2017: The Year in Film "Alien: Covenant" Review

The Alien franchise is, at this point, nearly as inexplicable in its survival as the Fast and Furious franchise. After 4 individual Alien films (only 2 of which are evem good - although those 2 are obviously great), 2 awful Alien v. Predator films and innumerable aborted starts, stops and would-be reboots, cinema master and director of the original Alien, Ridley Scott returned with an ambitious vision of the world that's home to the franchise with 2012's Prometheus.  While Prometheus is by no means a perfect film, it is incredibly ambitious, gorgeous, incredibly well-made, and gorgeous to look at. Michael Fassbender's performance alone is worth the cost of admission. Personally, I'm a fan of Prometheus, and even though several of the characters are inexplicably idiots, the film simply has a vision and an ambition that is sadly empty from most major studio releases, and especially sci fi.

Alien: Covenant is a direct sequel to Prometheus, and thus a prequel to the 1979 original. As Prometheus ended without revealing the classic xenomorph monster, Alien: Covenant has work to do.

It's 10 years after the exploration vessel Prometheus was lost, and humanity's first large-scale colonization mission to the stars has been undertaken to a distant world. After a fluke occurrence leads to the discovery of a mysterious distress beacon, the crew decides to investigate a seemingly hospitable world, with predictably dire consequences.

The Good: This film manages to ground the speculative ambition of Prometheus more firmly within the world of the first film, successfully bringing the story to a place where the origins of what will come to pass in the original films actually make sense within Scott's framework. Like every Ridley Scott film ever, this one is absolutely gorgeous, with top notch effects, cinematography, world-building and filmmaking across the board. Michael Fassbender is, as he was in Prometheus, far and away the best part of this film, this time playing two separate "brother" androids who drive much of the plot. English actress Katherine Waterston (I recognize her from Inherent Vice) channels her inner Ellen Ripley and Danny "Kenny Powers" McBride transitions to a serious role rather seamlessly. The plot is smarter and more sensible (if less ambitious..) than Prometheus' was, even if some of the characters yet again make inexplicable decisions. It IS a horror movie, after all.



The Bad: Billy Crudup's character (the acting captain) is a straight-up idiot. It's not even Crudup's fault, although his performance isn't going to win him any forgiveness here, as it's fine but not great, but the decisions of his character are throughout stupid at best. The film is occasionally clumsy and obtuse in its efforts to link it with the original film, with many, many explicit homages throughout. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I think the film could have been more subtle about it, as "Alien" IS right there in the title after all. I think, even though it's absolutely a good thing that the series has become more grounded in the world of the original film, that abandoning a good chunk of Prometheus' ambition and speculative vision are a mistake, even if this film is ultimately satisfying, I think it could have potentially said even more than it ultimately did.

In all, if you're a fan of Alien, Aliens, Prometheus, or the franchise as a whole, you won't want to miss this one. A talented cast, gorgeous filmmaking, fun world-building and creepy space horror all combine to make a successful film that stands among the best sci fi films of recent years. I'm a little disappointed that it didn't build more on what Prometheus had suggested, albeit in a more sensible way, but ultimately Michael Fassbender and Ridley Scott make a pair that fans of the genre won't want to miss.

8/10.