Review of Alien: Covenant (2017) by Mcjomar — 23 Aug 2017

So what we've got here is a move that is worse than Resurrection, but better than Prometheus.

Here's why:

First, the crew are morons - just like in Prometheus - and outside of the core survivors (heh) are mostly forgettable (you'll understand at the end, don't worry).

Most of the big plot "twists" are visible from half the movie away, while the smaller ones are still blindingly obvious from a quarter of the screen time away. Unless you've literally never watched a movie before, you'll see it coming. And it doesn't help that most of the attempts to be philosophical are heavy handed, ham fisted, and obvious (and dull). Again, if you have a brain in your head, you'll see what I mean.

Finally, on the negatives, there's the fact that a lot of events (not just crew related) don't seem to really follow much in the way of logic. In terms of suspending disbelief, make sure you've had some practice on the highwire, as for this film you're operating without a safety net.

Bad stuff out of the way, let's get to the juicy stuff - respectable CGI, and Ridley Scott is on par for his usual spectacle, shock and awe. That said, for my tastes I'd prefer him to return to his previous attitude of "only use CGI if physical props/effects are impossible" as his prior efforts in previous films with physical effects/props have infinitely more presence.

Another good point is Michael Fassbender. He straight up rescues most of this film, so make him your focus. I rarely hate a character as much as this - by which I mean he is a very good villain of the modern sort, and thus Fassbender is turning in a brilliant performance. Pity the script is so weak, but he's still brilliant in this film, so get your kicks here.

Third - Alien design, and everything relating to it which appears in this film, including the callbacks to the lesser Prometheus flick relating to this subject. This is some very nice work. Fourth - gore. Lots of it. And it's not your lazy gore either - the body horror (one key scene in particular) is fantastic here, and while most of the rest of the film never quite reaches this same high note on this topic, it still does a pretty good job. Again, when you see it, you'll know.

All in all? A movie some some interesting raw material, but ruthlessly let down by bad script, weak crew characters, and obvious "twists".

In regards being better than Prometheus, this is simply the case of it having more personality in regards Fassbender, and the Alien, rather than it being better in regards script, crew, or logic.