Review: Alien Covenant Isn't The Worst Alien Movie
- May 12, 2017
- 2 min read
But it certainly isn't the best, not even in the top 3. I'm starting to get the feeling Ridley Scott hasn't watched Alien since 1979. Seriously, he has no idea what he's doing.
The Covenant, a colony ship carrying over 2000 souls to a new home, takes damage during an unexpected solar event. The crew, consisting of Daniels (Katherine Waterston), Oram (Billy Crudup) and Tennessee (Danny McBride), as well as a number of others, are woken by the android Walter (Michael Fassbender). As they regain control of The Covenant they pick up a very human signal from what appears to be a habitable planet. Touching down on the surface a small team sets out to find the origin of the signal and maybe become lunch for some hungry aliens along the way.
Alien Covenant shares similarities with both Alien and Prometheus, namely the presence of the Engineers, Xenomorphs and David (Michael Fassbender). But, other than that, Covenant is a confused mess that ranges from good to average to awful.
Fassbender deserves praise for his performance as both Walter and David, each character is equally interesting a different with Walter being a later model, less human than the more real David. The visuals and effects are spot on as well, easily the best the franchise has ever seen. Much like Prometheus, the first half hour or so is well done, as is the music with utilises the Alien score to great effect. The ending is also pretty great, even if it's a little predictable. But how's everything else? Not so good.
The characters are one dimensional, the xenos are as threatening as wet paper bags and the story is, well, nonexistent. It lacks the punch of Alien, the varied characters and situations of the movie that started it all and, most importantly, it isn't scary. While it's nice to see a xenomorph on the big screen for the first time since AvP: Requiem, it's presence lacks threat, impact or purpose.
Alien Covenant feels like a 2 hour long trailer for another movie. It has it's high points but it's mostly lows. It isn't awful and there are far worse movies within the series but it certainly isn't great. Blood and gore a good movie do not make. If you want your space bound, sci-fi scares, watch Alien again or check out this years Life instead. I'm not angry, just disappointed.
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