The crew of a colony ship, bound for a remote planet, discover an uncharted paradise with a threat beyond their imagination, and must attempt a harrowing escape.
Genre : SF
Country : USA/UK/New Zealand/Canada
Cast :
Michael Fassbender : David / Walter
Katherine Waterston : Daniels
Billy Crudup : Oram
Director :
Ridley Scott
My opinion on “Alien : Covenant”
“They disobeyed a direct order.
She buried her husband.
No, Karine, it’s not that.
They don’t trust me.
And they don’t trust me for the same reason the company didn’t trust me … to lead this mission.”
I never thought I would ever ask the following question: “Mr. Scott, could you draw a line under the whole Alien franchise and concentrate on other projects? Please?“. As an “Alien” fan of the first hour, I was deeply disappointed about this film. In hindsight I thought “Exodus : Gods and Kings” was even better. It’s best they forget about “Alien : Covenant Sequel” which is scheduled to appear in 2019.
Recycling isn’t everything?
I was actually more excited about “Prometheus” than about this creation. I ignored the whole fuss about the religious and existential aspects in “Prometheus“. In my opinion “Prometheus” was a relief after the disastrous parts III and IV of the “Alien” saga. Admittedly, the xenomorphs weren’t omnipresent in “Prometheus“. But the graphics were unprecedented and made my SF heart race again. Scott brought a breath of fresh wind in this SF horror. In “Alien: Covenant” it’s more like a used wind. On the one hand, the functional goal of this film is the cause of this. After all, it’s just a bridge between the “Prometheus” project and the older “Alien” work. But on the other hand, it’s the ease with which this movie is made that lies at the base. Because ultimately it’s nothing but a recycling of old material.
Take me home, country roads!
In “Prometheus” a spacecraft was launched into space to search for the so-called creators (“Engineers”) of humanity. In the end, they discover that these creators want to wipe their creations of the table. The end of the film shows a glimpse of creatures that cause death and destruction in the “Alien” saga afterwards.
Now we see the spacecraft “Covenant”, loaded with colonists and embryos, which (as in “Passengers“) is heading for a planet in another solar system to set up a new colony. Until the ship is hit by a “neutrino burst” and the crew is shaken roughly out of their artificial sleep. When one of the crew members receives a signal from John Denver’s “Take me home” during a repair, they set course to the origin of the signal without hesitation. And thus they end up on a planet with similar living conditions as on Earth. Moreover, they find traces of a previous landing.
Never thought they could get out that way.
Despite the fact that “Alien: Covenant” is no more than a link between the “Prometheus” narrative and the original first episode, this movie started promising. In retrospect, however, it’s nothing more than a rehashing of previously used ideas. Even the numerous Aliens didn’t impress me. The aggressive and intimidating look of the space monster in the first films ensured some terrifying movie moments. In this film, they weren’t exactly very intelligent and far from slimy. The only original twist in this film was the side those creatures chose to burst out of a human body this time.
Grand applause for Michael Fassbender.
As a die-hard fan of the Alien saga, I was waiting impatiently (even though I’m not in favor of prequels and sequels) for this new episode and I was also expecting big things. Therefor it’s a great disappointment when I saw how such an original and infamous epic story was reduced to the level of a meaningless, brain-dead soap purely based on commercial considerations.
Even though the visual aspect was of an unprecedented level (after all Ridley Scott was holding the reins) and the first half hour (despite the cliché content) was promising, I came to the conclusion that the obtained result was shamefully bad. The Aliens weren’t terrifying and at one point they looked like the Velociraptors from “Jurassic Park”. Some scenes were basically moronic. And be honest, Katherine Waterston will never be able to match Ripley’s masterly played character. The only plus and admirable part was the double role of Michael Fassbender.
Shame on you Mr. Scott.
When are they going to realize in Hollywood when a sequel of a successful film has nothing significantly to contribute to the story and just simply repeats parts of the original (repackaged), one can better refrain from this release. But I get it. The movie has gained a loyal crowd of fans who look forward to any new episode. It doesn’t matter how bad it is, there’ll always be a huge audience to check it out. In most cases this enthusiasm is being followed by disillusion. There are countless other examples. From “Die Hard” to “Terminator”. Or take a look at “Beverly Hills cop”, “Nightmare on Elm street” and “Home alone”.
The pilot film is sensational and unique. In some cases, the sequel offers added value and is highly entertaining. But from then on, it usually goes downhill. There’s nothing great about these sequels. The only reason for their excistence is pure commercial. Shame on you Mr. Scott. To be honest, I never expected you to fall for that.
Watching it the first time in my home-cinema I feel kind of bisected. I love some shots with modern camera-angles, some design, the new born aggressive creatures fight in the fields; I like that the main-character got not much screentime, because I dont like her face and how scott tries to copy ripley; I like the mythic star wars scene when fassbender shows up the second time; the explaination of thousands of dead people on the planet and the trashy endfight… I dont like the bad cgi space-ships and the overal cheap looking pictures in space. the copy and paste from prometheus with the stereo-type alien-food-characters and the over the top fassbender at the end when the stuff with elisebeth and his secret was revealed. – But THE SECOND view with a friend brings all the other bad thins out: it begins with EVENT HORIZON, followed by PREDATORS, PROMETHEUS, 2010 and much other movies. It feels like Scott and his team says: “hey, this will be a cool scene – lets do it! and after that we add this cool scene! and after that…” etc. – the movie does not feel round to me and has so much b-movie content in writing. visials are ok to stunning and you can watch it ones. But with the second time it reveals his weaknesses and falls behind Prometheus at all… 2,5 out 5
Well, that sums it up pretty well I guess 🙂 Thx for your contribution !!!!!
thx – and sorry for bad english 😉
Your English isn’t bad at all 🙂