Film Review for "Alien: Covenant"

It has been seven years since Ridley Scott conjured up a nightmarish worst-case scenario of life that could be awaiting us out there in space. The last film, Prometheus, gave us the origin of the Alien franchise; now, in Alien: Covenant, currently playing in theaters, audiences get a pleasant and enjoyable return to the beloved franchise with hard R-rated horror, ferocious acid-dripping creatures, and a tough female lead.

In an effort to please Alien fans, Scott returns to the franchise and delivers a decent, but enjoyable film with gory death sequences as the crew gets terrorized by these creatures. After so many films though, there isn’t much that will surprise the audience, especially when it comes to how these creatures reproduce (whether it’s by microscopic spores or the always enjoyable disgusting face-hugging). It’s frustrating, watching these characters not understand the rules of the genre: humans never come back from an encounter like this, and once you come into contact with the virus, you are done. 

The best part of Alien: Covenant was Michael Fassbender’s dual role as the identical (but differently wired) robots Walter and David, whose amazing poker-faced performance will keep you guessing just where their loyalties lie. One becomes the main villain of the film, while the other is the film’s tragic hero. Ones seems like they might be capable of love and the other believes that "creation" comes at the price of the lose of infinite life. Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them) is fantastic as the film's female protagonist, and it’s amazing to watch her transition to a full on badass as the movie progresses.   

In terms of production value, not a lot of directors have what it takes to do what Scott can. Alien: Covenant is as good as any blockbuster, but it’s ever-changing, stunning interstellar scenery with perfectly placed character moments make for an entertaining movie. And the alien creatures are always scary––that's one thing that never changes with these films. 

And as Scott proved in his 2014 epic Exodus: Gods and Kings, he has no problem using a single CGI sequence to obliterate an entire population. Alien: Covenant continues the storyline that starts in Prometheus and delivers the same gory, scare-filled entertainment that audiences love from these films.  

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