Review of Alien: Covenant (2017) by Movie R — 27 Dec 2017

D+ (65/100).

SPOILERS.

Alien: Covenant is the sequel to the kind-of-prequel to Alien that also has the same plot as the kind-of-prequel to Alien but is also different because this time there's two David's and one of them's good...

STORY: The movie is just the same as any other Alien movie, with elements of Prometheus just thrown in there and barely built upon. It doesn't really go anywhere interesting until David appears and we see his weird experiments. But Noomi Rapace's character is dead, none of the new characters are interesting, and David is ... malfunctioning, to say the least... You know, when you set up a continuing story of the two surviving characters in Prometheus as the basis for a possible sequel, this is in't exactly a direction I would have taken with this one. They made no progress on the White Bald people, no new sci-fi discoveries, nothing new added to the series' universe. Covenant is just another excuse for Ridley Scott to make the same movie he made 40 years ago but with a bigger budget. Very disappointing. 1/4.

SCRIPT: The script is so-so. Dialogue is kind of weak, the plot feels rushed and action-y. It starts off very interesting, but most of it is stuff we've already seen before in the Alien movies. The second half of this movie is better in that it introduces some philosophical and biblical subtext to David's character. But that's as interesting as it gets, and they go the most predictable way with it. 2/4.

CHARACTERS: The only interesting characters are David and Walter. And they're robots. The film tries to give Billy Crudup's character some flaws, but it's all rather one-note; everyone has quirks but they feel like one-dimensional characters with no interest in being on this mission. It's very ... not exciting. But they do have their moments, especially near the end. 2/4.

DIRECTION: Scott needs to retire. He George Lucas'd this series. It's done. It's just a shell of what it was, and what it could have been. His decisions are so strange and questionable, it makes you wonder why he doesn't just write his own Alien movie that's not written by 4 people and makes no sense. But his visual vision of the future and the tone of his installments of the franchise are all great to see. 2/4.

PERFORMANCES: No one is bad in the movie; but Michael Fassbender really hammed it up as David. He also did his Frank impression for Walter, which was nice. Thanks, Michael! Your character in a space-horror movie reminds me of a crazy rock star with a paper mache head. Everyone else is good in it, not astounding. 3/4.

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Definitely one of the best things about Alien: Covenant -- and Prometheus -- is the cinematography. Great looking locations, good angles, smooth movements. They did a great job capturing the look of it all. 4/4.

EDITING: For some reason it feels like something was missing. But overall the editing was...okay? The rhythm and pacing with which the story is told often drags and loses focus. But that's also due to the script, no doubt. I'm sure they did their best. 3/4.

SOUND DESIGN: The sound is very convincing, as most movies are these days. 4/4.

MUSIC: I don't remember a single note other than that played by David and Walter in their scene together with the flute. 2/4.

ACTION / SPECIAL EFFECTS: The aliens look fantastic here, I liked the design of the planet, and the CGI overall was convincing enough. The action at the end got a little boring for me, though. I wish they had built the characters up better so that the climax was more compelling; but everyone in this movie just exists to be eaten by aliens. 3/4.

TOTAL POINTS:

25/40.

(65/100).

D+.

Overall Alien Covenant is pretty disappointing but you'll enjoy watching people get eaten, and Michael Fassbender just losing it on set.