By Tim Estiloz
Following director Ridley Scott’s original and brilliantly horrific “Alien” which debuted on movie screens in 1979, and the seven Alien related sequels which followed over the years since to diminishing success and quality; one might be justified in thinking that the franchise had run out of original ideas and completely lost its fright inducing mojo.
However, the latest installment, “Alien: Covenant” reinvigorates the series by what is essentially an unexpectedly engaging origin story about how the relentlessly vicious and deadly creatures established in the very first film came to be.
“Alien: Covenant” is a direct sequel to Ridley Scott’s 2012 film “Prometheus”, a film with only cursory threads of Alien plot DNA, bogged down in often plodding philosophizing about the creation of mankind on Earth by visitors from the stars. However, in this new film, Scott advances the story with a screenplay that explores the relationship between man and potentially resentful machines made in man’s image, combined with plenty of visceral action and gore-filled horror amply supplied by the Alien creatures that film audiences primarily want to see in this franchise.
Set 10 years after the events in “Prometheus”, “Alien: Covenant” begins aboard a massive spaceship carrying 2000 hibernating human passengers, crew and over a thousand human embryos to a distant planet named Origae-6 designated to establish a new colony. When a violent space storm slams into the ship, the on-board android caretaker David ( Michael Fassbender ) is forced to prematurely awaken the crew when the ship’s systems start to fail.
The accident kills the ship’s captain ( an uncredited James Franco ) leaving behind his grieving partner Daniels ( Katherine Waterston ) and a small group crew members faced with the dilemma of what to do next with a dangerously crippled ship stranded years away from its original destination. What effectively heightens the dangerous odds for the unexpectedly awakened crew is that they are all romantically involved, including one gay couple. The fact that the crew genuinely care for their significant others creates a greater sense of genuine loss and some measure of character development when one by one, they become victims to the carnage to come.
When the crew intercepts a distress call consisting of an unmistakably Earth-like John Denver song from a nearby unknown planet, Daniels and the ship’s second-in-command, Oram ( Billy Crudup ) are at odds about whether to proceed to their original faraway destination or take their chances by answering the distress signal and perhaps in the process finding a closer habitable planet.
They ultimately decide to explore the new world where they find an environment lushly populated with plant life but devoid of any sight or sound of animal habitation. What they do encounter is a silent menace that has transformative deadly consequences for certain members of the crew. They also encounter an unexpected planet inhabitant in the android David ( again, played by Fassbender ) who was last seen flying off into the cosmos at the end of the film “Prometheus”.
David at first appears to be a welcome savior for the beleaguered crew, but we eventually discover he has a diabolical secret that involves biological experimentation on the planet’s life forms.
What follows next is an exploration of the complex kinship between the androids David and Walter and their allegiance to their human creators, mixed with the action, horror and graphic bloody violence that takes place once the truth about the Alien creatures is revealed.
Waterston is wonderful as Daniels. The actress brings a strength, savvy and a subtle vulnerability that puts her character on an effective par with Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley from the earlier Alien films. Fassbender is an even greater presence in his double role playing brotherly characters that are outwardly identical but eventually revealing very different personalities and goals.
For those seeking the thrills and excitement of the first two Alien films, “Alien: Covenant” delivers. The action sequences and special effects, especially in the film’s third act, are impressively well done. The violent scenes that occur once the Alien creature finally appears in full malevolent glory equals, if not surpasses, the gore and viscera splatter quotient of the prior films.
However, the film’s much touted “twist ending” isn’t really much of a twist at all, which is a significant disappointment. The truth is that the twist is surprisingly predictable long before it occurs and can be seen coming a mile away by the audience. It also undercuts the well established intelligence and gut intuition of one the film’s key players in its ultimate reveal.
Still, “Alien: Covenant” is a worthy jump start to the franchise, which effectively advances the storyline nearly full circle to the original 1979 film that started it all.
