Alien: Covenant

[mirth]

It might be better to treat this as a new alternate continuity going forward, and just ignore trying to tie into the first two films.

Why not? That was pretty much what they did with A3 & AR.

[Gusington]

Someone say Alien 3?

GR - yes Ridley Scott is the director not the writer of the original movie but isn't it Ridley Scott responsible for what we all love and remember from it, and the bulk of the series? The combination of sci-fi and horror? Especially since there was no book for the first film as some of the guys mentioned above. Scott basically made the story his, along with the help of probably 1000 special effects guys and HR Giger.

As far as characters doing stupid things, I have to agree. I just rewatched Prometheus last week and the removal of the helmets is probably the dumbest moment in film history.

However...an infection does take them down, the way you mentioned it would take Capt. Kirk down. So is the removal of the helmets a red herring, dumb plot device or writer's stupidity? Or all of the above.

I am moving to north England so I can move in with JD and we can watch Prometheus and Alien 3 every Friday and then get drunk on beer.

[SirAndrewD]

Good grief, I can see senility creeping upon me...  :'( Yep, flipped the numbers around on the moon.

I will be absolutely surprised if the films ever get back to the proper planet(ary moon) with the proper ship and so-forth, in a way that makes coherent sense. At this point I'll be a little surprised if they ever get back to the start of Alien at all. It might be better to treat this as a new alternate continuity going forward, and just ignore trying to tie into the first two films.

In a recent interview, Scott said that the plot of the next, and supposedly final film would bring things together and connect to Alien.  I'm not really sure how that's going to work after Covenant, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.  The next movie is supposedly already written and ready to shoot inside of the next 14 months, so I think they had the plot of that one in mind when they did this one. 

He did however pretty much wave off considering anything from Aliens on forward canon to this series.  In the interview he was fairly direct that the concept of the Xenomorph as a hive animal with a Queen and such were things he wasn't going to acknowledge or follow in finishing off the series.

[mirth]

There may well be more than one additional prequel:

In September 2015, Ridley Scott revealed he was planning two sequels to Prometheus, which would lead into the first Alien film, even adding: "Maybe [there will] even [be] a fourth film before we get back into the Alien franchise." In November 2015, Scott confirmed that Alien: Covenant would be the first of three additional films in the Alien prequel series, before linking up with the original Alien, and stated that the Prometheus sequels will reveal who created the xenomorph aliens.  The screenplay for the third prequel film was written during production of Alien: Covenant and finished in 2017. Production is scheduled to begin in 2018. In March 2017, Scott said, "If you really want a franchise, I can keep cranking it for another six. I'm not going to close it down again. No way."

That's pretty ambitious given his age. I'm still sceptical about more Prometheus sequels if Covenant is only a marginal money maker.

[Gusington]

Will some of those future Scott Free movies explain why the Engineers are such assholes?

[JudgeDredd]

Three things...


First...

As far as characters doing stupid things, I have to agree. I just rewatched Prometheus last week and the removal of the helmets is probably the dumbest moment in film history.

If you think that looked stupid, wait till you see them leave without helmets at all - let alone taking them off later (although if you listen carefully, Mother is calling out the composition of the planets environment, nitrogen, oxygen, gravity etc, etc).


Second...

I am moving to north England so I can move in with JD and we can watch Prometheus and Alien 3 every Friday and then get drunk on beer.

If you head to the North of England, we'll be about 250 miles away from each other (I live in Colchester - bob lives in the North of England) and also, I ain't watchin' Alien 3 again. I'd rather watch Star Wars Episode One again - but actually would rather rub raw onions on my eyeballs for at least an hour before doing either (though Prometheus and the beer sounds pretty cool)


And lastly...
This thing with the Alien ship. I've watched Prometheus again today and there were other ships. David says "That was not the only ship. There are many more". And the Alien creature comes out of the Engineer on the planet. It's entirely possible, no, that the Alien manages to get to one of these other ships and uses one of the Engineers as a host or perhaps attacks it in flight and it crashes on the original Alien planet.

[mirth]

How these prequel movies may or may not connect to Alien are the least of my problems with them.

[ghostryder]

Canon in this franchise doesn't mean much to me. If Alien 3 and Resurrection are considered canon, who really gives a crap?

Basically, this franchise boils down to one great movie (and concept) followed by an excellent sequel. It should have ended there.

I try to forget Alien 3 and Resurrection exist. I have to be really drunk to watch any of the Alien vs predator movies and Alien Isolation----which pretty much felt a hell of a lot more like an indoor Mall rather than a spaceship where space would be a very expensive premium in that game apparantly spaceships are so inexpensive to produce you can have a 16x16 room with only 4 lockers, a table and a chair in them. None of them really do the first 2 films any justice let alone the canon--I felt promethius could have if taken in a different direction but i can't see how a 3rd film could possibly rescue it at this point.

God let's hope the new bladerunner isn't so easily mangled by MTV writers. If your looking for good sci-fi you can count the movies in my lifetime on one hand. Gattica and Children of men, the first 2 aliens and possibly 2001 A space oddyssey. 

[bbmike]

Canon in this franchise doesn't mean much to me. If Alien 3 and Resurrection are considered canon, who really gives a crap?

Basically, this franchise boils down to one great movie (and concept) followed by an excellent sequel. It should have ended there.

I try to forget Alien 3 and Resurrection exist. I have to be really drunk to watch any of the Alien vs predator movies and Alien Isolation----which pretty much felt a hell of a lot more like an indoor Mall rather than a spaceship where space would be a very expensive premium in that game apparantly spaceships are so inexpensive to produce you can have a 16x16 room with only 4 lockers, a table and a chair in them. None of them really do the first 2 films any justice let alone the canon--I felt promethius could have if taken in a different direction but i can't see how a 3rd film could possibly rescue it at this point.

God let's hope the new bladerunner isn't so easily mangled by MTV writers. If your looking for good sci-fi you can count the movies in my lifetime on one hand. Gattica and Children of men, the first 2 aliens and possibly 2001 A space oddyssey.

You forgot Star Trek V.

[Gusington]

Children of Men is one of my favorite movies of any type...Top 25 there.

But Alien - Isolation (the game) I am playing right now and it is also excellent. Totally makes the player paranoid and terrified.

[SirAndrewD]

Children of Men is one of my favorite movies of any type...Top 25 there.

But Alien - Isolation (the game) I am playing right now and it is also excellent. Totally makes the player paranoid and terrified.

Alien Isolation stands as probably the third best Alien movie, it just happens to be a game. 

And even though he didn't say anything about it, I'm pretty sure Scott was heavily inspired by Isolation for the Xenomorph in Covenant.

[Gusington]

^I hope that's true. The Alien - Isolation creature is one bad mofo.

[ghostryder]

Children of Men is one of my favorite movies of any type...Top 25 there.

But Alien - Isolation (the game) I am playing right now and it is also excellent. Totally makes the player paranoid and terrified.

Sure as a game. But you can't possibly think that's a ship--in space. It's roomier than the titanic --

I just like sci fi I can believe...and again...aside from the movies I mentioned there's really zip. Gattica...yeah i can see that happening. Children of men. Absolutely. Star Trek V? This is your brain on drugs. Just say no. Nancy is right.

[ghostryder]

Will some of those future Scott Free movies explain why the Engineers are such assholes?

I don't want to spoil it for you if you haven't seen the movie. but let's just say they are Charlie Sheen and Promethius is two and half men.

[Gusington]

Children of Men got really, really close to predicting the world we live in now.

Alien - Isolation takes place on the Sevastopol, which is not a ship...it's a station. I may be nitpicking but to me there's a difference. A station would/will be like a mall in space.