Heavy-handed arc

Rating: 6/10 (12 May 2017)

This review of Alien Covenant is spoiler free
*** (3/5)
WITHIN THE FIRST few minutes of Alien Covenant's opening title in director Ridley Scott's iconic form, there's a sense of familiarity perhaps it's to do with the title forming itself on the screen in front of us or the haunting background soundtrack originally composed by Jerry Goldsmith, re-done for this new installment by Jed Kurzel perhaps as an inspiration. But within an instant of the first few we are back on familiar ground or in this space. Another familiar point is that we welcome back the iconic Xenomorph (looking as gloriously terrifying as ever), sure Prometheus may have left you frustrated due to the lack of the curly-headed, sword-tailed villain from the original Alien then this – may perhaps leave you happier that he is back in glorious form and running havoc again. The new ideas are to come first before even the slightest showing of the titular villain; of course there are new characters to follow new stories, a new ship, and a new planet.
Set ten years after the ill-fated mission of the Prometheus, the USCSS Covenant is on a mission to colonize an Earth-like planet in a solar system thousands of light years from their home. The ship has particularly similar shape too, if you look closely you can see the design is much in the of the Nostromo, except it's perhaps thinner, on board the are 2,000 willing colonists in hyper-sleep and 1400 human embryos tightly wrapped in compacted draws. This thanks to Scott's much improved directing style after The Martian looks particularly stunning, using his technical devices such as the lighting effects and tightly cornered, slightly claustrophobic corridors, and of course the voicing of the iconic computer MOTHER, Scott uses these well to make this the closest to his original. This bodes well for some time, were as the original is a sci-fi masterpiece – this, is not there are flaws.
Firstly, the crew of the Covenant are particularly nondescript, there are fifteen including Michael Fassbender's soft-talking android Walter, (compared to Alien's eight members including Ripley's cat) all lead to this planet by newly promoted captain (Crudup). Who have been in hyper-sleep for many years, and have just received a rogue message from an anonymous planet during their colonization mission to Origae-6. Of course, each member is against this message; Katherine Waterston's Daniels is particularly concerned about the lack of bird sounds from the planet's surface. It's not the presentation of the characters that's flawed it's their story, most of them are married couples, and when the inevitable comes there's not enough emotional heft that drives them. Promisingly there are some hilarious moments – notably the crew banter "Sugar tits," Danny McBride's Tennessee mutters, but the rest of their narration is sadly flawed. Thankfully their stoic performances, the standout is McBride carry the film enough to pull through.
Secondly, the tone; the problem with Scott's directing is, he either makes his films too light or too heavy, here the emphasis is high on heavy. It's a slow drive from the opening, the tension is there from the very beginning we know what kind of film this is, and it's inevitable that these characters meet their demise at some point. Here, it's obvious, were as the original had tension in the right places it was hard to know which one would go first, then there's that pinnacle moment that everyone knows. Like the Xenomorph, this blind to it's own flaws, it's as if Scott has a say on how and when each character goes; example when a lesser used person takes a break from work – it's obvious to what happens next. In the original that happened – perhaps one or two times, but here it's seemingly endless. He's not light on this material either, there's a lot of gore - in fact a seemingly cringeworthy amount of it, there's not too much – there is of course a more notable way of direction, which takes a turn into the more familiar territory too.
Both of these flaws are thankfully brushed over by the tension, which is clearly noticeable from the first planetary footsteps – the tension is on the constant rise from the moment we see these alien critters to the third act – though fast in it's execution is stunning and proudly gives a solid end to the sixth film in the franchise. Alien Covenant isn't the best Alien film in the franchise but thanks to Scott's stunning direction and the beautiful practical effects Scott is back on firm ground.
VERDICT: Not the best but certainly not the worst, with it's flawed narration and heavy-handed techniques it's vast improvement on his last sci-fi venture. That still sadly doesn't top the 1979 original.