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My thoughts on Promethus and Alien: Covenant... (There be spoilers inside)

posted 7 years ago by BrutaleBent (99)
4 replies | jump to latest

I’m so utterly disappointed by the franchise atm – it has been a downhill slide since Aliens. Though, I have to admit that I liked Alien: Ressurection as a fun stand-alone flick, not a true alien movie imo. Unfortunately, it still has Prometheus, and now Alien: Covenant, beaten by a long shot…

What ruined Prometheus for me? They showed this interesting premise, for humanity and the black goo. Then further delves into it, with the finding of the planet, the engineers’ ships and alien markings. Setting it up for greatness.

Then it just turns utterly stupid, drops any focus on anything interesting and introduces severe cases of PoS in many characters, with events unfolding and me internally screaming “WHYYY?!” and the only redeeming factors left are Shaw and David – but unfortunately, it’s not enough to make the movie good.

Fast forward to Alien: Covenant – this time they should be able to get it right! Alas, decent start, even if no need for an incompetent leader that early on. Promptly moving on to severe cases of the stupid, for the second movie in a row. First it introduces mystery, and then suddenly, super aggressive nigh-sentient airborne particle goo, that’s far more terrifying and dangerous than the iconic “alien” the whole franchise revolves around - Which then spurs shitloads of stupidity from every single character at some point.

It also shows the whole “super goo aliens can grow ~1-1.5kg/min after chestbursting”, can break inch thick safety glass with its skull – all of which are extremely lame, and worse, further voiding the terrifying alien from first two movies.

Lastly, the movie killed of Shaw offscreen – I’ve said it before, but she had so much BAMF female lead potential, as she was truly a survivor.

Did it take up the interesting premise that Prometheus left? Nooope, but did it end up a bad generic horror movie with the generic stupid ass characters instead? Yep. (SAD! – Trump 2017).

[–] BrutaleBent (99) 7 years ago

Funnily, the directing was decent in itself, but Ridley Scott apparently can’t tell a good script/story from bad ones anymore, and he really should stop making these movies and pass the torch to people who can actually make something of a franchise with so much potential.

[–] Volley (3433) 7 years ago

I enjoyed the first half--the music and atmosphere is very well done, but the second half starting at David's caves is where things got a bit too strange, the main characters not being impressed at all with the massive ancient city around them, and finding out Shaw was killed offscreen was a downer, similar to that of poor Newt in Alien 3.

[–] lemner (231) 7 years ago

Totally agree it's been downhill since Aliens. Alien was good, Aliens great. All the others were a f-u to the viewers, making special effort to piss on anything good from Aliens and Prometheus. I would not be watching any of these, but my significant other is fascinated due to Giger's artwork.

[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

I wouldn't say Prometheus or Covenant are poorly made films, they are extremely well put together by all working on them.

I just find the scripts for these two prequels to be extremely poor and nonsensical. It's just one convoluted mess after another and I simply find myself becoming irritated whilst watching them, as the plot and the characters actions rarely make sense, I thus find it extremely difficult to relate to them.

As well acted as the characters are, the characters themselves are just completely idiotic in everything they do.