.  Putting your face into a hatching egg that you've never seen before nor have any idea what it is - - right after seeing the remains of a crew member that was torn apart by an alien, that you just destroyed. And then, of course, trusting David after he'd just lost his shit because you killed said alien.  Gah.  

I read there will be at least two more movies following this and as much as I loved the first two original Alien movies, I probably won't be down with any more.  

[Robert Lynch]

How did it do in the box office so far?

[starri]

Poorly.

[ZoqFotPik]

Domestically, $36 million on opening weekend. 'Prometheus' brought in $55 million opening weekend. Worldwide it's made about $125 million against a $97 million budget. So not horrible, but not that great either. It's all but assured to be pushed out of the number one spot this week with 'Pirates' opening.

[starri]

6 minutes ago, ZoqFotPik said:

It's all but assured to be pushed out of the number one spot this week with 'Pirates' opening.

It was barely in the number one spot last week.  I won't be surprised if it comes in third behind GotG.

[Enero]

On 5/21/2017 at 2:22 PM, PrincessPurrsALot said:

I was feeling sort of lonely yesterday so I thought, "Why not create the perfect killing machine?  Best cure for loneliness  - kill all humans!"  Wait, that's not what I was supposed to take away from this movie? 

There were so many plot holes I found the movie both annoying and dull.  It seemed like it would drag on, then there would be some kind of gory moment in an attempt to spice things up.  For all the time spent at the beginning of the movie to establish the characters, they were really weakly drawn and often annoying without being funny.  I didn't expect deep meaningful explorations of every relationship.  However, I also didn't expect to feel absolutely nothing if the characters died. 

And then there were the scenes that seemed to be taken from a list of horror movie tropes.  Character follows creepy killer into a dark, secret location where he is killed.  Check.  People in clearly unsafe environment decide to split up.  Check.  People treated poorly for enacting quarantine protocols.  Check. Couple having sexy times at an unlikely moment making it easier for creature to attack.  Check.  In that moment making it look like the creature may penetrate the female character.  Check. Ability  to cut hair into exact style of doppelganger, including a color correction.  Check.  People who have lived with a being not noticing that their doppelganger has replaced them even though there is a really obvious clue.  Check.   Eeeeeeeeeeevil android.  Check. 

This movie was so disappointing.  I am sorry I contributed to the ticket sales.  It will encourage them to make another.      

This so much. What a disappointing origin story. BTW, you forgot another trope - exploring a planet you don't know anything about without protective suits.  I could not believe they were just walking around this ALIEN planet, that they just discovered hours/days ago, like they were going on an exploration trip on Earth. 

Also, I knew the minute we saw David was alive there was going to be a fight with Walter and ultimately a switch. 

On 5/22/2017 at 0:27 PM, psychoticstate said:

 I also thought the ship should have been forced to land on the "bad planet" versus Captain Billy making the monumentally dumbass decision of landing there - - especially after it was disclosed that the ship had 2,000 colonists on board and a decade was spent researching their initial destination.  

 

Thank you! The total disregard for the 2000 colonists whose lives were in their hands (and were ultimate lost due to their inane actions) was astounding. None of them should've been in charge because they were all acting on their own personal desires instead what was best for everyone. They shouldn't have landed on that planet in the first place.  Just dumb decisions all the way around.

So much trope was utilized in this film.  Exploring a new planet without protective gear.  Automatically trusting David. The survivors splitting up -- constantly.  

Putting your face into a hatching egg that you've never seen before nor have any idea what it is - - right after seeing the remains of a crew member that was torn apart by an alien, that you just destroyed. And then, of course, trusting David after he'd just lost his shit because you killed said alien.  Gah.  

LMAO at the statement in bold - It was so stupid all I could do was laugh, because that scene was written purely for plot. 

I thought someone would've picked up on David's nefarious response when they mentioned to him that they were from a colonist ship. He practically twirled his mustache and went hmmm and now that I think about it, the crew member (can't think of her name) who was second in command did seem to pick up that all was not right. Because she told Walter that something didn't add up with David's story. However, that was dropped so that we could watch David and Walter "bond" (and to showcase Fassbender) over the flute and being in love. RME.

It is expected that some plot twists will include dumb decisions by the characters, but this was just too much. Almost every decision these characters made was stupid, which kind of took me out of the movie. 

It was cool seeing the Engineers alive before everything went to hell  and some of the shots of the planet as they were landing were nice too, but that was about it. Overall this was not very good. 

[Sandman87]

On Monday, May 22, 2017 at 9:27 AM, psychoticstate said:

Putting your face into a hatching egg that you've never seen before nor have any idea what it is - - right after seeing the remains of a crew member that was torn apart by an alien, that you just destroyed.

From your description, I can't help but wonder if that was inspired by a very similar scene in Forbidden World

[starri]

On 5/25/2017 at 8:33 AM, starri said:

It was barely in the number one spot last week.  I won't be surprised if it comes in third behind GotG.

Nope, I was wrong.  4th.

If it couldn't even manage to best a stinker like Baywatch...

[revbfc]

Nerd note:

There's no "Act 2" in Das Rheingold.  That opera consists of four scenes.  Any Wagner fan would know that shit.

[Anela]

Well, I skimmed this thread before going to the theatre, and thought about not going... only to be just as stupid as most of the characters in this crap movie, and wasted money on the tickets. I also wished I'd stayed home, by the time the flute-playing scene came on. I couldn't blame the girl who got killed when she was just cleaning off - she tried to reach for her gun, although I think I'd have wanted someone else there with me, considering. That captain trusting David, after he had just treated a monster like a pet, was beyond ridiculous. 

I usually end up being like the couple of people here, who enjoy the movie, or end up not thinking it's that bad, when others are slamming it. I've loathed movies that were hyped up like Pulp Fiction (horrible movie!) - but this was mostly crap. 

[shrewd.buddha]

So much wasted potential. Great visuals, pretty solid acting, impressive attention to details  ... but all attached to really cliched, bad writing. 

This would definitely be the argument against sending couples as team members on space missions : all safety protocols are abandoned immediately if the partners are in danger. The away team should have been written off as lost as soon as they knew there was a deadly infection. The survivors should have never risked the safety of the Covenant crew by asking to be rescued before they had secured their situation. 
But there were so many, many 'should haves' in the movie, such as They should have observed the planet from space for a while before sending a landing party. They should have become suspicious of David as soon as he cut his hair to look like Walter. 

I believe it is possible for bad things to happen on space missions even when everyone follows rules. But it seems as if only one crew member is allowed to be reasonable and cautious and everyone else makes idiotic choices. And what was up with the second-in-command guy and his being religious thing? He seemed like a poor choice for any type of leadership role.

[KnotsLanding]

Okay that was terrible. If anything I'd say it reminded me more of a sequel to Ressurection or the Alien vs Predator movies just considering how B-movie it felt. I know many disliked Prometheus but I enjoyed it which is another reason I struggled with this. I know that movie had its faults but you're making a sequel to it so you kinda have a go through with it. I don't think what hey came up sigh was so bad you just completely give up which is what they did. 

I always felt they made a mistake keeping Killing off Charlize Theron's character. She was a bitch but also the only smart one in Prometheus. I would've preferred seeing her and Elizabeth in the sequel to David who was tiresome the first go round. Even without Theron, you still had a good heroine in Elizabeth Shaw and I can't begin to understand killing her off between films. What a waste.

Overall I found it had a couple nice jump moments but that's it. I didn't like ANYTHING once they landed on the planet. Too many characters I didn't know so their deaths didn't matter. They somehow made the alien not scary as well, including the face hugger. I did enjoy Daniels outside of the ship fighting the Queen and then the space fight but it was hardly worth sitting through for those two things. 

When it comes to the next sequel they've got to let go of David and figure out what they want. A sequel to Prometheus or Alien, or a prequel to Alien. This failed on all accounts. 

[Couver]

I could have excused the blind trusting of David since Walter confirmed that newer models were modified to be less independent and essentially subservient to humans. But then the movie never made it clear if the crew knew what happened to the Prometheus exactly or not. Walter seemed to know that David had gone rogue which is why subsequent synthetics were modified. But the crew didn't. Even with that in mind though when David was clearly acting shifty and suspicious they never questioned it at all. 

Disagree about Theron's Vickers character. She was probably one of the most foolish characters in Prometheus. After the 'biologist' who pets the alien snake her inability to roll out of the way of that falling spaceship was such a dumb move. 

[Mierin]

On 3/23/2017 at 10:39 PM, ShadowHunter said:

We must find a support group !

Okay this is a great picture.

I would like to join this support group, please!  

I saw this in the theatre - I saw it in the cheap theatre (paid 3.50) and I think I paid too much.  It was very disappointing. 

[BetterButter]

[SimoneS]

@BetterButter, that was hilarious. Thanks for posting.

[raven]

The Honest Trailer was much, much better than the movie, LOL.  "There are now more bad Alien movies than good ones" heh.

[paulvdb]

That was great. "Best sci-fi flutework since Picard."

[WritinMan]

I really looked forward to this and was so disappointed. The most disappointed I've been in a move in quite some time. You have to suspend belief a bit in movies like this, but there were such huge gaps in logic in this movie that I just can't let it go.

[BetterButter]

New ‘Alien’ Movie in the Works With ‘Don’t Breathe’ Filmmaker Fede Alvarez

[dwmarch]

From the article:

"Álvarez’s take is being kept deep inside the studio’s chest cavity, but sources describe it as unconnected to the previous movies."

I can deal with that!