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What it's about:
The crew of a colony spaceship, bound for a remote planet, discover an uncharted paradise with a threat beyond their imagination, and must attempt a harrowing escape from the evil forces inhabiting the planet.
What we thought:
Set ten years after the events of previous Alien film, Prometheus, the story begins with the crew of the colony ship, Covenant receiving a possible distress call coming from an uncharted planet. The planet seems promising and the distress call might even be from that of a human, but once there, the crew discover the world is much more dangerous than it seems; their biggest threat being David, the android from the doomed Prometheus expedition.
Alien: Covenant is one of those cases where a Hollywood franchise and corporate decision making ruined good filmmaking. The production value of the film is outstanding, with excellent cinematography, editing, sound design and even decent acting from lead, Michael Fassbender, playing both roles as David and Walter. Unfortunately there is a big lack in story, plot and overall creativity. All this creates for a very average film, not horrible, but also not great. Unfortunately you can’t give a movie justice just because the technical aspects where good.
Most of the characters in the film are not memorable or interesting at all. Some even acting to such an annoying hysterical extent that it becomes embarrassing. One cannot help to wonder then, how this low-grade acting becomes part of a billion dollar film. There are so many times where you wonder to yourself, if this is such an important mission, why do the characters continue to make such ridiculous choices?
Except for Fassbender’s superb performance, Katherine Waterston didn’t do a bad job herself playing the role of Daniels. Unfortunately in her case we don’t see a lot of character development and doesn’t have any notable moments. Covenant is definitely not for the faint-hearted, with the horror factor being quite satisfactory with the spine-chilling alien monsters and all their blood and gore. The action scenes unfortunately are disappointing and uninspiring.
If this is what Ridley Scott has in store for future Alien prequels, I think he should rather hand it over to local filmmaker, Neill Blomkamp to proceed with his planned Alien do-over. These sort of sequels and prequels will most probably only result in a total decline of popularity in the Alien franchise overall.
My question is, is it really necessary for Hollywood production companies to stretch out a single story to such an extent, just in order to make their dough? Why not invest all that time and money into a brand new sci-fi film with a fresh plot and characters to look forward to?
