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[EGM1966]

Isn't that basically the structure of the original Alien too? Sigourney Weaver is just a member of an ensemble cast until towards the end when she becomes the main character.

Yeah but Alien did it right (Ripley starts to become assertive early and is subtly set up to take lead after Dallas's demise) from a narrative perspective whereas it's pretty random in Covenant and more or less just happens.

Problem is Covenant has too much going on to do anything well: that's it's core issue as others have touched on. It's really two films squashed together (Prometheus sequel with David emerged as the lead) and sorta Alien /Aliens follow up (structurally not timeline) with Daniels as nominal lead (sort of),

Fassbender easily comes of best but that half of the film is obviously the one Scott's actually interested in.

 

[muteki]

Saw this over the long weekend and still collecting my thoughts. Overall I enjoyed Prometheus more despite the stupid bits as they were fewer and farther between.

One thing we were trying to figure out walking out was after the fight with David/Walter, they were obviously trying to conceal the left hand for as long as possible, but what other tells were there that would suggest that this was David instead of Walter?

I thought it was David that had the nail jammed under his jaw, but in these scenes there was no sign of a wound there. Something my wife brought up was the shape of the scars on the face which might have been it, but I couldn't remember enough of them before to determine who had what scars.

 

[kai3345]

ok so i watched this movie again last night for some reason and there was DEFINITELY something coming out of the engineers' chests when they got hit with the goo bombs. i couldn't tell if it was just their guts or what but chests were definitely exploding

i know that was a hotly debated topic around these parts a few weeks back

 

[Jinroh]

David is an idiot as well, he was endangering his only way to escape the planet instead of playing nice to follow them in the ship with his research intact.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Saw this over the long weekend and still collecting my thoughts. Overall I enjoyed Prometheus more despite the stupid bits as they were fewer and farther between.

One thing we were trying to figure out walking out was after the fight with David/Walter, they were obviously trying to conceal the left hand for as long as possible, but what other tells were there that would suggest that this was David instead of Walter?

I thought it was David that had the nail jammed under his jaw, but in these scenes there was no sign of a wound there. Something my wife brought up was the shape of the scars on the face which might have been it, but I couldn't remember enough of them before to determine who had what scars.

Walter is shown to self-heal when the flute wound David puts in his neck closes up and he is repaired. David does not. The big tell is when "Walter" leaves the fight and runs toward the ship Tennessee is piloting, and he has a cut on his face that does not heal.

The nail wound to the chin is weird. Someone pointed out earlier how the nail is set up to be important, and when Daniels jams it under David's chin and then David wins the fight with Walter, it seems set up to be the tell. But it goes away and is never referenced again. Feels like a rewrite snipped it.

David is an idiot as well, he was endangering his only way to escape the planet instead of playing nice to follow them in the ship with his research intact.

Yeah, he's told early on there are 2,000 people on the ship in cryo. His motivation makes no sense if his goal is to get up there.

 

[muteki]

Walter is shown to self-heal when the flute wound David puts in his neck closes up and he is repaired. David does not. The big tell is when "Walter" leaves the fight and runs toward the ship Tennessee is piloting, and he has a cut on his face that does not heal.

The nail wound to the chin is weird. Someone pointed out earlier how the nail is set up to be important, and when Daniels jams it under David's chin and then David wins the fight with Walter, it seems set up to be the tell. But it goes away and is never referenced again. Feels like a rewrite snipped it.


Yeah, he's told early on there are 2,000 people on the ship in cryo. His motivation makes no sense if his goal is to get up there.

Okay, so I'm not crazy about the nail thing then. I didn't notice the healing before on Walter though so whenever I get around to seeing it again I'll pay more attention.

 

[BiggNife]

Red letter media did a video breaking down every plot hole in Covenant and it's fantastic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmwyWerz5KI

I spit out my coffee when Mike mumbled "I'm smarter than a xenomorph"

 

[Orochinagis]

So was the neutrino burst random or was it somehow set off by David?

Random. since David lost the ship I doubt he had enough tech to scan nearby ships or being able to disrupt some kind of bombs in space

 

[TheWrathOfSean]

ok so i watched this movie again last night for some reason and there was DEFINITELY something coming out of the engineers' chests when they got hit with the goo bombs. i couldn't tell if it was just their guts or what but chests were definitely exploding

i know that was a hotly debated topic around these parts a few weeks back

Yeah I noticed this as well. Not sure if it was intentional or not. Thought I saw liquidy limbs bursting out. Reminded me a little of the Pus of Man enemies from DS3.

 

[Timeaisis]

Walter is shown to self-heal when the flute wound David puts in his neck closes up and he is repaired. David does not. The big tell is when "Walter" leaves the fight and runs toward the ship Tennessee is piloting, and he has a cut on his face that does not heal.

The nail wound to the chin is weird. Someone pointed out earlier how the nail is set up to be important, and when Daniels jams it under David's chin and then David wins the fight with Walter, it seems set up to be the tell. But it goes away and is never referenced again. Feels like a rewrite snipped it.

Yeah, I feel like the nail wound was *supposed* to be the big a-ha moment for Daniels at the end of the movie. Like, she lays down in cryosleep and sees the hole left by the wound on David's neck. Didn't happen, and I was really expecting it to. I feel like it was in the script at some point, but maybe it didn't read to the audience too well.

 

[s_mirage]

That seems like a pretty major feature? Why would they not know about it?

Why would it be necessary for every crew member to know? They're not all engineers, and a self healing feature would have little relevance for, say, a geologist on a colonisation mission. Does a cook on an aircraft carrier need to know the ins and outs of an F-35s computer system? Also, in Alien the crew knew absolutely bugger all about Ash, so it's possible that Weyland didn't even share Walter's entire spec sheet.

Even if they were made aware at some point, forgetting a detail that they've never seen demonstrated isn't unrealistic after suffering a traumatising situation involving numerous violent deaths.

 

[jmdajr]

I personally don't have so many issues with Prometheus, and the more I let my Alien: Covenant viewing sink in, I think Covenant is the worse movie.

So many stupid crew decisions, so many typical alien scenes clearly meant for an audience who has never seen an Alien movie before, too much stuff trying to over-explain itself instead of leaving some mysteries to the mind of the viewer and too much Fassbender.

Fucking five minutes of flute playing?! It's way too much screentime of the robots rather than the Aliens.

This scene weirded me out. It's like the couch scene in Boohie Nights. I don't know what the intention was. Maybe just that.

 

[therealminime]

Why is James Franco in this movie for 2 seconds as a crispy corpse?

Why is everyone married to each other?

god this was just awful, need to rewatch the original to cleanse the palette.

I don't remember the last time I was so happy to see everyone die miserable deaths and lose horribly. Everyone in this movie is such an idiotic non-character that I took joy in watching their demise. That's probably not intended.

The RLM is great but needed to be twice as long to full encompass every weird stupid messy thing in this movie.

I will say I hope they can do something even remotely interesting with the sequel to this considering the setup is fun and David is still a kinda fun character. But they whiffed the great setup Prometheus ended with so I am doubtful.

Also did my best to not burst out laughing at Jesus David.

 

[BizzyBum]

Just saw it, thought it was OK.

Ending was so obvious though. lol

 

[Garcia el Gringo]

David's long hair was a request by Fassbender going by what was said by the makeup artist interviewed by Tested.

And here's some more Shaw concept art I found fascinating.

I'll just put a blanket NSFW warning for the rest of the images in the links below.

More from David's lab by Ev Shipard

Another Giger-esque Shaw by Dane Hallett and his Facebook post with more artwork and an explanation that the final product couldn't explicitly emulate Giger besides the signature beast.

Several more Matt Hatton "David's sketches" of Shaw that are very twisted

 

[Ghazi]

I will say I hope they can do something even remotely interesting with the sequel to this considering the setup is fun and David is still a kinda fun character. But they whiffed the great setup Prometheus ended with so I am doubtful.

People said that about Prometheus, then Covenant... What do you think are the chances of a significant increase in quality the third time around?

 

[Toa TAK]

David's long hair was a request by Fassbender going by what was said by the makeup artist interviewed by Tested.

And here's some more Shaw concept art I found fascinating.



I'll just put a blanket NSFW warning for the rest of the images in the links below.

More from David's lab by Ev Shipard

Another Giger-esque Shaw by Dane Hallett and his Facebook post with more artwork and an explanation that the final product couldn't explicitly emulate Giger besides the signature beast.

Several more Matt Hatton "David's sketches" of Shaw that are very twisted

Thanks for putting these up.

 

[EGM1966]

David is an idiot as well, he was endangering his only way to escape the planet instead of playing nice to follow them in the ship with his research intact.

More than anything this is where the film fails to hold water for me. Once you get what he's up to his actions make no sense really. Ideally he'd have quietly plotted to steal Walter's body and head off with crew leaving the dead world abandoned.

 

[Rentahamster]

More than anything this is where the film fails to hold water for me. Once you get what he's up to his actions make no sense really. Ideally he'd have quietly plotted to steal Walter's body and head off with crew leaving the dead world abandoned.

That's what it seems like to me too...unless there was something I overlooked that indicates that David had to act that way because something forced his hand?

Or maybe he's just a secret asshole AND the most illogical android ever.

Spoiler

Or maybe I need to pay attention more good.

 

[Nerrel]

My sister wants to go watch this movie with me....she's 10 though lol I was planning on going by myself but she wants to watch it also haha I know it's rated R but is there a lot of nudity/sex scenes?

I think you should be more concerned about your 10 year old sister seeing people getting their heads ripped off than seeing a sideboob.

 

[Fancy Clown]

I personally don't have so many issues with Prometheus, and the more I let my Alien: Covenant viewing sink in, I think Covenant is the worse movie.

So many stupid crew decisions, so many typical alien scenes clearly meant for an audience who has never seen an Alien movie before, too much stuff trying to over-explain itself instead of leaving some mysteries to the mind of the viewer and too much Fassbender.

Fucking five minutes of flute playing?! It's way too much screentime of the robots rather than the Aliens.

The flute scenes are some of the few legitimately good scenes (not "just" b movie fun). Not only is Fassbender really fucking good in them, but the dual seduction and exploration of the theme of what it means to create and be an artist is a really good handling of the philisophical stuff Ridley usually whiffs, and the camera work as it calmly dollies around the two Fassbenders is an excellent tension builder.

I don't know why you'd want less of the android stuff when that's the most compelling part of the movie. Once the xenomorph gets introduced Scott goes on autopilot for a while.

 

[Garcia el Gringo]

That's what it seems like to me too...unless there was something I overlooked that indicates that David had to act that way because something forced his hand?

We're talking about a character that committed genocide on an alien race on sight having only met one being from the race, presumably putting himself in the less than ideal long-term stranded situation he's in in Covenant. It's implied that David's malfunctioning when he mixes up poets Byron and Shelley when quoting Ozymandias. David's off, he hasn't interacted with humans, and hasn't had to perform as a servant for them in 10 years. He's barely hiding how deranged he's become as he's processing what the situation is with his new human guests. I think David's emotions over the killing of the Neomorph by Oram made him snap (it might have been many years since he saw a living mature xeno creature, the only type of organic which he seems to have genuine reverence for), combined with suddenly having near perfect logistics in the moment to provide his egg room with a "mother" to finally see the next stage of his creation (his magnum opus/children with Shaw) overrode him playing it safe until he was in the Covenant.

I wouldn't call David an idiot like some bumbling human - he's malfunctioning and unhinged. Still, ideally David woulda kept it collected and finessed em like everyone's saying, especially with the revelation that he could transport Facehugger embyros, presumably making his lab easier to part with.

 

[AdventureRacing]

I thought the characters in the two films were about equally dumb, just about different things.

Whilst i agree with this I found it bothered me more in covenant. With proemtheus that was one if not the main complaint levelled against the movie, that everyone acted incredibly stupid. Then along comes the sequel and you would think surely that's one issue they would rectify. Instead the characters act just as stupidly if not more so than those in Prometheus.

Also Prometheus had some fantastic visuals, atmosphere, music and in general more engaging ideas and themes than covenant. So whilst the characters were probably being just as stupid its less noticeable because the rest of the movie is more engaging.

 

[Fury451]

Shaw was a cretin. The movie asks me to believe that she is an elite scientist yet she behaves like a high school religious studies student. She's tough but tragically dim.

Not sure I follow. Shaw made a conscious choice to not abandon her questions or her faith. It's interesting to see a scientist in a Hollywood movie that isn't portrayed as a one-dimensional atheist, though they weren't exceptionally good at fleshing out her faith either. It was something kinda different at least.

For the record, that's not a knock against atheists, moreso how writers treat them in a simplified "I hate god" way. Religion in general is often treated in a simplified way too.

 

[a916]

David is an idiot as well, he was endangering his only way to escape the planet instead of playing nice to follow them in the ship with his research intact.

Is this regarding Convenant or Prometheus... because the case can be made for both.

 

[- J - D -]

David is an idiot as well, he was endangering his only way to escape the planet instead of playing nice to follow them in the ship with his research intact.

A case could be made that David needed to perform a terrestrial test-run of his facehugger/xenomorph experiments on live bodies, but I do agree with you.

 

[JB1981]

I would like to see the twenty minutes that was cut because I think this movie needed it

 

[Lan Dong Mik]

Well, I'm disappointed. Liked the first 30-45 mins or so but once they step foot on the planet, things take a nose dive quick. When the movie truly lost me was when that captain just decides to follow David into a dark and sketchy as fuck looking egg lair and takes a glance inside one of the eggs after David tells him to do so lol. What in the fuck kinda shit was that? Captain clearly knows David is not all there. That scene pissed me off so much. The characters are as dumb as ever, even more so than Prometheus imo.

I did like Michael Fassbenders performance in this and I think Walter and David are really interesting but outside of that, this movie was a steaming pile of shit. I'm actually shocked this reviewed so well.

 

[Fancy Clown]

l
Also Prometheus had some fantastic visuals, atmosphere, music and in general more engaging ideas and themes than covenant. So whilst the characters were probably being just as stupid its less noticeable because the rest of the movie is more engaging.

I feel the exact opposite about all of this. Except in addition to the themes in Covenant being handled better, there are some set-pieces that are actually fun (Apart from the C-section scene in Prometheus, which is quite good).

 

[JB1981]

I saw this movie twice and I don't even really know why. I guess I have too much free time on my hands. The movie is worse on a second viewing. It's like ... what the hell IS this movie? It's an Alien movie in name only and as a sequel to Prometheus it's deeply unsatisfying. Like why? Why go in this direction? Who is this supposed to appeal to?

 

[Ushojax]

I saw this movie twice and I don't even really know why. I guess I have too much free time on my hands. The movie is worse on a second viewing. It's like ... what the hell IS this movie? It's an Alien movie in name only and as a sequel to Prometheus it's deeply unsatisfying. Like why? Why go in this direction? Who is this supposed to appeal to?

I saw it for a second time tonight and it was even worse than the first time. It's a completely arbitrary script that takes the laziest route possible to get us some rehashed xenomorph action. It was all so contrived, you expect a director to subvert expectations with the obvious android switch, xenomorph outbreak etc but it was all done like Ridley was on autopilot. The movie does not hold up under any serious scrutiny nor does it mesh properly with Alien.

The only good parts are David and the neomorphs, and they belong in the not-really-an-Alien-prequel Prometheus series that got canned. Trying to bend these ideas into an Alien lead-in just doesn't work.

 

[Zakalwe]

David is just insane. That's it. He's smart and logical sometimes, but he's also fully mad.

This is alluded to with the conversation regarding the reworks on latter models, and, well, by simply observing him. He's a lunatic, and this is part of the human flaw(s) that cause WY to modify their next builds.

 

[Lasthope106]

After giving some thought to this movie, I have come to the conclusion that I didn't like it and it ruined the Xenomorph mythology. Since the first two movies we have known that the Alien was some type of weapon. And this movies is a prime example as to why some things are better left unsaid, and letting the imagination fill the gaps.

Covenant is a carbon copy of the original Alien, to the point that it has the same story beats. If you are new to the franchise then it might be a good film, but for us that have been watching this movies for decades I rank this among the worst. Even Promethues was cool compare to this.

Also I've had it with the "this is the end... no this is the real end" of this movies. Like really, are you going to make it seem everything is okay in the ship, only to not be... again. That last section felt extremely rushed. There was zero tension. Nada.

 

[One Eyed Willy]

I would like to see the twenty minutes that was cut because I think this movie needed it

I agree

 

[BizzyBum]

Was it said why James Franco was even in this for those 2 minutes? Is he some Alien superfan that requested a cameo? Just seems weird to use him for that role when they could've used anyone. lol

 

[SuperStiltzkin]

Was it said why James Franco was even in this for those 2 minutes? Is he some Alien superfan that requested a cameo? Just seems weird to use him for that role when they could've used anyone. lol

2 for 1 McBride combo meal.

 

[ronaldthump]

watched Life - gotta say, Alien covenant had a lot of similarities but did the Alien assault in the 3rd act; way worse - Life's Calvin was surprisingly more menacing. Hell, Life even had alien cam and used it in a more effective fashion. I'm surprised Ridley didnt see that and cut it from this.

 

[GuessWho]

This was the worst Alien film. Major disappointment.

 

[llehuty]

watched Life - gotta say, Alien covenant had a lot of similarities but did the Alien assault in the 3rd act; way worse - Life's Calvin was surprisingly more menacing. Hell, Life even had alien cam and used it in a more effective fashion. I'm surprised Ridley didnt see that and cut it from this.

Covenant at least does something new with the formula. Life if as bad carbon copy of first Alien. Not a single engaging character in Life and there is zero content or themes. And Alien cam was stupid in both.

 

[ronaldthump]

Covenant at least does something new with the formula. Life if as bad carbon copy of first Alien. Not a single engaging character in Life and there is zero content or themes. And Alien cam was stupid in both.

what's new about covenant? Outside of the mumbojumbo david/walter; its about as rote as you can get.

This was the worst Alien film. Major disappointment.

its not the worst. But its not great.

 

[Steeven]

Just saw this yesterday. I left disappointed. Way too predictable and the story just gets worse with every film. Also, that flute scene was the most cringe-worthy shit I've seen in a long time.

 

[jmood88]

I saw it today and it wasn't horrible. I remember liking Prometheus, despite understanding what people hated about it, but now I want to watch it again to see if my opinion will change. Also, this movie had some of the dumbest characters I've ever seen.

 

[sarcastor]

literally the dumbest people i've ever seen in a movie

1. Tennessee's wife crying like a little girl. she can pilot a ship through a hurricane. but she can't handle medical emergencies. she can repair a %!@^ space ship but doesn't realize that shotguns can blow things up.

2. Some stranger on a planet in the middle of nowhere leads them on a 20 minute walk through the dark to a giant courtyard full of dead bodies. and no one asks any questions.

3. the new captain stares into a giant moving pod-like thing. Is it safe? yeah sure, take the word of an android you just met, who's front yard is littered with corpses and rooms full of dead alien bodies.

4. Ripley-lite doing some rambo-like shit on top of a ship with a crane. Did they teach her that in space camp?

5. why are they chasing the alien through the ship? just open the airlock and blast it out into space? Or maybe send THE GOD DAMN ANDROID to kill it?

so many other stupid moments in this movie. I don't remember any of the characters in James Cameron's Aliens acting this stupid.

This movie makes Prometheus look like a Ph.D. Degree.

 

[Joe Condor]

Maximilian_DOOD and co highlight nearly all the illogical stuff in the movie(no mention of the benny hill moments that lead to the destruction of the dropship).

Aliens: Covenant! YoVideogames Movie Review

Hoping that the 20 min or so that was cut form the movie can somewhat fix this train-wreck.

 

[Sinfamy]

literally the dumbest people i've ever seen in a movie

1. Tennessee's wife crying like a little girl. she can pilot a ship through a hurricane. but she can't handle medical emergencies. she can repair a %!@^ space ship but doesn't realize that shotguns can blow things up.

2. Some stranger on a planet in the middle of nowhere leads them on a 20 minute walk through the dark to a giant courtyard full of dead bodies. and no one asks any questions.

3. the new captain stares into a giant moving pod-like thing. Is it safe? yeah sure, take the word of an android you just met, who's front yard is littered with corpses and rooms full of dead alien bodies.

4. Ripley-lite doing some rambo-like shit on top of a ship with a crane. Did they teach her that in space camp?

5. why are they chasing the alien through the ship? just open the airlock and blast it out into space? Or maybe send THE GOD DAMN ANDROID to kill it?

so many other stupid moments in this movie. I don't remember any of the characters in James Cameron's Aliens acting this stupid.

This movie makes Prometheus look like a Ph.D. Degree.

Really now that I think of it, why didn't they risk the Android's life to kill it?
They're clearly stronger as witnessed earlier in battle.

 

[Bumhead]

Just saw this yesterday. I left disappointed. Way too predictable and the story just gets worse with every film. Also, that flute scene was the most cringe-worthy shit I've seen in a long time.

I can't accept that the flute scene is worse than the chestburster raising its arms to David. That is one of the only scenes I've ever sat through in a cinema and looked around to check everybody saw that shit and I wasn't dreaming.

Admittedly, it doesn't speak particularly well for this film that you can split hairs between 2 scenes that bad..

 

[Fancy Clown]

Y'all are crazy. The flute scene is the best part of the movie.

This movie makes Prometheus look like a Ph.D. Degree.

It really, really doesn't

 

[FUBAR McDangles]

literally the dumbest people i've ever seen in a movie

1. Tennessee's wife crying like a little girl. she can pilot a ship through a hurricane. but she can't handle medical emergencies. she can repair a %!@^ space ship but doesn't realize that shotguns can blow things up.

2. Some stranger on a planet in the middle of nowhere leads them on a 20 minute walk through the dark to a giant courtyard full of dead bodies. and no one asks any questions.

3. the new captain stares into a giant moving pod-like thing. Is it safe? yeah sure, take the word of an android you just met, who's front yard is littered with corpses and rooms full of dead alien bodies.

4. Ripley-lite doing some rambo-like shit on top of a ship with a crane. Did they teach her that in space camp?

5. why are they chasing the alien through the ship? just open the airlock and blast it out into space? Or maybe send THE GOD DAMN ANDROID to kill it?

so many other stupid moments in this movie. I don't remember any of the characters in James Cameron's Aliens acting this stupid.

This movie makes Prometheus look like a Ph.D. Degree.

1. While she is probably trained in general first aid, her speciality us piloting. Not surgery, not emergency triage, but piloting. And when the resident doctor - that is trained and is an expert in the field - is freaking out, how do you expect her to react? She was illogical but her reaction was completely logical in context of the situation. As for the shotgun - this thing killed two coworkers, one of whom was a close friend. Do you really think she is just going to nonchalantly grab the shotgun, put her back to the Xeno, head outside, and patiently wait for it to come out? Nah.

That dropship scene was my favorite scene of the entire movie. The actors sold that part perfectly. I dont get complaints about it at all.

2. They just saw:

A. Their way off the planet blown up.

B. One of the badass security guards - who is also the SO of their security leader- die via a monster crawling up out of his mouth.

C. Said monster (plus a friend) breezes through their group like nothing and kills another security guard, destroys the Android's limb, and escape seemingly without harm. While being shot by dozens, if not hundreds, of live rounds.

D. Their backup Captain shitting his pants and losing his mind.

Do you really think they are going to stop their savior to ask a bunch of questions? Plus, they eventually do. Not as many as would be preferred, but I understood why they didnt inutially. On top of that, maybe they did and it was part of the cut content. Who knows.

3. This was legit dumb. The backup Captain is dumb. That scene was dumb.

4. A lot of it just reminded me of some of the stuff she did with her husband climbing mountains and stuff. It was over the top but wasnt too far fetched, imo.

5. They addressed that I thought? Said that it could just hide or stay aboard. They had to lure it right out to the edge.

As for Aliens? Plenty of dumb people in that one too. Like the guy who knew exactly what was going on but was too stupid to tell anybody. Or the multiple trained soldiers that ignored orders and brought live ammunition into a nuclear fusion reactor. Or the guy who saw the Alien drool on the dropship and said fuck it and didn't warn anybody anyway. Or the supposed leader of the Marines who was too dumb/inexperienced to properly do the job.

Prometheus and Covenant just follow the trend of not so smart characters in this franchise. The only difference is they make their dummies a bit more prominent at times.

 

[Lupercal]

As for Aliens? Plenty of dumb people in that one too. Like the guy who knew exactly what was going on but was too stupid to tell anybody. Or the multiple trained soldiers that ignored orders and brought live ammunition into a nuclear fusion reactor. Or the guy who saw the Alien drool on the dropship and said fuck it and didn't warn anybody anyway. Or the supposed leader of the Marines who was too dumb/inexperienced to properly do the job.

Well Burke was supposed to bring a specimen back, makes sense not reveal anything to anyone there. They're all expendable.

Soldiers taking live ammo in the fusion reactor sure, they didn't want to be exposed (Vazquez & Frost) in a firefight without ammo. Smartgun doesn't work otherwise.

The Alien drool is 50/50, sure it stands out but he never saw an Alien before so what does he know.

The leader of the marines being an idiot is set up way in the beginning. Oh he's done hundreds of simulated missions but only 2 real ones. And never one where all his troops get chopped to pieces.

 

[Joe Condor]

As for Aliens? Plenty of dumb people in that one too. Like the guy who knew exactly what was going on but was too stupid to tell anybody. Or the multiple trained soldiers that ignored orders and brought live ammunition into a nuclear fusion reactor. Or the guy who saw the Alien drool on the dropship and said fuck it and didn't warn anybody anyway. Or the supposed leader of the Marines who was too dumb/inexperienced to properly do the job.

The marines in the lair weren't told they were wandering around cooling systems that could cause a thermonuclear explosion, that's on the commander. Some marines ignoring the the disarming order is pretty understandable after seeing cocooned colonists and witnessing a chest bursting. And can you really fault them for firing at those nightmare creatures that were attacking them?

As Lupercat pointed out, it's no where near the dumb stuff in Prometheus and Covenant.