Alien: Covenant (2017) The Sequel Prequel

Rating: 7/10 (19 May 2017)

Ridley Scott capably bridges the gap between Prometheus (2012) and Alien (1979), blending the best elements of the franchise.
Under the surface of the science-fiction horror franchise is, and it appears has always been, the theme of creation. When Ripley and the rest of the Nostromo crew first experience the Xenomorph as it punctures the chest of the late and great John Hurt, they cannot begin to fathom the origin of such a creature, nor do they have the time as the mining crew is stalked and pick off one by bloody one in a film that still stands the test of time as one of the great masterpieces of cinema.
Prometheus began to answer some of the questions audiences may have (or even not have) been asking since 1979, but Covenant delves deftly deeper, finalising the answers to our questions and perhaps at least making up for what some saw as a weaker first start to the origin story. The film begins and the film ends with notions of creation hanging in the air, which turn out to be more important than anything in coming full-circle to the conception of that first Xenomorph of the late seventies.
Performances aboard the Covenant are solid, especially in regards Michael Fassbender, who reprises his role both as Weyland's first synthetic David, named after the Michelangelo's statue but also fittingly the namesake of the young synthetic boy in Stanley Kubrick's A.I., and the newer, less human model Walter. To say his acting is rather robotic is, in this case, a compliment to his acting ability, the Alien universe having not yet perfected androids such as Ash, played by Ian Holm in the original film, to be simultaneously as pragmatic as Walter and as human in appearance and mannerisms as David.
Daniels, played by Katherine Waterston, is our substitute Ripley, similarly playing more of an important role later into the film once fellow crew members start being brutally slain in all manner of chest and back bursting ways and once the scene has slowly been set. Both her transition of grief into terror and finally to her strong survival abilities, and Fassbender's cold pragmatism mixed with human emotion truly hold the film together, with many minor characters apart from cocky pilot Tenessee serving as Xenomorph and facehugger fodder in necessary and gory crowd pleasing moments.
Spines burst forth to birth baby Neomorphs and mouths are ripped apart to do the same. Only later does the film bring in the familiar chest-bursting, acid-burning and inner-mouth puncturing icon of the franchise, the true finalised Xenomorph as initially conceived by H.R. Giger. Arguably, the absence of the iconic monster was the cause for much of the negative reception surrounding Scott's Prometheus outing, but the big daddy is back, and all Prometheus needed was some time.
Though we are not guided on course to any new direction for the bulk of the film until the final sequence which sets the route for a sequel towards the long journey to Alien, our lingering questions regarding Promtheus are finally respectfully answered and some new ones are raised, making the return road to Alien all the more exciting.
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