Review of Alien: Covenant (2017) by Jason M — 14 Jul 2017

Alien: Covenant may be considered part of a reboot of the Alien franchise, where, along with Prometheus (2012), are vastly deeper and better written than the schlocky films post Aliens (1986) that degenerated into caricatures of the original Alien (1979).

There is a lot more to this story than meets the eye. I am not certain that the "Paradise Lost" theme (originally written by John Milton in 1667) is clear to mass-consumption audiences. That would be a pity, because the whole David vs Walter, evil vs good themes are crammed into a sci-fi gore flick. As a matter of fact, it was rumoured that Ridley Scott was in fact planning to name the film "Alien: Paradise Lost", which would have made the connection so much stronger.

The flashback scene of David releasing the Aliens onto the civilization of Engineers was fantastic and one of the greatest scenes in sci-fi film I have ever scene. I only wish more time was spent on this backstory, which could have easily merited at least 10 minutes or more.

It is difficult to delve deep into the character of David as Milton's Satan and other serious "Who is God?" themes in a 2 hour edited film. This was a challenge in Prometheus as well. Kudos to Ridley Scott for attempting to pull it off. I enjoyed this film for what it was trying to accomplish, but it may have needed 3 hours to do so, which is clearly to long to hold the attention of mass market audiences simply wanting to see another thrasher Alien franchise instalment.