What James Cameron thinks of Alien: Covenant

In a live Q&A Session, James Cameron answered my question:

As a big aliens fan, what do you think of Alien Covenant and where Ridley scott is going with the lore?

Thank you for watching and thank you james for the answer!

[FilCanJay]

Wanted to see more about the Engineers but I guess the studio told Ridley we need more Aliens.

[NZ_Man]

I feel it was a mistake to reveal the engineers with human like features, it would’ve been more mysterious to only show them with their bio masks on as they were in many Dark Horse comics.

[grant]

This is fucking hilarious after Terminator Dark Fate.

[cgh]

I totally agree w/ Cameron.

No matter how you felt about Prometheus, Elizabeth Shaw was an interesting character & Covenant was supposed to be a story about her quest of finding the Engineers & finding out why they wanted to destroy mankind- the same people they helped create.

[JustAFox]

I feel like part of Cameron maybe wanted to just straight up say that he didn’t like the story, but also didn’t want to hurt Scott’s or any other crew members’ feelings or anything, so when kinda put on the spot by that question in the interview, he had to quickly come up with a way to say it’s not a film he entirely liked in as polite a way as possible, while also complimenting it by saying that he enjoys Scott’s filmmaking overall and still wants to see where he takes the story.

[morten]

Ridley Scott doesn't always know what makes him a great director

[davidkendall]

Aliens was the best entry in the series. You can just admit it James. You did the best.

[BirdsElopeWithTheSun]

I don't like when characters you're invested in die at the end... Hudson, anybody?

[plissken]

0:36 - "I don't like films where you invest in a character and then they...they get...sort of...you know...destroyed at the end."
Like the T-800 and Kyle Reese in the first Terminator, like the Miles Dyson, the T-800 and the T-1000 in Terminator 2, like John Connor in Terminator: Dark Fate, like Corporal Hicks and Newt in Alien 3, like Jack Dawson in Titanic, etc., etc., etc.

[Gencoil]

I sincerely hope Ridley Scott gets to make a third movie. He deserves to finish the story. There may be some blemishes here and there in the prequels but I like what he's been trying to do with them, David and the engineers really fascinate me.

[myenemysenemy]

I think the character that Ridley is getting us to invest in is David…

[DionysusEleutherios]

As Cameron says, Ridley Scott is a great director in the strict sense i.e. his cinematography and lighting and everything that goes into making a "moving picture" (especially a Sci-Fi one) is spectacular, but his vision for storytelling, dialogue etc. is shite because he doesn't really write his own screenplays and is content with having the lore "play out". Dan O'Bannon wrote the screenplay for the original Alien, and although it was heavily revised, it was great. Cameron wrote the screenplay for Aliens, and while it was more action-focused, it too was great. Everything after that sucked and it is such a pity, because the lore is being destroyed.

[shelbyvillerules]

“I don’t like films where you invest in a character and they get destroyed at the end… David”

[biffmercury]

James Cameron: “If you can’t say something nice….”

[TonySylvesterOhio]

Says the man who signed off on John Connor being killed in the first 5 mins of dark fate

[holden]

The problem with Covenant is the Ridley was making the movie he thought fans wanted, rather than making what he wanted. Prometheus wasn't what I would call great, but it was undoubtedly his own. Covenant, on the other hand, was a compromised vision that ended up pleasing nobody.

[hawkins]

Thats a pretty good review actually. Like, its positive.. he didnt seem to agree with the idea that the ‘bad guy’ won but that males sense. A lot of people dont like that sort of thing.

[SankofaNYC]

All show up for the next one is a nice smooth answer… I’ll feel like everyone that creates can understand that and what it means

[beelez-xifi]

Very diplomatic way of saying he thought it sucked.

Didn't he endorse a film called Terminator Dark Fate where a character you have invested in gets destroyed at the beginning of the movie? I guess if it had been at the end he would have got really mad about it 😂

[TECHNOIR]

I turned on the subtitles, chose Sotto Voce and it read: 'This film is unutterable gash, as is Dark Fate'