I Am Not A Film Student

Rating: 8/10 (17 May 2017)

...Nor am I a wannabe film critic.
Therefore this review will not be written from a smug, supercilious point of view, sneering at a piece of work by a renowned director and able cast, the kind of project that I will never hope to exceed or even participate in because once outside the bubble of my ego I will discover the big bad world cares not a jot for my pretensions and self-satisfied viewpoint that makes me popular in student bars and probably on my own youtube channel where I will inevitably end up after my narcissistic ambitions are thwarted and eventually scorched, like the burgers I end up flipping through tears of petulant frustration.
What I am is a middle-aged film fan who managed, nearly 40 years ago - jeez... - to sneak into a late-night screening of 'Alien' with a cadre of gormless teenage youths thanks to the culpability of a friend's usher-employee older brother.
I say 'culpability' because - in the good old days, kids - that fermenting spine-chilling two hours of celluloid darkness haunted me for years. All very well sniffing at the xenomorph through decades of cultural saturation on little-to-medium screens but at its cinematic big-screen birth? - primordially terrifying.
And now Ridley proves relentless as his ouevre, storming the theatres again through his old-age. Four decades on, what does yer scary old English uncle do to twist his spine-tingling tales to keep those wizened children of the age on edge? Well, there was Prometheus - and you really should have seen it in order to gain the most from Covenant. To be honest, I left the cinema after Prometheus very disappointed. Confused in the main about what the main thrust of its themes were. Upon revision and repeated viewings, its irritating mishaps are outweighed by its grander narrative and the big ideas it explores.
The Gestalt factor - THE principle that good movie producers understand can elevate a film from its perceived failings; that the whole is other than the sum of its parts. And Prometheus, for me, ultimately fitted that theory.
So to Covenant with anticipation. And what I got was a solid thriller to add to the canon, sitting nicely behind the first two and again vindicating ol' Gestalt.
It's about 80% what I hoped for, and what I'd expected to find regarding the overriding theme...
MINOR SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW (But i'll try to keep it opaque): Fassbender - owns it; about the only living actor who could pull of that dual role convincingly, with tremendous malevolent threat and excoriatingly disturbing execution. Completely brilliant.
Xenomorph - maximised its threat and power beyond what I had expected - genuinely menacing again, and along with the Neomorph, formidable kings of the sci-fi baddies catalog once again; You CAN breathe new life into the familiar.
Cast - fine. What's not to like? Everyone carries their part with conviction and leaves nothing off the celluloid.
Dialogue/Script - 90% fine with me. Sure there's the few creaky lines that might not survive real scrutiny but a perfect script? There's always something someone will add/alter/replace subjectively; it doesn't exist. And doesn't need to be here, because...
The Action - sorry, but the naysayers are talking out their arses; the sequences are perfectly balanced. There's NO overkill or overt gratuity in the violence or the gore; I was surprised at the satisfying gravity and screen time allotted to both - each sequence felt authentic and 'realistically' pitched in terms of timescale, combat authenticity and outcome. Great, to be honest, with a thrilling finale as well.
Innovations/Reveals (PROPER SPOILERS, skip if necessary) - Personally, I liked the fleeting xenomorph POV; a wry smile accompanied this 'distorted' HUD, "ahhh, they can see to an extent..." As far as the big reveal - David the destroyer/creator - I'd 'guessed it/hypothesised it beforehand, when in conversation or thought about the forthcoming sequels. It made it no less satisfying/interesting/frustrating to see it portrayed in the actual narrative and lit the imagination as to the promise of the third and final prequel/sequel. I will have no hesitation is attending asap to see where Ridley Scott will take us next in the inevitable ascent/descent towards the origin.
Other points of note springing to mind - the nods towards the first, with the nodding bird and the bleeping tracker; lovely. Not trite, just neat.
OVERALL - if you have anything more than a mild appreciation or interest in the Alien universe this film will not disappoint. Even for the diehards, it offers a very admirable chapter in the huge backstory Ridley Scott and his writers are creating; they melded the philosophical, the physical and the fantastical well here, allowing for intellectual musings and savage sci-fi horror to sit contemporaneously.
After Prometheus I was a little detached from Ridley's ideology. After Alien: Covenant I'm fully engaged again. Mishaps forgiven, grand themes absorbed and I'm happily strapped into the drop-ship for the next badass ride to hell in space. (Bill P RIP).
A solid 7.5/10 from me. Will watch again.