This is basically a paint-by-numbers Alien movie with above average production value. The movie could have been and wants to be so much more, but like Prometheus it is held back by it's below average/mediocre screenplay. As a result, we are treated to a bland and faceless cast  thoughtlessly thrown to the wolves. The exception is Michael Fassbender who could read the phone book for 2 hours and captivate an audience.

There are a few in the mix here like Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, and Amy Seimetz in particular who under the guise of a real screenplay could have been standout characters with the likes of Parker, Lambert, Hudson, Frost etc....    but instead are reduced to bland dialogue and silly/stupid Horror Movie 101 mistakes.

The movie is not without some quality sequences. The onset of the Spore Outbreak, despite being mostly spoiled by the previews (and characters being stupid) is still fairly intense.

Overall I wasn't overwhelmed, I wasn't underwhelmed, I was just... whelmed.

I just expect so much more from Ridley Scott.

Agree completely... the stupidity of the characters and the plot holes became too much by the end, thank god or Fassbender!

I wasn't really happy with this movie either. I will admit the aliens were cool... they always were, right! And it almost felt like I was watching Prometheus.... the concept was old... the characters were not that great. All these married couples and of course they all lose each other. The robot vs robot fight was lame IMO. And I KNEW all the time that David was going to pretend to be Walter! That last scene where the pod is closed and she realizes was like a gut punch but overall ...this movie was just ok to me.

Quoted from Pale Yellow I wasn't really happy with this movie either. I will admit the aliens were cool... they always were, right! And it almost felt like I was watching Prometheus.... the concept was old... the characters were not that great. All these married couples and of course they all lose each other. The robot vs robot fight was lame IMO. And I KNEW all the time that David was going to pretend to be Walter! That last scene where the pod is closed and she realizes was like a gut punch but overall ...this movie was just ok to me.

Exactly... the whole ship is full of couples which could have lent itself to some good drama, but the characters are never developed and are rarely seen together. Farris/Tennessee could have been the heart of the movie... but they never have a scene together...  

I think this is where the screenwriter of the original Alien movie, Dan O 'Bannon, rarely gets his credit and perhaps it's due now.

HR Giger's hellish designs too, which many ignored. I would love to have seen an Alien film based on his designs alone.

I was looking forward to the Blomkamp Alien film with Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4462546/

Just read this however:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/02/ridley-scott-alien-5-covenant-neill-blomkamp

Who knows...

Scott can't make movies anymore. He ain't getting my $

Totally agree. There was one stand out performance IMO, Amy Seimetz (Faris), the shuttle pilot. I thought she was outstanding for the short time we got to see her. I was also pleasantly surprised with Danny McBride (Tenn.)! I was expecting him to ham it up but he was pretty damn good!

Acting and direction was fine. Hated just about everything else. Couldn't wait to get out of the theater, to be honest. Worst of all, there's barely any Alien in the movie. More Prometheus drippings than anything. Might be the worst in the series, including the Alien vs. Predator movies.

This movie frustrated me. Visually, I enjoyed it, and I could find very little wrong with the directing, editing, effects, etc. But I was utterly baffled at the amateurish incompetence of the screenplay and the stupidity of the characters.  I did not for a second believe that any one of those morons would ever be selected as caretakers for thousands of sleeping colonists. They were all paper-thin and acted like Friday 13th stock characters with the exception of Daniels and Tennessee, and even they had their derp-moments.

It was all just too dumb. I don't think it's even the actors' fault, either. The script seems to have been deliberately written that way for some godforsaken reason. The constant stupidity on display by the heroes completely killed the movie for me. Ridley needs to hire better screenwriters. And if he mandated that the characters be this dumb, well, shame on him.

I also feel bad for whoever watched and loved Promethetus. I enjoyed that one myself, but not enough to care how much Covenant completely tarnished it Alien 3-style.

Last but far from least, I doubt anybody didn't see the ending "twist" coming literally as soon as the two you-know-whats are fighting each other. I telegraphed that shit a mile away, and I consider myself fairly dense when it comes to predicting where a movie will go.

-Julio

Shouldn't this thread be in the review section?

I personally loved this movie. Better than both the AVP shit-fests, Resurrection, and the theatrical cut of Alien 3(the assembly cut might just be my favorite it the entire franchise :P). Really stunned at all the hate this one seems to be getting from horror fans.

~Zack~

I didn't dislike it's horror scenes. I thought those were well-done. All the gore was well-done. It's the character stuff that disappointed me.

-Julio

Quoted from Zack Shouldn't this thread be in the review section?

That's where I thought i made this thread from... not sure what happened.  

Now I need to wait until December for my next big disappointment ;)

The horror scenes were fine, but who cares? It's super easy to restage a chestburster or facehugger attack. I don't think it's enough to call the film a success, especially when most of the new content wasn't even as good as the rehashed. Even so, there're only about 30 minutes collectively with any aliens at all. The rest is a lot of self-serious philosophical banter that barely feels connected to the alien plot and isn't even that fresh or interesting in and of itself. Horror doesn't exactly come to mind during these scenes, and I'd go so far as to say they make up the majority of the film.

The horror scenes didn't work for me at all thanks to the unacceptably shitty CGI. It's 2017, there's no excuse. Also, the life cycle of a xeno (and its timing) makes absolutely no god damn sense. So we're to believe that a facehugger implanted its egg in just a matter of seconds? Why does a baby xeno turn into an adult xeno within minutes? Because the scene simply mandates it (which is a sign of lazy writing).

As a die hard Alien fan, I was pretty excited for this film. I didn't hate Prometheus (it simply bit off more than it could chew). But this movie tries to take back what Damon Lindelof already set in motion and it stumbles.

But on the bright side, this movie did give us Fass to Fass. C+ for me.

Quoted from TonyDionisio Now I need to wait until December for my next big disappointment ;)

Sadly, I feel the same way.

I for one didn't think that the characters were "stupid". But I tink it is safe to say that, thanks in part to the trailers and webshorts, we, the audience, are smarter than the characters. I mean...y'know, when in the trailer you see Billy Cudrup peering inside the egg ....gee...I wonder what will happen?

Yeah, right.
I almost wished that it was a deleted or alternate take, as a number of memorable trailer moments didn't even show up in the final film. One in particular was edited down so much I had to ask why include it at all if it is that brief and almost seems like an afterthought?

Likewise, we got to know some of the characters through the viral shorts (including the crew's original captain played by James Franco) but I still really couldn't tell you who was who, in the actual film itself with the exceptions of McBride, Cudrup and Fassbender (2x)

In fact, it kind of ticked me off how Fassbender's David and Walter had two unique voices and philosophies and most of the other characters didn't have as much depth. Again, the trailers and virals pretty much informed a handful of fans in advance who becomes Dead Meat, (including that impressive 360 POV of the white alien eating through a crew member's  back)

I'm curious to see if there will be a follow up - but if there is one, I would like Ridley Scott to produce only. It's a great looking visual film, but this seemed to contradict Alien and Aliens. The only thing I can come up with is that David's expiriments were not as perfect as the Engineers, and that the Engineers created the "perfect" xenomorphs but realized that they they were too dangerous even for them.

But it seems Scott will direct the next film as well. But y'know it just occured to me---why do we need to know where the xenomprphs come from anyway? Wasn't that the point of Alien?

More and more I'm convinced that most prequels don't work. Why must there be an answer for every mystery that, when left as mystery, keeps the threat and the imagination alive?

You see, in my view all this "information" from the virals, the trailers and out knowledge of the existing franchise actually works against the film instead of for it.

Saw this last week, while in Milwaukee for business.

I was really looking forward to this, based on trailers and positive word of mouth from RT, and was actually quite surprised how negative reviews were right here.

Well, bottom line is that I was very, VERY underwhelmed to the point where I can safely say I disliked the film.

First 40 minutes or so are incredibly dull.  Characterization is almost nonexistent, and to save my life, I couldn't name more than 2 or 3 or say a single thing about them.  The film was "dark", as in lighting was poor.  Editing was poor, as in quick cut BS, where it's hard to make out what just happened.  Story was weak, and really rather pointless, IMO.  Nothing stood out as memorable, and based on the fact that I didn't give a shit about anyone, it just wasn't very scary at all.

Too many characters, too many different forms of creatures, and creatures "maturing" in seconds and minutes, made this just a complete mess.

Grade - C-

I really enjoyed the first half of the movie, but once they introduced the whole Prometheus fiasco, a lot fell apart. The writing was so forced, the story unfocused, and the structure lost its pace. I enjoyed the movie for what it was, i wouldn't buy it on Blu-ray and watch again though. However, cinematography and production design were both stunning. The shots weren't too creative, but they got the job done.

There was a reason Cameron didn't try to pump more out of the Alien well.

There ain't anything more.

A lot of what I was going to say has been said, almost word for word.

My first thought was that Fassbender could simply be filmed reading a newspaper, and he'd make it work.

He's something else.

The main problem with this film is that it's a prequel. Like Star Wars, it's constantly undercut by the fact it's got a predetermined point it's trying to get to. Star Wars 1,2 and 3 existed just to get Anakin in a Darth Vader suit. It's fundamentally difficult to create a sense of mystery and interest when it's all already happened, and it's all just to get to some preset point.

All of these stories are just to show where the xenomorph came from...who cares? It was better when they were some unknown, mysterious entity from the deep recesses of space. Fear is about the unknown. Not knowing where they come from also leads on to..what else is out there, making it doubly terrifying. Leave it alone.


On a more mundane level, these prequels get stuck in a narrative rut..they repeat exactly the same tropes over and over again. Same scares, same characters (just watered down) using the same kind of machinery. Like the constant repetition of the Death Star in the Star Wars saga, this franchise is just regurgitating the same beats.

I enjoyed Prometheus, it was bold, went in new directions and raised a lot off questions. This film pared back all the interesting themes and went for a lame and pale imitation of Alien.

The deeper questions Prometheus asked...why did the Engineers create humans, and why did they want us dead? remain unanswered. It felt like a cop-out.

The major story weakness for me, was the lack of a spiritual dimension. There's a "religious" guy in there...though he does nothing religious, and plays no real part. The film opens with an interesting debate and goes back to the idea off humans, and their robot creations, trying to find out who created humans. As Guy Pearce says...all of this art and everything around is just a tiny nothingness to that concept.

And that was the essential problem with the film...once that aspect had been abandoned, that deep, spiritual quest, all there is is meaningless artifice.

David is a wonderful creation. A Satanic Dr Frankenstein wiping out his creators to establish himself as a God figure, but he's sorely lacking a counterpart to offer an alternative in my opinion.

It was OK, but the quest of man and robot trying to find their ultimate creators was a lot more interesting.

Having just seen the Prologue...being unaware of its existence...it seems that some of the problems with this film are clearly studio based...the studio wanting to push the film more towards Alien, and away from Prometheus.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/26/15439452/alien-covenant-prologue-prometheus-ridley-scott-watch

The stuff going on in there is really key to the film...but obviously it never made it into the theatrical cut.

Whatever David learnt about the Engineers and whatever happened between him and Shaw is absolutely necessary to the story, and should not be missing.

Majority of producers don't care for the element of mystery anymore, everything has to be explained in the first ten mins.

The scene you posted is exposition city, but that and along with several other clips posted on youtube should have been in the film. Bizarre marketing.

I'm not a fan of Prometheus, but I enjoyed Alien Covenant. I expected a train wreck but I was entertained. It's a dumb horror film made with a high budget.

Quoted from Scar Tissue Films Having just seen the Prologue...being unaware of its existence...it seems that some of the problems with this film are clearly studio based...the studio wanting to push the film more towards Alien, and away from Prometheus. https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/26/15439452/alien-covenant-prologue-prometheus-ridley-scott-watch The stuff going on in there is really key to the film...but obviously it never made it into the theatrical cut. Whatever David learnt about the Engineers and whatever happened between him and Shaw is absolutely necessary to the story, and should not be missing.

Yeah...agreed...this should have been in the film.  Actually quite shocked it wasn't.