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 389,291 times)

Evanus

I don't recall Ridley ever mentioning Isolation.

The Necronoir

Quote from: Evanus on Jun 04, 2021, 03:46:32 PM
I don't recall Ridley ever mentioning Isolation.

That was cited as the decisive factor in his switch from "the beast is cooked" to guiding to give it another crack. Whether that means he had some direct experience of the game or was persuaded by the studio after it was resoundingly well received I don't know. Hopefully someone can bring up the relevant quotes.

Evanus

I'm pretty sure it's just that Fox was under the impression that people missed the Xenos in Prometheus, and asked Scott to include them in Covenant. Don't remember Isolation having anything to do with it specifically.

Lost_Hunter

Give me Prometheus any day but you can keep Covenant. The movie looks great but unfortunately that was it for me. Did not appreciate the generic treatment of the cast or the Alien. Gave me Alien 3 vibes and not in a good way. If the alien is just gonna snarl and kill don't bother. The Alien has cunning and intelligence that plays on a primal fear. Would have much preferred the initial direction the sequel was going with Paradise Lost.

Stolen

Quote from: Evanus on Jun 04, 2021, 05:10:53 PM
I'm pretty sure it's just that Fox was under the impression that people missed the Xenos in Prometheus, and asked Scott to include them in Covenant. Don't remember Isolation having anything to do with it specifically.

The real reason is the hype caused by the Blomkamp project. The studio saw that the public wanted to see the beast again.
So Ridley had to make concessions to make his film, otherwise Blomkamp's film would have been made a priority by Fox.


SiL

This is also not true

BigDaddyJohn

Quote from: Voodoo Magic on Jun 04, 2021, 01:51:27 PM
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.

That's my thoughts exactly ! Oram getting face-hugged, the worst dumbest scene of the movie and one of the worst in the whole franchise. I don't understand how it seem to somewhat get a silent pass quite a lot of times.

Nightmare Asylum

I'll give it a vocal round of support, rather than a silent pass. Oram's curiosity and blind faith (this is the man that ventured off course on a totally unknown world, after all) and David's alluring temptation ("I met the Devil when I was a child") got the best of him. And the chestburster's birth and it's initial interaction with David as it mimics his movements is one of my absolute favorite moments in the entire franchise, let alone the film itself.

BigDaddyJohn

It could have worked if he didn't saw minutes before the psycho droid (it trusted me !!! lol) trying to bond with the thing that decapitated his fellow colonist. Thus it being extremely dumb.

Nightmare Asylum

The human mind operates in finicky ways under stress, especially when one is just as curious about what they are seeing as they are afraid of it. I think the mention of the Devil and the connotation of twisted temptation that comes along with that is key in getting into Oram's headspace in that moment.

Paradise Lost, indeed.

Voodoo Magic

Quote from: BigDaddyJohn on Jun 05, 2021, 08:47:01 AM
Quote from: Voodoo Magic on Jun 04, 2021, 01:51:27 PM
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.

That's my thoughts exactly ! Oram getting face-hugged, the worst dumbest scene of the movie and one of the worst in the whole franchise. I don't understand how it seem to somewhat get a silent pass quite a lot of times.

I think a lot of passes have to be given to this film. Like goofily not wearing helmets. I've heard light and camera reflection as a mental reconciliation for not filming with them, yet from 2001 A Space Odyssey to Underwater we get helmets.

But in truth, I think helmets are not used solely just to support a lazy plot mechanism, so this could happen (the exact reason why you'd wear helmets on an Alien planet).


426Buddy

Unless you just write that the spores passed through the suit. Either way someone's getting infected regardless.

I never had an issue with the lack of suit / helmet myself.

Voodoo Magic

Yep, work its way into the suit, eat through a filter perhaps! Simple logic fixes like this across the film could have helped temper all the check-your-brain-at-the-door criticism it received... which would be fine if it was just a light popcorn film, but Covenant treats itself so much more seriously.

BlueMarsalis79

Do we criticise Jonathan Harker for the things he does in Dracula's castle including entering it?

The Necronoir

The Necronoir

#989
Quote from: Trash Queen on Jun 05, 2021, 03:14:42 PM
Do we criticise Jonathan Harker for the things he does in Dracula's castle including entering it?

For that analogy to be valid, the existence of vampires and the threat they pose would have to be widely known in the novel, which isn't the case. No credible scientist on earth would disembark, unprotected onto an alien world, especially one that already has confirmed life on it. There's just as high a likelihood that you'd infect the local ecosystem with something in/on your body as vice versa.

Quote from: Voodoo Magic on Jun 05, 2021, 02:13:03 PM
Yep, work its way into the suit, eat through a filter perhaps! Simple logic fixes like this across the film could have helped temper all the check-your-brain-at-the-door criticism it received... which would be fine if it was just a light popcorn film, but Covenant treats itself so much more seriously.

Carlos Huante actually goes over his own take on this in one of his YouTube videos exploring his work on Prometheus and Covenant. His idea was that the spores were tiny-organisms, resembling gnats, that would cover the explorers' visors like a fine powder. When they brush their hands across the visor to clear their vision they unwittingly crush them, releasing their acid blood, which slowly eats through the helmet and allows other spores to get in and infect them.

That sounds like an infinitely preferable idea to me.

As for Oram. I'm just at a loss. There's nothing I find credible about his actions in that scene. It's just bad writing.

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