‘Alien Covenant’ cleans up ‘Prometheus’ mess with scares, Michael Fassbender focus
Ridley Scott returned to the Alien franchise with his 2012 prequel, Prometheus, only to receive mixed responses from critics and audiences alike. Now with Alien: Covenant, Scott ventures to steer the story back towards the 1979 original and focus only briefly on theology.
Around a decade after the events of Prometheus and the mysterious disappearance of the crew and ship, the crew of the Covenant is awakened abruptly from hypersleep and find themselves near a planet appearing to be habitable for humans. Oram (Billy Crudup) finds himself thrust into the role of Captain and he choose to explore this place which appears to be “to good to be true.”
Well, no surprise for the audience…it is.
Quickly the crew of the Covenant is caught up in a frenzy to survive as the xenomorph’s spores have infested some humans and chase others. They are “rescued” by David, the android from Prometheus, who crashed on the planet with Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) who restored the android’s “health.”
The Covenant crew includes the latest version of David, a less-human version named Walter (both played by Michael Fassbender) and he’s where Scott brilliantly spins the tale of good vs. evil.
Just as Scott did with Alien and Prometheus, he centers the story around a strong female, Daniels, played by Katherine Waterston, and just like his previous works, Scott delivers on his twists and turns as surviving the xenomorph attacks seem impossible. Fassbender’s duo role as the androids is the heart and soul of the film, pulling the audience in two different directions.
With all of that said, Covenant does return the franchise to the horror genre, but is more creepy than scary. Scott still can avoid the intellectual pondering and creation lectures, but this doesn’t bog down the story as it did in Prometheus. The cast are adequate as a bunch of crew members destined to be devoured or infested by the creature and audiences will wonder why Fox would agree to pay James Franco for a single scene of work.
Characters like the pilot Tennessee (Danny McBride), and his wife, Faris (Amy Seimetz) are raw and relatable for the audience, but many are just expendable crew members who would have red shirts if this were a Trek film.
The twist at the end is very obvious, but truly delivers and sets up the franchise making fanboys want to watch Alien right away to plug in their own version of how the events fill the gap.
Alien: Covenant receives 3 stars out of 5 stars.
