Alien Covenant [DVD] [2017]

Five years after Ridley Scott triumphantly returned to the "Alien" franchise that he started with 2012's "Prometheus", the director is back with another chapter in the "Alien" prequel series with 2017's "Alien: Covenant". While technically a continuation of the story that unfolded in the divisive 2012 prequel, "Covenant" manages to strike a more favorable balance between director Scott's desires to push the series in a new direction while paying homage to the series' sci-fi/horror roots that long term fans felt "Prometheus" lacked.Monsters and buckets of blood abound when the crew of the colony ship Covenant is awoken seven years early from hyper-sleep on their way to a far away planet to start a new human settlement. While making repairs to the ship, the crew intercept a strange transmission coming from a nearby planet that appears on the surface to be an uncharted paradise and a much more favorable location for their new colony. When the crew lands on the planet and track the signal to crashed alien ship, they discover a horror unlike anything they ever imagined, as one by one the crew and colonists are killed gruesomely by the alien creatures that inhabit the planet. The aliens however prove to be a much smaller threat to them when they encounter the android David (Michael Fassbender), survivor of the Prometheus expedition who has been stuck on the planet ever since he crash landed there with Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace).After watching "Covenant" in theaters, it was painfully obvious at points in the film that Ridley Scott, and 20th Century Fox, has listened to the cries of disappointed fans that had less than positive remarks about 2012's "Prometheus", a film while flawed in several ways, was a mostly satisfying return to the sci-fi roots of Scott's earlier work, as well as a welcome return to form for the "Alien" franchise. While many fans bemoaned that film's philosophical themes and ponderous tone, as well as the story about the origins of mankind, I found the focus on these new themes and the turn away from the monster violence and action of the previous films to be a welcome change of pace for the franchise, as well as the deepening mythology and exploration of several unanswered mysterious from the 1979 classic original, "Alien". For me, "Prometheus" returned the class and rich tone back to the series, and after leaving theaters, I was eagerly awaiting a follow up.Flash forward to 2017, it appears that instead of giving fans a proper follow up to Prometheus, Scott and Fox are trying to please all sides of the fan base by returning the titular Xenomorph to the franchise and providing plenty of murderous mayhem, while also continuing the themes of creation and the origin of life that began in the previous film. True to form for the series, the film opens, after an extended prologue featuring David and his creator/father Peter Weyland (Guy Pierce), with the crew of the space colony ship Covenant begin awoken from hypersleep after a neutrino burst damages the ship and kills several crew and colonists, among them Capt. Branson (James Franco in a "blink in you'll miss it" cameo). After the crew mourns their fallen Captain, they set out to repair the ship and resume course to their destination. However, the crew pick up a strange transmission of a mysterious woman singing "Take Me Home (Country Roads)" by John Denver that is coming from a nearby planet. Scans of the planet show that is it seemingly a much better candidate for colonization. Despite objections from terraforming expect Daniels (Katherine Waterson), newly appointed Captain Oram (Billy Crudup) decides to investigate to see if the planet is indeed a better settlement. Once the crew land, they find that they've made a grave mistake.The first act of the film was for me the freshest and most engaging part of the film, as we are introduced to the cast of the film and explore the Covenant a little bit. While some critics of the film have noted that the characters barely stand out or register as people, I beg to differ. All the actors here manage to deliver, even the one relegated to secondary roles. Waterson, Crudup, and Amy Seimetz, who plays Farris, are all standouts for me. Even Danny McBride, who plays Farris' husband Tennessee, manages to subvert expectations and deliver one of the more nuanced and emotional performances. Daniels, who comes across as a Ripley substitute for some of the more vocal critics of the film, manages to carve out a niche for herself as the more levelheaded and intelligent members of the crew. Make no mistake though, when pushed to the brink, Daniels rises to the challenge and embodies that fierce spirit and fighting energy that Sigourney Weaver managed to pull off so effortlessly as Ripley.I also loved the colony crew/couples angle the film went with in this area.The film, taking cues from the 1986 classic "Aliens", follows the colony crew as they prepare to set up a human settlement on a far way planet. It was refreshing and made for a more emotionally resonate film, as the deaths of each characters are mourned by their loved ones and friends. Take Daniels for example, who was married to Captain Branson before his death. We get to see her mourn his death and cherish some of their memories and mementos before having to resume her duty to the crew and colonists.After the crew lands on the planet and traces the signal to the crash Juggernaut from "Prometheus", the tables drastically and horrifically turn on the inexperienced crew, who soon find themselves infected by alien spores that birth new alien creatures not seen before in the saga, to so called Neomorphs. In a particularly gruesome scene, a crew member is infected by an alien spore, and after being rushed back to the landing ship, has a Neomorph burst violently from his back, in an homage to the classic chestburster scene in the original film. Farris attempts to kill the newborn alien but in the chaos inadvertently blows up the drop ship, thus stranding the crew on the planet. Another crew member births a Neomorph through his throat. After several crew members are killed by the alien creatures, they are scared away by a mysterious cloaked figure. The remaining crew follow the figure to a walled off city littered with thousands of petrified corpses of Engineers. The figure reveals himself as David, survivor of the Prometheus expedition. He reveals that he and Dr. Shaw landed there after fleeing LV-223 and searching for the Engineer homeworld. When they arrived, the Juggernaut unleashed the deadly black pathogen upon the populace and in the resulting chaos, the ship crashed, killing Dr. Shaw. While David seems welcoming at first, Daniels and Walter, David's android counterpart for the Covenant, distrust him from the beginning.This second act of the film is where "Covenant" embraces its "Prometheus" connections and follows up more on the events of that film, filling us in on what became of David and Shaw after their flight from LV-233. The interactions between Walter and David are by far the highlights of the film, as David displays a rabid fascination with Walter, while Walter himself is more reserved and intrigued by the fate of Dr. Shaw. We see David sorrowfully tell Walter how he misses and loved Shaw and wished she were still with him. This is a fantastic portrayal of artificial intelligence, and raises many questions about the nature of creation and robotics. It nicely connects with the prologue from the beginning of the film, and furthers the development of David's character arc that started in "Prometheus". The film makes many references to "Paradise Lost" and Fassbender himself quotes "Ozymandias", an attempt no doubt by Scott to retain the philosophical tone of "Prometheus". It mostly works in this film, though it stands in sharp contrast with the final act and the sci-fi/horror tone the rest of the film has.However, it is also here that the film commits it's cardinal sin in my opinion, in regards to its treatment of Dr. Shaw. Her arc in "Prometheus" was that film's emotional core and backbone, and we later find out she was killed in the interim between "Prometheus" and "Covenant". Along with "Alien 3", this continues the franchises sad history of discarding its best characters for the sake of introducing new ones. It is a stab in the back to both Noomi Rapace, who is sorely missed here, and the fans of "Prometheus" that waited five years to see what became of her and David. While Rapace did reprise her role in the promotional short film "The Crossing", none of that footage is featured in the film. Shaw's dog-tags, found by the Covenant crew in the crashed Juggernaut have more screen time than Rapace does. Had said footage been included in the film, it would have certainly softened the blow, while providing a suitable send off for the character. The later reveal of what actually happened to her hammers the point home, but more on that in a moment.The Neomorph is shown to follow the Covenant crew into the Engineer city, and resume its murderous killing spree. After coming across the creature interacting with David, Oram kills the Neomorph, to which David violently and emotionally reacts to. After luring Oram into a room filled with the classic facehugger eggs, David watches in delight as Oram is attacked by said creature and is horrifically killed when a chestburster is born from him. It is at this point that Daniels and Walter, both unnerved by David's actions and presence, both independently come across evidence of David's experiments with Engineer technology and the black pathogen, revealing that David is the creator of the classic Xenomorph. Walter himself also come across Shaw's mutilated and dissected body, to which David reveals he killed her in order to use her body to create the "perfect specimen", in another homage to "Alien".This was a major bone of contention with many long term fans of the franchise. While many argue that the reveal of the Xenomorph's origins robs the said creatures of their mysterious nature and ability to terrify, I'd argue that those had long since been taken away from the franchise after years of exposure and their continued popularity within mainstream media. The long line of subpar installments in the franchise before "Prometheus" also contributed to this. For me, not only was this a natural extension of David's arc from "Prometheus", it provides further extension of the new mythology of the prequel series, something "Covenant" mostly skips by on. One can only keep something dark and mysterious forever before it becomes stale and boring. By providing us with answers, we can now explore new sides of the Xenomorphs and the series as a whole. It also fits in quite well with the themes of life and creation the series has thus far been centered around. The only gripe I have with this is once again the treatment of Dr. Shaw, whose body is used by David to aid him in the creation of the aliens. This was not the way to end her character arc and it will now forever be a missed opportunity and an example of "what could have been". It does provide a layer of dark irony however, as Dr. Shaw noted she was unable to "create life" due to her being infertile, and now David has corrupted her body to give birth to a race of creatures that would kill hundreds if not thousands of people later in the saga.David and Walter square off, with David seemingly gaining the upper hand and dispatches Walter. He then sets his sights on Daniels, who has uncovered David's drawings of Shaw and finds out the horrible truth of what happened to her. Promising to do to her what he did to Shaw, David attempts to murder Daniels but is rescued by Walter, who is revealed to have upgraded healing capabilities to David's surprise. Walter fends off David long enough for Daniels to escape with the only other surviving crew member, Sergeant Lope (Demián Bichir), who was attacked by another facehugger but was saved by another crew member only to be killed by the now fully grown adult Xenomorph. Back on the Covenant, Tennessee manages to deploy the second terraforming drop-ship to rescue Lope and Daniels, but is intercepted by the Xenomorph, who climbs aboard the ship. Walter also emerges, seemingly survived his encounter with David and is rescued by the crew. As the drop ship is taking off, the crew notice the alien has followed them, and Daniels tethers herself to the ship and attempts to kill the alien.This sequence is probably the best action set piece of the entire film, and had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Waterson shows off some commendable acting chops as she single handily takes on the alien. Ripley would be very proud. The only complaints I have with this scene is that some of the CGI used to recreate the alien is rather spotty and sticks out like a sore thumb. I was told that during most of the production, practical effects and stuntmen were used on set. It is disappointing to see, like so many other would be blockbusters, that the hard work put in by the special effects team has been painted over by CGI. Although it does allow us to see the alien from a new perspective not seen in the previous films, the effects do not hold up nearly as well as they did in the older films. Bad CGI looks like bad CGI and completely takes me out of the film.Daniels manages to lure the alien into some of the terraforming equipment and incinerates it. Overjoyed and seemingly out of danger, the crew returns to the Covenant to mourn their fallen crew members and resume course to their original destination. However, it seems despite only being briefly attached to the facehugger, Lope has given birth to another Xenomorph which quickly grows to full size and kills the last two remaining crew members besides Tennessee and Daniels in a violent and bloody shower sequence. While some derided this scene as being too similar to slasher film, the horror film lover inside me loved and squealed in delight. Daniels and Tennessee, with Walter's help, begin tracking the Xenomorph aboard the Covenant in what is mostly a condensed remake of the original Alien.This is the part of the film where Scott and Fox most obviously tried to appease fans of the series that were disappointed by the lack of monster violence in "Prometheus". While I do appreciate the homages throughout the rest of the film to the original "Alien", here is comes across much more cliche and unoriginal. It was as if Scott, unsure of how to end the film, just decided to remake his original film in the attempt that it would win over fans that otherwise would prefer a classic "Alien" film. Fox is also to blame here as well, as they no doubt pressured Scott to include more familiar elements of the franchise in the film to ensure its success. The CGI used on the Xenomorph is probably the worst in some of these sequences, adding even more insult to injury. However, it eventually pays off in the climax as the Xenomorph is lured to the loading dock, and in what is probably the scariest sequence of the film, the alien obsessively pursues Daniels with such single minded determination that we are finally able to fear the xenomorph again. Seriously, the sequence where the alien tears through the terraforming equipment, trying to get to Daniels gave me chills. Still, after the more "Prometheus" like second act and that wonderful first act, you can't help but feel slightly let down by Scott, as a director of his caliber should have fought harder to retain his original vision.Anyway, after luring the Xenomorph to the loading dock, Tennessee manages to open the airlock and send the alien, who has been impaled by some terraforming machinery plummeting out of the ship and down to the planet below. Finally able to rest for the first time in the film, Daniels and Tennessee prepare themselves to reenter hypersleep for the voyage to their new home. As Walter helps Daniels get into her hypersleep chamber, it is here where the film reveals its final twist; Walter is actually David, who killed Walter and took his place. Daniels realizes this too late, as she is already inside her sleep chamber, and can only scream in horror as David puts her back into stasis. For a film that goes above and beyond in its attempts the scare the audience, this was probably the single most chilling scene in the entire film. Now that the entire ship and crew along with the colonists still in hypersleep are completely at David's mercy, Daniels is powerless as this corrupted creation of mankind seals her fate and the rest of the ships as well. David will no doubt make good on his threat to do to Daniels what he did to Shaw. David then returns to the chamber containing the sleeping colonists, and regurgitates two facehugger embryos that he was storing inside his body, and places them into a cryo-storage unit containing other human embryos. David then makes one final transmission as Walter to the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, stating that the entire crew minus Daniels and Tennessee died in the neutrino blast, and the ship remains on course for its original destination, thus ending the film on a dark and bleak note.The film both succeeds and fails because of Ridley Scott. His trademark photography and grand, visual style remain intact, as well as his broad sweeping themes that were so integral to "Prometheus". The picture is probably the most visually appealing and beautifully shot of the entire series, and carries with it a tone of pure menace and foreboding like no film before it. The film's score, composed by series newcomer Jed Kurzel is breathtakingly beautiful and a highlight of the entire franchise, probably my favorite since Elliot Goldenthal's score for "Alien 3". The reprisal of the main theme from "Alien" as well as "Prometheus" helped establish a connective tissue between all three films, and the new themes written for the film stand out as well among the rest of the score. The bleak, woodwind based score and sound helped greatly contribute to the film's tone and foreboding themes. The "Alien Covenant Theme" and "Dead Civilization" stand out as highlights of the score. However, the mishmash of tones and Scott's forced hand at including some of the more iconic touchstones of the franchise as a whole hurt the film and prevent it from standing on its own in the franchise. This is entirely Scott's fault, as he had to contend with not only the studio but the scores of fans as well. The film doesn't always work when combining the tones and themes from "Prometheus" and the rest of the series, but when it works, it truly shines. It's not a perfect film by any means of the word, but I for one loved it and will gladly be in theaters for the follow up, assuming Fox allows Scott to wrap up this exciting and multidimensional prequel series.

ALIEN:COVENANT (2017) had the deck stacked against it going in. It had the arduous task of both trying to live up to Ridley Scott's more revered '79 Alien masterpiece as well as James Cameron's widely acclaimed action sequel, '86 Aliens, PLUS it had to both somewhat make up for Scott's dubious '12 prequel Prometheus with it's mixed reaction. Prometheus was a movie that was hyped to the hilt and made a ton of money, but alternated between being hailed some ethereal "people just don't get it" masterpiece (a la 2001) versus a pretentious, bloated, flashy, terribly acted CGI exercise that was nothing more than hot garbage. Count me in the latter group! LOL I really dislike Prometheus and can't get past it's utterly stupid characterizations which sank the film for me. At the end of the day, I think character trumps CGI, something I randomly preach in my reviews. I'll take character over effects any day of the week and twice on Sunday. For myself, in terms of characters, Alien:Covenant absolutely craps on Prometheus for the simple fact that not a single character in Covenant ANNOYED me, while virtually every single character in Prometheus accomplished that dubious feat!To me, Covenant is the 2nd best Alien film (minority opinion, I know) and it's not really saying much as Scott's '79 film Alien is one of the great multi-genre (sci-fi, horror, thriller, character study) of all time. The overrated '86 sequel Aliens is just an abrasive summer action flick, nothing more. Then there's the underwhelming Alien3 and Alien:Resurrection. And of course the massive disappointment Prometheus. So Covenant didn't have much to overcome. What Covenant did that Prometheus failed to do is keep it simple: simple story, simple characters, simple plot and in doing so, culminates in a very re-watchable, enjoyable summer movie experience. Also, unlike Prometheus, Covenant actually makes me look forward to the next sequel!Covenant starts with a prologue sequence of the creation of the android David (the best character from Prometheus, reprised by the great Michael Fassbender) in the early 21st century by billionaire Peter Weyland (well played in esteemed fashion by Guy Pearce, also reprising his role, but this time as the young version of Weyland). Peter and David converse about the human condition and the irony that even though Weyland created him, David will actually live forever while Weyland is destined to expire, like all humans. Flash forward to the early 22nd century and the colonial spaceship Covenant, maintained on it's way to the habitable Origae-6 planetary system by the ship's synthetic being Walter (also played by Fassbender in a completely believable dual role). The ship encounters a solar flare which causes it's life-support systems to malfunction, compelling Walter to get the ship's main computer "Mother" to awake the 14-member crew from cryosleep and fix the ship, which is also carrying 2000 colonists still in cryosleep and over 1000 embryos for building a new world. With the incident causing the original Captain's cryotube to fail and burn up, the leadership role is taken over by Captain Oram (excellently played by veteran actor Billy Crudup). Oram is a man of faith and a bit shaken by the incident and unsure of if the crew trusts his leadership style. The 2nd-in-command is the feisty Daniels (strongly played by Katherine Waterston), the wife of the original captain who must soldier on without her husband. Rounding out the main characters are down-to-earth ship's pilot Tennessee (winningly played by Danny McBride), stalwart crew biologist and Oram's wife Karine (stolidly played by Carmen Ejogo), crew shuttle pilot and Tennessee's wife Faris (confidently played by Amy Seimetz), security team leader Sergeant Lope (cheekily played by Demian Bichir), and married crew co-pilots Upworth and Ricks (solidly played by Callie Hernandez and Jussie Smollett).Upon repairing the ship, the crew discovers a transmission on a nearby (and apparently life-sustaining) planet and go to investigate the distress signal as well as research and map out the planet as a permanent home in lieu of traveling for another 7 years to Origae-6. Upon touching down, the planet at first appears perfect, but as the group further investigates, it's not long before things turn out to good to be true, and the group runs into trouble and must navigate their way out of it somehow. Surprisingly, the film has a healthy amount of action and the scenes are all tense and edge-of-your-seat. The aliens are pretty intimidating and agile in this as Covenant combines elements from the 3 most popular films of the franchise Alien, Aliens, and Prometheus. Yet I feel as if Covenant stands well on it's own as an entertaining horror-thriller-action movie. I feel as if Covenant took the "less is more" approach and succeeded in spades!I had to re-watch Covenant (glad to do it) to realize how perfectly modulated the supporting performances were and how in sync the actors played off each other to resonate as a real crew. Just subtle things showed these people had known each other for a long time and I liked the way their rather by-the-numbers dialogue bounced off each other very naturally. While Fassbender easily stole the show as Walter/David (doesn't he always?), the rest of the actors should be commended for being very natural in their performances, unlike the characters in Prometheus who felt like cardboard cutout cartoons most of the time. I think the people roasting this movie for bad performances and weak, stupid characters do it a major disservice. I think they are conflating it too much with Prometheus, which is an abomination in terms of both character and acting. The characters in Covenant behaved very real to me, the way they reacted to the rather crazy circumstances they encountered. The shocks, the jump scares, the reactions all felt genuine. I might say that I tend to agree that the CGI wasn't the greatest, but as I've repeatedly said, I'll take character over CGI anyday and for me, the characters worked in this film, along with many other elements that kept it entertaining from start to finish. I would say this movie is underrated and give it a few years and people will re-visit Covenant as the deserving addition to the Alien franchise it truly is.

Covenant is an example of how Ridley Scott can turn a massive budget into a low-budget Roger Corman knockoff film. This movie (and its predecessor, Prometheus) is a hot mess, not a horror. The prologue to Covenant (the dialogue scene in the bland white room) should have been the opening sequence to Prometheus, as I think it's more relevant for that film's story than Covenant's. And David's memory flashback scene of the Engineers' ship arriving to the Engineers' homeworld (and the ensuing holocaust), should have been the opening sequence to Covenant to act as a bridge or audience "catch-up" between the two films. Just like the first Alien movie Scott made, we have in this film a rehash of scared, dumb humans in a spaceship who encounter a mysterious signal which they investigate. Their investigation leads them to a derelict planet and, surprise! surprise! to their ultimate doom. I guess Scott is trying to conjure some of that old magic that made Alien a mega hit back in the day. But, unfortunately, he fumbled it with this instalment of the franchise, as there's no kickass heroine Sigorney Weaver to save the movie as a final girl (only a Ripley-wannabe whose weak character is a bland sock-puppet). There seemed a lot of promise to showing a backstory of the 'Space Jockey' from the first Alien film (though no one actually asked for it!). It's just that after watching both Prometheus and Covenant movies, we still haven't seen much to make us give a figs about them at all. I'd like to shake Ridley Scott by the shoulders and ask him 'Where's that genius that gave us Alien, Blade Runner and Legend?' But like George Lucas, he's too old and past his prime as a director; the genius has left him. Watch it, like it, hate it, or whatever, it's your choice.

Prequel follow up to former prequel Prometheus ( hope I’m right there!). Good film that keeps the interest up with a few of the usual shocks. I can’t understand why the deleted scenes ( not very long) aren’t included in the film. I’m sure I saw at least a couple of them in the cinema showing.

Its not horrible but its not great either, i feel the alien franchise needs a reboot if it will survive, these over complicated messy movies need too get back too basics and maybe win back the bored viewers

Now completed my Alien bluray collection. Great movie, good quality with some good extras

I was very impressed with the product thanks