Alien Covenant Fan Reviews

[Samhain13]

Spoiler

I don't like Ridley Scott. He acts like he has a spine and he has not.

In the 80s he read one bad critique of one of his movies by Pauline Kael (the excellent analysis Baby, The Rain Must Fall) and decided to literally NEVER READ A REVIEW EVER AGAIN. It was the start of Coward Scott.

In recent days, he decided to move away from Alien with Prometheus, to propose a fresh story in the same universe, and in the end he chickened out, keeping the Deacon which was clearly useless to the story and painting it dark blue to have a more Alien-like monster, and reverting from the Aliened Fifield to a shitty zombie, so in the end instead of a movie about Engineers and interesting bioweapons we have a movie with zombies and pseudoaliens.

Then with Covenant, he literally said "They want Aliens? I'll give them Aliens" and proceeded to make a film with Aliens as tools and canon fodder, because Covenant is like this, the beasts are dangerous but also easy to kill and literal tools to David's will. He also made his movie a celebration of ethnocentric aesthetics and rape culture.

Not to mention the guy allowed Giger to be kicked out of the production of Prometheus (by the decor designer if I remember right), way to be grateful towards an elderly and weakened man who was one of his greatest collaborators and the creator of the legendary monster and biomechanical imagery in the first place. This was the last straw in a history of Hollywood people treating Giger like shit.

But that doesn't surprise anyone coming from a man who also said, about the whitewashing of Exodus, "I can't mount a film of this budget, where I have to rely on tax rebates in Spain, and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such. I'm just not going to get it financed. So the question doesn't even come up."

Ridley Scott probably isn't a "evil" or "stupid" guy. However, he is a coward joyfully complying with studio decisions. Gone since decades is the man who imposed Giger, now he's Giger's backstabber. Gone since decades is the storyteller with multiple space jockey theories. Now he's the guy who says "Oh whatever, the black goo does whatever, hahaha". Gone since decades is the guy who cared about anything in ethics, politics or aesthetics.

So yeah. f**k Ridley Scott.

[close]

Oh my. And I thought I had problems with the guy. A celebration of ethnocentric aesthetics and rape culture? That's a good one. Rape has been part of Alien since the beggining so isn't that like going back to the roots? Yay. AVPR style. Hard R.

Anyway I'm saving your comment since I don't see that everyday and want to lol again later.

[Oasis Nadrama]

I... literally wrote multiple texts about how Alien was about rape, the first one back in 2014, years before Covenant came out. I know how much it is about rape as well as any fan. I know all about O'Bannon's quote (which I used repeatedly) and about the symbolism (difficult to miss).

Covenant's approach to rape is basically a bad caricature of the first movie's. The Covenant version of David is basically an extension of Ash, to the extent of the multiple symbolical rapes and the protective attitude towards the creature. David is an even more direct expression of the robotic "Man" than Ash was.

The fact David is the bad guy doesn't escape me either. (I was surprised you didn't bring it up if you were to dismiss the "rape culture" political criticism.)

Alien is about rape, okay. David is the bad guy, okay. Really, all of this is taken into account and all of this is okay.

The trouble comes from the fact David is incredibly enhanced and iconized. David is the true star of the movie. The story questions his level of exactitude (he fails to quote people accurately) and depicts him as incredibly violent and abusive (and possibly sadistic), but he's not merely a devil, he's also a messianic figure. He first appears with Jesus-like long hair, in a very monk-like hook. He's truly the saint and the creator of this unholy planet; a negative saint, a negative creator, but a saint and a creator nonetheless. His intelligence, speed and power are relentlessly displayed, his emotions, memories, interrogations and personal choices are explored. David is THE character of Alien Covenant; compared to him, the rest of the cast (even Daniels) is mere shadow.

Ridley Scott focuses on David during the entire movie, starts the story with his birth, sublimates each of his appearances (compare with the neomorphs and xenomorphs which are basically canon fodder, tools for David's will and ways to dynamize the movie), gives him victory repeatedly, and allows him complete triumph.

The movie doesn't say David is right, but it romanticizes and idealizes him, while clearly establishing him as a symbolic, thematic and literal rapist (how do you call someone who literally organizes the unwilling penetration and fecundation of other individuals?).

The rapist depicted as beautiful, cunning and fascinating; as well as the deepest character in the movie: this is rape culture.

Well, Ridley actually sometimes acts as dick. But i think it's better to separate creations from their creator and see them alone no matter how many good or bad traits he has.

I'm a half-death of the author person, I think we have to evaluate creations by taking and/or not taking into account the creator's profile. Both approaches are valid for good criticism and analysis. (The cultural context can be also very important.)

I also can unterstand him not willing to read any reviews because i myself barely can stand any kind of critique.

Yeah, I understand it too, especially since Kael just murdered him in her critique (really, read it if you haven't already, it's an amazing but merciless piece).
It just... well, combined with other aspects of the character, it doesn't make me like him.

Let's be clear here. In daily life, maybe Ridley is a very nice guy. Maybe he's ethical. Maybe he's adorable. He never insulted his entire crew for a start (yeah, low standards, but it's actually common in the movie industry to do so, directors can be almost as terrible as producers). And he had some amazing ideas in a lot of his movies, and a very honest and raw artistic approach for sure (except in Covenant but that's a personal opinion rather than a fact).
But I don't know Ridley the man. I just know (a little of) Ridley the director. And as a director I really don't like him. I don't hate him (to hate someone, you have to really know them first), I don't despise him, but I don't like him.

Maybe the words "f**k him" were a little strong. I dunno. It was my emotion at the moment, and I didn't use the verb by lack of vocabulary (with all due respect to SM's unmerciful but understandable thought), I used the verb because it was the best fit for the emotion I felt in the theater in 2017. A feeling of betrayal and disappointment, culminating in sheer rage and rejection.

[SM]

I don't think anyone could accuse your vocabulary of being lacking.

[Samhain13]

The movie doesn't say David is right, but it romanticizes and idealizes him, while clearly establishing him as a symbolic, thematic and literal rapist (how do you call someone who literally organizes the unwilling penetration and fecundation of other individuals?).

The rapist depicted as beautiful, cunning and fascinating; as well as the deepest character in the movie: this is rape culture.

LOL Literal? He literally can't rape. That's why he is angry, he is mad because his daddy forgot to give him a willy. He is angry because he can't have Shaw so he kills her. He kills a woman because he can't have her, he is a space Elliot Rodger. He is an angry crying involuntary celibate.

Is that beautifull, cunning and fascinating? He tries to shows himself that way but it doesn't take long to realize he is emotionally unstable because he is nothing more than a malfunctioning android that wants to see humans get raped by monsters because he is jelly of us as well as the Engineers. The way he killed those alpha chad Engineers that get all the fun was like a beta uprising fantasy.

Shit I think I just got too deep into Ridley's mind. Time to take a break.

[Huggs]

There are more weapons in the arsenal than just the schvanstuka. David would do well to remember that.

[Samhain13]

Weyland never told him about the birds and the bees. As if being a bad dad to Vickers hasn't enough.

[Oasis Nadrama]

Samhain, know that your impeccable analysis of David as Incel Terminator almost redeems the movie in my eyes. That is beautiful. 



SM> Aw, thank you. 

[SM]

 

[Necronomicon II]

David is also portrayed as fundamentally erratic, mad, error prone, neurotic and lacking in self-awareness in regards to the lesson of hubris in Ozymandias. It's easy to confabulate, but let's not lose our brains. (Also, Giger was brought on Prometheus late in pre-production, Ridley works fast so had to keep moving, unless I see a source contrary to that report I'm calling bs).

[Oasis Nadrama]

Found back the origin of the idea of "Giger fired from the Prometheus set". It's given without a source, a post of a discreet member of a French forum dating back to 2011. Translated:

kasstoivite
Posted 11 December 2011 - 04:17 AM


Sorry to throw off your groove about Giger and PROMETHEUS but he wasn't fully involved in this movie either.

He started working but thanks to a drama queen festival by Arthur Max, Scott's prod designer since over a decade now, Giger was fired. Max wanted Giger to be placed under his orders and paid by his department like all other concept artists (and also to avoid meeting the same fate than the ALIEN prod designer who had to share his Oscar with Giger back then) and of course Giger refused, desiring to answer to Scott and Scott only.
With a little emotional blackmail from Max's part, Scott chose to support him rather than Giger.

One can already notice that the designs of the Engineer ship (the Engineer is a member of the space jockey species, named the Engineers by Scott) are more mechanical than biological, cleaner, less organic. And the sexual aspect was completely discarded.
Don't expect to see a big vagina as a spaceship entrance ^^

Giger's concepts were recycled and finalized by other artists such as Carlos Huante who's a real talent in his own right.

Other forum members asked him to provide a source, but he refused and said there was never going to be official data, the production having no interest in communicating on Giger being tossed out.



So apparently it's just a rumour. If anyone has heard anything about this supposed drama...

[Huggs]

Anybody who would screw over giger is an @$$ of the highest order.

[Necronomicon II]

Yeah I don't know about all that, Arthur Max may have been running the show production wise but Giger was quite old/frail at the time, I doubt even if he'd been brought on that he would've been very active beyond some sketches.

[CelticP]

He comes into the production office to look at the art and draw the mural in the Prometheus making off doc.

Like there's proof of this. He was never a big part. Just a friendly gesture.

[Necronomicon II]

Yep, he did some sketches, it was lucky they even got him so late in the game, Ridley and Giger always had a good relationship; Giger was in awe of him during Alien's production, said he was a "genius".

[P-Rock]

I don't think it's true at all that Giger got kicked off Prometheus.

Both Prometheus en Covenant feature a line in the credits 'Original design elements by H.R. Giger' or something like that.