New Replies (Page 568)

As I have already stated, numbers... tell me about numbers...

Whose numbers? Our numbers? Their numbers?

Seriously? I've watched the newest "Transformers" and the brand new "Wonder Woman" - and the "Guardians..." and the sort.

So let's go again: "Whose numbers? Our numbers? Their numbers?", and let me just add: "Why numbers? Do you need a number to like a movie as it is?"

Sir Ridley Scott is the guy with the right ideas, and FOX - along with  the fan base (yup, we, guys!) - know it.

Mind it: "One thing is for sure - the saving grace for this franchise will not be a nostalgia-driven rehash of James Cameron's Aliens set."

Thank you my Lord for small (FOX) favors! :D

@colonialsoldier,

If it this is about old ideas, to be honest, "Alien 3" is far better than Cameron's "Aliens", my opinion. Then again, far and ahead, the road so far is far beyond both movies. I like the road so far for it's new and so unexpected, fans feel uncomfortable, and, nevertheless, they keep criticizing the newbies because they just can't help it :)

"It got great reviews and was everything we set out for it to be" - what is this corporate bs. The critical results were slightly worst than that of Prometheus and they stirred in an other direction. Give as a break.

"It got great reviews and was everything we set out for it to be, it just didn't hit the note at the box office," says Fred Baron, the 20th Century Fox executive on the movie: "It will be a profitable film for the studio but whether there's another one [is uncertain]."

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/after-thor-and-aquaman-the-battle-to-land-the-next-hollywood-blockbuster-continues-20170704-gx4atr.html

@ Michelle - Did your 4K copy come with a second "standard" Blu-Ray version?

The Crossing, Advent etc. are all on this disc as part of the "Planet 4" sub menu (although they're not listed on the cover)

Alien 5 or Alien Awakening I bet the blomkamps don't stop with voting only and they have a campaign that aims to reduce the earnings for Alien Covenant. I don't mean that Covenant doesn't do better because of that but it is a factor that negatively affected the box office.

That doesn't make sense and probably isn't the case at all. If there is this huge anti Ripley pro Blompkamp group I've never seen them, only seen them referenced by A:C fans who act like this huge margin of people actively want to sabotage the movie because it wasn't what they wanted. Sorry to break it to you but A:C isn't in any more adverse waters than any movie that is made from existing material or is part of a franchise. Other things have gotten over this hurdle to do well not just rating wise but financially and the fact is A:C didn't at least not to the extent it was expected. There isn't some huge hatewave against this movie and only this movie and a group of people pulling strings so it doesn't do well. Even if you didn't like reviews or the way people worded it that's still how those people felt about that movie, and if you don't like the way those reviews are written I'd blame it on what people want to read and are willing to look at over the reviews themselves. They exist because they're someone's opinion and someone will read it, just as they will for the reviews you happen to agree with.

Point being and the main point, A:C had no more adverse fan reaction and marketing than any franchise movie. At this point, start looking at what the film did wrong rather than waving it away as sabotage and and this giant conspiracy that fox mishandled the timing, the marketing, the release, interfered too much, fans were mad, people just hate, ect.  

This sounds exciting.  I took it as meaning they think Ridley Scott may have been on the right track with the Prometheus story line and expanding to the Engineers and history.  Maybe they are admitting that just doing the horror movie where everyone dies from an Alien attack is getting old.  I'm really hoping this is Fox's way of saying "Prometheus was a good change of direction, so lets go back to that expanding universe."

I think it means they see our support and know what changes should be made to satisfy every fan.

I think Scott will get the money.

Thank you every fan here and everywhere for your positive and constructive work.

Ingeniero - Thank you for the info about the extra AI! Awesome!

Cerulean Blue - I hope we'll get the answers from the next movie! 

Thank you for the comments, I'm glad you like the post.

Ingeniero - Beautiful and disgusting... Hatton writes that it was 'too much'. Probably it was too much for Fox. But I think several fans would have been happy to see something like this.

red0guy@gmail.com - 'The hatred is not bigger to AC then to Prometheus.'

The hatred against Prometheus was huge. :) So I agree with you. :D

redguy, id say more people appreciate Prometheus and the path it was going down to AC.

im betting while weyland was alive, he was the only one that david served. he was the only one who could give david an order which he would follow as he was created to serve weyland. weyland would have given him orders to gather intel and tech for him during the Prometheus mission and report only to him so the company im betting, have no authority over david. now weyland is dead, no one has authority over him. the olive branch message suggests NO contact has been made between david and the company since he left lv223 at the very least. if he had been in contact with them and they had come to an arrangement then why send the olive branch message which is clearly sent after david leaves planet 4? plus, if the covenant could hardly communicate with the surface of the planet while in orbit, how could the company be in contact with david? when their light years away? the olive branch message itself isn't really that clear on its purpose either. david tells them what he has been working on, how he has progressed and what he intends to do next yet he makes no demands as to what he wants from the company. he even states that his creations will rule which makes the whole message kinda pointless. to me its more a warning of whats to come rather than any kind of attempt at reconciling which again adds strength to the argument no one controls david and he is acting alone. thats only the way I see it

Michelle - 

Thanks as usual for your bigger picture input.

I was simply looking for and struggling to find, an accompanying piece of footage which i believed to be very important as a fan who takes things a little further.

At first i thought it was a money thing. Someone wanted Advent exclusive to help sales and ask for more money.

However when you think of this and how I THOUGHT the inclusion of Advent was critical to keep fans in the loop.

Perhaps it is just something thrown together (yes it was) with the only reason to people please the fans with SOME footage they could cut into the piece using some mythos.

When in actual fact if you are lucky to find it on a released copy. Especially considering the high end is missing it. It does now make me think that it is just another trick to keep us distracted.

i think you are correct Michelle and i am so glad you took the time to post that as i think it is a very important angle.

Many Thanks & to u all ;) 

10 million is not bad.  20th Century will get 3.3 million from that.  But if it doesn't help the movie break even; then it is not a good result.

There was so much material on a follow-up to a new Alien movie could be.  You have Isolation and the Neill Blomkamp idea revamping Alien3.  To be honest, Alien 3 is better than Covenant.

I get that the company were aware of the transmission from lv426 and given that the expedition never returned, it would be safe for the company to assume that the 2 were connected. and yes id agree david would have been on a priority mission to gather tech for the company.but I still don't see how the company would possibly be aware of what david is doing while he is on planet 4. from what I can tell between the end of Prometheus and the olive branch message, there has been no contact and the company may well be none the wiser to davids whereabouts. since weyland is dead david, I believe, is free from any previous priorities regarding the company

@Ati - Great post!  It is good to have Matthatt0n affirm what we thought was going on with David!  I hope to hear 'The real story' about the bombing of the Engineers from someone other than David, soon!

@Ingeniero - YES!  David was Weyland's tool to uncover the mysteries of creation!!  It was David's pre-programmed mission in life & his 'duty' to his Creator, or Peter Weyland.

It didn't suck, it just wasn't a masterpiece. 

A:C is a typical very beautiful Ridley Scott film, this one with good acting and buildup but with lackluster later acts. It had its moments but I'm not a big fan of the David the creator storyline (so far at least) 

@ Ati - I again watched Alien-Director's Cut on Cinemax last night & as Ash spoke from his detached head, he seemed to do so from a position of prior knowledge regarding the Xenomorph.  I think he was completely sure of all he was told about the abilities of the Xenomorph, & was even more impressed by it, having seen it in real life situations?

@Joylitt +1 about focusing on some real Alien drama equal or surpassing the original.  @Lawrence of Arabia, the movie has barely broke even when you include marketing costs.  For domestic grosses, the studio gets half; for international grosses, the studio gets 1/3.  If you look at the numbers and look at the 97 million initial budget, the studio has nearly received 90 million for its movie release.  Nevertheless, it will garner a product with Blu-ray sales, streaming and on-demand.  But I doubt 20th Century Fox wants to risk that amount on another sequel.

@I Moon Girl - I wonder if David meant 'I have your ship', to be in relation to having a Juggernaught?  That may be of high importance to Weyland-Yutani, too?

David 8 was on a priority mission to acquire Engineer technology ali81 beginning with the preparations for the Prometheus mission.

Corporate knew of the Acheron system for decades. This may not be the system where Paradise is but Weyland-Yutani Corporation knew of the Engineers' system in regards to LV-223 and LV-426.

David 8 opened his eyes (above) to the landscape shown in the opening of Prometheus. The planet shown has been debated and I believe that the below image is of the planet Paradise.

David 8 was groomed his whole synthetic life to find the answers in regards to creation (by acquisition of alien technology) and operated under many Special Orders from Weyland-Yutani Corporation. And it looks like David 8 wasn't the only synthetic on LV-223 with the Prometheus crew (below).

"From the observations of David 8 and [redacted] we know that the Accelerant is self-activating and that it manipulates the genetic structure of the living beings with which it comes into contact."

Weyland-Yutani Report, page 55.

In 2094, Dr. Elizabeth Shaw transmits [classified].

Weyland-Yutani Report, page 8.

Covenant Mission

I believe Dr. Shaw transmitted where she was going and corporate sent the resources (Covenant mission) strait to David 8 in order to capitalize on the Engineer technology acquisition confirmed by David 8 and Dr. Shaw. The image below from Phobos tends toward this.

Excellent post!  Matthatt0n is very vocal via social media and very kind to always answer fan questions.  We need a book of just his sketches for the film!!

I like how he thoughtfully points out some of the flaws in addition to the good stuff, unlike the Cinema Sins version. The guys voice gets annoying though.

I wonder if it will be about 10 pages long?

how would WY be able to monitor David's activities on planet 4?

Ati

The hatred is not bigger to AC then to Prometheus.

David: Their files once told of an ancient ceremony, such cruelty, once thrived, long since frozen over, given passage to timidity, the cost of progress must be absolute, but not for the weak.

What if he means the same rituals David was using to create the biomechanical Xenomorph (thanks Ingeniero).

http://www.alien-covenant.com/topic/46481

The progress can be the creation of biomechanical engineers as we saw in Prometheus,  they are different from the sacrificial ones who are similar to the Paradise population. Their timidity seen as a weakness. Getting to blend the the biomechanical features might have been a cruel process for the chosen ones, something similar to the way of getting elongated skulls at the children in Ancient Egypt and pre Columbian civilization from central America. 

@Ati,

I liked the whole trilogy, no preferences :), and I liked Fincher's version as well.

Yes, I saw Headhunters! I actually see many movies from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, those guys have great movies and I don't mind the subtitles, actually I love to hear them speaking their own language. And, apparently, Sir Ridley keeps an eye on them as well :)

sherris I got my steelbook yesterday and the case is cool, love its vintage metallic look. I think the extras you asked for are not there (not listed) but I cannot confirm yet as I need to buy a new BR player first.

I had to choose between bluray and steelbook and I chose the steelbook. I am happy I did it.

As Michelle Johnston said "neither of those elements are part of the story or considered an important contribution IF Fox make the next film."

I think it was an experiment to see if the movie can make more money in the most adverse conditions, than it was spent for its production :)

It seems it did.

joylitt thanks for clarifications. Yes, the David/Walter interaction has some memorable lines. I still didn't get why was Vickers in Prometheus. So if in Covenant a guy from the security team is there just for a kill scene is not that bad. At least he exits fast from the arena, unlike Vickers who had as well a ridiculous death in my opinion. And we are not sure wether she was an android or not. But even without characters to care for, I like Prometheus. 

I am glad you came to terms with Covenant, I knew you will.

Regarding the campaign in favor of Blomkamp, as long as there are polls on the internet, on influential sites, which movie to be next, Alien 5 or Alien Awakening I bet the blomkamps don't stop with voting only and they have a campaign that aims to reduce the earnings for Alien Covenant. I don't mean that Covenant doesn't do better because of that but it is a factor that negatively affected the box office. I know people who did not see Covenant because they read the hateful reviews.

It is so easy to inflame the trolls and make them campaign against something these days...

However I know you are not a troll and you care for the future of the franchise and your negative comments only woke up the Covenant fans to stand against the wave of hate. At least on this forum.

Thank you.

G. H. (Gman) Capt. Branson's death scene is pretty odd. It's like the scene was dubbed and is out of sync (Daniels crying). It feels rushed, confusing and is practically a repetition of Charlie's death in Prometheus.

daliens I will clarify just because you asked. I expressed my thoughts before, and I also said I came to terms with what Alien Covenant is. Regarding the dialogue, I feel the only part of the script the writers put some effort is on the David/Walter interaction. And I disagree this is a better script than that of Prometheus. I have read both scripts and I can assure you Lindeloff's work is much more engaging and it has much more detail and descriptions that allow you to visualize the action much better. Logan's scenes are very nondescript and that can be a huge burden for the production, which has to add notes and to improvise. Many characters are not even in the script, and that is why they barely have a line. There are characters like the guy killed on the wheat field that no one even talk about. I don't think there is any campaign in favor of Blomkamp. His only really good movie is District 9 and Chappie is a disaster.

I Moon Girl nice! I have the kindle version pre-ordered so I can read it straight away. If i ordered a physical copy to Australia the next film would probably be out by the time it got here lol.

G. H. (Gman)

I think most people read the fast-food version of a review. And by writing a bad review many don't bother to detail, it's enough to say "waste off time and money", "boring", "bad", etc. And with so many of these reviews in the context of a cancelled project by Blomkamp I suspect somebody is trying to influence the decision making at Fox. There are also trolls, of course, as some really enjoy trolling.

I might be wrong, I am aware of that, but in these times of fake news / reviews it is healthier to be a little paranoid.

I am open to negative reviews and debates, but not with trolls or hit-and-runs.

I did not do much research but I am not sure if any other film recently has received so many hateful reviews (by hateful I mean expressing utter negativity, intense dislike of everything the movie is, something they don't feel the need to explain as it comes more from the guts, than from the brain).

I repeat, I never said it's the perfect movie but it's a movie I love. 

I also believe that if it did not do it better financially speaking it's because the hateful reviews did their job very well. Many viewers unfortunately take into account the rating of the movie before buying the tickets.

All this marketing around Alien Covenant really looks like an experimental study for me. I am very curious of what's next.

The World of KJ has finally translated the weekend actuals from Kogyotsushin. While the actuals show it made more money, I was sadly way, way off in terms of attendance.

Alien: Covenant opened to #2 with $3.1M. It fell to Dunkirk, which is in its second weekend. Alien: Covenant had an attendance of 138,297 across 694 screens. That places it under Wonder Woman, Ghost in a Shell and Guardians of the Galaxy 2, but above Logan's opening.

Alien: Covenant is expected to finish its Japanese run with about $10M. That would estimate and attendance around 440,000. (Give or take, depending on the discount days.) To put that in perspective, anything lower than an attendance of 2-2.5 million is usually considered a flop.