Thoughts on peoples complaints.

What I do know about these "complaints" is that more people were disappointed and confused by this movie than people who were so happy with the final product.  

As someone who was in film school in a while (that I wrote a screenplay) and who has an actual credit in a movie that I worked on; is that the movie makes no sense and has no rational logic to it.  We seen this with Prometheus and its frustrating.  Did the same happen in the first four Alien movies?  Yes, but it was subtle and it did not distract from the tone and plot of the movie.  

Personally, I wish I could get my 80 bucks back (tickets plus concession).  It is a huge disappointing farce.  

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2316204/reviews?filter=chrono;filter=chrono;start=0

Read and/or count the number of reviews that are positive vs negative.  I see more on the negative than Prometheus on this flick.  

Ridley has been hit or miss over the years and his last two outings have been in the territory of Roger Corman.

http://www.avclub.com/video/its-critic-vs-critic-alien-covenantwhoever-wins-we-255637

Interesting critic debate and whoever wants to watch the premise for Prometheus lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ5MzHJUV6k

I would like to know what happened to Margraet Shaw? Who killed her and why did David cut her up? did he get the answer for the questions from Promethus regarding why did the 'fathers' send alien to earth and what did we do top deserve this ?    anbody know the answers to my questions.

Cardboard characters making stupid decisions.  Rehashing old fomulas that makes this round derivative & cliched.  Bad CGI when Scott himself touted the predominant use of practical fx in this film. Tossing away a character audience invested in with Shaw.  I think all those complaints are what I'm hearing & are valid, making this installment such a disappointment.

@Colonial

80 Bucks? what the hell...

Im from Ireland, cost for a ticket in a cinema is like £7.50

Anyway.

Im not trying to tell people to like this film, its up to them. All I'm saying is do it for the right reasons. You say that the movie makes no sense and has no rational logic to it, if you don't mind could you explain.

Funny how the tone of this forum changed from 2 weeks ago where people were lauding this movie as the second coming before seeing it.

Guess maybe people will have realistic expectations going into the next movie, if there is one.

@Ash81

Cardboard characters is a valid reason, I would agree that more development is needed.

Bad CGI is also valid. The neomorph attack at Davids place was a bit shit if I'm honest.

The stupid decisions. If you don't mind, name them so we can talk about them.

I haven't watched it but it is totally fine if some people don't like it, that doesn't make them idiots or something similar. There have been many alien associated movies this far so it would be strange if everyone would like all of them.

@Thoughs_Dreams

I agree, if you don't like the film thats fine just don't cite shitty reasons for it though.

@Rosemary...David killed Shaw, as can be seen with him putting her in the sleep chamber in this deleted scene...watch this review..pretty funny, and shows the scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_hxDACD54s

Agree with Ash81:

"Cardboard characters making stupid decisions.  Rehashing old fomulas that makes this round derivative & cliched.  Bad CGI when Scott himself touted the predominant use of practical fx in this film. Tossing away a character audience invested in with Shaw.  I think all those complaints are what I'm hearing & are valid, making this installment such a disappointment."

The fact that the film so carelessly threw away everything interesting in Prometheus is what pissed me off so much. Ridley stated that he wanted to explain the famous Space Jockey. Well, he started to do that and it was fascinating, but annoying fans bitched about it (I guess more loudly than those who liked it) and he totally shifted directions. Grow a pair, Ridley! You compromised your vision and now the franchise is in the gutter. Covenant SUCKED.

Some of the horror elements in the film are good because that is what Ridley does well, but the action scenes were extremely generic and rushed and obviously just there for fan-service to Aliens. And the CGI was awful. The film didn't even need the xenomorph. It was very forced, very tacked on.

The fact that any semi-loyal fan of the Alien series could have come up with a better premise for this film shows what a terrible job these writers did.

@Patient Leech

Cool, I totally agree on the fans ruining the direction with their moaning. I wanted more of the Prometheus aspect and not so much of the "Heres what people cried about online". That being said, producers might have twisted the arm and said here look this is what the fans want.

Thing is, isn't this film supposed to be the in-between film?

Prometheus...film....Alien Covenant...film.. then Alien?

This film definitely has got flaws, but it's very enjoyable. One of the most frustrating things is the lack of answers, no doubt about that. I fear the whole engineer/creators mythology will be scrapped.

As an Alien movie, this is my third favorite. Alien and Aliens being 1 and 2.

I hope that we have more Alien movies, the domestic box office was a little shaky to say the least.

Yeah definitely my 3rd favorite, flaws or not....

Re box office, weekend isn't over..

@Engineer Tech, I had to pay for three adult tickets and one child.  The theater here in Georgia has new reclining seats and a bar now, so you paying for the upgrade.  All my kids love the snacks and more money spent there.

True about the weekend not being over. Hopefully Fox is pleased with the numbers.

Ridley needs to fine tune some things for the next film. I know the upcoming book will answer some of the things that happened with David and Shaw during the 10 years in between the ending of Promeatheus and Covenant. Which is unfortunate, would have wanted some of that in AC.

Any product that has ever been made, generates complaints by the end user for one reason only. It was not fit for purpose. The question then is why buy into a product to be let down. Who is to blame? I think that in the world of entertainment it is a matter of being sold an expectation that does not happen. I like AC because it was everything I was expecting it to be. I do not feel stung by the ticket price for the entertainment I got in return.

That being said, AC is far from being immune to criticism for lots of reasons. The whole franchise is going down a risky path because of the direction Ridley is taking it in. The problem started before Prometheus came out. Ridley stated that he wanted to do a trilogy. The reality of what we have right now, is the second act of a three part venture. When you look at other films that have done this, there has always been mixed reactions. Until the third film comes along, I am hesitant to give any real valued judgement simply because everything up to now is work in progress.

I think that those who feel they have been let down should be allowed to vent their anger as it is only natural.

The direction I think the franchise is going in is this. Ridley has cleared the decks and approached things from a fresh slate, so forget any meaningful references to anything that has gone before, but he does know that you cannot just un-invent the original Alien. He has now produced two movies that have developed a life of their own, and used some of the key elements used in the original Alien. Such elements being demanded by the fans, and probably the studio. The end result could be a third film that rounds off the trilogy and when all three are watched in sequence, back to back everything makes sense. But here comes the punchline. I don’t think there will be such an obvious direct link to the original Alien. I think the end result will be that when you have watched the trilogy, everything in that universe will tie up, but then when you watch Alien it will be like watching a different story altogether where the viewer sees the old space jockey and thinks, where the hell did that come from?  That would keep the mystery of the old space jockey, whilst having a trilogy that seems to answer loads of other questions. The infuriating thing is having to wait for that third instalment and I just hope what we have up to know has not lost the impetus to see to job completed.

I didn't like what they did to Shaw. It's seriously disappointing. and I mean the acting of fassbender is amazing, but I dunno David just seems to be abit out of it, quite different to what he was in Prometheus. i find it difficult to reconcile Prometheus David and AC David. And the way he spoke about Shaw felt contrived. And David genuinely loves her from the cues in Prometheus, but here it felt out of place. And then finding out what he done to her, questions you as to what is David really? 

About the logic; another rehash of the strange transmission forcing the crew to divert its course.  Blindly, taking the minimal precautions to go investigate.  Following a twin android on an alien planet after an attack.  Again, breaking up into smaller groups.

Sorry, I do not believe the facehugger had the time to get a egg down his throat.  If that is the case, the facehugger might as well spit alien juice on you to get you impregnated lol.

The CGI sucked and after Aliens; the practical effects were more realistic.  I can go on an on and on and on and on but sorry,  near to the worse movie made in the series.  Its truly an awful film.  I was hoping for Star Wars 8/Rogue One caliber type of story telling.  I could of did a better job with the screenplay.  Honestly.

@Batchpool, what direction?  Predator 4 is coming out next year and its about special operators and/or Marines hunting the Predator.  

Just like the Rocky films; all we need is a variation on the theme.  If it a totally new focus on the character; then it become Creed.  

The movie needs to focus on Aliens.  That is that.  Something needs to show that besides the small Marine mission in Aliens; humans are now setting out to exterminate the Aliens for good.

@Colonial

In terms of the rehash of a Transmission, are you talking about all films or just the Alien “franchise”. If its just the Alien collection then, if I'm not mistaken this is the first time its been used since Alien. 

Aliens is a loss of contact, Alien3 doesn't have that nor does Resurrection and the AVP crap are based on earth. Although something new could have been better.

Minimal precautions? like the guns they always brought with them?

Following David made sense as their ship just blew up and he just helped them. It wouldn't make sense to just stay there. As far as they were concerned, they couldn't stay in the place they were just attacked in.

The breaking up into smaller groups, again David had just helped them and he told them that they were safe in that building. They also always carried their guns with them.

The facehugger, the only thing i could say to that is, if protomorpth then maybe protofacehugger. Its possible that the life cycle of this breed is very fast, much like the neomorphs. I sort of agree with you on this though. If it is proper facehugger then it should be longer.

CGI, i agree with you on that.

@ colonialsoldier

Running with the idea of more focus on aliens, David now has the ability to produce a xeno army. I don’t know what interviews you have seen with Ridley recently, but in one interview I’ve seen he hinted at war. This sounds promising, but would it be a human vs xeno war, of a engineer vs xeno war of something else?

I think it would be great if there was a Lord of the Rings scale fight.

I think the whole new trilogy would be helped, big time, if something like that could be pulled off. It is that sort of action sequence that I think has been missing.

@Batch.  That sounds interesting.

As a writer I had some concerns about the stories I'm working on and how they'd align to ALIEN: Covenant.

I'm no longer concerned as I'm splitting my prespective off from where ALIEN: Covenant and the entire franchise is seemingly headed.

There's some damned stupid things In ALIEN: Covenant that I just can't accept and as they're now Canon for having been in the movie...well, I'm not gonna have sloppy, stupid and half-assed concepts in my realm.
My works, well I might be an amateur, but I can state that I know more about how to keep a production 'ALIEN-y' than FOX does.
I blame FOX, not R. Scott for the debacle unfolding before us as FOX truly loves to meddle, kibbitz and generally screw around while an ALIEN film is in production.
If they left R. Scott the hell alone to do his magic, there'd be NP...but, NOPE...FOX always has a fetish for diddling around.
That and I smell Hill and Giler, their kibbitzy, asstard influence is all over this.

@Batch

I think I heard him say War of the Worlds style direction in an interview

@Blackwinter, I do not knock Hill.  Hill has directed some of the finest movies that I enjoyed; e.g. The Warriors, Southern Comfort, 48 HRS and Extreme Prejudice.

I just got back from the theatre a little bit ago and I have to say I think it was a solid sequel to Prometheus while trying to expand the story some.

Part of me wonders of the complaints are more about failing to pick up on the themes in gothic literature and how those stories  take the narrative of creation and the created order of the universe. 

I wasn't let down at all.

BZ

colonialsoldier

Yeah, he's had successes.
He and Giler are also notorious for being asstards in regards to futzing around with ALIEN franchise productions.

Look up 'genghis khan in alien', as example. ;)

Everyone here is an article that talks about some WTF issues created by Covenant.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/05/21/alien-covenants-6-biggest-wtf-questions

I don't think criticizing a movie that was downright silly and literally laughable in some parts is unwarranted at all.  It's totally fair.  Criticizing the crew not having helmets, etc, is one thing, sure. But that's not why I personally complained.