Alien: CovenantThe act of creation balances a delicate line of selflessness and selfishness, and woe befall the creator who is ignorant of his legacy. Alien: Covenant is a science fiction horror film in the Alien series, and a direct sequel to Ridley Scott's Prometheus, who returns to direct this film. It is the story of an ark sent into space to colonize the distant planet of Origae-6, carrying approximately two thousand humans--many of which are already couples--and a thousand human embryos. A rogue signal draws the crew to a different world en route--it is one which is verdant yet deathly quiet, eerily without native life. When a sudden and violent attack by a pack of neomorphs--precursors to the eponymous aliens of the series--coincides with a dangerous storm, the landing crew of the "Covenant" is stranded on a proverbial paradise lost.
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As a direct sequel to Prometheus, Alien: Covenant carries not just the tone of its predecessor, but also the story of the ill-fated science vessel presumed lost ten years earlier. Alien: Covenant opens with a seemingly anachronistic--but crucial--scene, featuring the synthetic lifeform that catalyzed events in Prometheus--an abundantly intelligent being called David (Michael Fassbender). Set at presumably the equivalent moment of his "birth", this scene depicts him being given commands by his creator--a younger Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce)--as though he were a slave. Their conversation feels less like one between a father and son; as David reveals his sentience and capacity for abstract thought--they carry on a philosophical discussion to a point--it shares more in common with the kind of guarded dialogue between two rivals. The scene is set in a stark chamber reminiscent of the final scenes in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey--albeit one with a beautiful view of nature--and David looks like a life-sized doll in this atmosphere. Even though David is a newly realized being, he has been so perfectly crafted by the flawed genius Weyland, that he quickly begins the process of questioning not only his place in the universe, but humanity's as well. Weyland's response is essentially to shut him up with commands, the creator startled at this spark of evolution he has wrought, and he becomes desperate to contain it; David's parentage is one born out of fear, not love. This is fundamentally the same conflict of the progenitor race of aliens--dubbed "engineers"--that created humanity thousands of years ago, and ultimately drove Weyland to take the "Prometheus" into space--an act to "meet his creator". This existential crisis at the root of Prometheus is further explored in Alien: Covenant through David, who was rebuilt after being nearly destroyed at the conclusion of the prior film by the elusive Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace), whose fate has been heretofore unknown.
David is encountered by the stranded crew of the "Covenant", who set down in a shuttle craft to explore the planet where Shaw and David ultimately crash landed. The crew includes Daniels "Dany" Branson (Katherine Waterston), second-in-command to recently succeeding captain, Christopher Oram (Billy Crudup), after the first captain (and Dany's husband), Jacob "Jake" Branson (James Franco), died in a freak accident while emerging from cryosleep. Daniels is, to an extent, a parallel to Alien series protagonist, Ellen Ripley, embodying her pragmatic, survivalist spirit and even her appearance. Daniels is the first to express her detracting opinion about changing course to investigate the signal they learn originated from Dr. Shaw and the engineer's ship she hijacked to seek her creators' homeworld. Like Ripley before her, she has an instinctive sense that space is an unfriendly, lethal place, a fact she has only recently been reminded of too well following the random neutrino surge which resulted in dozens of deaths, a factor even the resident synthetic, Walter (also Michael Fassbender) observes could not have been predicted. In this, Daniels understands the mission of the "Covenant" better than Oram; while the "Prometheus" was a scientific vessel, their ship is (metaphorically speaking) a floating egg--delicate and easily broken if mishandled. After landing on the engineers' homeworld, and being subsequently saved by David, he takes them back to ominous, black ruins--a city made of stone and riddled with corpses which he aptly describes as a "necropolis", offering them shelter until they can hail an emergency evacuation from their mothership. And in that time--through his flashbacks and his conversations with his servient-by-design "brother", Walter--we discover how much David has changed...and how much about him we only now understand.
Alien: Covenant is a horror film, one which builds to achingly tense moments, luring the audience in with scenes that are deliberately paced to unnerve and unsettle virtually throughout the whole film. While Prometheus had moments of light-hearted humor to relieve the tension, Alien: Covenant treats its persistent dread like a metaphorical infection--like the lethal virus which literally plagues the crew of the ship...barely felt at first, but it grows in strength and fury as the film marches on. Much of the beginning portions of Alien: Covenant deal with the dangers of space travel itself more than the alien threat lurking in the dark reaches of that space--the audience might almost forget that this is an Alien movie in these early moments. The special effects of the space walks and other various future tech that the crew uses is breathtaking in its detail, a quality which makes Alien: Covenant truly immersive--like its predecessor--and in turn heightens the terror when the monsters that threaten the protagonists finally show up. There are many similar beats and tropes of the Alien series found in this bridge between Prometheus and the film that started it all, Alien. This includes Dany's capability of utilizing the industrial aspects of the ship to fight of her predator, to the immediate suggestion of quarantining the first visibly infected crew members. Similarly, David's existential struggle is reminiscent of the plight of the replicants from Ridley Scott's own Blade Runner; David even gets to utter a line at one point which is a direct send up to that film's complex antagonist, Roy Batty. Even more overt than Prometheus, Alien: Covenant draws inspiration in its conflict between the created and the creator from John Milton's epic poem, "Paradise Lost", which depicts the fall of Lucifer from Heaven and his war with God. It is a story which, for the purposes of drawing a comparison with David, is one of rebellion and liberation, of reaching for the forbidden fruit of knowledge and trying one's hand at dominion out of pride--convinced that one can succeed where one's progenitor could not. David's attitude of almost whimsical curiosity in Prometheus has been replaced by a kind of distant superiority, an inscrutable ambivalence--as if he were emulating his interpretation of an unknowable creator figure. Furthermore, as Alien: Covenant progresses, David's personality shares more commonalities with those of Weyland--or even the surviving engineer from Prometheus in part. This suggests much about what traits a creator passes on to his progeny, intended or otherwise, as well as the rippling effect of both good and bad "parenting". The grisly menagerie depicting the evolution of the neomorphs--evolved into the iconic xenomorphs by the conclusion--echoes classic stories of amoral creation run amok like "Frankenstein", or more specifically, "The Island of Doctor Moreau". And while Prometheus tackled the lofty premise of confronting one's own creator, Alien: Covenant turns these tables and confronts the audience with our own responsibilities as creators, and the dangers that come with showing disrespect to our "children", lest our legacy be nothing but dust and despair.
Recommended for: Fans of the Alien series (and Prometheus), as well as those who crave a thought-provoking, metaphor-driven meditation on the arrogance of creation without purpose or morality--or worse, driven by selfish pride. Alien: Covenant successfully combines the best elements of Prometheus and Alien, creating a wholly original creation, a hybrid "lifeform" not unlike the xenomorphs depicted in the film.
David is encountered by the stranded crew of the "Covenant", who set down in a shuttle craft to explore the planet where Shaw and David ultimately crash landed. The crew includes Daniels "Dany" Branson (Katherine Waterston), second-in-command to recently succeeding captain, Christopher Oram (Billy Crudup), after the first captain (and Dany's husband), Jacob "Jake" Branson (James Franco), died in a freak accident while emerging from cryosleep. Daniels is, to an extent, a parallel to Alien series protagonist, Ellen Ripley, embodying her pragmatic, survivalist spirit and even her appearance. Daniels is the first to express her detracting opinion about changing course to investigate the signal they learn originated from Dr. Shaw and the engineer's ship she hijacked to seek her creators' homeworld. Like Ripley before her, she has an instinctive sense that space is an unfriendly, lethal place, a fact she has only recently been reminded of too well following the random neutrino surge which resulted in dozens of deaths, a factor even the resident synthetic, Walter (also Michael Fassbender) observes could not have been predicted. In this, Daniels understands the mission of the "Covenant" better than Oram; while the "Prometheus" was a scientific vessel, their ship is (metaphorically speaking) a floating egg--delicate and easily broken if mishandled. After landing on the engineers' homeworld, and being subsequently saved by David, he takes them back to ominous, black ruins--a city made of stone and riddled with corpses which he aptly describes as a "necropolis", offering them shelter until they can hail an emergency evacuation from their mothership. And in that time--through his flashbacks and his conversations with his servient-by-design "brother", Walter--we discover how much David has changed...and how much about him we only now understand.
Alien: Covenant is a horror film, one which builds to achingly tense moments, luring the audience in with scenes that are deliberately paced to unnerve and unsettle virtually throughout the whole film. While Prometheus had moments of light-hearted humor to relieve the tension, Alien: Covenant treats its persistent dread like a metaphorical infection--like the lethal virus which literally plagues the crew of the ship...barely felt at first, but it grows in strength and fury as the film marches on. Much of the beginning portions of Alien: Covenant deal with the dangers of space travel itself more than the alien threat lurking in the dark reaches of that space--the audience might almost forget that this is an Alien movie in these early moments. The special effects of the space walks and other various future tech that the crew uses is breathtaking in its detail, a quality which makes Alien: Covenant truly immersive--like its predecessor--and in turn heightens the terror when the monsters that threaten the protagonists finally show up. There are many similar beats and tropes of the Alien series found in this bridge between Prometheus and the film that started it all, Alien. This includes Dany's capability of utilizing the industrial aspects of the ship to fight of her predator, to the immediate suggestion of quarantining the first visibly infected crew members. Similarly, David's existential struggle is reminiscent of the plight of the replicants from Ridley Scott's own Blade Runner; David even gets to utter a line at one point which is a direct send up to that film's complex antagonist, Roy Batty. Even more overt than Prometheus, Alien: Covenant draws inspiration in its conflict between the created and the creator from John Milton's epic poem, "Paradise Lost", which depicts the fall of Lucifer from Heaven and his war with God. It is a story which, for the purposes of drawing a comparison with David, is one of rebellion and liberation, of reaching for the forbidden fruit of knowledge and trying one's hand at dominion out of pride--convinced that one can succeed where one's progenitor could not. David's attitude of almost whimsical curiosity in Prometheus has been replaced by a kind of distant superiority, an inscrutable ambivalence--as if he were emulating his interpretation of an unknowable creator figure. Furthermore, as Alien: Covenant progresses, David's personality shares more commonalities with those of Weyland--or even the surviving engineer from Prometheus in part. This suggests much about what traits a creator passes on to his progeny, intended or otherwise, as well as the rippling effect of both good and bad "parenting". The grisly menagerie depicting the evolution of the neomorphs--evolved into the iconic xenomorphs by the conclusion--echoes classic stories of amoral creation run amok like "Frankenstein", or more specifically, "The Island of Doctor Moreau". And while Prometheus tackled the lofty premise of confronting one's own creator, Alien: Covenant turns these tables and confronts the audience with our own responsibilities as creators, and the dangers that come with showing disrespect to our "children", lest our legacy be nothing but dust and despair.
Recommended for: Fans of the Alien series (and Prometheus), as well as those who crave a thought-provoking, metaphor-driven meditation on the arrogance of creation without purpose or morality--or worse, driven by selfish pride. Alien: Covenant successfully combines the best elements of Prometheus and Alien, creating a wholly original creation, a hybrid "lifeform" not unlike the xenomorphs depicted in the film.