Alien:Covenant

Since the original director is leading this prequel franchise of Alien, you're going to witness a uniform theme maintained through its lifetime, which is an extremely positive thing! Title text reveal style, eerie music, Dariusz Wolski's famous cinematography and posh settings adhere to the tone, mood & colour of the film.

Sooner or later, as the motion picture starts and expands, we'd come to the realization that the prequel series is actually peeling deeper than one initially thought it would, to reach the core of Xenomorph's roots, by fleshing out the founder - David (Michael Fassbender). Both here and in Prometheus, it is his story that we are learning, camouflaged within a spaceship expedition crew's:

Most of these dots are required to be connected by the audiences themselves. And when they do it under interpretations using presented information, it will all make sense. This is brilliant storytelling. Movie-goers shouldn't be spoon-fed. Coming back to the actual crew part of the storyline, Jake (James Franco) is gone too soon before having done anything at all in the feature! But, Katherine Waterston's performance is touching and one could genuinely feel for her loss of husband. Touch of humanity is widely present. Characterization wise, Billy Crudup as Captain Oram has the strongest. He has this inferiority complex concerning whether the members would actually follow his instructions or not. However, there should have been a clear statement given by him prohibiting burial of any sorts before jumping to the conclusion that his team has disobeyed direct orders.

The decision to alter an initial plan is 90% convincing. Points from both sides of the arguments are strong. Although the captain doesn’t have all data as he claims to, his point is heard. The crew doesn't want to return to the pods, fearing an accident like previous. But to abandon years of preparations, trainings and studies in pursuit of a rogue transmission is also downright silly. However, the clash of opinions are well shown. Does this remind anyone of Ash and Ripley from the first Alien? Anyways, as a result, the investigation mission is acceptable. Terraformers' traits are constantly alive as they scour around the planet. The reliability of technology is constantly established, which makes its judgment on environment and surroundings trustable. Forest premise is fresh for an Alien film. Can't help it, but does this remind anyone of the original Predator that released in 1987? Okay, moving on.

The best sequence in the entire show is the first Alien attack! Crew members falling sick snowballing to a fire outrage at Lander is insanely intense! The fear is felt! The panic breathes under your neck! Goosebumps crawl all over your skin! David teaching Walter (Michael Fassbender) to play the flute and attempting to brainwash the latter while revealing expositions are fantastic segment of scenes! The way he distinguishes in playing two androids is simply astounding!

There are points in this plot that are unconvincing, even witless. Jake burning inside the cryo-chamber and Karine (Carmen Ejogo) hugging an infected security system officer who's disintegrating are examples. Story hubs which are meant to be unbosomed, happened too patently, like the discovery of Elizabeth Shaw's nametag. The unforeseen energy surge that damages the ship and signal interruption the crew receives are a tad quick & abrupt albeit being clear set-up and call to action. Speaking of set-up, that's the common problem between Covenant & Prometheus. Immediate and short!

Why aren't the Covenant unit surprised to see another Walter in a deserted planet? Flying around rope for stunts simply is outdated and fake. During the Third Act, the group simply goes distorted, wandering about. Even Walter go missing for a portion. The final Xenomorph attack inside the ship is totally unneeded! It doesn't provide any meaning to the movie's proceeding. There are only two possible reasons this sequence was included. One, maybe the studio or makers complained that there aren't enough actions. Two, for sure, this is an attempt to mask the twist that Walter onboard is in real, David. This twist is as old as hills and we saw it coming from the other galaxy away.

Let's talk about the computer graphics, which is a burdened disappointment for a new instalment of Alien that comes out in the year 2017. We see the forerunners of Xenomorphs, such as the Neomorphs and Protomorphs or even the Chest-Burster and Face-Hugger. But, renditions for these beloved creatures are so cartoony! It leads to underwhelming the impact of their presence! Nothing scares anymore. Nothing is realistic anymore. Where are the practical effects? This is really unexpected coming from Ridley Scott! Only the final attack at climax we see a decent looking computer work in close-up. Man inside astronaut suits are obvious CGI too, by the way. On the other hand, alien spores inhabiting the insides of ear wall, energy recharge sails, medic fixing acidized face, cryo-sleep technology and crew repairing ship are exceptional!

As the film ends, we are shed with more light on David. Still, the questions raised in Prometheus haven't been answered yet. We could only seriously hope for more reveal in the upcoming instalments. Also, Elizabeth Shaw was an integral character who wanted to meet her makers. Her death feels wasted and unjustified. The least Ridley Scott could have done was visual explanation on how she's murdered rather than just sentences to tell so. It is about paying the right homage for the persona. We also pray that the things she went through before death will be brought out of darkness in future writings.