MovieChat Forums > Alien: Covenant (2017) Discussion > Idiot crew + lack of realism = terrible ...

Idiot crew + lack of realism = terrible movie

posted 7 years ago by cyguration (3951)
29 replies | jump to latest

I recently watched Arrival and Alien: Covenant back to back. I had to wash the sordid stench of visual debauchery out of my mind when the credits for Covenant rolled, so the next day I watched Arrival as a cognitive palate cleanser. I can safely say that Alien: Covenant is terrible.

I didn't really like Arrival, but it was a wholly competently made film with at least a very believable set of responses and protocols carried out by the humans. Regardless of the plot or the outcome, the believability of the circumstance was at least substantial and integral to making the film feel coherent and grounded, despite being science fiction fantasy. Alien: Covenant had none of that.

The first thing that bothered me was that after answering the distress signal, the new captain made no effort to bring a handful of soldiers out of cryo-sleep. If you're going down to investigate a foreign distress signal on a foreign planet, you're likely going to want both science officers and marines on hand. They had a couple of security crew but those guys did not seem adequately combat ready at all.

Next up, NO ONE seemed to think to wear hazmat suits when exploring the planet after touchdown. Even in a completely breathable environment there's no way any science officer would have okay'd for them to go out without masks and hazmat suits, specifically to avoid the very scenario that ended up taking place when they went rummaging through the crash site.

Those two things really grinded on my gears because a bunch of people could have been spared stupid deaths had they just had a smart enough script to acknowledge COMMON SENSE SAFETY PROTOCOLS!

The rest of the film was trash from then on, and what happened to Noomi Rapace off-screen left a permanently vile taste in my mind's mouth. I'll only have the least fondest memories to recount when thinking about this abomination.

May Ridley Scott never sleep peacefully until he gives Neill Blomkamp his blessings to make a REAL Aliens film.

[–] MikeCable (1860) 7 years ago

The lack of suits was something I noticed when watching it first time. Even if it did have a compatible oxygen atmosphere, there could be all kinds of things which could affect them. I assumed that they wanted the actors easily visually identifiable rather than hidden by the suits, since there were so many of them.

[–] cyguration (3951) 7 years ago

I assumed that they wanted the actors easily visually identifiable rather than hidden by the suits, since there were so many of them.

Yeah... I guess this was their idea of making sure you got to see everyone's face, but it also completely killed the suspension of disbelief because I just couldn't stop thinking about how at risk they made themselves.

Heck, even in a breathable environment there's still the fact that various pathogens in the new environment may not gel well with whatever vaccines they had on hand and could have very well killed everyone just from normal exposure. It was baffling how they didn't think to find some way around this issue in the script.

[–] brux (14730) 7 years ago

They did the same thing in Alien ... they put the lights for the helmets inside the helmet so it illuminated the person's face instead of showed what was in front of them so they would not trip or fall into an alien egg! ;-)

[–] MikeCable (1860) 7 years ago

I thought about this in Alien also. I am sure I've seen it in other films, maybe one of the ones involving Mars. I thought it'd be a bit impractical due to glare or something.

I think I mentioned in another post that maybe the thought of walking 17 kms to the source of the signal (and back) in a cumbersome suit was too much to consider these people to be realistically capable of doing.

[–] AtomicReturns (1252) 7 years ago

The first thing that bothered me was that after answering the distress signal, the new captain made no effort to bring a handful of soldiers out of cryo-sleep. If you're going down to investigate a foreign distress signal on a foreign planet, you're likely going to want both science officers and marines on hand. They had a couple of security crew but those guys did not seem adequately combat ready at all.

Next up, NO ONE seemed to think to wear hazmat suits when exploring the planet after touchdown. Even in a completely breathable environment there's no way any science officer would have okay'd for them to go out without masks and hazmat suits, specifically to avoid the very scenario that ended up taking place when they went rummaging through the crash site.

Agree with those points. Really absurd they had no suits, when the earlier Prometheus crew took that caution. If they learned the important of making David less humanoid, they would've learned to also adhere to strict protocols when it comes to contamination.

You're on an alien planet and you're just going to go "take a leak" and observe the plants like you're hiking in Seattle or San Francisco? I really want to know what Ridley was thinking here.

[–] cyguration (3951) 7 years ago

I don't know if he was thinking. It's something anyone who offered any sort of read on the script would have noticed. Any scientist or physicist or astronomer would have likely caught the error as well. Maybe they just didn't have any science advisors on the set or to go over the script and decided to just wing it? Because it was a huge departure from the more grounded and realistic depiction of the space crew in the original Alien from back in the 1970s.

[–] brux (14730) 7 years ago

I don't think so ... about Alien. The idea that they brought Kane into the ship ... that shit has got to stop. You cannot break the safety of a who ship for one guy. In fact, all of these ships should have some kind of external airlock to a medical bay so they can bring things in to examine them instead of through the front door.

[–] cyguration (3951) 7 years ago

Well, it wasn't 100% realistic, but the original Alien was a lot more grounded than any other space-oriented alien flick out at the time (and even most released these days, as evident with Alien: Covenant). I think the only recent alien-menace film that seemed to take safety protocols seriously was the film Life.

[–] brux (14730) 7 years ago

Get me started on "Life" ... these are supposed to the the smartest and most highly trained people in the world on this space station, and they behave like complete idiots breaking the quarantine, or needing it in the first place.

[–] Clouseau2 (164) 7 years ago

Bringing Kane into the ship and breaking quarantine was a major plot point in Alien.

From Alien Anthology Wiki:

Special Order 937 was a classified retrieval order given by Weyland-Yutani to Science Officer Ash aboard the USCSS Nostromo. The order's main priority was to preserve the Xenomorph specimen that was encountered by the Nostromo in the Zeta II Reticuli system and bring it back alive for analysis. All other priorities are considered secondary and all of the Nostromo's crew members are deemed expendable.

[–] brux (14730) 7 years ago

yeah, well all this logic configured itself long after the movie was made. people discussed and argued about this online for years ... they still do. The whole blame it on those evil corporation meme I found stupid ... because, if you are going to do that, then that becomes the point of the movie ... but they just left the whole setup hazy. the more in-focus you can make a movie, at least to me, the better it is. I don't see greatness in a movie where everyone sees a different movie and goes home and talks about their own solipsistic notions of that it means ... particularly when the discussion get nasty and insulting. Gotta love these people who are so into a movie they will attempt metaphysical backflips to try to explain why it makes sense to them - and force it on you to think the same way. People are a pain in the neck.

[–] mel2000 (259) 7 years ago

yeah, well all this logic configured itself long after the movie was made.

The order to save the alien at the expense of the crew was explained in the original movie.

[–] brux (14730) 7 years ago

Why send the crew at all? Think about that backstory and because it is an evil corporation people accept it, but it makes non sense really. Why kill the crew, you put the crew at odds from the start and lessen the chance or success.

[–] mel2000 (259) 7 years ago

...you put the crew at odds from the start and lessen the chance or success.

Ash definitely wanted the crew dead after the alien was brought on the ship. Whatever plans the corporation had for the alien, it didn't involve the crew and no one on earth was supposed to find out.

I think the sequel had a greater implausibility issue. After Ripley wakes up on earth, she never informs the world about the heinous corporate plan that killed the crew. And she even agrees to join a new mission by that same company. Did people on earth have no interest in hearing what happened to the original crew? If they believed Ripley, the company surely wouldn't have had another chance at a similar mission. Otherwise the world assumes Ripley is a mass murderer and she is imprisoned.

[–] brux (14730) 7 years ago

> And she even agrees to join a new mission by that same company.

She did not really have much choice, and who is going to listen to her if she complains or blames the corporation?

[–] mel2000 (259) 7 years ago

She did not really have much choice

Could you elaborate?

"...and who is going to listen to her if she complains or blames the corporation?"

Someone, at least the family of the dead crew members, would be very interested in what she had to say. And since the sequel establishes early on that an entire new crew is missing and needs rescue, it points to her telling the truth. But if she's telling the truth, what does it say about the criminal liability of the company? That was completely overlooked in the sequel.

[–] brux (14730) 7 years ago

The way they portrayed that world that she was brought back to, no one knew about her, no one cared. Society only knew and cared about what the corporation wanted them to. Besides she would have starved because she had nowhere to go, no money, no idea of who to talk to. It was not overlooked, it was implied. It's pretty much damn close to that already here in the present.

[–] brux (14730) 7 years ago

Interesting ... I did not like either movie, but I guess mostly my reaction to Covenant is that with all that time money and skill they keep coming up with stupid garbage ... it makes me a lot more mad than at least a sincere effort that failed like Arrival. The whole idea was goofy, but at least it was not just braindead like Covenant ... and Prometheus by the way.

[–] samoanjoes (57061) 7 years ago

The thing that amazes me about this film is that it's in the same universe as the other Alien movies, but this one is way too over the top with people defying death.

[–] spurtle467 (1549) 7 years ago

Everything that was great about Alien was missing in this. The 2 films are worlds apart. I'll even happily take Alien's visual effects.

This film sank to the depths of your typical cliched slasher flick for the most part. You have hot looking couples doing stupid things, using the F word superfluously, getting picked off one by one in various gruesome fashion, AND they throw in a sex scene for good measure. It's closer to the Final Destination films in tone than it is to Alien.

I mean forgetting all the bad logic for a second, there were parts of this that were just so silly they came off as unintentionally funny, like "I'll do the fingering", and the moment David gets the newborn xenomorph to stand up with its arms raised. Who thought these would be good ideas?

My main gripe with this film among many, and the reason I'm losing respect for Scott most of all, is the sapping of the mystery out of the Alien movie that this does with its weakly written backstory on how the aliens came into existence. All because of a malevolent droid experimenting? REALLY??

[–] cyguration (3951) 7 years ago

My main gripe with this film among many, and the reason I'm losing respect for Scott most of all, is the sapping of the mystery out of the Alien movie that this does with its weakly written backstory on how the aliens came into existence. All because of a malevolent droid experimenting? REALLY??

Yep, same here.

I don't mind the mystery being spoiled if it's something grand, but in this case it's not grand... at all.

And you're right, the F-bombs had ZERO impact other than making me cringe given how stupid they were used. The sex scene was one of the most ill-placed, out-of-nowhere, poorly scripted scenes I've ever seen. Setting up a sex scene just to have a penetration death scene was one of the weirdest things about the film. It was like really? All your friends just died and you two decide to go have sex instead of checking protocol and making sure everything else is situated on the ship and the cargo you're carrying that's supposed to colonize a planet?

I mean, yeah... someone could write a novel about all the stupidity exercised in this film. Scott had no idea what he was doing and it only makes me long to see what Blompkamp would do with the franchise. His short films currently on Steam actually capture the horror, frights and grotesqueness that was exhibited in the first two Alien films.

If only he could nab the license... *sigh*

[–] johnmiller (3940) 7 years ago

Possibly the dumbest characters in the history of cinema! "Well done," Ridley. Well done. :-P

[–] MovieManCin2 (26342) 7 years ago

I agree completely, cygur! But then some movies need idiots to advance the plot.

Don't forget the total predictability. Did anyone NOT realize that the "Walter v David" WWE match was won by David, and that he was going to kill everyone and f**k up the mission? Anyone?

😎

[–] cyguration (3951) 7 years ago

Yeah MovieManCin2, it was a plot point you could see coming a mile away. What's so stupid about the whole thing is that Scott went through the painstaking process of setting up the ludicrous David vs Walter moments just to have a "bad" ending so it could set the film up for another sequel that will likely never happen.

[–] MovieManCin2 (26342) 7 years ago

Yes. Let's pray to the film gods that it never happens. This series is toast.

😎

[–] mbirth (30) 6 years ago

Which was stupid as well, because somehow he knew all the security codes for the ship and the ship didn't recognise there was a different Android from a different time on board. (No check for serial numbers or some other form of authentication?)

But then, this fits just wonderfully into the whole movie full of stupid people and stupid actions.

[–] MovieManCin2 (26342) 6 years ago

Yep.

😎

[–] MMaya (65) 7 years ago

I agree when I watched Prometheus I though it's the most idiotic unprofessional crew I ever saw but these guys made them look smart! complete hysterical amateur retards! I d on't know who even writes characters like this for an Alien movie... it literally made me mad watching it.