Alien: Covenant (formerly known as Prometheus 2)

[electric indigo]

There were some allusions towards Christianity, aside from religious motifs all over the place, but the mess was all about the script.

[Knight26]

The mess was because of the "script doctor" who came on at the last minute to ruin what was a great script beforehand.

[TehPW]

But why the name 'Alien: Convenant'? When they changed the name of Prometheus to Prometheus, they said it would be a stand alone movie not involved in the Alien movies...? now?

[Negotiator]

that was the original plan. either the studio said "more aliens now!" or he didn't like the idea of Blomkamp making an alien movie and wanted to cock block him out of it, even moreso after the reviews for prometheus.

[sketchley]

I think it's the former - movie exec's these days tend to go for the low-risk, moderate-return business model, and putting more Aliens into it would make it more of a bankable film in this season of sequels...

A better film? That remains to be seen. *cough* AVP2 *cough*.

Edit: clarified spelling

Edited November 28, 2016 by sketchley

[Axelay]

I completely loved the Wolf Predator... but I hated pretty much everything else about that movie.

[Negotiator]

ya wolf was awesome, the rest of it was trash.

[TangledThorns]

If this new film sucks I'll have to play ALIEN: Isolation again to get the taste out of my mouth. Which is OK because the game is one of my all time favorites

[Hikuro]

And to think they pushed back and possibly screwed the proper ALIENS sequel blomkamp was working on to make this film instead.

[sh9000]

 

[505thAirborne]

That trailer looks good, especially that shot of Ship passing over the planet. 

[JB0]

My thoughts on the trailer were just that it can't decide if it is a sequel to Prometheus or a remake of Alien. Neither of which is a thing I particularly want to see.

[electric indigo]

While a quasi-remake of the original Alien could be an entertaining movie, it's certainly not needed and would be a step back in the general scope of things. But we've seen the more epic looking sets already, so there might be more to this than Alien 2.0.

[myk]

Well they've wasted our time with remaking/mutilating movies like Star Trek II and Star wars Episode 4, so sure, why not, go ahead and remake Alien, one of the most perfect sci-fi/horror movies of all time into another eye rolling inducing mess...

Edited December 27, 2016 by myk

[CoryHolmes]

12 hours ago, JB0 said:

My thoughts on the trailer were just that it can't decide if it is a sequel to Prometheus or a remake of Alien. Neither of which is a thing I particularly want to see.

Agreed on both counts.  This doesn't bode well for me enjoying this movie.

[derex3592]

The trailer for Prometheus looked great and had me really excited as well.....sooo....yeh..hopeful, but not really expecting greatness. I do like Fassbender.  

[TangledThorns]

I'm getting a weird AVP: Requiem vibe from this trailer, probably because of the extra bloody gore. Even though ALIEN and ALIENS had some gore that isn't what they made those films awesome.

I'm reading about the new directions they are going with the xenomorphs in this new movie. Seems like they are digging into the original ALIEN script plus HR Giger's concept art for inspiration. That just tells me they are out of ideas.

I'll only see this film if it has really good reviews.

[Dobber]

So are the Ridley's in the Alien 'Verse like the Brody's in the Jaws 'verse?

Chris

[JB0]

3 hours ago, Dobber said:

So are the Ridley's in the Alien 'Verse like the Brody's in the Jaws 'verse?

Chris

Seems like Clan Ripley is becoming such. 

[Graham]

My main issue with the trailer is why in the far future they are still armed with AR-15s with EoTech sights an M-Lok handguards.

If you're gonna do  a far future space movie, make the effort to give the characters some futuristic looking weaponry too, don't cheap out and use contemporary guns and think nobody will notice.

Especially as Aliens set the gold standard for cool looking futuristic guns with the M41A Pulse Rifle.

 

[JB0]

While your point is well-taken, Aliens ALSO featured several unmodified or lightly-modified real guns in addition to the pulse rifle.

[Graham]

Yeah, Hick's Ithaca M37 shotgun, the 1911 and VP70 off the top of my head, plus whatever MG the Smart Gun was, (MG42?), can't be bothered to Google it ATM.

[Graham]

But honestly how difficult would it be for them to at least do a Star Wars and stick a few greeblies on top of a real firearm to make it more sci-fi looking and not  like a contemporary modern sporting rifle.

Just for me, this is the kinda thing I always notice and that annoys me when watching a movie and it takes me out of the movie and spoils my suspension of disbelief.

They spend millions on the look of the movie, designing cool futuristic looking space ships, vehicles, cities, spacesuits, sets etc and then cheap out on the weapons and use unmodified, present day firearms......Grrrrr.

Unless that character shown in the trailer is presented as having a backstory where he's a collector of antique weapons, then this is laziness on the behalf of the production crew and designers.

[spanner]

trailer looks alright.. definitely looking forward to another Alien movie! 

[GMK]

There's also VISMOD EF88/F90/Atrax in there, too. 

[Graham]

Video I was too pixilated at the firing scene, couldn't make out what it was being fired.

[JB0]

Yeah, it would definitely be better if they had a "star" gun, like Aliens.

On the one hand, firearms are a mature technology, not typically prone to radical change. On the other, they ARE prone to gradual evolution as well as the aesthetic whims of the day, and DO look different from era to era(ignoring the Colt 1911, which by all appearances will still be in common use in 2211).

Also, things like the ammo indicator in the pulse rifle make sense for a futuregun where such a feature is close to free, and it'd be nice to see that kind of forward thinking.

[GMK]

Round counters are fielded tech from 2011. Thing is, they're internal, sealed units, interrogated by RFID, for conditions-based maintenance. Invisible to the operator. Google "Ru-bee" for more. 

[JB0]

1 hour ago, GMK said:

Round counters are fielded tech from 2011. Thing is, they're internal, sealed units, interrogated by RFID, for conditions-based maintenance. Invisible to the operator. Google "Ru-bee" for more. 

Very interesting.  Very interesting indeed.

The references I found seem to count lifetime rounds fired through a gun, rather than ammo remaining in the magazine.  I suppose you can assume every magazine inserted carries X rounds and just reset the counter to X on ever mag insert. That is easy enough, I suppose, but smacks of cheating.

 

Regardless! Very interesting tech that I had no idea existed!

[anime52k8]

factoid: Vasquez's pistol was a S&W model 39, not a 1911.

[JB0]

Indeed.

I was taking the opportunity to make a mild joke about the 1911's rather lengthy service life, not saying anyone in Aliens actually carried it. It is the gun no one can kill.

[GMK]

On 05/01/2017 at 11:55 PM, JB0 said:

Very interesting.  Very interesting indeed.

The references I found seem to count lifetime rounds fired through a gun, rather than ammo remaining in the magazine.  I suppose you can assume every magazine inserted carries X rounds and just reset the counter to X on ever mag insert. That is easy enough, I suppose, but smacks of cheating.

 

Regardless! Very interesting tech that I had no idea existed!

Yeah, it's not intended for the user, with only thirty rounds, it's no big deal. Just use these: https://www.magpul.com/products/firearms-accessories/pmag-magazines/pmag-30-ar-m4-gen-m3-window

The maintenance aspects of the rifle fleet over a life of twenty years are the killers...I'll stop or I'll geek out 

 

Edited January 6, 2017 by GMK
Clarity - subject

[JB0]

Fair enough. There's a lot to geek out about there.

(I spent more time than I care to admit wondering what processor they're using to meet those long-term power draw requirements. )

[Hikuro]

just reading there's going to be the VR experience which is gonna make me piss myself into a frenzy if something can get released on the PSVR.

[azrael]

I'm gonna echo Graham's sentiment of the props. I miss the dress up. Take this pic from the weekend:
]

It's a AUG with ACOG scope, folding grip, flashlight attachment. If I dug around I could probably find out what barrel shroud that is. It's like movie makers don't even try to make future guns look different.