Alien Franchise (1979-?)

[The Narrator Returns]

Trailer

[carmilla mircalla]

While I have the same feelings watching that trailer that was responsible for my foolish expectations for Prometheus I have learned my lesson and while the trailer is overall a good one visually I will kepe expectations very, very low.

Though the shower scene at the end is corny.

[tenia]

Looking on the bright side, it will hard to do more boring than Prometheus, but while the trailer shows a promising movie, it also doesn't help understanding precisely on which tone the movie will operate. One of the issues I have with Prometheus is that it jumps from action to drama to pseudo-philosophy to horror-suspense in a very poor way, and I'm afraid Covenant will stumble again on this.

[Big Ben]

I must confess to finding that scene at the end of the trailer to be in poor taste. One of the things that made the original work for me was that it didn't rely on cheap shocks. To have the beginning of a sex scene in the already well known "prude" Ridley Scott film seems to be...pushing it?

Regardless I'm looking forward to it.

[flyonthewall2983]

Not just a prude, but he seems to have maintained a low opinion of horror movies (with exceptions like The Exorcist and Texas Chainsaw Massacre). And judging from the sex scene, this seems to be pushing the horror angle much more than Prometheus did.

[John Cope]

Disappointed by the distinct lack of Noomi Rapace in the trailer. Not too enthused about that being made up for by a distinct recreation of Alien either. However, that may be deceptive. I'm by no means a huge fan of Prometheus but at least it had some ambition, even if it's mishandled. I also think it's easier now to appreciate it as the very good B movie that it is (even the half baked philosophy strung throughout works on that level).

[Finch]

Unless I misread it, John Logan now has sole writing credit for Covenant.

I'm not sure what to make of this first trailer. It feels more like a sizzle reel with the "money shots" randomly thrown in. Prometheus had a great first US trailer; this film appears more intense but I'm sceptical that it'll have anything worthwhile to add to the canon. I love the original film dearly; I like Cameron's second film for what it is, and I'll vouch for the Alien 3 assembly cut but I think Damon Lindelof wasn't far off when he suggested to Scott that spin-offs would be the way forward. Something more unique along the lines of Vincent Ward's script for Alien 3...

When I hear stuff like that

SpoilerShow

Katherine Waterston's character is reportedly going to be Ellen Ripley's mother

, it feels like a ham-fisted tie-in to the 1979 film, an expansion that I don't think is needed.

I think at this stage, it's very hard to re-create the mystery and terror the alien originally had. I'm not pretending that I have the answer.

[Luke M]

I probably enjoyed Prometheus more than most here, but I thought the trailer for this one was bad. Whatever Jesus-was-an-Engineer storyline they had going seems to be abandoned for jump scares. It's only the first trailer but it's disappointing.

[Roger Ryan]

I probably enjoyed Prometheus more than most here, but I thought the trailer for this one was bad. Whatever Jesus-was-an-Engineer storyline they had going seems to be abandoned for jump scares. It's only the first trailer but it's disappointing.

Yes, and the spooky rendition of "Nature Boy" doesn't help. For as clumsy as the Prometheus script/storyline was, I liked how the film was its own entity apart from the Alien series with a more philosophical concern. This first trailer makes Covenant look like nothing more than a direct remake of Scott's original 1979 film. I'm hoping Fassbender will elevate this one the same way he did with Prometheus.

[tenia]

Too bad the philosophical concern was quite superficial and un-original.

[flyonthewall2983]

Yes, and the spooky rendition of "Nature Boy" doesn't help.

So that's what it was. I heard it was going to be "Space Oddity".

When I hear stuff like that

SpoilerShow

Katherine Waterston's character is reportedly going to be Ellen Ripley's mother

, it feels like a ham-fisted tie-in to the 1979 film, an expansion that I don't think is needed.

SpoilerShow

This would lead some credence to the reason why the Blomkamp film might be held back for story purposes. Kind of hope it's not true, but hopefully it's done in not such a ham-fisted way it could be.

[J M Powell]

Disappointed by the distinct lack of Noomi Rapace in the trailer.

IIRC they initially held back on admitting she would even be in the movie, until leaked set photos prompted her official addition to the cast list. My guess is she doesn't show up until halfway through the film, with the first act hinging on a search for her.

[Being]

This trailer is underwhelming. Like Luke M, I was hoping this film would lead us to the Engineers' world and further develop that storyline. Instead, this looks like mostly cheap horror schlock and some of the soap-opera-level crew dynamics we witnessed in "Prometheus". At this point I could care less about the Xenomorph alien. That creature was played out years ago, when it started battling other film monsters in the likes of "Alien vs Predator". Didn't Ridley himself proclaim "The Beast is dead"?

Also, this trailer seems to give away several fairly significant plot points. One of the few small flames of hope for me in all of this is Fassbender.

[cantinflas]

Prologue: Last Supper

[Roger_Thornhill]

Prologue: Last Supper

Truly underwhelming. This looks more and more like a reboot of the Alien franchise.

[JabbaTheSlut]

What a mess... the weakness of the script evident here. No dramaturgy here. Just bits and pieces. Generic mood music in generic use (The Important Speech). Is this the final thing? Feels more like a hastily edited promo reel.

[PfR73]

The credits on the YouTube page ("Conceived by Ridley Scott and 3AM, directed by Luke Scott, and produced by RSA Films.") indicate to me that this is not actually part of the film, but something extra that was shot while filming as a promotional piece, so I don't think it can be necessarily used as a gauge for the script/quality of the actual film.

[JabbaTheSlut]

The credits on the YouTube page ("Conceived by Ridley Scott and 3AM, directed by Luke Scott, and produced by RSA Films.") indicate to me that this is not actually part of the film, but something extra that was shot while filming as a promotional piece, so I don't think it can be necessarily used as a gauge for the script/quality of the actual film.

That explains.

[flyonthewall2983]

New trailer. Eh...

[All the Best People]

Re: Covenant:

A horror film prequel, the third in a series directed by a now nearly-80-year-old director harkening back to his early 40s, about how a creation will outlive and ultimately menace its creator. Those who haven't embraced Sir Ridley's Alien precursors will likely find this irony too rich, where a hallowed director is consumed and destroyed by the lasting work of his youth, but perhaps it's more productive to see them as a confrontation with mortality, a contemplation of legacy, and a frustrated, frightened howl at the unattainability of the answers to the big questions of human origin and fate: in space, everyone can hear that scream.

[carmilla mircalla]

I came to the realization that Scott's filmography is hacky peppered in with a few flukes. He's been open about concentrating on various aspects of production except the script and whereas someone like Scorsese who also doesn't write his own scripts either works with screenwriters or chooses scripts he knows can corroborate with his direction Scott simply shuffles his hand in a dentist office toy chest and hopes he picks something out that "looks cool". He should have retired long ago. He's definitely lost any shred of cinematic dignity and he's only going to hurt his body of work specifically that which can be taken seriously as achievments in film. He is really not a good film director at all. He should have just been an art director. Covenant is not enragingly bad but as bad as you'd expect. It's all over the place comapred even to Prometheus. Whatever connective tissue he was hoping to create he is not going to fix it by simply making more Alien movies.

[hearthesilence]

Rosenbaum had his number years ago:

Scott has turned out one eye-popping cult movie, Blade Runner, which was substantially altered from his own cut, and several more or less forgettable features: two respectable genre exercises (Alien and Someone to Watch Over Me), a so-so literary adaptation (The Duellists), a fluffy department-store Christmas window display (Legend), and an offensive anti-Japanese thriller (Black Rain). He’s not exactly an auteur — this former director of commercials brings a stylish sense of lighting, framing, and monumentality to a variety of visual subjects, but he needs a good script as badly as a musician needs an instrument. He seems to have lucked out this time. Callie Khouri’s screenplay (her feature debut) and the performances of Davis and Sarandon provide him with both an engine and a body; he provides the snazzy paint job. In other words, without the stellar work of these three women, he’d be lost.

He's done a handful of efficient, paint-by-number thrillers, but only three that really have any weight and that I'd care to revisit: Thelma & Louise, Blade Runner and to a lesser extent Alien. As Rosenbaum indicated, in every case Scott's work was bolstered more by his collaborators than the force of his own vision. Even Alien to me remains a triumph of art direction, and everything that remains interesting about it stems from those physical aspects of the film.

[beamish13]

Dismissing Legend is too damn harsh, and I'd venture to guess that Rosenbaum had only seen the American cut. Someone to Watch Over Me is really great, too, and it remains woefully ignored.

I think Alien really did accomplish quite a bit, and O'Bannon/Shusett's idea about interplanetary travel eventually becoming so commonplace that it would create blue collar jobs is very interesting. The minimal amount of dialogue works beautifully, too.

[carmilla mircalla]

Rosenbaum had his number years ago:

Scott has turned out one eye-popping cult movie, Blade Runner, which was substantially altered from his own cut, and several more or less forgettable features: two respectable genre exercises (Alien and Someone to Watch Over Me), a so-so literary adaptation (The Duellists), a fluffy department-store Christmas window display (Legend), and an offensive anti-Japanese thriller (Black Rain). He’s not exactly an auteur — this former director of commercials brings a stylish sense of lighting, framing, and monumentality to a variety of visual subjects, but he needs a good script as badly as a musician needs an instrument. He seems to have lucked out this time. Callie Khouri’s screenplay (her feature debut) and the performances of Davis and Sarandon provide him with both an engine and a body; he provides the snazzy paint job. In other words, without the stellar work of these three women, he’d be lost.

He's done a handful of efficient, paint-by-number thrillers, but only three that really have any weight and that I'd care to revisit: Thelma & Louise, Blade Runner and to a lesser extent Alien. As Rosenbaum indicated, in every case Scott's work was bolstered more by his collaborators than the force of his own vision. Even Alien to me remains a triumph of art direction, and everything that remains interesting about it stems from those physical aspects of the film.

Wow. Thanks for that link. Can't believe it took me so long to realize about Scott.

[Finch]

I'm amazed that anyone would want to know who the space jockey was and who the alien was created by. I like the thought that the alien is simply a force of nature. I hate the idea that a human being or a company or even an android created it.

I made the mistake of seeing Prometheus in the stupid hope that a director decades past his prime would return to old glories but I got so burned that I swore I wouldn't watch Alien Covenant. As soon as I heard the complaints about illogical behaviour, plot holes, tedious faux-philosophy and idiotic revisions to the alien life cycle in Covenant, I knew I'd dodged a bullet.

I heard someone say the Alien franchise is currently going through the same malaise as Star Wars during the prequel years. Thing is, this series is done for. The proposed Alien 5 sequel wouldn't have appealed to me, either (I don't like Cameron's film though it objectively is a good one). Sure, someone could be capable of making the xenomorph scary again but it'd be a big challenge to create an original story around it. Something along the lines of Vincent Ward's original draft for Alien 3 perhaps..