Alien Covenant Fan Reviews

[Jonesy1974]

In all fairness, there are some comments of "what the f**k?!" or stuff to that effect when they're walking through the Necropolis to the Citadel. But yeah, there should have been more.

And I get that (at least it shows they aren't all emotionless robots) but if you want an audience to care, you have to have your characters act like humans and ask questions any normal human would ask in that situation (a dangerous and confusing one).  And you have to show that to the audience.  You can't be a lazy filmmaker.

Again, if your goal is to make a gore movie though and you are trying to have the audience view every character as a simple means to show a different violent death, then it doesn't really matter.  I think it's pretty clear from these movies that isn't what Scott is trying to go for.  He is just not good at it.

I think it would have slowed the movie down quite a bit if the characters were going to have an in-depth discussion what happened to the engineers. They didn't know what happened and we wouldn't have gotten any answers as well, so there's no point in such a scene imo. I also would have hated it if we we're going to be spoon-fed once again...it's not being lazy at all.

Come to think of it, they did swear a lot in this movie and it felt a little unnecessary but that's just nitpicking. Totally loved it and I want to see it again ASAP.

It isn't in depth at all.  It is treating your characters as humans and forming some connection with the audience.  It is incredibly lazy film making to leave all that out.  Those are the most important pieces in establishing your characters as people the audience actually gives a crap about.  It isn't spoon feeding anything.  It's the basics of character development.

Scott has never been good at developing characters really (unless they are incredibly strongly written) and tends to hope the visuals take care of that for him.  He is an expert at that side of things so sometimes it works.  In cases like this and Prometheus, it really hasn't.

I felt that way about Prometheus, the only characters I was interested in were David and vickers (who was really sold short) but I cared about many of the Covenant crew.

[Robopadna]

In all fairness, there are some comments of "what the f**k?!" or stuff to that effect when they're walking through the Necropolis to the Citadel. But yeah, there should have been more.

And I get that (at least it shows they aren't all emotionless robots) but if you want an audience to care, you have to have your characters act like humans and ask questions any normal human would ask in that situation (a dangerous and confusing one).  And you have to show that to the audience.  You can't be a lazy filmmaker.

Again, if your goal is to make a gore movie though and you are trying to have the audience view every character as a simple means to show a different violent death, then it doesn't really matter.  I think it's pretty clear from these movies that isn't what Scott is trying to go for.  He is just not good at it.

I think it would have slowed the movie down quite a bit if the characters were going to have an in-depth discussion what happened to the engineers. They didn't know what happened and we wouldn't have gotten any answers as well, so there's no point in such a scene imo. I also would have hated it if we we're going to be spoon-fed once again...it's not being lazy at all.

Come to think of it, they did swear a lot in this movie and it felt a little unnecessary but that's just nitpicking. Totally loved it and I want to see it again ASAP.

It isn't in depth at all.  It is treating your characters as humans and forming some connection with the audience.  It is incredibly lazy film making to leave all that out.  Those are the most important pieces in establishing your characters as people the audience actually gives a crap about.  It isn't spoon feeding anything.  It's the basics of character development.

Scott has never been good at developing characters really (unless they are incredibly strongly written) and tends to hope the visuals take care of that for him.  He is an expert at that side of things so sometimes it works.  In cases like this and Prometheus, it really hasn't.

I felt that way about Prometheus, the only characters I was interested in were David and vickers (who was really sold short) but I cared about many of the Covenant crew.

I did not, at all.  It seems to be a general consensus on reviews that they didn't attach much of anything to the characters either and saw them as things to kill.  While it is dependent on the viewer, I think there is enough consensus to say Ridley absolutely could have done a much better job on that end.

[Snake]

In all fairness, there are some comments of "what the f**k?!" or stuff to that effect when they're walking through the Necropolis to the Citadel. But yeah, there should have been more.

And I get that (at least it shows they aren't all emotionless robots) but if you want an audience to care, you have to have your characters act like humans and ask questions any normal human would ask in that situation (a dangerous and confusing one).  And you have to show that to the audience.  You can't be a lazy filmmaker.

Again, if your goal is to make a gore movie though and you are trying to have the audience view every character as a simple means to show a different violent death, then it doesn't really matter.  I think it's pretty clear from these movies that isn't what Scott is trying to go for.  He is just not good at it.

I think it would have slowed the movie down quite a bit if the characters were going to have an in-depth discussion what happened to the engineers. They didn't know what happened and we wouldn't have gotten any answers as well, so there's no point in such a scene imo. I also would have hated it if we we're going to be spoon-fed once again...it's not being lazy at all.

Come to think of it, they did swear a lot in this movie and it felt a little unnecessary but that's just nitpicking. Totally loved it and I want to see it again ASAP.

It isn't in depth at all.  It is treating your characters as humans and forming some connection with the audience.  It is incredibly lazy film making to leave all that out.  Those are the most important pieces in establishing your characters as people the audience actually gives a crap about.  It isn't spoon feeding anything.  It's the basics of character development.

Scott has never been good at developing characters really (unless they are incredibly strongly written) and tends to hope the visuals take care of that for him.  He is an expert at that side of things so sometimes it works.  In cases like this and Prometheus, it really hasn't.

I felt that way about Prometheus, the only characters I was interested in were David and vickers (who was really sold short) but I cared about many of the Covenant crew.

I did not, at all.  It seems to be a general consensus on reviews that they didn't attach much of anything to the characters either and saw them as things to kill.  While it is dependent on the viewer, I think there is enough consensus to say Ridley absolutely could have done a much better job on that end.

I think Ridley is right on the mark when it comes to character-building. The first hour of Covenant is nothing but. And I don't think he's never been good at it. What about Ripley, Ash, Dallas, Brett, Parker, Maximus Aurelius Decimus (lol)? They are some of the most iconic and memorable characters ever in movie-history!

[Jonesy1974]

In all fairness, there are some comments of "what the f**k?!" or stuff to that effect when they're walking through the Necropolis to the Citadel. But yeah, there should have been more.

And I get that (at least it shows they aren't all emotionless robots) but if you want an audience to care, you have to have your characters act like humans and ask questions any normal human would ask in that situation (a dangerous and confusing one).  And you have to show that to the audience.  You can't be a lazy filmmaker.

Again, if your goal is to make a gore movie though and you are trying to have the audience view every character as a simple means to show a different violent death, then it doesn't really matter.  I think it's pretty clear from these movies that isn't what Scott is trying to go for.  He is just not good at it.

I think it would have slowed the movie down quite a bit if the characters were going to have an in-depth discussion what happened to the engineers. They didn't know what happened and we wouldn't have gotten any answers as well, so there's no point in such a scene imo. I also would have hated it if we we're going to be spoon-fed once again...it's not being lazy at all.

Come to think of it, they did swear a lot in this movie and it felt a little unnecessary but that's just nitpicking. Totally loved it and I want to see it again ASAP.

It isn't in depth at all.  It is treating your characters as humans and forming some connection with the audience.  It is incredibly lazy film making to leave all that out.  Those are the most important pieces in establishing your characters as people the audience actually gives a crap about.  It isn't spoon feeding anything.  It's the basics of character development.

Scott has never been good at developing characters really (unless they are incredibly strongly written) and tends to hope the visuals take care of that for him.  He is an expert at that side of things so sometimes it works.  In cases like this and Prometheus, it really hasn't.

I felt that way about Prometheus, the only characters I was interested in were David and vickers (who was really sold short) but I cared about many of the Covenant crew.

I did not, at all.  It seems to be a general consensus on reviews that they didn't attach much of anything to the characters either and saw them as things to kill.  While it is dependent on the viewer, I think there is enough consensus to say Ridley absolutely could have done a much better job on that end.

Beg to differ, I have read plenty of people saying that the cast got character beats and moments. The first 40 odd minutes of the film is all about character building in my view. Ridley did a great job.

[Rankles75]

Character building was one of the strengths of Covenant for me. You're never going to get massive backstory for characters in this type of film, but I thought Ridley did a good job in taking time to establish at least most of the crew...

[Snake]

Watched it yesterday and to my surprise I liked it a lot. I think Ridley really went all out on this one and he really gave us f*cking aliens...

Spoiler

While the movie didn't exactly clean up all of Prometheus' mess it managed to make me forget about it by just being fast and furious. David explains that the black goo is volatile and came in many forms, good enough for me, on with the show. This movie is cruel, nihilistic and very self aware. I think the birth of the xenomorph scene, with it's little "I love you daddy" dance was a cool meta joke, Ridley saying: "you want it? Here it is!". The thing stretches triumphantly and even seems to smile. It's grotesque in the best possible way. David breaking the fourth wall with his flute, his campy dialogue, his chamber of horrors, it's all B-movie madness and I'm actually surprised all this craziness ended up on the big screen in a blockbuster like this. And you just get hit over the head, or should I say on the nose right from the start with it's creation theme, starting with David and Weyland's conversation and continuing with David's megalomaniac adolescent speeches. In many ways this movie is probably at least as ridiculous as Prometheus but while I can't stand that movie I didn't mind those aspects here. Someone rated this movie earlier in WTF's, well I'll give it 8 out of 10 WTF's then. It's Ridley cynically doing his job as ordered by the studios and not giving a f**k, just getting on with it and throwing in some of his pet themes here and there. And it works for me, strangely. It's a dark fantasy film, not sci fi, and I'm OK with that.

[close]

Great review man! Laughed so hard it almost brought tears in my eyes!

[John Doe]

I saw it for the third time, and now i really love it.

Not perfect, i need more Engineers, but for me it´s a great movie.

[NickisSmart]

I saw it for the third time, and now i really love it.

Not perfect, i need more Engineers, but for me it´s a great movie.

Good to hear! A good friend of mine watched it and she said it's her favorite in the series, above even Prometheus and Aliens, which are her two stand-bys, typically.

[The real AG]

I saw it for the third time, and now i really love it.

Not perfect, i need more Engineers, but for me it´s a great movie.

That's interesting as you were one of the guys who really made it clear you didn't like it after the first and second viewing I think. I am super hyped and while I got nervous when there were a few very negative reviews, it is very encouraging that more and more people seem to appreciate the movie after repeated viewings.

[salomonj]

I saw it for the third time, and now i really love it.

Not perfect, i need more Engineers, but for me it´s a great movie.

glad to hear it, but out of curiosity what changed? You were pretty outspoken that you thought it was a unholy abomination...

[cucuchu]

I saw it for the third time, and now i really love it.

Not perfect, i need more Engineers, but for me it´s a great movie.

glad to hear it, but out of curiosity what changed? You were pretty outspoken that you thought it was a unholy abomination...

A friend of mine in France has a similar experience where he was really disappointed initially, rewatched it and now loves it. His reasoning was he had to just accept it being a dark, weird movie and he enjoyed it more.

[TheDerelict]

Ive seen Covenant four times now and it gets better every time i see it.

What i would say for anyone who's only seen it once but is on the fence about it, give it another go. First time i saw it i loved it but there were a few of scenes i wasn't sure about but on a second viewing they did not bother at all. I think first time round you have such high expectations but after that you know what is going to happen and you've slept on it and thought about it so you can approach the film from a different angle.

For me its a 10 out of 10 film.

[gantarat]

give money to me and i will watch second time (for local dub)

[Le Celticant]

For those who watched the movie,are the alien cgi better than those from the trailers?

Like the cgi on the tracking clip.The alien feels weightless while moving.
Did they correct it?
Same question about the shot with the neomorph opening its mouth.Were they unfinished shots used in the trailers?

Unequal at time, some animations felt nicely done while others lacked a good pass of polish.
Same thing concerning the Matte Painting which is surprising when it's one of the best thing they nailed in Prometheus.
It's likely to be due to very tight scheduled, Outsourcing to Australian VFX Company and MPC that probably used its newly opened Montreal Facility for tax rebates.

I've never understood the complain about the neomorph mouth opening, it's the nature of the shot itself that doesn't feel realistic (and is of course emphasized for the camera to get swallowed) rather than an animation problem.

[newagescamartist]

For those who watched the movie,are the alien cgi better than those from the trailers?

Like the cgi on the tracking clip.The alien feels weightless while moving.
Did they correct it?
Same question about the shot with the neomorph opening its mouth.Were they unfinished shots used in the trailers?

Unequal at time, some animations felt nicely done while others lacked a good pass of polish.
Same thing concerning the Matte Painting which is surprising when it's one of the best thing they nailed in Prometheus.
It's likely to be due to very tight scheduled, Outsourcing to Australian VFX Company and MPC that probably used its newly opened Montreal Facility for tax rebates.

I've never understood the complain about the neomorph mouth opening, it's the nature of the shot itself that doesn't feel realistic (and is of course emphasized for the camera to get swallowed) rather than an animation problem.

Does that neomorph shot look as cheesy in the final movie as it did in the trailer?