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Usually when the original director comes back to a series, it marks either a downturn in their career or a return to form for the films. As mediocre as the Resident Evil films are, when Paul W.S. Anderson came back to the series, @Iroquois fell in love with it again. There are rumblings of James Cameron maybe tackling Terminator also.The Alien franchise has seen a lot of known directors make their mark on it, the aforementioned Cameron and Anderson, David Fincher, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and those dumb Skyline guys. Scott returned to the series with the polarizing Prometheus, hoping to take the series in a new direction. Leaving the tired Alien mythos behind and exploring new venues, such as the origin of human life. Bold new choices and a fresh perspective, giving audience a more adult rated sci/fi series to follow in the years to come.
Well that didn't happen. Prometheus did okay at the box office, but expectations to connect it with the Alien franchise soiled people when the dots were not connected. Complaints about logic (taking helmet of, running in a straight line) overshadowed everything else about the film; stunning visuals, tense thrilling sequences and good performances. So with Alien: Covenant it looks like Scott buckled under pressure and steered the series back towards the Xenomorphs, hoping to explore their origins a bit more. In doing so, he takes away the mythology and mystique. Do we really need to know where these guys come from? Is the fact that David is engineering these creatures taking away from their scare? This film in my opinion goes backwards for the franchise when it tried to elevate itself beyond.
If you're looking for another by the numbers Alien film, I'm sure Covenant will scratch that itch. A colonist ship picks up a distress signal from a habitable planet. They must decide whether they should check it out, or continue on with their mission. The planet has all the perfect necessities for life. Once there, they find out that they are not alone. There seem to be CGI creatures running around. Yeah, the effects kind of take away from the realism and terror these creatures use to pose on us as viewers. Scott goes for a more hard R than his previous entry. A really well done sequence involves one character convulsing and an Alien falling out of his split spine. Gross body horror done right.
Is it weird that the most interesting aspect of the film is when Fassbender plays two roles? He says to his "brother", you just worry about blowing, I'll do the fingering. Yup.
Alien: Covenant
(Ridley Scott)
(Ridley Scott)
Usually when the original director comes back to a series, it marks either a downturn in their career or a return to form for the films. As mediocre as the Resident Evil films are, when Paul W.S. Anderson came back to the series, @Iroquois fell in love with it again. There are rumblings of James Cameron maybe tackling Terminator also.The Alien franchise has seen a lot of known directors make their mark on it, the aforementioned Cameron and Anderson, David Fincher, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and those dumb Skyline guys. Scott returned to the series with the polarizing Prometheus, hoping to take the series in a new direction. Leaving the tired Alien mythos behind and exploring new venues, such as the origin of human life. Bold new choices and a fresh perspective, giving audience a more adult rated sci/fi series to follow in the years to come.
Well that didn't happen. Prometheus did okay at the box office, but expectations to connect it with the Alien franchise soiled people when the dots were not connected. Complaints about logic (taking helmet of, running in a straight line) overshadowed everything else about the film; stunning visuals, tense thrilling sequences and good performances. So with Alien: Covenant it looks like Scott buckled under pressure and steered the series back towards the Xenomorphs, hoping to explore their origins a bit more. In doing so, he takes away the mythology and mystique. Do we really need to know where these guys come from? Is the fact that David is engineering these creatures taking away from their scare? This film in my opinion goes backwards for the franchise when it tried to elevate itself beyond.
If you're looking for another by the numbers Alien film, I'm sure Covenant will scratch that itch. A colonist ship picks up a distress signal from a habitable planet. They must decide whether they should check it out, or continue on with their mission. The planet has all the perfect necessities for life. Once there, they find out that they are not alone. There seem to be CGI creatures running around. Yeah, the effects kind of take away from the realism and terror these creatures use to pose on us as viewers. Scott goes for a more hard R than his previous entry. A really well done sequence involves one character convulsing and an Alien falling out of his split spine. Gross body horror done right.
Is it weird that the most interesting aspect of the film is when Fassbender plays two roles? He says to his "brother", you just worry about blowing, I'll do the fingering. Yup.