Alien Covenant Review (Contains Spoilers)

7.5 is fair. Very close to Ign review. I  liked it a bit more than you Big Dave and would probably snap an 8 or 8.5. It's in the ballpark and we can agree it didn't suck. Had some cool factor to it which is why I up about one point.

splatterpunk I think he said 6 overall

Oh my bad, so I'm two points over. No biggie. Six is fine although I think it's a tad low. It's all subjective in the long run:)

I'm pretty much right there with you on this review. It was an ok movie that had the potential to be downright amazing.

Basically a lot like Prometheus in that way. It's like they both got almost there with these cool big ideas, but then didn't end up expanding on them much at all.

For example, in Prometheus, I wanted SO BAD to know more about those biomech Engineers and what the heck was goin on with them. It was alluded to and implied, but never expanded on. In A:C, David freaking destroys a whole civilization, and it is just kind of glossed over.

For Ridley Scott to always mention in EVERY SINGLE INTERVIEW that he wonders why people didn't question the history of the space jockey from Alien in its subsequent sequels- where he came from, etc.. it's VERY weird to me that in two of his own movies in a row now, he has gone out of the way to dance around, but NOT answer that question, keeping it very ambiguous.

I feel a real acute sense of "what could have been" in almost the same way as after first seeing Prometheus.

While I do like the 'David as god' scenario, that concept is alot less original - less grand of a concept - and less 'alien' than a literal race of giant, white aliens, traveling through space in gigeresque ships, who are DNA manipulators and so far superior to humankind. #iwanttheengineersback

The fact that nobody said "who are/were these people and what happened here/to them" (I'm referring to the charred Non-Engineers of course) is quite ridiculous.  God I am so frustrated with this movie right now.  That's not what would have happened on real life.  They just follow some cloaked stranger with a flare gun (another ridiculous part of the movie) and didn't bother to ask about anything?

Here are the thing about reviews and now a days. So many people can become a critic most people are meaningless voices who go for blog views and all that crap. Pick your reviewers and go from their. 

I'll mention roger eigbert. "Dazzling Alien Covenant"

incredible movie for the budget. 

Four stars. Pick your adjective.

there will be many bloggers putting out reviews simply to garner clicks, try to be edgy, attention.

Apparently everyone is an edgelord now, lol.

@phallic jaw

They were commenting on it man. They said "What the fuck." "fuck" and "What happened here"! Were you not paying attention?!

I can't write movie reviews. I don't pretend to understand film. About the only thing I can make an accurate comment on is regarding the writing. 

I liked the writing in covenant much better than Prometheus. I liked the dialogue between T and his wife. The curses were on point. David is a tad to artsy for me but it adds a layer to his crazy and pyschotic behavior. 

These people were scientists as well but they seemed like normal people where Prometheus seemed sterile. So in a conclusion I thought covenant writing was pretty good.

The reason I'm commenting on the writing is because I am a writer, author myself. I know nothing about cinematography except once I made a movie about beer disappearing without lifting the glass. Stupid stop motion and having fun opening doors and cutting away and back. Yeah, I'll stick to writing.

The part where Daniels and the captain argued about going to the planet was good. The banter was good. That captain was such a dipshit. I'm not going to analyze every single thing. On a while it was fine. Then again I don't write scripts either:)

Dont get me wrong Scott has a great visual eye but he's not a writer/director correct? 

I personally feel you get better work when it's one guy. Less hands in the pot. 

I happened to adore the movie Prometheus and was so excited this movie was going to be a definite sequel. I would have enjoyed a better explanation as to what happened in the last 10 years along with the action sequences of the monsters. What did Davis use as specimens if he eradicated all the engineers? How was the Xeno perfected without humans? Why facehuggers when there aren't any faces? How is the mural explained if David created the Zeno? I feel like Scott totally just regurgitated this version to please the fans looking for Xeno's. This movie was definitely dumbed down to a level that Prometheus haters could comprehend. The ending was total crap! Did anyone actually believe David was dead? No one thought to check if David was dead? I am very disappointed with this movie, I suppose I wanted a more intellectual movie from Scott and really expected one. 

I agree with much of your criticism BD but I think I was more disappointed when I first saw Prometheus (which grew over time). I think the major drawback with AC was that it was a bit too forced, they wanted to get a lot into the movie (of 2 hours and 2 minutes). Characterization and creepy atmosphere was lost (more of action as in Aliens).

I think if deleted scenes are available on the blu-ray, perhaps making the movie 2 hours and 40 minutes, it could get more creepy and generate more characterization and atmosphere? One example would be the shower scene which was too quick in the movie. There should have been more of a camera from the monster’s point of view through the corridors, perhaps seeing the creature's feet sometimes, slowly leading to the shower. The same goes for the neomorph which more slowly should have approached Rosenthal. Everything happened too quickly. The monster’s transformation and growth happened extremely rapidly. How quick was the progress from Oram and the facehugger to a fully grown protomorph attacking crew members in David’s lab?

Still, I liked Scott’s choice of music from the original Alien, comments like “Walk in the park” (and even “That’s the spirit” from Blade Runner), the plot of David as the villain meeting his upgraded doppelganger and the twist at the end etc.

I hope there are lots of deleted/alternate scenes. In that case, I think the movie could get much better?

I've seen the movie four times already; that's how much I love it. 

There's not much point speculating about the scientific accuracy of the movie because – let's face it – none of it is really possible. It's just fantasy. Remember, it was posited that the extraordinary growth rate of the squid in Prometheus was put down to its ability to rapidly ingest plastic insulation. Hey, just run with it. That's the kind of thing that an 'ingenious' design, as David puts it, can do. There is actually no indication in the first Alien movie as to how quickly the Xenomorph grew to full size. We only got to see it later scurrying about in the air conditioning system.

As for plot holes, I don't regard them as flaws, merely gaps in the story that is yet to be told.

The Engineers might be playing second stage here, but I find it just as fascinating that mankind's downfall is essentially his own doing. And I love David's part in it, and the 'lonely perfection' of his dreams. The Engineers will, of course, feature in a future movie or two because we know where it all ends up.

i have to say i rated it 3/5. so 60%.

before my viewing of covenant i had tried to keep my feet on the ground as it became more clear that there would be little opportunity for reveals. 

i decided to just try and enjoy the film and be happy with the 2 or 3 potential reveals that would come.

i had wanted to try and work the plot out using what evidence was available and i did that. it didnt spoil the film for me.  its something i wanted to do - so i did

the reveals are what i was most interested in.

questions from prometheus needed answering and ridley gave us the crossing and informed us it was a sequel.

however even though it was hinted and said that there would be some answers, we got none.

i just think that if they had gave us some more reveals in the covenant story, then that would satisfy most fans until the next one.

however the interesting scenes which were beautiful were just skipped around. no mention. hall of heads, city etc.. to spend all that time and money making those sets - then to not mention them it just seems a waste for me. you might as well have nothing in the scenes if you are not going to address them

Holy crap Covenant ruined Prometheus AND Alien with one blow.

If someone had told me 4 years ago that Ridley Scott would manage to destroy Prometheus and the Alien films in one fell swoop I never would have believed you. But that's exactly what happened here. The Alien franchise is now dead to me. It was probably a combination of stupid fans bitching about Prometheus, the studio wanting nostalgia, horrible writers, and senile Ridley Scott that brought this into being. What a perfect storm of fail. The flawed Alien franchise finally had the last nail pounded into the coffin.

They explain the origin of the xenos with a mad scientist android with daddy issues. That is the stupidest idea in the world. These writers deserve to be publicly crucified!

I hope Covenant fails at the box office because it's ruined now.

@BigDave

Thank for sharing your review.

I would highlight the visual work and the environment, everyone can realize that Ridley's touch, and those bubbles and sizzling in the final scene on space it's remarkeable, I stay with the artistic look, the rest of the film is predictable as I thought, but I dont care about it, my overall a remarcable director with a very BADS screenwriters as companion, so this evil touch spoiled the tail again! 

I give it a two!

I guess we will not see anything new about the Engineers in the coming movies.

A:C just destroyed all hope to answer questions from Prometheus and got rid of a good film-character in a cheap/rushed way.

BigDave, thank you for writing a review.  Your posts over the past months (years really) have been incredibly well-thought-out and insightful.  I think your review sums things up pretty accurately.

I will say that I genuinely enjoyed the movie.  At this point I have to set aside my personal thoughts and aspirations for series and instead allow the events on screen to simply unfold as they are being told.

The thing to me that is missing most is the bio-mechanoid nature of the beast.  I remember reading the early leaks from the set of Prometheus.  "Giant alien head is piloting an alien ship."  <--- shit that sounds amazing.  I was ready to buy into that immediately.  It might be ridiculous, but I could easily imagine it.  I halfway expected AC to have a ship powered by human blood at this point.  The android interfacing with alien tech, transforming him etc..  We have never gotten a Pinocchio story of David becoming anything other than the android he already is.  Same with the Engineers.

I do love the setup at the end of Covenant.  They really have left things pretty open in terms of what happens next.  The next film will have to have an R rating and get us to the next step before we get to A L I E N.  To that effect, there are many ways that can happen.

I think I really wished that Ridley/Fox would write out the whole thing, start to finish, and execute the vision.  Prometheus was a great rousing start.  To abandon it for horror tropes is just a waste.  Thats why it got lower scores.  Many fans of the series are not fans of horror movies.  ALIEN was not a horror movie, so much as a suspense thriller.

XENO-MORPH...  In the original ALIEN movie, we had no clue what was going to happen next.  Going from the chestburster to the 'big chap' was an amazing feat.  In AC we get that movement in condensed form with far less surprises.

AC did not need the Xenomorph.  At all.