Alien: Covenant (UK Rating: 15)
From famed director Ridley Scott comes a new instalment in the Alien movie franchise, titled Alien: Covenant. The movie is a sequel to the 2012 movie Prometheus, which starred Michael Fassbender, among others. Fassbender returns alongside Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), Billy Crudup (Almost Famous, Watchmen), and Danny McBride (Tropic Thunder, Eastbound & Down). Scott is known for his suspenseful horror, and according to some people, his lack of skill in telling stories. Since some previous Alien movies were panned, one might wonder: how does this instalment fare?
Alien: Covenant starts off with the crew of colonisation vessel, Covenant, travelling on a seven-year journey through space to find a specific habitable planet. Somehow, a neutrino burst came completely unexpectedly and damaged some power-collecting sails. Once everything’s been fixed, and after getting no time to mourn their lost captain, new commander Oram (Billy Crudup) decides this is the perfect time to shirk their duty to humanity and go to a different planet that’s closer by. Why? Well, because nobody wants to go back into the dangerous cryostasis pods, that’s why! Logic. Making decisions in a time of emotional distress and possible residual feelings of being dazed from cryosleep is not a ridiculous plot point at all! The 2000 colonists they are bringing along apparently don’t get a say in their future – the future of humanity. They are just faces without names, almost literally lifeless.
It seems there are no scientists on-board, as it is quickly decided to go to the unknown world and evaluate its colonisability by going on an unnecessary fieldtrip. It’s noted there is no wildlife, but this bothers no-one. After risking death and failure of the mission by going through the dangerously unstable atmosphere, the crew neglects to put on protective suits, because only pansies are affected by viruses, spores, rugged terrain or what have you. Remember, they didn’t know the planet was mostly devoid of life. They do have small, wiry band-plasters to combat that pesky alien acid, though. That makes up for risking the lives of 2000 colonists in the attempt to rescue the ground team without even being sure they were in severe danger
The movie eventually goes off on an odd tangent about David, an android survivor of a previous mission living (or is it functioning?) on the planet. He thinks humanity does not deserve to live, providing very meagre reasoning for that conclusion, not to mention seeming completely out of character for an android that no doubt comes to conclusions based on reasoning and pre-existing programming. Having the capacity to feel is fine, but why must that lead to an evil mind? Isn’t there basic framework in place that allows David to think logically and critically, and serve mankind?
This shallow concept is suddenly broken by an awkward sexual encounter between David and his ‘brother.’ It’s probably a reference to David’s love of himself, his egocentrism, but it falls flat because no reference is made to him loving himself. It’s made clear he sees himself as more than just a servant (possibly a god), but what does that have to do with anything? David’s loving encounter with his android successor is out of place because they had only just met and have no history. They had barely spoken. Philosophical depth is nowhere to be found, and the android subject does not relate to the plot.
Moving from the characters to the acting, nobody’s performance stands out, except Fassbender’s, who is mesmerising as David. The introductory scene showing him as a fairly blank slate really does sell him as a logical-seeming and eerily dead-eyed android oddly content with his lack of flaws. The main character (Daniels, played believably by Katherine Waterston) dresses and comes across as a bootleg Ripley, without any character development to become tough as nails. She is established as fairly logical and honest, but at the end she suddenly acts fearless and almost aggressive. It’s strange, as the situations she’s in don’t usually call for such a demeanour. This is more a problem with the writing than the acting. Where was her fire back when the captain decided to break off the mission?
Speaking of the situations or set pieces, as the movie goes on, it becomes clear the suspense didn’t come along for the ride. It’s not surprising when things go awry in the unknown environment. The dread of previous instalments is gone. Heck, even the Xenomorph doesn’t live up to expectations when eventually arriving late in the day, lacking menace, merely being easily lured by the clanging of a steel pipe and deceived by the most simplest of avoidance tactics.
It’s not just that there’s no suspense, it’s that there’s little action, as well, but the action is mostly just bland and blurrily captured. Seeing crew members get killed brutally by small and vigorous versions of Xenomorphs is nice, but when each crew member is a face without a soul, it’s hard to care. Lastly, it becomes even harder to care when the plot holes break immersion. Seriously, what is up with the badly built ships? Why does the planetary rover/spaceship’s windshield break after two or three bashes, when it could withstand a destructive atmosphere and tumultuous weather before? It’s made for travel in space and on foreign planets, but they couldn’t afford some more protection?
