Five years on from Prometheus, a muddled but strangely hypnotic prequel to the original Alien, we receive Alien: Covenant, a split-the-difference, crowd-pleasing affair that has as much going for it as it has bullets being shot into its own foot.
The common complaint of Prometheus was that it veered too far away from the original Alien quadrilogy and was too ponderous and reflective; too much philosophy, not enough xenomorphs.
It was Covenant's goal or "covenant," I assume, to fill more seats and put more guns in characters' hands. And we do get more action, more aliens, more gruesome deaths, but I'm not sure all of that "more" adds up to a better film. There are enjoyable moments and scares but it all feels perfunctory by the final act. As the CGI level increased, my interest level waned.
And don't get me started on a bizarre, why-are-they-doing-this-amongst-chaos shower sex scene in the final ten minutes. Huh?!
Michael Fassbender, glorious in his second-skin bodysuit, once again works wonders as both David and Walter, two different models of android with two different purposes. Not surprising that I get a replicant, Blade Runner vibe from his characters in this film. Fassbender is the best actor and character(s) in the bunch.
Katherine Waterston is the strong female lead we've come to know and trust in the Alien brand, but she's probably the weakest in the series. Granted, she's shook by the death of her husband at the beginning of the film (sorry to spoil, but will you be disappointed that a smug, sneering James Franco gets offed in the first ten minutes of the film? Me neither. Bad casting.), but she fails to rise above her soft-spoken, monotone delivery. I don't buy her last minute, end-of-an-Alien-movie expletive-ridden rants.
If you need to see how it's done, watch Alien and especially Aliens again for a master class in subtlety, variety of mood, silent strength, not-so-silent rage, and how to blow an alien away; how can one compete with the glorious Sigourney Weaver?
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