Better Ideas for Alien Covenant - What Could Have Been

LOL!

This franchise has had terminal cancer since Alien3! Alien Resurrection put the final nail in the coffin!

And yet...here we are.

Fandom saying how much it sucked(the last 4 movies) and how it's really dead this time. Crazy.

David doesn't have daddy issues...He is Peter Weyland and ALL that crazy that belongs to him AND the sweet lovable human race.

How would YOU create an synth/robot/android? What would you imbue unto it?

Make it a Liberal? Conservative? a Lover? A fighter?

You would simply(like Peter)give it your wants and desire...no matter how insane. 

DAVID IS INSANE BECAUSE HIS CREATORS ARE INSANE.

This movie is a mirror.

I think I actually prefer Resurrection to Covenant. If that doesn't tell you something, I don't know what will!

My rating for the ALIEN movies:

Alien-5/5

Aliens-5/5

Alien 3-5/5

Alien: Resurrection-4/5

Prometheus-5/5

Alien: covenant- 3/5

This is my new ALIEN movie rating.

The reason why Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, And Prometheus got a 5/5 is because they had always add there own unique and great version of the Xenomorph.

Alien- We are first introduced to the horrors and mystery of the Xenomorph creature. (just one problem: they should have killed Ripley)

Aliens- We are given more information about the Xenomorph kind, The queen, And an Action/Horror.(They should have left Ripley in space, or on earth)

Alien 3- We are taken back to the horror roots of the Alien franchise, They finally decided to kill Ripley in a deep and meaningful tone. (They could have made the movie longer)

Prometheus- We are thrust into a deep and mystic world of the engineers, while we are told how the dreaded Xenomorph came into existence.(despite the many flaws in MOST of the characters, I was able to enjoy Prometheus just as much as Alien)

The reason Alien: resurrection got a 4/5 is because even though they could have made a new planet with Xenomorphs or eggs, They decided to make a Ripley clone and the "Newborn".(Very Disappointing)

The reason why Alien: Covenant got a 3/5 is because They COMPLETELY ditched the world of Prometheus and replaced it by a crazy Android story.(I will never forgive Ridley and Fassbender for that) 

Guys, I completely agree.  I care nothing about the story of David the android.

Yes you are completly right, i feel the same as you

www.londonescorts.com

Nah, I want the xenos to be created by someone or something.

I think more annoying than anything is that the story of David the android doesn't have to suck.  There's a lot of potential for it if they get back to Prometheus concepts proper while also marrying in the ACTUAL feel of the original Alien.

But so much damage was done in Alien Covenant. Just the drastic alteration to David's character without more development for that alteration really did a disservice to this being a successful route.

This broken David gone evil thing could have been a grand slam had we been provided with an extended Crossing as the follow up to the white room scene with Weyland. Just an additional 30 minutes spent correctly could fix a lot of Alien Covenant. Really tired of these editorial fiascos as well as Ridley's ambivalence about them. 

Something else that could have been done better...

One thing I find appalling are the explanation from Crudup regarding Oram's comment to David about having seen the Devil as a child.

In an interview, Crudup explains this was rooted in an idea Ridley and Crudup had cultured on Oram's background as an abused child in a Pentecostal upbringing (the devil being his religious grandfather). He goes on to say how this was meant to be ironic with regards to the flailing and shaking Crudup did while being chestburst (since Pentecostals tend to do this when they are feeling the Holy Spirit flow through them). So that's a really cool idea, but where in the movie are we given the information we need to easily draw that parallel? Why does Scott believe people should just be able to figure out these arcane symbols so vaguely embedded in the character actions.

It's very interesting to attempt to design movies in this way, but if you are dealing with a follow up to a hollywood blockbuster, you really need to offer more come alongs for this kind of thing, other wise only a few will be able to appreciate it.

I would have actually been content with a visual transmission from David that reaches the Covenant; and since he is a lookalike as Walter; they head down on a rescue mission.  David lures them in with the hopes that the planet is a better world than Origae-8 and he infects them with the the neomorph (something that he created that is similar to the pods people stepped on).  Then have the the survivors trying to escape back to the Covenant from the Engineer city (kind of similar to AVP at that point) but with better action and story telling.  Perhaps; end it with survivors stuck on the planet.

 @Movie Fan; that is a true sensible ranking in the series.  You hit it on the nail my friend.

@QueenElizabethShaw

"I think more annoying than anything is that the story of David the android doesn't have to suck.  There's a lot of potential for it if they get back to Prometheus concepts proper while also marrying in the ACTUAL feel of the original Alien.

But so much damage was done in Alien Covenant. Just the drastic alteration to David's character without more development for that alteration really did a disservice to this being a successful route.

This broken David gone evil thing could have been a grand slam had we been provided with an extended Crossing as the follow up to the white room scene with Weyland. Just an additional 30 minutes spent correctly could fix a lot of Alien Covenant. Really tired of these editorial fiascos as well as Ridley's ambivalence about them."

Very well put. I agree. But still, the idea of a robot being so fickle and vengeful is kind of dumb, since we've never seen them behave that way before. In Prometheus he was always very dispassionate, so the shift in AC just caused too much disconnect from Prometheus to me. Like you said, it would have taken at least another 20 or 30 minutes to really make it believable.

And I'm sorry, but the idea that he created the xeno is f**king abysmal.

A blank screen for 2 and a half hours :O .

No but seriously I've not gathered the strength to watch covenant yet I'm waiting for a shipment of 1000 boxes of tissues for my crying. 

No but really seriously we start to find out more info on the whole situation.  They realise the black goo is coming from some kind of superbeing they find this out on a utterly destroyed home planet of the engineers highly evolved but had no chance against this being.  There could be hints that it might even be the creator of the universe. Or just life itself. 

 It starts off the same as Prometheus everyone not making sense being idiots just to throw you off. Then suddenly we get the hint of the superbeing but not revealing anything except the fact it is controlling events! Yay all the Scooby doo crapness suddenly comes into believability but why? This doesn't get answered in this film. Later on we find out the being is not 'god ' but an unimaginably advanced entity kind of a demi god thingy :) unlike anything we know as a life form. And it's trapped! But what could trap it? This is were the elders come in the elders are far more advanced than the engineers they are the older ones same race but very different... they have conquered death one the most part as in they can live forever if nothing kills them directly like a head chopped off. 

Anyway too much to put in a post... so roughly in this one we see the home world advanced but destroyed vast but dark suffering beyond imagination engineers still alive after two thousand years in pain and alike.  But still a place that wows. We find out they got the goo from another dead dark world at the farthest reaches of they're abilities and they thought it was from god the creator off the universe or something and so they learnt to use it to seed life and for good. Until the being came back from wherever it was maybe another galaxy and followed the trail  back to the engineers home world. 

It finally met it's match against the entire elder part of the engineers an enormous empire of ancient highly evolved intelligent beings vs one being still far more advanced but neither can win they have been locked in stalemate for two thousand years possibly pinned down by the elders but they are unable to destroy it. And the superbeing sees humans as a way to tip the scales in it's favour... it could all tie into Prometheus with the large wall mural. It was predicted that humans would turn the tide of the war and that was the reason for destroying us.

Or another angle would be... the goo is blood from an unknown entity when the engineers find it ... play with it but disagree on weather is evil or not... that engineer in Prometheus was part of another faction believing again the murals prediction but this time that humans are the key to creating a god like being from the goo. And that was the deacon in the last film once matured it will regain its demi god features and abilities. 

Or sommin like dat :s ...

Ooh yes and also they keep their god damn helmets on ...send probs out first and Walter. They have advanced weapons and defence but still get destroyed... none of the Friday thirteenth naffness... alright maybe a tiny bit. Some xeno action but focus on the vastness of space and time and just how crazy it is out there.  :p

Shaw should have been discovered as a huge, disgusting, mutant egg laying machine.  

@ 88mphfreak

I Agree, but then would it make a difference?

@Movie fan: It would have made a difference in that the audience would see something new and unexpected.  The writers had substantial opportunity to use Shaw's character to shock and horrify.  Instead, they tossed her aside and revealed very little, instead giving us more of the same old, same old.  

The movie really took a nosedive in terms of creativity after the "crane" scene.  In fact, I would say that the remainder of the movie was worse than any of Alien/Aliens/Alien 3.

Great observation 88mphfreak.

Alien - 9/10 

Aliens - 4/10 

Alien 3- 8/10

Alien: Resurrection- 4/10 

Prometheus- 7/10 

Alien: covenant- 5/10 

Alien Covenant is a very good film....please please do not compare it to Alien Resurrection as that film is a flaming bag of dog poo.

In regards to all fans wanting to see a xenomorph home world i think this is highly inaccurate. The xeno prime or home world is a trope of the comic books and quite frankly i dont like that. Its like the less is more concept of Alien, Jaws and other high caliber movies. Having an entire planet of xeno's (although i dont like that term) would water down the story and it would end up like so many other movies where they just throw carnage and numbers at the screen. Sure it looks cool but there is no depth, look at movies like Avengers Age of Ultron, Transformer, etc...tons of creatures and robots but there more you show by definition it gets less scary.

I prefer movies like Alien Covenant where there are minimal monsters, it makes every encounter carry that much more weight and mean something. Having a movie where the story takes place on a world full of xeno creatures would be dull and repetitive...i prefer the mythology they are following and ration out the creatures. A movie with that many xeno's, while it would clearly be made on a high level, unless it is along the same quality as Alien Resurrection would end up as overkill and be the same ilk as trash like Sharknado or Sharktopuss, Piranha.

Alien Covenant was a fine movie, i respect the fact you dont like it, i just also respectfully disagree with what you want and your cinematic views of what is good. 

@Necronom IV

I am in full agreement with you...a planet full just waters everything down...it wont be remotely scary anymore as the creature will be shown far too much and it will be overkill, not seeing something is far scarier and rationing out its appearances is also smart.

they might as well land on a planet full of puppies if they do that

I think this is the Problem with the Franchise... a majority are Aliens Fans... who love to see Aliens running around killing and having Marines turn up on a Bug Hunt... giving a good Action movie... Then you have Alien Fans who would have loved a more Horror Based, not seen much on screen flick like Alien and Alien 3

When they went the way they did with Prometheus, it split fans.. yet some liked it and this means Alien Universe was expanded as it now had like 3-4 different types of Fans to Please, each with slightly different needs and hopes.

So its really hard for FOX and RS to try and please them all, which they kind of tried to do with AC but it was not enough.

People may not like the direction... but we have to accept it..

However... PROMETHEUS is the Saving Grace for Alien Fans..

Why/How? Because it showed these Engineers, have encountered something related to the Xenomorph... or they created from scratch something which later leads to the Xenomorph.

So there is every possibility that a distant related Organism already existed and what kind of World would it had came from... or also the potential that these Engineers had used the Black Goo on other Worlds, and these Worlds could now be a Mutated and very Giger Bio-Mechanical Landscape.

@ 88mphfreak

You know, you might be right.

we could have seen something horrible and more interesting, but instead we got confusion and nonsense.

I see what you mean...

 After watching Alien Covenant twice, I have to say I like Prometheus much more. Dam those alien fanboys! The beast is cooked. This was just a film to please the obsessed xeno freaks. The xenomorph isn't scary anymore. It's been overdone truly (thank AVP for making it kid friendly). They should save the beast for an Alien reboot or something that deals with a bug hunt etc. The movie should have stuck with the scope of Prometheus. The story delving into where we come from and why we were created (Humans). The Alien should be the side piece to this story. This creates more mystery and allure. I was excited to see Prometheus because it dealt with the Sumerian ancient astronaut theory. But with a dark twist to include aliens/xeno obviously. Looks like they are moving away from this aspect with the ending they chose for A:C. Looks like it's gunna be about xeno horror freak show and android drama-mad scientist nonsense. It should be more about the religion and mythology presented in Prometheus. The Alien should have religious connotations. For it to be an engineered organism is a one and done answer. Nothing interesting too much. Instead, why was it made, where does it come from? Was it born out of sin, evil, negative emotions, the destroyer of life, etc.? Why does it take the form that it takes (humanoid/biomechanical/bipedal). The monster should have some religious, real significance making it that much more important because after all, this story is human endeavor and curiosity. These monstrosities should be born out of that and stated as that. That would make for a worldwide disturbance on a grand scale. Imagine getting people to talk about that. That's real. That's almost to the point people would question real life mythology stories as being "true". Instead, the route they are taking just makes us think in terms of that "Alien universe", not real or possible at all.

A:C wasn't even scary. Let alone "bloody" with the R rating. I thought the Neomorphs were a fresh take with being scary and disturbing. I felt like Scott cut away from the violent gory shots too fast. I barely noticed any of the violence taking place with exception of the back burster scene, which was the films best violent scene, but even that could have been better. If Scott lingered on the shot of violence it would have disturbed the audience much more. The point is to make us uncomfortable and squeamish. That's what Alien is all about, at least the original. Prometheus had the best violent scene with Shaw performing cesarean on herself. I felt her pain literally. Since Giger passed away, Scott seems to be pleasing the "crowd". I believe if Giger was around he would influence the story to be about his art work literally. Hell, the shower scene could have been truly disturbing if they had the xeno shove its tail up the girl's cooter! lol that would be total Giger-esque since plenty of his art is sexual, and to show that for even a split second would make us all uncomfortable. That's a winning horror scene and I'm not even a film maker ;).

Anyways I thought I'd chime in on how I think it should have played out. I don't like where it's going especially now that Giger is out of the picture.

http://www.avclub.com/article/lets-talk-about-end-alien-covenant-255805

lol @djame and patient.  At least I am not alone on this; especially with phallic and Dr. Connors.

In order to bring back the Xenomorph as a downright scary monster. Hell, even the most scary movie monster of all time.. Give it sexuality. Let the monster kill in sadistic sexual ways. Make us feel so uncomfortable watching the alien that we don't want to see it again, but we secretly do. Go full blown HR Giger with the story and make everything about his art, sexuality, technology, nightmares, religions, etc.. Attack real world categories. Only way to relate to the dam thing and feel terrified. Look at the controversy surrounding that Netflix show 13 Reasons Why. Real world issues/topics. People relate emotionally. Give the monster some real world attributes! It will become fresh and scary once again.

That sounds like a good idea Jimbo.  As in the original, when you do not see the Alien take Kane and Dallas to get cocooned.  Showed that process and horror on their eyes.  Great idea.

Lol this is a terrible idea. The beast is cooked. The numbers don't lie. Creating a movie with an even more mind-numbing premise is a great way to kill the franchise. Covenant needed less xenomorph, not more.

lol Capola.  If the movie drifted towards a Shaw or Engineer tale; then its not an Alien movie.  Take Alien out of the title if that is the case.

And the reasons the numbers don't lie because it was a poorly executed movie.  If the movie was true horror and brought some significant Alien info; instead of an android creating it; I think it would have created better word of mouth and more people seeing it.

 Yes you can have xenos as side lines but you need to go further down the line what is the black goo from. I've always thought its from the demi god Ridley mentioned once. And he said it was not nice. That's were the horror and interest can be. Seeing pain on a new level maybe engineers that have been tortured for 1000s of years. Or it could unleash any number of horrible things playing with us all like ants. It might have the ability to rearrange or bodies while keeping us alive... Or worse... really nasty stuff. But yes use that Alien approach of not revealing too much at one time...make it ultra real and mysterious and vast bigger story... much bigger reveal multiple layers of evolution aliens and alike....

 One idea i had was that it could merge with a life forms body then unleash extraordinary pain and suffering drinking in the emotions and thoughts like a drug while essentially being part of the victim... maybe it's evolved to not have emotions and is bored kind thing...

https://theringer.com/alien-covenant-exit-survey-ridley-scott-michael-fassbender-251d2593212c

Exit survey from fans.

Well, I'll keep the essence, tone, the 'feel' and mystique alive as best I can with my works.

It's all I can really do as I am finding that the fanbase is much more in-touch with the core elements of what the ALIENverse is and how it's supposed to be than the FOX execs.
Which shouldn't really surprise anyone, as a fanbase works from Love of a franchise, execs work from Money and statistical values, etc..

BUT, I will NEVER show a planet full of Aliens/Xeno homeworld, as I have a good reason why not to. :)

@Patient leecher

"You could even still have plenty of stupid horror tropes with it, too"

What the hell? You dont like the horror aspect of Alien? What are you even doing here.. lol

No offence but i think your idea is terrible and sounds really boring.

As for the beast being 'cooked', hardly, it's just NO one has ever really looked at it's Potential...aside from having it rampaging around with all the intelligence of a methed-up wild boar and trying to bust through things in a fashion akin to a ramhorn sheep.

Or better yet, having them attack in kamikaze waves like boring earth ants.

The Alien is more than that, much more.

And I am really glad it's fictional! :)

@djamelameziane

I had heard Ridley mention what you stated in the past as well. The thought of an evil ancient cosmic demi god like race playing an torturing through their experiments in space could be awesome. Then to keep it truly evil and "alien" they could be capable of unimaginable horrors or have control over uncontrollable horrors. You could still use the original style Alien but using a race of beings like this would open up the film universe to so many new horrors that could haunt us for years.

New is always scarier, each additional installment the creature that's purpose is to scare and frighten does so less and less. Movies like Jaws, Predator, Alien, all the title antagonists can not maintain their level of shock and awe or fear, its just impossible to recreate the first couple times and the reactions the first couple times those creatures were on film....thus any installment no matter how well done will always fall short due to the repetition of using the creature again and again, even if done well and in rationed appearances. That is why i do hope they explore the ancient cosmic demi-god race of beings having a hand in all of this or introduce new evils that are still connected to what we know so far, they can still use the existing creatures but they need new to capture peoples imaginations again like they did back in 1979....explore and expand the mythology  

@op 

If they landed on a planet full of xenos everyone would die within the first 20 min. I like how the movie took an alien: isolation feel and made the 3 neos feel way more dangerous.

I love how the movie made David the creator. Made it seem like humanity brought this upon itself, and all could've been prevented if someone showed David some love or helped him get his synthetic dick wet.

Dead series? The alien franchise is ALIVE AGAIN.

"David a stupid mad scientist with daddy issues"

Lmao. That sums up A:C in short.

They killed with that mad-malfunctioning-AI-god syndrome David a really interesting story from Prometheus regarding background of the Engineers, humanity's origin.

Instead we get an illogical explanation how the Xenos are created, too dark screen time to hide the bad CGI effects/set environment.

As much as Prometheus had it's flaws at least it brought fresh air into the alien-universe which had great potential for further development story-wise.

@djamelameziane

Yes you can have xenos as side lines but you need to go further down the line what is the black goo from. I've always thought its from the demi god Ridley mentioned once...

This. Bring back Spaihts and Lidelof.

@Working Joe

I love horror. But Ridley didn't exhibit ANY creativity with this film. The lack of creativity is the problem. Well, that and he ruined the mythology of the xeno and threw out all the awesome potential set up in Prometheus. It's a f#cking waste.

One better idea for Alien Covenant would have been Paradise! The continuation of the Shaw/David story from the end of Prometheus that was the original idea for this sequel.

It would depend on what they would have done with the Xeno world. Having relatable human characters is more important than to have 10 000 Xenomorphs because if the amount of Xenos is the most important thing then AvP would have been great, right? Now AvP is the way it is so that shows that you need more than many Xenos to have a good movie. They should have had given the Engineers a bigger part when it came to the creation of the monsters instead of David. Hopefully David re-created it, sort of like when you make a dish from a recipe that someone else has written down.

At least we didn’t get a lot of Shaw and the characters were better in general (at least they weren’t as dislikable as in Prometheus). The movie was better even though it was not without bad things. I would not have liked to see Shaw and David go on their mission if that would have meant two hours plus of Shaw, forget that.

David was given a too big of an importance in AC, I agree. Having androids in the alien related movies is fine because it worked with Ash and Bishop. It depends what you do with them but they shouldn’t be the main focus even though it can be interesting to try new things.

Nope, Alien isn’t dead even though it could be better. The last time they released a really good Alien movie was Alien 3 and that was in 1992. AC was a sort of return to form after many failed Alien movies including Prometheus.

Spaights should be given a second chance if you ask me, but forget Lindelof.