Comments (Page 713)

Hip Hip Hooray, good riddance David. If only this were true.

Covenant could and should have been an epic sci-fi/horror movie but Ridley dumbed it down to a crappy horror movie filled with horror movie clichés and therefore it creates shitty box office numbers. When you make a shitty movie you deserve to have shitty box office, yes that always doesn't happen fortunately in this case it did cause Covenant is garbage. Ridley is to blame, yeah the writing sucks obviously but he must have liked it otherwise he wouldn't have made it. Let the Alien franchise rest in peace because anymore terrible prequels it will be resting in pieces.

No it would not be good.Fassbender has given new life to this series.

I would dump him from further prequels, have him sail off with his experiments. 

Then have him in A L I E N 5

Alien:Kingdom of David

Alien:Kingdom of the Dead

Set 400 years in future.

David has set up a super colony of HYBRIDS(millions...even billions?) and this virus is starting to spread through out the galaxy. Dead colony spaceships built by David.

David is immortal and is just taking his time. No rush. Do the job right the first time.

HYBRIDS are starting to infect/invade human colonies, one by one they are falling. Slowly making it's way towards Earth.....

"Look, I'm just a geologist. I like rocks. I LOVE... rocks." -Prometheus

Completely redeemed by the assembly cut, in my opinion. It was a far better "Alien" film that Aliens was.

Also, there is no stop motion animation in Alien 3. It was all rod puppet work against blue screen. With the exception of two really badly composited shots, the rod puppet work was actually quite good for the time period.

If we are starting from the beginning, there is also Michelangelo's statue of David in this room, which is echoed later in David's lab by the pose David placed corpse of the Engineer in, but in reverse.

Collider can say what they want, but this is just more unsourced speculation based on the same unsourced THR article.There are about a dozen articles online now repeating and putting their own spin on it. Funny watching these rumors get repeated enough and becoming a "reality" on the internet.

If Fox were not behind Covenant they probably would not spent more money pushing it with the Alien: Covenant Colonist Certification Test at ComiCon.

I would like to i think.

Will it be easy to do? i never done recording things

Michelle - 

Can i ask a question ?

How do you see the next instalment panning out ? Do you think Fox would risk 2 movies leading in or just 1 more prequel ? 

I think 1 more is needed, even then it will be almost a decade from Prometheus until the 3rd film. It just seems A:C stuttered the story and the open universe we had post Prometheus was kind of closed a bit since A:C.

I would love the Engineers mythos explained to some degree but i just dont see how considering what is needed to bring the prequels to an acceptable close.

@ali81 & joylitt - Yes!  Bring in the Engineers to kill them all!!!

joylitt - 

I think Mr H. does a great job too. I wasnt having a go at him, just saying he probably got his news the same way we did.

His character breakdown and theories are always a good watch and he clearly loves this franchise.

He was careful and respectful with his reviews on A:C and i watch most of his A ans P stuff.

He seems pretty honest too

I really hope the Weyland/Yutani merger is not affecting the next movie release?   HAHA!!

He sounds like Colin Salmon, from AVP.

When BluRay, digital sales and broadcast rights are taken into account, Covenant will make a fortune for the studios, so there's a lot of guff about it not making enough money.

ali81 yes, have the engineers back would be great if they use them as a means to expand on the mythology.

It's gonna make a ton of money on digital sales.

The Carlo Bugatti Throne Chair is a nice touch. Very expensive. You can buy them if you have money like Weyland does.

The Nativity by Piero della Francesca is at the National Gallery, London. I wonder how Weyland got his hands on it. I might go and see it this weekend. If you look carefully, there's a neomorph in the background. Well, it might be a donkey, but it certainly has teeth.

agree joylitt its time to spread the focus a bit off of david or they risk losing something there. time to let the engineers out the bag and let them play I believe

Sadly, Alien 3 is a bit of a mess, due to its production woes, salvaged to a degree by the special edition. And the stop-motion animation is pretty unforgivable - it ruins an otherwise enjoyable movie.

I think he does a great job, and actually he has been much more positive about Covenant than The Hybrid Network, the other big channel specialized on everything Alien.

No. He tossed another android a good distance across the room. He's strong alright.

His epidermis is meant to resemble human skin, in form and elasticity. It might be vulnerable to puncture, but the nail would healed over completely in quite a short time.

@Lawrence of Arabia, your observations are spot on.

@Gralen, when David said "Days, weeks, months" it wasn't to calm anyone down. It was simply to point out that the weather on that planet can be unpredictable and relenting. Pray tell, what exactly is the 'stupid' bit about that observation?

@MonsterZero: The lithograph is number 206/500.

IRaptus I see what you are saying. But it is more a lack of protagonist. The dynamic of antagonist/ protagonist is disbalanced and it's all about Fasbender chewing up the scenery. I always compare David with Roy Batty and I ask this question: How good would that character and Blade Runner would have been had his part have been bigger than what it was. Sometimes too much of a good thing is no good.

@Ati: D'oh! Thanks for fixing my photo. :) I also wondered about the Origae-6 design.

@Lilly: Sweet! Here're a few of my own pictures from inside the Colonist Testing Simulator:

This is Adam, the Synthetic who helped guide us through the experience in person and on the screens inside both rooms. When we walked inside the room was completely blue and he was standing there. He had a Walter-like persona and made a very convincing AI:

Here's a picture of the main video display - we were forced to evac to the next room after learning about a foreign life form that was loose in our simulator:

In the next room, a woman was trapped in the Med Bay and was asking for our help so she could escape:

Unfortunately, we were too late:

At the end of the simulation after we were safe and you could hear a pin drop, Adam snuck up behind me and shouted in my ear, which scared the living crap out of me. :)

Finally, this is the view from the outside of the colonist certification room:

I followed the Mr.H. channel since about the start. He is only reacting to what he has seen on AVP and here. 

The news normally breaks on AVP then here then the You Tubers. There is a pattern if you look closely around this sort of thing.

My theory Mr H read something on here or AVP or from a tweet and he went with it.

He seems not to positive around RS and the stuff he comes with regarding news is normally a few hours after the sites mentioned. It rarely if ever gives us any more information than we already had.

I would read ZERO into this. PLZ

"Your topic, 'ALIEN - The Silent Dark 'The Lander'' was just replied to by htmlcolor!"

Got this in my email, but I can't find any trace of such a reply...

joylitt "To have an antagonist you need to have someone to antagonize with, that is the problem with Covenant, it lacks that someone"

that is a very excellent point. David is more interesting in experimenting than antagonising the crew, they are just vessels to him. The Xenomorphs also lacked the antagonist punch and were too easily dispatched. 

i liked Covenant but thought something was lacking. I think you hit the nail on the head with the lack of an antagonist

I wouldn't go as far as to say the fans are split. that's being generous. from what I see its about 80% who feel completely drained by the way the prequels are shaping up. so much potential and AC so hotly anticipated. just look at the number of threads and posts on here from the months leading upto the movie. id agree with kethol, its not cooked yet but RS has to get the engineers out the packaging and let them play. wev had the xeno, wev had 2 movies on david (no matter how good Fassbender is), now its time for something different and all they have that fits the bill are the engineers. done right, with a good budget and screen writer, they could completely revitalise the whole franchise 

gralen, id say the engineers on planet 4 were a culture who either chose not to use technology or wernt given the choice as I don't think they had any way of knowing who was on the juggernaught. maybe the fact those engineers didn't advance technologically was one of the reasons they were still alive and not killed off by the engineers? they were probably just welcoming back what they assumed were their makers for the 1000 year check in. though the docking ship and docking facility were no doubt advanced, the rest if the city from what I saw didn't show any signs of such an advance race. im guessing the docking facility was simply there to facilitate the returning engineers 

im not saying shes not a good actress, im saying in the role she played, imo, may have not been the ideal choice. u find with a lot of actors they smash a certain role but bomb in others. look at the like of arnie (not suggesting for a moment hes in the same league as say tom hanks or di caprio etc) but he smashed the role of the terminator and dutch but in twins?? maybe exaggerating a bit to make the point but for me there was just something off with daniels from the start. I thought rapace did a decent job as shaw but shes dead so daniels was to replace shaw as lead character but no point having another character similar to shaw which, yea we got, but daniels for me couldv just been another of the crew that got taken out. Tennessee for me was the best character and I was glad he survived.

ali81 Katherine Waterston is a good actress.  If you wanna appreciate her acting chops watch "The Queen of Earth". But the script really made her into this mousy and uninteresting character unfortunately.

The crew of the Covenant was almost like sheep as the Engineers in the flashback scene.

Both groups looked naive and "trusted" a suspicious entity and both payed the price for it.

The Engineers did no precautions while welcoming the black goo bomber.

The Covenant crew got lured into David Slaughterhouse aka Lab like cattle, and he calmed them down with stupid phrases like "The storms last,days,weeks,months".

Hilarious and sad at the same time.

I think what RS is going for is the whole android vs humanity angle and david did best daniels remember. though she wasn't much in the way of decent competition. for some reason I never liked the character right from the prologues, whether the actor isn't strong enough or something else im not sure but I just didn't take to daniels at all

Glad you guys are sticking up for each other as these times are trying for many of us. While it is noted to hold back on the RS criticism, calling a spade a spade is not a bad thing. Surely Fox is reassessing how to do better at the box office and wrap this prequel saga up intelligently and economically. I foresee the harsh opinions dying down soon as whats done is done, only to move forward as one as a dedicated but diverse fanbase. Ridley has achieved a lot and nobody is shortchanging him except for logical critiques that can only make him a better filmmaker/storyteller here or on some other films. Wish we all thought Covvy was engaging and original as Prometheus but we are fighting for a better movie next time. Maybe somebody important reads this stuff and gets a clue on what the fans don't like and try to fix it, if there is a next one. 

remember in alien it isn't the crew that bring kane back on board, it was ash, and he was acting on secret orders. u can make an excuse for dallas as he was looking at it from a humane perspective and it was his second in command but still daft of him to want to bring him back on board. and also ripley only agreed to return when she realised that families were at risk. she was also returning with a group of so called highly trained and armed soldiers which im sure she probably wished shed had during her first encounter with the xeno 

David is not that strong & fast as you might think.

He is fragile., at least his outer skin/shell is soft, judging by the scene where Daniels wounded his face.

He looks only strong because he attack a small/weak woman.

A trained male soldier is more of an equal match and not a strongman.

The latter plays in another league and would damage David severely like the Engineer did on LV-223.

Biggest advantage of David compared to humans is his endurance and sturdiness since he dont feels real pain and could fight with wounds that would kill a human, like a ripped of arm,eye(bleeding out).

@Sherris and Starlogger

One of the very great difficulties in these discussions is for us as individuals and Fox as an organisation to gain a really meaningful sense of how you attract a much wider audience. I am not convinced that deep fans reflect with any real accuracy the broader audiences needs. Here are some broad strokes which I think Fox should think about and apparently they are looking at all of this.

1) As the Alien is a special effect rather than a potential flesh and blood character that a new actor can breath life into and give a new interpretation, its cooked merely as an antagonist and makes for a decent size cult audience rather than a tentpole. The questions which Ridley raised for making prequels are the right ones you just need good and coherent answers.   

2) You will attract a good deal of adverse feedback with a modern audience if you do not make the characters and situational narrative drive adhere to some rules. You need look no further than the novel of the film to see what is needed to counter the smart ass feedback.

Note

I have to say personally I accept humans in crisis are deeply flawed and even the rules they use in real life are amazingly stupid cf the recent tragedy in the UK where people sat in their apartments for two hours (following the rules) after a serious fire broke out on the fourth floor and yet almost like a movie three people got out from the 21st floor 2 hours after the fire started by descending the stairwell.  

3) Ridley with his visual clues alone is not capable of world building. There has to be properly thought through exposition to draw an audience in particularly with prequels. Did Ridley pass the world building exam with A L I E N no, he created suspense had a great gift from Giger and offered the most amazing texture without answers. He is now trying to give those textures meaning and make that the story and keeps on going off to use an English expression "half cock'. Indeed I think that lays bear the dichotomy. He is applying interesting textures again when he should be giving interesting answers.    

Fact 

Most directors are not good at everything and ones that are given permission to own a franchise exclusively will inevitably be found wanting if they do not get the very best and appropriate support. 

I thought with the Martian and John Logan writing Covenant would  take all the themes from Prometheus and drive them through a person centred story. I knew we would only see the Engineers through David but in the end David blocked the view.

What I did not expect was the over reaction to A 5 and pitch the 1st and 3rd act as straight re runs of earlier movies. You can see a hint of what happens when your fresh with the solar sails that and the way it was handled was fresh and made you focus rather than what happens when you feel you are on the same ride as before.