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 think people have too high expectation to new movies of famous franchises, and when it doesn't come to their expectation, they just freak out and start giving one out of ten. If you have seen lots of harsh criticism for this movie, I say it's not bad at all. It's still quite entertaining. To be fair, lots of good horror movies are barely above 6 out of ten. So don't avoid it just because people say they hate it. It's true that they throw lots of (probably too many) elements into this movie, which might turn out to be less exciting. However, the ending succeeds in opening up to more stories, which is good. Also, keep in mind that this is not meant to be like the previous alien movies. It has totally different theme. I bet Ridley is a totally different person now. I would be surprised if he makes a new alien movie with similar tone to the older ones. And it's sensible for the old Ridley to explore the "creation" stuffs. I think it's a fairly good sequel to Prometheus. Look, now we have a new franchise directed by Ridley Scott himself, which is some what relates to the alien franchise. That is just great.

Alien: Covenant (2017)

** (out of 4)

Sequel to PROMETHEUS and a connection to the ALIEN series, this sci-fi film has a spaceship trying to locate a planet so that the human race can continue. The crew are planning on building a colony but they notice a much closer planet that can hold life. They decide to head there to see what's on it and soon the horror starts.

To put it mildly, ALIEN: COVENANT is a major disappointment. It seems a lot of fans were unhappy with PROMETHEUS because it was more of a thinking man's movie and less of a action/horror/sci-fi film. It seems that this film was in trouble from the start because you have to wonder if there was some sort of debate before hand on what should be done with it. PROMETHEUS was a terrific movie that made you think about a lot of things but sadly this sequel doesn't do that. Instead, it almost seems as the filmmakers were forced to answer a few questions about PROMETHEUS and then they wanted to throw in the action of an ALIEN sequel.

What really shocked me about this movie is the fact that it almost put me to sleep several times. I'm not going to say that the film is a cure for insomnia but at the same time it's deadly slow at times even though there's usually something always going on. As I said, the screenplay doesn't seem to know what the film should do and the majority of the running time is just downright boring. The film starts off with a tragedy yet it's hard to have any emotions for the characters because we're just getting to know them. Another problem is the fact that the characters are all rather bland with the exception of Michael Fassbender's two-part role.

As I said, I thought the characters were rather boring and I'd argue that not many of the performances are all that memorable. Perhaps a longer director's cut will eventually show up but there's really not too much here. Fassbender delivers a fine performance but I can't say I was impressed with the rest of the cast. On a technical level Ridley Scott is a visual genius so all of that stuff looks great. There's some extremely gory scenes of violence, which are very good but the film is just way too uneven to work.

It's like part of the movie wanted to be another thinking man's movie but there's another part that wanted to be a bloody action film. It just doesn't work in the end.

I don't know if I'm the only person to say this, but I think a horror movie works better if we see some intelligence in the script and in the characters' attitudes, and if the main antagonist is mysterious and able to surprise us. I liked "Prometheus", a film better than expected, albeit with a confusing script. This film establishes a clearer, more palpable link between that film and the "Alien" franchise. The script accompanies the "Covenant", a colony ship filled with people in hypersleep. The ship receives a mysterious signal from a planet that, by all indications, has excellent conditions for life, but quickly realizes that it has stumbled on a place where it should never have landed. After seeing the film, I had the feeling that we were looking at a very solid work that only lost when compared to the original franchise. Perhaps the best way to be fair is really to avoid this comparative exercise, which is seductive and almost impossible not to do.

Shall we start with the good things? Very good! The film is a sight for sore eyes, especially for sci-fi fans and for those who like very visual films with high doses of special effects, CGI or extraordinarily detailed scenarios. There is no doubt that the budget had a generous slice set aside for computer technicians, art and costume designers and cinematography, and this investment has paid off handsomely. Everything is accompanied by an excellent soundtrack and good sound effects. And of course, there are lots of tense scenes. It is one of those films where the tension is permanent, but which never really scares us.

Sadly, that's basically all this movie has to offer us. Fans of the Alien franchise will ensure that the film clarifies several gray points in the narrative of other films, such as "Prometheus", and I agree with this argument, but this does not seem to me to be something that we should overestimate, because it really was the least that could be done. Demanded from this film! At the script level, it is frankly disappointing: in addition to being lazy, making the most of what was done for the other films with which it is linked, it adds few new things. Yes, it creates some new creatures, "cousins" of the original xenomorph, but that's all. The human or semi-human characters are silly, devoid of development and seem to be waiting to be killed.

The film starts out great, but becomes slow and tiresome as it becomes predictable. I have a high regard for Ridley Scott's work, I think he's a very skilled and credited director, but it's hard not to acknowledge that he failed here. The director was dazzled by the amount of CGI potential and neglected the narrative, editing and direction of the actors. Among the actors, Michael Fassbender stands out the most. The actor has given us one of his best works so far. Katherine Waterston also did a very good job. The rest of the cast doesn't have the time or material to do anything special.