Comments (Page 773)

@Starlogger Yup! The huge gap of 5 years I think is another reason why people may have been disappointed with how AC turned out. 

We all waited so long and got nothing we expected I believe.

 I enjoy AC for what it is and for the questions and answers it has now left me with.

 While I do see the complaints and the missteps of some things in the movie, I thought it was really good nonetheless and the continuation of this story cannot get here soon enough!

laperouse I am with you. I think Blade Runner needs sequels as much as Citizen Kane needs them. And a crossover with Alien would be plain blasphemy!

It is obvious that Ridley Scott admires George Lucas the business man, not the director, since his style is very different. He is also probably is attracted to the idea of becoming a brandname like lucasfilms. Covenant is simply a cash grabbing operation gone terribly wrong, a total miscalculation that failed to read the both the fanbase and the movie going market in general. And many of those who liked it would just embrace anything Ridley would throw at them because he is their guru, they convince themselves that anything coming from his mind has to be brilliant.

@RZA

Watch captain Oram's death scene more closely, on your 5th time!

He actually sticks his tongue way way out...I mean, it's plausible but kind of funny...

For my fifth viewing, I kept my eyes on captain Oram, when the viewer's attention would have normally been drawn to David's fawning interaction with the Xeno, and I realized Oram's twitching and convulsing lasted a long time.

It was a pretty dramatic and gruesome death scene!

@RZA yes, please not 5 years...1-2, certainly no longer than that.

I am really not that much enthusiastic about that crossover. And I was not enthusiastic about Star Wars prequels as well. ;-)

I'm of the camp that really enjoyed Prometheus and was really looking forward to seeing where the story would go and was really disappointed at the changes and that Shaw was no longer a part of that vision.

 I am enjoying the David AI aspect of all this and loved Alien Covenant greatly, so I am anxiously awaiting to see where this all goes.

 But please RS, lets not wait 5 years. While I really enjoyed AC, it was not worth a 5 year wait.

I've seen AC 4 times now, and I really really enjoyed it! I'm going for a 5th viewing before its completely gone! Can you believe in a big city like this it's down to only 3 theaters??

 Good thing about that is that my pre-order will be available soon!

The only way I can think of David being able to get a hold of thousands of engineers to experiment on, is they were in statis somewhere, either on the planet itself, or perhaps on the dockonaught ship?

Unfortunately its no longer on here anywhere anymore either.

@VivisectedEngineer That quote is so catchy lmao 
This film requires multiple viewings to pick up the subtleties hidden within :)

I went and saw it (for the fifth time...) yesterday morning. There were only two other people in my theater, but there were two showings five minutes apart for some reason, so there may have been more viewers in the adjacent theater.

It's really amazing all the little things you pick up on your fifth viewing. ...Don't judge me, I'm a teacher on vacation.

Also, @Lawrence of Arabia, right after the movie yesterday I went to the spa. When the esthetician sighed "beauty is pain" in preparation for my black-head removal, I couldn't resist referencing that silly LoA quote. :P

Unfortunately it isn't playing near me any more. I wish it was, since I would have liked to seen it a 3rd time. I definitely plan on seeing it in the dollar theater however, can't wait for that. 

@Kethol

Excellent post and summary, your write-up reflects my own understanding and thoughts on the pathogen.  Thanks for taking the time to put it all together.

Glad to hear it's doing well where you are at :) I've seen it in theaters about 3 times and anxiously await the DVD/Blu-ray! Can't wait for Awakening either.

Big Dave: Yeah that was kind of disappointing. Even though David is an interesting character it was too much about a mad android with a creator complex. It is a fairly good movie which I could watch a bit now and then but I was a bit disappointed with the route they went. They were smart enough to leave out Shaw (mostly) but they could have showed more of the Engineers as being aggressive gardeners in space creating and destroying life and letting them have a closer tie to the Xenos. Engineers can be interesting if they are done right.

I agree that it was disappointing that what we were not shown in the trailer was the David connection. If they will focus on David then they need good human characters that are better than both those in Prometheus and those in Alien Covenant but AC was a step in the right direction character wise so I hope that they will be better in the next Alien movie. What would be disappointing is that in the end the Alien franchise is about androids, that would be underwhelming.

The Xeno should be important but as you say how do we do this without over-cook it? I think that they should keep it in the shadows (Alien being the best example of it) and focus on sympathetic characters that we can identify us with to an extent at least.

Ripley is over-done, keep her out of this.

I'm not sure if I'm up for a Blade Runner crossover but if it's done well I'm good. Prometheus was really a marriage between Alien and Blade Runner so... 
Also I feel like you're trying to insult those who like the Alien Prequels simply cuz Ridley admires George and is trying to pull off something similar. The Star Wars prequels weren't bad imo but I'm indifferent and what Ridley's doing is better.

This might be something that I have said before but anyways. I don’t mind if they won’t tell us everything about the black goo because one of the interesting things is to speculate about a movie.  By not showing us the source of the goo we can make up our own stories just like we did about the Xeno before Prometheus.

Indeed the scope of the Engineers History was something that made Prometheus a good Prologue to bigger things... but this would have relegated the Xenomorph to just being say a Assault Riffle of Mankind where as the Black Goo on LV-223 would have been like when Mankind had discovered Gunpowder and its various applications is the same as the various applications of the Black Goo.

There is more to Mankind than say the discovery/creation of Nuclear Energy/Weapons and Gunpowder and so there is more to the Engineers than the LV-223 Outpost and Experiments.

I think they are keeping a lot of it a Mystery though, and so where the Sacrificial Goo and Black Goo came from and connection may never be covered.

The Source i had over 2 years ago... seems to hint that the Original Source of the Engineers Goo was a Obelisk on Paradise that is neither Rock or Metal but similar that is Growing from the Ground.  It has a Green Glow and this is where the Tool of Creation and Change is obtained from... it was to portray both the Tree of Life and Knowledge within the Garden of Eden... it being the Obelisk and LV-223 the Green Crystal was a Stolen Shard of this Obelisk.

This apparently was how Paglen and Green Drafts was to deal with it. But again until we see one of their Drafts this information cant be taken as accurate at all.

I think RS has a vision he wants to stick too, but FOX will want to be careful after AC and how it performed... RS/FOX may indeed want to set up a Franchise where they can bring in another 4-6 movies... but the next movie will determine that.

They need to get it RIGHT... because if they invest big and have a $150M Budget they would be wanting to make back 3X their Budget... if it fails to break Even then i think that Spells the End of the Franchise for the next 10 years at least.

If they provide a smaller Budget like less than AC (taking into account Inflation) then there is a chance they cant really do the movie justice.... we could clearly see where a Tight Budget had Hurt Alien Covenant..

The Problem arises now...

As some Fans will see the Xenomorph as being the most important thing and needs to be covered more, but how do they do this without Overcooking the Beast... some fans may expect a Ripley Connection to be drawn in....  And then some fans may want to know more about the Engineers and less about David, the Xeno and Ripley.

So FOX/RS have a hard task to go and please every single fan.

I worry with how AC has performed and gone down... that FOX will buckle and force RS to introduce Ripley into the Franchise again and be about Xenomorphs and Ripley.

But Hello..... Miss Weaver is Too Old now... unless they want to throw a massive $$$$ Budget and De-aging her...  they need to make the next movie about David and Xenomorph but bring Engineers back and maybe throw out a Ripley Dog Bone as far as her being a part of the next movie as a Child.

Then move onto giving Alien/Aliens fans a Sequel to Aliens maybe where we have a older Ripley passing on the Torch to Newt.

The Trailers and Marketing was to show everyone this...

LOOK GUYS ITS A ALIEN MOVIE.. IT REALLY IS ;)

When the Parts not covered in the Trailers are about DAVID and his Arch/Agenda and Legacy and setting up the TWIST that is about DAVID... Engineers and Shaw was loosely covered in as less of a way they could without completely ignoring them...

I think this really Bugged Aliens fans (no pun intended) as the whole movie to what they was expecting was shown near enough in the Trailers, and the only things that was not was a bit of the Prometheus stuff but mainly DAVID.

I think RS and maybe FOX are now putting DAVID at the forefront of the Prequels... where he is a Key Element to eventually drive the Narrative towards getting to the Space Jockey and Derelict

I think this is why they had Chosen to have DAVID be the Xenomorph Creator

The Prequels was set up thus to follow Davids Arc about how Creation can overthrow Creator (but these themes are loosely covered between Humans/Engineers too) but ultimately its about showing Davids Arc and Agenda that leads him to Create the Ultimate Threat to Humanity.

Which is where we take over in Alien and the Franchise to show us that Ripley is the Savior against the Ultimate Threat to Humanity.   With the Xenomorph just now relegated to being a Narrative/Plot Device of both those Characters Stories.

Most interesting thread. The various forms do make a lot of sense. At the same time we're still left with plenty of intrigue and mystery. Like who the hell are these Engineers? Why do they dress up like Romans and seemingly live a frugal life? Do they have many castes? What's that new ship all about? What was it up to? How long has this galactic warfare been going on? "Why do [they] hate us?" Do they hate us, or are they just utterly indifferent? Who, across the galaxy, is making the really grand plans.

I love this mystery. And, having seen Covenant half a dozen times, I love this movie, too. There's plenty of life left in the Engineer's universe yet.

///

@Jonesy

Haha, that would be awesome!

However, as you are a cat, they probably won't let you in the crashed-space-ship themed escape-room with us.

You'll have to stay home and guard the black-dyed beverages and xenomorph cake against mice!

Daszowski:

Good question, I would prefer if they took their time. Things usually get worse when decisions are rushed. I am not even sure if it has had premiere world wide this far (meaning all the countries where Fox has decided that it shall be shown in movie theaters). After it has been shown in all countries and depending on how much it makes then they will probably decide about where to go next, that is what I would do if I was some sort of boss at Fox.

I disagree with Starlogger about the yearly installments, there is a risk that they will release too much Alien related things as they have done with Star Wars so people lose interest. For example I am a Star Wars fan but there are a lot of things that I simply don’t care for that much in that universe like the EU books, spin-off movies (I watched Rogue One, it was OK but not more than that, I give it a 2/5) so if they will release too much of Alien related movies I would probably react the same way. The more they release in a franchise the bigger the risk will be that these things suck, I prefer quality over quantity even though I can understand it when people have a big excitement about a franchise.

Joylitt has a point where he says that they will look for a stronger lead-role in the showdown with the Xeno. Daniels was alright and could be developed further as a character but she was too anonymous or what ever to say. They need a more interesting character for that although things can develop in a way that makes her a more interesting person (keep in mind how Ripley changed from Alien to Alien 3, or Leia in Star Wars to Return).

Yes it was strange that the Facehugger died after being attached to the face for so little time. That thing didn’t make sense, compare it to Alien and Kane. Did they think that through or can that be explained with the simple fact that this is earlier than Alien in the time-line so it will develop so it will take longer for people to get face-hugged in Alien (1979)?

I like the quality of the story but damn that is some nasty shit.

“Upon reaching the very edge of the cliff, David threw the toddler down into the field below, still humming as its small mutilated body splattered at the bottom.”

David is on some Ted Bundy shit. That really gave me a disgusting mental image, well done if that was your purpose of it.

Joylitt: It sort of depends on how you look at it. You can compare it to how much money it cost to make it and look at how much profit it has gained this far or you can compare it to how much the other movies did. Me, I look at how much it cost to make and to market so with that considered it looks like it makes a decent amount of money. For or against I think that it is interesting that a franchise that has been around for so long still has people discussing the movies being them for or against. All Alien movies are not good, I don’t appreciate Alien Resurrection or Alien Versus Predator a lot and even Aliens has things that are not that good. To me AC has things that could have been a lot better but it is far from being the worst Alien related movie.

AC isn’t awful in my opinion but it could have been much better. Compared to the other Alien related movies I would say that it is better than some but defiantly not the best. One thing that I dislike is that it is too slow in parts and even though I didn’t want a clone of Aliens there were parts where it was just too slow.

Kethol: They should have gotten the characters better even though they were better compared to Prometheus. I think that it is good that they kept it closer to the Xenos. Unfortunately, it was a little too much focus on the Artificial Intelligence aspect even though I think that Fassbender did an interesting job and that it was fun to compare Walter and David. Maybe there is a reason for this but they could have reduced the AI part.

Daliens: I think that it is good that he listened to the critics because a pure Engineer and David movie would have been boring as hell. Sure there is a small possibility that they could have made that work but I doubt it. Prometheus was a disappointment to me. There are many different parts in this franchise just look at the difference between Alien and Aliens and that there are different fans that watch these two movies. No matter what they try will always be people that get disappointed but it is good that they listened to some of it. Even though Alien Covenant isn’t perfect it is at least alright and a lot better compared to Prometheus.

Honestly the trailers were like mistakes by showing too much or showing things that were not in the movie. They should be examples of how to not do a trailer, I imagine a movie class where they teach future people that will work in the movie industry and they talk about trailers.

 - OK students, today we shall talk about trailers. You can do good trailers and bad ones. One case that I shall talk about today are the trailers to Alien Covenant. (Bla bla bla.)

Actually I can imagine something like that taking place at some class at some university somewhere.

If it feels like you have seen the most important parts after watching them then why watch the movie at all? My reaction was to go and see it because I wanted to know more about what would happen but I understand if many people felt like they have watched the most important things after they saw the trailers. Fox really screwed them up, who ever was responsible for that.

Tell me if I am mistaken but maybe Fox thought that Alien is such a franchise that gives them money so people would watch the movie anyways so the trailers were not that important. In doing this they made trailers that were underwhelming so that kept people away from the movie theaters. Of course I can be totally mistaken about this but maybe this is true when it comes to some people at least.

Oh, I see that they got a picture of Elisabeth Shaw! ;)

I will come and play AVP:R and ruin your party  :p

I thought the trailers not only showed too much, but were a step down in quality. Compared to the beautifully assembled Alien and Prometheus trailers (which also showed too much) most of the AC trailers just seemed kind of tacky.

Even without the trailers, A:C showed the Alien too much. The original was a connoisseur of the psychological: claustrophobia and the "peak-a-boo" scares. The Alien was too much of an afterthought, shoehorned into the final act of the film...  

I'm with Durp. If they do a crossover, the prequels should be considered part of RS' sci-fi universe exclusively (similar to the AVP/Alien relationship).

I hope they don't do a Blade Runner Alien cross over, they're best doing their own thing even if they take place in the same universe keep them separate.

As a Chinese I have to say sorry about the illegal copies. It's truth, when I was a kid I could get many illegal copies of movies and I didn't know that was wrong. Many people even have no idea what copy right is. But, hey, we are getting better, not like many years ago, now it's getting harder and harder to get illegal copies. And many video webs buying copy rights so we can watch online. We are changing better so please don't call us chinks that hurts me. 

For the deleted scenes, as you guys feel, as a fans I hope to watch the whole parts...

sherris

Warner Bros owns Blade Runner... Sony is just onboard to distribute internationally because Alcon made a deal for them .Sony has been rebooting a lot of franchises

Hmm Seanathon. The original script for Prometheus I read contained wall mounted larval eggs contained in a huge chamber as well as urns and much more engineer content. I don't quiet understand your comment unless we read different things.  

I honestly dont think they would put in the theory to make them plausible.

I was wondering because Sony have Blade Runner and Fox got Alien franchise. 

Would it even be possible or are the 2 companies owned by the same corporation?