Alien: Covenant Early Reactions

[GQSioux]

7/10 means the movie sucks

Not really. A 7/10 is basically a 3.5 star rating. This is just my first reaction. I'm still taking it all in.

[skhellter]

Ridley should have gone META as f**k and gone with this:

[GQSioux]

I definitely have a few things to say about THAT shower scene once the embargo lifts.

Was it.. wet?

I'll reveal my problems in detail soon. With spoiler tags, of course.

Obviously I'm not interested in specifics because I don't want to spoil the film for myself, but can you say whether or not it was a disappointing scene, or whether it worked/didn't work?

There's a creative choice with the music that actually killed the shower scene for me and made it more of the horror trope cliche that some people feared back when the first trailer drop.

Now I'm really curious. Is the music on the soundtrack CD?

It's a pop/r&b song. I don't know who the artist is.  It was better in the trailer as a quieter scene. Not sure why they added that damn song.

[Citadel]

It's a pop/r&b song. I don't know who the artist is.  It was better in the trailer as a quieter scene. Not sure why they added that damn song.

Oh f**k.

[echobbase79]

Oh my god! What? 

[Evanus]

Eeewwww. Ah well, I hope it doesn't completely ruin the scene for me.

[echobbase79]

That's probably one of the facepalm moments Hicks was referring to.

[NickisSmart]

I love weird music choices in films! Haven't you guys ever watched Dawn of the Dead?

[GQSioux]

Eeewwww. Ah well, I hope it doesn't completely ruin the scene for me.

There's some side boob too.

But while we are on the topic of music, the score is fantastic. Loved hearing the Goldsmith homages in an Alien movie again. There's even a nice moment where they use a cue from the Prometheus score, and I don't think it's part of the soundtrack.

[joylit]

You mean this?

[Evanus]

Eeewwww. Ah well, I hope it doesn't completely ruin the scene for me.

There's some side boob too.

But while we are in the topic of music, the score is fantastic. Loved hearing the Goldsmith homages in an Alien movie again. There's even a nice moment where they use a cue from the Prometheus score, and I don't think it's part of the soundtrack.

It's really nice to hear they used some Prometheus music. 

[Citadel]

I'm glad there's plenty of nip action in this film.

[Cheeseburgers]

7/10 means the movie sucks

Not really. A 7/10 is basically a 3.5 star rating. This is just my first reaction. I'm still taking it all in.

I suggest you see a second time like what I've been hearing people say they will do. A better appreciation you may have.

[Cheeseburgers]

    https://mobile.twitter.com/Foodmancing/status/860959241397391360 

[SpreadEagleBeagle]

Given that this is a horror-sci-fi film and technically the EIGHTH in an inconsistent franchise, we can't really expect uniformly great reviews. The genre in general gets mixed reaction and the stink of lesser movies surely follows this one around.

Eight? You mean SIXTH, right? AVP is a separate franchise from the Alien franchise. Unfortunately the stink from the AVP movies have managed stick to the Alien movies somehow. Hopefully there won't be anymore AVP movies for a long time to come and we can all hope that A:C is as good as it seems like. Hopefully A:C and its sequels will wash away the AVP reek, and by that time A3 and A:R will have ten more years or so to mature in the minds of their former haters as they might, by that time, be ready to digest them both, or at least A3.

Spoiler

reading some of these reviews online it sure sounds like David is the creator of the Alien. It feels like Ridley chose to sacrifice the mystic primordial aspect of the Alien's nature in order to harp on the theme of the Created becoming the Creator, creating a new creation to kill one's creator. I hope this isn't the case as the Space Jockey (Engineers) basically being humans still feels like a letdown.

Then on the other hand, Ridley is brave for "killing his darlings" in order to create something new and 'improved'. The twist that everything that we found mysterious in the original (ALIEN) was all related and created by 'humans' (counting human made androids and our human cousins the Engineers), is kind of an anticlimax. I know that some people say that David didn't create the Xenomorph from scratch but used merely used the black goo and some ancient blueprints to design and breed the Xenomorph. To me this doesn't make much of a difference. If it's created by 'humans' it can also be completely exterminated by 'humans', theoretically. To me that is a problem as it makes the Alien less mysterious, primordial and enigmatic. I always imagined the Xenomorph to be as old as the Universe - a remnant from another time or dimension.

Still psyched by the movie and I can't wait to watch it!

[close]

I think Alien 3 will be considered a classic a decade from now.

I loved it 2 decades ago

I actually love it just as much as I love ALIEN. Out of the four original movies, A3 is the one that has aged the least and the movie that I appreciate more and more every time I watch it.

I kind of like how Ridley chose to incorporate the dimension of religion in PROM and A:C, which of course first appeared in A3 and then was kind of hinted at in A:R. The bald, ascetic looks of the Engineers, when they're in their almost monastic robes and such, and with all of them seemingly being males, also feels like an indirect hint to the aesthetics presented in A3, which is kind of funny as the inmates on Fiorina "Fury" 161 were seen as subhumans - below mankind, whereas the Engineers are seen as super-humans - above mankind. I don't know if it's intentional, but it is kind of ironic in a subtle kind of way.

Oooh, and not to forget - the Bambi Burster seems to be back.