Alien: Covenant
- Jun 1, 2017
- 3 min read
Covenant: An Agreement… I would have been grateful for Ridley Scott disclosing just what it was I was agreeing to before I watched this movie. Something that I discussed in previous reviews is that each director promises a different experience when they make a movie. Films like Pirates of the Caribbean and Fast and the Furious only offer action and fun. They do not promote themselves as anything more than a two hour break from reality. Ridley Scott films promise more than just action and horror. Gladiator and Alien are known as two of the best in their genres because they have that extra flavor that makes them better than the rest. For me even Prometheus had that extra something that pushed it into the realm of better movies. That extra kick was what I expected was apart of the covenant in Alien: Covenant. I was disappointed. One of the best criticisms of modern action and blockbuster movies is how disposable and meaningless characters and environments are. People on the streets of many movies nowadays are killed off like grass being mowed. As if there was a fear one of them might have a story more worthy of being told than the giant fighting robots or aliens at the focus of the film. In past Alien movies (Alien, Aliens, and Prometheus) a strength was that each had was the characters. As each character was eviscerated you shared in their pain because you knew a little something about them and the skill they had was now lost to the Alien. Therefore the fear of the alien increased. The remaining characters now had a greater challenge and were even less likely to live. Alien: Covenant is centered around a team with the goal of repopulating humankind and consists of only couples with their android Walter. This masterfully built up the opening tension. The loss of a character does hold more weight as you watch their loved one mourn the loss. Sadly the weight is lost before the close of the first act… Upon the first encounter with the aliens of Covenant the crew is practically cut in half and while that first interaction in traumatizing, the story that follows throws characters at the aliens in a manner all too similar to the aforementioned lawnmower and its grass. Tension fails to build any further than the first act because the plot twists which hope to strike more fear are all painfully telegraphed. The second act of a horror movie is supposed to slowly erode hope and make victory an impossibility. Unfortunately what we are given is a set of strange character interactions that are more confusing to those not versed in the Alien mythos than remotely interesting. While each character wears a symbol that Indiana Jones fans will recognize as the Arch of the Covenant and one character is singled out as being flawed for his belief in a higher power these cues are left to only be more fodder for the savage alien. It is difficult to explain how things go so wrong without spoiling the movie. Generally there is still fear to be felt and gore which is expected from an Alien movie and these points act to stabilize what otherwise might be a flop. It is worth mentioning that the Alien franchise means more to me than the average film goer and that my friends did not leave the theater nearly as disappointed as I did. However I still must say that I believe Alien did a lot of work to set the bar for the Sci-Fi Horror genre and Prometheus gave a peak at an interesting conversation about creation which Covenant has thoroughly failed to develop any further. This is not a total failure. As mentioned, you will likely get scared and the first act is very exciting, but much of that extra something that Ridley Scott has proven he can create fails to make a showing. The Covenant is not what we thought we had been promised. 6.9/10
Comments