Alien: Covenant (2017) 20th Century Fox/Sci-Fi-Horror RT: 123 minutes Rated R (sci-fi violence, bloody images, language, some sexuality and nudity) Director: Ridley Scott Screenplay: John Logan and Dante Harper Music: Jed Kurzel Cinematography: Dariusz Wolski Release date: May 19, 2017 (US) Cast: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demian Bichir, Carmen Ejogo, Amy Seimetz, Jussie Smollett, Callie Hernandez, Nathaniel Dean, Alexander England, Benjamin Rigby, Tess Haubrich, Uli Latukefu. Box Office: $74.3M (US)/$240.9M (World)
Rating: **
Five summers earlier (i.e. summer of ’12), the big question weighing on the minds of sci-fi movie geeks everywhere was whether or not Ridley Scott’s Prometheus was a prequel to Alien, something that had been speculated about even before it went into production. As you know, the answer turned out to be yes. It marked a return to form for the director of Alien and Blade Runner after a thirty-year absence from the sci-fi genre.
The next chapter Alien: Covenant is a sequel to Prometheus and the second in a proposed trilogy of prequels to Alien. I won’t come out and say it, but I think once you read the plot description, you’ll know which of the Alien movies it’s planting seeds for. ‘Nuff said on that.
Ten years after the events of Prometheus, the space vessel Covenant is bound for a distant planet with 2000 colonists and 1000 embryos on board. It’ll take seven years to reach its destination so everybody is in stasis, everybody except for the android Walter (Fassbender, the X-Men movies), an upgraded version of his “brother” David from the previous movie, who tends to the day-to-day stuff on the ship. He’s forced to waken the crew from hypersleep when a neutrino blast hits the ship. The only one not to survive the process is the captain (an uncredited James Franco) who burns up in his pod leaving the second-in-command Oram (Crudup, Almost Famous) in charge.
While the crew works to repair the damage, the pilot Tennessee (McBride, Pineapple Express) intercepts a transmission from a nearby planet that appears to be inhabitable. Oram decides, against the objections of terraforming expert Daniels (Waterston, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), to send down an expedition team to locate the source of the mysterious transmission. It leads them to the crashed remains of the ship piloted by David and Dr. Elizabeth Shaw at the end of the previous movie. She died in the crash according to David (Fassbender) who’s still fully functional. I won’t say exactly what he’s been up to for the past ten years. I will it isn’t long before the crew runs into trouble with certain nasty alien lifeforms.
Alien: Covenant is my least favorite entry in the series. It’s a kind way of saying I didn’t like it. It’s lame. I don’t know what’s worse, the bad CGI effects or the weak attempt by female lead Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) to step into Sigourney Weaver’s shoes. She’s no Ripley, believe it! This is indicative of a bigger problem, the film’s biggest. There are no memorable characters. None, not one, of the characters in this sixth installment of the series stand out like Kane (John Hurt), Ash (Ian Holm), Hudson (Bill Paxton), Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein), Bishop (Lance Henriksen), Dillon (Charles S. Dutton), Vriess (Dominique Pinon), Elgyn (Michael Wincott) and Gediman (Brad Dourif). Daniels is, at best, a pale imitation of Ripley. Oram is said to be a “man of faith” but nothing is done with it. Tennessee’s most defining trait is his cowboy hat. I really couldn’t tell you anything about the others off the top of my head.
The effects in Alien: Covenant are anything but special. They were handled by a VFX company (Moving Picture Company) as opposed to actual FX artists like Carlo Rambaldi and Stan Winston. That would explain the impersonal nature of the digitally-rendered creature effects. Scott made a fatal error in deciding to forgo the original designs of conceptual artist H.R. Giger and give the alien creatures a more organic feel. This is tantamount to doing touch-ups on the Mona Lisa.
Alien: Covenant has pacing issues, especially in the middle section when it stops dead in its tracks with a too-long scene between Fassbender and Fassbender as they ponder life and play music on a recorder. It’s eventually revealed one of the synthetic lifeforms has intentions that aren’t altruistic. Who didn’t see this coming? The same can be said of the final big plot twist. I spotted it immediately. The way it’s set up leaves no doubt as to the outcome. As for Fassbender, he does a fine job in both roles. He’s a good actor.
While not as thematically heavy as its immediate predecessor, Alien: Covenant does offer up a handful of effective moments like a shower scene where two victims-to-be are too busy getting busy to notice the alien tentacle at their feet. It’s right out of an 80s slasher flick. The production design, the ship’s interior in particular, is pretty good. I never said Alien: Covenant is without its good points. It has some, but not nearly enough to make this entry worth the effort.
