Alien: Covenant (2017)

[Impossible]

Originally Posted by dgoswald

Spall's character is trying to break the ice by being friendly, and the other fella comes out with, "I'm not here to be your friend," or words to that affect. I'm like, "Steady on, he was only being nice." That was the moment when I began to think that there's something a bit dodgy about the characterisation here. When the boyfriend character (Tom Hardy-lite) starts laying into David in that passive aggressive manner he did I was actively looking forward to his inevitable death.

He was kinda like Harry Dean Stanton in Alien but on a lot of steroids lol

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by dgoswald

Dilberts.

I liked the almost improvisational quality of the crew's interactions in Alien. They seemed like normal people, particularly during scenes when they ate. But then I guess they were the equivalent of what would be blue collar workers; down to earth and chilled I guess. Whereas amongst the apparently more refined and educated crew in Prometheus there was a lot of tension between crew members for no or, at least, spuriously superficial reasons.

That's something I love about Alien, the acting and dialogue has that overlapping Altman-style naturalism to it, it makes the movie still feel so fresh all these years later. Heck of it is, those guys are out to get paid just as much as dear Fifield was (Parker's bit about the "bonus situation") but for some reason those guys are 100% more sympathetic.

Perhaps it's because they're put in harm's way by the evil Company and it's so much more engrossing to see how blue collar joes would act in a situation like that (hence Parker wanting more money to investigate the transmission), whereas most of the Prometheus crew seem to be willingly flying blind into God-knows-what for the sake of the money, so when it all goes tits up I have very little sympathy for them, especially because they've actually got training (exobiology, mapping etc) and hired guns (the redshirts) which should help them out of a jam, unlike the plucky space truckers of the Nostromo.

[Impossible]

Idris was really the only likeable one, actually all the pilots were ok.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Impossible

How was David sympathetic? He was just as manipulative and as much a liar as Ash.

Oh, he's still a dick but somehow he still manages to be more sympathetic than the rest of the crew which says it all about how arseholic they are, aside from maybe Janek (damned shame they cut that monologue about the research facility, I love that scene.)

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by Impossible

Yes that was missed in all the sequels especially Aliens where all you got was cliched army jerk bullshit.

I've never liked Aliens all that much.

There's some good scenes in it, but a lot of the time it comes across like a fairly cheesy 80s action flick.

The original is a legitimately great motion picture.

What really sets it apart is the production design, the pacing and the acting.

It has 4 or 5 of the best character actors of that period.

Prometheus, on the other hand, is filled with a lot of forgettable actors who don't really make much of an impression with their performances.

...Fassbinder being the exception.

That can't all be attributed to bad writing.

[dgoswald]

Originally Posted by Impossible

He was kinda like Harry Dean Stanton in Alien but on a lot of steroids lol

The amusing thing with the characters in Alien is if you've worked in that type of blue collar environment, each of the crew is almost an archetype of the kind of person you'll meet in that type of workplace. There's a lot of authenticity to it that works almost on a silent, unobtrusive level which makes the audience immediately identify with those characters.

[Impossible]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I've never liked Aliens all that much.

There's some good scenes in it, but a lot of the time it comes across like a fairly cheesy 80s action flick.

The original is a legitimately great motion picture.

What really sets it apart is the production design, the pacing and the acting.

It has 4 or 5 of the best character actors of that period.

Prometheus, on the other hand, is filled with a lot of forgettable actors who don't really make much of an impression with their performances.

...Fassbinder being the exception.

That can't all be attributed to bad writing.

I saw Aliens first at the cinema and loved it and saw it about 10 times. Then years later saw Alien and thought Alien was really boring.

Now I'm the total opposite. I love Alien and last about 30 minutes of Aliens terrible characters and dialogue before turning it off.

I hated Prometheus first time round, but it has grown on me a lot and it looks amazing.

[Impossible]

Originally Posted by dgoswald

The amusing thing with the characters in Alien is if you've worked in that type of blue collar environment, each of the crew is almost an archetype of the kind of person you'll meet in that type of workplace. There's a lot of authenticity to it that works almost on a silent, unobtrusive level which makes the audience immediately identify with those characters.

Yeah that's what I like about them. They're authentic without being cliches.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by dgoswald

The amusing thing with the characters in Alien is if you've worked in that type of blue collar environment, each of the crew is almost an archetype of the kind of person you'll meet in that type of workplace. There's a lot of authenticity to it that works almost on a silent, unobtrusive level which makes the audience immediately identify with those characters.

Agreed, it could be said that the Alien crew are just as broadly sketched characters but crucially they're actually likeable to one extent or another, unlike the (mostly) permanently ****ish and/or terminally stupid crew of the Prometheus. I think they were trying to get a Parker/Brett-style bromance going on with Janek's two co-pilots but that fell flat too.

[dgoswald]

I could watch an entire film centred around David going about his duties on a spaceship with no interaction with another character, lol. The great thing is he'll surely end up in the sequel... hopefully.

[Impossible]

Originally Posted by dgoswald

I could watch an entire film centred around David going about his duties on a spaceship with no interaction with another character, lol. The great thing is he'll surely end up in the sequel... hopefully.

See I didn't like Falsedonger in it at all. It was like a bad impersonation of Mr Humphries from Are You Being Served.

[Infernal King]

Originally Posted by JamesBenjamin

Yeah, I'm kinda hoping they have a more direct explanation in the sequel so it makes more sense. Or if they had put a "Alien biology" featurette on the DVD to explain it.

I think part of the problem with the movie's reception is people expected an Alien-like movie and its really not. Its more of a sci-fi thriller with a slow burn, and a bunch of hidden/subtle things. I remember one of the major complaints when it came out was the two women running in the path of the rolling spaceship at the end and why they wouldn't duck to one side or the other. I mean, that's a trope in EVERYTHING but it was somehow a huge "flaw" here. I think its one of those things where in 20 years people will still be finding things in this movie when other movies are forgotten.

But they really can make it make more sense in a sequel, just show more of the "science" behind the Alien creatures.

That is the moment I hated the most and I will never accept any attempt to defend it. The way

[Show spoiler]Charlize went out

was disgusting.

[Impossible]

Originally Posted by Infernal King

The way

[Show spoiler]Charlize went out

was disgusting.

It was pretty hilarious

It was like a Wylie Coyote cartoon!

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by dgoswald

I could watch an entire film centred around David going about his duties on a spaceship with no interaction with another character, lol. The great thing is he'll surely end up in the sequel... hopefully.

Same here, I thought he was fascinating. Seeing what Lawrence of Arabia would look like in 3D equally so.

[P-Rock]

Originally Posted by dgoswald

I could watch an entire film centred around David going about his duties on a spaceship with no interaction with another character, lol.

Watch 'Moon'.

[Thomas Guycott]

Originally Posted by Infernal King

That is the moment I hated the most and I will never accept any attempt to defend it. The way

[Show spoiler]Charlize went out

was disgusting.

The only thing I liked about it was how it really seemed to bring attention to the idiocy of the trope within the public eye.

[slainery]

Most of the crew proved themselves to be absolute idiots; I was rooting for the Engineer and David to kill them.

Looking back, Prometheus is not as bad as a straight slasher.

[Infernal King]

Originally Posted by Thomas Guycott

The only thing I liked about it was how it really seemed to bring attention to the idiocy of the trope within the public eye.

That's good but Hollywood doesn't tend to learn from its mistakes.

[dgoswald]

Originally Posted by Impossible

See I didn't like Falsedonger in it at all. It was like a bad impersonation of Mr Humphries from Are You Being Served.

[Show spoiler]

David should've minced around the ship a bit more.

If I had a bit more time I'd create an Are You Being Served / Prometheus mashup. I'd have Mrs. Slocombe voice Rapace's character, and when she's undergoing that caesarian I'd dub in something like, "Keep that away from my p***y!" or something similar.

[GC Riot]

Originally Posted by Impossible

See I didn't like Falsedonger in it at all. It was like a bad impersonation of Mr Humphries from Are You Being Served.

Pretty sure the #Fassbendick handle proves what a huge talent he is.