Quote from: Darth Vile on Feb 26, 2017, 08:23:19 PM
Quote from: XenoHunter99 on Feb 26, 2017, 07:46:50 PM
Good to know. But is this actually the Alien film we've been waiting for? That's the only question that really matters. And I guess we'll find out in a couple months.
But what is the "Alien film we've been waiting for"? It seems there isn't a general consensus of what that would be, and after all, Alien and Aliens were as different (and as good) as two films could be. I expect Alien Covenant to be as divisive, with fans, as Prometheus (just based on general expectations and reception thus far), but it looks like it has a tone that may well appeal to general cinema goers that will, a least, result in 'popularity'.
Well-written, well-executed, free of groaner garbage. Prometheus could have been an outstanding movie, but it wasn't. That's on Ridley Scott and Damon Lindelof, especially Lindelof. If Scott wanted distance from the rest of the franchise, he should have made more of a stand-alone sci fi movie out of it. His half-in/half-out approach was part of the problem, and it's easy to say what went wrong. Smart people repeatedly behaved stupidly, dialogue was awful, Engineers behaved like moronic savages, Engineers were nothing more than bald pale men, Engineers role was stolen from the Predators in AVP, AVP did that part better, the critter at the end looked silly and added nothing.
I'm also not going to say the Spaihts script was better. I think the array of monsters he provided were mostly too easily dispatched and the Ultramorph was a stupid idea. Just making the ordinary monster bigger does not make it better. The Queen is bigger, but the Queen adds value to the equation. She lays the eggs and exerts control over her underlings. She was an antagonist, too.
Now we have Covenant on the way. What would make it great? Well-executed script with ideas that are more than Alien saga retreads. Will we get that? It doesn't look that way. Seems like it's a blob of of retread ideas swizzled into a familiar mix. It seems Scott is more interested in recreating the tone of the original, topping the chestburster, and saying, "You want xenomorphs? Here you go." Except it's not the real biomechanical horror, is it? No. It's primal and sort of fleshy, just like the creatures in all the movies from A3 on. It also seems saddled with a ton of groaner material.
-David 8 makes the Alien. Really? What a letdown. Ok. Some people like the idea. Good for them. I obviously don't.
-Ripley isn't there, but we'll insert the obligatory Ripley surrogate. Hi Daniels. She might be Ripley's mommy. Great. Ugh!
-The viral video is 4 minutes of callback material.
-And we have blood - By the look of the trailer, lots of blood. But does extra blood make the movie better? Alien had some blood. It worked fine. Aliens had almost no blood. Mostly, the blood was bright yellow acid blood, not deep-red human blood.
Blood is not what makes the movies great. Alien, it's the sense of immersion and the believable nature of the characters that make it work.The mysteries are cool. Derelict, spacejockey, eggs, creature: All Lovecraftian things full of horror and foreboding. They stood the test of time, and Scott is busy crapping them up. It's disgusting. Aliens, it's the story and character interactions that make it go. The Queen is great, but the warriors act too much like cannon fodder. There are some excellent scenes and it's mostly a fun movie to watch. The series goes rapidly downhill after that.
I think you're right. Covenant is going to be another polarizing movie. But like Prometheus, it will be polarizing for all the wrong reasons. If Scott could just deliver a movie of the same quality as Alien or Aliens, all would be right with the world. But I think he can't. I doubt this will be the movie we're waiting for. That may have to wait however many years for a new director to give it a try, and might never happen.