Alien: Covenant

Alien Covenant is the sequel to Prometheus and another one of the (soon to be many) Alien prequels. In Covenant, we follow the crew of The Covenant, a Weyland-Yutani vessel who's mission is to colonize a distant planet. The crew consists of various couples, who's jobs are to assist with the mission. On the way to the planet, The Covenant pick up a distress signal that seems to be human in nature. The signal hails from a nearby planet that appears to be not much different from Earth. The Covenant crew land to seek out the source of the signal and explore the planet to deem if it is a good fit for colonization. It isn't long before hell opens up and a whole slew of Neomorphs and Xenomorphs attack.

Alien: Covenant is a somewhat successful merge of Prometheus, Alien and Aliens. The focus here is clearly on action/horror (and the action/horror scenes work pretty well, although the film does seem to disregard some of the Alien lore), but there is still a good deal of meandering about and doing nothing (mainly in the first act). There are many people on board the Covenant, and while each is given some character we never spend enough time with any one of them to really feel like we know them. To the cast's credit, I did buy them as a team and everyone worked well off of each other. The main players include Billy Crudup as Oram, the new captain of the Covenant who has some strong religious leanings and has some hang-ups about the rest of the crew. Katherine Waterston plays Daniels, a Ripley-esque character who I quickly grew to like. Danny McBride plays Tennessee, the pilot with an attitude. Michael Fassbender does double duty as Walter, a more advanced android who's job is to assist and protect the crew of the Covenant, and David, back again with some secrets up his sleeve. Waterston, Fassbender and McBride impressed the most.

The design of the planet, the Neomorphs, and the classic Xenomorph are all pretty great. I wasn't crazy about how all of the sfx seemed to be done using CGI, but at least everything looked good. Unlike Prometheus, Covenant is one made purely for Alien fans. There are many references to Alien (from MU-TH-ER, to musical stings lifted directly from Alien, to fragments of lines, etc.), and I enjoyed getting to uncover these not-so-hidden easter eggs.

The plot here is fairly simple (follow the crew of the Covenant on an exploratory mission gone wrong), the film is predictable at points, and I liked that we actually get answers here (something Prometheus was sorely lacking). It honestly feels like there was supposed to be another film or two before we got to this point, but because everyone hated Prometheus Scott rushed the timeline and dumbed things down.  Alien: Covenant is a big budget action/horror/sci-fi blockbuster (which has very little sci-fi and world building). In the end, I'd say it's more of a mixed bag. There is plenty that is great, but also a good deal that tastes a little funny. I do have some problems with the film (Wasn't a great, epic film. Wanted more blood, more horror, more practical effects. Wanted to be invested in our leads more. Ending was a little disappointing. Honestly, part of me wants to say I liked Prometheus more.) but despite this, Alien: Covenant is still a decent Alien film.

3 STARS