by Charles Kirkland, Jr.
It’s Aliens vs. humans again in the new movie Alien: Covenant.
The Covenant is the name of a spaceship designed to carry people to light years away planet to colonize it. Halfway into the trip, a solar flare erupts and causes massive damage to the ship costing the lives of a number of colonists and the captain of the ship, Branson and awakening the crew from their hypersleep.
During the repair effort, a weird transmission is received from a nearby, uncharted planet. The planet appears to be viable for life and newly promoted captain Oram (Billy Crudup) decides to check it out despite the objections of his second in command Daniels played by up and coming actress Katherine Waterston (Inherent Vice, Steve Jobs, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them).
A search party is formed to investigate the viability of the luscious paradise planet upon which they have stumbled. The search party almost immediately suffers a violent and deadly attack but survive mostly thanks to assistance from David the synthetic from the ship Prometheus which was lost for ten years. Quickly, the crew discovers all that glitters is not gold and finds themselves in a life or death struggle to escape this “paradise” world.
Alien: Covenant is the sixth movie in the Alien franchise, not counting the two Alien v Predator anomalies that occurred in 2004 and 2007. Superstar director Ridley Scott is back for his third Alien movie counting the original and Prometheus. Covenant is a sequel to Prometheus and allows Michael Fassbender to play the role of two synthetics, David from the Prometheus and Walter from the Covenant crew. Similar to the Star Wars franchise, this movie is the second in a trilogy that is a prequel to the original Alien film.
Much like the original and Prometheus, this Alien movie returns to its roots of having the female heroine and its social commentary on the meaning and origin of life.
It is full of the all-too-familiar bloody sequences and horror that fans of these film are used to and love. For fans of the original, you will love this movie. It focuses on the ensemble over the one, suspense over action and substance over style. Ridley Scott succeeds with this one.
Grade: B