I'd like Ridley to come out and tell us what genre Covenant is going to be and set up our expectations for the trilogy. I don't call sci-fi a genre in this respect, i'd call it a setting, and maybe that's where Prometheus went wrong as it tried to define itself as sci-fi and that's not a base enough genre like action, thriller, horror, romance ... to make a movie tick along nicely. There's not much you can really do with a cinema run time of what, 2hrs ... so keep it simple, shock us, excite us, make us cry or scare us (which I might add he did say he wanted to do and didn't deliver).
I believe from the extras, interviews etc. from Prometheus that he wanted to scare us and also mix up ancient astronauts ... but like a confused 1st year university student's essay he wants to say so much but talks gibberish as he's only got 1500 words to say it in. So I put my case forward that I hope he comes out and says "I want to scare the life out of you." Well, okay Sir Ridley don't get off the pot ... Lay this fact down and get on with it, it's going to be an 18 period ... and stop confusing us as to what you're going to do to us when you get us sat down infront of Covenant for a couple of hours just scare us.
Just reading through the other comments, yeah Clive Barker wouldn't mess about if he said and just quoting Sir Ridley again "I want to scare the life out of you" or whatever he actually said about fear ... Alien was like Hellraiser for so long for me, it scared me, like really scared me, but the image of the beast has been used in marketing so much it's removed all fear from it. Pinhead is similar to this over marketed and not scary anymore but the box ... and what happens if you play with it, very very scary and always will be and if you you're going to reboot hellraiser you're not going to be fielding questions even right up to its realise about its certificate. Its going to be 18 and scary and if not it's going to be a watered down chimera of what hellraiser meant. But the thing is for me, okay reboot Alien but what did Alien mean. I mean like Hellraiser, take away pin head and the cenobites which were so so scary before over marketed, what do you have, someone messing with their soul, playing a game and suddenly in hell and never able to escape, or whatnot, for me a scary experience to live through via the skills of the actors brought in to turn the story into life. So there is life in hellraiser even after the suits market the characters in products ... but what is the abstract fear in Alien ... well they nailed it with in space no one can hear you scream. So forget trying to do anything else other than scare us with this mantra. It worked poetically in Alien.
Horror in a sci-fi setting is hard to do, in my opinion, and the only film that genuinely still scares me, and I wish that they hadn't overly marketed the beast as then Alien would still do it, is event horizon. I'm in my 40's and can honestly say I can't watch that movie as it gives me nightmares, pretty much like hellraiser 1 and 2. Sam Neill is simply terrifying in it, and what he suggests at the end like you never really left when you think you are safely back at earth is scary for even a cynical 40 something. I honestly can't watch that movie, even though I bought the dvd, so it did its job it scared me and the dvd sits in my collection menacingly.
So what my stream of consciousness is trying to say is I hope so much that Covenant and the trilogy is a horror in a sci-fi setting, and Ridley delivers what he wanted to do with Prometheus, to scare us which he was a complete master of in Alien. just keep repeating in space no one can hear you scream as it is so poetic perfectly mixing horror in a sci fi setting in 8 words, even hemmingway would have been impressed with this line so run with it please Ridley.
Just wanted to say I agree too with Alien 3 comments, the quality of acting really made that movie for me, it was westend theatre quality acting and the lighting and music were really on point, the big issue for me is the alien went small, fast, cat like, not the alien in the spirit of alien, the giant slowly moving snarling alien showered in water that kills parker. Alien alien nailed all the horror creature basics, it was text book and really strange too, it even moved slowly as its so horrific and scarey it doesnt need to move quickly as its going to get you even if it moves in slow motion! If it had been this alien alien then Alien 3 would have been for me a great film not just a good film. And just thinking about this maybe Barker paid homeage to this in a way and tipped his hat to Sir Ridley with his snarling cenobite ...