Review Alien: Covenant film review by cuponator3000

Alien: Covenant Movie

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I am just back from the movie! Saw the first showing that was possible in Henderson, NV! So this is basically just an initial reaction post. I LOVED it. I had a fear that it may have turned out to be be only a sort of good movie, but boy oh boy it blew that thought away!!!! I am actually going to format this as our fearless leader (Chris) did in his review. 

The Score

Unfortunately, it is a little bit disappointing to me. Now I LOVE the original Alien score by Jerry Goldsmith. Love love love love it. I just didn't really like the full on use of sections from it in Covenant. I am going to see it a couple more times this weekend and will recieve the soundtrack on release day (23rd I think), so I'll see how that changes my opinon. Especially when I watch the movie again. I was a little too wrapped up in the story to totally pay attention to the music. Except when I heard the sections from Alien. That almost took me out of the experience. 

The Characters

Really liked this aspect of the film. I think the first act was done really well and the characters are proof. They avoided the Prometheus mistake. For me, the biggest problem is that we did not have a chance to really meet anyone in that movie. I mean, we met some soon-to-be underdeveloped characetrs in Shaw, Charlie, and Vickers (after meeting wonderful David), but everyone else...did not matter. Prometheus decides to not build up the characters as Alien did, letting us see them eat and talk as a group and what not, and just hopped into action. The Covenant crew was only 15 people, which seems to be less than Prometheus, which made the intro easier. The decision to wake them up early gave time in the story to acquaint us, it was great. The writing was also more interesting. Best of all, I liked the performance from everyone, really. McBride made me one of the people on this Earth to be pleasantly surprised by his performance. He made some funnies, but it wasn't forced. Great character. FASSBENDER. He definitely kept up the great work in the sequel. I didn't mind Walter's voice as some did (issues with the accent) and he was great. I find it funny how a person can make the role of a mostly emotionless robot so interesting. I also had a fear of Fassbender playing opposite himself would turn out corny, but no, it was pretty great. David is pretty fully unhinged too, a very emotional being now. Which is realy fascinating. 

The Plot

I found it to be enjoyable. Not as wide a scope as Prometheus, but still good. At one point I started to think that the plot would really focus heavily on David and the Engineers, and everything that was started in Prometheus due to the trailers showing every monster in the friggin movie. Nope. Guess not. It was pretty self contained. That isn't to say that it doesn't have a lot outstanding concepts, themes, and big questions running through the fabric of it all, it was just way more Alien than Prometheus (much more than I figured.) Overall, I would still say successful.

Visual Appeal

Beautiful. Absolutley beautiful. I found Prometheus and Alien (although different stylisticly) to be two of the most beautiful films that  I have ever seen. This film continued that tradition. My friend pointed out the color pallete (same from Prometheus, really) was outstanding. Cinematography was also outstanding again (same fellow who shot Prometheus I believe). It was really nice seeing the action take place on this planet. I didn't want to see another tight-ass spaceship or another barren desert, so this was great. 

The Beasties

Scary. Basically all of the creatures were very frightening and violent. The only thing is that it took a little while to get used to the CGI. The backburster scene didn't look great and the Neomorphs were meh at first. As they grew, I was more okay with the CGI though. Cool creatures for sure. The facehugger looked great as usual. The bursters were....a mixed bag. I thought the actual burstings were all cool. Through the chest, back, and throat/mouth. The mouth one was messed up, holy moly. Very frightening. The other issues being that the bursters were mostly just miniature versions of themselves. Not a terrible way to go, but not great either. The neomoprh burster was ferocious and made me uncomfortable as it ripped a woman up, but looked weird. And although it was kind of cool (I think I will like it more and more as time goes on), the miniburster was whack. I mean, the xenomorph came out literally a miniature version of itself. WHAT. HOW. WHY. And the fact that David seems to have created them afterall, makes the fallen juggernaught on LV_426 seem...a plothole in this reworked canon? To be fair, one of the coolest shots in the film was the Xeno in the shower after it killed the couple. Still, that stung a little bit because we saw it in the damn trailer. Hopefully this Xenomorph turns out to actually be a protomorph (as we annointed it originally), because I didn't love how that was all done. As Chris and others have mentioned, the growth rate of the xeno was also reaaally quick. OH, but to end this section on a good note, it was freaky as hell to see the Xeno walking around upright in the area Daniels and Tennessee attempted to trap it in. It looked terible when they had the actor walk in the suit in Alien, but Covenant made it better. Hell yeah.

Pacing

It was good, the movie flowed well enough, but I am of the opinon that another 10-15 minutes would have shored things up. Chris hit it on the head actually. More of David about the engineers and more time to the Xenomorph growth. 

Dr. Elizabeth Shaw's Fate

Poor Shaw. I enjoyed her in Prometheus. The writing made her a clunky character, but the good parts still shone though and Rapace did well enough with it. Poor Shaw. She ended up as a play toy for Dvid. The prologue, "The Crossing," (which was very spoilery indeed) made it seem as if she was going to be treated better. Nope. I knew David didn't really have her buried in the Garden, but he just had her opened up on a table. I fell into the classic trap of letting what I wanted to happen, affect my movie going experience. For a few months I had been thinking that David and Shaw were possibly surviving and working together for something good or at least Shaw was a hideous/awesome creature. Nope. Hopefully the coming prequel/sequel book o film sequel makes good on her character. 

In Conclusion

An intersting movie added to an interesting franchise. I think that Ridley Scott and the whole team did a great job. They presented something that was a cross between prometheus, Alien, and it's own new style that came out as a wonderful experience. It was a little narrow in scope, suffered from meh CGI experiences, and could have been longer. More importantly, it expanded on the fascinating character of David, looked great, brought back some great acting/characters into the universe, and is another step in the Alien evolution.