Posted: May 15, 2017 7:14 am
Spinozasgalt wrote:LucidFlight wrote:
[Re: Alien: Covenant]
Following on from Prometheus, I was expecting a cool space adventure to a planet with amazing advancements in technology and society, populated with those baldy people. I guess I got some of that, just not in the way I expected — which is actually a good thing, I think. At least, the unravelling story made it more interesting to watch, past all the usual this-is-a-movie-of-the-Alien-series bits put there to appease the fans. I couldn't connect with the characters as much as I did with Prometheus. Is that the script writing or the casting? Some combination of these? I just didn't feel it. I felt like the gore level was up to par, though.
7 chest-bursters out of 10
The disconnect from the characters happened for me, too. I think it was to do with how they split the main pretentious talky narrative (I really don't like Fassbender, and Scott's "look at all the poetry and GRAND THEMES I'm jamming in here" in these movies) from the grunt work of the rest of the cast so sharply, because I did like the casting in parts of this. I liked the scenes with Amy Seimetz and the other two aboard the lander. That was back to the chaos of good horror. And Katherine Waterston seems like a perfect fit for an Alien film. But she's just given nothing to do. The opening scenes are where I was expecting the character setup to take place and yet that whole section felt blank. And when anything did show up, it felt like a repeat of Prometheus.
Indeed, the lander scenes were very good, very good. Faris (Amy Seimetz) endeared me in a way Lambert (from the original) did. Good performance there. In terms of Fassbender, I quite enjoyed his 'David' in Prometheus. However, perhaps there was too much of him in this latest romp. As for the other characters, they were mostly forgettable. Katherine's character, Daniels, I slowly warmed to, more toward the end. Oddly, she reminded me of Winona Rider in Alien: Resurrection.
Looking back at Prometheus, I must admit to having doubts about casting Charlize Theron. However, I think she won me over. Oh, and Idris Elba as Janek is a totes better space cowboy than that dweeby Tennessee. There, I said it.