Movie Review: Alien: Covenant (2017)
The Alien series hasn’t had a new film since Prometheus in 2012, and, assuming we can forget about the Alien vs. Predator films, there hasn’t been an Alien film before that since Alien Resurrection in 1997. The question now is: “Where is this series going?” Ridley Scott, who created the franchise, has said that if Alien: Covenant and the following film (a prequel to Covenant) was successful, there would be three more. Perhaps this is some sort of plan similar to what is happening in the Star Wars universe, but it seems like the path is a bit fuzzy as the reception for Covenant wasn’t as good as expected, and it underperformed at the box office.
In Alien: Covenant, the “Covenant” ship has a small crew and is carrying 2000 colonists in hyper-sleep. They are looking for the planet Origae-6, which they have deemed to be habitable. When attempting to recharge the ship’s power through deploying the solar sails, the ship hits an energy field that wakes the crew up before their destination. While repairing the sails, the crew receives a rogue transmission, and upon investigating it have pinpointed it to another planet in a nearby solar system, which has the possibility to sustain human life and is similar to Origae-6. And of course, they decide to investigate. The crew lands on the planet and finds that wheat has been planted there by someone before they arrived, and it does seem like it could be habitable. They locate the source of the signal, and, of course, it’s an alien ship. After a confrontation with an alien, they are met by a cyborg named David. It’s really hard to go into too much more detail without spoiling parts from Prometheus, and Covenant, but it’s highly advisable to watch Prometheus before this film.
Looking at the film as a whole, we think that there were a lot of similarities to former films that could have been avoided. The script was good in the context of a continuation of the series, and Prometheus, but in other areas, it lacks and recalls some previous films’ focus instead of exploring new possibilities when it comes to things like dealing with the aliens themselves, rogue transmissions etc. It would have been nice to see a completely new plot because the parts that did make up the majority of the film that were based on continuing Prometheus were great. There were also a few holes in the writing when it came to dialogue, decisions, and interaction.
It is definitely in-line with the series progression, though. It picks up 11 years after Prometheus, which places Covenant in 2104. The original 1979 Alien film is set in 2122, which is 18 years after Covenant. So the next film in succession (or possible trilogy according to Ridley Scott), which is supposed to lead right into Alien would fit naturally into this timeline. That being said, it seems like if there is only one more film in this “prequel trilogy”, they are going to have a lot of explaining to do in a short amount of time, as this film did explain some of the overall universe’s plot, it still leaves a lot of questions unanswered. The main question being “Will a sequel to Covenant actually see the light of day?” If the next film is a prequel to Alien: Covenant, then what happens after Alien: Covenant? If there is no follow-up to Covenant it would be very disappointing and may actually ruin the entire franchise, as there would be a massive gap and too many unanswered questions.
Overall, we thought this was a great continuation of Prometheus, but could have used some more eyes on the script in other areas. It had some fantastic special effects, though, and if anyone remembers what the CGI aliens looked like in the early films, it’s obviously a vast improvement. They looked pretty realistic in this one, and it would have been nice to see more of them. It’s pretty amazing what can be done with today’s technology. The crew in this film wasn’t really the focus, but they also seemed to be almost too disposable. This film ranks up there in the series, as the parts of the writing that focused on the franchise were great. Let’s hope the next one is soon, as it seems like there is always at least a five-year gap between films and audiences not familiar with the franchise might not care to see another one if Ridley Scott waits that long. Especially if it is a sequel to Prometheus and prequel to Covenant. If they continue to wait that long for each film, that would mean we may have to wait until 2027 to see what happens after Covenant, and before Alien.
