Alien Covenant - Trailer/Discussion

No it did not. The whole Nick Nolte father subplot was stupid. The Hulk comicbooks has such a rich history to delve into, but Ang Lee came up with his own stupid spin. And that fight with the two 'Hulk dogs' was cringe worthy. The only sequence worth watching was Hulk fighting the army, tossing tanks and jumping from one delta to the next. Still that wasn't enough to stop me from hating this movie.

 

Yup. Sure the first few minutes render almost the entire second film's ending a waste of time and effort, but the shit Alien 3 gets is completely unjustified IMO. Its a bloody good film - much better than pretty much any sci-fi film made after it - and it is usually trashed because although I really like it and it is a really good movie, it isn't in the same ball park as the first two, which are ATG films.

MTF

 

I think you've touched on the main reason why people (including me) dislike it: "the first few minutes render almost the entire second film's ending a waste of time and effort".

I thought it was a weak/cheap way to continue the franchise: Kill off Newt and the other fella by suggesting that somehow the Alien Queen managed to lay an egg or three in the pod with the three survivors. So I was turned off right there and then. The Ending of the second film was so triumphant with Ripley rescuing the girl and then killing the queen. Why ruin that beautiful story to continue the franchise?

 

The first few minutes are fucking annoying, I agree, but if you chopped them off and view the film on it's own merits, its very good. As you say, most people watched the start, went 'Newt and Hicks are dead? What a fucking shambles!', and then judged the rest of the film on the basis of that.

MTF

 

I think what ruins Aliens 3 is the long convoluted plan to try and lure the Alien into the steel works. That plan's set up and execution killed the flow of what had been building up to a pretty good film and at that point it became more actions occurring than an actual story taking place. Either way I just don't like it.

 

To create geek enthusiasm you need to bring something that was by consensus great or legendary. Those hounds from that 2000 issue barely registered, but Ang Lee decided that of all possible villains, he had to match the Hulk with dogs and just three years after the infamous comicbook issue. :banh:

 

Not only the beginning, but the whole darn thing was a turn off to me: Ripley's Sinead O'Connor look, the whole prison/cult theme, the permeating depressive feel of the film, the xenomorph eating people (never mentioned before or after), the whole Ripley being 'pregnant' with an alien, but unlike other characters in prior films, she doesn't die within a couple of hours from a chest burster freaking Alien queen baby! That plus Bishop was a Weyland look-alike? AND the exploding alien AND Ripley's suicide. All this was too much deviation for me. It felt like the third (and worst) Creature of the Black Lagoon film, 'The Creature walks Among Us', yes it was different, yes it was original, yes it deviated a lot from the prior two and, yes, it was a big pile of SHIT!!!

 

word

 

Most of those things are what made it a really good film. It is a complete contrast to the second film - good guys and guns all blazing away, young kids to save: all very feel-good among the blood and guts and gore. Alien 3 is a different film. It asks what it would be like if a really bad bastard started mutilating other really bad bastards, and whethere anyone should, or would, care. Charles Dance put in an excellent performance. Ripley finally became the feminist hero she had morphed into from the first film - it completed her story arc.

The 4th one is absolutely average. I can watch it, and it entertains, but it is daft. The third one is much, much better.

MTF

 

I saw the fourth one at the time of release and thought it was OK but I now find it unwatchable, pretty poor.

 

H. R Giger on Alien: Resurrection:
“I always wanted my design of Alien to be a very beautiful thing, not just something disgusting, not just a monster, but something aesthetic. Throughout the creature’s evolution what they’ve done is change it from something aesthetic to something that looks like shit – I mean literally, it looks like a turd.”

 

Alien Resurrection average!?! That film is a huge turd. The crowning turd in the water pipe.

 

I really liked Resurrection, I think I've actually watched it just as many times as part 1 & 2. I'd take Resurrection any day over part three.

 

Huh? You are joking now?

The utterly puerile dialog...the comedy moments: the Colonel dying whist going cross-eyed....the now-slap-stickness of the chestbuster...the Posieden Adventure trip across the spaceship now being chased by Aqua-Aliens....the fact that the whole movie is totally out-of-place with the other three....and last but not least, the awfully amateurish Xenomorph-Human-Turd thing at the end...

At best, its a light, disposable genre entertainment piece of self-parody.

 

o_O

 

Okay, so after my destruction of lb4lbs´s troll-post we can get back onto the movie of the thread...

Alien: Covenant
And after the confusion and off-tangent that was Prometheus, Ridley Scott has done exactly what I said he´d do earlier in this thread and gone back to what made the Alien movies (well, at least two of them) great: drama, direction, dialog and a decent story.
Prometheus´ back-story isnt ignored but it thankfully doesnt affect this movie´s pace or drama and the kill-count is pretty high.
The only negative (for me) is that CGI Xenomorphs still dont have the same creepy or convincing effect as a man in a suit or use of models.

Overall, Scott has redeemed himself and done the franchise justice.

7.5/10

 

No I am absolutely not joking. I'm not saying it was as good as the first two just that I enjoyed it almost as much. It may have jumped the shark or gone off the rails but most people hate it more so because they compare it against the entire franchise, which is admittedly understandable. I judge it against itself and not what the previous episodes had to offer.

It was less scary, more far fetched and even ridiculous in some instances, but it's a movie damnit and I enjoyed it for what it was, not for what it should have been or was supposed to be.

 

Weirdo.

 

See, the disappointing thing about this movie is.....its 2 hours long and it feels like 1 hr 20 mins.
Scoot has basically taken everything good about Prometheus but then taken away everything good about Alien....away.

I was watching this and obviously, being an Alien afficianado, I saw all the nods to Alien, and thought ´this guy is trying so hard to take everyone´s attention away from Prometheus....but over-doing it´

We all know what happens basicaly - its a ´Greatest Hits´ of Alien and Aliens but at 3x the speed but in this one, no-one gives a solitary shit about any of the unknown-actors/chracters in this movie, much the ame they did with Prometheus.


The End.
5/10.....at best!

 

Dork Mocus:
Make your frigging mind! First review you praised it giving it a 7.5 score and now you are trashing it and giving it a 5/10?

 

5/10

Makes you just want to re-watch Alien again.
This movie borrows heavily from it...or tries to...and it just comes off as contrived.
It has no tension at all and the deaths aren't in the slightest bit effective.....Except the first two.

And as I said, CGI aliens are fucking terrible.

Check it out Panchy. ...you'll see exactly what I mean....

 

And....we're still NO closer to knowing about how the ship, space jockey and eggs ended up on planet LV-426....when the crew of the Nostromo arrived.

Maybe Scott has another prequel lined up....

 

Don't think I'll bother.