Review- Alien Covenant

I'm going to open by saying that I am not a die hard fan of the Alien franchise, I have only seen the first film (loved) and played an hour of Aliens: Colonial Marines (loved laughing at) but I do have some knowledge of Prometheus, something that is needed going into this film. Anyway, it is the story of a colonisation ship where the crew wake up too early and decide to go to a nearby planet that appears perfect, instead of going to the one they've planned too. This is an Alien film though so it's not going to end well and it certainly doesn't. The plot is fairly interesting and deals with some exciting films in enjoyable ways, although it doesn't entirely make sense and leaves multiple loose ends hanging. As for smaller scale details though, this film embraces many horror tropes. Do you ever get frustrated at bad decisions characters make? Be prepared to shout. Do you like seeing attractive couples have sex? Be prepared to watch them die. Do you love to have the rug pulled out from under you at the last minute? Be prepared to giggle excitedly at that. There's nothing as bad as Charlize Theron's run from Prometheus but there are certainly some stupid decisions made here.

Acting is an interesting thing to talk about here as, being essentially a horror film, many of the cast members are not going to make it and end up largely undeveloped. There's some criminally underused actors, one of whom is Billy Crudup, fresh off the delightful 20th Century Women. He's in a decent chunk of the film but doesn't get given enough to do sadly. Even more underused is James Franco who doesn't get a line of dialogue because... Um... Well... You can probably work it out. Ignoring the expendables, there are three actors here to focus on, who all do a great job. Danny McBride actually manages to move from his comedic roots and gives a powerful performance  in many moments. Katherine Waterson plays Not Riplley, a character who is a lot like Sigourney Weaver's iconic heroine but isn't. She has many great moments and is a great addition to the new pantheon of great female action leads. The biggest standout though is Micheal Fassbender, an actor who still seems to be yet to give a bad performance. His role as the android Walter is creepy and adds many layers to the films and it will likely be Fassbender who sticks with you long after the film.

I am slightly torn on the film though, mainly because it isn't massively scary. It's arguable whether it's a horror film as there aren't many terrifying moments but there is plenty of nasty body horror and the aforementioned horror tropes it sticks to. Admirably, Scott never resorts to jumpscares and that is a brilliant thing, don't get me wrong. However, having avoided this and being a big budget movie, there's only really one more path for it to go down: action horror. The scene that most exemplifies this is a scene where the new Alien is attacking the crew on a small ship they are riding in. The scene was in the trailer and it fits into the exact kind of formula that you're expecting. In fairness, the sequence is pretty exciting but I rarely found myself really scared and therein lies the largest problem with the film. There is a difficulty in balancing tone here. Initially the tone goes into exploratory and very sci-fi jargon heavy, almost like a less funny version of The Martian, but then in the third act becomes the violent Alien film that everyone wishes it was from the start. So essentially, if the film took up the tone it eventually grabs much earlier, this film would be a much more consistent experience.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this film. I had a good time the whole way, enjoyed the silliness of some of the grander plot elements and was suitably disgusted by the violent scenes. Unfortunately, the film is never able to bring all of that together at once and so you spend one moment appreciating one aspect while wishing you had the other elements you liked there too. I think people will enjoy this film and I feel like I might watch it again but it isn't a film that's left a defined mark on me. It is still an enjoyable time though so I'm giving it a