A brilliant disappointment

Rating: 6/10 (9 September 2017)

Alien Covenant is arguably the most imaginative and best-realized film in the Alien series since its genre-defining first chapter (and James Cameron's worthy sequel), an achievement for which Ridley Scott deserves full credit. There are so many points at which the film is original and stunning in its ability to imagine future worlds, realize advanced technologies, depict extraterrestrial landscapes, explore human-android relationships, and more. As always, the aliens themselves are stunningly well-developed. Further, the plot unfolds with similarly skilfully-crafted twists and turns. Who are the aliens? What is their origin, their purpose? Why have we encountered them? All of that is much clearer now. The progression of the story won't surprise any die-hard Alien franchise fans. One by one, the aliens do their damage to the vulnerable and exposed humans, who fight back fiercely and courageously against these acid-blooded killing machines given life.
However, as the narrative evolved, I found that I reached a point of disappointment with the story that has become all too familiar while watching science fiction presented on film. While science fiction literature is diverse and often instructive, science fiction at the movies tends to revert to just four overworn themes, that is, they are, de rigueur: (1) dystopian, (2) apocalyptic, (3) quasi-military or (4) horror stories dressed up in science fiction garb. Well, in fairness, Alien has fallen into literally all four of these categories since the beginning, and yet transcended them, perhaps because human pluck and courage has always mattered, no matter how indestructible and relentless the aliens have always proved to be. Avoiding spoilers, I'll refraining from fleshing out my final disappointment in detail. It's not that the film is "dark." That is true of every film in the series, and I fully accept that as part of the package (and despite the fact that scfi film is lopsided with dark stories of all of the above- described types).
Rather, I'm a science fiction fan and not a horror fan because I'm optimistic, at core, about where technological change is taking us (without, I think, being oblivious to technology's many shortcomings and counterproductivities). I believe Alien Covenant could have maintained its dark, even grim, thematics and still offered some rays of hope for its technologically optimistic followers. I think I understand why the Alien films take so many of the dark turns that they do, and that in itself is not a problem at all. However, in the end, when faced with pursuing fresh ideas or nipping down the first available dark path, Alien Covenant chose the dark pathway reflexively --- really carelessly, when far more interesting and imagination- bending themes could have been explored instead. I wish Mr. Scott had spoken with me first, before finalizing the script!