After the poor reviews, I felt it best not to waste money seeing A:C in theaters. Since I own all of the others, even AVP:R, I knew I'd end up buying it, which is still less expensive than tickets + a soda.
Rather than re-hash every thread posted so far, I'll just pre-emptively agree with every negative opinion offered so far. To me, the film is the epitome of my chief criticism of Ridley Scott: the man can film beautiful scenery, but there isn't an ounce of humanity in his work. He contorts himself, and his writers, to tackle "big issues" but fails at every turn to understand that great characters make great movies.
From the beginning, I didn't care what happened to a single person aboard the Covenant, so how could any part of the film hold my interest? As was the chief criticism by the cast of the original Alien, Ridley Scott directs scenery and not actors. Unless the actor can bring something unique to a role, Ridley is incapable of (and disinterested in) creating characters that function as real human beings. They're just props to be lit, staged, and walked through their paces in service of an overall aesthetic.
The rest of what I disliked would simply become a screed, so I will end with an observation and a wish.
My Observation: The suit by Giger from the original film, while made of rubber, was 1,000 times more interesting and frightening than the shitty CG prop from this movie. The Alien is no longer interesting. At all. It has been beaten so badly to death by shitty CG and lame rubber suit work that I can finally say it lacks all capacity to thrill anymore. Knowing the studios, that pixel puppet is all we can ever expect in the future, so let the fucker die.
My Wish: I wish Ridley Scott wouldn't be allowed to make one single additional Alien film. Not one. He took two swings at the ball and not only did he foul it off, he nailed the catcher in the groin. Fucking stupid ideas all around.
As the title says, what a shit show. Seriously.
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Reply by Knixon
on August 17, 2017 at 3:48 PM
Nicely and succinctly put. Especially the parts about Scott. He gets way too much credit for the first Alien movie, the quality of the cast had a lot to do with it.
Reply by Mackentorsk
on August 18, 2017 at 5:58 PM
I haven't seen the movie since it was in cinemas, but I'm unsure if I can even bother watching it again. Really dissapointed by it.
Reply by Alfred
on May 19, 2018 at 2:52 PM
The first movie was no better than this POS.
Reply by Fergoose
on April 12, 2020 at 6:09 PM
I thought the first half was fairly decent, then it took a major dip. Pet peeves included:
It was like someone was trying to make a decent film but the studio imposed heavy handed mainstream elements to destroy any semblance of creative integrity. Colour me unsurprised.
5/10
Reply by Billions
on April 13, 2020 at 3:05 AM
What was the obligatory kung fu scene? I don't remember that. Maybe it would've made it better if there was one.
Reply by tmdb53134531
on June 16, 2020 at 3:50 PM
Reading this I thought about the Alien 3 adult Alien in its puppet form. They definitely got more out of that in terms of menace than the CGI versions of Covenant. Plus, it was an H. R. Giger 'update', with all that that entails, and what Giger added, combined with the realisation made the rubber suit Alien very frightening. I think that was because although it came out of an animal it still looked like a version of a man, a humanoid. I never liked the way in later films the effect was much more animalistic e.g. the hind legs that shouldn't be there in Resurrection — and the behaviour. Even in Aliens, as excellent as that film is, the creatures did lose something in a similar way, as if it's difficult to have many Aliens together and retain that unsettling feeling that the lone one achieves, so they end up like a pack of dogs.
Reply by JustinJackFlash
on June 16, 2020 at 8:04 PM
Anyone looking forward to Ridley's next installment? Alien: Pretension.
Reply by VobIdem
on September 14, 2020 at 7:32 AM
Only if corona halts production indefinitely
Reply by MongoLloyd
on September 14, 2020 at 10:24 PM
Was this the sequel to Prometheus? Man, that was just off the charts sh!t.
Reply by VobIdem
on September 16, 2020 at 2:32 AM
Vomit, diarrhea, they're both are bad and don't need comparing
Reply by Knixon
on September 16, 2020 at 2:55 AM
Well, at least you can't TASTE diarrhea. And - at least hopefully - none of it ends up in your nasal passages.
Reply by cpheonix
on September 24, 2022 at 5:32 AM
Wow, people do really hate this film. As a standalone movie I'm sure this wouldn't have got so much hate. It had great visuals with some tense moments (the first Alien coming out the back of the guy, flute playing scene) and an interesting bad guy in David.
But otherwise, I agree with the OP and others - you didn't care for the characters, the David/Walter switch was so obvious and the alien isn't terrifying or interesting anymore (maybe due to the ropey CGI).