Thoughts on peoples complaints.

@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.

The movie had flaws... it has a lot of potential Plot Holes, but then these can open up debates... and so not all are Plot Holes... they are things that can be answered... or where there has to be a logical explanation.

Yes there are some silly things... but this is needed to get the Plot Going Forwards.....  If Daniels objected and they demanded a Mutiny against Oram and then went to Origae-6 instead we would have had no movie...

The Planet was inhabitable...  so there is a good reason they never had Space Suits, but ideally they would still take them as you dont know what other Airborne Pathogens etc are there.. so this is the same as Holloway taking his Helmet off.... again we can only assume they had sensors that detected no harmful environmental factors.

Again Space Suits = No Neomorph infection, so it was needed.. a more silly point is how Daniels and Co are not so Cautious having seen TWO Crew infected... (saw one, knew of another) and then they saw those Dead Bodies without ever asking about them.

Logically you would be thinking.... Hang On, Infected Crew by some unknown Parasite, Dead Humanoids... Hang on.... so thats why there was no Birds... Nothing.

Then at this point they was stranded, and David offered them a way out... the other Alternative Scene.... (Screeners) David said "come with me if you want to survive"

I think it was bad writing how they did not have Daniels Question David about those bodies...  but alas...

And they could not really had fitted more into the movie due to the 2 hour restraints FOX had set... so there was more scenes shot that had to be cut and edited like Prometheus was too.

BigDave And what about Weyland Yutani?. Aren't they paying for the expedition? Oram can change plans just like that, without asking the company, which must have plans to exploit the natural resources of the already studied Origae 6. And what about not seizing David as Company's property?. Isn't Weyland-Yutani already bankrupt with so much nonsense going on?

Super Fast Xenomorph Gestation/Growth...

We need to remember.. a complaint with Prometheus was take away the Prologues (Sacrifice, Holloway/Shaw Cave Painting) the time we saw the Prometheus ship to everyone waking up and then suiting up to go to the Temple... happened a bit fast, and it never gave time to get to know the Characters well.

So in AC they spent time making a Slow Burn 1st act, that lead to when they departed to the surface in the Lander.. and even further right down with the Neomorphs..

At this point it was Slow Build Up to maybe improve Characters... Check... Introduce New Alien via Spore Infection... Check..

Then it was on to bringing in the Xenomorph, but they also had to cover Prometheus parts a bit too..... then Baring in mind they had a Ending Set up....

There simply would have not been enough time to have fitted in TWO Normal Xenomorph Cycles.... as then do we just have them sit by the Fire, then wonder where Oram got too... how do they explain what the rest would do for hours while Oram was missing?

And so they had to speed up the Xenomorph Gestation and Growth rate which was stupid... but it was needed.... it appears Davids experiment was a Evolution of the Xenomorph, as it grew fast just like the Hammerpede Infections and also Neomorphs.

Ideally they should have stuck with 1X Xenomorph and came across Orams Body with no Face Hugger (or David removes it) and says Oram fell over... or something... so they would take him back to the Ship.... then allow a normal Gestation Rate...

But this would raise problems with Quarantine Protocols after seeing what happened to Ledwood and Hallet...   Then again why was Lope not given the same... he was taken to a Med-Bay and never given any screening after being attacked by a Alien Parasitic Face Hugger.... surely they would want to have him scanned...   But doing this would have detected a Xenomorph and then well... what do they do then... torch him?  even if they locked the Room... it would effected the other scenes (Shower Scene) because everyone would have known about the Organism on board.

The only way would have been to have Walter go and check on him, and report back... Lope is ok, X-ray shows no infections... he will be Quarantined to Med-Bay where i will observe him.

This however would reveal to the viewers... that Walter is David way earlier on... and once the Xenomorph goes on the lose.. some would then complain about why Daniels etc... would trust Walter because he said there was no infection.

So you see the tricky task they had at hand....

BigDave

"Then again why was Lope not given the same... he was taken to a Med-Bay and never given any screening after being attacked by a Alien Parasitic Face Hugger.... surely they would want to have him scanned...   But doing this would have detected a Xenomorph and then well... what do they do then... torch him?  even if they locked the Room... it would effected the other scenes (Shower Scene) because everyone would have known about the Organism on board."

The way I handled it in my short story is in a manner that would work quite well in an infirmary as well. ;)

The below takes place in an airlock.

" It raised itself up, it’s body now fully visible, no sign of any apprehension or fear on it’s part. It’s small jaws closed, but even then it’s small, sharp greyish crystalline-metal teeth could be seen. No eyes nor ears could be seen, there was nothing but the small, toothed mouth. An oddly corrugated artery could be seen pulsing visibly close by and upwardly-behind it’s jaw.
It raised fully up, like a cobra she’d seen in a vid once, seemed to be surveying the room. She felt a distinct impression it could see, or rather sense them all perfectly.
The tiny maw opened, and it emitted an odd sound, a raggedly mewling rasped-hiss before it tore the rest of it’s snakelike length from the man’s body and with the speed of a striking snake vanished in a single wriggling motion that propelled it under a bench seat that was part of the wall. There was the sudden sound of thin metal being torn rapidly, then nothing.
It wasn’t until some hours later that things had taken a much graver and terrifying turn for the worse. "

There's air vents with thin pressed-metal grilles even in airlocks, right? Medbays also. ;)
Quatantine doesn't mean a whole lot to something that can get into an air vent and tear through the air-seal blocker-plate.

Exactly....

They would think they have done enough to keep it in, but it would find a way to escape...  I have been pondering how i could improve AC...

I would not touch anything until after David takes them to his hide away..

But the Xenomorph is hard to cover.... within constraints of the running time.. As i mentioned prior, you can come up with one idea.. that would be better but then would raise some flaws, which you try and come up with a good suggestion.. and then you find another flaw...

You could have had both David and Walter make it to the ship... and on good terms... but then we would have to erase the scenes when Walter found Davids experiments and Daniels also finding some of his handy work..

I think ideally they should have had...  Oram kill the Neomorph... and then get Face Hugged... but have David cover it up someway... by saying the Neomorph came in and attacked... but dont worry i took it out... and show the body...

But then have him hide Orams, and say that he died and he has to quickly take them to another place as its not safe...   But then how would the remaining Crew react... would they want to wonder outside? It would be better if David then explains the Organism and say there are only TWO as it needed a Host... if we can trap the other and kill it you would be safe.

Then having them bate and kill the other Neomorph, but then have the crew well Cole, discover Oram as he gets Chest Busted and have him kill the Chest Buster....   then have David kill Cole, just as Lope sees and then he gets Face Hugged quickly..

This would allow for ONE Adult Xeno... Lope has it on the ship..  hours latter.

This would give a bit more time between Oram Face Hugged and Chest Buster... and killed the Chest Buster... which means we dont need the super quick growth of screen to Adult.

Then we would still have that problem with Lopes...unless Walter informs Daniels as her and Tennessee together that Lope is Fine...   When unknown to us David knows what will happen but he can pass it off as he seemed ok.. no signs of previous infection as he has been in Quarantine for hours with no symptoms..

When she hears MUTHUR say Life-form detected... they may just think Walter was mistaken.. and not 100% detect any Malice... but the viewer would then be suspicious and some would by then get that Walter was David prior to the Actual Reveal..

But we all saw this a Mile off anyway ;)

Just have to hope the next movie is better written... or Ultimately Accept that Davids Experiments have a Vastly Faster Rate of Growth etc..

This wont even contradict Alien much, as they can have a explanation... for reasons for the slower Growth.. especially if Ridley Scott... Ret-cons Aliens and so we get Alien and then a new set of RS Sequels that keep to the new faster growth rate.

BigDave

Lemme give it some thought :D

I find a lot of the criticisms about this one and Prometheus to be incredibly dumb.  Most of the people complaining want to bring science into the discussion.  It's a sci-fi movie.  I think we have to suspend a certain level of realism as it relates to such movies.  My best example is the argument is the complaint that Lope (head of security detail) took acid in the face and it didn't eat through him like it did through the various levels on Nostromo (Alien 1979).  How many people (I have never heard a single complaint) bitched about Cpl. Hicks when he was hit in the face with acid?  :-/

If you look hard enough you can find flaws in all good movies.  

@Colonial 

In relation to that article you posted….

1. Are the Engineers really dead?   I don't think that they are Engineers.
2. Why is David creating the Xenomorphs? He hates us, plans to use the weapon on humanity 
3. What about the Alien Queen? Who's to say that David doesn't create one from the Covenant crew in order to mass produce the eggs?
4. What about the Eggs on LV426? we are going to find that out in the next film.
5. Whos the Space Jockey on LV426? see above.
6. Why doesn't the Xenomorph look like the original? Might just be a first step in its design.

This is what I mean, these are not good enough to hate the film.

@Phallic Jaw

Is there a thread where you detail the problems you have with the film? I keep seeing people say that the film did silly things but they don't say what they are.

@Big Dave

Again Space Suits = No Neomorph infection, so it was needed.. a more silly point is how Daniels and Co are not so Cautious having seen TWO Crew infected... (saw one, knew of another) and then they saw those Dead Bodies without ever asking about them.

Logically you would be thinking.... Hang On, Infected Crew by some unknown Parasite, Dead Humanoids... Hang on.... so thats why there was no Birds... Nothing.

Then at this point they was stranded, and David offered them a way out... the other Alternative Scene.... (Screeners) David said "come with me if you want to survive”

They didn't see the dead humanoids until David showed up and led them to his place. I get what you are saying but they were just attacked by two creatures so to have them question that at that point wouldn't make sense for me. They asked at the right time, when they thought they were safe with David. For me it was a case of, lets get out of here and then work out what happened.

Some of them are Prometheus fanboys who are mad.

When the Alien fanboys complained, they got their movie:  Alien-Covenant.  My problem is this, if you make 'The Empire Strikes Back', do you then follow it with 'The Force Awakens'?