Movie Alien: Covenant

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I really dug this on second viewing. For me, it's the best and most vital film in the franchise since Alien 3. The under-the-radar Mother! of 2017, I think this will ultimately go down as one of Ridley's most enduring films. Seems ridiculous to say that now, but Covenant is deeply soulful.
 
Strange Cat said:
Amusing , I liked prometheus far more than this pile of s**t. Even with the stupid humans in the films it had at least some interesting themes that were sadly never followed up.

Gee Ridley has really dropped the ball on this franchise.
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Here's some interesting s**t from TIME magazine;

http://time.com/4747303/alien-covenant-elizabeth-shaw/

...At the end of Prometheus, Shaw is the last living human crew member, and David, its android, is severely damaged but still functioning. They steal an alien ship and, instead of returning to Earth, point at the alien (a.k.a. the Engineers) home world. Her mission was always to meet the gods that created humans, and she didn’t seem intent on changing that just because their handiwork killed her husband, her crew-mates and her employer.

The obvious sequel would follow Shaw and David as they encountered these very gods. That’s the sequel director Ridley Scott was originally planning. “I’d love to explore where the hell [Elizabeth] goes next and what does she do when she gets there because if it is paradise, paradise cannot be what you think it is. Paradise has a connotation of being extremely sinister and ominous,” he told Movies.com. He added in another interview, ““I know where it’s going. I know that to keep [David] alive is essential and to keep [Elizabeth] alive is essential and to go where they came from, not where I came from, is essential.”

Alien: Covenant skips over the events described by Scott, however. Instead, we meet a new crew of a colonist mission who hears an echo of Shaw singing in space. They land on a mysterious planet to investigate only to find that David has killed Shaw in order to use her DNA to develop more aliens and create his own special species. He’s also killed all the Engineers for unclear reasons, perhaps also in hopes of creating more aliens.

Over the course of the five years between Prometheus and Covenant, Scott either changed his mind about the plot or Rapace decided not to reprise her role.

The first hint that Rapace would be missing from the movie came when Fox released the first plot details, in which they called David the “sole” inhabitant of a mysterious planet and survivor of the failed Prometheus mission. Shaw was conspicuously absent. But Deadline reported once the film started shooting that Rapace had traveled to Australia for “week’s worth” of shooting. If that’s true, her scenes may have been cut since all that’s left of her in the current movie is a drawing and what looks like a wax body...
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This must be some of those deleted scenes;

 

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Geelong_Sicko said:
Here's some interesting s**t from TIME magazine;



This must be some of those deleted scenes;

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It’s not a deleted scene as such, they released that online as part of a promotion in the weeks leading up to the film.

There’s two of them. The other ‘prologue’ clip is one of the crew meeting each other/having a meal together on board the ship. I recall reading the premise behind these scenes was just a bit of viral marketing to show events prior to when the film kicks off.

A damn shame too. The David/Shaw journey that was teased at the end of Prometheus was fantastic, and would’ve made such a damn good film. Incredibly frustrating that it was abandoned.
 
glenferry23 said:
It’s not a deleted scene as such, they released that online as part of a promotion in the weeks leading up to the film.

There’s two of them. The other ‘prologue’ clip is one of the crew meeting each other/having a meal together on board the ship. I recall reading the premise behind these scenes was just a bit of viral marketing to show events prior to when the film kicks off.

A damn shame too. The David/Shaw journey that was teased at the end of Prometheus was fantastic, and would’ve made such a damn good film. Incredibly frustrating that it was abandoned.
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Completely agree. Would have loved to see the whole backstory of the engineers and why humans were created.
 
I've tried googling reasons why to no avail. Studio interference (David Fincher walked/got pushed out on Alien 3 because of studio f*ckery if I remember it right) or 'focus group' shenanigans or just Ridley Scott making it up on the fly? There's no concrete answers yet.

This was a promo prologue from Prometheus that should have been part of the main film as it completely sets up the narrative - it got restored and completely replaces the studio opening in the Giftbearer 'fan edit' that you can still find kicking around on some torrent sites (a far superior cut of the film than the disjointed mess Ridley put out).

Guy Pearce must have been ropable, as he was in fine form;



Why they f*ck around with editing like this I have no idea.
 
glenferry23 said:
A damn shame too. The David/Shaw journey that was teased at the end of Prometheus was fantastic, and would’ve made such a damn good film. Incredibly frustrating that it was abandoned.
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Travesty that we didn't get that film, would have been a heap better than yet another re-heated xeno monster movie.

Geelong_Sicko said:
I've tried googling reasons why to no avail. Studio interference (David Fincher walked/got pushed out on Alien 3 because of studio f*ckery if I remember it right) or 'focus group' shenanigans or just Ridley Scott making it up on the fly? There's no concrete answers yet.
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Suits and $$$ would be my guess. Posted this earlier in the thread;

bourbons said:
Yep spot on.

Studio suits ****ed it up in the first place in the name of more cash - I've got no doubt that the original pitch with Prometheus was to have the movie set on lv-426. At some point that changed because they wanted to crowbar 2 more movies in. Then Prometheus happens and ****s up everything it would seem. Good job, hollywood.

Such a shame, could have been amazing.
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Geelong_Sicko said:
I've tried googling reasons why to no avail. Studio interference (David Fincher walked/got pushed out on Alien 3 because of studio f*ckery if I remember it right) or 'focus group' shenanigans or just Ridley Scott making it up on the fly? There's no concrete answers yet.

This was a promo prologue from Prometheus that should have been part of the main film as it completely sets up the narrative - it got restored and completely replaces the studio opening in the Giftbearer 'fan edit' that you can still find kicking around on some torrent sites (a far superior cut of the film than the disjointed mess Ridley put out).

Guy Pearce must have been ropable, as he was in fine form;



Why they f*ck around with editing like this I have no idea.
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Yeah I remember watching that clip before the release and being so hyped up, it was a very well made clip.
 
These clips aren't exactly intended to be in the film. Prometheus and The Martian are progressive films in that they are also immersive multimedia packages. The DVD for The Martian is like the film and then some clips from the world of the film (that aren't necessarily deleted scenes). It reveals a lot of passion and steeped thought (and listening to the audio commentary on Covenant, amazing how sharp and studious Ridley still is). These extra pieces might make their way into an Alan Dean Foster novelisation or the like, but aren't created then deleted as such, I'd regard them more as promotional short films.

I think you should all give Covenant another look, I admire the avenue Ridley took (the space jockeys turned out to be a little dull, AI is a richer preoccupation whilst also tying in to the creation chain, plus the most unnecessary scene in Covenant is David's bioweapon flashback) and I think this is the under-the-radar polarising gem of 2017. This deeply soulful film cuts to the very essence of the franchise in masterful fashion, resets it beautifully.

The questing human hive of Earth 2 with the fall of eternal darkness is quickly lured off course into the shake n bake shadowy desires of an insinuating Prometheus 2 and rides the fast lane of flayed hellish fire into paradise lost. Ridley's slow, stewing march down the starless garden path under the pied piper guise of David lingers grandly.

Covenant may be the most vital entry in the franchise since the Prison planet, and is sure to be one of Ridley's most enduring films, talked about long after the Best Picture of 2017 is largely forgotten. He manages to scale back the franchise to its open-ended psychological origin and clammy roots, unlocking the spirit of Alien so contorted in trope playbook thereafter. Best of all, the story may be purely read as a surreal hypersleep nightmare. The deep space level of the franchise rediscovered and decrypted.

Intrigued to see where Ridley takes it from here.
 
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Roobs321 said:
These clips aren't exactly intended to be in the film. Prometheus and The Martian are progressive films in that they are also immersive multimedia packages. The DVD for The Martian is like the film and then some clips from the world of the film (that aren't necessarily deleted scenes). It reveals a lot of passion and steeped thought (and listening to the audio commentary on Covenant, amazing how sharp and studious Ridley still is). These extra pieces might make their way into an Alan Dean Foster novelisation or the like, but aren't created then deleted as such, I'd regard them more as promotional short films.

I think you should all give Covenant another look, I admire the avenue Ridley took (the space jockeys turned out to be a little dull, AI is a richer preoccupation whilst also tying in to the creation chain, plus the most unnecessary scene in Covenant is David's bioweapon flashback) and I think this is the under-the-radar polarising gem of 2017. This deeply soulful film cuts to the very essence of the franchise in masterful fashion, resets it beautifully.

The questing human hive of Earth 2 with the fall of eternal darkness is quickly lured off course into the shake n bake shadowy desires of an insinuating Prometheus 2 and rides the fast lane of flayed hellish fire into paradise lost. Ridley's slow, stewing march down the starless garden path under the pied piper guise of David lingers grandly.

Covenant may be the most vital entry in the franchise since the Prison planet, and is sure to be one of Ridley's most enduring films, talked about long after the Best Picture of 2017 is largely forgotten. He manages to scale back the franchise to its open-ended psychological origin and clammy roots, unlocking the spirit of Alien so contorted in trope playbook thereafter. Best of all, the story may be purely read as a surreal hypersleep nightmare. The deep space level of the franchise rediscovered and decrypted.

Intrigued to see where Ridley takes it from here.
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TLDR

yeah nah it’s been universally panned
 
Strange Cat said:
Amusing , I liked prometheus far more than this pile of s**t. Even with the stupid humans in the films it had at least some interesting themes that were sadly never followed up.

Gee Ridley has really dropped the ball on this franchise.
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I think prometheus is the reason covenant was so bad.

The response to it wasn't warm, despite it being an original and clever origin story.
Rather than do something clever again, we got Alien 4 rehashed.
 

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Harry Bosch said:
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Moved to umm may so hopefully teaser/trailer before the end of the year (seeing it before rogue one would be cool)

Given Alien is one of my favourite films I feel anxious and excited about this , hopefully much better than Prometheus and not another disappointing alien fillm...
If only they had left it at Alien and Aliens but here we are..fingers crossed ol rids pulls it off...
If nothing else at least it has a way cool poster..

Any one else excited about this ?
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Saw this the other night. Creepy, violent and disturbing, BRILLIANT!
 
Geelong_Sicko said:
The crying shame is that there is room for both - there CAN be an intelligent monster movie. It just needs a bloody good writer, a director who can envision it and absolutely no f*ckery by the suits in Corporate fussing about their bottom lines...
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And ****

Sent from mTalk
 
JoondalupJ said:
Saw this the other night. Creepy, violent and disturbing, BRILLIANT!
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As a lifelong Alien obsessive, I feel so proud that a solid proportion of the production was Australia-New Zealand. It's the best film in the franchise for a quarter century, even if it doesn't hold a candle to the first three.

Among Ridley Scott's films, the only ones I definitely prefer would be Blade Runner, Alien, Kingdom of Heaven, Gladiator, Thelma & Louise and Matchstick Men.
 
Roobs321 said:
As a lifelong Alien obsessive, I feel so proud that a solid proportion of the production was Australia-New Zealand. It's the best film in the franchise for a quarter century, even if it doesn't hold a candle to the first three.

Among Ridley Scott's films, the only ones I definitely prefer would be Blade Runner, Alien, Kingdom of Heaven, Gladiator, Thelma & Louise and Matchstick Men.
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Wow.
This movie was a pile of steaming turd.
 
Roobs321 said:
As a lifelong Alien obsessive, I feel so proud that a solid proportion of the production was Australia-New Zealand. It's the best film in the franchise for a quarter century, even if it doesn't hold a candle to the first three.

Among Ridley Scott's films, the only ones I definitely prefer would be Blade Runner, Alien, Kingdom of Heaven, Gladiator, Thelma & Louise and Matchstick Men.
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Really? Alien Resurection is a better movie that’s how meh this movie was.
 
Roobs321 said:
As a lifelong Alien obsessive, I feel so proud that a solid proportion of the production was Australia-New Zealand. It's the best film in the franchise for a quarter century, even if it doesn't hold a candle to the first three.

Among Ridley Scott's films, the only ones I definitely prefer would be Blade Runner, Alien, Kingdom of Heaven, Gladiator, Thelma & Louise and Matchstick Men.
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I like them all , but I loved Kingdom of Heaven, Alien and of course you are correct the first three Alien 's were brilliant.

I love the scene near the end of Kingdom of Heaven when asked what Jerusalem is worth, Saladin says, "nothing", walks a few paces turns and says , with his hands and arms gesture " EVERYTHING!"

Its a knock out scene. Says a billion things that scene. And is relevant now .
 
Ryz said:
Covenant swayed between being an Aliens sequel and Prometheus sequel, and failed at both IMO.
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I thought it followed on very nicely.
If you are going to keep a franchise up and going with those critters that scare the living daylights out of people . then it has to have that hopelessness about it, and it did. These critters rarely lose their fear factor and they are the IT in htese movies.

Fear dropped a touch maybe a little when ripley was carrying one to birth , but this movie sure put the horror back in big time.
And it has left a horror for the future coming, if the robot decides to blend the races together. Remember he's got 2000 humans asleep for 7 years , imagine what he could do.
 
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