Review of Alien: Covenant (2017) by Jan V — 01 Jun 2017

Ridley Scott was the director that started the Alien franchise. If someone doesn't stop him, he'll also be the director that ends it.

With Alien: Covenant, the original Alien/Aliens now have no less than three failed sequel/prequel duologies to go with them. Some of these sequels are better than others, but they all fail by telling the fundamentally wrong story. In Alien 3, no one was clamoring for a story about Ripley's last days amidst a group of monastic felons. Those who wanted the AvP matchup wanted it in the future with the Colonial Marines, not the present with Antarctica and Colorado. And with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, we might've asked about those Space Jockeys before, but we surely didn't want the story of how they're intertwined with our own history and creation.

Alien: Covenant goes even deeper down the road of Ridley's self-indulgent philosophical rabbit chase, while pretending to give the audience what they want. Scott misunderstood criticism of Prometheus as "not enough Alien," so he brings the monster back while continuing to tell a story that nobody asked for.

This time, the question on the table has to do with the origin of the iconic Alien xenomorph. As with Prometheus, the answers we're provided aren't stunning, satisfying revelations - they just make us wish we hadn't asked the questions.

If Scott misunderstands why Prometheus didn't work, he also seems to no longer understand why Alien did. The director of Alien was a master of suspense, exercising restraint to tease us until it was time to reveal more. The director of Covenant gives us video game inspired action scenes that show too much, too fast.

The Nostromo in Alien was manned by believable blue-collar space truckers who just wanted to get home and get paid. The Covenant's crew are from the same stock of stupid as the characters from Prometheus.

Most importantly, Scott and his writers have forgotten that the Space Jockeys and Aliens worked because they were so mysterious, so utterly, perfectly ... alien. Giving us all the answers, tying them to humanity, anthropomorphizing them (as is done in one of the film's dumbest moments), makes them mundane instead of terrifying. Which is exactly what Ridley Scott manages to do with Alien: Covenant.

In trying to make Prometheus 2 into Alien 5, Scott misses the boat for both fanbases. He has plans for more, but Covenant's anemic box office suggests it's time for a change in direction. Do you think 20th Century Fox still has Neill Blomkamp's number?