Alien: Covenant

Dir: Ridley Scott

2017

***

The only thing worse than a prequel is a sequel of a prequel that is itself still a prequel. The conversation about whether Prometheus was or wasn’t a true Alien film got boring before the 2012 film was even in cinemas – it got even more tiresome after the film was released. To set the record straight, it was decided to call the film Alien: Covenant, but even though I was underwhelmed by the first film, I think Prometheus: Covenant would have been a more appropriate title. As it is it lack conviction and it tries to please everyone but pleases nobody. I hated the film within the first few seconds when I released that the trailer I saw (featuring James Franco as the captain of the new spaceship and crew) was essentially the first part of the film and not taken from what was seen in cinemas. So essentially, if you missed the trailer, then you missed the first few minutes of the film. That my friends, is a dick move. I had little enthusiasm for this film really, I guess I secretly hoped it would go back to being a mindless action film in the absence of any real intelligent writing, but the announcement that Danny McBride would play a main character shattered all interest. However, I was drawn in by the dream-like intro scene featuring Michael Fassbender’s David and Guy Pearce’s Peter Weyland. Maybe there was more to the story then I first thought. A lot of what made the first Alien movies so successful is that the situation our protagonists found themselves in was so limited. There was a claustrophobic feel to the film that added that extra element of terror. However, they were horror films, Alien: Covenant is something else, with horror elements. Little time is spent in space or in a spaceship, the xenomorph is around killing people but it isn’t quite the alien we all know and it really isn’t the film’s main villain. Its original title: Alien: Paradise Lost, was probably rather more suitable, although I’m sure it would have confused many and maybe would have given away too much of the plot for others. The overall concept of the film is great, I just don’t think it was executed particularly well. After the initial intro scene, the main story begins eleven years after the events of Prometheus. It undoes a lot of what I hated about Prometheus throughout the film which was great for me but not great if you were a fan of the 2012 prequel. A huge colonization ship called Covenant is bound for a remote planet named Origae-6, with two thousand colonists in stasis and 1,140 human embryos aboard. The ship is monitored by Covenant’s own android Walter, a newer model that physically resembles David from Prometheus (also played by Michael Fassbinder). The crew awakes and soon realise that they have been taken out of status early. Origae-6 is still seven years away but a new habitable planet has been detected, so they are obliged to go and check it out. No points for guessing what they find there. There are a few pleasant surprises among the clichés however, with a reverse chest-burster (an alien popping out of someones back rather than their front) being my personal favorite. There is a lot of wandering around and not achieving anything by people who are supposedly very clever but there is also a much darker edge to the story. It moves away from the alien concept quite a bit in places which I still haven’t decided whether I like or not. I like that it tries something totally new but I also miss the hum of a desolate space ship. I like the whole ‘In space no one can hear you scream’ thing, rather than ‘Let’s check out this planet/oh no, lets get the hell off this planet’ scenario, and of course Ridley Scotts obsession with making everything look like a classical epic. There was always something biblical about the original alien films and the many scripts for Aliens and Alien 3 were amazing in what many writers/directors wanted to achieve, but now that Scott is exploring many of those ideas I’m not sure its what I would have chosen for the story. I think I just hate prequels. Its different and I like what they did with the character of David but I feel that there is still something not quite right about this new direction. Maybe they should have ditched all of the elements we recognise from the original alien films and should have started from scratch. Maybe they should have made a continuation of the story instead of a prequel. And maybe, just maybe, they should have just left the franchise alone. I’m still very much on the fence with this one.