Last movie watched...

[Andy Lambert]

Literally just watched Alien: Covenant, and quite frankly thought it was absolute bollocks. Very disappointing.

[Spikes]

Alien: Covenant.
Better than Prometheus...

[dweezil2]

Alien: Covenant, better than Prometheus in some ways, worse in others-especially when it's borrowing scenes and ideas wholesale from previous entries.

Pound for pound, arguably Prometheus is the better film, even considering its poor execution, because it felt more fresh and original.
Covenant often feels like the same Alien tropes implemented in routine fashion.

It looks nice though and Fassbender is always watchable in his dual roles.

[Radbacker]

Well I liked Covenant, best acting from James Franco ever
Nice and gory sure it messes with the whole mysterie of the Xenomorphs but I can live with it, if the creator of the franchise says this is how it happens i guess this is how it happens.

CU Radbacker

[Andy Lambert]

That fingering line though...

[dweezil2]

That fingering line though...

That got an audible titter from the audience I saw the film with.

[dweezil2]

Well I liked Covenant, best acting from James Franco ever

Sadly, the film offered nothing new.
Which was a shame after Prometheus attempt, at least, to develop the mythos!

Oh well, maybe next time!

[Andy Lambert]

I thought the first hour was okay, but after that... ugh.
[spoiler]That ridiculous line aside, I just feel this whole business leading up to the original movie is unnecessary and is confusingly muddying the whole concept of the Xenomorph.
There wasn't actually much of a story, events were plainly signposted before they happened - David cuts his hair after meeting Walter - could their be an impersonation planned? And yet no-one questioned David's sudden change of appearance.
The Xenomorphs did help to liven up their parts in what was otherwise a very tedious film, but even they lacked the fearsome threat they once possessed in previous films, whilst looking so obviously cartoony in their CGI rendering... man, how I missed the 'man in the suit'.
The climatic struggle towards the end, both on the planet and on the ship felt rushed and mundane and was nothing we hadn't seen before - even in this franchise. The actors were capable but not especially engaging or memorable, with the female lead suddenly becoming a heroic Ripley knock-off when the moment called for it. [/spoiler]
Prometheus certainly had it's problems, but my god, so does this - arguably more so. Even Alien Vs Predator was more entertaining than this drivel.

[Rara Avis]

I saw Alien Covenant yesterday and while it is better than Prometheus it's not great. It's not awful either but I did catch myself thinking about half way through that if they had kept the Alien out of it and just tried to do something new and different it would have been better for both movies.

Fassbender was a massive disappointment in it although that fingering line was hilarious.

[Keef Monkey]

Rewatched Prometheus, still really like it and don't really see why it gets such a kicking. Also must be said, as well as being possibly the best looking, it has the best audio mix I've ever heard on a blu-ray. Everything is absolutely crystal clear, there was no annoying riding of the volume buttons throughout the film to try and hear the dialogue without risking annoying the downstairs neighbours, and lots of really smart and immersive usage of the surround speakers. Pretty much the standard all movie mixes should aim to achieve I reckon.

By contrast we watched a couple of Marvel Blu-rays this week (Ant Man and Civil War) and the sound mix was appalling, muddy dialogue, hugely inconsistent volume and a real pain in the rear to constantly be turning things up and down. Really took the edge off some of the banter in Ant Man and I found myself not enjoying it as much as I'd like. The direction was very flat and workmanlike, and I kept wishing Edgar Wright had stuck around.

Civil War was great though, and Ant Man was easily one of the best things about it. Rudd is brilliant, and he really came off a lot better in this than in Ant Man I thought. Probably the best action scenes in a Marvel film yet (and although I love the Guardians movies more than any other Marvel movies, I'm including them in that - they're quite guilty of the 'massive thing of incomprehensible scale going on so that it's difficult to really parse what's going on' thing that most Marvel movies descend into in their last act). Readable and weighty and really thrillingly choreographed and shot.

Then we went to see Alien: Covenant, which we loved. Many, many people won't, for reasons I'll no doubt completely disagree with, and I'm bracing myself for having to defend it in years to come. Much like Prometheus really.

[Link Prime]

Watched The Autopsy of Jane Doe last night with the missus (who amusingly is also a Jane, with a surname rhyming with 'Doe', but I totally didn't mean it when I told her I wished she was dead cause she wouldn't stop texting throughout).

I'm always on the lookout for a decent / inventive horror, and this ticked many boxes.
Great performances, in particular from the ever dependable Brian Cox.
It just fell short of instant classic status for playing its hand a bit too early and for being a little OTT by the end.
Highly recommended though.

[CalHab]

I watched Alien Covenant at the weekend and, the more I think about it, the more it bothers me.
[spoiler]Apart from everything else, where did the space jockey on LV426 in Alien come from? I thought it had been there for decades/centuries, but apparently David must have killed off the Engineers, leaving that one conveniently alive for the time being, then filled the ship with eggs and sent it on its way. The ship must have crashed the day before the Nostromo arrived (comparatively). All a bit of a mess and I can't see how the next film will resolve that. Or am I missing some crucial point that explains this?  [/spoiler]

[jacob g]

Covenant is unique, for the first time in my life watching Rildey Scott movie was a struggle. I'm not a fan of today's Scott but at least he works with Wolski and this guy can make every movie a thing of the beauty. But in Covenant even he failed. I don't know, he was trying to much mediocre writing or what but when I don't have many good words about one of my favourite cinematographers it's bad.

When I was teenager with unconditional and stupid love for Mad Max, Terminator, Aliens or Escape from New York I had and eye opening moment, premiere of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Don't get your hopes to hight when your favourite movie/s become a franchise, that was a lesson. And now Covenant is somewhat reminescent of that lesson (never mind splendid Fury Road).

I will not go into plot details, sorry. The main problem with the Covenant is I barelly found anything interesting in this movie, and I'm the guy who kind of enjoyed Promtheus with all his flaws. Damn, I love Alien Ressurection, movie that people love to criticize.

[TordelBack]

Already sang my paean of love for GotG2 on the dedicated thread, but feel the need to discuss the fallout here too.  To-wit, my 7-year old daughter now emerges from the bathroom on a semi-regular schedule announcing "I have famously huge turds".  She does a bit of acting and seems to be able to pick up lines verbatim after one hearing, so when challenged on her crudeness she does the whole Rocket/Peter/Drax exchange from that scene, before collapsing in hysterical laughter.

On reflection I grow increasingly impressed by how the film mixes that kind of Farrelly Brothers humour with genuine pathos and a half-decent exploration of morality, and how its many-threaded plot spools out naturally from what we know about the mysteries and motivations of the characters from Vol 1. There are some lovely mirroring moments that make the two volumes seem like parts of the same story, e.g. Quill exposes himself to vacuum to save Gamorra in Vol 1, [spoiler]Yondu does the exact same to save Quill in Vol 2[/spoiler].  And I challenge anyone to come up with better dying words than "[spoiler]He may have been your father boy, but he wasn't your Daddy"[/spoiler].  Very satisfying.

Thumbs up from this house, Marvel!

[CalHab]

I nice article on Alien: Convenant and why killing the mystery is a bad thing:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/16/hollywood-sci-fi-alien-covenant-blade-runner-2049