Alien Covenant Fan Reviews

[USS-Sulaco]

First half of the movie was just fantastic. Utterly engaging - to me as enthralling as any of the movies in the series. I really went in with a lot of trepidation after reading some of the content on this forum.

Spoiler

The only part that really got jarring for me was Oram's child. The gesticulation between David and the birthed I found tacky. The design pissed me off - not because it wasn't your typical snake-like burster, but because it showed no signs of juvenality (apart from the transparency touch). To me it looked like the proportions of an adult xeno just shrunk down. And this was just grating, made worse by that silly marionette dance. I guess the point I'm making is that for whatever reason this moment just jarred me out of the movie, yet there was so much to love about the movie- it was just hard to fully get back into it after that moment (also Oram not feeling any pointed discomfort before that first spray of blood from his chest?). The rest of playing with the speed of the life cycle I could take, just that one collection of choices for the burster got to me.

As for Oram I really liked his character. I didn't really see him as an idiot. He made choices which were applicable to the context. None of the crew wanted to go back into hyper sleep, which was fair enough because we see what the blast did while they were sleeping. They would again be vulnerable for a number of years. They found a planet within the Goldilocks zones that showed all the signs of habitability within weeks distance, through Shaws transmission that came with coordinates. And apparent transmission from a human. He wanted to go there and assess suitability. Would it be ideal to be a hard arse leader, force the crew back into hypersleep and go the safest route? Yes probably. Can you say that easily without hestitation? I don't think so.

I just didn't see Oram as an incompetent nobjockey, I thought he was doing his best under the circumstance. Where we have to suspend our disbelief is his following of David. This totally flies in the face of how Oram has conducted himself previously. What is the kicker for me is that he literally calls David out for what he is with a gun pointed at him 'I have seen the devil before'. I mean he literally calls David out right there showing he has recognised David is one manipulative, sadistic f***er. That is why it is a big ask to believe he would be led by the nose so mere moments after.

Ok so I've probably dwelled on a couple of qualms here, but overall I really enjoyed the movie, and am going to enjoy repeated viewings. There is so much to say about this movie, but I'll leave it be. (Other than to add score was great with really fitting bits of nostalgia, David vs Walter interactions and fight really enjoyable , ending tragic and leaves a little bit of a sour taste but  the good in the movie makes up for it)

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[Uncanny Antman]

Oh yeah, I just remembered that I was also seriously bummed by:

1.  Super short incubation time.
2.  Way too many shots of the Alien.  I hated the POV shots, and I hated the shots of it just strolling around.  Way to destroy the power of its image.

[SiL]

Spoiler

I thought the shot of it calmly walking into the terraforming bay was actually one of my favourites, and then promptly wondered why the hell it needed to be CGI.

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[newbeing]

Am I crazy or

Spoiler

was the scene from the trailer with the Alien jumping from wall to wall was just not in the movie at all? That was like the coolest shot in the trailer!

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I liked Prometheus less the more I saw it. I actually liked that a lot more than this one the first time around.

Frankly I think the second half will only get worse with repeat viewings.

Same and I really tried to like and defend Prometheus after first seeing it, but repeat viewings really didn't make me wince any less at the parts that just didn't work.

[Uncanny Antman]

Spoiler

I thought the shot of it calmly walking into the terraforming bay was actually one of my favourites, and then promptly wondered why the hell it needed to be CGI.

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I can see that.  Maybe I would have liked it, but the cumulative effect of all the Alien shots wore me down.  Amazing...I got sick of seeing the Alien.   

[USS-Sulaco]

Am I crazy or

Spoiler

was the scene from the trailer with the Alien jumping from wall to wall was just not in the movie at all? That was like the coolest shot in the trailer.

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You're not crazy. Wasn't in it 

[HuDaFuK]

Am I crazy or

Spoiler

was the scene from the trailer with the Alien jumping from wall to wall was just not in the movie at all? That was like the coolest shot in the trailer!

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You're not crazy.

[Corporal Hicks]

Spoiler

I thought the shot of it calmly walking into the terraforming bay was actually one of my favourites, and then promptly wondered why the hell it needed to be CGI.

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I really dug that shot too. I think I was a little  at that.

In regards to the effects, I'm really curious as to what the effect guys are going to say. We've seen so much evidence of practicality. Seen the Alien suit on sets. Why all the CG touch-ups. To me, anyway, it looked like everything (aside from the one shot of the Alien head) was pretty much CG.

[SiL]

I think every shot of the Big Chap was CGI. The bursting wasn't, impressively, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the baby Alien was at least partially a rod puppet.

I wonder if Boss knew they'd be getting painted over or if they got ADI'd.

[HuDaFuK]

The bursting wasn't, impressively, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the baby Alien was at least partially a rod puppet.

It was. I saw it at the Alien Day event in London

[juxtapose]

i have not seen it yet but in regards to the baby xeno. .i saw the props of it and thought it looked amazing. .the head also seemed way longer than that of the adult. .so is that it's apearance in the movie.. . ?. .the original snake like version of the cheatburster never did much for me to be honest. .one of my favorite parts in alien 3 ..i think in the assembly cut version , the one with the ox. .  the birth of the xeno. .i so much prefered that to the cinematic version. .. .i cant imagine ever getting tired of seeing the alien tho. .In aliens you got to see plenty of the xeno . .nobody complained about that?. .epsecially the queen

[426Buddy]

I think they had an idea that some stuff would be changed or that their effects would be enhanced. I doubt they knew it was all going to be covered up almost completely.

[Corporal Hicks]

I think every shot of the Big Chap was CGI. The bursting wasn't, impressively, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the baby Alien was at least partially a rod puppet.

I wonder if Boss knew they'd be getting painted over or if they got ADI'd.

I just saw this on Tristan Jone's FB. He's discussing the film with someone who worked effects on it  -

They covered so much of our work with terrible cg and digital blood. The script was preeeetty terrible. Acting was eh.

I really wanted to love it and was so excited to see our work on screen and I feel just a bit let down.

I abhor digital blood and they added it to every single death and it just kills me.

They Thinged it. 

[Evanus]

That's so, so sad. I hope they won't f*ck with the practical effects in the next film. 

[426Buddy]

Yeah that's probably going to be something that bothers me greatly when I finally see the film. Such a slap in the face to odd studio, their practical effects looked so good in the bts stuff i've seen.