Alien: Covenant

Starting a franchise from a past decade and creating new material for a new generation of audience members is an enormous challenge. Once a foundation is established from the first series of movies to build off of, the difficult task is  to keep the momentum going in the following entries throughout the years. The Alien franchise is a prime example of this phenomenon. The series is known for a group of space explorers coming into contact with the iconic malevolent Xenomorphs and their efforts in surviving the carnage the creatures are known for. The first two movies (Alien and Aliens) are masterpieces in their impact on the sci-fi horror and sci-fi action genres respectively and the dark mysterious atmosphere it created with wonderful use of practical effects of the 1980s. The following sequels, however, have been a mockery of what it once was by neutering the ferocity of the Xenomorphs, annoying cliched characters, and an overall dull boring predictable experience. Personally, I only cared about the first two movies while not being that big of a die hard fan of the series. In 2014, a prequel film series was launched with Prometheus, an attempt to show the origins of the Xenomorphs (basically the filmmakers wanting to show instead of keep as a cool intrigue mystery) and was dull for my taste, though the only reason I would recommend it would be for Michael Fassbender and a certain surgery scene. Trailers came out for the second prequel entry, Alien: Covenant and it looked more interesting than its predecessor (for those of you who have seen them, a chunk of what's shown doesn't appear in the final product, because Fox advertising). I went in ready to see if it was better than Prometheus and hopeful that I can tolerate some weird things that would be included and left the theater having enjoyed it but bored at the same time.

Plot: Taking place 10 years after the events of Prometheus, a space crew aboard a large colony ship, The Covenant, is looking for a planet to colonize and they venture to a nearby mysterious planet after receiving a weird message. From there, the plot is trying to mix two movies going on. One film follows the space crew encountering Xenomorphs and basically the survivability of each crew member can be measured using their common sense IQ (and since it's a horror movie, all of their scientific training doesn't matter compared to their street skills and levels of being adequate on their own). Some of the sequences involving the creatures are effective in the first few quiet scenes and are worth watching but most of the scenes of that section are spread throughout and lose their quality in the second half due to the existence of the second film. The second movie being mixed with that of the Xenomorphs follows the Prometheus sequel side of things where past remnants are encountered and the alien species is further explored in a lot of exposition dumping. It is fascinating in parts what followed the events of the prequel and the creation of the aliens but it heavily bogs down the experience of the movie as a whole when it comes to weird motivations that aren't properly developed. That section is mainly reserved for the second half of the movie and it gets weird with certain characters. The plot is also incredibly predictable in who's going to survive and with how the ending plays out. Overall the story of Alien Covenant has a hard time mixing some exciting Xenomorph film with the convoluted Prometheus section while being heavily predictable in the characters interactions and the ending.

Characters: The characters to focus on are David 8/Walter (Michael Fassbender), Daniels Branson (Katherine Waterston), and Christoper Oram (Billy Crudup). One thing to keep in mind is that the human characters don't have much to do in the story since they aren't given as much focus as the androids. David 8 and Walter are androids created by the company in charge of the space expedition they are undergoing (also known as the people you can blame for hiring incompetent soon to be Xenomorph victims) where the former is a older model associated with Prometheus and the latter is a newer model assisting the Covenant crew. The dynamic between the two is the most fascinating part of the entire movie and the best thing to look forward to (outside of a few cool Xenomorph scenes), which is heavily bolstered by Michael's powerful performance. Talking about them further would risk spoiling the movie but if you have seen Prometheus, you know what to expect from one of them and things tend to get very weird in a few scenes between both characters but the actors portrayal helps make it a little less off-putting. Daniels is a scientist and recent widow who's basically our strong female protagonist, which means in the Alien franchise she has the most common sense and her advice to the captain will be ignored. As mentioned before, her character doesn't have much to do but Katherine gives a nice performance and provides some good emotions for some of her quiet moments. Christopher is a newly appointed captain of the Covenant following a space incident and is self-serious to make sure his decisions don't put the colonists aboard their ship in jeopardy, which plays into the choices he makes. Billy gives a good performance in creating the character who is put into the leadership position, regardless of his actual capabilities and self-esteem in the position. An honorable mention goes to Danny McBride for his great performance as the ships pilot and his ability to sell some pretty good emotions while being a dependable guy. Overall the human characters of Alien Covenant don't have much to do but are given good performances from their actors and the androids are the best thing thing about the movie due to Michael Fassbender's dual performance.

Overall Consensus: A strong Michael Fassbender dual performance and some nice Xenomorph scenes aren't enough to save Alien Covenant from a predictable plot jumbled with two separate story struggling to blend well together. ⭑⭑1/2

Reasons to watch it: You like any of the aforementioned actors. You have or haven't seen Prometheus. You like watching sci-fi horror movies. You are a fan of the Alien franchise. You want to see the beautiful visuals the Alien movies are well-known for. You like horror movies with a few gory scenes. You want to see how scary the Xenomorph scenes can be. You don't mind movies that have a predictable plot and ending.

Reasons to avoid it: You don't like any of the aforementioned actors. You don't like sci-fi horror movies. You don't like the Alien franchise. You don't like horror movies with a few gory scenes. You don't want to see any of the Xenomorph scare scenes. You don't like horror movies that are very predictable.

Coming up next: May Madness has finally concluded with Alien: Covenant. It was an interesting month of madness on the sci-fi level between the entries covered. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was a great round of space adventures done very well in continuing the story and development of its characters while Alien: Covenant did continue a story but didn't exactly do that well even though it's better than any of the Alien sequels post-Aliens and not being as pretentious as Prometheus. Next Friday, Jam-packed June will arrive and will be a busy time for this blog. The second part of the Superhero Summer Slamfest will continue next weekend as we take a trip back in time to WWI and island of Themyscira where we look at the origin story of an iconic DC heroine, Wonder Woman. (I will announce the entries I will cover for June sometime next week on the Screening Spectacles Facebook page)