Comments (Page 635)

 I think I smell Spam....AsiaCzerwinska yep!

@ hox

Nah dude, you are just drawing bigger circles. We now know what spawned the xenomorphs. It was black goo, made by the engineers, which David infected Shaw with, then mixed her eggs with neomorph DNA. Neomorphs who's life cycle also originated from black goo. We now know the engineers are god-like super tech beings, who either started evolution on Earth or interfered with it at various points by adding their own DNA. The big questions of Alien have now been answered. What mysteries we have left in Prometheus and Covenent are little points of canon only, which add nothing to the full picture or depth of story. I enjoy working out these things cuz I'm a geek who likes to know it all, but my point is...these little things should not be mysteries. Please don't make a bigger circle argument by saying "oh well ultimately everything is a mystery..is there a God?" That's disingenuous.

I agree with your assessment that these new movies have suffered as a result of truncating and removing key scenes that would have otherwise given viewers a more well-rounded experience. As the years go by, I think it's becoming clearer to audiences and studio execs alike that theatergoing is becoming less of a dominating format, so my hope is that once home viewing becomes the primary format for new releases (Netflix has already anticipated this trend, but it will take a while longer for theaters to go the way of VHS and UHF), directors will be under less pressure to deliver material within a certain runtime and let the story breathe. Granted, editing will always be an important facet to the filmmaking process, but with movies that are as complex as Prometheus and Covenant, it would be a game changer to watch something that hasn't been cut up to meet a time cap. One can certainly hope, of course.

david 

Walter and Daniels. Some characters were barely noticeable except for roles in the Prologue.

Thanks for the link. The video was a bit lacking in the secrets area!

@Yog, I strongly disagree. We know diddly-squat about the Engineer civilisation, where they came from, how many strands of society they have, who engineered them, where the goo came from... These are all big questions.

Fassbender is just wonderful. Chris got to meet him, lucky bugger.

@cuponator3000, Touché !

I am adding it to my Christmas Wish List.

red0guy@gmail.com

I am not privy to everything revealed to David on his exploration of Engineer culture on LV 223, the Crossing or Paradise. However there are several reasons I take as clues that they do not believe in a Spiritual afterlife and that death is merely transformation.

1) The acolyte as, a supreme privilege, takes everything he is his essence and delivers it to the planet knowing that the physical manifestation of self will return. One of the elders makes this promise to him in the cut scene. A sacrificial rite at the height of your powers, not to gods, but for creationism itself symbolises a corporeal transformation of everything you are there is no more.     

 2) LV 223 suggests not a spiritual quest but a biological one. There is no attempt to change mankind through love and compassion which happens in say Tolkien's mythos, created by  a deeply religious man, but by Engineering redaction. The headroom was considered correctly as a laboratory in the first instance. 

3) The currency of the Engineers was scientific and including a culture of sacrifice and change from sacrifice, there is no sense of the wisdom that belief systems engenders (humbleness, contrition, circumspection, devotion) It was entirely mechanical the acolyte when left to die the most appalling death was entirely unsentimental and the movement of the teardrop ship reflected that. 

Charlie was much more right than Elizabeth. 

His lab is dope. I wish there will be an Alien Covenant PS4 game where we can explore David's lab and solve the mystery and stuffs. 

If the 20th Century Fox video originally tied the flora and fauna seen in David's notes to Origae-6 then Planet 4 may have been the original target all along. The video was later edited to remove the title and implied link.

got mine at target yesterday.

great work. espeicially the letters.

I like  tom hardy. great choice. 

daliens hicks is the marine who is sort of ripleys love intrest but not really. he is also the one who teaches her how to use the m41a pulse rifle.

Baywatch being no.1 on iTunes

#seriously?

I think that an ideal version of the film would be about 2 hours and 35 minutes. It could add almost 95% of the promotional footage into the movie Plus alot more suspense inbetween deaths more stuff with the neomorphs and have the final battle with the xenon on the cvenant more intense and alot longer.

Matt Damon actually would be a good choice for Hudson lol

Thank you all! I have another idea in mind that is more artsy and mirrors the relief design of the Covenant poster, but I'll have to squeeze that in between my design assignments for work. :)

Yay! Amazon for me.

the best part is that we are now ahead of 5 comic book movies. there is hope for us. 

bought it from target opening day.

What is this Alien Prefix thing I keep seeing mention? And please don't jump all over me. I am only asking a question (hides).

It'll be good news when 20th finally announces the next film. 

BigDave

Where does the Bible talk about angels free will? In the bible the devil is a liar, deceiver and a portraiture of evil in general. What you say is more akin to Milton, and there it is more about hubris.

 the Annunaki - sons of Annu if I recall correctly - are gods of the  Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians, and Babylonians. (at least 3 of them being semitic). The gold thing, wasn't that made up by Zecharia Sitchin? 

Michelle Johnston

Why in the hell would David think that the Engineers would consider themselves soulless? They were shown to be highly religious with their sacrifices (a thing which David does understand) and considered themselves to be sinful. Always the sacrifice is related to some kind of idea of soul. Even if it is an object it acts by proxy.

And what about the the reference to Leviticus 22:3 which is about ritual purity. Even that is about souls. 

I still don't understand why you want a redemption arc so much? Would not be that yet another cliche? Let's be frank, he is a space nazi robot (killing of the space semites with a deadly gas, blonde, blue-eyed, perfect lifeform/race creating,Wagner loving delusional prick) combined with the stereotypical mad scientist (by killing the woman who he loved). Doesn't he understand that by wanting to experiment on Shaw to create his vision of her, he only would destroy everything he likes in her (being here a misogynistic s**t). What is here to redeem?

For all of you, in the original script when they (Daniels and Walter) found the Drawings of the Shaw did they point out that they are somehow sexual fantasies? Robot porn?

@DG - I love it!  The Big Guy in the chair is what started it all for me, too!!

Michelle Johnston - Told me that part of releasing a r/18 Film is you need it a certain level due to the classification and more shows needed each night.

Fair comment about 5-10 mins that should not cause too bad a reaction.

OR ONE FULL version. last show of the night rated r - finished when it needs to. extended cut pay $ or a £ more. see how many the FULL version gets.

Alien Hope For The Future in facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AlienHopeForTheFuture

I also agree that "ambiguity" is a very good thing, but with this caveat... it must be handled and executed in a proper way.

Take some of Stanley Kubrick films for example. Most of his films are so well thought out, and so well crafted that ambiguity actually enhances and enriches them.

You can say the same thing about the original "ALIEN" film too, and many people have. The overall quality of the ALIEN movie, and the mysteries it introduced... created a franchise, and a whole other world... like Star Wars did.

But the sad facts are that Prometheus and AC have just not lived up to the same standards as those other examples. Ridley Scott has not taken the necessary care and/or time to really flesh out the stories and provide a thorough and concise storyline. And the films have suffered for it.

I just hope that he has some sort of master plan for all of this, and that he can tie everything together in a satisfactory way when it's all said and done.

Dude, those mysteries were BIG mysteries and part of the first movie. Alien was one big mystery with nothing explained. Now with Covenant, we have most of the big questions explained...but we have little tiny artificial mysteries woven in for no reason at all..that even if we solve..add nothing to the overall storyline. It's just ....pointless. If they are going to explain things..AT LEAST explain the little things...and leave the big mysteries if you need to have mystery.

I do like the Tom Hardy choice, as well! Although I'll have to come back with my choice(s) because I am blanking on, like, every actor I enjoy that would be good in the role haha

Give Michelle the throne and iron rod, I'm sure she could have weaved a better film into place. Why can't Fox find these great minds and use them? This is the folly of humanity and the disdain I carry for Scott Free now. What a tragedy and how could I ever blame a subset of fans who wanted A5 for this disaster. Can there be hope....idk...but I do long for the days that Fox would let fresh/aspiring young directors/writers into the fold.

Especially the bit where he's whining about not lasting seventeen hours.

It's Hudson, sir. 

He's Hicks

;)

It's unfortunate that the attempt to force too much into Covenant will leave them with too much to force into Awakening. I mean, I think there is a chance that two movies will be made.

IF the two movies happen, then I think Awakening presents a good oppurtunity to make a well-receive movie. Covenant did have to setup a lot and introduce all those human characters (didn't do a great job of that even), mention the Eningeers, focus on David, and then also focus on the Xeno and Neo. If we receive two more Ridley films, the next one doesn't necessarily have to bog itself down with all of that. We pretty much have a stage set for what is next. If Fox can let the film breathe a little bit, it may bode well for their money and garner some positive reactions.

@Thombach - I think you hit the nail on the head. The visual evidence points to flying warms of "something" in both scenes, but until we see it happen up close we will never know for sure exactly what those things look like. All we have is that drawing from David showing a mote up close and the script references to extrapolate from, which point to tiny flying insects.

@Ingeniero - Great topic!

"Does any of this (below) in regards to the constellation, planet data visible, and Galactic Location mean anything to anyone?"

I compared those to the graphics in Alien and Prometheus, and nothing seems to match. I think we have gone round and round on that one with nothing definitive, since the non movie sources contradict each other.

Going by only what we see only in the movies  -

Alien - Lambert says the moon is "just short of Zeta 2 Reticuli". We see a ringed gas giant with three moons orbiting it. The moon they orbiting the gas giant is later named as LV-426, but that's not in the movie.

Covenant - We see and are told that the system has a main sequence star like Earth and 5 planets. Planet 4, where they land, has two moons orbiting it. Planet 5 is a ringed gas giant.

Prometheus - A menu graphic on the DVD/Blu Ray states this is the Zeta 2 Reticuli system, but it is never stated in the movie. Holloway's graphic shows us a ringed gas giant with only two moons, one labeled LV-223. The gas giant in the movie looks very different to the one seen in Alien, so it is not the same planet, just another planet orbiting the same star as in Alien.

Since the Covenant graphic only shows one gas giant orbiting the star, it is not the same solar system as we see in Alien and Covenant. Also, David and Shaw would have been there in no time if it was just a matter of going from one planet to the next in the same system.

...and speaking of star maps. This is Shaw's map from the Weyland website.

It is the same map as the Betty and Barney Hill UFO abduction from the 1970s.

They claimed to be kidnapped by aliens from the Zeta Reticuli system, and drew that map of where they went. I don't know if that was supposed to be a little joke from Fox or not.

I own the whole set!  I have a problem though...I have purchased every NECA Alien series, so my house is getting CLUTTERED with figures.  Yes I do have a girlfriend too hahahaha

Anyone remembering 4h 40min extended Lord of the rings 3?

Indeed Michelle its interesting that Paglen/Green are not credited so this does then seem to show that a majority of the ideas set out in Paglen/Greens works are not used in Logans.

So its near enough like a complete re-write and Change of Direction and geared towards a more straight forwards Plot that pleased the Alien Fans and leads us more directly to the Xenomorph Origins as opposed to loosely covering these but to explore more so the whole reasons behind why the Engineers create life and why they chose to destroy some of it.

I think for a change of plan... they Felt Logan could work on and write a more direct less ambiguous kind of movie that draws closer to the Egg Cargo on the Derelict rather than away from Alien as far as the Derelict incident.

Logans Draft certainly seems to be taking that direction.

I know some may be relieved to now see all the Philosophical Type themes that Prometheus and Alien Covenant linked to Prometheus scenes had covered..  are now seemingly being by-passed.

I feel the Black Goo will now remain a Mystery as far as its Origins, its now going to be clearly how the Early Xenomorph Creation David has, evolves and ends up being Thousands of Eggs.

I do fear the Engineers Return will only be used as mainly  Plot Device to Highlight the Threat and Prowess of the Xenomorphs David creates and Ultimately the Engineers will return as THEY (RS/FOX) Need One of their Ships and a Pilot to become the Derelict and Space Jockey