Alien : Covenant

Fassbender is originally German; he's one of the best actors out there and can convincingly master any accent. If you saw Prometheus, near the beginning you heard him flawlessly practice languages supposedly related to the engineers' language. I'm not sure if he and Scott chose the distinctive speech of David (more British) and Walter (more US) to convey that Walter was more trustworthy to a US audience, or a play on the idea that the US has more people of faith. I agree with your point that some intro to the crew may have been a more important backstory than the belabored conversation between David and Wayland. However, Scott probably felt he had to throw in that prologue because without it the film doesn't really stand on its own and some viewers may not have seen Prometheus. I also agree that the story of David's arrival on that planet, shown in brief cutaways, was more interesting than much of Covenant. That was really the story I had been hoping for, and a key part of that story lies in what happened to Rapace (Shaw). Instead of that, we got this.

 

I don't mind Fassbender's "Walter voice" because Walter is an android. He can have a "phony accent" because he's not a real person!

 

I assumed they gave Walter an American accent so the audience could more easily distinguish between Walter and David after they start looking very similar.

Fassbender may be able to master many accents, but American is not one of them. Not a huge deal, but it was just a bit surprising considering other British actors who have it nailed pretty well (Hugh Laurie being an obvious oft-cited example, also Dan Stevens in "Legion" and other shows, and even a number of British actors in the increasingly awful "The Walking Dead").

Almost any actor doing a fake accent has moments where the real accent pops out for a moment here and there (even Laurie). But it was more noticeable throughout with Fassbender, at times veering a bit towards a weird drawl on "r" sounds (which I'm sure are among the most challenging things for British actors to do) as if he were attempting a Southern accent or a John Wayne voice or something.

 

Spoiler

Regarding the accent, note that when David is pretending to be Walter, the American accent is strained intentionally as a clue to what's happening.

 

That's a relatively plausible explanation I suppose, but one that they didn't offer in the film (a quick aside from a character noting the stiffness and weird enunciation of certain words would have been a nice touch indeed). It also would hold more weight if they had given "David" an equally wonky British accent (perhaps something weird like Christian Bale's real-life accent).

 

Hrrmmm, I'm not sure about that. I didn't hear anything any more strained in the accent at the end as compared to other points in the film.

Also, if some internet/fan speculation is to be believed, it may not be as simple as a case of "pretending", but something more complicated (and/or convoluted).

 

Point taken, though they do make David's accent somewhat exaggerated in how "proper" it is.

I base much of my belief that Fassbender's "bad American accent" was a choice due to his body of work. The guy can do accents, so I find it more plausible that he opted to create a "bad" accent than that he couldn't do a "good" one...

 

I saw this film, what? Two months ago? And I have virtually no memory of it. It was that mundane.

 

While I wasn't a big fan of the movie, I bought the Blu-ray since I have all of the other films. I am curious to see if the deleted scenes have anything that should have been kept in the film.

 

IMO? Nope!

 

I just watched this. I mostly enjoyed it.

 

I finally got to see this, via the Blu-ray.

I'm one of those who LOVE Prometheus. I just don't agree with a lot of the criticisms I've read. This was a meticulously crafted film and a masterpiece of science fiction cinema.

I feel the same way about Covenant. Excellent bonus features as well.

 

Covenant is certainly entertaining to watch, but with this series I would prefer to be more than just entertained. The first two movies had something extra going for them that Prometheus and Covenant lack. That thing being imagination intermingled with common sense. Not to mention some respect for the characters themselves. Ripley, Dallas, Kane, et al in Alien and Aliens weren't complete morons making blatantly stupid decisions. I can't say that about the characters in either of the last two films--particularly Covenant.

Still, I liked the overall storyline and direction of Prometheus, and it is a better film than Covenant in that it is a pretty good (if flawed) address and windup (in golfing terms). Covenant should have been the smooth follow through stroke to send the story further along its path. What we got was a hard slice into the woods with no clear shot to recoverability. Indeed, where does this sad tale go from here?

I liked Noomi Rapace and her character in Prometheus, and to have such a strong character written off with one brief scene toward the end of Covenant is just wrong. Why would a director do that? What was Ridley thinking? Naomi's character could have been the next Ripley. And as much as I like Michael Fassbender's performances David shouldn't have been made the central/driving character in Covenant. Truth be told Covenant feels like Alien 3 all over again. A course change where one wasn't needed.

 

Personally I disagree and like the choices Scot made and thought there was imagination aplenty. Vive la difference.

 

British? Born in Germany to a German father and Irish Mother and grew up in Ireland.

 

They did give David a wonky accent. It is a weird-as-hell stilted cadence sort of based on Peter O'Toole, and all the vowels sound odd. It's unlike any genuine British accent. But a lot of American ears would have difficulty distinguishing how bizarre his accent sounds and it was only obvious that Walter sounded kind of stilted too.

It's not an upper-class accent as some people are suggesting. The pronunciation of the long "o" sound and the pronunciation of the short "a' are middle-class rather than upper-class. Nor is it region-specific. It is just weird.

 

rented 'alien: covenant" last night.

a little slow to start, but all in all very entertaining.

 

Watched it via iTunes last night. Not the greatest but not too bad. Expected more of the actual Alien though.

 

I watched it last night and thought it was an entertaining Alien movie.

 

Watched it tonight, thought it was the biggest pile of turd I'd seen since...oh...Prometheus, probably.

The same line of seemingly intelligent people doing incredibly stupid things, followed by telegraphing the Walter/David switch.

The only good thing about it was watching Fassbender, as David, channeling the hell out of Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, from the voice to the intense stare and sideways glances.

 

Some of you are easily entertained, aren't you?

 

Director: "So, the alien creature. Is it a bacteria that you catch from a mushroom or does it grow from an egg after the crab humps your face?"

Writer: "Yes!"

While it certainly had fewer plot holes than Prometheus, Covenant never really got beyond "meh" for me. It started pretty good until the runabout exploded. Then turned into "A three page murder whodunnit with two characters and one of them dies on the second page".

Spoiler

its the creepy psychopath android

Act three descends into recycled crap 101: Monster in the shower! Shoot it out the airlock! Oh no! The airlock trap is stuck! Saved at the last minute! Followed by the epilogue twist that everybody saw coming accept the characters that should absolutely have saw coming.

I also rented Monster Trucks from the Redbox to watch with my six year old. Not surprisingly it's the superior film that didn't leave me angry.

PS: I did have one question about the film: David attributes the poem 'Ozymandias' to Byron and Walter corrects him that it was Shelley. Is there some other meaning in this dialogue, or was it only to show David was capable of making mistakes?

 

It's just a movie. Did I like as much as the first Alien? No and I can go back and rewatch that film but this was worth a one time rental.

 

Yeah, as much as it pains me to say it, Covenant was a disappointment. The story should have taken up right where Prometheus left off, but instead Scott had other ideas. Prometheus was a far superior film in every way except perhaps the Giger artwork, but that is so 1970s. And of course there's no beating the original.

 

This is just me surmising, but I work on the assumption the studio pressured Scott to make something that was more "Alien" and less "Prometheus"...