colonialsoldier
MemberFacehuggerMay 19, 2017No spoilers but some things that I though that should have made the film a little better.
This is how my version of Covenant would have played.
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Film opens with the Engineer ship with Shaw and David heading to the planet. We see Shaw still sleeping in cryostasis as the ship prepares to dock on the Engineer home world.
A cold David is showing wreaking havoc on the planet. After the attack, it cuts back to David but then it fades to Walter on the Covenant.
He is the only one up with James Franco as Franco is the last to get into his sleep chamber. Franco is basically giving a log report (similar to Star Trek or what Charleston Heston did in Planet of the Apes and before he goes to sleep, Walter reassures him that he has the crew and the ship under control.
Then the ship with the solar flare problems happen and the fate of what happens to certain members is shown. After it all ends, we establish the couples by having them having dialogue in their cabins. There will be cabins for the couple crew members when they do not have to be in suspended animation.
Tennessee and his wife will be the ones to fix the solar panels. Tennessee almost gets into a mishap in which he wife helps him out. This establish a connection between their relationship, their characters and should generate more emotion when the doodoo hits the fan. The transmission will received.
Get rid of the religious hoopla from the second in command. Just show him not ready and slightly incompetent due to his new role and how the crew becomes disengaged from him. I thought Crup's character was decent.
I would have had the crew land on the planet with environment suits on and they use a test animal (perhaps a rabbit) they had on the ship (as part of their colonization mission) with them to show the planet is breathable. A little more common sense.
Alien small pods and perhaps the rabbit gets impregnated but I will have the life-cycle last a little longer. One of the astronauts gets the airborne "virus" because he is left to secure an area and he removes his helmet to smoke a cigarette and that is how it enters its nostrils.
I will keep away from the Dr. Moreau stuff but David does find an Engineer lab on the planet that was dealing with the xenomorph experiments and he takes it from there. Again, leaving the theory that the Engineers created the xenomorphs originally.
I would have dealt with the facehugger attacks a little more different in regards to time; aligning with the true life-cycle. I would have wanted it to show differently when the security officer gets back on the ship, in a manner that is a little more shocking. For example, after he is patched up and left alone. He goes into convulsions while sleeping and the baby xenomorph pops out.
And to surprise the audience, stop with the female heroine at the end. It is already played out and they should have let Tennessee save the day and that will truly show Danny McBride play a non-type cast character in this role. And then having him getting wasted by you know who. Something that Ridley originally pitched about Ripley's death in Alien.
I had more ideas but I think these little tweeks would have made a difference. Also, using a DP like Darius Khondji again who knows how to film spooky and dread.
