Title – Alien: Covenant (2017)
Director – Ridley Scott (Gladiator)
Cast – Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir, Carmen Ejogo, Jussie Smollett
Plot – The crew on board the colony ship Covenant take a detour to a previously undiscovered planet after they come across a signal of some type being transmitted across space. When the crew start exploring the planet, they quickly come to realize they’re not alone.
“Do make yourselves at home as best you can in this dire necropolis”
Review by Eddie on 30/08/2017
I don’t think I’m the only one who felt like they had a bad taste left in their mouth after watching Ridley Scott’s much hyped and long-talked about Aliens series entry Prometheus.
A misguided, poorly scripted and genuinely disappointing big budget affair, that seemingly suggested to us all that Scott should leave the franchise he once started to live out a peaceful existence in our fond memories and not attempt to shine a light on the fearsome Xenomorph’s creation or try and explain anything else about this universe that was originally so good because of its many mysteries and wonderful drawn up characters.
Sadly and unfortunately for all franchise fans, Scott decided he needed to once more explore the Alien landscape with Alien: Covenant, a film that we were told would be a return to its horror roots but what we get is against all the odds a film much worse than Prometheus (lacking even in that films visual splendour) and a film that rings the death knell for this series as we know it.
Covenant’s muted reception and so-so box-office is evidence to a lacking word of mouth and while Scott and his Alien team promised this was but the first of many follow-ups and while Neill Blomkamp was attached to an exciting sounding yet now dead in the water Alien feature, Covenant’s inability to succeed and it’s disheartening treatment of the lore at its disposal really has put the Alien series under the water.
Scott directs the film with a disappointing lack of originality or flair, his cast can do little with their one dimensional roles and while this time around we get a double dose of Michael Fassbender synthetic action, when key scenes involve him playing a mini-flute or wearing legionnaire’s hats, that’s not exactly a good thing.
The film also looks tired and uninspired, something that has usually never been the case for this franchise. Even Scott’s 1970’s original with his dark space ship corridors had more visual enticement than Covenant, that’s whole existence feels tired and below workmanlike.
Nothing’s surprising in this film, even Scott’s blood thirsty Alien led death’s fail to get the blood pumping (squirting?) and as soon as the colonization ship Covenant sends a crew down to a planet sending out a distress signal, you can pretty much foresee how much of the film will play out and with our main human protagonist being Catherine Waterston’s dulled down Ripley rip-off Daniel’s, it’s truly hard to care about anyone’s survival and due to this, the film loses much of its potential tension and instead becomes a two hour slog through similar scenarios we’ve seen before and seen done a lot better.
Final Say –
Not only is Alien: Covenant one of the year’s most disappointing high-profile releases, its one of the year’s worst films period.
Quite possibly one of the worst films on Scott’s esteemed C.V; Covenant wastes a big budget, a capable cast and a brilliant cinematic universe in a film that’s so highly forgettable and lacking in energy that it’s hard to understand why anyone involved in this project thought this trip to outer space was a good idea?
1 music lesson out of 5
Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys) 
Forgettable?!? No, I’ll never forget those characters and their absolute dumbest decisions ever in a horror movie. Never ever.
Haha great point actually!
Gee wiz, I really just don’t know why this film was made, there was nothing here that was worth the price of admission or even the actors time.
E
I haven’t seen it. Your review doesn’t exactly encourage me to shell out my bucks for the DVD… I’ve been alienated from the franchise…
Save that money for sure.
Even the biggest Alien fans around would have a hard time sticking up for this one mate.
E
Totally agree with you guys. I thought this was one of the year’s biggest disappointments!
So so bad!
A real shocker as well when you consider it was Scott behind camera and the cast he had at his disposal. Such a boring and tired film.
E
My issue was that it wasnt scary. On another note you should watch gameplay from the game Alien: Isolation the storyline was great and so scary. My heart was pounding.
I played that game and I can tell you straight up what an experience ha, I felt like my heart was going to give way more times that I can count.
E
Haha i cant even go near that game again. I loved the scene where the one guy said, “once it’s made contact, it’s won”
I didn’t go to the local cinema to see it and watched it at home later… totally forgettable and useless.
Useless is actually the perfect word for this one!
So disappointing.
E
Well, I usually agree with you guys, and I also know I am in the minority here, but I loved the movie. I do agree with the fact that the characters in this movie certainly weren’t very memorable, except for Fassbender’s and Waterstone’s characters, but otherwise I did like the film, and thought it combined Prometheus and Alien in a pretty good way. But as mentioned, I know I am in the minority here lol. That’s the fun thing about movies, everyone experiences them differently 😊
You’re very right mate!
I’ve had a few friends mention to me that I’ve got this one wrong, perhaps its one that will grow in reputation as it ages.
I just did not enjoy any element to this tale sadly.
E
Perfect review of this movie. I was so disappointed in this addiction to the series. It really did seem like the script was written in a day and the characters were so bland. I had so many what the hell moments watching this pile.
Glad you agree Johnny!
I totally agree in particular about the characters, I mean as soon as it finished I could barely remember any of there names and cared absolutely not when any one of them met their grizzly ends.
A total waste of the Alien branding.
E
Oh, Eddie did not have a good day.
Nor did anyone in this movie haha.
I don’t know if anything could’ve changed my mind on this one.
E
I’m one of the people who really liked Prometheus despite its many serious faults, but this follow-up was a huge disappointment. Uninspired rehash of the stuff that’s been done so much better in other Alien movies, utterly forgettable characters who make even dumber decisions than the idiots in Prometheus. I’ve zero desire to see any more Alien films from Ridley Scott.
Me to. Less than 0 desire even!
His really lost the plot when its come to this series. I was shocked at how bad this whole thing was.
E
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