Ridley Scott’s latest directorial entry into the ‘Alien’ franchise is a sequel to 2012’s Prometheus, but is a prequel to the 1979 classic Alien, both also directed by Scott, and stars Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterson, Billy Crudup and Danny McBride. After Alien and Cameron’s Aliens (1986), the franchise has really descended further and further with the subsequent sequels over the years, and after a great departure from what we were used to with Prometheus, which I thought was enjoyable, Scott attempts to bring back the fear and claustrophobia that made the franchise so great with its first entry, while also continuing themes from Prometheus.
The story follows the crew of a craft in the distant future, that are looking to colonise a far away planet, but when another planet suspiciously shows up on their radar, they go to check it out to see if it is habitable, and as I’m sure you can guess, that was a bad idea.
After what feels like forever, we do have another thoroughly enjoyable ‘Alien’ film that successfully recreates the tense, dark atmosphere that made the first so good, less effectively of course. Alien: Covenant is no Alien or Aliens, but it I think it is comfortably the third best ‘Alien film’, surpassing Prometheus as that did not really feel like an Alien film, despite being far better than the likes of Alien: Resurrection.
As you can expect, on a technical level, Alien: Covenant is a brilliant film in every way, which is no surprise considering Ridley Scott is at the helm. It builds eerily from the very start, giving a sense of dread, that something is always around the corner, mostly due to the fantastic direction, and this also makes the Xenomorph as scary as it has been since 1986, with some incredible visual imagery.
However, my main criticism is that many of the characters are simply not fleshed out enough to care as deeply about them as we could have, and while the inevitable deaths of some characters are entertaining, they often lack an emotional punch. The performances are very good all around, but an improved script with more intelligent use of dialogue would have improved the film greatly, and some of the decisions some characters make are very stupid, allowing us to know a lot of the time exactly who is about to die.
Despite this, Alien: Covenant is a very enjoyable film, that is tense and entertaining throughout, with some great action involving one of the most gruesome villains we’ve ever seen on screen, and a stunning Fassbender performance that keeps your eyes glued to the screen. This, combined with a bold and very surprising ending makes Alien: Covenant the best ‘Alien’ film in years, which isn’t really saying much, but it’s certainly a return to form.
7/10
CinemaStance 