by Aubrey Sinclair
Movie Critic
The University Times
Ridley Scott returns to up the score on the promise of innovative futuristic technology, rich set design, and a cast of characters ready to be slaughtered in Alien: Covenant, the May 19, 2017, sequel to Prometheus. For decades the Alien franchise culturally redefined sci-fi horror as it awed audiences with bleak scores, strong casts, and H.R. Giger-inspired monsters waiting in the shadows to collect their pound of flesh from unexpecting victims, and this film is no exception – in fact, Scott evolves his creation in new and exciting ways that stay true to Alien’s original vision.
Alien: Covenant’s first act centers on the colonization ship Covenant on its way to planet Origae-6 with 2000 colonists and 1,140 embryos in cold storage. The crew is rudely awakened by a neutrino burst which damages the ship and awakens them from their stasis pods, which sets off a chain of lethal consequences that redirect them from their destination to a planet filled with powerful storms, dark mysteries, and ecological peril. From there, the film descends into a blood-soaked survival mission reminiscent of previous entries to the franchise.Seldom in sci-fi horror does a cast of characters who share limited screen time have such distinctness while being grounded in reality. The majority of the cast offer strong performances that make for a memorable movie, but none more than Michael Fassbender whose expertly meticulous performance as two different androids sets him apart from the commendable acting of his co-stars. Realistic future-technologies including androids, spacecraft-charging solar sails, stasis pods, propulsion suits complete with magnetic boots, and medical devices for salvaging burns find a meaningful place in the story without distracting from the plot. All in all, Alien: Covenant charts a course racked with realistic tension in the form of space travel dangers, tech failure, ecological terror, and social/power dynamics in times of crisis while nodding to its predecessors in a way that serves the narrative only as Ridley Scott can do.
