A L | E N

[Still Servant]

Ricky, you and I have to write a movie together ASAP! I was thinking of alternate story threads they could have created with Covenant and thought of something similar to what you mentioned above. It would have been great.

I also thought of a scenario where the Covenant crew happens upon the planet with David and Shaw still alive. The relationship between the two is just... odd. Shaw seems like a shell of herself. She's bought into David's plan to

Spoiler:

destroy the Engineers.

The film would deal with the Covenant crew trying to convince Shaw that David is evil, all while being terrorized by these aliens David has been creating. The film would

Spoiler:

also feature interactions with some of the engineers, although I haven't worked that part out yet.

I'm not sure what happened to the Prometheus thread. Maybe Fernando can track it down. Speaking of Feev, I did some digging in the Rate the Last Movie You Saw thread thinking maybe our Prometheus discussion happened in there and stumbled upon Fernando's initial rating. He didn't love it, but he certainly wasn't anywhere close to despising it. EDIT: He mentions in the Prometheus thread that after coming down off the high of the movie, he didn't like it as much.

http://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/...l=1#post704859

EDIT: Piss off! I found it. See below.

[Still Servant]

Wow! Did I go down the rabbit hole to find this one.

Prometheus [spoilers] Thread

[mae]

That probably should be merged into this one.

[Ricky]

Ricky, you and I have to write a movie together ASAP! I was thinking of alternate story threads they could have created with Covenant and thought of something similar to what you mentioned above. It would have been great.

I also thought of a scenario where the Covenant crew happens upon the planet with David and Shaw still alive. The relationship between the two is just... odd. Shaw seems like a shell of herself. She's bought into David's plan to

Spoiler:

destroy the Engineers.

The film would deal with the Covenant crew trying to convince Shaw that David is evil, all while being terrorized by these aliens David has been creating. The film would

Spoiler:

also feature interactions with some of the engineers, although I haven't worked that part out yet.

Yes! We just need to come up with our own story instead of making other ones better.

Funny that we were both thinking along the same lines for alternate Covenant plot threads. So, in your scenario, why would Shaw be working with David to

Spoiler:

kill the Engineers?

Prometheus [spoilers] Thread

Thanks, Mike! I'm going to read through it. I'm curious to see what we all thought of Prometheus back then.

[Tommy]

omit

[mae]

[Earl of Popkin]

Looking forward to all 6 of these. Love the Alien universe

[fernandito]

Just reminds me that I haven't seen Covenant yet.

Is it a step up from Prometheus? Please tell me it is.

[Earl of Popkin]

Just reminds me that I haven't seen Covenant yet.

Is it a step up from Prometheus? Please tell me it is.

It’s a huge step up from the Alien v Predator films. Does that help?

[fernandito]

No, cause that's not saying much lol.

[Earl of Popkin]

If you’re into the Alien franchise, definitely watch it. Some fun parts and cool kills and I loved the cast. But you will definitely roll your eyes 2-5 times while watching.

My ranking if it helps:
1 Alien
2 Aliens
3 Alien wth commercials on cable
4 Alien 3
5 Prometheus
6 Covenant
7 Alien Blu Ray special features
8 Cutscenes from Alien Isolation video game
9 Resurrection

[fernandito]

Cool. Here's my ranking

1. Alien
2. Aliens
3. Aliens 3
4. Resurrection
5. Prometheus
6. Alien vs Predator: Requiem
7. Alien vs Predator


Just need to slot Covenant in there somewhere once I see it...

[Earl of Popkin]

If that’s your ranking, you should def watch Covenant. There’s a short web featurette thing online you should watch first that’s like a get to know the crew type thing. I predict you’ll put it at 5

[Still Servant]

Just reminds me that I haven't seen Covenant yet.

Is it a step up from Prometheus? Please tell me it is.

Well, my love/hate affair with Prometheus is well known. I didn't love the film after I saw it, but it might have elicited more discussion than any other film I've ever seen. Prometheus truly opened up the Alien universe for so much discussion. For that reason alone, I can honestly say I think it's a decent film all these years later.

That is especially true after seeing Covenant, which literally takes everything Prometheus did and crumples it up into a little ball and flushes it down the toilet. I'd be shocked if you liked it more than Prometheus.

[Hunchback Jack]

I recently rewatched both films back-to-back, and liked both of them better the second time around, but for different reasons. Prometheus made more sense when you know what to look for, and had some interesting ideas once you remove any expectations that it's directly related to Alien. And I like Noomi Rapace in it a great deal.

I liked Covenant less than Prometheus, mainly because ...

Spoiler:

the last third of it feels like an Alien movie tacked onto the end of a Prometheus sequel ...

... which led to problems with tone, to say the least. I liked the earlier parts of the movie better than the later parts, which surprised me.

Both are worth your time, if you approach them as their own thing.

HBJ

[fernandito]

Interesting. Once I watch it I'll post in here so we can have us a nice discussion.

[Earl of Popkin]

Gonna follow HJs (nice) advice and rewatch Prometheus and Covenant backtoback in the mean time. Going to fast forward thru the flute/recorder scene though...

[fernandito]

Save some more time and just fast forward through all Prometheus lol.

[Ricky]

Just reminds me that I haven't seen Covenant yet.

Is it a step up from Prometheus? Please tell me it is.

I thought you would've seen it by now. But honestly, you're not missing anything. For me, it's a few steps down from Prometheus (which I liked). Ridley took the interesting ideas and concepts about creation from Prometheus, read Internet reviews, and said, "What's this? People want more aliens and stuff and less thinking? Okay!" and made a generic Alien sequel.

Covenant, which literally takes everything Prometheus did and crumples it up into a little ball and flushes it down the toilet.

Right on the money there, Mike.

And your "all these years later" comment...7 years?! Where did the time go?

Prometheus made more sense when you know what to look for, and had some interesting ideas...I like Noomi Rapace in it a great deal.

Agreed.

[Earl of Popkin]

1 Jones
2 Church 2019
3 Goose
4 Church 1989
5 Morris

[Hunchback Jack]

I don't think I can rank the Alien movies; they are very different from each other, and almost all are flawed in some way. I would put Alien and Aliens at the top of the list, in that order, though, and the execrable AvP movies somewhere at the bottom.

( I recently rewatched Alien with some friends, and it's a damn fine movie. I think I appreciate it more over time.)

[fernandito]

Alien is a masterpiece.

[Mattrick]

I liked both Prometheus and Covenant. They weren't fantastic movies, but I appreciated the ambition of Prometheus, and the Walter/David relationship was quite strong in Covenant. I quite like the themes of the two films, even if the rest of them are a little muddled. To be honest, I love the Alien franchise, but they're inherently limited in the story can tell. You need to have something invading people, giving birth to some kind of creature, which then tries to kill people. It's hard to tell a contemplative story about the relationship between creators and their creations when you need some obligatory action sequences and characters being killed off. The first three films may have had the seemingly ubiquitous Weyland Corporation looming overhead, but they're still films about one person's struggle to survive and free the universe from a menace, making it easy to tell this smaller, character driven stories with larger forces around them. The idea behind Prometheus/Covenant is like modern day Greek mythology, and I love that aspect and it's a natural fit with the Xenomorphs themselves, it's not a natural fit with the horror/thriller elements that Alien films require.

[Earl of Popkin]

Pretty well said. I think a lot of us devout Alien folks fall into the love/hate realm that SS mentioned. We love Prometheus and Covenant for the movies that they are, but hate them for the Alien films that they aren’t. (Or just hate/hate for Prometheus & Covenant)

Either way Alien rules and I’m downloading it to my iPad for my flight tmrw

[Earl of Popkin]

Ok I just finished Prometheus and I’m probably halfway into Covenant. Jussie Smollett is in the Covenant crew and now I’m laughing at scenes that aren’t supposed to be funny