Where has Ridley go wrong with Alien: Covenant?

It's been some time actually since I had seen Alien Covenant and I actually debated on entering just another review or maybe something a bit more. We have done lots of reviews and whereas I actually get a lot of views I thought we would do something a bit more interesting. I thought I would actually write an essay putting out where Ridley Scott has gone wrong with his Alien series. A series that I think first got the ball rolling for him. It's one of his crowning achievements he has done, and yet for the past few years he has tried to re-ignite not just Alien series as a whole but make a big signature film.

Putting this whole thing in perspective I thought we would actually start at the beginning. The first movie Alien is a masterpiece it's basically a haunted house in space. In a haunted house movie...or even novel for that matter the big hitch is always "Why don't you just leave?". In this story, you can't just leave. Where would you go? How would you survive? What would you do? This also combined with monsters floating in space and coming after you made it very intense.

Throw in some very chilling and creepy scenes and you have a recipe for an intense and dark ride. One that was very I think original and cool. Then add in Aliens and you have two films that actually are respected. As far as a sequel I don't think you get any better. Okay, maybe it's as good one-two combo only next to Star Wars and Empire. The next one wasn't really a horrors delight but more of the horrors of war and going into battle.

I think when Fincher was hired to do the third film it was real. How were you going to top the last two and yet tell a story that was actually cohesive and not something that lost its self? Though that is what happened after a long shooting time, delays and the studio coming in and taking over the film you have Alien 3. Which wasn't at all what David wanted. They have kind of improved it when it comes to the "Directors Cut" though it's more like a "Working Cut". It's out on basic Blu-ray and in the quad collection. In fact, there are director cuts to all of the Alien movies.

Each film after the first two though settled on the horror aspect of the story, and of course what amazing things could they do with Ripley. I don't think it would ever come to mind to expand and maybe go about with another character or set up; thus linking it in some way back to Ripley. That is something a bit more modern.

Resurrection is a film that I don't know if it can stand on its own. I have it as I have actually all of them and I do watch it from time to time. I think they got a very bad director to direct the fourth film. He'd just made the art house movie Chocolat and this was his first big budget flick. It didn't go over so well. It's kind of sad too because one of the film credits is given to Joss Whedon. A man that would soon go and make Buffy and all the other wonderful geeky shows and movies.

With all those films come and gone years later enter Ridley wanting to go back and do another Alien movie. Yet, going in a new and I thought at the time a very bold choice telling us who and what made the aliens and their link to us. This is where he gets philosophical really. Bring in the Engineers these beings that helped us and then tried to get rid of us.

This is where it gets a bit biblical, and not very scary. I thought that Prometheus kept the overall story of Alien's..how and why but it didn't cover it in an interesting way. The alien's themselves didn't show till at the end of the movie. Some people liked the idea and some people didn't. Though they did listen I feel like since Prometheus but yet they still missed the mark. Still missing as a whole.

Spoilers past here. Read at your own risk!

Now we get to Alien Covenant and while I liked the movie it's kind of tough. That whole dinner where they are eating and about to go to sleep is missing from the film, and if I hadn't seen that I wouldn't have really seen the connections between the characters and the care they have. It would have come off as it did in the film which was "eh okay.....I guess". Why should we care that she loses James Franco if he's just a blimp on the radar?

I feel like this movie, for the most part, lost its self. There isn't much of a soul here. Yes, it's dark and intense. I do feel that way but it's not totally. It's almost as if by mistake. We are being undone by our own creation in an Android--or robot basically-- he's using the humans to make more aliens.

There are scary parts in this film and some uneasiness. It's dealing with a scary, animalistic being; of some shape or form. Yes, there are scares in here. There are some interesting scares and they are all from the trailer. Like the shower scene after the couple having sex, and the really creepy one of the guy having a chest burster as a woman in the room and she ends up being locked. We have seen all of those in the trailer. Which is kind of why I think some of the marketing is to be blamed? Why show the very intense and creepy scenes all of them- before we have gotten into the theater?

Taking out those scary parts there isn't really build up that keeps you feeling riveted to your seat. That keeps you thinking "holy crap...what is next". The end though is telegraphed a mile away. Look at the face of David. As she runs around blocking off parts of the ship to the Xenomorph and all it gets telegraphed as to who he is. Which is kind of sad really?

The movie ends on a hitch. That man is stupid and that robots are basically going to be our undoing. He sends out another distress call. Which you know from all the horror tropes out there that man is going to answer and fall for it. So not only are we going to be defeated but eliminated by machines cause of our own stupidity. That is what I took away from that film as a whole. It's man's stupidity. Because no one would think of the past or anything.

Very frustrating film and as whole marketing is really ruining the summer flicks. I hope that Wonder Woman does buck the trend and is a Wonder. Anyhow, what were you thinking as you sat there watching? Where do you think he went wrong and then where do you think he could go right? Because, whether we like it or not he wants to do another six films and is queuing up the next one to be shot in some six months.