Alien: Covenant (2017) (1 Viewer)

[TravisR]

I think there's stuff that's funny in these movies but I don't think they're comedies masquerading as horror/sci-fi movies though.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I think there's stuff that's funny in these movies but I don't think they're comedies masquerading as horror/sci-fi movies though.

Yes, this. Many serious dramas or thrillers have moments of humor, but Reggie W wrote that : “because there seems to be no doubt what Covenant is...basically a fun and goofy tribute to B movie science fiction.”

Writing “basically” communicates to me you think the basic purpose of Covenant is to be “fun and goofy”. I watched that Fassbender interview and the scenes he mentions as being humorous, for me, they are intense scary scenes. When Dick Van Dyke falls over his couch its funny. When a character slips in bloody gore and loses the only weapon that could save her from a monster, not funny.

You’re perception of the movie as basically fun and goofy and you enjoy it. I think you’ve misinterpreted the movie, IMHO.

But we’ve been here before, I read your viewpoint and you’ve read mine and others. Nuff said for me.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Reggie W wrote that : “because there seems to be no doubt what Covenant is...basically a fun and goofy tribute to B movie science fiction.”

I do see it as that yes, in fact I feel Forbidden Planet was a big influence on Covenant. The way David sweeps in and takes the remaining crew back to his lair and he has this lab where he has been doing strange experiments. I do think the film is meant to just be fun, and I think it is, and this works better, in my opinion, than whatever was being attempted in Prometheus which swung back and forth between ridiculous and ponderous.

Do I think they set out to make a comedy with Prometheus? No, I think different people set out to do different things with it. I think the end result ended up being comical...some of it intentional and some of it unintentional just because they did not think through what they were doing and particularly leaving all the characters except David really being so harebrained as to be preposterous.

However, when they set out to make a sequel I think they embraced the goofiness in Prometheus, so that was more accidental in the first prequel, and more intentional in the second prequel. In Prometheus David is presented as the "suspicious" android we have grown accustomed to but in Covenant they have elevated him to over the top villain and essentially the creator of the Xeno and the facehugger and the one driving the entire Alien story.

Is it great stuff? No, but at least because they seemed to know exactly what they wanted to do in the second film I think it all came across much better.

And yes, those are my thoughts on it and everybody is welcome to their own thoughts on it. If people want to know how I came to these conclusions it was from watching the films.

I am not saying these films are strictly comedy but I am saying in comparison to Alien, which was a straightforward horror/thriller set in space, they have far more comedy and silliness in their tone and approach than Scott's original picture.

I think this is because for whatever reason, and you can find Scott saying this if you look, Ridley felt the entire Alien franchise was dead and the Xeno was totally cooked and no longer interesting or frightening. So, he was fine with going in another direction and he sort of thinks on his feet with this stuff. So, when Prometheus got sort of I guess what you would call mixed reactions he decided to return to the Xeno but make the whole thing an over the top B movie and make his most interesting character, David, the central player in the whole "franchise."

This is what I see in these films but again...that's me other people do not have to agree with me.

 

[TJPC]

I saw this film and bought a copy. I can’t for the life of me understand how anything in this intensely serious film could possibly be considered humerous. If anyone was laughing in the audience during a showing, I am sure they must have hit the bar first.

 

[TJPC]

By the way, few people would consider “Forbidden Planet” to be a “B” movie.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I can’t for the life of me understand how anything in this intensely serious film could possibly be considered humerous. If anyone was laughing in the audience during a showing, I am sure they must have hit the bar first.

Well, it is true that many of the places I go to see a film have a bar and you can imbibe while you watch a picture...but I thought things were settled about why I would have been laughing and the consensus was mental illness combined perhaps with liberal amounts of drugs and alcohol.

The truth with Prometheus is the first time through I did not really laugh. The second time through I laughed a little. The third time through...yes, I was howling with laughter. So, I think it is one of those deals where it gets funnier the more times you see it.

With Covenant I did laugh quite a bit the first time through...probably the loudest at the "Watch me I'll do the fingering." line as David placed a flute into Walter's mouth and I was thinking "Wow, they really wrote and filmed this scene? Or am I having another one of my hallucinations?"

I did ask the person next to me if I had actually heard and seen Fassbender say and do that...which produced gales of laughter around me because people overheard me asking the question and then a murmur as people laughed and repeated what I had said...and the person next to me confirmed I was not in fact hallucinating.

So, booze, drugs, and mental illness aside...yup, that happened.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Oh FFS, did we really need to resurrect a thread to have the same conversation again for the 5th time?

 

[Johnny Angell]

but I thought things were settled about why I would have been laughing and the consensus was mental illness combined perhaps with liberal amounts of drugs and alcohol.

That's a good place to leave it.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Oh FFS, did we really need to resurrect a thread to have the same conversation again for the 5th time?

I'm hoping it gets funnier as we do it again and again.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

That's a good place to leave it.

I feel no shame...

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I would just humbly say that when one person insists on repeating an opinion in a way that makes further discussion impossible, it becomes a loss to anyone else who might wish to discuss that topic. As these are two of my favorite sci-fi films in recent years, I feel that is an unfortunate loss for the community here.

 

[Tino]

And let me add my apologies for farting on this already stinky fire.

 

[Tino]

I would just humbly say that when one person insists on repeating an opinion in a way that makes further discussion impossible, it becomes a loss to anyone else who might wish to discuss that topic. As these are two of my favorite sci-fi films in recent years, I feel that is an unfortunate loss for the community here.

That’s an excellent point Josh. And unfortunately very true.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I would just humbly say that when one person insists on repeating an opinion in a way that makes further discussion impossible, it becomes a loss to anyone else who might wish to discuss that topic.

I've asked Tino over and over to stop doing this but the guy just loves fart jokes. Everybody has their thing.

 

[Bryan^H]

When I read this thread.

 

[Sam Favate]

Hey guys, I'm sorry I bumped this thread. It's just that I just saw the film and wanted to comment. I had no idea it was all this.

 

[Tino]

Hey guys, I'm sorry I bumped this thread. It's just that I just saw the film and wanted to comment. I had no idea it was all this.

No worries Sam. Not your fault. You had no idea ofthe baggage in this thread.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Hey guys, I'm sorry I bumped this thread. It's just that I just saw the film and wanted to comment. I had no idea it was all this.

What's the kerfuffle? It's not as if you are the one doing the fingering.