Alien - 8.5/10 (Theatrical Cut)
Enjoyed this quite a bit more the second time around and a lot of that had to do with the fact that it wasn’t the Director’s Cut. I’m definitely never watching that version again.
Alien Covenant - 7.5/10
So much to say but I’ll just give semi spoilery bullet points:
- Felt like an Alien film much more than Prometheus did
- Characters acted like idiotic horror movie characters but I definitely liked a few of them
- David is even more interesting than he was in Prometheus and is now one of my favorite villains though I shouldn’t really call him that considering I’m not privy to what his long term machinations are.
- A lot of questions have yet to be answered and it’s starting to really frustrate me
- The horror elements of Alien and the philosophical aspects of Prometheus were somewhat lacking in my opinion; the former being the least shown element of the three present in the film
- The philosophical elements that are present are executed far more efficiently than Prometheus and since my viewing last night I can’t stop pondering about the esoteric nature of intelligent life and how literal perfection could be crafted and how that would effect the environment these beings would inhabit
EDIT:
Another thing that has crossed my mind since I watched Covenant is the question of who is worthy of life. Most people certainly aren’t in the context of Earth but on a cosmic level where would we rank in terms of intelligent beings? I very much doubt humans who are blinded by emotions, morality and a self destructive nature would be close to what the apex of life is like beyond our small corner of the universe. That’s not even factoring in the short life spans and frail bodies we have.
I’m not working on Thursday so I’ll probably go see it again if I’m feeling up it.