I grew up watching movies that were a tad (absolutely) not made for my age range, Die Hard, Terminator, and in no particular order, Alien. That bleeping noise (not swearing here, it was an actual bleep sound) the marines would hear when their radar would tell them something was moving near them, still gets my heart pumping, not unlike the theme from Jaws. If we are talking any kind of space alien in movies, I did like The Predator better (more about honor than about swarms of bugs) but wow do I like the swarms of bugs in these movies! When I realized that Ridley Scott and James Cameron had made Alien and Aliens (original franchise parts 1 and 2), questions of why the 2 films were so good then, and hold up so well now, were answered. The casts in both were well balanced for the genre, loved the change of pace with a strong female lead, the score (or lack thereof) amped the creepy, and seeing these in theatres again more recently (thank you Cineplex for playing classic films) confirmed that the films could still impact new viewers. If you count the 4 Alien movies, 2 Alien vs Predator movies, and Prometheus, this would be an 8th entry in the series, and like another great science fiction franchise, you don’t start at the beginning.

Alien: Covenant helps bridge the gap between Prometheus (2012) and the original Alien film (1979), not only in a timeline sense, but also in the sources of the thrills. The exploration of the creation of humans is reduced for more acid bleeding, double set of teeth creatures that go bump in the night (or in clear view if you have seen the trailer). For this film, they filmed 2 prologues and posted them online. I like the idea of using such an outlet as trailers for films, instead of rapid firing key scenes, as they will certainly gain audiences interest, and should have a better chance of not spoiling any scenes actually shown in the final film version. Michael Fassbender continues to deliver characters I want to see and new to the franchise Katherine Waterston (a girl!) and Danny McBride (a comic!) are great additions. Not sure if this film would have benefited from having fewer writers or even the same ones from the last film, but now I really want to see what a Neill Blomkamp (District 9) version of Alien would be (written about for years at this point). Covenant did not have me clenching the theatre seat, it had me hoping for more shadows, more sincere jumps, or more thought provoking questions of existence.

2017, 18A, 2h 2m

Distributor – Fox

Budget – $97 million

Ridley Scott last made The Martian (2015 with Matt Damon, nominated for 7 Academy Awards), and appears to be next making a 1970s crime drama, All the Money in the World with Mark Wahlberg. The film is written by John Logan (creator and writer of the tv show Penny Dreadful, who also co-wrote the latest 2 James Bond movies, Skyfall and Spectre) and Dante Harper (first writing credit, often credited as a production manager). Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski (the first 4 Johnny Depp Pirates of the Caribbean films 2003-2011) and Editor Pietro Scalia (who last worked on 13 Hours in 2016) both worked with Ridley in The Martian. Michael Fassbender seems to bounce between blockbuster and small films after last appearing in Song to Song (2017 directed by Terrence Malick) and Assassin’s Creed (2016 based on the video game). Katherine Waterston was in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016 with Eddie Redmayne) and Steve Jobs (2015 starring Michael Fassbender). Billy Crudup was last seen in 1 Mile to You (2017) and will next be seen in the tv show Gypsy (starring Naomi Watts). Danny McBride last appeared in the tv show Vice Principals and may next be seen in Zeroville (starring and directed by James Franco who was also in Alien: Covenant).

IMDB – 6.9

The prologues to the film helped me understand the timeline better, partly wish I would’ve seen them before the movie. I heard a fellow audience member asking during the movie, “Is this before Prometheus?” and “He can heal himself?” The shorter of the two prologues clearly showed what happened next to the 2 stars of Prometheus, which I would regard it as a spoiler if it wasn’t for the fact that this film went in a completely different direction after replacing the entire crew. Before we found out it was David who saved some of the crew from the aliens in the wheat field, I had hoped Noomi Rapace would’ve been the saviour. The film did have some scares, I just wanted them to be even better than they were. We all know what happens after someone is infected, so show us something new (put these new creatures to use) and when we did see the more familiar looking aliens, the Xenomorph, they aren’t hiding in shadows, they are right out in the open. That includes the one that landed on the windshield above Danny McBride, you know the one that they showed in great detail in the trailer, without many more scenes of aliens after that. Ridley Scott should be above using the cliches, when the crew were being picked off one by one they decide to split up, and later 2 decide to have a shower. A line of dialogue that intrigued me was Billy Crudup, near the beginning, talking about how the crew doesn’t trust him and the company didn’t trust him (but they trusted James Franco?!) and it was because he was a man of faith. They referenced it a couple more times during the film and I found it interesting because currently in real life, most leaders (in a political sense anyways) have strong ties to faith but in the fictional Alien future, a reversal sounds like it had happened. If the movie hadn’t try to satisfy both creature and creation, there may have been some more substance here to draw on (science vs faith). My favorite scene may be the very first with Guy Pearce speaking with David many years ago, there was tension, enough props and lines, and the building blocks of David’s dislike of humans. My dislike here was that my heart was not pumping as fast as it was before the start of the movie but it sounds like it will have another chance with Ridley Scott flirting with another 2 sequels after this one. Can you be nice and share, maybe give 1 to Neill?