I just saw the movie again for the second time. My first time was 8 days ago. The movie held up superbly and didn't lose any of its thrills or dark gothic grandeur. Most importantly, however, I was looking very hard for supposed faults. I will address them:
No helmets - it was telegraphed in the film: "no toxins", "oxygen 19,5%, Nitrogen 79,5%" as they were descending the lander, not counting what Ricks had already said before based on what there was in his computer...maybe it was communicated for too short of a period of time and unceremoniously but it was there...clearly the focus on masturbating to hard-science for too long wasn't the focus of this film
for all the talk I've heard how in previous films there was strict emphasis on protocols and so on...in this film there weren't forgotten either...all the time it was being brought up things like "what if we are all infected with it?", "how can we bo so sure", or Feris that specifically didn't want to risk contaminating the rest, or even Oram saying about safety protocols and closing the lander doors...Tennessee numerous times wanted to "f**k protocols" and he mentioned about quarantine and stuff as well, plus the action of another pilot was required in order to override the Mother when they wanted to approach the remaining crew from a closer distance
Some people moaned how the crew of the Covenant is disinterested in dead Engineers around the city but from the way it was directed, they clearly rushed after David who was coming through all sorts of cryptic holes and other entrances that were sealing off after him
Some people bitched how the crew acted like total amateurs when Tom started "acting out" but from the mood of the film and the way it was directed, it was evident, everything's going to shit and you have to ditch the established protocols and just run for your life
Contrary to the criticism the Covenant craw wasn't shooting in all directions like unconvicing amateurs from Z-class film like Reb Brown...actually the fight in the wheat was convincing, and they were always close to aiming at the target
It is evident that David either must have gotten a hold of the information regarding the cryobay either from ...by the way the whole row of fetuses in petridishes was removed comparing to the scene at the beginning, David might have gotten them from there to insert those facehugger embryos
it wasn't evident that David would kill Walter, as the scene was cut as Walter was actually trying to hit a firm swing with a rock for a fraction of second
the way it was directed and from the angle it was shown in the film it was impossible for Daniels to make out that it is not Walter! and from that angle she didn't see any mark after the nail
self-healing capacities of Walter...it is not evident in the film, full stop! do you guys refer to that short shot of him after being incapacitated? it might be a special way of them rebooting themselves...from the way it is directed in no way it's possible for Daniels to realize that this is not Walter...(plus even if you're gonna start arguing really really hard, she might have not known about this because she had not seen Walter in such situations before)
speaking of Walter, I was paying meticulous attention to his voice after the fight...and David clearly used Wisconsin accent of Walter..sometimes it was slightly breaking but very slightly
Oram's character's ride through the film was pretty much sinusoidal, he was falling apart and putting himself together constantly...the way his interaction with David went, was convincing to me...of course the final fragment of him approaching you-know-what was maybe tad tad too much...but otherwise everything was perfectly along the lines of his character...and by the way I think this is, hands down, the very best "human" performance in this film...
the fight between Walter and David wasn't kung-fu-ish to me...
and yeah, the facehugger who got Lope had his penis thingy visible
last but not least, I think this sentence:
conveys the essence of experiencing films
Anyway, the film held up superbly, like I said, and I definitely would rank it 3rd best in the series, without a single shadow of doubt and this is not the "new aura of freshness" effect. I think definitely some things were sacrificed or truncated here for the greater good and the balancing act is the hardest possible job to do when cutting a movie, but I believe Scott actually made all the right choices here...and no, cabin at the lake scene would'nt have added anything, the film was already very heavy on emotions when it had to be this way, anyway...
I'd be more than happy to tackle any kind of polemic from you, guys.
