Alien: Covenant Concept Art/Behind-the-Scenes Thread *spoilers*

Started by Corporal Hicks, May 17, 2017, 10:11:32 AM

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Alien: Covenant Concept Art/Behind-the-Scenes Thread *spoilers* (Read 389,490 times)

Ingwar

I love Star Trek so I completely don't mind suits issue.

426Buddy

426Buddy

#961
Yeah I really enjoyed Alien Covenant. My issues with the lore aside I think its the best since the first 3 films imo.

SiL

I'd love it if the Alien didn't feel like a tacked on, indignant afterthought.

Don't mind it otherwise.

[cancerblack]

Quote from: Ingwar on Jun 03, 2021, 05:21:07 PM
I love Star Trek so I completely don't mind suits issue.

I'm not that huge on ST but the suspension of disbelief for that is pretty minor. Maybe because my enjoyment of films is based on the films, and not on getting upboats on reddit or views on YT for finding novel nitpicks.


Quote from: SiL on Jun 03, 2021, 10:22:43 PM
I'd love it if the Alien didn't feel like a tacked on, indignant afterthought.

Don't mind it otherwise.


This is a real problem.

426Buddy

Quote from: SiL on Jun 03, 2021, 10:22:43 PM
I'd love it if the Alien didn't feel like a tacked on, indignant afterthought.

Don't mind it otherwise.

It's my main issue with the movie.

Nightmare Asylum

I love the film, but yeah, the mini Alien remake onboard the Covenant in the third act is easily the worst part of the movie and kind of sticks out like a sore thumb, despite having some really strong set pieces throughout.

I think a lot (though not all) of that could have been ironed out if there was only ever one capital-A Alien, the one birthed from Oram, that survived the crane encounter and made it onto the Covenant. Forget the Lope-birthed Alien. Having one born moments after the first dies kind of throws the whole thing out of whack.

Oh well. Despite the iffy structural stuff there, I can't get enough of Covenant.

Immortan Jonesy

I've a love-hate feeling towards Prometheus. But Covenant is fine.

Nightmare Asylum

Yep. Covenant managed to really extrapolate what worked in Prometheus and make it even better, while shedding a lot of Prometheus' issues that held that particular film back.

Baron Von Marlon

Baron Von Marlon

#968
Quote from: Trash Queen on Jun 03, 2021, 05:18:04 PM
Mine's just a love relationship personally, even with "the issue" of wearing no suits, as soon as I recognised it's more Dracula in genre than realistic science fiction that fell by the wayside completely.

The no wearing suits is because of the visual aspects, which I can fully agree on after watching Prospect (2018) with Pedro Pascal.
When wearing suits/helmets you have to deal with light reflection, other lighting related stuff and the damp from breathing.

In the original there's rain falling down at some point, without any reason behind it besides the fact that it looks cool.
Think that's it's mentioned in a docu, that Riddles goes for the visual at the expense of logic.

The Necronoir

Quote from: Baron Von Marlon on Jun 04, 2021, 05:10:14 AM
Quote from: Trash Queen on Jun 03, 2021, 05:18:04 PM
Mine's just a love relationship personally, even with "the issue" of wearing no suits, as soon as I recognised it's more Dracula in genre than realistic science fiction that fell by the wayside completely.

The no wearing suits is because of the visual aspects, which I can fully agree on after watching Prospect (2018) with Pedro Pascal.
When wearing suits/helmets you have to deal with light reflection, other lighting related stuff and the damp from breathing.

In the original there's rain falling down at some point, without any reason behind it besides the fact that it looks cool.
Think that's it's mentioned in a docu, that Riddles goes for the visual at the benefit of logic.

I think you mean "at the expense of logic". Personally, I just see it as a validation of the comments about "dumb-ass colonists" in Aliens. ;)

BlueMarsalis79

I agree but I mean their actions in general within that genre, not just pertaining to the suits, but also people wandering for example.

Corporal Hicks

Corporal Hicks

#971
Quote from: Ingwar on Jun 03, 2021, 05:02:13 PM
Is it love and hate relationship? :)

No. I just love it.

Well, actually, I don't like the Alien's involvement in it. So I guess I love the first 2 thirds of the film. lol


Quote from: Nightmare Asylum on Jun 04, 2021, 12:13:59 AM
I think a lot (though not all) of that could have been ironed out if there was only ever one capital-A Alien, the one birthed from Oram, that survived the crane encounter and made it onto the Covenant. Forget the Lope-birthed Alien. Having one born moments after the first dies kind of throws the whole thing out of whack.

I think they shouldn't have included one at all. Spaihts' drafts had the same issue where there just wasn't time to really treat the Aliens properly.


Quote from: Trash Queen on Jun 04, 2021, 10:42:09 AM
I agree but I mean their actions in general within that genre, not just pertaining to the suits, but also people wandering for example.

I forgive them this. They didn't know they were in a horror film, and they had reason to believe they were safe at times.

TC

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Jun 04, 2021, 12:01:30 PM
...
Well, actually, I don't like the Alien's involvement in it. So I guess I love the first 2 thirds of the film. lol
...

I liked Prometheus and Covenant, but the fact that I got more enjoyment from Raised by Wolves tells me that if Scott had created the prequels so that they had no connection to Alien (i.e. no xenos, and not part of a 'shared universe'), then I would have liked both films a whole lot more.

TC

Voodoo Magic

Not a fan unfortunately. I found the casting to be weak, less the wonderful Fassbender and can I include James Franco? 🤔 The story opens lofty but transforms into pretentiousness when the eyerollingly dumb events begin to stack up. The evil twin swap trope? Really? Is this high school fiction? And the Alien conclusion feels like a lesser director that doesn't really know how to create suspense or suspenseful action who's attempting but failing to do Ridley Scott and James Cameron... yet it's Ridley Scott?

I don't mean to rag on it. I know it has it's fans, but I left the theater incredibly disappointed with it.

The Necronoir

Yeah, I'm on the "capital 'A' Alien didn't need to be in the movie" band wagon too. One of my criticisms of Prometheus was that it never managed to establish a coherent alien villain. The various manifestations of the black goo were just too random (Fifield and the trilobite) or pointless (the deacon) that they never embody any role greater than generic threat.

Cut to Covenant and the spore pods > back bursters > neomorphs actually establish an interesting, primitive analog for the more refined lifecycle we finally see play out in various was from Alien to Alien 3. As earlier incarnations it doesn't even bother me that they're mindlessly vicious to the point of being suicidal. As manifestations of the black goo they're still settling into a niche in the environment.

What really irks me, though, is that Ridley admitted to having his mind changed in response to Alien: Isolation, but somehow managed to completely miss the point of what made "the beast" scary again in that game. It was clever, calculating, and always in control of its environment, like the apex predator it is. Instead, what we got in the finished film are two constantly hissing, shrieking cheetahs that race around at break-neck speed all the time, both of which die mindlessly leaping toward something. So remind me again why we ditched the neomorphs, which I would have had no problem acting in such a capacity, just to diminish the alien even further?

It's the failure to deliver on its obvious potential that really bugs me about the film.

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