Movies: Alien: Covenant (2017)

[Hockeyfrilla]

Ridley Scott returns to the universe he created in Alien with Alien: Covenant, the second chapter in a prequel trilogy that began with Prometheus — and connects directly to Scott’s 1979 seminal work of science fiction.

Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, the crew of the colony ship Covenant discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world — whose sole inhabitant is the “synthetic†David (Michael Fassbender), survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition.

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[Soliloquy of a Dogge]

Excited for this. It won't be the convoluted tire fire Prometheus was.

 

[SirPaste]

Super pumped about this

 

[Tkachuk4MVP]

So does this mean Rapace isn't coming back?


And I know it's the cool thing to bash Prometheus, but I loved it and am really looking forward to this.

 

[beowulf]

I also liked Prometheus, still watch it from time to time on Blu Ray. I cannot wait for this one.

 

[NewtJorden]

Prometheus was a good movie, i'm excited for this.

 

[Hivemind]

Prometheus was very flawed, but had a lot of merit. Hopefully this explores areas that Prometheus only grazed, and doesn't play too hard into Alien franchise nostalgia.

 

[Soliloquy of a Dogge]

Never said Prometheus wasn't "good"... but the potential was there for an incredible film and seeing it completely unrealized was the most disappointing aspect of the film.

 

[Sharpshooter]

Prometheus was very flawed, but had a lot of merit. Hopefully this explores areas that Prometheus only grazed, and doesn't play too hard into Alien franchise nostalgia.

My thoughts precisely.

 

[Unlimited Chequing]

I thought Prometheus was fantastic and enjoy watching it every so often.

 

[MadDevil]

Written by guys who wrote Transcendence and Green Lantern...doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence.

I thought Prometheus was a gorgeous looking movie with some pretty poor writing. Still an enjoyable movie though.

 

[Tkachuk4MVP]

Never said Prometheus wasn't "good"... but the potential was there for an incredible film and seeing it completely unrealized was the most disappointing aspect of the film.

I interpreted "convoluted tire fire" to mean "not good".

 

[Hockeyfrilla]

Confirmed that Noomi Rapace/Elizabeth Shaw isnt coming back.

 

[Acadmus]

So does this mean Rapace isn't coming back?


And I know it's the cool thing to bash Prometheus, but I loved it and am really looking forward to this.

People didn't bash it because it was the cool thing to do. There were just some really mind-bogglingly stupid things in the writing and the character assortment. Visually it was the only movie I've seen in 3-D that I thought really warranted it, so no complaints there. And the concept wasn't flawed...the execution was. But it's been stated, I believe, that the studio meddled with it and kind of derailed Scott's intent, which would explain it.

Don't get me wrong, though...there's no chance I'll skip Covenant. Might even spring for 3-D if it's shot as such.

 

[RobBrown4PM]

Prometheus was a bad bad bad movie, there are no excuses for it.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Minor complaint but naming an alien movie "Covenenant" seems weak. It makes me think of Halo.

I hope this movie is more along the lines of Prometheus than the Alien films. Obviously hoping for better writing but a Prometheus themed story would be a lot more interesting IMHO

 

[kingsholygrail]

Well, here's hoping the Convenant Crew is even marginally more competent than the Prometheus crew.

 

[Acadmus]

Well, here's hoping the Convenant Crew is even marginally more competent than the Prometheus crew.

I'm just hoping they don't create ridiculous characters like in Prometheus...the odds of any scientist seeming more like he belongs in a drug fueled biker gang are pretty slim. They need to be more reasonable in pairing characters with personalities and appearances. The characters in Prometheus were ludicrous. And Charlize Theron's character was pretty superficial and didn't even need to be there...of course, I think I saw somewhere that she was a last-minute throw in at the request of the studio and that character really WASN'T supposed to be there in the first place.

 

[Tkachuk4MVP]

People didn't bash it because it was the cool thing to do. There were just some really mind-bogglingly stupid things in the writing and the character assortment. Visually it was the only movie I've seen in 3-D that I thought really warranted it, so no complaints there. And the concept wasn't flawed...the execution was. But it's been stated, I believe, that the studio meddled with it and kind of derailed Scott's intent, which would explain it.

Don't get me wrong, though...there's no chance I'll skip Covenant. Might even spring for 3-D if it's shot as such.

Eh, people seem to be almost joyous when they talk about how much they dislike it. Yes the supporting characters were pretty superfluous and/or dumb (as is the case with many horror movies), but between the two leads, the visuals, and the atmosphere, there was plenty to like.

 

[USC Trojans]

Well, here's hoping the Convenant Crew is even marginally more competent than the Prometheus crew.

I mean, why even cast Guy Pierce when you're gonna put him in 25 lbs of old man prosthetics and is barely recognizable

 

[Eisen]

So does this mean Rapace isn't coming back?


And I know it's the cool thing to bash Prometheus, but I loved it and am really looking forward to this.

Never got why Prometheus was perceived badly. It was solid.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Excited for this. It won't be the convoluted tire fire Prometheus was.

Yeah, pretty much. I liked Prometheus, but the fact that there needed to be a step by step guide to what the hell was happening in the movie says a lot about how confusing it was.

 

[aufheben]

Prometheus was a bad movie. Maybe my expectations were too high, but that movie was visual effects, Michael Fassbender, and a bunch of crap. I love Idris Elba and Charlize Theron, but their parts were not good. Not their fault at all but it was such a poorly written movie. I can't think of any positive aspect besides the ones I already listed. Soundtrack? It's just very hollow when they only resprectable parts of your movie are the visuals and the soundtrack. At it's worst it was lazy, predictable, cheesy, confusing, and the themes of religion/creation were completely lacking any sort of subtlety on Ridley Scott's part. At it's best it was forgettable.

I'm not going to get my hopes up for this because they were utterly let down by Prometheus. I know this all comes across as savoring it's inadequacies, but I think that's really because a lot of people thought it was going to be a lot better than it was.

Prometheus was a bad bad bad movie, there are no excuses for it.

Agreed. They had a great cast and a $130M budget, and it came out more tepid than a microwaved Hot Pocket.

 

[JA]

This news is a few months old, but Alien: Covenant, aka "Prometheus," has caused the Neill Blomkamp retcon of Alien 3 to be shelved.

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2015/10/30/director-neill-blomkamp-announces-alien-5-on-hold

Alien 5 / 29 Oct 2015
Director Neill Blomkamp Announces Alien 5 on Hold
"Pending Prometheus 2," says filmmaker.
By Jim Vejvoda

Director Neill Blomkamp announced tonight that Alien 5 is on hold for the time being and that he's moving on to other projects.

The filmmaker -- whose credits include District 9, Elysium, and Chappie -- stated on Twitter tonight: "alien is kinda holding/ pending prometheus 2. So I shall be working on other things... as much as I love the xeno- and Lt ripley."

It's a bitter irony seeing as how social media is part of how Blomkamp landed the Alien 5 directing gig to begin with. The director had only last week revealed on Instagram that the Pulse Rifle would make a return in Alien 5, which was slated to shoot in Australia.

Alien director Ridley Scott is planning on helming Alien: Paradise Lost -- the sequel to his Alien prequel Prometheus -- in early 2016.

There had been rumblings in August that Prometheus 2 was stalling Alien 5, and now it appears it's backburnered it altogether.

Deadline reports that "Bloomkamp’s Alien movie appears for all intents and purposes comatose for now." Blomkamp had been hoping to bring back Aliens stars Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn for his movie.

http://www.geek.com/news/alien-5-brings-back-newt-and-has-ripley-hand-the-franchise-off-to-her-1640288/

Alien 5 brings back Newt and has Ripley hand the franchise off to her
By Dave Gonzales Nov. 25, 2015 7:32 am

The story of Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 is still shrouded in secrecy, especially since Ridley Scott’s decision to make Alien: Covenant (AKA Prometheus 2) early next year has put the project on indefinite hold. That hasn’t stopped the principals involved from sharing what they know about the project, with Michael Biehn opening up about why 20th Century Fox was so hot on letting Blomkamp’s idea eventually become part of the Alien series. Apparently the new movie would pretend Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection hadn’t happened and pass on the franchise to an older version of Newt, the little girl Ripley rescues in Aliens.

In case you need a refresher – Aliens ends with Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), and injured Hicks (Biehn), the top half of Bishop (Lance Henrikson) and Newt (Carrie Henn) entering cryosleep after escaping the xenomorph queen that had managed to stow away on the ship. They blew up the infested planet and jettisoned the queen into space and were seemingly on their way back to Earth. By the time 20th Century Fox had got Alien 3 into production, the story had abandoned the characters of Newt and Hicks entirely to isolate Ripley on a mens-only prison planet.

...

Speaking to Icons of Fright about his new role in 24 Hour Rental, Biehn talked about Alien 5 like it will be a hand-off movie between Ripley and a new strong female lead to take on the xenomorphs in future installments. “They’re planning on bringing me and Newt back and at this point Newt will be around twenty-seven years old,” he says. “I know that every actress in Hollywood is going to want to play this one, it’s really a passing of the torch between Sigourney and this younger actress who would play Newt.”

Alien 5 won’t resume pre-production until Alien: Covenant is done shooting, so next summer at the very earliest. Who knows exactly when the movie would shoot. The reality is Weaver and Biehn aren’t getting any younger, but neither is Ridley Scott who is directing Covenant and executive producing Alien 5.

...

It looks like we'll be waiting a little bit longer for the "real" Alien 3.

 

[Engebretson]

it was such a poorly written movie.

Prometheus had a whole bunch of script changes that Damon Lindleof allegedly had his hand in.

The original script of Prometheus is floating around cyberspace somewhere and this article goes over some of the more confusing aspects of the film that were not confusing at all in the original script.