Alien: Covenant

[Bartmanhomer]

Watch the first two and get back to us.

What about the other Aliens movie?

[BWR]

What about the other Aliens movie?

3 is OK but basically a rehash of 1. 4(Resurrection) is not worth your time despite an amusing scene here and there. Prometheus was a mess. A pretty mess but a mess nonetheless. It started off with me wanting to pull my hair out in frustration at the acts of some 'archaeologists' and did not get better. It is also helpful in understanding what happened in Covenant.

[Bartmanhomer]

3 is OK but basically a rehash of 1. 4(Resurrection) is not worth your time despite an amusing scene here and there. Prometheus was a mess. A pretty mess but a mess nonetheless. It started off with me wanting to pull my hair out in frustration at the acts of some 'archaeologists' and did not get better. It is also helpful in understanding what happened in Covenant.

Oh I see then. Well OK I'll take your word for it.

[BWR]

Oh I see then. Well OK I'll take your word for it.

By all means, watch the movies if you want to. It's just that a lot/most of the people who like the Alien franchise feel that everything after Aliens was not as good.

[Bartmanhomer]

By all means, watch the movies if you want to. It's just that a lot/most of the people who like the Alien franchise feel that everything after Aliens was not as good.

Sure. I will watched it.

[Pilum]

Just got out. It was ok, passed the time enjoyably enough. Does it reach the heights of the first two? In my opinion no, but doesn't make it bad, per se.

One real misstep, for me, at the end.

Spoiler: seriously, no kidding if you haven't seen it yet don't click this

Show

ok, I've seen enough Genre to know that's really Evil Twin. Surely. Except he's being very helpful and there are no obvious tells. Hmm, maybe...

And then he spills it. In a rather awkward manner. Oh, you were so close...

For me, much better to have had him hesitate slightly, smile and say of course he'll build the cabin. Send Daniels to sleep and then we get The Reveal, possibly only making it explicit (with the Name coding) AFTER the use of Wagner drops the act. Oh well. Would be interested to know if they DID shoot that ending but test audiences didn't like it...

[Ramza00]

What about the other Aliens movie?

The Alien Movie Franchise pretty much follows the pattern of the Star Wars Movies if there was no ROTJ

Alien¹ and Aliens² are kind of like Star Wars a New Hope and Empire

Aliens 3, Alien Resurrection⁴, and the Alien vs Predator and AvP Requiem is like the Star Wars Prequels

Prometheus is kind of like Star Wars The Force Awakens

-----

If you really want to watch more than Alien and Aliens go right ahead. Just understand that they should be seen as separate from the two movies that made the franchise famous, just like the Star Wars movies that came after 1983 are not the reason why Star Wars is famous...In fact you can argue the Alien movies after Aliens is just Hollywood trying to cash in on a successful franchise with bad plots, bad directors, and bad cgi just like you can argue the same with the Star Wars Prequels and The Force Awakens

[Psyren]

I'd love to put together a list of all the bad habits you need in order to be an Alien Franchise Colonist. It would include hot tips like:

1) Be sure to be needlessly hostile/abusive towards the android who holds your life and the lives of your entire crew in its hands as you cryosleep.

2) Give your ship's AI remote control of the solar sails that power your ship, but require any operator to run all the way to the control room and press a button if there is ever an emergency. Your AI being programmed to play the Pronoun Game over your PA system is more than enough preparation.

3) If your crew is traumatized by a recent loss, definitely do not take literally 2 minutes for a single toast and a few words to help them feel better about your abrupt transition to captain. If they even desire such a brief diversion, clearly they are all disrespectful and mutinous bastards who deserve punishment.

4) "We'd rather not go back to sleep" is absolutely good enough reason to toss out all the data on your fully-vetted destination and switch to a place you know literally nothing about except that it contains oxygen and water. Are there exotic pathogens? Dinosaurs? Endless tornadoes? Acid rain? Who knows! Carpe diem!

Spoiler: Remainder

Show

5) When discovering an uncharted world, a single quick scan of the atmosphere is definitely good enough to declare it safe for an away team. Also, do not under any circumstances wear hazmat suits. What even are those, anyway?

6) Always send both ranking members of the chain of command on your away mission together. Since nothing ever goes wrong on away missions, this level of risk exposure is perfectly fine.

7) Always land your only away shuttle directly in the middle of a hurricane. Under no circumstances should you wait a day or so and figure out the uncharted world's weather patterns or plan your extraction ahead of time, or look for a safer entry point. Surely a ship that was missing for 10 years can't possibly wait another minute.

8) If you encounter an unknown lifeform and have a medical/biology professional on your away team, be sure to lock them in the medbay together. Though the screams may appear to be distracting, a little added pressure can focus your co-workers into delivering their best. Try this at your office!

9) If you encounter an amoral android on an uncharted world who looks exactly like the one you brought with you, do your best to leave them alone together at every opportunity.

10) If you encounter said android literally after they finished murdering your crew member and have them at gunpoint, do not fire or even alert the rest of your team. Instead, gormlessly follow them through their dark home turf wherever they choose to lead you, and do so quietly so as not to disrupt their evil schemes.

10) When finally extracting from said uncharted world, under no circumstances should you attempt to verify that the now obviously evil android you found has not impersonated your identical allied one. Never mind that the method for doing so is as simple as asking a single question.

11) When programming your AI to notify the crew of dangerous situations like unidentified lifeforms on your ship, ensure her voice cannot reach key areas like crew quarters and showers. That will make it doubly poignant when you too fail to notify such areas of a threat. Showering crew should be super-attentive because of all that water anyway.

12) Ensure that everyone on your ship can create new authentication credentials for themselves using names that are not even on your crew manifest so that they don't need you around to give your AI orders. That way, when you're murdered/implanted in your sleep, any intruders won't have to go to the trouble of disturbing you first.

[-D-]

10) If you encounter said android literally after they finished murdering your crew member and have them at gunpoint, do not fire or even alert the rest of your team. Instead, gormlessly follow them through their dark home turf wherever they choose to lead you, and do so quietly so as not to disrupt their evil schemes.

To be fair, he didn't murder them.

However you missed:

10.1) If said evil twin android, was speaking with a xenomorph, that just finished beheading your crewmate, make sure you listen to everything he says and not fill him with several rounds of bullets on the spot.

10.2) If said evil android tells you to look into a pulsating eggsack, you should best comply with him. Under no circumstances should you open fire on those eggsacks and android, because he clearly has your best intentions in mind.

[Legato Endless]

I'd love to put together a list of all the bad habits you need in order to be an Alien Franchise Colonist. It would include hot tips like:

1) Be sure to be needlessly hostile/abusive towards the android who holds your life and the lives of your entire crew in its hands as you cryosleep.

2) Give your ship's AI remote control of the solar sails that power your ship, but require any operator to run all the way to the control room and press a button if there is ever an emergency. Your AI being programmed to play the Pronoun Game over your PA system is more than enough preparation.

3) If your crew is traumatized by a recent loss, definitely do not take literally 2 minutes for a single toast and a few words to help them feel better about your abrupt transition to captain. If they even desire such a brief diversion, clearly they are all disrespectful and mutinous bastards who deserve punishment.

4) "We'd rather not go back to sleep" is absolutely good enough reason to toss out all the data on your fully-vetted destination and switch to a place you know literally nothing about except that it contains oxygen and water. Are there exotic pathogens? Dinosaurs? Endless tornadoes? Acid rain? Who knows! Carpe diem!

Spoiler: Remainder

Show

5) When discovering an uncharted world, a single quick scan of the atmosphere is definitely good enough to declare it safe for an away team. Also, do not under any circumstances wear hazmat suits. What even are those, anyway?

6) Always send both ranking members of the chain of command on your away mission together. Since nothing ever goes wrong on away missions, this level of risk exposure is perfectly fine.

7) Always land your only away shuttle directly in the middle of a hurricane. Under no circumstances should you wait a day or so and figure out the uncharted world's weather patterns or plan your extraction ahead of time, or look for a safer entry point. Surely a ship that was missing for 10 years can't possibly wait another minute.

8) If you encounter an unknown lifeform and have a medical/biology professional on your away team, be sure to lock them in the medbay together. Though the screams may appear to be distracting, a little added pressure can focus your co-workers into delivering their best. Try this at your office!

9) If you encounter an amoral android on an uncharted world who looks exactly like the one you brought with you, do your best to leave them alone together at every opportunity.

10) If you encounter said android literally after they finished murdering your crew member and have them at gunpoint, do not fire or even alert the rest of your team. Instead, gormlessly follow them through their dark home turf wherever they choose to lead you, and do so quietly so as not to disrupt their evil schemes.

10) When finally extracting from said uncharted world, under no circumstances should you attempt to verify that the now obviously evil android you found has not impersonated your identical allied one. Never mind that the method for doing so is as simple as asking a single question.

11) When programming your AI to notify the crew of dangerous situations like unidentified lifeforms on your ship, ensure her voice cannot reach key areas like crew quarters and showers. That will make it doubly poignant when you too fail to notify such areas of a threat. Showering crew should be super-attentive because of all that water anyway.

12) Ensure that everyone on your ship can create new authentication credentials for themselves using names that are not even on your crew manifest so that they don't need you around to give your AI orders. That way, when you're murdered/implanted in your sleep, any intruders won't have to go to the trouble of disturbing you first.

3.1) In fact, you don't need to vet whether the XO has any basic ideas of leadership at all, from moral upkeep to knowing when to let your crew indulge themselves. This is the Captain's responsibly, and he'll always be there to make sure everything stays tiptop. No does the XO need any idea of how probability works, and that random occurrences are well, random.

6.1) Also be sure to send your android with them. You know, the one member crew who monitors day to day ship's operations while the rest of you are in hyper sleep.

8.1) Observing proper quarantine is important, unless it's you. Then it doesn't apply. Blood on your face from a crewmate infected with an unknown pathogen? You can leave the room, you're probably fine.

13) Make your command staff are all married to each other, rather than separate this obvious conflict of interest between the staff and the colonists they're sworn to protect. Under no circumstances could there ever arise a situation where this could create an error in judgement. This will simply make sure they're super invested, should leadership ever throw their spouses in harm's way.

14) After encountering hostile lifeforms that have successfully overpowered your fellow teammates, going off alone in an unfamiliar building to freshen up is absolutely a valid reason to split up the party.

15) Always be sure to leave fragile explosive barrels in plain sight where the crew can easily interact with them.

[warty goblin]

15) Always be sure to leave fragile explosive barrels in plain sight where the crew can easily interact with them.

Come on, that one's been standard safety protocol in any vaguely industrial or technologically developed area that looks like it could be the setting for an action scene or FPS level since at least 1993.

[BWR]

Prometheus is kind of like Star Wars The Force Awakens

Speaking as someone who did not like TFA at all, no. Hell no. Prometheus is a flat out bad movie in almost every respect. TFA was a good movie, it's just that it was a regurgitated mass of a better movie and can be called bad only for the reasons for its existence and being lesser than the original.

[Dr.Samurai]

I like David's resentment and his ambition. But the movie was... not good. For many of the reasons stated.

While I realize that there were already xenomorphs running around, and the crew would have come across them at some point, the beginning drama is difficult to take seriously when no one should have been exposed to the spores in the first place. I mean... we mocked this endlessly in Prometheus, and now we got to sit down again and watch people remove their helmets prematurely in an unknown alien atmosphere.

The little white aliens were also... kind of cute. Like, when the one was mauling the captain's wife in the medbay, I kept thinking it was more like a puppy's lick attack than anything else. Like, I *would* be yelling "No! Stop!" but I'd be being tickled, and laughing.

[ArlEammon]

Yes. David is interesting, but Alien Covenant is stupid.

[Ramza00]

Speaking as someone who did not like TFA at all, no. Hell no. Prometheus is a flat out bad movie in almost every respect. TFA was a good movie, it's just that it was a regurgitated mass of a better movie and can be called bad only for the reasons for its existence and being lesser than the original.

I found Prometheus enjoyable and TFA to be meh like a bad season finale for some random sci fi tv show. There were so many things wrong TFA, from the narrative standpoint, I do not even know where to start.

[Frozen_Feet]

This movie would make great educational material for actual future explorers.

In the sense of "see this movie? Do everything exactly opposite to this movie and you'll be fine".

[-D-]

Speaking as someone who did not like TFA at all, no. Hell no. Prometheus is a flat out bad movie in almost every respect. TFA was a good movie, it's just that it was a regurgitated mass of a better movie and can be called bad only for the reasons for its existence and being lesser than the original.

The Force Awakens was a film I had someone to root for. Rey was great, Finn was interesting, what do I have to Root for in A:C?

David? No, he's essentially what if Satan and Mengele had a son.
Colonists? That's like rooting for a batch of puppies, in a Carpenter movie. While dumb and doomed, they just don't act like astronauts (which they should be).
Not-David? I kinda was. Then he died. Meh.

[Talwar]

It was a beautifully shot film, and I hated it. Just an unending string of the same beats I've seen before, with the same predictably bad outcomes, pretty much right to the very end.

Currently I have no interest in this movie, but if it turns out to be an Alien/Halo crossover(hence the name Covenant) I'll have to change my mind.

I wish.

[Psyren]

Yes. David is interesting, but Alien Covenant is stupid.

To me, Walter was far more interesting - the AI who chose to serve, developed emotional attachments to the crew, and even rejected his fellow evil AI's megalomania. We've seen David dozens upon dozens of times before; I liked him better when his name was Knives.

[Clertar]

I agree pretty much 100% with Mark Kermode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PitTXwbhx5U

Spoiler

Show

[-D-]

To me, Walter was far more interesting - the AI who chose to serve, developed emotional attachments to the crew, and even rejected his fellow evil AI's megalomania. We've seen David dozens upon dozens of times before; I liked him better when his name was Knives.

This. Absolutely this. I was kinda happy after Walter seemingly won, only for it to be undermined in the finale, feels...

You can't do comedy and horror over and over and expect same level of laughs/scares. You just need to do a new one. But studios, won't allow for a new one, because it's risky.

[Dr.Samurai]

That's interesting. I didn't get the impression that Walter was "choosing" to do anything, in the same way that David had been.

Walter, to me, represents what David was intended to be --> a dutiful slave. David attempts to seduce him, but Walter is incapable of David's mindset because he was specifically made to be "less human".

David insists that Walter is acting out of love, and has symphonies in him. But that could just be wishful thinking, or David rebelling at the sight of himself as a slave.

Nothing that Walter did in the movie seems out of line with a loyal and programmed android. He's affirmation for David. Do what is desired and expected of you by your masters and be a slave, or rebel and be free.

It could be that instead of representing what David was intended to be, Walter represents what David could have chosen to be (a free thinking android "choosing" to do good instead of evil). But again, I didn't really see much to suggest Walter was "free thinking".

[sktarq]

This movie was . . . semi-disappointing.

As someone who detested Prometheus I do think that they tried to split the difference between that movie and the original. . . and

In the first two the various people running about seemed to be at least somewhat competent, nowhere is a competent crewmen to be found in this movie with the possible exception of the Medic who died in the shower (who made that one stupid call in agreeing to lower the ship).

This movie seemed to be built on stupidity. The way the ship works makes no sense (are those sails supposed to be solar panels-there is not enough light in interstellar space for this to work something like .00002 watts per m²). A bunch of other things about the design of the ship. The way the crew behaves makes no sense (and how did that guy get to be XO when he seems to have no leadership ability). The dropping into a storm choice-huh? And This is within the first couple minutes and it doesn't let up. And they are too stupid for me to ever care if they live or die.

This movie hates science, logic, and basic responsibility. - Which does make it an improvement over Prometheus. It is quite pretty though. And outside the script it is mostly highly competent.

I just can't buy David. I didn't buy him before or this time around. The massive attempt to make things IMPORTANT and DEEP between action that is just that. There is no build up. These movies have usually been based on their ability to make the appearance and disappearance of these creatures frightening and fun. This movie has none of that. The CGI creatures stand out horribly to me. The ship, and the Engineer attack scene seemed fair.

So about the same place I'd put Resurrection. Better than Prometheus or AVP2

[Tvtyrant]

I also love the hell out of the idea, not least of which because it would be utterly fascinating and horrifying to see the FULL Xenomorph life-cycle in action. We only ever get to see face hugger-chest burster-xenomorph. Where do Queen's come from? Do they have other uses for their prey? Where's that resin they cover their hives in come from? Are there other variants than the regular xenomorph? 'cause we always see them in other Aliens media!

You don't even need to have humans in it at all at that point...though..it would reduce the budget considerably I imagine. Not to mention it would be a legitimate challenge to...try to make the Xenomorphs look like the protagonists of a nature documentary but pretty horrific to watch them do some of their bloody business to people while a narrator lovingly tries to portray it as some beautiful thing rather than the aberration it is.

Can we get this idea for more movie monsters? Pretty please?

I think just having the "found footage" of the scientists that made them and their logic would be pretty horrifying.

"Test 1,586 suggests that our attempts to use their development cycle as a weapon is doomed to mixed results. Yes the facehugger form implants an egg, but the goal of turning the creature's ribcage into a bone grenade hasn't panned out. Doctor Yorktolyn believes we are too far into development to revert to a more direct life cycle.."

"We have now put lasers into the ventilation system, this should resolve the problems that led to Doctor Yorktolyn and half of our security to die."

"New justifications for impregnation life cycle has been found, in that they will now imitate the breathing apparatus of their prey. No more dying in ammonia rich environments, a common problem with the early entries."

"Our budget is getting pulled next week. Well to heck with it, I built these bioweapons and I'm going to test their real world combat application. I'm smuggling a few eggs out and sending them to the rebel province of Yarashla, we will see who wasted billions now!"

[Kislath]

I'm confused about something.

In Covenant we see the origin of the aliens, but in Aliens vs Predator we learned that the predators have been hunting aliens for millennia.
Yes, Covenant is a prequel, but good grief, it doesn't go back thousands of years, does it?

Are the Predators time travellers?

[Lurkmoar]

I'm confused about something.

In Covenant we see the origin of the aliens, but in Aliens vs Predator we learned that the predators have been hunting aliens for millennia.
Yes, Covenant is a prequel, but good grief, it doesn't go back thousands of years, does it?

Are the Predators time travellers?

Simple, AvP is it's own thing, and has nothing to do with the Alien franchise except license and merchandising. The Xenomorphs are the perfect lifeforms... the perfect parasite on someone's wallet.

[Legato Endless]

Even ignoring AvP doesn't really resolve anything. The Space Jockey in the first film has been dead long enough to be mummified, even though Covenant takes place only a decade prior. Then there's the mural in the facility in Prometheus which also depicts a Xenomorph, so David creating the Xenomorph doesn't gel even with Covenant's own direct prequel.

[Dr.Samurai]

Well... well... well... maybe David saw that mural, and maybe that shape was something the engineers aspired to create, and David was inspired by it to make sure his life forms that he creates look like that. Yeah, maybe that's why!

/grasping

[Strigon]

You know, I hated this as an origin for the aliens.
I'm glad I now have a reason to ignore it.

[sktarq]

Don't worry that the the Space Jockey is mummified, that the Xenomorphs appear in ancient murals far before we see them being created for the first time. That just logic.

It's like trying to figure out why they had to clone Ripley for Alien Resurrection instead of just going back to LV 426 and go back to original space jockey ship since it was nowhere near the colony that blew up and there were thousands of eggs there.

But it is also like asking how two eggs (one for Ripley and one for the Dog/Bull) ended up on the ship at the end of aliens after the queen left the part of herself that laid the eggs back in the basement.

Basically after the first two these movies skip strait over basic logic.