The Beast Is Back
By Mitch Cooper
What is so alluring about the xenomorph? It's vicious, its scary, it's slimy, it's evil and unfortunately has been trashed to bits over the past 30 years since Aliens yet there I was in the theatre waiting for Alien: Covenant to just pull me into the horrors that I knew were coming. Ridley Scott's original Alien is a sci-fi horror masterclass in how to use every filmmaking technique available to you to generate as much dread and terror from your audience. From the trailers and marketing for this film it was obvious that Ridley Scott was trying to bring the franchise back to its roots. Has he succeeded? Sort of.
Alien Covenant, is like a frankenstein of two different movies; the profound thought-provoking and philosophical film about human creation with characters that make stupid decisions in Prometheus and the hardcore tension filled thrill-ride film with female characters becoming badass heroines and nasty monsters in Alien and Aliens. A lot of people did not like Prometheus. I happen to be a part of the minority that enjoyed the premise that it was proposing and wanted to see where the story was going to go. I'm going to say that if you were in either of those two parties then you're going to be partly disappointed with Alien: Covenant. It poses questions about humanity and the creation of life and that tone looms over the film until the last 10 minutes. This may irritate those who disliked Prometheus. The film may also irritate those who did like Prometheus and especially it's open-ended conclusion because it kind of throws away the story that the ending to Prometheus was promising and relegates it to flashbacks.
It almost feels like Ridley Scott felt like he was cheated of the story he wanted to tell and after realising that it wasn't what majority of fans wanted he tried to make a film that appeases them and at the same time keeps the questions and tone that he obviously finds very interesting. The balancing act of these two kinds of movies works in some cases but not in others. Alien: Covenant at points is spectacularly frightening and gruesome, it contains some of the best biological body horror I've seen in a long time. It at times is extremely fun to watch even though you have to suspend your disbelief that characters would make such daft decisions that put them in those situations. This brings me to another problem with the film, the characters aren't particularly memorable besides the android, Walter.
Danny McBride's Tennessee has some good much-needed quips to add levity to the very dour tone but besides an ideological conflict between Katherine Waterson's Daniels and Billy Crudups' Christopher, the characters aren't particularly memorable and I'd go as far as to say they're expendable. This is a shame because it doesn't give the horrific killing spree sequences as much tension as there should've been. They try to give Daniels a Ripley-esque arc but it doesn't really reach there and comes off as a bit forced. The last ten minutes alone feel like a tacked on Aliens-y horror sequence that jumps so dramatically in tone to what was happening just before that it feels rather jarring and unsatisfying, not to mention not very scary because you see the xenomorph in all it's glory. Michael Fassbender, however, is absolutely fantastic in this film and his character, Walter, is by far the most interesting.
Ridley Scott, however, is always the most impressive in his visuals and filmmaking techniques. This film is absolutely beautiful. The set design and set locations are just gorgeous and crisp. You see shots in this film that are literally just swaying reeds and you sit there and wonder how he films it in such a way that is so gorgeous. I'm not even talking about the wondrous landscapes that the camera lingers on so seductively. When it comes to the biological horror sequences, they are shot and edited in a way that is so frightening and gets your heart racing. There is one long single-shot scene involving a flute that I won't spoil that was entirely unexpected and for some reason was breathtaking.
Overall Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant was a pretty good sci-fi horror film that has some great elements but a jarring balance of tone. The film ends on an, again, interesting cliffhanger that I'm fascinated in the direction of the franchise. I'm still salty though that Neil Blomkamp's (District 9) proposed Alien sequel seems to be dead in the water, maybe it might be time for Ridley Scott to step away from his baby and get dome new blood in for a change.
7 Aliens Out Of 10 Covenants