Alien: Covenant Early Reactions

[joylit]

I think the real owner is Walter Hill, who will receive loyalties even if one day they make "Alien Vs. Godzilla"

[whiterabbit]

I think the real owner is Walter Hill, who will receive loyalties even if one day they make "Alien Vs. Godzilla"

Was speaking figuratively and not literally.

[Whos_Nick]

I'm back from seeing Covenant. It moves too fast but I like the film overall 

[salomonj]

I'm back from seeing Covenant. It moves too fast but I like the film overall 

glad to hear you liked it. Is it just fast moving throughout or like Prometheus where it literally feels like it's jumping from scene to scene?

[SpeedyMaxx]

I felt the final edit of Prometheus was far too brisk as well - the Fifield sequence in particular felt chopped and screwed. And I think that's Ridley, not the studio; I think he is somewhat driven by the idea that he has to compete with younger, flashier directors and stay ahead of the curve. But he's already well past, it's unnecessary.

That being said I do look forward to the film.

[Whos_Nick]

I'm back from seeing Covenant. It moves too fast but I like the film overall 

glad to hear you liked it. Is it just fast moving throughout or like Prometheus where it literally feels like it's jumping from scene to scene?

Once they land on the planet, the movie overall moves really fast

[Necronomicon II]

Ridley Scott has taken ownership of Alien. He's one of the principle people who brought the universe to life. If he, along with a new team decided to take the series into a new direction, I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the ride.

All signs point to Alien Covenant being a fine movie geared towards aliens, horror and wonderment. Goddamn it, I can't wait to see this picture.

Amen, if we're going to let canon get in the way of an otherwise good/great film then that's a shame, I can deal with some pacing issues, Rogue One had some, blockbuster films won't be cut the way they used to be. The first two films aren't going anywhere as well and with that in mind I am just going to enjoy the ride.

[SpeedyMaxx]

I can't remember a major release that has the kind of serious editing/pacing issues in its first act that Rogue One does, and I like that movie a lot but the seams in the reshoots are incredibly obvious. Maybe Suicide Squad but that movie is just pure shitshow. I don't think we have to worry about anything quite that extreme on AC.

[Hard-R]

I'm back from seeing Covenant. It moves too fast but I like the film overall 

glad to hear you liked it. Is it just fast moving throughout or like Prometheus where it literally feels like it's jumping from scene to scene?

Once they land on the planet, the movie overall moves really fast

The pacing is one thing I expected Ridley to get spot on this time round (The Martian was a good of example of him getting it right) especially after Prometheus.
So if the pacing is off - how has he managed to get it wrong again?
How does that work

[Darth Vile]

I don't think Prometheus has any problems with editing, in fact the editing was good (IMO). Any problems Prometheus had were script derived. If Alien:Covenant is edited like Prometheus, I won't have an issue with it, but by the sound of things, the issue people have is the pace in which it develops... it sounds like we get impregnations, gestations and full sized monsters in very quick succession ala AVP. I'm not a fan of that particularly, but as long as is doesn't detract too much from the narrative...

[Protozoid]

I got the impression from the behind the scenes footage on the Prometheus blu-ray that Scott defers to his editor a great deal, and Scalia is a ruthless, opinionated editor who is obsessed with pacing. I think it really hurt the way Prometheus and The Counselor were received, in particular. Just about every Scalia movie I've seen has a superior extended version.

[joylit]

The only reason for using a fast editing like that could be:
1) To disguise the shortcomings of the cgi
2) To disguise the shortcomings of the dialogue.
3) To emulate the higher frame per second rate of a videograme.

[Clowndog]

I don't think Prometheus has any problems with editing, in fact the editing was good (IMO). Any problems Prometheus had were script derived. If Alien:Covenant is edited like Prometheus, I won't have an issue with it, but by the sound of things, the issue people have is the pace in which it develops... it sounds like we get impregnations, gestations and full sized monsters in very quick succession ala AVP. I'm not a fan of that particularly, but as long as is doesn't detract too much from the narrative...

I kind of disagree here.

It's not very good editing/pacing to spend 10/15 minutes of screen time building up tension around the Fifield + Milburn situation  for the characters to be dead within 10 seconds of the creature showing up, the attack scene should have lasted at least a couple of minutes. Imagine instead of both characters dying in a couple of jump cuts they had let the scene breathe a little. Maybe hit the exact same beats but make the deterioration of their position take a slight bit longer. Also maybe have milburn actually notice Fifield getting hurt, instead of him not reacting to it in any way.

[MajorB]

I don't think Prometheus has any problems with editing, in fact the editing was good (IMO). Any problems Prometheus had were script derived. If Alien:Covenant is edited like Prometheus, I won't have an issue with it, but by the sound of things, the issue people have is the pace in which it develops... it sounds like we get impregnations, gestations and full sized monsters in very quick succession ala AVP. I'm not a fan of that particularly, but as long as is doesn't detract too much from the narrative...

I kind of disagree here.

It's not very good editing/pacing to spend 10/15 minutes of screen time building up tension around the Fifield + Milburn situation  for the characters to be dead within 10 seconds of the creature showing up, the attack scene should have lasted at least a couple of minutes. Imagine instead of both characters dying in a couple of jump cuts they had let the scene breathe a little. Maybe hit the exact same beats but make the deterioration of their position take a slight bit longer. Also maybe have milburn actually notice Fifield getting hurt, instead of him not reacting to it in any way.

The problem with Milburn and Fifield isn't the editing, it's the fact that they have no actual impact on the plot of the film at all. They're filler that happens to coincide with the themes of the film but don't actually build momentum for the story in any way. The sequence itself is fine. Why would Millburn notice Fifield getting hurt when he's got an alien snake invading his body?

The group goes to find the two of them, and Shaw is already deciding to head back with Charlie. The hammerpede pops out of Millburn for a jump scare and then slithers its way out of the picture. Fifield kills a bunch of redshirts and then is killed by a redshirt. There's no impact. The actual issues with Prometheus are purely structural, in that the film's second act doesn't really build on itself as much as split apart into a few threads that rejoin later.

[Hard-R]

I got the impression from the behind the scenes footage on the Prometheus blu-ray that Scott defers to his editor a great deal, and Scalia is a ruthless, opinionated editor who is obsessed with pacing. I think it really hurt the way Prometheus and The Counselor were received, in particular. Just about every Scalia movie I've seen has a superior extended version.

So you would have thought that Scott perhaps would have learnt his lesson using Scalia (Lindelof ring any bells) or at least the execs at Fox would have been more cautious.
Just doesn't make any sense for them to release another film with potentially the same problem.
If this gets bad reviews because of this issue - then Awakenings may never happen.