big ideas, good acting from michael fassbender

Rating: 8/10 (2 July 2020)

I watched this for the second time last night on Film Four and was fairly impressed, just as I was with Prometheus. It is not quite the same kind of film. I felt that there was considerably more mystery contained in Prometheus, but Covenant matches this film in terms of scope and ambition; on many occasions Covenant feels quite epic, and that is a feeling which I rarely get with any film, and it is much appreciated. I would purchase this film for the sense of awe which it generates, but there are other appealing factors. I was heavily impressed by the quality and nature of the effects, which were grand and often stunning, and always riveting to watch. Michael Fassbender gives a great performance as both of the androids and is good to watch; perhaps his performance as David is the better of the two, I found slightly more depth to David than Walter, Walter was just a little bit simplified whereas David has darkness and depth and issues and eventually came across as quite chilling. David was probably the best actual scare, more frightening than the aliens. I did like all of the aliens, in spire of the use of CGI I thought that they all more or less worked. Not quite as much as in the original film, but well enough. The acting was fair and character development fair, I had some empathy for the crew but apart from Fassbender who was exceptional nobody stood out, again the original film was better in this regard and maybe we could have done with someone comparable to Sigourney Weaver to represent the better side of the crew. There was just about enough attention to detail in the characters to make it credible. The action was quite good, but the more enjoyable moments of the film lie elsewhere, perhaps in Fassbender's androids or the epic landscapes or the big ideas.