Alien: Covenant

This review may contain spoilers!

This is fairly entertaining if you're a Prometheus fan but if you're an Alien fan there's not much here for you. I would give Alien: Covenant a 6.5/10.

This film does a good job at adding to the world of the Alien universe; it was great to be onboard a colony ship and get some of the history there, likewise it was good to learn more on the Weyland corporation and the regulations they had around space travel. The way this film talks about synthetics is really interesting too; not surprising as this particular element of the Alien franchise has always been the most interesting part. The manner in which synthetic emerging sentience is discussed is by far the most well thought out aspect of the plot, I think the stark contrast between David and Walter shows the potential for characters like these. The cinematography really captures the scale of the alien world these characters explore, however small intimate moments and conversations between characters are well caught too. The special effects for the feature are pretty good, the ship design is the really worth noting but the neomorphs/xenomorphs look pretty good too. The score for the film stands out, particularly the Wagner sequences around David and the recorder scenes between Walter and David.

Katherine Waterston, who played Daniels, makes for a really good compassionate lead; she's the heart of the crew and by extension the story. Danny McBride, who played Tennessee, was just as convincing as the tough 'doesn't play by the rules' pilot as Elba was in Prometheus; McBride also has some quiet moments of grief in this film which reveal his range as an actor. Billy Crudup, who played Oram, makes for an interesting character conflicted by the responsibility of becoming captain and whether his crew respects him; the manner in which this role can torture himself over these thoughts and displays a decent amount of self-loathing is a great aspect of Bichir's performance. Guy Pearce, who played Peter Weyland, was a great cameo to have in this film; not only was this a solid link to Prometheus but it provided a lot of depth to the interesting synth subplot at the heart of this film.

However the best performance came from Michael Fassbender, who played David and Walter. Fassbender portrays two very different roles who both feel absolutely convincing as synthetic androids due to their mannerisms and behaviour. In Walter we get a very reasoned, yet caring role who is like a child in his understanding of human emotion. He has a great chemistry with Waterston and you can see the tentative bond that is formed over the duration of the film. As David we get more of a calculated character, a sinister mad machine with a God complex. The chaotic way in which this character has come to understand human emotion and philosophy is quite twisted, so even while the xenomorphs are disappointing in the film you will still feel horrified by this character. What Fassbender brings to this film is all of his talent, every last bit of it and he is without a doubt what you will walk away from this film remembering.

This film goes wrong in a number of places, most notably was that it didn't even feel like a horror film. In fact the film really struggled to settle on what type of story it was trying to portray; one part horror film, one part drama, another part philosophical debate and most disappointingly an origin film. The film doesn't serve it's characters very well, instead choosing to stick with stereotypes or not even bothering to make some characters much more than cannon fodder. It's a shame this movie plays things so basic, you can't appreciate some of themes of the film at all as a result; in fact the plotline around faith and creation are poorly presented. This film grounds itself too heavily in bridging the gap with Prometheus without deciding how to make a coherent connection to any of the Alien films. The fact there are only five neomorphs/xenomorphs is a real disappointment and means that the film doesn't feel as dangerous as what you would expect. The number of times a character mounrs the loss of their wife or husband in this film is ridiculous, having a cast of romantic partners was a weak way of attempting to make the audience feel the loss of the numerous characters who died in the film.

Demian Bichir, who played Lope, seems to be a leading military figure in this film; I say'seems to be' because he never gets enough of an opportunity to define his character and make him stand out despite surviving most the film. Carmen Ejogo, who played Karine, has a really poor chemistry with Crudup her romantic interest for the film; Ejogo's role within the team is poorly defined and it's quite obvious she'll be one of the first to go. Jussie Smollett and Callie Hernandez, who played Ricks and Upworth respectively, are rather forgettable mouthpieces who just bounce off McBride's talent; these characters are just the young fresh stars who are unsurprisingly killed in a raunchy shower scene. Amy Seimetz, who played Faris, isn't even recognisable as McBride's supposed 'wife'; later in the film she turns into this shrieking panicked mess of a role who rather recklessly blows up the drop ship in a rather eye-roll inducing scene. Nathaniel Dean, Alexander England, Benjamin Rigby, Uli Latukefu and Tess Haubrich, who played Hallett, Ankor, Ledward, Cole and Rosenthal respectively, are all essentially lazily written cannon fodder; you forget the names of most of these characters and would only remember them if they had a particularly grisly death scene. Lorelei King, who voiced Mother, is a real toneless presence in this film; Mother is a component of the Alien films used a bit too frequently. James Franco, who played Branson, is a cameo that is ridiculously redundant in this film; Franco is there to tug on the heartstrings but misses the mark completely.