"Alien: Covenant" may lack the creativity of the last film and the freshness of the original, but it excels in action and terror.

Rating: 8/10 (16 May 2017)

Fans of the "Fast & Furious" and "Star Wars" franchises know that the release dates of those movies don't follow the same chronological order as the events portrayed (and there are short films and features in between) but those timelines have nothing on the "Alien" franchise. It all started simply enough: "Alien", a relatively low budget sci-fi horror flick released in 1979, thrilled, scared and shocked Movie Fans, while adding to the cultural consciousness the indelible image of a vicious, reptilian-like creature busting out of the chest of its human host, while also making Sigourney Weaver a household name as she played the iconic alien fighter Ellen Ripley in four of the movies. A new feature film from the "Alien" universe appeared every 5-7 years (not counting the "Alien vs. Predator" movies), leading up to 2017's "Alien: Covenant" (R, 2:02), which, in some ways, returns the franchise to its storied roots.
After the "Alien" sequels, "Aliens", "Alien 3" and "Alien: Resurrection" (each of the four with a different director), original helmer Ridley Scott returned to the franchise for a prequel series. 2012's "Prometheus" began exploring the question of how the Aliens originated. That was an excellent film, but was more "2001: A Space Odyssey" than "Aliens", for example, and it did a great job of setting up the films to come. From 2012-2017, ten(!) short films came out to fill gaps in the Alien story, with two of them leading straight into "Alien: Covenant". A small amount of footage from those two films (known collectively as "Alien: Covenant – Prologue") are used in the 2017 feature and in its theatrical trailers. In the "Alien" universe, this film is a sequel to "Prometheus" and leads fans closer to the events of the original film. In "Star Wars" terms, it's the equivalent of "Episode II - Attack of the Clones", but better.
Taking place ten years after the events in "Prometheus", this film follows a colony ship, called the Covenant, heading toward the other side of the galaxy. On board are 2,000 colonists in a deep stasis, 1,000 human embryos, a dozen crew members and a synthetic android named Walter (Michael Fassbender), an advanced version of the synthetic known as David in the previous film. On their way to a planet called Origae-6, the ship is hit by shockwave, causing significant damage and leading Walter to awaken the crew. In the process, the captain (James Franco) dies and first officer Christopher Oram (Billy Crudup) assumes command of the Covenant. As the crew is coming to terms with what has happened and working to repair the ship, they receive a radio transmission that appears to be human in origin. The planet that is the source of the transmission appears to be an even more hospitable spot for their new colony, so rather than wait another seven years to arrive at Origae-6, Oram decides to check it out.
As the Covenant, piloted by the cowboy hat-wearing Tennessee (Danny McBride) orbits this new planet, most of the crew takes a lander down to the planet's surface. The expedition consists of acting captain Oram, his wife, biologist Karen Oram (Carmen Ejogo), a terraforming expert named Daniels (Katherine Waterston), security head Sergeant Lope (Demián Bichir), members of his team and a couple others. While exploring the area around their landing site and beginning to evaluate the planet for possible human habitation, their discoveries range from odd to shocking to deadly. There are signs of human cultivation of what appears to be wheat, but at the same time there are no signs of animals or birds. The expedition finds the crashed ship Prometheus, along with the fully functioning David, who says that Elizabeth Shaw (the sole human survivor of the doomed ship) repaired the injuries he sustained on that earlier mission. Something else that the crew of the Covenant finds are alien spores which, if they enter a human host, result in the birth of vicious creatures which are very new to the unfortunate souls of the Covenant – and will also be somewhat new to Movie Fans. Thus begins a desperate struggle for survival.
"Alien: Covenant" is a worthy and exciting addition to the "Alien" franchise. Making this set of deep space travelers colonists who all have significant others on the ship raises the emotional stakes for the characters and for the audience. The interactions between the twin synthetic androids from different generations makes for a fascinating subplot, partly because of the acting prowess of Fassbender, who, along with the rest of the cast contribute to a talented ensemble who all deliver excellent performances. The story effectively builds on "Prometheus" and towards "Alien" with a flare that ups the franchise ante on horror and gore, while the wicked twists wonderfully tease a sequel. This film, however, can't really be said to be very "original". Besides the intended connections to "Prometheus" and the "Alien" movies, it's also a bit of 2016's "Passengers" meets 1991's "Terminator 2". "Alien: Covenant" may lack the creativity of the last film and the freshness of the original, but it excels in action and terror. "A-"