Pardon me; I'm about to make a reference to a video game that very few people actually care about. If movie directors had FUT cards, at this point, Ridley Scott would have a gold IF upgrade card because - I'm telling you - the dude is in form. The man's on a roll, pretty much is what I'm trying to say.
Alien: Covenant is the latest entry into the Alien franchise and is directed by, like I mentioned earlier, Ridley Scott and stars Katherine Waterston, Michael Fassbender, Danny McBride, and Billy Crudup. However, this actually ties in more to the movie Prometheus than it does the original Alien, so it's moreso a sequel than a prequel, if you get what I mean.
I remember loving the original Alien movie when my dad popped the DVD in and made us watch it, and that movie scared the shit out of eleven-year-old me. I had some pretty vivid nightmares about that chestburster scene, but I loved it anyway. Ripley, to this day, remains as one of my favorite sci-fi heroines of all time, and I really enjoyed the video game Alien: Isolation. Admittedly, I have yet to watch the other movies in the series, but that didn't stop me from seeing this one.
To be honest, I'm glad I saw this one.
You could probably already tell from the opening paragraph that I really liked this movie, so let's cut the chatter and get right into it.
The basic premise behind Alien: Covenant is pretty straightforward; there's a ship, there's a crew, and bad things happen to them. This movie, however, does bring a lot of really fresh twists to it, which I'll get to (and try not to spoil) in a while. In the meantime, I'm gonna talk about what else I liked.
To start, this movie is absolutely breathtaking. The cinematography is jawdroppingly gorgeous and the wide, establishing shots are just as beautiful. Aesthetically, this movie is quite appealing. Everything looks so real and tangible and lived in, and you buy into the world unfolding around you as you watch the film.
Seriously, look at this.
Granted, this is a Ridley Scott movie so it's a bit of a given that the movie is gonna be beautiful, but I just really appreciate that the movie looks the way it does. It's amazing, I swear.
Another thing I thought this movie had really going for it was the acting, and there are a number of performances in the movie that I found to be just absolutely great. Everyone plays their respective roles pretty well, but the ones I really wanna commend are Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, and, of all people - of all people - Danny McBride.
I shit you not, Danny McBride was that good.
It seems outlandish to say, but Danny McBride actually did bring a lot to this movie. He brought a lot of humor and charm to an otherwise very bleak movie, yet, at the same time, brought all the heart and some amount of intensity when it needed to be there. It was awesome, and I loved it.
Katherine Waterston, I thought, was also great in the movie. She really just sells all the emotion that needed to be brought out in a scene without overdoing it. Moreover, she was a strong character and you really do see where she's coming from, and she's great to watch.
I've liked her in everything I've seen her in.
But, for me, the single best performance in this entire movie was Michael Fassbender. The dude kills it in this movie. He plays Walter, who's the Covenant's resident synthetic, and he's all firm and stoic and shit, but he's also pretty charming.
And he's also very handsome.
I can't really talk about his performance in detail, since doing that would jump straight into spoiler territory, so I'll leave it at that. He was excellent.
I mentioned earlier that the movie does put a new spin on the story of a crew getting wiped out by an alien, and I thought it was awesome. The movie really does have layers to it, and those layers sort-of elevate the movie above "monster movie" status. I got so hooked on those new twists that I had my fingers gripping my hair throughout the third act as more shit was going down. It was intense.
Like, really intense.
I really, really wanna talk about this one particular aspect they introduced to the movie that I thought was pretty damn amazing, but it's so spoiler-heavy that I really just can't. I might so a spoiler discussion post, but we'll see. What I will say about it is that it added a lot more depth to the narrative and really raised the stakes.
This movie is also really violent, too, very much in the vein of the first movie. People die brutally in this one, and there are a couple of deaths that, I'm sure, would scare the average person - I say that because, well...
I got scared.
Like, there was this one scene - well, you kinda see it in the trailer - that really made me cringe and almost cover my eyes as it unfolded in the theater. It was unsettling as hell, and that was what I came to see. So, props to the movie for that.
Something I feel like people are gonna really bitch about is that the characters all felt expendable, and I would like to respectfully disagree. I was probably more invested in these characters than other people might've been because I watched the prologue videos on YouTube (you can watch them here), but, even without people seeing the prologues, I think the characters are fleshed out well enough for you to care about what happens to them.
To add, the score was also really good. It was almost hypnotic, in some cases - felt very spacey, and, in some cases, it was also pretty eerie and creepy. I'm a sucker for space music, so that's definitely a plus, in my book.
I know it sounds like I'm giving this movie all the praise in the world (seeing as I loved it), but there are some flaws, for sure. For one, a lot of the characters make some really dumb calls. That's to be expected in these kinds of movies, and, with everything that happens, you kinda see where they're coming from, but that doesn't change the fact that they make dumb calls.
They're human, but still.
Another thing that I found odd about the movie was that, towards the end, the transition from scene to scene felt strange and almost choppy. It was almost as if they were in a bit of a rush to get to the end, but that's just me.
The parts leading up to the alien attack did feel as if they were a bit longer than they needed to be, which makes the movie, as a whole, feel a lot longer than two hours. It was really slow in the beginning, and kinda rushed towards the end.
For those minute flaws, though, I do definitely recommend seeing Alien: Covenant. It's beautiful, and beautifully gory, with some really good characters, and some great twists along the ride. For my money, I will say that Alien: Covenant is worth a Vader Thumbs-Up.
I'm apparently in the minority of people who just really loved this movie, but I don't care. That shit was awesome.
So, have you seen Alien: Covenant? Let me know what you thought about it by leaving a comment below. And, as always, this has been Rafa. Stay classy.
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