Alien Covenant Review
R: Sci-Fi Violence, Bloody Images, Language and Some Sexuality/Nudity
20th Century Fox, TSG Entertainment, Scott Free Productions
2 Hrs and 2 Minutes
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup. Danny McBride. Demián Bichir, Carmen Ejogo, Amy Seimetz, Jussie Smollett, Callie Hernandez, James Franco
REVIEW: So over the course of this weekend, I watched every film in the Alien franchise in preparation for this movie (You can see my recap here). Though I know this is the direct sequel to Prometheus, this is still an official Alien movie. An Alien movie by director Ridley Scott? The man who brought us the original?
I love it when a director goes back to the franchise that they created. You can either go George Miller or you can go Bryan Singer. You’ll be surprised where Ridley Scott lies.
Set 10 years after the events of Prometheus, the crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world. When they uncover a threat beyond their imagination, they must attempt a harrowing escape.
THE GOOD: As Ridley Scott gets older and his direction skills advanced through the ages, so does his VFX team. The CG of the new types of aliens is effective to the film’s action violence. There are so many new types of death the film displays that is gloriously gory. At some times it may get laughably dumb how people die, but then it gets surprisingly creative. We’ve seen the “chestburster” death played out in many of these movies, (hell that death shows up here) it's refreshing to establish a new death which is indeed called the “backburster.” Just for the fact that you get a “backburster” instead of a “chestburster” is exciting to see. It may not seem new conceptually, but for as many decades this franchise existed, I didn’t see any other director attempt at making a “backburster” death.
Out of all the visual effects, this film has to offer, one of the best effects isn’t from the aliens or the moments in space, but comes from the interactions between Walter and David. When Walter (played by Fassbender) interacts with David (also played by Fassbender). The camera goes back and forth in one shot to show their conversation and you feel like Fassbender literally cloned himself in order to do that scene.
When David is introduced into this movie, he comes out like as a zoologist (or an “amateur zoologist” as he stated in the film) 10 years after the events of the Prometheus I love how the film established his character progression from synthetic butler into a knowledgeable veteran of the planet. Fassbender still on that robot voice, but his dialect and facial movement make it work. He can easily stare into someone’s eyes and move his mouth in a monotone voice.
Throughout all the characters shown in this movie the growth that stands out the most is, of course, David and Walter. Their conversations are what moves the film’s story together. The film continues its conversation about existential life and creation which was the theme throughout Prometheus. Besides that, Dawarinmism is a huge theme in this movie surrounding both theories of evolution and survival of the fittest. Whereas I didn’t understand the philosophical theories in Prometheus this one didn’t only make me understand but it really hit it home It really excelled at it. This isn’t only Michael Fassbender’s performance that makes this all work for it is his dialogue and the development of both characters that he plays.
Out of the most fear, everyone I knew had about this movie was casting Danny McBride in it. I’m not much of a McBride fan myself especially when he headlines a movie but this is if not, the best performance I’ve ever seen Danny McBride do since playing himself in This is the End. Danny McBride is actually one of the greatest humans in the film. He’s not funny or cracking jokes especially since his character’s name is Tennessee. But as the film goes on, he’s actually one of the only characters you sympathize with. You really have to commend Scott for transitioning
Daniels is just Ripley in the body of Katherine Waterson. She gives a great performance and proves to be an action star by the third act. She inherits all of Ripley’s character traits which are not a bad thing, for a character like that is desperately needed. Like Ripley, she is a humanist and cares about the bond between people but uses her knowledge based on logistics. When it times to get serious, she uses her brain to get out of tough situations. She’s not a memorable character by any means but is a good one to follow. Daniels is the smart one that even when the worst happens, she gets back up again. I love that in the beginning, this shows that abruptly waking up from hypersleep isn’t as peaceful as its depicted in other Sci-Fi space films. Right when this crew is awoken the captain’s pod instantly catches on fire where he, of course, burns to death. This kicks off the story for these characters especially for Daniels due to the Captain being her husband.
The franchise had us follow different groups of people from scientists to prisoners to soldiers and now colonists. This is the first film in the franchise where a team actually feels like a team. Once a person gets injured during the traveling in the new planet, everyone drops what they’re doing, communicate, and try their best to have every crew member get back to safety. Granted that doesn’t really play out as these characters want it to, but they’re not constantly bickering or fighting with each other to annoy me.
THE BAD: One of the biggest problems that I have with this movie is its cast. The problem isn’t that they give bad performances. Shoot, everyone here does a rather good job in their roles especially McBride and Waterson. The issue with the cast is that they all die too quickly. A lot of the cast in this just appear to be casualty victims to the Aliens. It sucks because you see a lot of recognizable faces in this movie. This is not a D-list cast. You got a lot of up and coming actors who now approach B list amongst several A-listers. By the time you know who they are, they’re already dead. As I said before, the film opens up with the Covenant Captain’s chamber catching on fire. But then a scene later, you realize the Captain was James Franco. A lot of these crewmates are married couples and you see a lot of them not make it through the movie.Seriously, why in the hell would you bring your spouse with you on a space expedition trip. Its not a freaking romantic getaway. Odds are one of you or both of you are going to die.
If you saw every Alien movie like I have, you know exactly where this film is going to go. It's nothing new really except more Aliens, more blood and gore, and most of all more deaths. If you like to see people die with blood splattering all over the screen, you walked into the right film. If you came for more of the philosophical themes that you liked from Prometheus, you get bits and pieces of that. Don't get me wrong, it works, but you’re going to have to go through a lot of brutal deaths to get there. But hey, you walked into and Alien movie, what do you think you were going to expect. The last act goes through follows your typical summer blockbuster action sequence, but I’ll be damned if it's not exciting and refreshing. There’s two climatic action sequence where one follows the summer blockbuster sequence and the other repeats other Alien deaths in previous movies.
Because this is a Ridley Scott Alien movie, the film is quick to play with your nostalgia by having the opening credits mimic his first film especially with Jerry Goldsmith’s score playing in the background. This is really faithful to other Alien films by even when you think the movie is done, the action still keeps going. Ridley Scott sort of remade Alien one and (bits of Cameron’s Aliens) but cranked up the violence and gore to 10 for entertainment value. By how this franchise drained me over the weekend, this had me both thoroughly entertained and amused. It doesn't do anything new to the do anything new to the franchise, but Scott keeps it steering to an interesting direction to where I’m actually eager to see what will happen next.
LAST STATEMENT: Though its retreads a lot of elements from past installments, Scott’s Alien: Covenant has enough gory Sci-Fi violence and philosophical themes that work enough as both a Prometheus sequel and an Alien movie.
Rating: 4/5 | 81%
Super Scene: Fassbender V. Fassbender Dawn of Fassy
