Review of Alien: Covenant (2017) by Patrick L — 13 Jul 2017

"Despite it's dollar-store character development, "Alien: Covenant" has four very effective scary sequences, two outstanding performances from Michael Fassbender as the two androids and a better atmosphere than the previous "Alien" sequels and "Prometheus".".

Movie Review: Alien: Covenant.

Date Viewed: May 24 2017.

Directed By Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Matchstick Men, American Gangster, Gladiator, The Martian, Thelma & Louise, Black Hawk Down and Prometheus).

Screenplay By John Logan and Dante Harper, Story By Jack Paglen and Michael Green, Based on characters created by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett.

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Demian Bichir, Danny McBride, Carmen Ejogo, Amy Seimetz, Jussie Smollet, Callie Hernandez, Nathaniel Dean, Alexander England, Benjamin Rigby with Guy Pearce and James Franco.

When Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, The Martian, Black Hawk Down, Gladiator, American Gangster) made "Prometheus" in 2012, it was supposed to be a new beginning for the "Alien" universe. I really liked it but since everybody else disliked it, Scott decided to direct a follow-up to "Prometheus" but with the word "Alien" in the title. "Alien: Covenant" brings back elements as well as fond memories of "Prometheus" and Scott's original 1979 film into good fashion but the only major downside is the characters. I didn't care about anybody in the movie except for Danny McBride who plays a chief pilot named Tennessee and Michael Fassbender who gives two performances here: he reprises his role as the android David, one of the two survivors from the doomed "Prometheus" expedition and he plays Walter, David's younger counterpart.

Everybody else here is either two-dimensional or not very interesting in the least. Katherine Waterston is intended to be the bad-ass heroine of this story but she only comes across as Ellen Ripley-lite and she's not as strong as Sigourney Weaver was. Despite it's dollar-store character development, "Alien: Covenant" has four very effective scary sequences, two outstanding performances from Michael Fassbender as the two androids and a better atmosphere than the previous "Alien" sequels and "Prometheus".

Typically with grand science fiction movies like this, "Alien: Covenant" opens with colony space cruiser named the Covenant heading it's way for a remote planet called Origae-6. The ship is monitored by Walter (Fassbender), a newer android model that completely resembles the original David. When the ship gets into trouble, this forces the crew to wake up. Everyone survives except for the ship's captain, Jake Branson (James Franco).

The Covenant's new captain, Christopher Oram (Billy Crudup) is not prepared to handle his new role and Branson's terraforming expert wife, Daniels (Waterston) is struggling to do her job because she's still grieving over his loss. After the ship's repairs are completed, Oram decides that instead of putting everybody back to sleep and finishing the seven years they have left on their journey, they would explore an uncharted paradise somewhere on a habitable planet but Daniels disagrees by saying: "You have no idea what's out there?".

Everybody else agrees to take a detour of the planet and see what lies in store for them. When they touch down on the planet, it's filled with grass, trees, wheats and forests and they think "Oh, this doesn't look so bad" but people don't judge a planet by it's good nature, they're still could be something out there and what do you know, the Covenant expedition team manage to find the long-lost "Prometheus" ship. The ship's only survivors were Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and the android David (also played by Fassbender). Suddenly, madness erupts when two security members of the expedition get infected with alien spores and two small Neomorph aliens pop out of their bodies and start attacking the crew killing five including Oram's biologist wife, Karine (Carmen Ejogo).

The Covenant expedition team gets saved by David and he leads them to a dark abandoned city full of Engineer corpses. David and Walter do of course meet each other and they ponder about life and play some classical music. For what was supposed to be colonization mission has turned into... (to quote Steve Buscemi from "Armageddon") something out of Dr. Seuss' worst nightmare. Director Scott adds real tension, high-minded ideas and haunting images like "Prometheus" did but he and his screenwriters John Logan, Dante Harper, Jack Paglen and Michael Green forgot how to create characters who are visually arresting and don't seem like typical horror movie victims. That aspect is disappointing because "Alien: Covenant" has a pretty good cast here, you have Waterston, Crudup, Ejogo, Amy Seimetz, Jussie Smollet (from TV's "Empire"), Demian Bichir and Danny McBride in a rare departure from his usual bawdy R-rated comedies. If you look back at "Alien" and "Aliens", Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Paul Reiser and Bill Paxton were designed as horror movie victims but those screenplays breathed actual life into these characters and they were developed enough to make them exceptional.

"Alien" die-hards will no doubt enjoy "Alien: Covenant" as a return to form for the franchise and they should be pleased because it has plenty of gore and the CGI-enhanced aliens are scary as hell. Does "Covenant" stand as strong as it's far superior predecessors? Not so much but it's still a satisfying summer sequel.