Just like with the Star Wars universe, the Alien universe would be far better off if someone else took the reigns from the creator, who plainly doesn\'t understand what the appeal of the franchise is.
Riiiiiight, because the Star Was universe turned out soooo much better without Lucas, what with the entire extended universe getting retconned out of existence and the new trilogy being painfully copying the original one.
Still, based on what I heard, your opinion on this movie seems pretty spot on.
because the Star Was universe turned out soooo much better without Lucas
It measurably turned out better than the prequels.
I wouldn’t say it’s as bad as Prometheus. If nothing else, there’s a little more care put into the characters, and Magneto does a marvelous job in the dual role of Bishop and Ash. Also, Logan is a bit more proficient at screenwriting than Lindelof is.
But I’d agree that the movie is not very good. It seems like the franchise is having an identity crisis and Broken Robot with Daddy Issues doesn’t really work as a character.
Fanfiction I hate.
It measurably turned out better than the prequels.
Respectfully disagree. Say what you want about the prequel trilogy, at least it had original content, it didn\'t just gave us the same story with different names and a few scene moved around while pretending it was something completely different. But you\'re free to think what you want.
A lot of Alien: Covenant\'s problems stem from Alien universe not being franchise material. The irony of Prometheus was that Ridley Scott was trying to go through the steps to make the series a story arc. By introducing new recurring leads, giving an explanation of the mysterious pilot alien shown in the first film, and explaining the interest Weyland-Yutani had in extra-terrestrials Ridley Scott was trying to world build. Yet Prometheus was such a spectacular failure in pacing, characterization, plot development, and dialogue, not to mention the black goo in the film did practically everything.
So Alien Covenant was essentially the director shrugging his shoulder and \"Meh, I\'ll just remake the movie they liked\" except Terminator Genesys did the same thing was a crushing failure. The two good movies of the Alien franchise sold themselves on their unique individual plots rather than the make up of their universe. Until Alien grasps the capitalist driven cyberpunk world-building of the Expanse and Altered Carbon it will just keep butting its head against a wall.
...I liked Terminator Genisys a lot, but I respect that is not a popular opinion.
That said, I mostly agree with that characterization, with the caveat that at least part of Prometheus\'s failure was thematic as well as artistic. Ridley Scott really wants to make Big, Important Movies About The Question of Religion, but keeps running smack into the wall of his own private inability to understand the mindset of religious people like myself. Also, trying to tie it to the Alien franchise smacks of wanting to promote it for reasons beyond its merits as a film, since most agree that its tenuous connection to those films not only retroactively tarnishes elements like the Space Jockies, but saddles the film with the burden of expectations it was never originally intended to fulfill, with the end result that a lot of random horror B.S. had to be filmed in post and shoveled in under the door.
Which brings us to Alien: Covenant: a crude attempt to just make the lazy Alien slasher movie people\'ve been trying since AVP: Requiem. And no, I\'m not saying it\'s as bad as that... just that, well, it\'s on the same trajectory.
...I liked Terminator Genisys a lot, but I respect that is not a popular opinion.
Eh, no judgement here, I actually liked Alien Resurrection and the first Alien vs Predator movie despite basically everyone else acting like they are terrible movies. I do agree AVP: Requiem sucks, though.
And yeah, sadly I gotta agree regarding the Space Jockeys. Doesn\'t help that almost none of the infos revealed about them match what we see in the first Alien movie.
The Alien universe is VERY much franchise material.
There\'s a whole line of extremely successful, extremely well-done novels under the Dark Horse publishing house.
In the same way that the Star Wars Extended Universe did an excellent job of telling new and very interesting tales, the various DH novels explore the Alien universe extremely well, focusing on what makes that universe interesting and unique.
The problem is that film directors after Alien³ don\'t seem to get the fact that the Alien universe is about one thing: the Alien itself as a monster embodying the worst of humanity\'s traits. It\'s not about a strong female lead. It\'s about *people* and our simultaneous capability to be awful to each other while also exhibiting immense empathy and self-sacrifice. And it most certainly isn\'t about some search for God or such crap. It\'s also NOT just a slasher/monster-in-space gorefest.
The Alien universe is very rich and textured; the problem is in the directors and producers and studios who simply don\'t know what to do with this thing they have, and try to force it down into their own molded expectations, rather than explore what it has to offer.
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God awful mess, just like Prometheus
5/10 rating, and that's a bit generous.
I don't know if Ridley Scott had an aneurysm that just damaged the part of his brain regarding the Alien franchise, but the last two films on the subject are terrible.
They share nothing in common with his original film. No suspense. Disposable characters. Idiots all over the place. No logical plot. Not even decent social commentary.
Covenant is a direct sequel to Prometheus, and shares all its flaws, without any redeeming qualities. Nothing the characters do seems logical, and the primary setup for the film as a sequel has enough holes to drive a Mack truck through. You don't care about the characters, even the protagonist. The villain borders on cardboard cartoon. And the xenomorphs are laughable, existing only to produce a hard R for gorn.
Just like with the Star Wars universe, the Alien universe would be far better off if someone else took the reigns from the creator, who plainly doesn't understand what the appeal of the franchise is.