Alien: Covenant Ultra HD Blu-ray Review & Comments

Casimir Harlow

Movies Editor
Joined
Feb 28, 2005
Messages
9,256
Reaction score
18,869
Points
8,059
Age
45
Location
Reading
I'll be picking this up next week... not sure if I'll be watching it again though :)

I probably will as it sounds like a good presentation.
 
Cas - no offence but there should be no spoilers for Prometheus in there: the first few paragraphs explains the ending of the film.
 
I do think that some of the Blu ray outtakes extended sequences should have been in the main film, the explanation all be it brief of the old Prometheus ship to somebody instrumental to the film thoughts and ideas etc.
It would have made covenant more coherent and nullified the need for scene before the final act.
 
I actually rather enjoyed this. Sure, plenty of flaws, super dumb crew, for example, but that’s almost a trope of these movies by now. There are things that are unexplained, but I am not sure they are exactly ‘plot holes’ as such - that depends on what happens in the next movie (if it gets made). There seems to be a bit of resentment from fans that the origin of the Alien is not the one they had imagined, but at least there is nothing as dissapointing as the start of Ailen3 that literally undermines the entire point of Aliens within the first minute, and Covenant provides a few twists that aren’t completely predictable.

At the very least you can count on Ridley Scott to deliver a great looking movie, this one is no exception. It’s a shame (for me) this wasn’t released in 3D though, as Prometheus is an excellent example of the format, but it’s a good looking Blu-Ray anyway. (I haven’t gone UHD yet, although I actually bought the UHD/Blu-ray pack of this ‘just in case’, as it was only a couple of quid more).
 
Cas - no offence but there should be no spoilers for Prometheus in there: the first few paragraphs explains the ending of the film.

Yup, cause it's a direct sequel. How would you even write about any of the Alien sequels without spoiling the preceding films? The mere existence of Ripley in the Aliens was a spoiler to Alien and so forth.
 
I actually rather enjoyed this. Sure, plenty of flaws, super dumb crew, for example, but that’s almost a trope of these movies by now. There are things that are unexplained, but I am not sure they are exactly ‘plot holes’ as such - that depends on what happens in the next movie (if it gets made). There seems to be a bit of resentment from fans that the origin of the Alien is not the one they had imagined, but at least there is nothing as dissapointing as the start of Ailen3 that literally undermines the entire point of Aliens within the first minute, and Covenant provides a few twists that aren’t completely predictable.

At the very least you can count on Ridley Scott to deliver a great looking movie, this one is no exception. It’s a shame (for me) this wasn’t released in 3D though, as Prometheus is an excellent example of the format, but it’s a good looking Blu-Ray anyway. (I haven’t gone UHD yet, although I actually bought the UHD/Blu-ray pack of this ‘just in case’, as it was only a couple of quid more).

I think the Alien 3 comparison couldn't be more accurate. Scott completely undermines the whole point of Prometheus with what he does in Covenant, almost in exactly the same way.
 
I think the Alien 3 comparison couldn't be more accurate. Scott completely undermines the whole point of Prometheus with what he does in Covenant, almost in exactly the same way.

That depends on what you consider the “whole point” of Prometheus to be - a key point of Aliens is that Newt is a surrogate for Ripley’s daughter. For another director to throw away beloved characters we rooted for so casually was an insult to the previous movie and the fans. However Scott obviously feels that David is the more interesting protagonist in these movies, as a kind of “Frankenstein’s monster”. For sure, the revelations in Covenant could have been handled better, but I didn’t feel that the entire point of Prometheus was undermined, as to me, the real point of that movie was to lead us towards an explanation of the origin of the Aliens, not just a ‘survival horror’ movie.
 
That depends on what you consider the “whole point” of Prometheus to be - a key point of Aliens is that Newt is a surrogate for Ripley’s daughter. For another director to throw away beloved characters we rooted for so casually was an insult to the previous movie and the fans. However Scott obviously feels that David is the more interesting protagonist in these movies, as a kind of “Frankenstein’s monster”. For sure, the revelations in Covenant could have been handled better, but I didn’t feel that the entire point of Prometheus was undermined, as to me, the real point of that movie was to lead us towards an explanation of the origin of the Aliens, not just a ‘survival horror’ movie.

I wasn't just talking about what happened to the protagonist. What about the Engineers? Whatever 'point' Prometheus had wasn't serviced by Covenant. It just pretended there was another 'point'.
 
I wasn't just talking about what happened to the protagonist. What about the Engineers? Whatever 'point' Prometheus had wasn't serviced by Covenant. It just pretended there was another 'point'.

Fully agree , the big ( although misguided and often rather vague ) ideas of Prometheus are totally abandoned for what is little more than a poor Alien slasher flick. For all the talk from RS that these films would indeed focus on the engineers we have a small David scene in Covernent that raises even more questions as it's never fleshed out or indeed fully explained.

All very annoying.
 
Surely the point of Prometheus is that they are tasked with finding our creators and its part of explaining how the aliens came to be, plus it expands on the alien universe.

Covenant carries on with explaining the aliens origins.

I'm not sure it's really anymore complicated and I don't see how Covenant squashed the ideas in Prometheus as it was one guy funding the mission and well they won't be funding missions like that anymore considering what happens.

Hard to not include spoilers really discussing this.
 
I wasn't just talking about what happened to the protagonist. What about the Engineers? Whatever 'point' Prometheus had wasn't serviced by Covenant. It just pretended there was another 'point'.

Well Scott's stated aim of these movies is to explain how an Engineer ship full of Alien eggs, and with an Engineer pilot at the helm came to end up on LV-426 some time before the Nostromo finds it. If he is true to that aim, then that would suggest that we are not done with the Engineers just yet. Of course if another movie is not made, then this story line ends with a huge and unexplained cliffhanger, but for now I can accept that not everything had to be tied up in this one movie.
 
Well Scott's stated aim of these movies is to explain how an Engineer ship full of Alien eggs, and with an Engineer pilot at the helm came to end up on LV-426 some time before the Nostromo finds it. If he is true to that aim, then that would suggest that we are not done with the Engineers just yet. Of course if another movie is not made, then this story line ends with a huge and unexplained cliffhanger, but for now I can accept that not everything had to be tied up in this one movie.

Which would make the entire plot to Covenant utterly redundant. Unless the idea was to show us genetic devolution, which it's done quite well with the time he spent trying to make the gestation time longer :facepalm:
 
Surely the point of Prometheus is that they are tasked with finding our creators and its part of explaining how the aliens came to be, plus it expands on the alien universe.

Covenant carries on with explaining the aliens origins.

I'm not sure it's really anymore complicated and I don't see how Covenant squashed the ideas in Prometheus as it was one guy funding the mission and well they won't be funding missions like that anymore considering what happens.

Hard to not include spoilers really discussing this.

Well it could have been as simple as that if it weren't for... black goo.

Now he's actually posed more questions than answers and not a jot of it makes sense. Alien origins? Even he doesn't know. And there's no longer any meaningful explanation that would work thanks to him and Lindelof.
 
Having watch this last night and prometheus the night before, The only place this beat prometheus was in the audio department.

I need to watch again with the bluray extras as @Se7en has recommended. Extended Edition anyone? :laugh::rolleyes:

Overall agree with you though Cas, Definitely a weak installment. Many thanks for the review :)
 
Last edited:
The blu ray extras definitely add more substance and meaning to the back story between both films and covenant.
I agree extended edition incoming @ rhino2k
 
The blu ray extras definitely add more substance and meaning to the back story between both films and covenant.
I agree extended edition incoming @ rhino2k

I will be on those extras soon mate, Then spin the UHD up again :smashin:
 
The film's main crime for me is that it is pretty throwaway but doesn't think it is. Fassbender is used well, but only on pretty enjoyable fluff. Ridley Scott is excellent at directing scenes and sequences like the super tense flute lessons etc but should choose better scripts. That's my two penneth anyway.
It's almost a crime that this is a 2k upscale job. It was in the cinema only a few weeks ago! If Hollywood isn't ready for 4k why should we be forking out for it?!
 
So am I the only one that thinks the opening of Alien 3 is brilliant then ?
 
So am I the only one that thinks the opening of Alien 3 is brilliant then ?

Nope, I love it too! So unexpected and sets the film up with a really nihilistic tone that leads to the stunning ending.......nah I'm with you squire, it's awesome!
 
Yup, cause it's a direct sequel. How would you even write about any of the Alien sequels without spoiling the preceding films? The mere existence of Ripley in the Aliens was a spoiler to Alien and so forth.

There should at least be a warning then, imho.
 
There should at least be a warning then, imho.

Fair enough. I go out of my way not to spoil the movies I'm reviewing but, as I've said, I think it's nigh on impossible to avoid spoilers of the films that came before them. It'd be different if this was a more episodic franchise like Bond but Prometheus ended on something of an impossible-to-satisfactorily-resolve cliffhanger (which wasn't satisfactorily resolved) and, imho, not talking about that would have made any film review of Covenant too obtuse (I'd argue you can't watch Covenant without having seen Prometheus). I have a feeling the cinema review of Covenant covered the same ground in even more detail but I didn't write it so I don't remember for sure.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom