Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

SPOILERS AHEAD!! ALL OF THE SPOILERS!! PLEASE TAKE CARE! First things first. I am of the opinion that this is a VERY GOOD ALIEN FILM and would have given it five stars, were it not for one large issue that I had with it (to be discussed in a moment). A few words about the complicated background of this movie: Ridley Scott was under a lot of pressure with this one, and I think fans are a little too quick to forget that. Prometheus, although generally successful, was loathed as well as loved by many. Personally, I enjoyed Prometheus immensely in spite of it's flaws, but I completely understand why others didn't. And if you're wondering why he bothered to make Prometheus in the first place, recall that fox turned down James Cameron's offer to make Alien 5 in favor those AVP.....things. Yup. That happened. Cameron naturally hasn't wanted to return since then, but Scott was still willing to take a crack at getting things back on track. And that's something to remember the next time yet another rabid "Aliens" fan accuses Covenant of killing Alien 5. Also, Blomkamp isn't that good a filmmaker and there's no certainty that project would have worked, but that's another rant for another day. This film was an attempt to tie up some of the threads from Prometheus while providing us with an Alien prequel of sorts. While it technically does both of these to some extent, there is a 10 year timeline gap between the films, as well as some important questions about what happened in that time that are never explicitly answered. Scott originally wanted to make a direct Prometheus sequel, but writers had trouble with the script and the studio was a little on the fence about it. Scott caved to fanboy whining and skipped ahead to material he'd planned on using later. So, that having been said, what are some highlights of this film? -Fassbender is an acting wizard from another dimension, and he delivers. Walter is charming, and David is far scarier than the Alien. Some people dislike the "flute scene," between them, but I appreciated the weirdness/creepiness. -Gorgeous sets and visuals. Covenant had a lower budget than Prometheus, but you wouldn't know it from looking at it. -This movie has a xenomorph in it and is actually good. Let's all take a minute to appreciate that. -There is a bleakness to this movie that feels right in line with the overall thematic content of "Alien." So having just said some very nice things, what's my complaint? Leads shouldn't die in between films. Lemme say that again: LEADS. SHOULDN'T. DIE. IN. BETWEEN. FILMS. FOX: WHAT THE HELL. DO. YOU. NOT. LEARN? I get it. Not everyone liked Prometheus, but pretty much everyone liked David. Shaw was a bit controversial. Some sci fi fans found her blind faith a little offensive, and others simply couldn't wrap their heads around the fact that she wasn't Ripley. But as some fans and critics finally started to realize when re-evaluating Prometheus before "Covenant," that was kind of the whole point. Shaw was a contradiction- Sweet, incredibly curious, a little naive, religious, but also reasonably sensible and good at staying alive when the chips were down. This set her apart from the more down-to-earth Ripley, which was a GOOD thing. Incredibly, not all women in sci fi films actually have to be Ripley clones (it's like we have different personalities and are people) Also, Noomi Rapace is wonderful (see the swedish version of "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" if you don't believe me) and has eerily good screen chemistry with Fassbender. Why Fox and/or Scott didn't want to take advantage of this more before knocking her off is a mystery to me. Although I know from interviews that Scott fought to keep Shaw in this movie as much as possible, and it's clear that he was trying to give her a good send off (at least, as good a send off you can get in an Alien movie) the fact is that she is turned into a Beautiful Dead Girl for David to mourn and sadly play his flute for as he uses her remains for his experiments. We never get to see her has a person, or hear her in her own words. No notes scribbled on the wall, nothing. Mind you, it's not her death itself that bothers me. Even in Prometheus, David does some questionable things and her safety with him was never certain. That Shaw meets this end is not terribly surprising. What irks me is that we are given no flashbacks. No long winded David monologues. Nothing. She's dead, David probably killed her at some point, move on. Are you curious about WHAT he did to her and HOW he used her remains to make Aliens? Too bad, the writers have inexplicably deemed that information unimportant. There is "The crossing," of course, but that just confuses matters more. David's affection for Shaw is very clear (And Fassbender as said as much in interviews) Once his head is back on, there was no reason for him to obey her, try to win her trust, or do anything nice for her, really. He could have simply killed her, or knocked her out and stuck her in cryo if he thought he might need her later. But instead, he actually did what she asked (remember that originally, he wanted to return to earth) His tone in the voice over as she describes his activities after she goes to sleep ("And then I was alone again") suggest to me a kind of loneliness and/or suffering; That being apart from the one person who was nice to him probably didn't help with the whole God Complex thing he had going. Of course, this is all just conjecture because we DON'T KNOW and probably never will. Scott has flirted with the idea of making a film that takes place in between "Prometheus" and"Covenant" (and I would kill for that movie) but we're almost certainly never going to get it. If we're lucky, we'll get a followup to Covenant, but even that isn't promised at this point, as the box office returns weren't great. There is a faint possibility that Rapace will return in flashbacks (or maybe a resurrection subplot?) but that is also very unlikely. All in all, I liked this movie a lot. I think that, like Prometheus, it is underrated and people will probably love it in 5-10 years. I just find myself wishing that Scott had stuck to his guns just a little more and not felt the need to bend over backwards for people who wanted a "real Alien movie," especially since many of those people didn't like this movie anyway. I find it tragic that in trying to listen to fans, Scott moved away from what he originally wanted to do, and was still less than successful at the box office. On the bright side, Scott may well be able to finance another installment himself. If Fox doesn't greenlight a sequel, there's always a chance we'll get a 3 hour epic involving Engineers/ A somehow even crazier David/ Even more Aliens/Daniels killing more Aliens/Flashbacks with Shaw/ Resurrected Shaw killing David ect. ect. It's a long shot, but hey, A fan can dream.....