Thoughts on peoples complaints.

Yes Brett, things such as the FULL GROWN chestburster standing up and putting its arms up and The flute scene.  Extremely SILLY and neither of these things would have appeared in the original Alien.  Dumb, just dumb.

@colonialsoldier 

You were hoping for a "Rouge One "caliber type of storytelling"? Are you kidding me?! I mean really??

That movie was awful Storywise; had terrible one dimensional, unlikable characters, dull dialouge, an extremely bad structure and pacing, and generally no emotion or "soul" in it. The whole film was pretty boring, especially the third act. Felt like just watching random cgi porn filled action with no emotion in it. Apart from the special effects and the last scene with Vader, its a painfully below average and forgettable movie. I was so dissapointed after watching it at the big screen i couldnt believe my eyes.

@Phallic 

In terms of the Chestburster being fully grown.

The only thing I can say to that is, all three of the creatures (Deacon, Neomorph and the debatable xenomorpth) have all been fully grown. They just haven't been their full size during the chest bursting. It is possible that the Alien in the first film is slightly different from the one in Alien Covenant.

Putting its arms up.

We should wait until the next film comes out before we make a judgement. It seems thats the film is indicating that David has some sort of control over these creatures. Walter was attacked and David wasn’t. Remember the Neomorpth didn't attack David and the “Xenomorpth” mimicked him, theres something to that. I think there is something more to come of this. Until i know more about it, I wont be calling it silly.

The Flute scene.

Is this a case of David saying that he would do the fingering? If it is, thats a problem on your part. The term fingering is used when speaking about playing the flute, hell its used for other instruments. Heres two images to prove that. 

 I hope it isn't a case of you being childish.

If it isn’t, then what is silly about that part in the film?

Hmm I gotta be careful of spoilers I've not seen it yet... after Prometheus I'm finding it hard to muster the energy to go :s .

But let's take one of your points: why no helmets / protective gear. You say they scanned the planet and found it safe?! But they missed the thousands of bodies clearly killed by some kind of lethal substance not to mention the black goo infected stuff all over the place and eggs etc. etc.? Not to mention many other possibilities of disastrous consequences.  The biggest being them contaminating the planet not the other way round (viruses bacteria clothing fibre body cells the list is almost infinite)! Even sending Walter or some kind of sterile drone down first would be what would happen anyway. Anyone with half a brain knows this stuff an example would be an incident were the simple cold virus devastated an Eskimo community and that was on earth!  Imagine the differences between that planet and ours even if it had similar environments (in fact similar environments means easier contamination).

Ps. Anyway love farther Ted :D !

Biggest issue for me is that the creature mythos is no longer mysterious. Minimalism is was what made the original film so good. It set up every reveal moment to shock the audience.

This film seemed rushed, contrived and merely going through the motions. Seeing through the creatures eyes kinda kills more of the mystery as well as it originally seemed the creature had no eyes, relied on other senses like a bat.

This film was about David not the Alien and could be more associated to the Bladerunner franchise than Alien.

Needless to say, I will buy the Bluray or extended version and probably watch it 50 times or more. :)

Lol @Brett now you are just making excuses.  Sorry. Personally I don't give a rat's @ss if Div'Ed somehow has control over the beasts, it's a stupid plot idea.  I preferred them when they were like normal Aliens.  Having them controllable makes them less scary, which they totally were in the movie and the movie itself wasn't scary either.

regarding the flute.  You are not wrong but it seems that you are in the minority.  Audience members and critics alike have all found that line and scene laughable.  Sorry but it is too easy to write everybody off as children or immature that you just happen to disagree with.  If you can't see what everybody else is seeing in that scene, then maybe the problem is with you.  Regardless, it was just a crap, weird scene, and doesn't belong in a so-called Alien movie.  More so in a Blade Runner movie.

Hello everyone,

I saw Alien-Covenant last night & was very pleased with it.  It just seemed like everything was dark & hard to easily see?  I saw it as the movie that had to happen.  I really liked Walter & do not think we have heard the last from him!

*If you have not seen it, you must!*

Cheers!

@Phallic

Hardly excuses. All I said was I'm waiting until I know more before I pass judgement and gave some suggestions as to why we should wait.

I’ll be honest in the three times I went to see it some people did laugh, although they were all teenagers. Don't get me wrong, I'm not having a go because you laughed at that, I just don't think its enough for you to say its bad because of it. One line in a scene that was actually good and interesting. 

What I will say though, fair play to you for being honest. 

@djamelameziane

Father Ted is a great laugh, always thought Tom was very funny in it so thats why I used his image.

Anyway

The point i was making is that the ship they are on is built for colonising planets, we have to accept that they have technology for determining if planets are save or not to land on. Its at the start so its not really a spoiler, they intercept a message from the planet, not of someone in distress or an SOS but of someone singing so we have to assume that they believe that person to be alive and living there.

I do get what you are saying about how did they miss all the bodies.

In terms of the Black Goo, it wasn't airborne so no need for the helmets. Im still arguing that they didn't need the helmets because they determined that the planet itself was, in their view, safe to land on. 

@Thelonius X

Fair Play you you, cant really argue with you on those points. I agree with you on some of them.

Again, I'm not saying that this film is a masterpiece, far from it. All I'm saying is that some of the reasons for saying its a bad film are weak.

Honestly, the beast isn't scary anymore. To bring back fear into people about Alien you have to get disturbing with it. Almost sadistic, HR Giger sadistic disturbing. Have the alien shove it's tail up the girls vag in the shower scene, or up an a**, or through an eye/ear. Make us uncomfortable with all the ways the monster can harm us and maybe for curiosity, it chooses to kill us in those ways. A sadistic, violent monster. That's what the alien has to be to return to horror glory. Giger would love this idea!

Adding some sexuality to the xeno would add depth to the monster in ways you cant even begin to imagine. It's literally what it was originally from Giger. Explore that concept and put it on screen. Boom, the beast is fresh and uncooked. How many times do we have to see the monster jump on someone, inner jaw them, scratch them, yet barely see any of it and think its gunna be scary. They need us to feel and see what this monster does to us. Let those shots linger and seep into our souls, forever making the Alien the scariest monster to encounter.

 They must be pretty bad at determining if a planet is safe to land on then :O . 

The first thing that pops into my head is a ship that's built for colonizing planets hmm what abilities would it need.  Well the first thing that would be on the list i reckon is the ability to scan an entire planet in very high detail! To determine suitability for colonization and spot dangers and resources no? It would then have many probes or drones for up close searches and testing etc...etc... Also protective environment suits ready for any environment...

When I read many of the fans making comments; it seems like you are conjuring up many things that were not even in the minds of the screenwriters and making all these kooky assumptions like Star Trek fanboys lol.

People, it is this simple...A good screenplay, continuity, common sense logic are the ingredients of a good movie and classic.  

I saw more horror in Aliens and Alien3.  Ridley tried the back and face bursting to try to show us different shocks but the CGI after it ruined it.  When I look at the practical effects in Aliens and watching them hop around like grasshoppers and locusts (e.g. when Ripley and Newt come across the egg nest and the elevator attack on Ripley and Newt); that is some damn quality made decades ago.

And the obvious fact is; they could have done that today.  Yes, CGI gives more freedom to create things but it was done poorly.  Look how Ripley was all alone and got the rifle and flamethrower together when she went into the elevator.  That scene alone was great filmmaking and does not compare to Covenant.  When Tennessee hands the weapon to that woman; it seem so rush; no terror or dread whatsoever.  I was just shaking my head on what I was watching and so shocked that whoever locked in the final edit of this film; approved of it.  I would have kept the original opening date.

 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/21/movies/alien-covenant-is-a-ho-hum-no-1-at-the-box-office.html?_r=0

"LOS ANGELES — Meh. The eighth chapter in 20th Century Fox’s “Alien” series arrived to an estimated $36 million in ticket sales in North America — far from a flop, far from a sizzling hit. “Alien: Covenant,” as the latest film is titled, cost roughly $100 million to make, and has taken in an additional $30.3 million overseas.

Unless strong word-of-mouth propels “Alien: Covenant” to big ticket sales in the weeks to come, the film may become the latest example of audience pushback on long-in-the-tooth film franchises.

The domestic opening total was the third highest for the “Alien” series, which first thrilled moviegoers in 1979 with its surrealist central creature and sense of escalating dread. “Prometheus,” a 2012 prequel, arrived to $55.1 million, after adjusting for inflation. “Alien vs. Predator” had $50.6 million in 2004.

The R-rated “Alien: Covenant,” directed by Ridley Scott, who also directed the first “Alien” and “Prometheus,” received mostly positive reviews. Ticket buyers gave it a B grade in CinemaScore exit polls."

@Jimbo

Kinky.

I agree though, it isn't really scary anymore. 

@djamelameziane

Are they bad though? the planet was safe but for the Black goo pods with you would expect the ship wouldn't be able to detect. It would make less sense if the ship was able to detect those pods. We don't know what that stuff is, to suggest that the ship would detect would suggest that we as humans know about it.

@Colonial

I agree with the better screenplay and CGI aspect.  I am a massive fan of practical effects, I would agree with you on this big time.

it seems like you are conjuring up many things that were not even in the minds of the screenwriters and making all these kooky assumptions like Star Trek fanboys lol.

What kooky assumption have I made?

http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a55195/alien-covenant-reviews/

Interesting comments from critics

Lets be honest the issues with A:C is all in production and some hammy dialog. Action is not Ridleys strong point ie. the scene on board he Covenant and the Xeno. but he is great at suspense and horror. i.e. the scenes on the drop ship with the first Neomorph burster.

The Ideas presented and the characters are all good. Yes Ridley is bowing to the studios, but he is telling a good story and not one that he meant to tell either FYI.  David as the creator is not the way it was meant to go as the original Prometheus was full of Aliens long before David had chance to create them. 

Action is not Ripley's strong point???  He did great with action at the end in Alien and Blade Runner.  And Black Hawk Down is one of my best war movies.

Im Durp

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.

The tone has changed and it was predicted a while ago and confirmed by a staff member. That person also predicted the dust to settle after a couple weeks.

I talked to someone at work who is a huge Alien fan and avoided trailers and spoilers. He absolutely loved the movie and articulated very well why he liked it without spoiling anything since he knows I haven't seen it.