Ridley Scott returns to deliver a sequel to his massively disliked and 360 turn prequel Prometheus. In my opinion, I found Prometheus to have beautiful qualities and fascinating commentary on the existence of life and creators, questioning the purpose of our own purposes to be immortal and to do anything necessary to achieve finding our answers. It was a different spin from the Alien franchise that over time relied more on gore and action than of heavy suspense and isolation in deep space. Prometheus was a bold and different movie that worked for me because it tried to do something new with a familiar brand. Instead, stupid fanboys and girls wanted their damn xenomorphs and epic kills. So instead of making a direct sequel immediately after Prometheus that would have followed android David and Dr. Elizabeth Shaw exploring the world of the engineers, which was what Ridley intended, Scott instead catered to his xenomorph pleaders and made a sequel that follows a different crew on a different mission encountering the remains of a paradise planet.
Alien : Covenant is undoubtedly a gorgeous looking film that for the first two-thirds, builds on some of the ideologies from its previous film. The ideas of human discovery on different planets and the idea of colonizing them for the potential of humanity is a fascinating world build by Scott. The film smartly takes time to develop our central characters enough to where we understand where they’re coming from. Katherine Waterson and Danny Mcbride are the standout crew members of the Covenant, as both deliver memorable performances to where we give a damn whether or not they make it through the end. Michael Fassbender as Walter the Android is brilliant once again and is just as if not, more brilliant as David, the android from Prometheus. He is straight up oscar-caliber good in this flick and is the saving grace for what follows which is inherently a mess of a film that like the faults of Prometheus, has stupid characters making stupid, ill-advised decisions that gets them killed off in a third act that dissolves quickly and feels different from the rest of the film. Scott’s writing and his decisions for certain character motives, particularly that of David and how his story proceeds from Prometheus feels like a slap in the face to fans of his previous film. What could have been an interesting origin story for the Xenomorphs and their creation is still not explained enough to where it is compelling. It instead feels like a short exhibition set up to another sequel we have to wait for and pay for that probably still won’t give us the answers.
There is a heavy reliance on gore and grotesque chest-bursting kills and that for the most part, looks really good on a technical level. But in terms of suspense, we have seen it all before and just because something is grosser and bloodier, it doesn’t make it all the better. That, in turn with how these characters got themselves set up for their eventual deaths doesn’t give the audience any reason to care for them as they constantly make decisions that jeapordize literally thousands of lives(you’ll see why). If not for the excellent cinematography, the connections of creationism that exists within the world of prometheus, and the fine performances of the central cast, especially that of the great Michael Fassbender, Alien:Covenant would be just another bad sequel to the first two Alien features.
Alien:Covenant is one hell of a bloody, film with spectacular visuals and performances but with so many character flaws and disappointing story arcs. It’s hard to really love a feature when it feels like a film begins with a purpose and slowly becomes a shadow of what it once was.
Grade: C
Alien:Covenant opens everywhere Friday, May 19th.
Rated R for sci-fi violence, bloody images, language and some sexuality/nudity