Alien Covenant (2017)

I couldn't help but feel disjointed while watching Alien Covenant. The film manages to be two things at once, and I enjoyed both those things, but I'm not sure I felt the two things were integrated well enough into a whole that worked cohesively. The film is both 2001 inspired existential exploration (along the lines of its predecessor Prometheus) and straight up monster movie.   While I enjoyed both of the tracks it was on, they never quite come together and I felt that perhaps both lost something in the effort to do both simultaneously.

First, the monster movie. For those who were upset that Prometheus wasn't more gory Alien Covenant delivers. The film takes a bit to get there but once the monsters come, they come and it's bloody. While this is all well and good for me monsters are the scariest when we don't see them that well, when the shadows conceal the horrors just enough that our imaginations fill in the gaps far worse than anything we can actually see. Alien Covenant goes the other direction. They just show us the monsters and show them attacking. It even gets a bit cliche (there is a shower sex scene that is interrupted by an attacking monster which felt like it was right out of a B-movie). The film gives good scare but feels a bit generic. "You wanted monsters, you get monsters" seems the be the approach.

Compare that to the atmospheric original Alien which gave us just enough of the alien to be scared and disgusted but left us terrifyingly blind to its approach. Sometimes CGI can take away from the fear. Most of the time when they showed us the emerging aliens they looked like special effects which naturally takes you out of the film. This doesn't mean the action scenes were tense. There are some great moments here. But they are somewhat problematic.

Then there is the continuation of the themes began in Prometheus, the questions of who are we and why are we? This is what I am most interested in. Where Prometheus left us with questions, Covenant feels like its trying to provide answers. Sometimes this feels quite heavy handed. Perhaps I am more interested in the questions than the answers. It almost felt like a check list was being worked through as Fassbender's characters were making sure the audience understood everything. I know that for many films that don't spell out what's going on can be frustrating but there are some of us who like to have room to speculate, ruminate, and wonder. Covenant tells us a lot about the nature of these beasts we have been running from since the 70s. I will admit some of those answers are pretty cool. There is a revelation near the end which surprised me and excited me. Scott's ideas about creation are interesting and are a great jumping off point for further reflection.

For the real triumph here is Michael Fassbender. I enjoy him in almost anything but the work he's doing here as two different characters and the way he brings them and the whole movie's ruminations to life is remarkable to watch. This is certainly another notch on his belt. 

The movie has a great ending. It's not the kind of ending which has audiences cheering or emotional. it's more of a kick you in the gut ending. It also makes me very eager to see what happens next. There is still a way to go to get us to the place where Ripley and her crew stumble across the field of eggs and I'm very curious to see it get there, even if this part of the journey was a bit bumpy.

Alien Covenant
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterson, Billy Brudup, Danny McBride, Damian Bichir, Carmen Ejogo
Director: Ridley Scott
Writers: John Logan, Dante Harper