Alien Covenant Fan Reviews

[Noah]

Even Fassbender who I loved in Prometheus is terrible. In Prometheus he was much more nuanced, in this he comes over really hammy like a second rate hammer horror Frankenstein with some of the cheesiest dialogue I couldn't believe I was hearing. Some things I could barely believe what I was seeing, I thought I was high.

This.

Although i really liked Fassbenders perfomance and he was the most memorable thing in the whole movie, he was very different from Prometheus as soon as they landed on the planet. As if Fassbender knew the dialogue written for him was so hammy and right on the nose so he embraced it with style and genuine fun. I think many other actors could not pull it off as well as he did. But not in a million years the character of David could be called  realistic in any way.

That's the point. I think Vid is confusing the character with  Fassbender's acting. By all accounts,David is a very campy character here,but I think that every review agrees that he pulls it off so well that even the most awkward and cheesy lines feel enjoyable and he manages to remain  genuinely creepy,so not the caricature of a villain. Many reviews are singling out the David/Walter scenes and in many cases I don't even see people pointing out the more "hilarious" lines because,evidently,thanks to his acting,everything feels almost credible in that context. He also plays another -completely different- android who doesn't offer the same opportunities to show his range,but it's still a difficult and nuanced performance,not easy at all. Again,by all accounts,Walter is also perfectly played.
Having said that,I kind of hope they come back to a more nuanced and subtle characterization for David. If in this movie it still works in terms of tones and the whole David/Walter shtick,those exasperated personality  traits risk to become self parody.

I will watch it in a few days,but so far the consensus seems that it's way less divisive than Prometheus. It plays like an entertaining Alien movie,familiar but enjoyable nonetheless. At least for the mainstream public that doesn't have specific expectations and the press that uses more objective creteria. Surprisingly,I saw a lot of five/four stars from French critics too. 

[That Yellow Alien]

It's a sad state of affairs that the Alien franchise has become so dire that some people are happily proclaiming Covenant as the fourth best Alien film as though that's some kind of victory. 

I don't think that's bad, considering the first 3 are classics.

[Darkness]

Yeah, I don't see the problem either. Do people really expect an Alien sequel is going to come close to Ripley's story? It can still be a fine movie and I think ranking just after those is still a pretty good accomplishment.

[Salt The Fries]

I'll tell you this. Covenant is very very unexpected. Strong German Expressionism element. Very strong. Nosferatu, Frankenstein, Dracula overtones and a bit of Seventh Seal. And I'm f**king serious. I really liked the film. Not a masterpiece, but very bold in its differentness. And I really loved Crudup's performance.

Because of strong German Expressionism element that was beyond evident, I cannot agree with you guys. I really appreciated its differentness.

[Whos_Nick]

I'm looking forward to getting Covenant on Blu-Ray and seeing all the extra material

[Darth Vile]

I certainly think there are elements that are beautifully strange/odd. In that regard the film has more in common with Alien 3.

[motherfather]

I voted OK. I had to sleep on it overnight, before writing a review, so here it goes:

1st HALF OF MOVIE
All in all, I would say up until the 2nd infection/flute teaching scene, I was fully convinced this movie was going to rock my world.. and I couldn't wait for the movie to unfold. They'd learned a lot of lessons from Prometheus - there was time to get to know the characters, the space/science scenes all worked for me. I remember being confident and excited about the movie. Daniels coping with grieving by trying to "man up" and get on with her work tasks while everyone else was squabbling with Oram was perfect. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly.

I was prepared to overlook the not wearing hazmat suits thing when they arrived at the planet, thinking any moment after the infections, maybe in the first moments before or inside the citadel, someone would make the decision to retreat and suit up/quarantine.

My heart sank a little when the crew willingly offered up to David intel on their colonization mission. But to be fair, its understandable - David saved their lives and so at that point they trusted him.

The flute teaching scene was the last great moment because of the tension I felt. But then afterwards... everything started to get a bit silly - not always, but usually. Like two totally different movies had been welded together in the middle.

2nd HALF OF MOVIE (plain silly - all mindless slasher, with none of the suspense)
This is the bit I am most critical of - its all just silly. Blatantly obvious and predictable - even for a child. I was soooo over it before it had even played out. The main David's lair bit was all wrong and silly and made me wonder why bother having Shaw in the movie at all. I hated it - it belonged in "Event Horizon" and not in a suspenseful alien franchise movie of good caliber. I can't imagine any captain would follow David down into a dark cave after he has just admitted to being the mastermind to all the horror.

FINAL 20 MINS (some great ideas, but taken in the wrong direction)
The 2nd drop ship/Daniels/Xeno fight was great. Maybe a little bit longer/drawn out than it needed to be. I mean - how long does Tennesee need before he stops circling above ground level?

The final Xeno aboard the covenant battle was good action let down by a bad premise. Yes there was 1 facehugger loose in the lair. But somehow, all surviving crew members had not been "scanned" for infection by the state of the art med facilities with embryo storage on board. Really?

The final scenes with Daniels/David as Walter were ripe with tension, but the plot took the dumb ending of Daniels naively (she is the better decision maker of the crew AND was already previously attacked by David similar to Ripley and Ash) getting back into cryo without AT LEAST surprise awakening/faking sleep to secretly monitor David for a short while just to be sure.

And as for David vomiting up Facehugger embryos. No. Sorry. I can't. It reminded me of Men in Black galactic tentacles playing "marbles" with tiny planets like earth. Tacky - not clever.

WHAT WAS CUT THAT I SAW FOOTAGE OF?
- A longer battle with the facehuggers
- The red corridor/xeno scene
- Parts of the first prologue

STYLE, SUSPENSE AND GORE
Visually things were mostly good (except some ropey cgi and xenovision).

However, I had high hopes that the creature aesthetics would be shaped in a way that they could blend in with their environments  (think Alien head camoflaged against industrial pipes). At least the final xeno should have been more strategic. But every creature behaved like some deranged, rabid, frantic dog, not so much strategic, but hell bent on killing anything, whether it was in its way or out of its way. Not exactly a perfect organism, so much as a monkey with a flickknife.

Which gets me to the gore/body count. I didn't find the decapitation or shower scene added anything. if you're gonna off a whole bunch of characters, you're better off allowing some suspense to build between each kill, rather than in quick succession.

I'm not against gore or violence in movies, especially Alien movies, but it has to be done cleverly. If M Night Shyamalan (or that kind of style) had collaborated with Ridley, this movie could have perhaps even knocked Alien off the top spot.

Let me be VERY CLEAR though. I complained about prometheus not having enough creatures. Having less creatures in covenant is NOT what I mean. The creatures could have had exactly the same screen time in Covenant - just executed differently. And this is where I would have to put the blame with Ridley. The script cannot be wholly blamed like with Prometheus. I am presuming the studio execs also tried to twist Ridley's arm e.g "oh, if you work with one of our cgi preferred partners, and put a little of this/that in the movie, we'll throw some more money at you" Those types of borderline corruption situations happen all the time in business. I know it only too well :-(

For me, an Alien franchise movie cannot work with 2 "permanent" villains. The stage isn't big enough to be shared. Its either the Alien is the permanent star, or David is.

The buzzword of AI was thrown around generously with Covenant, but true AI is software, not hardware. David should have died, and collective networked conscience should have been explored if you are going to tow the AI line.

WOULD A DVD DIRECTORS CUT HELP SALVAGE THINGS?
Yes, absolutely. You can't add what you don't have (acting scenes), but you can take away.

Shaving off some cgi here and there. Dispensing with the "rise up and bow to David" dodgy xeno burster effects.

And maybe adding any cut scenes to "space apart / slow down" the insanely rapid incubation and growth of creatures would go a looong way to give a more satisfactory alien franchise movie experience. Even some extracts of prologues etc...

I don't think the smart ending was to have David escape on the covenant. He should have died, but transmitted his computer conscience into muthur as his dying wish. Or been stranded on the covenant with no facehuggers/black goo/but plotting how to get back to the planet or intercepting another flying croissant.

Overall rating as a standalone film like event horizon = 8/10

Overall rating as a prequel that adds to / not takes away from Alien/s, and worthy of an Alien franchise film = 4/10

[Lieutenant Mike Harrigan]

It's a sad state of affairs that the Alien franchise has become so dire that some people are happily proclaiming Covenant as the fourth best Alien film as though that's some kind of victory. 

I don't think that's bad, considering the first 3 are classics.

That's good enough for me and for most of us anyways. The first two films are unbeatable and Alien 3 is pretty good.

[bacchus]

For me, an Alien franchise movie cannot work with 2 "permanent" villains. The stage isn't big enough to be shared. Its either the Alien is the permanent star, or David is.

Good review, but in particular I think you've hit the nail on the head right here, and had made me realise why this film didn't quite work for me. The Xeno needs to be the main and only villain.

With the emphasis on David for most of the film, it became the David show, and the aliens became a sideshow. The original Alien films (including 3 and even Resurrection) worked far, far better in creating horror and fear because we didn't know what our main "villain" (i.e. the Xeno) was up to for most of the films, whereas Covenant showed us far to much of it, and David pretty much gave a full commentary.

A successful Alien film needs to have the Xeno as the main antagonist.

[Uncanny Antman]

It's a sad state of affairs that the Alien franchise has become so dire that some people are happily proclaiming Covenant as the fourth best Alien film as though that's some kind of victory. 

I don't think that's bad, considering the first 3 are classics.

It's not that it isn't as good as the first three that makes it sad, it's saying it as though it's some great thing.  It's like arguing over whether Terminator Salvation or Terminator Genisys is the fourth best one.

Maybe I'll just agree to disagree by referring to Alien Covenant as the third worst one.  (Although for me it's second worst, but I'm willing to give a little. ) 

A successful Alien film needs to have the Xeno as the main antagonist.

I disagree.  I think Prometheus could have been great if it didn't totally bork it on other levels.  The lack of xeno wasn't a failing of that one.

[maggieloveshopey]

A solid 7/10 for me on one viewing. I thought the first two thirds were really good, but as others have said, the home stretch is rushed, there's no tension built, and it just kind of fizzles out.

<spoiler>just testing spoiler tags</spoiler>

[USS-Sulaco]

Just saw it again, and it holds up as a very good movie with a few flaws. I see three key issues, with one of them being something that only fans of the series will take umbrage with.

Spoiler

1. There needed to be something to address the choice to treat the planet in such a blasé fashion (i.e. no helmets, no consideration of potential pathogens). At least an atmosphere compositional scan, addressing surface conditions in general, something to add credibility. I understand the movie had to fit a lot in but it's an obvious thing people will complain about.

2. Oram having such a 180 degree change in attitude by trusting David and following him. You will lose a lot of audience here. You could still get Oram to be facehugged without such a lack of plausibility.

3. Fanboy issue: the playing with the lifecycle durations :  gestation period, burster to adult growth time, look of the chest burster. To be fair it doesn't exactly spell out how much time has past, but it feels like it's not much. Also it is questionable how Lope is impregnated after such a short facehug given previous movies, but I'm assuming facehugger now transfers a black goo variant that is fast acting (?)

[close]

But if you can look past these issues (which i believe you should) this is a highly enjoyable movie, a worthy addition to the franchise, that's stands up to repeat viewings. The first half alone is worth sitting down for this movie. 8/10

[Rafael S.]

Having just came out of the theater, various things struck into my mind but definitely must highlight that I love what I believe is a representation of Giger through David. I was pro ancient creature or mother nature cleanser (still am to a degree) but now I don´t mind the idea of David the Alien creator as an homage by Ridley to the artist. I don´t know why I think this truly is the case.
Second, the hell...the Aliens looked MENACING AND DISTURBING. Tall, upright, more humanoid than ever. I was really proud of having elegance in these creatures once more.
And last, am I alone in thinking that the starting scene was just gold? Gold dialogue, gold acting, gold pacing. There are indeed things I disliked, mostly concentrating in the go-by attitude of the crew once they are in David´s castle but I must watch it once more, I believe.
For now, feeling quite positive about the film. Ridley was one of the people that started this franchise, if someone must end it, I can´t think of somebody better than him. To infinity and beyond!

[Rudiger]

4/10 and I'm being generous.

I struggle to understand how this thing got made by such an experienced director. He's either past caring or his earlier works were something of a fluke. How on earth did this script and this screenplay get the go-ahead? Clearly Fox learned nothing from Prometheus.

It's packed full of tropes from earlier films in the franchise (sorry, not good enough), and retreads themes Scott already explored - and to much better effect - in Blade Runner.

What's worse is that it's boring. There are no scares and no tension.

The characters are poorly written, while the films own internal logic collapses early on and never recovers.

It's a poor slasher movie with delusions of grandeur.

4/10 and I'm being generous.

I struggle to understand how this thing got made by such an experienced director. He's either past caring or his earlier works were something of a fluke. How on earth did this script and this screenplay get the go-ahead? Clearly Fox learned nothing from Prometheus.

It's packed full of tropes from earlier films in the franchise (sorry, not good enough), and retreads themes Scott already explored - and to much better effect - in Blade Runner.

What's worse is that it's boring. There are no scares and no tension.

The characters are poorly written, while the films own internal logic collapses early on and never recovers.

It's a poor slasher movie with delusions of grandeur.

[USS-Sulaco]

Having just came out of the theater, various things struck into my mind but definitely must highlight that I love what I believe is a representation of Giger through David. I was pro ancient creature or mother nature cleanser (still am to a degree) but now I don´t mind the idea of David the Alien creator as an homage by Ridley to the artist. I don´t know why I think this truly is the case.
Second, the hell...the Aliens looked MENACING AND DISTURBING. Tall, upright, more humanoid than ever. I was really proud of having elegance in these creatures once more.
And last, am I alone in thinking that the starting scene was just gold? Gold dialogue, gold acting, gold pacing. There are indeed this I disliked, mostly concentrating in the go-by attitude of the crew once they are in David´s castle but I must watch one more, I believe.
For now, feeling quite positive about the film. Ridley was one of the people that started this franchise, if someone must end it, I can´t think of somebody better than him. To infinity and beyond!

I'm with you, that starting scene was perfect. Weylands  ambivalence to David, his want of complete control of David. He's designed him to have an opinion, but he didn't want that opinion unless it suited him. And then the cut to the rehash of the original alien score and space. Just great.