Loving the Alien...???

COLINS FILM CLUB REVIEW = Cinema

ALIEN COVENANT

Back in 2012, Ridley Scott returned to the genre he helped to create – Alien, or more specifically with the surreal and origin-story heavy Prometheus. But although very in depth the critics and fans levelled a great deal of apathy towards the story and the lack of any real threat, namely from the beloved acid bloodied beast. So along comes 2017 and we have Ridley returning to this universe yet again with Alien Covenant, with promises to fix the wrongs from Prometheus and crank up the action, the gore and the Alien menace... So, the big question is, has he worked his magic or not?

With Alien Covenant set 10yrs after the events of Prometheus, we find ourselves onboard the titular ship heading for a distant colony world called Oriagne 6 when a sudden catastrophic event of a solar flare damages the ship and the crew is “bumped” out of hypersleep, however the damage is so severe that they loose the original Captain in the chaos and some of the hypersleep pods for the nearly 2000 colonists onboard. Whilst making repairs they stumble across a distress signal coming from a rather handily hospitable planet which is much closer than their real destination. Replacement Captain Oram orders the Covenant towards the source of this signal despite Second Officer Daniels objections. Upon reaching the planet things rapidly go downhill, two of the team become infected with the Alien pathogen first seen in Prometheus which manifests into two hideously nasty creatures called Neomorphs, to who several of the crew fall victim too until they are “saved” by a lone figure who is revealed to be none other than David, the synthetic being who along with Dr Elizabeth Shaw was the last survivor of the doomed Prometheus mission...!!

What we have here is a film of two halves, one side tries to continue the themes started by its predecessor about creation and life, the very meaning and fabric of who we are and how we got here which here are more about David`s attempts to improve upon what the Engineers had started. The other half barrels along often at a frantic pace in confined spaces, the blood freely flowing and the CGI Alien creatures gleefully despatching the crew in a number of set pieces. If a third side could be added it is perhaps the relationship between David and newcomer Walter (both played by Michael Fassbender) from tentative music tuition to fighting each other.

Of the cast we immediately gel with the likes of Daniels (Katherine Waterson) and Tennessee (a surprising turn by Danny McBride) but others are somewhat one dimensional and have “cannon fodder” stamped all over them, Billy Crudup`s Oram is a shallow character with whom we cannot really sympathise with, despite the weight of command being heaped upon him by the early disaster hitting the ship – those of you hoping to see much of James Franco`s character should pay great attention to the blink or your miss it scene he is in, and those too who were looking for a cameo from Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Shaw are going to be met with disappointment.

Fassbender excels as both David and Walter, it could have been so easy to play them as identical personalities from the same production line, but given the 10yr gap, Walter emerges as a synthetic with a few of David`s more ethical issues deleted, as he reminds David at one point “...there have been a few upgrades”.

As for the Alien`s themselves we have the super vicious Neomorphs, gangly and sickeningly paled skinned, big domed and tapering head which nods towards Giger`s original concepts and a mouth of all needle sharp teeth. These things emerge from their pathogen infected hosts through the infamous ly hinted back-burster scene and the equally horrific throat-burster which are as messy as you might imagine, then we have the monsterous Protomorph, a huge hulk of snarling, drool ridden anger which gives us a head-butting scene seen in the trailers, and finally the main beast we all know and love returns for the finale and a shower scene which will possibly make you think twice about taking one in future.

So, it all sounds very much like Ridley has hit gold here and given the fans exactly what was needed, yes?

Erm.. not quite...

For there are problems with Alien Covenant. The main problem is its biggest one – unevenness. The whole film feels thrown together and contrived as if the Director only intends this to be a stop-gap filler from the predecessor until his current series of films meets up with the original opus he helmed back in 1979. In terms of both films, Covenant feels so far removed from the original Alien that its hard to see how the two will somehow end up being related. There are problems within the film`s structure that make you think a lot of it is on the cutting room floor, and like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – your left thinking just how much better the film`s pacing would have been if these scenes were back in. Certainly the footage showed to audiences on Alien Day in April 2017 which had David and Elizabeth during their journey is missing from the finished film. Given that casual viewers may not have seen it, its omission here is a serious flaw.

The next problem is the largely forgettable cast – here as noted with the obvious exceptions are a bunch of faceless persons to whom no emotional attachment is possible. This is a problem because in order for their inevitable deaths to have any resonance you need to be able too have some feeling for the characters, but these are largely one dimensional people who`s exact backgrounds are never known or revealed, hence when they go the way of the Alien you thinking its about bloody time. If some of these people had been fleshed out a bit more in the overly long lead up to the planet landing then we might have changed our view about them, but they are just there to be used and killed off.

Lastly, we have the David issue... now whilst he offers the sole piece of continuity from the previous film, because he is so largely integral to the plot of Covenant you end up feeling that this is less a film about the bloodthirsty Aliens and more about Androids. The creature, although making a welcome return to the fold, feels effectively sidelined by David`s antics and the few scenes we have after the Neomorph attacks prove this point with both the protomorph and fully grown Alien systematically dealt with very quickly. These things are supposed to be virtually unstoppable and yet both Daniels and Tennessee despatch two of them with remarkable ease.

So, as a film, it stands very much like Prometheus before it, elegant and beautifully shot, yet flawed and rough around the edges which might stand for better viewing should a restored Directors Cut emerge onto BluRay in the future. Right now the film does bring back some of the flavour of Alien / Aliens but not in enough ways to better them or even match these films, there is just too much to still fill in and Scott does not seem to want to do this with Covenant. If the Director claims to have listened to his critics and to his fans, it does show, but its been stifled. Its as if all the good ideas are waiting to still be seen. If Covenant is indeed one of another three planned films then David`s future plans are yet to come to bear and it maybe sometime still before we see that, because Alien Awakening – the next planned film – seems to be set inbetween Prometheus and Covenant, a strange decision unless it plans to visit the Engineers more or branch off in a different direction that will tie up with the next film after that, threading all the plots into one film... who knows?

With Alien Covenant though we have a film which has tried and partly succeeded in righting some wrongs and still continue the theme set from the start, but the major flaws in the film have left it unbalanced and slightly messy – the judgement therefore is out on whether a truly terrifying Alien film has been created here or simply one that will fill the space for a time until the next one. A few good ideas and some wonderful cinematography do not a classic make, it has to have passion, heart and soul and this can only be achieved if we really care for the characters we are watching, this sadly rarely happens in Covenant...

Lacking the nuance of Prometheus, and never reaching the heights of its illustrious forebear, Alien Covenant will divide fans in both its lack of originality and its re-writing of established Alien lore.

COLINS FILM CLUB RATING:

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