Alien: Covenant

[Ramsay B.]

I'm gonna see this no matter what, but this trailer was pretty lame. Somebody's youtube comment: In space no one can hear you yawn.

[generalzod]

It really does look like a straight, expensive remake of ALIEN.  But really doesn't bring anything new to the table based on the trailer.  

[RumHam]

There really hasn't been a good movie in this franchise since Aliens, but as someone who loves horror movies I did not hate that trailer. I'd take a decently crafted Alien slasher movie over Prometheus II any day. 

8 hours ago, generalzod said:

the alien killing the couple in the shower is Friday the 13th cheesy 

What gets me is that the people editing the trailer didn't just leave it at the tail appearing. At least hopefully they weren't the same people editing the movie. 

[Isis]

It looks like a remake of Alien and as we all know there wss nothing wrong with the original. 

I think that Ridley Scott is actually at less than 0.5, more like 0.3. Whenever I see his name attached to a project now I feel unease and disappointment - can't recall the last time I was proved wrong in this.

It's actually incredible that with this much time having passed since the first two films, nobody has managed to come up with a good enough idea and execute well enough for it to be able to sit at the same table as films made in 1979 and 1986. It's pathetic and my patience is exhausted with the attempts at this point.

Just been on imdb looking at his directing record - hilarious that Exodus has 'director of Gladiator' splashed across it, failing to mention the other half a dozen films he made in between the two. Russell Crowe has been in a lot of them, which I think has something to do with it.

[mormont]

It's not a popular opinion, I know, but I'll go in to bat for Alien 3 as a film that can hold its head up proudly with Alien and Aliens. Even Alien: Resurrection is an interesting failure.

[Isis]

I am fine with Alien 3. It's not as good as the first two but I still enjoy it. 

I actively dislike the fourth one though. 

[Werthead]

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That looks a lot like something I've seen before and that does not excite me much. I was hoping for something that would feel a bit more fresh.

I think they don't know what to do with the franchise. Ridley Scott himself said that the alien is played out at this point, you can't go back and have it make the same impact as in 1979. Aliens worked because Cameron made the audience really care about the characters and giving them more ways of killing the aliens just gave them more hope before tearing it away. Alien 3, although a well-made movie in its own right, became redundant the second it tried to remake Alien. Resurrection could have worked if they'd stuck with Joss Whedon's script, humanised the characters a bit more and the director not been out of his depth. It did give us a prototypical Firefly though, leading to the later series, so that's something in its favour.

Prometheus was at least an attempt to do something new, which didn't work due to poor writing. Given it did okay at the box office I'm surprised they've moved so defiantly away from it and brought back the traditional aliens. I know they're "neomorphs" and come out the back rather than the front, but otherwise they're pretty much the same.

Probably the only thing that will work is by giving us another bunch of characters, humanising them, making them relatable and making us care about them, which they failed to do very well in Prometheus as the characters were under-developed.

That's why I can see the appeal of Blomkamp's project - bring back Ripley and Hicks, who we at least gave a shit about - but also the dangers, of resting on old stand-bys rather than introducing new characters who can carry the series forward.

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I think that Ridley Scott is actually at less than 0.5, more like 0.3. Whenever I see his name attached to a project now I feel unease and disappointment - can't recall the last time I was proved wrong in this.

I think The Martian was excellent and restored flagging faith in him as a director. But yeah, it's been a long time since his movies have automatically been a "go and see" for me.

[polishgenius]

2 hours ago, Isis said:

I think that Ridley Scott is actually at less than 0.5, more like 0.3. Whenever I see his name attached to a project now I feel unease and disappointment - can't recall the last time I was proved wrong in this.

The Martian was good, to be fair. But other than that, yeah, he probably hasn't made a really good film since American Gangster (haven't see that myself), or since Black Hawk Down in 2001 before that. It says a lot that most people's reaction that I know of when we found out that he wasn't directing Blade Runner 2 was relief, and when we found out that Blomkamp's Alien film was being shelved for this film it was disappointment.

[Arakan]

4 hours ago, mormont said:

It's not a popular opinion, I know, but I'll go in to bat for Alien 3 as a film that can hold its head up proudly with Alien and Aliens. Even Alien: Resurrection is an interesting failure.

Yeah. I quite like Alien 3, the special edition version to be precise. 

With regard to Alien Covenant...the trailer looks so absolutely and totally generic, that I expect an absolutely and totally generic movie. Not bad, not fabolous, basically like frozen pizza...

The movie will have good atmosphere and cinematography, this is where Ridley Scott excels but I do not expect a good, original story. With few exceptions this was never Scott's strong point. IMO of course. Though I will always be thankful for Alien and Blade Runner. 

[Stannis Eats No Peaches]

Hm. Well I quite liked the start of this trailer. Most of it looked quite generic, but I'm still looking forward to it. Unless it's more Prometheus than Alien. Prometheus was a pile of poo.

[Veltigar]

I still think Prometheus could have worked, if they had just put some more effort in it writingwise. Anyway, the trailer looks generic as fuck. I still love this franchise enough to give it a chance, but I'm not expecting something great. 

On 26-12-2016 at 1:02 PM, Isis said:

I am fine with Alien 3. It's not as good as the first two but I still enjoy it. 

It's been years since I last saw it, but I think I agree with your opinion. I never quite got the hate, but it's definitely not as good as the first two. 

On 26-12-2016 at 10:23 AM, Isis said:

Just been on imdb looking at his directing record - hilarious that Exodus has 'director of Gladiator' splashed across it, failing to mention the other half a dozen films he made in between the two. Russell Crowe has been in a lot of them, which I think has something to do with it.

Personally, I'm quite fond of Kingdom of Heaven as well (the theatrical version). There are some snippets in there that are truly excellent. And Scott's A Good Year with Russel Crowe is one of my guilty pleasures  never understood why people hate that one. 

[generalzod]

Robin Hood was godawful.  A 47 year old Robin Hood and his 50 year old Merry Men.

1492.  Ass.

 

Kingdom of Heaven.  Asstacular.  From Orlando Bloom miscast and sporting an anachronistic post modern agenda...All the Christians in the Holy Land are evil and incompetent except for two...The worst kind of liberal guilt that didn't want to deal with any complexity whatsoever.  Plus, just an incomprehensible story.  A deserved flop despite some great location, costume and production design.  My complaints summed up here:

 

 

Prometheus, Exodus...all expensive messes. 

And just when I'd written him off, he kills it with THE MARTIAN. 

[Ramsay B.]

59 minutes ago, Let's Get Kraken said:

Man, am I the only one who actually liked Prometheus?

No, there are a few of us on this site who like it. It obviously had its flaws but it was enjoyable enough. 

[Werthead]

Prometheus had magnificant production design, some fantastic and atmospheric visuals and great music, as well as some very good actors.

The script was pretty awful though. It didn't make much sense and if the characters hadn't been idiots the story would never have happened. At least with Alien the crew were a bunch of miners, so you could excuse them not taking sufficient safety precautions in dealing with a new species. In Prometheus the crew were actual scientists dispatched to make first contact, they had zero excuses for acting like nitwits.

Whenever you have a story where the characters bring their mayhem, death and destruction down on their own heads by being terminally stupid, it makes it very hard to sympathise with them, and that kills the dramatic flow of the movie right there. Prometheus is the textbook example of that.

[Fez]

On 12/25/2016 at 7:04 PM, Werthead said:

I suspect Shaw is either dead or maybe in hibernation, and will only briefly appear in flashback, a recording or maybe only at the end in person.

 

Bleh. That's the exact thing I hated the most of all about Alien 3. "Let's negate the entire ending of the previous movie by just killing off its survivors in the first couple minutes." 

[Isis]

I think that Kingdom of Heaven can be pinpointed as the film where it all began to go wrong. Now, I don't hate the film. I saw it at the pictures and liked it ok. However, call me old-fashioned but you shouldn't really need to view a director's cut in order to have a film make sense or to make it 'a good film'. Director's cuts should exist to add some depth or background to a film, not to fix problems. 

[Veltigar]

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

Prometheus had magnificant production design, some fantastic and atmospheric visuals and great music, as well as some very good actors.

The script was pretty awful though. It didn't make much sense and if the characters hadn't been idiots the story would never have happened. At least with Alien the crew were a bunch of miners, so you could excuse them not taking sufficient safety precautions in dealing with a new species. In Prometheus the crew were actual scientists dispatched to make first contact, they had zero excuses for acting like nitwits.

Whenever you have a story where the characters bring their mayhem, death and destruction down on their own heads by being terminally stupid, it makes it very hard to sympathise with them, and that kills the dramatic flow of the movie right there. Prometheus is the textbook example of that.

It also didn't help that the best scene in the entire film was part of the promocampaign and not in the actual movie. I would have loved to see more of this vibe in the film:

 

 

18 minutes ago, Isis said:

I think that Kingdom of Heaven can be pinpointed as the film where it all began to go wrong. Now, I don't hate the film. I saw it at the pictures and liked it ok. However, call me old-fashioned but you shouldn't really need to view a director's cut in order to have a film make sense or to make it 'a good film'. Director's cuts should exist to add some depth or background to a film, not to fix problems. 

I hated the director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven. It's a mess in my opinion, it still doesn't make sense and it dillutes the few emotional beats that do work in the film.

[Suzanna Stormborn]

21 hours ago, Veltigar said:

I still think Prometheus could have worked, if they had just put some more effort in it writingwise. Anyway, the trailer looks generic as fuck. I still love this franchise enough to give it a chance, but I'm not expecting something great. 

It's been years since I last saw it, but I think I agree with your opinion. I never quite got the hate, but it's definitely not as good as the first two. 

Personally, I'm quite fond of Kingdom of Heaven as well (the theatrical version). There are some snippets in there that are truly excellent. And Scott's A Good Year with Russel Crowe is one of my guilty pleasures  never understood why people hate that one. 

I love A Good Year, Finney, Cotillard, Cornish, Hollander and Crowe. It makes me want to quit my job, that's for sure lol.

 

Aliens Franchise has always been scary, even the bad ones still make you jump and cringe so whatever, Ill keep watching.  Even AvP was watchable, I liked it more the Kingdom of Heaven anyway.

[Sivin]

3 hours ago, Werthead said:

Prometheus had magnificant production design, some fantastic and atmospheric visuals and great music, as well as some very good actors.

The script was pretty awful though. It didn't make much sense and if the characters hadn't been idiots the story would never have happened. At least with Alien the crew were a bunch of miners, so you could excuse them not taking sufficient safety precautions in dealing with a new species. In Prometheus the crew were actual scientists dispatched to make first contact, they had zero excuses for acting like nitwits.

Whenever you have a story where the characters bring their mayhem, death and destruction down on their own heads by being terminally stupid, it makes it very hard to sympathise with them, and that kills the dramatic flow of the movie right there. Prometheus is the textbook example of that.

I always thought the original crew were space truckers.

[aceluby]

6 hours ago, Let's Get Kraken said:

Man, am I the only one who actually liked Prometheus?

I actually liked it.  It was thought provoking.

I really didn't like The Martian though.  With such good source material I really couldn't believe that was the best they could do.