The Reel Rejects - ALIEN: COVENANT (2017) MOVIE REVIEW!! FIRST TIME WATCHING!

Episode Date: September 1, 2024

THE XENOS ARE BACK!! Alien: Covenant Movie Reaction Watch Along: https://www.patreon.com/thereelrejects   As Alien: Romulus continues to clean up at the Boxoffice, Aaron Alexander & Tara Erickson are BACK to give their FIRST TIME Reaction, Commentary, Analysis, Breakdown, & Full Movie Spoiler Review for the 6th film in the Beloved Alien Franchise - which sees Ridley Scott returning to the Director's chair once more for a film that combines the lofty aspirations of Prometheus with the tense horror of the original Alien films. Covenant follows the crew of a colony ship, bound for a remote planet, who discover an uncharted paradise across the stars - with something sinister lurking inside.. Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class, The Killer) returns as synthetics David & Walter along with Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), Billy Crudup (Watchmen, Big Fish), Amy Seimetz (Upstream Color), Danny McBride (Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder), Carmen Ejogo (Selma), Demián Bichir (Godzilla vs. Kong, The Hateful Eight), a random appearance from James Franco, & MORE! Aaron & Tara REACT to all the Best Scenes & Scariest Moments including Prologue: Last Supper, Xenomorph On Ship Scene, Planet Escape Scene, Engineer Scene, David Meets Neomorph scene, Neomorph Attack, All Xenomorph Scenes, & Beyond! Follow Aaron On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealaaronalexander/?hl=en Follow Tara Erickson: Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TaraErickson Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/taraerickson/ Twitter:  https://twitter.com/thetaraerickson Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Music Used In Manscaped Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Sierra, let's get moving. Tara. Yeah. I know that we learned very recently that covenant means pact. Yes. Yes. Like an agreement that you come to. Agreement that you come to.

Are you ready to make a pact with this movie, a pact with me, a pack with this audience, to get into this and find out what this whole thing is about. We ride at dawn. Ow! Okay, that was good. That was good. It was awesome, guys.

If you're listening on Apple or Spotify, make sure to give us five stars. Okay. Okay, I walk away feeling a little better about that one. Uh-huh. Tara, how'd you feel? What's your thoughts, girl? Oh, yeah, I think it's great.

I thought Fastbender obviously did an amazing job. Of course. But it was really interesting to see that how David took over. That was like mass genocide and he's like, I'm God now. And that explains the overuse of the word creator and creation like from him. I think he said it like three times that he likes to create things. And you're like, yeah, okay. So now he's, Orga, 6 is now just going to be a colony that he will be able to have warm bodies

to just make a huge planet like he wanted him with aliens that survive that he can take care of and he rules over them. Yeah. Crazy bonkers, wild. Love that Billy Crudeup was in this because he's great. And love that he had the first chesty that we saw in this movie. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

He had the official first chesty. Yeah. I will say that this movie for me retroactively makes Perith. Prometheus better because we get to see the full-fledged arc of, one, what they established in that movie, but two, the intention behind what David was, like his role from being server to being ultimately God. And granted, I don't think they ever made a third one of these, but I'm very curious to have seen where this goes. Like, he clearly has animosity towards humanity, or he believes them to be inferior. So what would his intention be?

and keeping them alive on that ship. I think watching this movie really was the beautiful marriage between the stuff that we saw in the original alien movies and what Prometheus established. It found a way to cleverly bring those two aspects of the alien world together in a cohesive story that was not only thrilling, but constantly entertaining. I was never bored of watching this movie.

And it was just something that really worked overall for me. I don't know what the general consent. sentences of this versus Prometheus or anything else in the alien franchise, but watching us kind of learn more about the mythology of the origins of the aliens and seeing, finally getting to see the engineers and their planet and what David had done to it. And I will say that these two movies are companion pieces in that way because it, I feel like the, they're both about creation. And whereas Prometheus was very much like the pondering. philosophical yet kind of doing the horror aspect things.

This was very much more straight up, more direct, more familiar to what we're accustomed to from these movies, but now done within the 2000s or within the 2010s. I will say for the most part, a lot of the horror stuff did stand up for me. There are a couple scenes, a couple points where the alien CGI looked a little wonky for me. Like I didn't fully believe that the humans,

and the aliens were in the same space, but I think that's just the nature of technology, but also the aliens themselves looks really cool in this movie, the way that they were able to move really fast and be an actual threat, not in like a sneaky covert kind of way, but just like this visceral, like, hyperviolent, violent, almost intramountable odds kind of way.

Yeah, and we've got to see different kinds of them. Yeah, I agree. And also the fact that they're becoming more human-like where they can stand up. Like, I think he made the reference to be like, apes eventually became right like we come from apes or something and I'm like oh yeah they really even though they look somewhat similar they really transformed which I think brings the extra fear and that we had never really seen it I think live like we did in this one how quickly it grows

from being like an embryo to a baby to like literally in five seconds it's huge yeah that's insane we knew that it grew at a very high rate in the last ones this one we actually got to see it. And I also, I just think that in the last one that we were, we were, we were like, come on, don't touch that thing. Although in this one, because in the last one, you're like, there's engineers. Why are you taking off your hat? They, they touched the alien when they saw its face. Yeah. Remember? And then he died. And in this one, we only had like two of those happen. And I think the rest of the people were like hip to what was going on, which is good. I just feel like in the last one it there wasn't as much intelligence brought to the character's point

of view to explain why they would be in the position that they're in in this one it made more sense because they're out in nature they're they're they're they're like the the barometric pressure the the oxygen it all seems very like we could live here right water kind of looks like earth they're going out i don't blame that there's wheat i don't blame them for going like oh what's this thing that if you're out in nature, that's what it looked like to the human being's eye that it look like nature. In this one, why they're getting the pathogens, releasing them, it's not even visible to the naked eye. That's why that guy was blowing smoke greens. We could see it from the audience's point of view that

there's pathogens in the air and then they go into his ear. But once you see the scope of it, it's too small to pick up with the naked eye. So, but in the last one, I had some issues with them like trying to like touch an alien and stuff so i liked this one and how it was written a little bit better that it made more sense it's a little bit smarter like come on these people are like NASA astronauts and engineers and they're not going to be like effing around in in a weird manner a couple of them were a couple of a couple of them were but i feel like in for some reason in the last one i felt like there was more that were like fucking off like in a way that I was like what are we doing guys like I don't know but I really I really did

like this one yeah I think from a mythology standpoint really Scott excels very well in that I want to say that it's interesting because I feel like story wise and the effect of the horror I feel alien is still top for me like the original one I think from a character perspective and getting you emotionally invested, I feel like Alien 2 kind of wins in that because Lick-Oh, the rest of we were with Ripley and Noop. Bring on New. All of them, all the other ones have kind of been subsequently varying in those qualities.

Now, I feel like Ripley Scott, the guy who originated this franchise, excels more in the world building and mythology than I would say the character investment aspect of it. Not said, I disliked the characters, but I definitely felt more attached to Ripley than I did Shaw or what's the girl's name in this one? I don't. You know me. I'm not going to remember.

It's me. My name's Tara Erickson and my memory is absolute shite. Mine is too sometimes. But yeah, you guys get what I'm saying. I think that watching this, though, from a mythology standpoint, was very interesting because we know that essentially this entire franchise is. tied to the Whalen Corporation and watching the Whalen Corporation be the ones to go out and fund this mission to find the human's origins to then their own android, the first android, being the one who then creates the xenomorphs, to then them going again to find this other planet and

then be the same people to try to profit and take the xenomorphs back to Earth. And it's almost like David being like the inception point of having the aliens come to life and be the same person that was created by this company it's like he it's a circle of life it's a circle of life but like he predicted like the I don't know the the the downfalls of humanity or like the the shortcomings of humanity in in greed in their mortality or or or wanting to fight against mortality rather and he believes and i believe the wayland corporation is of the belief that these you know morphs are the perfect creature of like they are the thing that's going to bring us forward into the future and it's kind of i don't know i think it's

it's interesting watching and i know we've kind of watched these out of order but i wonder how this whole thing plays we're going to watch it within timeline order because i want to know because we watch we've seen like five movies up before getting to this point right and they've been watch over a period of time that's spread out so i'm not gonna lie i'm not gonna remember all the details of aliens one and alien two but watching this i remember that there was a colony there when they previously landed when we get to alien and i wonder if that's the colony we see in this movie that have all kind of been wiped out right we learned on alien two yeah because i think i think we saw a ship in alien one and that's where they first saw the egg Yeah, because then in Alien 2, that's when we really see the mother, right? No, no, no. Yeah, that's when we see the mother. Yeah, exactly. And then New, she was on a colony there, but I want to say that they learned an alien one

that there's people there before that they got there, and that's where they learned that they were dispensable on that mission. And that could be these people, you're saying. Yeah, exactly. Right. But I think that what I learned, because I didn't know anything about this movie going in, But I think I did hear that this was originally supposed to be an Origins trilogy, but people were dissatisfied with Prometheus,

so Redley Scott had to pivot to introduce the xenomorphs faster. So his intention was to have the xenomorphs be fully fledged by the end of the third movie. But because of that negative reception, they changed it. Now, I think that being said, this movie serves as a nice middle point between what he was trying to do and what the fans of the alien franchise have come to expect and what have they wanted. So he found that marriage point

between this concept of evolution and discovery while also giving that straight-up xenomorph horror that the fans of the franchise have come to know and expect in love. Yeah, because this one was a lot scarier than the last one we just watched. Definitely. The jump scares were great.

I think the scope of when you think back, to Alien 1, that big scare where obviously I lost my shite. I had like a literal panic attack. You haven't seen that reaction. Go ahead and take a look. It's had the same scope in this, the way that they shot it at one point with the alien coming into frame. And it was scary. And there were great jump scares in this.

And I do agree that the point of view for the alien was better in this one. I just think that this one seems like a more cohesive film for some reason to me there are some things that are just bumpier in the last one that we watched but I still like that one I just like this one a lot more but not more than alien one I can't be doing that

because I think this movie does better what the last one lacked for me is that aliens one and two I think no matter what you think of three and four all of the aliens movies were a complete experience right you got a beginning a middle and end whereas

Prometheus did it have an end technically but it ended with so many questions it felt like something that needed a sequel to resolve itself was this movie you don't necessarily it answered they don't not only answer stuff for the last movie but because you got the stuff at the beginning with Waylon and David

yeah Waylon and David and you got the beginning with Walter kind of going through the ship and then you got the end with David going through the ship will listen to the same music. It feels like a complete experience. Yeah. Which I think this is, for me, I will say this is

the third best movie since aliens. I think it's stronger than Alien 3. I think it's stronger than the resurrection, alien resurrection. And I think it's stronger than Prometheus. So yeah, I would say probably be with you on that. Yeah, yeah.

I think that all of them are... Good story. Great, great acting by Fastbender. Great acting by Fastbender. Both performances. I liked him being able to play both the Android for humanity and having, having, I guess, evolved more from the programming that he was established as versus David. And, like, their debate, I guess, of how they wanted to go about their relationship with humanity. Right.

And Fastbender playing off himself with that. That was very cool. Yeah, I think what Fastbender does a good job of in regards in the acting department, although good actors are good at subtlety, is that his subtlety, I knew it that I was like, there is absolutely no effing way, except I'm thinking in my brain, why would he actually emulate by cutting off his arm? Why is he keeping them alive in the ship? Oh, he's probably keeping them alive because this guy is about to have a chesty. But it was all sold in the very subtle smile that he's helping them close down the walls, the gates behind him. And once he hears that there's another body on the ship, he knows it's a chesty. And that little smile, I was like, so good. And it's such like, is a giveaway? But even then you were like, nope, we kept kind of guessing.

You were especially guessing about it. I was like, there's absolutely no way that he would smile like that. And it was just so good because it's so subtle that, and it was very quick that if you're not like really looking at it, you could still kind of think like, maybe it is Walter. And I love that. I love that about this movie of like keeping us going back and forth. It keeps us on our toes. And the story at the end, like he gets to take all the embryos and all the people to Orgay 6. And he's going to basically implement them with an alien.

they'll get juiced up with a chesty and then they'll just keep reproducing with the warm hosts because he needs those bodies. Exactly, yeah, he was very strategic and you can tell even from that's the one thing that's continued. Obviously, David's been a very consistent character

through both of these films, but the biggest thing that's been consistent is the fact that he's very smart and he's very patient. And I love the fact that it kept us guessing throughout the entire experience. Also, hell of late in the game. thank you for watching

this is we're watching this on Amazon so watch this on Amazon go on Twitter something or Disney Plus we're watching this on Amazon but it's streaming anyway We love it

We love you We love this We love these shirts Go get them at Rejignationjob.com Go support the Sheejects Because they have some awesome merch With their crop tops too Would you look at that?

Yeah baby Yeah baby Tara Do you have any other thoughts I don't I don't think this was a This was a fun movie well written. I mean, I always say this, that if you have really good actors who know how to do their job,

the film is going to be good with good directors who know how to direct people with good pacing and tone. And this movie really delivered. So I got nothing else to say, except I liked it. I liked it too. I liked it a lot. Okay, guys. Thank you guys so much for watching. And we will see you guys in the next one.

Bussus.