Paradise Lost?

In viewing a variety of may different filmic franchises that have come and graced the silver screen, one of the most worrisome aspects for cinematic series to oversee is the continuity and fluidity of the context. As much as the directors that come into these popular franchises do differentiate from the main plot that is established, by diverging into spin-offs or prequels that intricately citate minute details from the main story-line, it’s not hard to observe how there are many acclaimed serials that willingly strafe from being engaging. From the overblown vampiric/lycan story of the Underworld  series of films to the unoriginal Die Hard action features, it’s easy to perceive just how much engrossed franchises can easily lose their intrigue. In many ways, this can also be said of the Alien franchise. While it can’t be diminished that Alien and Aliens stand as influential films in a genre that demands creativity and originality, the later films of Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection very much take precedent in construing what said franchise was originally all about; which is why so many love and hate these set of sci-fi films. Despite this love-and-hate relationship however, Scott’s return to the ‘Alien’ series with his film of Prometheus opened-up a mythology that was playful to the eye and left those who liked the film, wanting more. This wonderment of the ‘Alien’ mythos, in turn, now brings us Alien: Covenant, a follow-up from Scott’s Prometheus that delves deeper into unanswered questions of the last film but utilises a familiar structure that is painfully recognisable…

Set 10 years after the events of Prometheus, Alien: Covenant centralises its story around the crew of the colony ship Covenant, which is bound for a remote planet, Origae-6, with two thousand colonists and a thousand embryos on-board. In making good progress for their final destination, the crew of the Covenant receive a possible distress call coming from an uncharted paradise to which they investigate. However, looks can be deceiving as the crew discover this world to be dangerous beyond belief which see’s them trying to escape a harrowing threat beyond their imagination…

As stated within the previous review look back at Ridley Scott’s original Alien, and to an extent with his other unappreciated film of Prometheus, one of the fundamental aspects that said sci-fi flick internally inhabited, through the people who worked on the feature, was its profound originality and how it fleshed out harrowing and eye-pleasing tropes and a unique sub-genre that many production studios and directors down the line would inevitably jump at in creating something vaguely similar. With its disturbing yet intriguing monochrome art-direction created by H.R Giger and how the structure of the story compliments the intricacies of the ‘alive’ visual backdrop of the constrained settings and the collective of the characters, it’s clear to notice just how innovative Scott wanted Alien to be at the time of its release. This, in turn, allowed other less ambitious sci-fi features to utilise the structure of Alien; from the eye-popping Japanese animation of Lily C.A.T. to Daniel Espinosa’s satisfactory filmic entry of Life. What a disappointment it was to see then how Scott, returning to this beloved franchise, utilising the exact same formulaic structure spawned from Alien into this convoluted structural mess of Alien: Covenant. As it openly suggests from the title, it’s evident going into this film that, at some point, you’re going to witness the Xenomorph in all its harrowing glory. However, with the film going from a 1st act where the set of superficial characters unknowingly respond to distress signal from an unknown planet, much like in the narrative of the original Alien, the plot of Covenant from there on didn’t warrant any thrill or surprise whatsoever. As soon as the crew of the Covenant were investigating the mysterious-remains of this planet by finding the source of the distress signal, you really get a feeling of where the narrative will go from the 2nd act to the finality of the story. The only real plot detail which vindicates this sense of wonderment is the eerie re-appearance of David from the previous film, which leads me to most discouraging aspect of this film. Being the Alien: Covenant is a direct sequel from Scott’s underappreciated film of Prometheus, which exemplified religious and awe-inspiring sub-texts that differentiated from the horror-bravado of the ‘Alien’ franchise and implemented a mythos that intrigued many people’s interest of this world going into this film, including myself, it would makes sense then to see Scott continue the folklore of the ‘Engineers’ and what Shaw and David, at the end of the last film, ultimately discover. Anticlimactically, being that this film comes across as something where Scott diverges from his directorial imagination and is swayed by what fans incoherently want, much of what was emphasised in Prometheus is predominantly side-swiped here. Instead of seeing Shaw and David finding those who ‘created’ them, we’re not only greeted with a bunch of one-dimensional and un-relatable characters who, coincidentally, stumble upon the existence of David who himself abruptly appears from a dire-situation, but we perceive generic tropes and story-telling that is pathetically lacklustre. The very fact that we don’t see the continuation of Shaw and David’s expedition into finding the Engineers (which is in fact shown in a promotional prologue trailer instead), is profoundly confusing; being that this was one of the positives from Prometheus. The very fact that you have to go on YouTube to see what happened to Shaw and David when they finally found the Engineers, is really a disservice to Noomi Rapace’s acting expertise since she only appears in minute seconds of that clip and not in any of the 122 minutes of Covenant. This, was the film that many audience members wanted to see; not a film that simply re-uses familiar ideas that inadvertently stagnate the progression of the story. 

In similar vain to how foreseeable and uneventful the structure of the narrative is presented, the characters themselves are very superficial and gestalts Alien: Covenant in being overly bland and hinders the awe-inspiring sub-texts that originated in the previous film. Apart from knowing few of the crew members names, from seeing their tags on the stasis chambers, it’s clear right from the moment in which all the crew members converse with each other that not one-single individual emits a distinctive personality trait. Before even everything inevitably goes astray and chaotic, there’s no substance between themselves and the dialogue that is utilised from the script is either forced, with them focusing too heavily on the predicament of the situation they’re, or unnatural when they speak with each other. With this in place, it’s hard for audience members to relate to their ideals and the mission that they’re doing which, in turn, leads to the consequence of them not being established due to the nature of the plot focusing on horrifically supernatural set-pieces later on. The only real character who is warranted time to change throughout the course of the film is Katherine Waterson’s enactment as Daniels who is equally hard to relate to; considering her overall mood throughout the course of the run-time is moderately sombre. Whilst the film, disappointingly, lacks a good cast of human characters that aren’t as relatable or as engaging as the characters from Alien, the silver-lining to all the performances and the entirety of Alien: Covenant is Michael Fassbender’s slick-dual performances as the android pair of David and Walter. As he intricately exemplified within the contextual confines of Prometheus, Fassbender’s duality performance steals the film by perfectly assimilating one of the more over-looked motifs of the previous film and Alien – artificial intelligence and the complicated nature of androids expressing human emotion. Even though the film doesn’t delve into the specific nature of this commonly used ‘technophobia’ theme of singularity as much as it should in comparison to other features like Ghost in the Shell or Blade Runner, it’s interesting and engaging non-the-less to see within Alien: Covenant  how Fassbender slickly acts out two androids in David and Walter who are completely different from another; with Walter programmed to have his emotional capabilities restricted and David being the completely opposite. From the opening sequence of David interacting with his creator of Weyland by quoting lines from John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’, to the 2nd act of the film where we see David engaging with Walter and telling him to abandon his existence for a ‘greater purpose’, these are the scenes that audiences, who appreciated Prometheus for what that was film was trying to convey, wanted to see as and we delve even deeper into the frightening recesses of David’s mind and his conception of ‘creation’ and ‘love’. In this being said, it’s rather ironic how much emotion is mentally poured into these artificial creations, rather than the human characters who fall into the needless poor story-telling trap of making decisions and actions that are profoundly unintelligent.

One of the biggest draws that general audiences will want to get out of Scott’s Alien: Covenant, despite it being familiar and off-putting to a select few, is the horror-side of things and the return of the classic Xenomorph alien. With it being featured heavily on many of the promotional posters and theatrical trailers, it’s clear to see that Scott is attempting to tie Covenant in relation to Alien by featuring not only the Xenomorph in a direct manner, but also showcasing a new deadly alien breed in the form of the Neomorph. As subtly different as the Neomorph looks in comparison to the much recognised Xenomorph, in relation to its light skin-tone and feeble size, the downside of seeing these intimidating blood-curdling beasts on screen, is the insufficient use of CG and how little practicality is used. It certainly says a lot when the effects implemented in Alien, back in 1979, look more potent and realistic than the computer-generated effects that made up some of the backdrop of the planet and the Xenomorph itself.   

Although many audiences and fans alike out-rightly dismissed Prometheus due to the fact it didn’t feature terrifying aliens of the sought, it was a sci-fi feature that illustrated originality and mysticism through the interesting themes and motifs that were explored through the characters personal curiosities. This, sadly, didn’t carry over into Scott’s sequel of Alien: Covenant which completely dismisses the whimsical grandeur of the previous film and, instead, paves the way for a familiarised structure that is undeniably clichéd and features characters that feel peripheral and ‘robotic’ in comparison to the androids of Walter and David who both bring about a sense of engagement and follow through on the unanswered questions that were left behind in the conclusion of the last entry. The very fact that we don’t get to see Elizabeth Shaw as well, from the last film, in any scene of this film whatsoever is excruciatingly damning. While it may not be as painfully bad as other related titles in the forms of Alien 3 or Alien: Resurrection, much of what people were expecting of Alien: Covenant, to be an intriguing continuation of the last film, is truly moot. In the end, it’s actually quite sad how many, including myself, hope to see a directors cut of this film that commends the antics of the previous feature and doesn’t linger on cheap horrific aspects that many people have already seen by now.

On that note, it’s time for me to end this week’s review. As always everyone, thank you for reading my latest film review of Alien: Covenant and I hope you’ve all enjoyed the read!! 😉👽 If anyone has an opinion on either my review or on the film itself, feel free to drop a comment down below. Next week, I’ll bring you a review of Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire, a film that I’ve been meaning to analyse for some time now! 😐…Once again, thank you to everyone for reading this week’s Blog Post, and I’ll see you all next week!! Have a nice weekend!! Adieu!! 😁😎✌

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ – Alex Rabbitte