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Alien 5 2018
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162 posts in this topic

I'd like to consider myself a diehard fan of the franchise and my hopes were very high. This was a let down, but sadly it's much better than most of the franchise has been lately, so the bar was pretty low. I give it a 6/10. 

 

Spoiler

Also, in the original screening of this from late 2016 the twist at the end wasn't so apparent (i.e. no scene showing the knife David was going for and no long look back at the citadel during the escape). Only the noticeable haircut. 

 

Edited by AnthaiHERO
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It was pretty stinky. Not very scary, too many dumb characters doing really dumb things, too much Prometheus, not enough alien-related action or frights.

I had my hopes up after seeing the trailers, but everything decent was in the trailers.

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I'm a massive fan of the series, and therefore I am pretty much used to disappointment.

"Covenant" is more disappointing than usual, because it has the makings of a truly great film.

The problem is that it is, more or less, two movies.

On one hand, you have a glorious, creepy gothic horror piece, like a Hammer Frankenstein picture with Fassbender in the Cushing role. It's complete with the Alien universe equivalent of a spooky old castle. It's wonderfully acted, it's atmospheric as hell, it's gorgeously shot, and it adds interesting wrinkles to the Alien mythos.

The problem is on the other hand, where this great film is sandwiched by a truly unremarkable, by the numbers sci-fi action slog. CGI Xenomorphs aren't scary, or even particularly well done. The action isn't exciting, the horror isn't scary. There's some amusingly done gore, but it is also rendered weightless by excessive CGI. There's little to no characterization; I can name, at most, three characters in the film; that doesn't leave much room to care about what happens to them.

I feel like the first is the movie that Ridley wanted to make. I feel like the rest is the concession he made after the perceived failure of "Prometheus" (which I actually loved.) But instead of learning the right lessons (make the -script and characters smarter) from those shortcomings, he instead decided that what people really wanted was more CGI beasties, and less ponderings about creation. 

Personally, I could have used more of the "where did we come from" musings of "Prometheus", because at least it gave the characters some agency, and purpose. But aside from the stellar middle section of "Covenant", and a predictably terrific performance by Fassbender, it's a pretty standard movie. At the end of the day, for me the great film in the middle ever so slightly outweighs the bad movie surrounding it. I liked it, I wanted to love it.

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Looks like I'm in the minority, I enjoyed the movie.

I liked that it was equal parts...Part II for Prometheus and an Alien movie.

Tied up loose ends for me well, and created a couple new fun questions.

Saw it in a good theater (XD) with great sound so the suspenseful moments were enjoyable.

I'll agree that the main plot twist was a bit telegraphed, but there was enough to keep me engaged.

For me this was probably the third best in the series.

I'd go with:

1. Aliens

2. Alien

3. Alien Covenant

4. (tie) Alien III & Prometheus

5. Alien Resurrection

Spoiler

Two ups...and two downs:

I enjoyed how they really developed 'David' into a true villain, though you could say this was telegraphed from the opening scene and had several large bread crumbs dropped throughout, just in case you didn't pick up on it.

I also like how they explained and revealed the birth of the Xenomorph as we saw it in the first Alien.  David's curious involvement in genetically developing the 'pathogen' to perfect it was equal parts interesting and creepy.  Gave it a little horror tick for me.

There were a few moments from the crew that were almost laughably naïve; space explorers setting foot on a foreign/Alien planet with no helmet/mask, even if the ship's computer tells you the atmosphere is breathable.  Leaning directly over an alien egg to simply check it out closer...wow, lets just make the little face hugger's job as easy as possible.

Truly disappointed we didn't get to see more of the 'Engineers'.  I really wanted to learn more about them and why they 'created' humanity, and why they were heading back to earth to possibly destroy humanity.

 

 

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2 minutes ago, philsbackpack said:

Looks like I'm in the minority, I enjoyed the movie.

I liked that it was equal parts...Part II for Prometheus and an Alien movie.

Tied up loose ends for me well, and created a couple new fun questions.

Saw it in a good theater (XD) with great sound so the suspenseful moments were enjoyable.

I'll agree that the main plot twist was a bit telegraphed, but there was enough to keep me engaged.

For me this was probably the third best in the series.

I'd go with:

1. Aliens

2. Alien

3. Alien Covenant

4. (tie) Alien III & Prometheus

5. Alien Resurrection

  Reveal hidden contents

Two ups...and two downs:

I enjoyed how they really developed 'David' into a true villain, though you could say this was telegraphed from the opening scene and had several large bread crumbs dropped throughout, just in case you didn't pick up on it.

I also like how they explained and revealed the birth of the Xenomorph as we saw it in the first Alien.  David's curious involvement in genetically developing the 'pathogen' to perfect it was equal parts interesting and creepy.  Gave it a little horror tick for me.

There were a few moments from the crew that were almost laughably naïve; space explorers setting foot on a foreign/Alien planet with no helmet/mask, even if the ship's computer tells you the atmosphere is breathable.  Leaning directly over an alien egg to simply check it out closer...wow, lets just make the little face hugger's job as easy as possible.

Truly disappointed we didn't get to see more of the 'Engineers'.  I really wanted to learn more about them and why they 'created' humanity, and why they were heading back to earth to possibly destroy humanity.

 

 

I know my "review" sounded pretty harsh, but should clarify that over all, I DID like it. I was just kind of disappointed because I wanted to love it.

My ranking

1. Alien

2. Aliens

then a biiiiiig drop off of a cliff, then

3. Alien 3 Producer's Cut

4. Prometheus

5. Covenant

then another massive tumble down a cliff, then

6. AvP: Requiem - I realize that I'm in a tiny minority on this one, but although it is total fan-wank garbage, it is delightfully stupid.

7. Alien Resurrection

8. AvP

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Just now, Red84 said:

The movie eliminated all that was good about Prometheus (the philosophy of where we came from) and added mediocre Alien scenes.

That's my beef as well. I liked the ponderings of "Prometheus", it gave the characters and the film some weight, even in spite of some of the stupider decisions. I think Ridley overcorrected too hard with "Covenant", thinking that audiences just wanted the blood and guts.

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7 minutes ago, philsbackpack said:

What would you say is the big difference in the 'Producer's cut' of Alien III?  Not sure if I've ever watched it (or would know the difference personally).

The Producer's Cut isn't a drastically different movie, it just adds in a few short scenes, some connective tissue which helps the movie make a little more sense, and slightly changes some things (the Ox-Burster instead of the Dog-burster, etc.) You're no longer left wondering what happened to characters who just completely disappeared in the theatrical cut. Either cut, for me, would still be my #3 choice overall in the series, as I think the movie has its merits, I just think that the PC is the slightly better of the two versions.  I was so excited about the movie coming out that I couldn't wait, and read the novelization before "Alien 3" opened. It made so much more sense than the finished theatrical picture did. Then I finally saw the Producer's Cut on the Quadrilogy set, and was like "OH, they DID shoot all of this stuff, they just cut it out for some dumb reason."

Edited by F For Fake
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Disappointing.  Story is recycled...discover a young Jedi, giant base is destroying planets, fly in and blow up giant base.

Alien and Aliens terrified me...this movie was more disgusting than terrifying.

What happened to Elizabeth Shaw was a major let down.

You don't get invested in the characters before they get killed so you didn't feel any sympathy.

One good note...Michael Fassbender is great.

5/10...skip the theatre, skip the DVD, watch it on cable for free.

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A stupid movie with a stupid ending that was obvious an hour before it happened.

Fassbender is the only thing holding it together. They should make a movie about his character(s) and forget all the other alien rubbish.

If you love Alien and Aliens - as I do - then just forget that everything else that has come after ever existed.

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On 5/20/2017 at 8:49 PM, Red84 said:

Just saw it.  It was meh.  I liked Prometheus a lot more than this one.  While Prometheus had its dumb moments it was at least interesting.  This one felt like filler and

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I saw the twist a mile a way.

 

I saw everything coming a mile away.

today I was talking to a friend at work and he said if it had any horror elements like Alien & Aliens. which I respond by saying the horror elements in the movie come close to the horror elements in AvP.

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I'm still digesting it.

It was a let-down, but not nearly as big a let-down for me as Prometheus.

But 24 hours later, I have a greater appreciation for Prometheus and for what Scott was trying to do.

Also, no scenes in this one were as scary (or memorable) as the emergency abortion scene in Prometheus -- which also informed us of a major plot twist.

This one? Thought it was better than Alien3, but it struck me as just a waste -- forgettable, sort of like Terminator 3.

 

Also, it's ridiculous that this did worse box office than Aliens v. Predator did back in 2004. I mean...wow...

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14 hours ago, F For Fake said:

That's my beef as well. I liked the ponderings of "Prometheus", it gave the characters and the film some weight, even in spite of some of the stupider decisions. I think Ridley overcorrected too hard with "Covenant", thinking that audiences just wanted the blood and guts.

Those Prometheus ponderings were 100% from Damon Lindelof.  I presumed it would be more xenomorph action-centric since he wasn't anywhere on the credits, and xenomorph action is played out.  James Cameron took it to its extremes and there's nowhere else to go that anyone has figured out.

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On ‎5‎/‎22‎/‎2017 at 1:32 PM, philsbackpack said:

Looks like I'm in the minority, I enjoyed the movie.

I liked that it was equal parts...Part II for Prometheus and an Alien movie.

Tied up loose ends for me well, and created a couple new fun questions.

Saw it in a good theater (XD) with great sound so the suspenseful moments were enjoyable.

I'll agree that the main plot twist was a bit telegraphed, but there was enough to keep me engaged.

For me this was probably the third best in the series.

I'd go with:

1. Aliens

2. Alien

3. Alien Covenant

4. (tie) Alien III & Prometheus

5. Alien Resurrection

  Hide contents

Two ups...and two downs:

I enjoyed how they really developed 'David' into a true villain, though you could say this was telegraphed from the opening scene and had several large bread crumbs dropped throughout, just in case you didn't pick up on it.

I also like how they explained and revealed the birth of the Xenomorph as we saw it in the first Alien.  David's curious involvement in genetically developing the 'pathogen' to perfect it was equal parts interesting and creepy.  Gave it a little horror tick for me.

There were a few moments from the crew that were almost laughably naïve; space explorers setting foot on a foreign/Alien planet with no helmet/mask, even if the ship's computer tells you the atmosphere is breathable.  Leaning directly over an alien egg to simply check it out closer...wow, lets just make the little face hugger's job as easy as possible.

Truly disappointed we didn't get to see more of the 'Engineers'.  I really wanted to learn more about them and why they 'created' humanity, and why they were heading back to earth to possibly destroy humanity.

 

 

Hello,

My name is Karl.

Please allow me to answer your query.

The engineers are returning to destroy humanity as humanity are a pathogen as well. Humanity created artificial creations ( David ) and sent them forth to generate weapons of mass destruction. They are no longer functioning as intended and must be destroyed to preserve other life.

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I have to agree with the overall sentiments of those who've posted in this thread.  I didn't find it even remotely scary.  The ending seemed obvious and I wasn't remotely invested in any of the characters.

I wish that I'd gone to see something else...

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4 hours ago, piper said:

I have to agree with the overall sentiments of those who've posted in this thread.  I didn't find it even remotely scary.  The ending seemed obvious and I wasn't remotely invested in any of the characters.

I wish that I'd gone to see something else...

I told you to avoid it.

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4 hours ago, Comicopolis said:

I told you to avoid it.

Yep. It was date night and their didn't seem to be much else playing... should have rolled the dice and went to one of the Indy theatres...

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9 minutes ago, piper said:

Yep. It was date night and their didn't seem to be much else playing... should have rolled the dice and went to one of the Indy theatres...

I saw it last night. I am mixed on it, there were parts I thought were great and then there were lots of parts I didn't like.

The part I liked the least is the use of the Alien as a "crazed" killing creature hell bent on the death of all. I never felt the Aliens were like that in the first films. Yes it killed, but there was also cultivation of hosts for the species and since there were other eggs / facehuggers I felt the Alien would have been more interested in capture to propagate the species. The Alien in the first 2 films also demonstrated an intelligence that I felt was utterly gone in the latest film.

6 out of 10 unfortunately.

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On 5/22/2017 at 3:39 PM, F For Fake said:

That's my beef as well. I liked the ponderings of "Prometheus", it gave the characters and the film some weight, even in spite of some of the stupider decisions. I think Ridley overcorrected too hard with "Covenant", thinking that audiences just wanted the blood and guts.

Agreed. There were some subtle hat tips to these points with the Crudup character complaining about being overlooked for the captaincy because he was a person of faith (though his complaint seems unjustified given his lack of leadership skills) and his final question to David, but nothing was fleshed out. Crudup's character is an underdeveloped disappointment. At one point his character says that when he was a child he saw the devil and could recognize him, but again that point simply dangles in the air without any context. I would have very much liked to have seen the Engineers' culture developed and some of the bigger questions addressed. Prometheus, at least, had moments of brilliance that allowed me to marvel even when it was embarrassingly stupid. Covenant, in comparison, remains in a steady state of mediocrity. 

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