Alien Covenant: The Best and Worst of Ridley Scott

I think that if I had to describe Alien: Covenant to a fellow movie-lover in fellow movie-lover language without spoiling anything, I would describe it this way: imagine if Rian Johnson made an Alien film. This film was divisive, and rightfully so. Going into it, you can expect it to be beautifully shot, well-directed, ambitious, unique....and containing some plot points that are downright baffling and probably could and even should have been cut from the film altogether. Helmed by the famed Ridley Scott, director of the original film as well as 2012's foray Prometheus, 2017's Alien: Covenant is a strange case indeed, and as I was watching it for the first time yesterday, I couldn't shake the feeling that it was an amalgamation of his best and worst tendencies as a director, and today, I want to talk about this movie.

To get the obligatory spoiler-free synopsis out of the way, Alien: Covenant follows a colony ship called the Covenant (surprise) and its inhabitants as they fight for survival against a malevolent force on a nearly unpopulated and mysterious planet.

OK, so let's start with the good things this film has to offer. The obvious one is that this movie is incredibly beautiful to look at. I think that franchises like the MCU have created something of an artificial ceiling for movies and their ideas of what is visually appealing and acceptable in a modern science fiction outing. I mean, I see a lot of people online praising the visuals of the MCU and the DCU, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the broader world of visual style puts both to shame. Covenant completely eschews the poppy visual and aesthetic ideas of more mainstream science fiction movies in favor of a much more stripped-back, mythical, natural, and grand look, more in the visual vein of Oblivion or Arrival or even of some film adaptations of Greek or Roman mythology. In simple terms, Covenant looks and feels a heck of a lot better than ninety percent of the science fiction films it's competing with visually, and it was refreshing not to be showered with pointless blue, orange, and pink visual effects the entire movie. Supplementing these gorgeous and naturalistic visuals is an atmosphere that feels genuinely dangerous and ominous. Everything is dangerously quiet and relatively unassuming, never trying to grab your attention, kind of like a predator lurking in the grass. The visual and practical effects teams are likewise on full throttle throughout this film, lending a very realistic practicality to Covenant.

This movie also clearly has a lot of ambition. It has a unique visual style and intentionality to boot. It's trying to do something new while also grounding the film well within the confines of the franchise it's a part of, and I can appreciate it for trying to do this. For as much as movies like Alien: Covenant and The Last Jedi catch flack for being too different from other films in the franchises they inhabit, I and other critics gravitate towards them because they're different. At the same time, audiences tend to gravitate towards more of the same when it comes to movies. As critics, we watch a lot of movies, and I mean a lot of movies. Many more than audience members would care to, so when something is different or has a lot of ambition, it gets our attention, even if it may not be entirely narratively sound. Now, I think that a perfect score on Roger Ebert's site might be pushing this film's luck a little bit, but I can't deny that Covenant has a pioneering visual style and atmosphere that I haven't seen replicated in other movies. However, as thorough and artful as they can be, visuals are just the packaging, and we've got to look at what's inside. And zooming in on a scene-to-scene basis, this film is majestic. I want to commend two action sequences in the film, the fight in the tall grass and the fight on top of the lander. They are both spectacularly blocked, well beyond what most other science fiction films have done, making use of their whole environments while maintaining a visceral, grounded, and believable feel. And as far as visceral goes, Covenant is plenty visceral. It's probably more visceral than any other entry in the franchise and never really pulls any punches, which I can appreciate from a film that, if it were in any other science fiction franchise, probably would have.

OK, so I've been talking about the good aspects of Covenant for a while, but I definitely want to address the flaws in this film and believe me, there are plenty of them. The first is that this movie is trying to build off of a somewhat unimpressive film in the form of Prometheus. I get that both Scott's and the studio's hands were tied when it came to whether or not this film would go forward (the answer is ye$), but I still need to bring this up. Did Prometheus even deserve a sequel like this? Probably not. And given this film's uncharacteristic underperformance at the box office as well as in the critical realm, it seems like a lot of moviegoers all across the board felt the same way I did. Covenant is a very self-indulgent movie, especially when it comes to the mystery and mythology of its world, but none of this indulgence ever feels earned because, let's be honest, none of it ever was. Covenant is a fine film on its own merits, but it starts to collapse under the weight of its own mythos, and while I don't want to say the collapse was a complete one, it was definitely noticeable. On a more structural level, the film also suffers from pacing issues that are most prevalent early on. The movie reaches for the emotions of the audience too quickly before it even tries to get us invested in the lives of the characters, and while this may work for you personally if you've been writing a screenplay for months on end, it doesn't work for viewers that slid their butts into the theater seats all of five minutes ago and barely know these characters. And speaking of these characters, the cast of this movie is way too large. It became difficult for me to become attached to any of these characters because they were all sharing what simply wasn't enough runtime for the whole lot of them. And as the film came to a close, there was a final twist that was completely unearned and completely unnecessary. Watch the movie and you will immediately know what I'm referring to. Maybe if I watch Covenant again, this twist will grow on me, but to be completely honest, I kind of doubt it.

A lot of viewers complained about poor and dumb decisions made by the characters throughout the movie, but I don't want to be too harsh on Covenant in this aspect. It's a horror movie. Characters are going to make crap choices. As far as parental advisories go, expect the typical fare from the Alien franchise. Scares, gore, and a little bit of sexuality and nudity in one scene that ends very poorly for all involved. On top of that, there's one scene that involves a sort-of-not same-sex kiss where a character kisses himself (in a non-sexual context). It's a long story that I don't really want to delve into, but if that particularly strange situation might be off-putting for you, be aware that it is in the film. All in all, Alien: Covenant is sincerely the best and worst tendencies of Ridley Scott put into one movie, causing the film to excel in certain areas while severely lacking in others. If nothing else, it's a unique science fiction film that I think of as a good way to spend a lazy afternoon. I just can't help but feel that it could have and should have been a lot more.

Alien: Covenant - 6/10

Matthew 10:26-28