Alien Covenant Fan Reviews

[Engineer]

"Good" or "bad" is a subjective term. It's strictly the opinion of an individual. There are things I think are certainly good about the film, but as a whole, the film has more "bad" in it in my opinion. But I do realize my opinion is one not shared by the majority, it would seem.
:-)

[Intruder]

First time poster, so sorry if I'm repeating anything that has been said or theorized here.  Not taking any credit for ideas, just writing what's on my head.

Watched it a month ago or so. Then re-watched Alien, Aliens and Prometheus. I don't think people should've taken this as another "bug hunt" or a claustrophobic escape attempt. Scott clearly wanted to explore the engineers and David and I thought the Protomorphs at the end were unnecessary. I don't know if he was just sulking for the fans to show the creature again but it did little for the movie. I think it would've been much better if for instance David had planted eggs in the Covenant, ready for the sleeping voyagers.. Or just show a little glimpse of the big guy at the end going wild at the ship while David runs things. Something like that. Now it felt so unattached with the rest of the movie, trying to deal with the alien problem on the ship.

David is the strong point now and really is the new Ripley in a sense that he's the character I'm waiting to see. While Tennessee and Daniels were fine, the other cast was so expendable.. and dumb. I can understand chaotic moments, but when a captain sees an android talking to an white alien and yet decides to follow David to his lair... Too dumb.. 

The movie plot has a lot of similarities with the first movie (signal from an unknown planet, bumping into a hostile life form, trying to deal with that etc.). That didn't bother me, since the David stuff was very good in the movie. I really think that the scenes where he shows his drawings and we see what he has done to Shaw's body really goes up there with anything we have seen in Alien movies regarding creepiness. The modified face.. opened up body.. he's taken her reproductive organs.. really creepy stuff. Not so much horror, and in that regards the movie doesn't hold up. I thought it was a good movie still. What stopped it being a great one was the rushed pace of the ending sequences, still some unanswered  questions and the lack of engineers. What I liked though was that there's a possibility that Weyland-Yutani is helping David to perfect his creature.. That would also kind of explain how they would know about the signal in LV-426 among other things..

BTW I like the fact how all of the androids in these movies admire the Xenomorph. Ash and David obviously but even Bishop admired the creature when he was studying the facehuggers, even though he has no intentions of keeping them alive. I think that's just an interesting fact.

Let's see how Ridley sets up the next one. Hopefully more of the mystique and creepy stuff and less aliens running in the clear daylight. I'd also like to see the creature given some mystique and smoothness back. Aliens and it's rampaging and aggressive Xenos worked because of the setting and the circumstances but I really want to see the Xenomorph stalking in the dark and playing with it's pray, slowly moving towards them. Covenant was 7/10 for me.

[Hemi]

Here's my 2 cents.

It was OK I guess...

The movie didn't really have any tension, aside from the neo birth scenes. When David arrives the movie starts to slow down and I had the feeling I was watching an episode of a HBO series about Prometheus. The movie has too much Prometheus blood imo, and not enough Alien.

Spoiler

The good:

- Throat / Backburster scenes are great
- Character building was a bit better
- I like the Neomorphs design
- Tennessee is likable lol
- Music is very eerie, Boards of Canada style, kinda dig it
- Shaw's autopsy, she was so wrong for the last time.
- Kinda liked the death of the Xeno's...
- Neomorph and David was a strong scene

The bad:

- CGI could have been better
- No tension or build up to tension. Last 30 min your basically just sitting on yer ass feeling noting about the movie at all
- David's character is kinda ruined... he was the best thing about Prometheus. Now he's just annoying.
- Oram looking in the egg... kinda hoped he would just go Ripley on the eggs, blowing them up and then get hugged by a rogue facehugger. Would have made more sense imo.
- Why did we need to see the face of that woman floating the water 3 fcking times...
- The many times visiting the hideout/Xenolab.
- Full view of the Xeno removed the tension. I don't want to see that fcker in full view, it's not scary that way.
- Weird xeno vision was a bit forced...
- The ending is predicatable and stupid (David's reveal)

I didn't have problems with the airlock scene. Xeno's design is fine, just a bit too much on screen. And the life cycle seems fine to me. The guy had a hugger on the face, and the hugger folded when they took it off...ergo...egg layed. Regarding the birth of the second:  Mother warned there was a Xeno in medlab, but how much time had passed before she gave out that warning. Remember, she was taken offline because she wasn't functioning proper due to the descent.

[close]

[BishopShouldGo]

Yeah... ZERO TENSION. My ass was hurting during the last 30 minutes because I was bored out of my f**king mind. Someone had said it was FURY ROAD intense - not even close. Not at all. Fury Road's intensity was like the backburster scene, but dialed up and extended for a long time.

David was so suave and cool in Prometheus. Was engaging at all times. In Covenant? "WHOOOOO'S IN CHAWGE HEE-YA?"

BEEEEEP! WRONG ANSWER!

Whoever wrote that... doesn't understand David.

[Scorpio]

The movie was never boring to me, both times I saw it in the theatre.  It didn't feel like 2 hours at all.

[monkeylove]

Could have been better, as there are major problems with the story. That is, they crammed too much content, leading to poor character development and lack of suspense. I think the reason is that they wanted to bring back elements from the first two movies (to ensure high box office returns using what worked in the past) plus bring in more weighty material, and the result is dreary.

[WarriorRidged]

I was dissatisfied with AC. It was an ok movie. Funnily I found myself watching the 1995 Peter Weller movie, "Screamers" later that night on TV. It felt the same standard of film. You expect more from something with a 100m budget, from a iconic movie series with the original director at the helm.

I can't help but to think this prequel series would've been so much more interesting and not such a off-shoot tangent if Cameron had have been in the writing process and the director's chair. It's hypothetical because he is/has been busy with the Avatar films. But I would've much rather have seen the vision from a self admitted fan like Cameron, than a 79 year old director who seems completely detached from everything that came after "Alien". 

Again, it's hypothetical - but I think we would've got something more down the (fandom) line of Space Jockey/Xenomorph planet which I would much rather have preferred. I remember him saying of Prometheus (paraphrase) - "I enjoyed it, but it's not how I would've done things".

The Xenomorph being something created in a Frankenstein-like laboratory, really grinds my gears.

[SM]

We could also get self admitted fans like Whedon, Anderson and the Strauses.

[Engineer]

We could also get self admitted fans like Whedon, Anderson and the Strauses.

Never again.... please....

[BishopShouldGo]

I'd be down for Whedon again.

Those other dorks can kick rocks.

[KiramidHead]

I'd go for a Pete Travis directed, Alex Garland written Alien film... but maybe I'm just a blind Dredd fanboy.

[Gash]

I can't help but to think this prequel series would've been so much more interesting and not such a off-shoot tangent if Cameron had have been in the writing process and the director's chair. It's hypothetical because he is/has been busy with the Avatar films. But I would've much rather have seen the vision from a self admitted fan like Cameron, than a 79 year old director who seems completely detached from everything that came after "Alien". 

That's what I'm liking about the prequels.

Again, it's hypothetical - but I think (with Cameron) we would've got something more down the (fandom) line of Space Jockey/Xenomorph planet which I would much rather have preferred. I remember him saying of Prometheus (paraphrase) - "I enjoyed it, but it's not how I would've done things".

Cartoon bipedal elephants with machine guns probably.

[Salt The Fries]

I can't help but to think this prequel series would've been so much more interesting and not such a off-shoot tangent if Cameron had have been in the writing process and the director's chair. It's hypothetical because he is/has been busy with the Avatar films. But I would've much rather have seen the vision from a self admitted fan like Cameron, than a 79 year old director who seems completely detached from everything that came after "Alien". 

That's what I'm liking about the prequels.

I'm in exactly the same boat! Alien was so much more plastic, so to speak, in creative terms, I mean allowing so many possibilities, but Aliens made it a lot more rigid and ruined a generation of people continuously influenced by it, because everybody was aping Aliens but few very influenced by Alien. Alien Isolation finally made it right.

I'd be down for Whedon again.

Those other dorks can kick rocks.

He can't German Expressionism.

[NickisSmart]

I can't help but to think this prequel series would've been so much more interesting and not such a off-shoot tangent if Cameron had have been in the writing process and the director's chair. It's hypothetical because he is/has been busy with the Avatar films. But I would've much rather have seen the vision from a self admitted fan like Cameron, than a 79 year old director who seems completely detached from everything that came after "Alien". 

That's what I'm liking about the prequels.

Same. It's just something different. Just as Cameron did something different with Aliens.

[BigDaddyJohn]

I've just rewatched it yesterday, and I noticed how uncanny the neomorph was when standing up after killing Rosenthal, that was a good shot. Also, loved the music during the Oram chestburster scene, I definitely felt something at this moment. Overall, I'm not too fond of this movie, but I didn't hate it either, and at least rewatching it made me realize that those two scenes were cool, along with the two neomorphs births that I already liked during my first viewing.