Alien: Covenant – The Film Stage (blog)

Theatrical Review 20th Century Fox; 123 minutes

Director: Ridley Scott

The numerous financial forces that conspired to put Alien: Covenant on thousands and thousands of screens the world over have ensured that theirinvestment will be sold, from the title on down, with more clarity and promise than its predecessor. Whereas 2012s Prometheus was able to get by plenty well through mysterious marketing, a very rare is-it-or-is-it-not play with decades-old iconography, Covenantis being sold, in posters and trailers and TV spots, aseverything youd expect and just about nothing that would really raise any eyebrow. Except, of course, why the nearly octogenarian Ridley Scott, after having the opportunity to go balls-out weird with his flawed, sometimes majestic sci-fi epic, would commit such time and energy to what is, at first glance, clearly a retread.

Then you get a bit deeper into the thing such as, say, actually seeing the movie, which I think counts for a lot and it quickly becomes clear that fans loyal toeither side of thisfranchise can come away happy. (Count yourself as neither? This is so emphatically not the film for you.) Prometheus was sold on the basis of possessingstrands of Aliens DNA, only to pretty unambiguously find itself in that world by the time a creature was cut out of someones stomach. Alien: Covenant is the orchestra following theoverture, and not nearly as much of an apology as even Scotthas already started indicating. Yes, it has the pieces people wanted last time around. Weve got Xenomorphs. Weve got Facehuggers. Weve got bursts from the chest, along with some parts of the body whose injuriesrender aniconic death tame by comparison. Weve got a badass lady on a hulking spaceship. Weve got shady corporate interest. Weve got an untrustworthy robot. Sixth verse, initially same as the first and second and third and fourth and fifth. But those pieces also set upa table-turning: this is an Alien movie in which strands of the Prometheus DNA can be felt at first glance hello again, Michael Fassbender and Guy Pearce, the latter of whom has been freed from the constraints of playing elderly only for that prequel to continue growing in influenceand eventually form a full-scale sequel inside a comfy (albeit very disgusting) recollection. What emerges is an amplification of certain strengths and step-down of specific ambitions, provided you, like I, enjoyed Prometheus as a philosophically hare-brained visual and Fassbender spectacle but were a bit bored by the slimier callbacks.

Scott and returning DPDariusz Wolski are again clearly in heaven photographing this extraterrestrial hell, resulting in a more directorially muscular work than anything hes put forthfor some time. More than a masterful manipulation of colorsand shadows formedby the many light sources (or decided lack thereof) within a given scene, the visual schema at work is most dazzling in its plurality from shot to shot. In lieu of the distracting multi-cam rhythm established throughout Scotts recent reign, which sometimes had a sense of movementcloser to sitcom than cinema, are tightly held compositions, hard lines, and, most welcome, a notable lack of repeated set-ups, which only appear atthe occasional shot-reverse dialogue. Even those would seem to be cut to a faster beat: the movie has masters to serve, but itwants to hit the juicy stuff in a flash.

Though Fassbender, who introduces the films human(-ish) element in two successive scenes, raises the question of why were going back to the well, doubly so when theres twiceas much of him to go around. After a distress call (sound familiar?) brings the colonizing ship Covenant holdingboth couples and thousands of embryos headed towards a new earth to a planet, and after crew members become infected (sound familiar?), we discover that theyve in fact intercepted a beaconfrom the Prometheus, and are soon rescued by David.Alien: Covenantis wisenot to take one second to pretend this malevolent robot has changed his ways in the ten years between films; the fun instead lies in just how far hes since gone and just how far hell soon go in pursuit of

you can probably guess with just a quick refresher of Prometheus narrative turns, though I wont spoil every detail perhaps because the familiar unfurling of creatures and kills makes spoilers something of a moot concept. Ill do even less to talk about a double-entendre-filled encounter between the two androids, except to say that none of Covenants big-scale thrills are staged with the joy contained herein, nor do effects dazzle more thanwhen background, foreground, and respective halves of the screen make it possible. His supporting players are mostly stranded with rote-beyond-rote lines Believe me, I know wheat, intones Oscar nominee Demin Bichir in one stabat characterization the only real survivor, save a dependable Billy Crudup and just-this-side-of-not-comicDanny McBride, being Katherine Waterston. As Daniels (I absolutely had to look thisup), she brings something somewhat new the balance between refresh and Ripley that Noomi Rapaces Elisabeth Shaw (whose return is but one in a line of gross cruelties inflicted upon the human cast) struggled tohitupon.

And, good Lord, what a vile movie Covenant is, even as an ostensible return to form for a consistently vile franchise. Thesemore-or-less-nameless sacks of meat scream, cry, grunt, get subjected to lacerations and burns, are made the subject of post-mortem or, worse, verge-of-post-mortem insert shots, and make so much gooey noise when knocked down for the count. This might be a franchise first (save the rancid Alien: Resurrection) of true misery being visited upon victims, all the more so when the alien creatures are now subject to deft CGI enhancements that turn them moreaggressive than ever. Watching Scotts film might also be a fresh, overdue case for the series place as more horror than sci-fi; it only took an exponential increase for Alien to return to its roots.

Alien: Covenants bargain is good enough: come for the Fassbenders, stay for the nihilism and grotesquerie, and emergewith at least a few questions and curiosities on your mind. (If nothing else, Im delighted at the movies doubling-down on a now-clear trajectory that sci-fis most fearsome creature was created by a sexually ambiguous, for-some-reason-Irish-accented robot.) If Scott does, in fact, begin shooting a new film next year and this franchise is momentarily here to stay, more like this. I might find fault at every other turn, but at least theyre getting something genuine out of me.

Alien: Covenant opens on Friday, May 19.

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Alien: Covenant - The Film Stage (blog)