Now that my kids are starting to grow up we are sharing certain hobbies and one of them is watching movies, my oldest son is starting to like horror movies specially sci fi ones, he still not into TV Series like I'm but recently he started watching all the Alien movies from the very first one and yesterday after work, he told me how much he didn't like Covenant, he is turning to be a heavy critic, no slack, he is young and energetic so I guess he is very passionate about things. Its because of this that I decided to watch Covenant since its been a few years after I watch it for the first time.
Ridley Scott return to the Alien franchise with Alien: Covenant after one of my favorites Alien movies Prometheus, Covenant left me with mixed feelings, sitting somewhere between appreciation and confusion, I wouldn't call it a waste of time or not worth watching but I have to agree its not the best movie on the franchise, for me the OG Alien movie from 1979 to be the best from the franchise. Covenant had a hard task to achieve, it tries to bridge the gap between Prometheus and the original Alien which might explain why it feels like two different movies squeezed into one or even Prometheus direct sequel, or worst an upgrade to Prometheus just like recently the latest Gladiatormovie was to the original.
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The movie starts with a pretty intense opening showing David an android played by Michael Fassbender, having a deep conversation with Peter Weyland about creation and existence, Peter was basically testing how David sees creation, after all Peter is putting a lot of trust in David's program to take control of the entire mission while everyone other human is out cold traveling through space. Then we jump into the main story where the colony ship Covenant runs into trouble during its journey, forcing the crew to wake up early from their sleep pods. After picking up a mysterious transmission they decide to check out an uncharted planet that looks perfect for colonization and that's when everything starts going wrong, rules same as traveling plans are to be follow and comply, specially one as complicated but they were also low on power due to recent damage to the ship from a what look like some kind of neutrino shock wave forcing them to take this drastic decision.
The story develops around the Covenant crew as they explore this new world, which turns out to be the same planet where David, the synthetic from Prometheus movie, ended up after taking the Prometheus ship with, it was the Engineer's ship but I remember him getting his head rip off, probably Elizabeth Shaw along with David's instructions found a way to reconstruct him. Things get messy real quick when some crew members get infected by alien spores, similar to how it happen when the Engineer drank the dark liquid, leading to some seriously gruesome scenes with new versions of the classic chest buster moments. The movie then takes an interesting turn when David shows up to rescue the survivors but his presence brings more questions than answers about what happened after Prometheus, see why Covenant felt very inconclusive even during the start of the movie.
SourceMichael Fassbender does such a great job almost stealing the show, playing both David and Walter, the newer android model aboard the Covenant, his dual performance is amazing especially during this weird but fascinating scene where David teaches Walter how to play the flute, it was such a wtf moment even for Walter. The way he manages to give each android its own personality while still been able to identify them each, almost like good and evil, although seem like David is the only having certain feelings of hate, in tech this is what we fear the most, the day that through some logic android or robots find a way to have "feelings" or rational decisions through their experiences. Katherine Waterston does a solid job as Daniels, bringing some strong Ripley vibes to her character without trying to copy Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Shaw in Prometheus, their roles are very similar so is the story of both movies. Danny McBride surprised as Tennessee, shows he can handle serious roles just as well as his usual comedy stuff, specially when he was notified his wife is dead while he is still out of the planet, from that point it was all downstairs for the crew. The rest of the support cast does great work, but honestly most of them are just there to become alien food, which is kind of a waste since we never really get to know them before they die, there is not that character development so how can we base the movie basically on a few characters with an entire crew through to waste??.
In my opinion, I don't think it's better than Prometheus but still not reaching the heights of the original Alien movie, on Prometheus there were at least new characters introduce to the core story and the theory of trying to find out who created humans with the crew stumbling into the Engineers, while Covenant almost does the same thing but then stumble into David the survivor of Prometheus, yes WTF!!!. What I did like is that on Covenant, Xenomorphs have more presence but still not as I expected, I was hoping there was a bunch of them waiting somewhere in the planet. The visuals are awesome just as in Prometheus and Covenant felt as dark and moody so I don't see and advantage over each other which makes sense since Ridley Scott knows how to make a beautiful looking dark sci fi movies.
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After both Prometheus and Covenant I doubt there will be a movie that follows this two, mainly because of how Covenant turn out to be disappointing for many and to be honest its too messy already so I would not like a third movie. Yes the ending has a twist that might keep the door open for future movies but the most recent movie throw the story way back and just feels better until we can forget any of this two movies ever happen. The ending is confusing when it comes to identify who was the real android, was it Walter or David? but that question gets answered, David successfully fooled everyone after defeating the real Walter in their earlier confrontation. Daniels realizes this horrible truth, it's already too late, she's being put into cryosleep, completely helpless as David stands over her with a sinister smile. David's final act of placing two alien embryos among the colonist embryos shows his ultimate plan coming together. He's not just trying to create the perfect organism anymore; he is setting up a controlled experiment with over 2000 potential hosts in suspended animation. The fact that David wins by exploiting the human tendency to trust and hope, makes this ending particularly dark, it also connects to what I mention before about androids finding their way into having feelings and rational thoughts, the moment Peter talk to David about creation and now he is falling into this twisted idea when he took Aliens into the ship trying to create more monsters instead of humans, David turns against his creator.
Over all I got to say the movie is entertaining, in fact if you have not seen Prometheus I think you would enjoy more Covenant and then go and watch Prometheus, rather than the original sequence, that way the plot holes wont be so evident and you would have to connect the dots. The movie is beautiful and ark, has a lot of imagination and interesting sci fi scenes but its so inconclusive as you watch it that makes it feel like its just an advertisement before the real movie comes in. Probably one of my least favorite movies from the franchise as I'm an Alien fan, I have to give Covenant a 7/10 just because its entertaining and there are Xenomorphs in the movie but its not impressive and failed at been a sequel of Prometheus.
