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After Prometheus turned out to be a let down, it seems like Ridley Scott would be going back to the roots of the earlier Alien films with Alien: Covenant which got off to an underwhelming start but gradually improved as it approached its climax.
When colony ship Covenant lands on a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, the crew think that they’ve discovered an unknown paradise but then as you would expect they find themselves in a dark place faced against dangerous creatures whom they must escape from before it’s all too late.
We’re all here to watch the crew fight against the aliens and whilst it does deliver well on that, at times the story feels a little dragged out, particularly near the beginning which doesn’t seem to offer much intensity that gave you the feeling of not knowing what would happen next which was what the first two films did so well.
Of course when they get to the action sequences particularly when the crew members are picked off by the aliens one by one which are the most intense and exciting parts about the films and they don’t fail to deliver here, giving us the iconic gruesome death scenes from chest bursters to facehuggers each delivered as well as the next.
The production design of the planet was visually interesting to set the characters in which was dark and isolated which really added to the mysteriousness of where the Covenant crew were and of course the aliens retained its iconic yet terrifying design that kept you on edge as they faced against the characters.
When she wasn’t screaming or crying all the time, Katherine Waterstone did prove to be a capable heroine to fight off the aliens and although she wasn’t quite on the same level as Ripley she still had some good action scenes to work with.
Michael Fassbender performed well both in his dual role proving to be one of the strongest actors within the film, providing both the role of Walter the loyal crew member of Covenant as well as reprising his role as David who has grown a more sinister side to him after his ship Prometheus crashed on the planet. The interactions between both his characters made for an interesting watch as they both conflict with each other.
Danny McBride proved to be a big surprise in this film, whilst he’s mostly known for his comedic work, he showed here that he’s equally capable of dramatic scenes whilst also providing the more light hearted moments in the film.
The rest of the characters, are both forgettable and bland and you probably wouldn’t care much about what would happen to them. As for James Franco, he’s barely in the film for more than a minute as they kill him off at the very beginning without giving much insight to his character and you almost wonder what was the point of including him in the first place.
Whilst it’s a huge improvement over Prometheus, Alien: Covenant doesn’t offer quite as many thrills as we’d hoped but there are some interesting characters and visuals, giving us hope for future entries in the franchise.
3.5/5