Alien: Covenant

"Alien: Covenant" is a sci-fi action film technically perfect, with great special effects and landscapes. Unfortunately the story is terrible with the most unprepared (or stupid) crew ever seen. How could practically all the crew including the captain and the second in command land in an unknown planet without a better analyze of the soil and the atmosphere? They have a skilled android that should go alone and report whether the place is dangerous or not. One of the groups have a sick crew-member and his partner brings him bleeding to the only means of transportation they have to return to the spacecraft. The pilot risks the lives they are transporting and their colonization mission to try to rescue a few survivors. In addition, the performances are soulless and not engaging and the viewer does not care to the characters. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Alien: Covenant"

When I went into watching Covenant on opening night, I went in with neither excitement nor hesitation but was just curious. I was one of the people who didn't hate Prometheus because I admired the new mythology Ridley Scott was trying to create. However, I could see that it was poorly executed especially when connecting to Alien. Covenant improves on those ideas with better-written characters but in the end mostly fails as a memorable Alien film.

The parts I liked the most surprisingly were the Prometheus tie-ins. The film constantly delves on the ideas of creation, religion and faith without feeling as forced like in Prometheus. From the opening scene of android David's "birth" to the crew of the Covenant being a colony ship carrying couples, the film carries on these philosophical ideas while tying in very well with the origin of the iconic Xenomorph. While it does not explain everything that was left open in Prometheus, it does feel satisfying that Covenant tries to give some answers rather then just leave with questions.

Once again Michael Fassbender proves to be the standout of this film. But this time he shows off double the effort when he plays two androids, the original David and the Covenant's own personal android Walter. David gets to be a lot more fleshed out and we get a better understanding behind his questionable actions. And as Walter, Fassbender displays a more restrained, machine-like personality but still conveying a sense of loyalty to the crew. And seeing the two Fassbender's interact with one with each other were the most compelling scenes in the film even if one scene was unintentionally hilarious. Danny McBride should also be credited for taking on a role more serious then his usual ones in comedy. Billy Crudup also was good as a religious man whose leadership is conflicted with his Christian beliefs. Katherine Waterston did well in the lead role but is not as unique as compared the Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley. And now here is where the film's faults become very present. While the characters are an improvement from Prometheus, the movie's plot forces them to make choices that feel out of character and silly.

Probably my biggest disappointment was the titled creature itself. The Xenomorph does not show up till maybe like 20 minutes towards the end and its presence just feels like a forced afterthought. And I didn't mind the Xenomorph being more cg-heavy when compared to past films but the subtlety of the creature hiding and waiting to pounce from the darkness was gone. With the creature attacking right out in the opening and Ridley Scott showing too much of it on camera, it no longer felt like the intelligent, calculative killing machine I remembered. It became just another dumb generic movie monster. Even the Alien doppelgänger movie that came this year, Life, was a better Alien movie then this actual Alien movie.

The film also has twist ending that leaves a lot of plot holes to examine and is just more annoying and stupid then smart.

In the end Covenant will satisfy those who had problems with Prometheus convoluted mythology with some intriguing sci-fi ideas but if you're looking for a great monster movie then watch the first two Alien films then this one.

I had high expectations going into Covenant, I'd enjoyed Prometheus despite it's well documented flaws and was expecting it to rise above it's predecessor. It didn't. I can suspend belief for some things but others I can't overlook, the crew were well cast but the writing had some major flaws in much the same vein as Prometheus, highly trained people making incredibly bad decisions. You can argue that under pressure mistakes are made but not school-boy errors, taking an obviously sick and infected man onto your ship with no hint of quarantine being a major one. Having said that, I did think the aliens themselves were well projected and frightening, men-in-suits works better for me than CGI so on this point Scott won. The first two acts were good barring the critical errors, but the final act was telegraphed and obvious, it left me wondering where this great franchise can go to next? I will watch it again on disc and will definitely add it to my collection but to feel this disappointed after waiting for another of my favourite franchises to appear it left a bitter taste in my mouth, and it wasn't the Coke Zero.

In the first 20 minutes I was so happy with Covenant. It felt sharp, atmospheric, there are interesting character situations, emotive moments and infinitely better writing than we had in Prometheus. As it progresses, this feeling continues - thankfully, a solid sci-fi film that got it right.

Then Ridley starts to indulge in his convoluted ideas about creation and destruction. Its like switching from 1977 George Lucas to 1999 Lucas. You can almost hear Ridley at a writing meeting saying "this'll be cool, and this, and this, and then this" and the writer saying "uh, is this for the same film or later in the series?" "Yeah just cram it all in, make it happen".

You end up with three different films - a first act like a modern Alien which I loved, a middle act of Prometheus style philosophizing that feels like more Westworld, then a last act of two shoe-horned in action scenes homaging Aliens and Alien 3 respectively. Except there is no satisfaction at all, because the aliens are rushed, a bit silly, often awkwardly CGI looking, and not even convincing as threats because we don't care about any of it.

By the end I just have no idea what to think. I just think it would have worked much better if the ideas were done justice in their own film, rather than ham-fistedly trying to ram them into an Alien film to try and please fans and make box-office.

The alien movies over the years have mutated manifold from straight up horror to a full on war/action flick then to a mixed backstory starting in alien 3 which was interesting but a massive failure. Prometheus visually stunning as it was was let down by an awful script an dialog in particular.

Where do we come from? Why are we here? Themes from Prometheus continue in the very first 5 minutes before the credits have even rolled. It continues to beat you over the head with its backstory which, for me makes no sense whatsoever. Some of the dialog references other master horror works such as Frankenstein but does so in a way that it's up its own arse. Forgetting what alien actually was in the first place, a coincidence that was never about back story. Characters explain the plot in basil exposition speaking like no one ever would - speaking their thoughts at every opportunity - yes we get it, it treats the audience poorly.

What I did like was the scene shown much in the trailer, a character trapped in concealed room as something happens to her colleague. It was a longer scene that was tense and exciting and I oh so wish the rest of the movie could have come close. In a strange way alien covenant takes iconic moments from the franchise and tacks them on here but makes me wish I was watching alien or aliens instead. It's technically good as always Ridley Scott is a visionary filmmaker, but is unable to turn a weak script into a good film.

Alien:covenant gets locked up in its own self importance while forgetting why we loved alien in the first place. I really wanted to like it but came a way with a huge sense of disappointment.