Discuss Alien: Covenant
Discuss → Movies → Alien: Covenant → General
The problem with the modern franchise (Prometheus and this film)
posted by movie_naziSTAFFMOD on November 14, 2017 at 1:35 PM
It seems that they attempt to venture into the philosophical discussions of creator and created and the dysfunctional relationship between the two. I find the subject utterly fascinating but where they seem to fall short is that these films can't make up their minds whether they truly wanted to explore this subject or whether it just wants to be a run-of-the-mill slasher, watch them get picked off one by one, played out formula of a film. It can't seem to make up its mind what kind of film it is. It teases you by revealing the creators but then falls short of answering any questions that the audience wanst to know (Why did they decide to destroy us?) . It half asses its exploration. It begins on the path and then boom we have a YAWN typical slasher scene reminiscent of Jason in the Friday the 13th series. I feel like I am watching the TV series Lost where you learn very little information in each episode that actually pushes the story along. All they do is pack the films full of fluff like godawful looking CGI monsters and some great special effects with the look of the ship.
Another problem with the franchise is that it is trying to use the same ol' tricks to try and build tension and produce "gotcha!" moments. Boring tropes where everybody gets separated, the guy peeks into the opening egg, and gee no one saw the David/Walter switch coming 100 miles away. The film lacks any semblance or originality whatsoever. Its no wonder it got skewered by critics. The lack of character development was also another huge problem as no one cared who got killed. At least we have somewhat of an attempt at it with Elizabeth Shaw in Prometheus and then she is killed off screen rather unceremoniously.
Alien Covenant I would say is not a bad film, just a bad Alien film. It brings nothing new to the table and rehashes tropes that were done better in the other films. I still say Cameron's Aliens is the best in the series followed by Scott's original effort. It just so disappointing to see them begin down the path of an interesting subject only to let it fizzle out to show you something you have already seen a dozen times in the other films.
Alien Convenant (2017) - 2.5 outta 5 stars
Reply by AlienFanatic
on December 3, 2017 at 1:11 PM
Do what now? Are you trying to rewrite history here? In every interview with the producers they made it clear that it was a B monster movie shot to look like an A movie. It wasNEVER an art house movie. it also made $78M in its initial run and was the number one picture in its opening week. It's the sixth highest grossing movie of 1979, for God's sake!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_in_film
Come on man. If you're going to debate at least research your facts.
Reply by Renovatio
on December 3, 2017 at 5:52 PM
That was the genius commercial idea behind Alien... I wonder how it came about where someone finally decided to put a real budget behind these genre ideas... Walter Hill? Ridley? Circumstances?
In any event, it was solid... I hope we can get to a stage where somey can get behind an unconventional idea again without having to tie it to an existing "brand"...
Reply by AlienFanatic
on December 3, 2017 at 7:14 PM
That is one that you can entirely peg to Ridley Scott, at least in his telling. Originally, they assigned a budget of $4M to film it but then Ridley wrote an entire series of storyboards. (The man, for as frustrating as I find him as a director, is immensely talented as a visualist and illustrator.) After he submitted them, they doubled his budget to $8M, which was a substantial sum in 1978. You also have to give credit to the head of Fox studios at the time, Alan Ladd, Jr.--who also greenlit Star Wars--who saw something in the script and the pitches by Scott and Brandywine (Carroll, Hill, and Giler) that made him think it would be worth the investment.