In this review I will try and stay relatively spoiler- free but may discuss broader themes and story beats which you may not want to know if you want to go into this film as a completely blank slate. As a general rule of thumb also be warned that if it's in trailers or preview material then it's fair game
Additionally this review will contain some adult language, fair warning here. Although you're on a horror site reading a review of a scary movie so I feel like it's morally dubious of you to complain about naughty words, we're all adults here (hopefully).
Alien: Covenant sees director Ridley Scott return to the franchise he helped create in 1979 with Alien and has seemingly taken a stranglehold of since returning in 2012 with Prometheus. However, whilst that film was essentially a giant Alien franchise cock-tease, this movie earns it's title and stands as a full-fledged Alien movie with the titular star beast present and correct after it's absence in the previous movie. To continue the analogy though I could have done with much less foreplay in this movie, less of the gentle, tantric stuff and a faster, harder route to climax. Hopefully once you've seen this movie you'll understand what I mean with this laboured metaphor but I'll try and take the film as it unfolds (avoiding heavy spoilers) and say what I found good and bad.
The first half an hour of the film seems to exemplify everything that I see as problematic of Ridley Scott as a filmmaker. I have always thought him slightly overrated (your opinion may vary) and part of that is the naval-gazing, laboured film- making that happens here. The info we need could be presented here in under 5 minutes (there's a colony ship heading to a new planet, an accident occurs, they pick up a signal) but seriously what you just read there takes thirty minutes of screen time! Bits of what it shows set up atmosphere or tone but a lot of it feels like plodding, treading water as if Ridley wants you to stop at a cool visual and pause for an "ooooooh" audience reaction. This time could also be potentially used to set up characters but sadly beyond the main two or three the others may as well be wearing red Star Trek uniforms with name badges reading "cannon fodder". It's also baffling that two or three big name actors have what amounts to walk-on cameos, or less. Having said that, the world building does suck you in but after the previous movie I was a little bored and worried.
I needn't have been as harsh as things improve dramatically once our protagonists get on planetary ground. There are touches of the better parts of Prometheus here with a much healthier dose of Alien DNA and it's so good to see Scott do those gory, monster movie moments and scares. There's even a scene with a locked door that managed to illicit tension, even in this eighth movie in a franchise and some new twists on old tropes that shouldn't work but do.
The film takes a bit of a pause next and gets to be a sequel for a while, answering some things from Prometheus and furthering that story. As if aware that this could be where he loses the audience this is where Sir Ridley also "plays the hits", delivering on the promise of that Alien title with familiar creatures returning to this universe. You will have seen in the trailer that Billy Cruddup's Oram peers into a recognisable egg. It ends exactly as badly as you'd think and when that occurs you can almost sense the film again stopping for an audience reaction, cheering the familiar. In an interview about the somewhat lacklustre response to Prometheus Scott was quoted as saying, "they want aliens, I'll give them fucking aliens!" and there were moments in this film where I could almost sense him from behind the screen yelling "There! Happy now?". There are attempts to add new elements too though which is admirable but let down by some shoddy CGI at times. A couple of things illicited laughter in my screening that definitely shouldn't have, which rather kills the mood at times.
There are a handful of good jump scares and great horror as the film develops further. Here it also becomes apparent that we are watching a film that's as much about the duality and conflict of man vs machine than humanity fighting against biological evils. Giger's original design for the titular xenomorph was bio-mechanical and these themes go back to Scott's work with Ash in the original Alien or tyre entirety of Blade Runner. Lots of moments actually evoke that film for me. It's done well though and thoughtfully and tonally doesn't stand out as much as it should.
The films latter stages seem like Ridley Scott attempting to show his version of Aliens as we get into big action sequences and recognisable moments from trailers and previous movies. The end actually recalls the endings of both of the first two Alien movies thus making the film seem like the most legit follow up since James Cameron's masterpiece. I loved this as the movie gave me the gore and horror action I came for but if you want to see something new then maybe lower those expectations.
The film is frustratingly open-ended so if you wanted answers to all of Prometheus' questions or expect to see how that ship full of eggs ended up on LV426 in the original Alien then you will be disappointed. If the search for answers is this entertaining, action-packed, interesting and fun though I'll stay on this Ridley Scott ride.
In short, my third favourite Alien movie (though competition isn't stiff):
***1/2
MM
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