Big Screen Favorites - Alien: Covenant

As I viewed the new film in the Alien series by Ridley Scott, my overall impression was that it seemed unsure of itself. Did it want to take the franchise in the bold new direction that was promised by Prometheus, or did it want to play it safe and give fans all of the elements they were familiar with? Covenant tries to do both, and in the process turns a film with potential into an ultimately disappointing experience.

There are certainly things to like here. Ridley Scott proves once again that he is a masterful visual director--the planet that the majority of the film is set on feels completely real, and there are some truly horrifying, gory setpieces that will likely stick in the minds of viewers for some time. Performance-wise, the film benefits from the extremely likable characters of Daniels (Katherine Waterson) and Tennessee (Danny McBride), but at the end of the day this is Michael Fassbender's show. The two android characters that he plays are polar opposites, but both feel fleshed out and are the most fascinating and interesting presences in the film.

Unfortunately, there are a multitude of flaws that overshadow what I enjoyed about the movie. As mentioned previously, the script seems half-interested in exploring the interesting concepts unveiled in Prometheus, but is moreso content with recycling material from the far superior previous films. While there are some standout scenes of suspense and terror, for the majority of the movie I felt little tension as there was an over-reliance on cheap jump scares and shock value. The final twenty minutes in particular feel extremely tacked on--one gets the feeling that section was only included so that more familiar scenes with the classic Xenomorph monster could be inserted into the trailers. And in spite of the small handful of interesting characters, the majority of the cast is as one-dimensional as can be. They are not people you can get invested in, but rather uninteresting presences who will inevitably die after making stupid decisions.

Alien: Covenant is a movie that showed promise, particularly in the beginning portion. But sadly its lack of subtlety and largely boring characters bog down some of its strong elements. Ridley Scott may want to consider handing over the reigns of this series to someone else, before it loses its spark permanently. I would award the movie a score of 2.5/5 stars.