I enjoyed this movie: 3.5 Stars.
The problem with successful movie franchises like Alien and Star Wars in particular, is you have to watch the movie in context of the other movies. Accordingly, you judge the film in comparison of how the story fits in with the movie franchise as a whole.
The Alien storyline is developing and looking good so far. Ridley Scott, who is approaching 80, and has indicated that the Alien franchise he started in the late 1970s, will end with a trilogy; as his final magnum opus.
We began this trilogy series with Prometheus (2012) which had a promising start along the lines of Ancient Aliens; that argues we had an intelligent, yet extraterrestrial, design as the basis of our human origins. Now we have Alien: Covenant that is not so much a journey of discovery but of colonisation.
The Spaceship: Covenant is filled with colonists on their way to a planet on the far side of the galaxy. In the bible, a covenant is an agreement between a chosen person/people and God. Usually meaning the promise of the Promised land if the people comply with specified terms. If they do not comply, god’s protection, so it is said, stops. In short, there should be no diversions from the path, no matter how enticing, and the fulfilment of your part of the bargain is completed.
The spaceship, after suffering galactic storm damage and losing lives on course, the remaining crew, under their new captain (Billy Crudup), come upon an idyllic uncharted planet and decide to divert from their journey to check it out. The effects and panoramas are visually spectacular (filmed in New Zealand that no doubt Peter Jackson failed to use for the Lord of the Rings franchise).
They soon come upon the ruins of a lost civilisation that was wiped out for some unknown reason. David (Michael Fassbender), the android from the Prometheus movie, lives there, he has for the past 10 years, and effectively saves the explorers’ lives from ravenous alien monsters, we know so well: the overly salivating Xenomorphs. These creatures, as we well known from the franchise, have remarkably. quick gestation periods when they feed as parasites of the insides of a human host and ‘hatch’ in grotesque style bursting outward to feed on any hapless (terrified) observers that happen to be standing by. The only means of survival is escape. This is what happens when you break covenants and divert from the agreed path (tiddy boom). But seriously, I look forward to the next, and final, instalment of this highly successful, deep space thriller franchise, from one of the great directors of the movie industry.
In my view, my only peev, is the ending could have been slightly better:
1) The Penny Drop Realisation, to me, had no basis (which could have used a slight facial nuance betraying a motive for the audience to see for ourselves; and distractingly
2) The character. who walks/waddles off down the aisle, reminded me of someone wearing clown shoes.
Let me know what you think.
Good Addition to the Alien Franchise: 3.5Stars.
Take Care & Cheers.
Jason
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Written by: John Logan, Jack Pagan, Michael Green, Dante Harper
