Division of Fans (number crunch)

I.Raptus

Across a number of threads have been discussions about how and why A:C has been received with such mixed reviews by fans.

A lot it seems to come down to the division of fans and the expectations and desires for the direction of the franchise. To pinch BigDave break-down from this topic http://www.alien-covenant.com/topic/45548

The division stems from

1. Alien (Giger, Eggmorph, Ridley Scott, O'Bannon script)

2. Aliens (James Cameron, action-oriented, Queen)

3. Prometheus (Engineers, Origins, Black Goo, mututions. Lindolof/Spaights script)

So let's see what the actual breakdown of members are here. Straight up, no judging others. Lets just see what the actual break-down is.

Yes, you have to pick just one.

Cerulean Blue

@iRaptus - I am a solid # 3, followed closely by # 1 & way, way back in the distance, by default of being on the list is # 2!

Thanks for another fun post!

ElectricAve

What plot holes does the eggmorph work out? I think Alien plays fine w/out it, but maybe I missed something...

I.Raptus

Starlogger that's cool if you don't like the eggmorph concept, this is what the thread is for...to determine what elements fans do or don't like, and why.

Out of curiosity, what is your preferred life-cycle for the xeno? 

I.Raptus

On the topic of eggmorphing, I've been writing a Fan Fiction piece involving that xeno trait, and its bloody hard to work with.

It is a very slow and inefficient mode of propagation. For one, you need a drone to capture a host, preferably without giving itself away to alert others of danger. Then you need time to let the host body break down and the egg to "cook" so to speak. Then the drone needs to capture or lure another host to the egg and hope they are stupid enough to put their face near it lol...

It definitely a more alien and terrifying experience for all but for story pacing it is very slow. For slow-burn suspense building and to flesh out and develop characters in between it is fantastic.

BigDave

My interpretation of the Egg Morph vs Queen has always for a long time been that the Egg Morph leads to either a Queen, or a Royal Race Hugger.

I.Raptus

BigDave that would make a lot of sense. The big chap in Alien was nesting in the Narcissus preparing to die. Why eggmorph a victim just to have the living drone die. Its just a sequential progression of single drones then. At least producing a royal facehugger allows a queen and hive to be kick-started. I have no problem with there being eggmorphing and a queen.

Tiwaz

Why not having egg-morphing occur til a queen is present or it led to a queen. Something similar to naked mole-rats.

Later when a Queen is present egg-morphing still happens inside the egg-sack or whatever it is called in english. ;) The needed bio-matter she gets by "food". Maybe the dead hosts since they have no other purpose.

I.Raptus

Tiwaz yes, I like that too. They are very efficient little beasty, no point leaving dead bodies around if they can serve a purpose.

You guys have given me some great ideas to work with here

Thank you kindly :-)

I.Raptus

Any Aliens fans out there want to weigh in? Its not getting much love so far. 

On a side note; I just re-watched Prometheus for the first time since seeing Covenant. I now thoroughly appreciate Prometheus so much more, that film was right on the mark for a prequel. The marketing for the film should have totally omitted any reference to its Alien link at all before the release... would have been the best bombshell ever when the Derelict, Space jockey chair and Trilobite/Deacon was revealed. 

laperouse

I am now definitely part of this third division - Prometheus, and inclined to consider first division - Alien, as part of the whole story.

IRaptus

I agree completely. Yesterday I watched Prometheus (A9 version) - absolutely superb production! With a little bit of tweaking - and A9 is pretty much spot on - it's just phenomenal! So much ground covered! And still - so much paths to follow further! So many possibilities for sequels! The least I wanted to see in sequel is actually some backburster or throatburster - and, yes, that was exactly I've been served with... :-(

Thoughts_Dreams

This is one of the interesting things about the whole Alien franchise that there are alien related movies that fit into different genres. There are horror movies or what ever you want to call them (Alien, Alien3), action movies (aliens), adventure sci-fi (Prometheus), a kind of borderline mix (AC) and then there are the bizarre things that I am not sure what to call them (A4, and AvP).

Keeping this in mind it is not strange that that not all liked AC.

I think that there are aspects of almost every movie that I like even though I can rank them depending on their over-all content and mood. As far as the three groups go I would probably fit into the first one if I had to choose.

One of my complaints about Prometheus (aside from mostly bad characters) is that the Xeno connection was too vague. I see how the Trilobite connects to the Xeno but the Hammerpedes were just lame and I still consider them to be a miscalculation by those that decided to include them in the movie, not very much of a Xeno connection there. This doesn’t mean that we needed to be spoon fed about the answers but I just wish that they could have done the Hammerpede-Xeno connection a bit less vague but not over-explain it. Eventually I can imagine many monsters that are closer related to the Xeno compared to the Hammerpede and the Squid, that would have been good.

They could give us some more clues to the SJ and the Eggs just don’t make it too vague ala Prometheus and not overexplanatory. Fox messed up on this one.

Human characters is number one because if you don’t care about them then it doesn’t matter how good the landscapes look and how interesting monsters that you come up with. If Prometheus would have had worse monsters but better human characters that would still have been a plus because then we (meaning the movie audience in general) would have given a damn about the humans which is what a movie must achieve in my humble opinion. For example, imagine if Macbeth would have had crappy characters, would it have become a classic then? I doubt it and that probably goes for books, movies, what ever.

IRaptus: You forgot Alien 3 in your division list. :D I see that you mention Alien 3 later down in the discussion). That is nice to see that Alien 3 gets some attention.

Joylitt makes a good comment where he or she says that there needs to be some mystery but I would like to add that there shall not be too much that don’t make sense, that is where Prometheus failed.