'Alien: Covenant' Movie Review

Hello, fellow moviegoers!
   Alien: Covenant is directed by Ridley Scott, and it stars Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterson, Billy  Crudup, and Danny McBride. It is the latest film in the Alien franchise, and it acts as a sequel to 2012's Prometheus, which itself was a prequel to 1979's Alien. So Covenant is a sort-of sequel to a prequel, while also being a prequel itself. It makes a lot more sense in the movie, I promise. Prometheus was met with a less than stellar response from a lot of people, including me. So how is Alien: Covenant?

   Ridley Scott did something with Alien: Covenant that could either be really good or really bad depending on who you ask. He listened to the fans and their reactions to Prometheus. Thankfully, that helped a lot with this film, as Alien: Covenant is leagues better than Prometheus. Alien: Covenant takes a lot of what has made this franchise work in the past and utilizes it quite well. It takes inspiration from 1979's Alien in terms of suspense building, but it also felt heavily influenced by 1986's Aliens. While Covenant isn't as either of those, it certainly tries to be and comes pretty close at times. 
   The biggest surprise in this film, to me, was how much it was connected to Prometheus. Alien: Covenant will definitely be pretty confusing if you haven't seen Prometheus. It carries on several of the themes and plotlines from the 2012 film, except Covenant handles them much better than its predecessor. Michael Fassbender's character of David was the best part of Prometheus, and he reprises that character in this film. It was great to see him again. David is an extremely interesting and complex character, and Fassbender plays him brilliantly. Similarly to Prometheus, David very quickly became the most interesting part of this film. He brought entirely new aspect and perspective to the franchise, and it was one that was very welcome.  
   As I mentioned earlier, this film takes inspiration from both Alien and Aliens. That is most evident in the way it handles suspense. They delve into the alien pathogen in this film in ways that we haven't seen before. We see different versions of the Xenomorph, and we learn why they're so different. The audience has no idea how or what is going to happen, and because of that, we get the fear of the unknown that was so evident in Alien. However, as you see in the trailers, the classic Xenomorph is in this movie as well, and once it's there, Alien: Covenant is absolutely terrifying. That's where the dread of what you know is out there comes into play, a feeling reminiscent of that from Aliens. Covenant takes these two kinds of fear and makes them work together seamlessly. It uses them as complements to one another, and the overall tension of the film thrives because of it.
   One thing that was very apparent in this film, was how much this franchise thrives with modern effects, or more accurately how much the aliens thrive with modern effects. They were able to do things with the aliens in Alien: Covenant that we haven't seen before. Also, due to the technology available now, Alien: Covenant was much more violent than some of the past entries in the franchise. However, it uses the violence to show the audience what the aliens are capable of.  It's never violence for violence's sake. The brutality really adds to the gravity of the situation that these characters are in. Nonetheless, that doesn't negate the fact that at times this film walks the fine line between violent and gory. So, just be aware of that before walking into this one.
   Alien: Covenant isn't perfect though. There are a couple points where the pacing was a bit off and the film really seemed to slow down unnecessarily. However, those points don't last very long, and the film moves on pretty quick. The biggest flaw in this film was that it falls victim to some franchise cliches, meaning it just repeats some of the same things we've seen in these films before. I won't spoil anything, but just know there are a couple moments like that.
   Overall, I thought that Alien: Covenant was an excellent addition to the Alien franchise. It's much better than its predecessor, Prometheus, though it does take the good things about that movie and run with them. This film seems to be a return to form for the Alien franchise, and it's a very welcome one. It builds great suspense by utilizing the methods that have worked so well in the past, and the film thrives because of it. Alien: Covenant is much more violent than the previous entries in the series, but that adds more tension to the overall experience. Alien: Covenant was a great entry in this already amazing series, and I can't wait to see what they do in the future.

8/10

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