Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant

Is Covenant worthy of the Alien Title? Yes, it's not as bad as Alien 4.

Directed by:

• Ridley Scott

Written by:

• Jack Paglen
• Michael Green

Cast: 

• Michael Fassbender as Walter/David
• Katherine Waterston as Daniels "Dany" Branson
• Billy Crudup as Christopher Oram
• Danny McBride as Tennessee

Length:

• approx. 123 min

Genre:

• Sci-fi Horror

For those of you who keep up to date with our Weekly Roundups will know I’ve been waiting for this film for a long time. I’ve been a fan of the franchise almost as long as I’ve loved Star Wars. Some of my earliest movie memories were watching Aliens, before running around the back garden with my toy guns shooting imaginary Xenomorphs. 

While I enjoyed Prometheus, it raised a lot questions and Covenant while answering few raised even more. But more importantly it begins to bring the story into line with the originals.

It's been 10 years since the events of Prometheus and the colony ship Covenant is on its way to some distant planet when it gets hit with a neutrino burst. Walter (the synthetic) wakes up the crew from cryo-sleep to make repairs on the spacecraft, they hear a transmission of a human voice singing coming from a nearby planet which turns out to be more habitable than their destination, so of course they decide to go there instead.

​What follows is beautifully filmed, mixing special and practical effects effortlessly. The music fits every scene perfectly, Ridley Scott really is a master behind the camera.

​The cast were great with Fassbender being awesome in both roles (in case you haven’t heard he’s both David and Walter), with this prequel series seemingly becoming all about his character, Fassbender has walked up to the plate and pulled it off spectacularly.

Katherine Waterston did a stand up job of portraying the main protagonist Daniels Branson, while she’s playing a Ripley like role, she didn’t try to just be another one, but carved out her own niche.
​

"...beautifully filmed, mixing special and practical effects effortlessly. The music fits every scene perfectly, Ridley Scott really is a master behind the camera."
​

But it’s Danny McBride who really surprised me here, I’ve only ever seen him doing over the top comedy before, for those of you worried about him in this, relax, he plays it straight and was great.
​

I really enjoyed Alien Covenant while I was watching it, only afterwards while thinking did I realise it's not the greatest film of the year. Don’t get me wrong, it has all the important aspects here: the chills, the scares and the driving plot lines, it just felt a little rushed at times.

There are a few more points I want to raise, more like continuity errors but sadly it will give a lot of the story away so I guess I'll have to skip them. In summary, is this film worth your hard earned money to see? Yes. Is it great work from a top director? Again yes. Does it continue the story from Prometheus? Barely.

I think for me that was a problem, maybe when the sequel comes out it will help the flow. The point is, Alien Covenant is a good movie, it feels closer to the Alien franchise and the big reveal half way through was awesomesauce.

---

7.5/10

Written by former Colonial Marine (in my childhood) Dan.

Ronon's Reviews Merch! Only at REDBUBBLE! Click the photo to check the shop!

US Amazon

Alien: Covenant (Blu-ray)

Aussie Amazon

UK Amazon

Related Reviews:

Arrival, tells the story of the aliens coming to us rather than us stumbling upon them

Ghost in the Shell is also set in the future when humanity has managed to create highly intelligent AI's.

Ugly little monsters on a killing spree? Yup, the 80's classic Critters has got them too.