Anyone else here going to see Alien: Covenant in theaters?

It comes out on May 19th, which seems so soon. I mean, I expected to wait longer for another story in the Alien universe. I'm really excited for it, but to be honest I haven't kept up with it as much as I probably can, considering I'm a big fan of Alien. From what I understand, this takes place ten years after Prometheus and will show the planet that Shaw and David go to, where the crew land and actually run into David (it seems Shaw might have died?) Also, the Engineer's (or Space Jockey if you want) didn't create the black goo, xenomorph nor humans. I don't know how long that news has been out, but the last I checked, which was a few weeks ago, that's the first time I've heard about it. I am one that kind of liked that Prometheus stayed in the same universe and yet went its own way, but I am not disappointed that they're colliding the two together, now planning to bridge Prometheus with the original film.

I love Alien and Aliens (as well as Alien Isolation), but dislike Alien 3 and especially Resurrection. Prometheus is worse than Alien and Aliens to me, but that comes down to how dumb the characters are to me, and some of the writing being cringeworthy. Otherwise, I really liked Prometheus a lot. I don't see many movies in theaters, but this and Blade Runner 2047 I feel I need to go see in theaters. I find it weird that Danny McBride and James Franco are in it; it's not a bad thing, just weird to me. I started watching Danny McBride's Eastbound & Down just because he's in the film; saw two seasons and some of the third. It's funny if you don't mind how crude it is. Anyways, that's off topic, but I wanted to see his other work that he's known for before seeing him in Alien is all.

Is anyone else here excited for the movie? I think I need to try and read up on what the movie is about more. It kind of makes me want to go play Aliens: Colonial Marines... Ha, no. Just kidding. I'm currently reading this, which is pretty interesting and new to me.

I'm looking forward to it because it's a Ridley Scott Alien movie but it does not look good to me. The scares in the trailers seem typical and dumb, and the alien CG looks really bad. However if it gets good reviews, I'm running to the theater.

I adore Alien, like Aliens a lot, and like Prometheus. 3 and 4 can go fuck themselves

@frostyryan: I've always been into the Alien universe due to the sci-fi aspect. The more violent nature of it was always just kind of an interesting take on it. On one side you have an optimistic sci-fi like Star Trek, which I love, and then Alien which is kind of the opposite, and I also love it. I don't think Alien is all that scary, so I am not really going to see this movie to be scared. Also, I'm just reading speculation that one of the characters is the grandmother to Newt, though it's based on last name only. It makes sense, though if Ridley is trying to connect some of what Blomkamp is doing in his film.

I usually wait a while before seeing something in theaters (hate crowds) but I generally plan too see it in theater, as long as the reviews aren't abysmal I'll go. I regretted not seeing Prometheus in theater, if not just for that scene where David is mesmerized by the 3D galaxy map.

And I know this one seems more traditional of an Alien movie (so far anyways) so it might not have stuff like that, but still, wouldn't mind seeing it. I know people get sick of Aliens stuff but, well, those people can just not go see it then, I'm still down for Aliens.

Aliens is my favorite, Alien next, Prometheus in third despite some of it's stupid character moments.
I don't mind 3, I think it was a very bad follow up to the series at the time, killing 2/4 of the main characters from the last film was such an idiotic idea no one, NO ONE wanted to see the Newt/Ripley relationship end that way or Hicks for that matter. At least we got some more Bishop, but a husk that gets killed anyways, so obviously a horrible follow up that no one wanted at the time. But now that it's later and we can't do anything about that, I don't dislike it, it's a little boring, some of the effects are not great, but I like tone of the prison planet thing they have going, and Charles S. Dutton is a joy in whatever he is in, I think anyways. Plus at least they tried to end the thing. Tried.
Then someone says "Hey, why don't we give the next Alien movie to the french director who made the quirky romantic comedy Amelia."
On the DVD commentary the guy says he doesn't know why they picked him. Even the director doesn't know why they wanted him. I find it hard to blame the guy for any of it, he shouldn't have been given it, doesn't think he should have been given it, but was anyways. Just Fox pumping it out because money.
At the very least it's so bad it's good. So it's watchable.

So I basically like the majority of the movies so far, that's enough good will to me to see it so long as it's not resting at an awful review rate by the time I'm ready, I'm talking really bad though. My personal opinions don't tend to gel with stuff like rotten tomatoes, plenty of movies in the 50 or 60 percent that I think are great. However, not many, if any movies in the, say, 10 percent range that I disagree with, so if it's down there then maybe not.

I'm with you on 1, 2 and Prometheus, but 3 and 4 deserve more love. Three was gutted by production hell and studio meddling, but if you go back and watch the director's cut (or whatever it's called) it's a pretty great piece of Alien flick. Four is surreal. It's almost like a satire of an Alien movie. I was a fan of Jeunet before he did the Alien movie, and his fingerprints are all over it. Other than the ending - which is a bit much - I think it's an interesting and worthwhile take on the franchise.

I'm an Aliens kinda guy, and while I like Ridley Scott a whole lot, I feel James Cameron is just more what I want from the franchise.

But we're a long way from those days, and we're stuck with Avatar Cameron now. So nah, I probably won't see another one of these in theaters no matter who's behind it

I wanted a true sequel to Prometheus, featuring Noomi Rapace as the main character, with Fassbender's head as company, exploring the engineer's dead home world. Finally, they do something interesting with the series again and instead of pursuing it, they go back to the same old same old. Big letdown. No, I'm not seeing it in a cinema.

yes, I plan to see that movie. I have seen Prometheus and Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection

Yes I'll go see it but I'm fairly sure it's not going to be very good. As others have pointed out Covenant seems to be treading very tired old ground. I'm a big fan of the Alien universe: the aliens, the tech, the weird mega corporations. That said ehh ..Prometheus had some actors in it that I really liked so that made it a little better despite the awful script. In Covenant I'm mainly interested in seeing Danny McBride play a serious character - I'm sure Fassbender is going to be great as well. Weirdly enough, or rather sadly enough, I'm in no way intrigued by the story from what I've seen of the trailers. At least in Prometheus there was that "ohhh snap" moment where they showed you a glimpse of the pilot and we all naively thought the origins of the aliens will be revealed. Covenant just looks like they went to a place and will start getting killed off one by one.

Yeah, I'm gonna. I can't say why, though, because I sure as heck do not expect to see a great movie.

We(my gf and I) are interested this movie. Prometheus seemed to be hated when it was released, so we waited for the DVD. We picked it up at BB in one of those $5 blu-ray bins thinking thats an ok price to try it. It's not Alien or Aliens but we enjoyed it; and we wanted more of the story. I'm hopeful.

I would like to go see this on the big screen but we haven't even gone to see Logan yet. The older I get the more I enjoy TV/movies at home. We can pause at anytime for a beverage or snack, rewind and discuss a scene, stop to watch later.

3 and 4 does things with the xenomorphs I'm glad to see being done and while the movies them selves might not be top notch I still love them for what they do. Prometheus on the other hand, I found boring and kind of pointless.

I'll probably go see the new one.

Yes, though this thread is more than a month early so if you were trying to promote interest then you probably should have done it like a week before, people have extremely short attention spans at present. Prometheus when strictly viewed as a philosophical thought experiment is an interesting movie; if you just watch it for the plot as presented it's pretty damn dumb. Thoughts and more thoughts.

@hellbrendy: Yah I also think 3 and 4 have some cool parts to them. I think 4 especially is exploring that universe in a way I'd like these new movies to go, although it sadly did so in this weird B-tier way.

Yes.

@fredchuckdave: Not my job to promote interest, I was just wondering if anyone wanted to see it in theaters as well.

@james_ex_machina: You're not unique in that feeling, about wanting to stay home instead to watch movies. Though it wouldn't be good for theaters, I kind of wish they would just start letting you rent/buy the new movies at home, at least digitally.

@humanity: The trailers make it seem like that because that's what they think a lot of people want to see. It could very well be that, but I think there's a bit more behind the story, at least from what I've read up on.

@billmcneal: But have you seen AVP, which is all that really matters?

@ezekiel: It is a sequel to it, and it is the planet with those characters, but yeah, they've now decided to try and connect the two and it isn't really about Shaw and David exploring the Engineer home world. Honestly, this perspective is kind of interesting to me.

@giantstalker: Cameron is definitely stuck on Avatar, that said, the l read is that he's going to have a hand in the next Terminator. He got some of the license back or is going to.

@sinusoidal: I have Alien Anthology, the Director's Cut (or Assembly Cut) of three is the one I know most, and it's where I decided that I just don't like Alien 3, but I do like it more than Resurrection. The only aspects I like of three is the ending where her pod replays her message from the first Alien, and though I don't love Fury 161, it does remind me a lot of Butcher Bay, which is one of my favorite game settings. Man... This kind of makes me want to watch Prometheus, Alien and Aliens.

You people who don't value the movie theater experience are monsters, I tell ya

I still love the Alien franchise so hell yeah I will be

My monitor is far more vivid than a projector, and I don't have to wear glasses. My stereo headphones sound better than the surround speakers at my local cinema. An auditorium is too big. There's too much echo, noise and vibration. It makes me skeptical about home surround sound systems. I wish the studios used binaural recording.

The only movies I went to the cinema for in the last few years were Fury Road and the two Star Wars movies.

If I could, I'd see every movie in a theater. It's just, I...can't. So I'll wait to see this, but I am interested in it. I quite liked Prometheus.

@sinusoidal: I understand Alien 3 love because I'm well aware of the production mess, and I respect the effort...but 4 is nothing more than a misguided cash-in. They even revive Ripley. Sigourney Weaver thought the whole idea was stupid.

It's just clearly a studio ordered movie to make money and not an actual vision.

@ntm: I haven't seen any of the Alien vs Predator movies, but I have been meaning to

@frostyryan said:

There's visiony bits in there. Resurrecting Ripley isn't that far-fetched for Jean-Pierre Jeunet. I mean, up to that point he'd done Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children which were about an unemployed circus clown living in a post-apocalyptic French apartment building and a mad scientist who steals children's dreams respectively. Why would a meddling studio choose him to direct (and let Dominique Pinon star?)

@sinusoidal: I'm sorry, I'll plead ignorance because I'm not familiar with the director.

I'll also admit it's probably always hyperbole to say "this movie had no vision." Regardless though, I do think Resurrection just sucks. lol

Planning on it. Just saw Life today. All I will say is damn. Not the greatest movie but I like the creature design. I also plan on watching all the Alien films up to release. Wife hasn't watched them yet and just got the Quadrilogy.

I'll see it in theatres because there's a theatre in the mall I work at, but I'm not necessarily hopeful.

I've had a lot more good experiences in the cinema than bad, but the bad ones really make me question whether or not it's worth the gamble.

I'd be on board for that, at this point I think the Alien brand is more tainted than Prometheus ever was. (I thought it was better than all the Alien sequels)

I dont think this new one will be great (the trailer wasnt very good) but i'll see it anyway because i'm a sucker.

this thread kinda makes me want to finally sit down and see prometheus. it always intrigued me and looked like a sci fi ass sci fi film with some good concepts and visuals, dumb characters be damned.

I really liked Prometheus and hoped this would be a continuation of it but it doesn't look like it. To me it seems more like a generic monster movie, and I really don't want to watch another movie where the first half is a group of people discovering the Xenomorphs and finding out about how face huggers works etc.

It's like watch the orgin story of the same superhero over and over again.

@billmcneal: Just so you know, it was sarcasm. They're not good at all; worse than even Resurrection I might say. Well, maybe the first AVP is better, but that's not actually saying much.

It isn't Jeunet's best. You shouldn't let it sour you on him. Watch The City of Lost Children. It's brilliant. Ron Perlman is in it and doesn't speak French, so he just reads the lines. It's pretty great. It'll also give you an idea of where Jeunet is coming from and why he was such a weird choice to direct an Alien movie.

@boozak: I WORKED at a movie theater for several years and let me tell you it's incredibly hard to go back to watching movies in a theater like a regular person after you've been on the proverbial other side of the curtain.

@ntm: oh good, maybe I should never see those AVP movies then

@humanity: Because of rats (and their turds) and you guys that clean the aisles, don't actually clean them other than minor sweeping? No offense to you, so I'm not picking on you, I'm just saying that's what I've read. I've also read some negative things about the food, which is unfortunate considering that's how theaters make most of the money they get.

@ripelivejam: Go in expecting some bad writing here and there, and dumb character moments. Some people point to the moment where Shaw and Vickers are running from the derelict ship in a straight line, but that's not even the worst of it to me. Otherwise, it is great in my opinion. Also, for some of the dumb stuff the film has, I'm not really sure where the blame is put.

@boozak: Not many bad moments in theaters, the only ones I recall is one time my brothers, a friend and I went to go see Spiderman (three I think it was), and one woman in front of us kept saying 'another one bites the dust!' really loud whenever something major happened. I also think a kid coughed on the back of my head one time. There have also been a few times where someone would rest the feet on the back of my seat. Fortunately, the last time I went to the local theater down the street, I noticed that they totally redid the theater. There are freaking reclining lazy boy chairs in them now, so a lot of room between chairs now.

@ezekiel: Same, the last two films I saw in theaters was the Star Wars films.

@billmcneal: Up to you obviously. I wouldn't pay to watch either of them, though maybe if they're free somehow (okay, not even then, but that's the only way I could recommend it if you're at all interested).

@ntm: Uhh I'm not sure what you're talking about with rat droppings. I worked my way up from being a regular usher but I spent the bulk of my years as a manager and projectionist and that was what I was referring to. As a projectionist I was able to play movies for myself and other managers at like 3am when our shift ended and we would go out and buy some chinese food or McDonalds that was open all night in the area, get drinks, lounge out in an empty auditorium and watch the movie without anyone making noise or constantly crunching down on nachos right next to you. Now when I go to a theater as a regular patron I get annoyed by having all these other people around me, about sound not being set up correctly, about improper masking, about trailers not being switched out on a regular basis.

As far usher work and cleaning auditoriums - there aren't a whole lot of issues with rat droppings in the auditoriums themselves. You will usually find them in storage rooms or places where people don't visit that often, and to a lesser degree the "trouble spots" would get cleaned regularly. Auditoriums are mostly swept but they do mop them at the end of the night. As far as food goes then a lot of the shitty things you hear are pretty much true. The specific chain that I worked for (a large chain in the US) was pretty cheap so we would do a whole bunch of shady things. That butter that we pour on your popcorn? That is drained into a bowl each night and then put in the fridge to be used the next day, over and over again. The syrup for Coke and such that comes in these bags would very often be expired until used up because no one ever orders fruit punch and some idiot ordered 10 boxes of it. Nachos would be prepared in trays a day in advance of big friday shows and stored in cardboard boxes in the storage rooms that, as mentioned above, would often get visited by mice at night. Hot Dogs are ironically pretty safe because anything that isn't sold by the end of the day gets bagged as "waste" and logged in inventory. Pretzel Bites are probably the safest thing to order because they're cooked on the spot, or at least they were in my location. Nacho cheese is in fact gross and the less you know the better. I could go on and on but you get the picture. Despite what comedy or teen movies depict, I never saw anyone spit in anyones drink or anything disgusting like that no matter how troublesome the customer. The mean things that concession stand people would do were usually passive aggressive like if people were annoying about how much butter they wanted on their popcorn you would put in so much that it would soak through the bottom of the bag.

@humanity: Yep, that's pretty much what I've heard/read about theaters. As for what you said, I just took it as the same way people that work in fast food chains talk about those when they've worked in them, which is never good. There's a really nice Loews 20 minutes from my house, which is not the closest theater, but it has mocha's there, which I rarely see in any theater. I wanted to get some but never did. I wonder how good they are. As for concession stand people, I've never heard of anyone being mean to customers (though I'm sure it has happened), and they aren't as in control of putting the butter on the popcorn anymore from what I understand since they have little areas that people can put it on themselves, though I know there is butter already on it once they hand it to you, so people can just put extra on. And ha ha, yeah I'm pretty sure comedy or teen movies aren't a good representation of theaters.

Oh yeah, definitely. Though I'm the type that sees a ton of movies in theaters.

For me, I have a general fondness for the franchise despite not having seen a lot of the movies in it. I actually liked Prometheus for the most part, and I absolutely adore Katherine Waterston. Plus, I generally just enjoy movies where people go to an alien planet and weird stuff happens. So I'm in just for those elements.

I will agree with some of the others above that the scares in the trailer look somewhat uninspired, but we'll have to see - Sometimes horror movies don't come off great in trailers.

No. Prometheus was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Frankly I'm shocked that so many people are defending it in this thread.

That new Blade Runner, I'll see. Because Ridley Scott isn't directing it, thank heavens.

I'm shocked that people can be so hyperbolic in their disfavor of Prometheus. Wait, no I'm not. If it's one of the worst movies you've seen, I gotta assume that you haven't seen a lot of poor movies.

Denis Villeneuve seems okay. I wasn't that impressed by Prisoners and Incendies.

I want to see it pretty badly, but not bad enough to take my ass to the theater. I enjoy a nice popcorn thriller. That's what I got out of Prometheus and I wasn't disappointed. That's what I expect this to be.

I loved Arrival, Prisoners didn't appeal to me at the time, but after seeing Arrival I've been meaning to go back and watch it.

I stand by my statement about Prometheus. I am not being hyperbolic, of the thousands of movies I've seen, in my opinion it's easily among the worst. It's an incoherent, ponderous mess of a story posing as a mysterious labyrinthine puzzle box, in which a bunch of unlikable characters make a series of inexplicable decisions leading to a completely inconclusive finale which provides none of the revelations that the movie has promised, interspersed with the occasional gorgeous special effects shot.

Honestly I can't remember the last time I hated a movie as much as I hated Prometheus, I found it insulting to my intelligence how much the movie was constantly trying to convince me how profound and thought-provoking it is, while simultaneously feeding me a movie about blue bodybuilder gods and killer anti-DNA goo. I mean if it'd owned up to how inane it is, if it'd had no greater ambitions than to provide a fun, frivolous horror movie, then I'm sure I would've been on board. But I found Prometheus to be the cinematic equivalent of pissing on my leg and telling me that it's raining, because for all of Prometheus's philosophical grandeur, the movie's central question of "What if we met our creators and they got mad and punched us?" isn't particularly profound to me.

I saw Prometheus in theatres and thought it was alright. Not great and looking back even worse and I was considering going to see this until I caught a trailer (I usually don't) and was put off going to see it.

I'm definitely going to see it, but I'm going in with zero expectations. Hopefully Ridley Scott remembered how to properly write a comprehensible story since Prometheus came out.

Yeah. About 4 "Joss Whedon has commented on his dissatisfaction with the movie. Fans had speculated that the finished movie deviated from his original script in some fatal manner, however he put such rumors to rest. His dialogue, action and plot were essentially intact. However he had written with a playful, tongue-in-cheek tone, which didn't work when the director decided to "play it straight." (from imdb.com). It's a bummer but it is what it is. And as I mentioned, I like it.

Kenny Powers vs. Aliens