Jump to content

So Ridley Scott is directing a Prometheus sequel... (The official Alien: Covenant Thread)


crocodile

Recommended Posts

You don't seem to understand what I'm saying. Where did I say Alien is all about the characters? Where, Thor?

 

Characters or the choice of actors are a vital part of whatever you think a movie is trying to do. 

 

Take that latest Covenant footage, for instance. All you see is characters. If I don't buy half of the choices then how good can my experience be?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

The characters are brilliantly effective though!

 

I think they were dead on for the parts and for what the filmmakers wanted to achieve.

 

Here is an example for what is in my opinion a less successful cast:

 

sunshine-yeoh-murphy-crew.jpg

 

sunshine-cast_1175754066.jpg

 

Sunshine

 

If I'm not convinced that this is an actual crew on board of a spaceship then the movie is never going to be as good as it could be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What mighty? Who has fallen?

 

 

BTW, cardboard characters and stereotyping? Alien?! This was the first time the audience ever saw a crew like that in a science fiction movie.

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

59 minutes ago, Alexcremers said:

Characters or the choice of actors are a vital part of whatever you think a movie is trying to do. 

 

Yeah, I understand what you're saying, and I'm disagreeing with your premise here. Characters or choice of actors aren't always the most important thing in a movie. It depends entirely on what the filmmaker wants to do with his film. In the case of ALIEN, neither story nor characters are particularly central to Scott's project. They are ingrained plot mechanisms, no doubt, but the film is all about atmosphere and communicating various (symbolic) ideas through image and sound. Otherwise, it would not have been the classic it is; it would just have been a forgotten genre film.

 

That's why I'm not too worried about the slightly "goofy" characters in the COVENANT prologue. First of all, I think and hope Ridley's own film will have a very different tone, also among the characters, and second, I think the characters will be less important.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 25/02/2017 at 4:20 PM, Thor said:

Does anyone really watch the ALIEN films for the characters

 

It's the main reason I watch them, especially in Aliens, which has the best motley crew ensemble in any movie ever. 

 

What a strange angle, Thor. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Quintus said:

 

It's the main reason I watch them, especially in Aliens, which has the best motley crew ensemble in any movie ever. 

 

What a strange angle, Thor. 

 

Charles Dance refers to the prisoners as a "motley crew" in Alien 3!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, Quintus said:

 

It's the main reason I watch them, especially in Aliens, which has the best motley crew ensemble in any movie ever. 

 

What a strange angle, Thor. 

 

Hardly strange. I'd argue that it's the most common 'angle' to these films, especially the first. Approaching the ALIEN films as character films is the 'odd angle', I think.

 

As for the new trailer, I'm not quite sure what to make it. I'm not entirely sold. But I'll await value judgement untill the whole film is here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's a difference between "approaching the ALIEN films as character films" (I don't think anybody does that) and watching them because, among other things, one enjoys the characters. 

 

But yes, the characters are absolutely vital in the first two films. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The trailer speaks volumes. I think I will skip Covenant. I mean, it looks so bad. Yes, especially the look of the movie, Thor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Quintus said:

There's a difference between "approaching the ALIEN films as character films" (I don't think anybody does that) and watching them because, among other things, one enjoys the characters. 

 

But yes, the characters are absolutely vital in the first two films. 

 

Sure. I enjoy the hell out of them too. But IMO it's not the foremost prioritized element.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ridley must be pulling his hair out. Everyone hated Prometheus because it tried to do something different and wasn't an Alien film. Now Covenant is shit because it's a ripoff of Alien/s and we've seen it all before. The bloke can't win no matter what he does! Or the internet is just filled with people who have nothing better to do than complain about everything.

 

I'll take an admirable effort like Prometheus that stumbles over garbage like Transformers 17 or whatever dreck Hollywood's excreting into theaters these days.

 

Trailer looked great, film looks intriguing, they are clearly withholding stuff. It looks exactly like the film people expected from Prometheus; a blend of the first two Alien films with a hard-R rating and an expansion of the mythos, in the hands of a great filmmaker. I'm in!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You compare this to Alien? Only at JWfan! Compared to this, Alien feels like a esoteric art movie, the real deal. Covenant looks and feels like SyFy doing a dumb Alien ripoff. I see nothing great or intriguing in the trailer. Quite the opposite.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

No one criticizes Prometheus because it tried to do something different. It didn't. It was the same old routine again.

 

That, plus this:

 

38 minutes ago, crumbs said:

the internet is just filled with people who have nothing better to do than complain about everything.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, crumbs said:

Ridley must be pulling his hair out. Everyone hated Prometheus because it tried to do something different and wasn't an Alien film.

Now Covenant is shit because it's a ripoff of Alien/s and we've seen it all before. The bloke can't win no matter what he does! Or the internet is just filled with people who have nothing better to do than complain about everything.

 

Not everyone! PROMETHEUS actually holds a high star among several of my film critic colleagues, including myself. But yeah -- I agree about fan reactions, most of them coming without anyone having actually seen the movie.

 

Even if I was slightly disappointed by the 'prologue' and the latest trailer, I absolutely LOVED the first trailer, and still hoping the film is closer to that (I think the 'action aspect' was upped considerably for this new trailer).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

 

How do you reckon that?

 

What?! As far as I know, the only ones who've seen the film (if it's even finished in post) are the ones involved in the production.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Alexcremers said:

The trailer speaks volumes. I think I will skip Covenant. I mean, it looks so bad. Yes, especially the look of the movie, Thor.

 

Indeed. It sort of makes Prometheus look like art, doesn't it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, BloodBoal said:

I assume he thought you were referring to Prometheus when you said that.

 

Ah. Sorry for the confusion. I was talking about fan reactions in general (to films not yet in theatres).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've not watched any of the trailers and will be happy to wait and see, when I do eventually see it albeit at home. I saw Prometheus at the cinema, waste of time. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The shots in the trailer of the Alien on the ship is comical. Everything that is scary about the Xenomorph is that it's a sneaky little bastard. The 'unknown' and the 'suggested' are far more terrifying than the in-your-face.

 

Alien is insanely terrifying because you are constantly expecting the alien to be somewhere, but you don't know where. And Aliens is more of an action film, yet it is still terrifying because during the action scenes, they just keep coming out of the walls because they bloody look like the walls! They are everywhere, and nowhere at the same time. But in this trailer, there it is, Mr. Charles Xenomorph sat on top of the ship in broad daylight asking for directions and going "GERRR ARRRGH, I'm scary." It's farcical.

 

P.S. I loved Katherine Waterston when I saw her in Fantastic Beasts, so she alone will drag me to see this film, along with my shredded hopes of a decent experience.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Ridley Scott has all the money he ever needs.

 

No, I think it has more to do with a desire to further explore the universes he's created before it's too late -- a late-career gesture I cheer and support. Also, I wouldn't be sad if Scott only did sci fi and historical epics for the remainder of his life.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Nick1066 said:

The Alien is not longer a mysterious, malevolent terror. It's an action figure...a comic book villain. That scene with the Alien trying to bust into the ship windshield was cringe worthy....a genuine jump the shark moment. Cool and fanboyish, to be sure, but so far removed from its source material as to be unrecognizable.  

 

Depends on what you mean with 'source material'. The original film, yes, but ALIENS has bits of this, as does ALIEN: RESSURECTION (which has a similar "window" scene).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Nick1066 said:

Yes. There's nothing in that latest trailer that looks remotely original. It looks way too slick, and the actors look like...actors. And act like bratty millennials. Nothing about this looks lived in. The whole thing just feels off. 

 

And worst of all, the Alien is not longer a mysterious, malevolent terror. It's an action figure...a comic book villain. That scene with the Alien trying to bust into the ship windshield was cringe worthy....a genuine jump the shark moment. Cool and fanboyish, to be sure, but so far removed from its source material as to be unrecognizable.  

 

Ridley Scott is being derivative of himself, and remaking his own movies. If Ridley Scott were a band, he'd be covering his own songs.  It feels fake, it feels forced. It is derivative. And unnecessary.  Nothing I've seen in either of those trailers or that awful promo comes across as the least bit genuine. When I saw the eggs, and the facehugger, I didn't think "Cool!", I thought...."again"?  Why?

 

Is there anyone among us who can't say with a reasonably high degree of certainty exactly how this film is going to play out?

 

There are no more ways to tell this story, I'm convinced of that now. I didn't need to know and see the origins of the Aliens any more than I needed to see the Clone Wars.  Somethings are better left alone, and to the imagination.

 

 

So true, Nick.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Muad'Dib said:

Resurrection is hardly the reference people think of when picturing the franchise and its titular monster... 

 

Agreed, but it's canon whether one likes it or not. I've come to appreciate it much more over the years; as a Jeunet film more than an ALIEN film, perhaps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, Daniel Clamp said:

I usually have fun watching it.

 

It has some spectacularly intense scenes, like the underwater chase.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.