ALIEN: COVENANT
Director
Ridley Scott
Cast
Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir, Carmen Ejogo, Amy Seimetz, Jussie Smollet, Callie Hernandez, Nathaniel Dean, Alexander England, Benjamin Rigby
Genre
Adventure / Sci-Fi / Thriller
Web
http://www.alien-covenant.com
Press Screening in Zürich - Thanks to Warner Bros. Zürich
Directed by Ridley Scott (The Martian). Screenplay by John Logan and Dante Harper, from a story by Jack Paglen and Michael Green. Producers are Ridley Scott, Mark Huffam, Michael Schaefer, David Giler and Walter Hill; and distributor is 20th Century Fox. .
Official Synopsis
Ridley Scott returns to the universe he created, with ALIEN: COVENANT, a new chapter in his ground-breaking ALIEN franchise. The crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world. When they uncover a threat beyond their imagination, they must attempt a harrowing escape.
Review by dalia di giacomo and Production Notes
This movie is very dark. A sense of impelling danger and desaster is always there, during the whole screening. It is a bit claustrophobic, like the first Alien of the Quadrilogy and the third one, Alien 3, but the story doesnt develop only in enclosed, confined spaces, so , under this point of view, there are similarities with Prometheus.
“You can’t keep being chased down a corridor by a monster—it gets boring,” Scott says.
Alien: Covenant wil not disappoint the "Alien" and "Prometheus" fans. many questions are answered and solved , from the "Black goo" till the origin of neo and protomorphs, although other questions remain open. Anyway, a renewed enthusiasm will let you enjoy this movie and even looking forward for the next chapter of the saga, that will be filmed in about one year. We can use the word saga because this movie is truly the sequel of Prometheus (the film is the second installment in the Alien prequel series) and could even fit as direct prequel of "Alien". It is set ten years after the events depicted in Ridley Scott’s 2012 Prometheus and stars again Michael Fassbender as Walter AND David. All right, who is Walter??? Just a little bit patience ;) . First off I would point out that there is the presence of another brave woman in this saga: definitely there is a chain that binds Ellen Ripley and the crew of the starship Nostromo back in 1979 and Daniels and the Covenant crew. By the way, Covenant is the name of the spaceship, whose mission is to take humanity beyond Earth into a settlement among the stars. On Covenant are couples who will populate the planet Origae-6, along with dozens of embryos to help establish the new colony. Captain Jacob Branson (James Franco) and his wife, Daniels (Katherine Waterston) , head of terraforming operations are in charge for the security of the mission. Aboard of the Covenant there is also a non-human, the loyal synthetic Walter, practically kind of clone of David. David is still so important at the point that a flashback-scene with David opens the movie, a flashback when David spoke with a young Weyland and from that scene starts the explanation of the major point of the saga: CREATION.
The Production Notes perfectly describe the difference between David and Walter: Walter is " the next evolution of David, the Laurence of Arabia-obsessed synthetic Fassbender portrayed in Prometheus. Although he is technologically superior to his predecessor, his emotional range is somewhat restricted. He cannot fall in love, and he has been programmed to be unfailingly loyal to the Covenant crew—Fassbender describes him as a “super butler.”
Back to Daniels: the new strong woman of Scott's universe loses her husband, the Captain, in the first horrorific confrontation when a stellar ignition rips through the ship. The crew is forced to wake but for some members a mechanical malfunction will transform the awakening into a lethal torture. The Covenant now needs another captain and the crew must be regrouped. But this is only the beginning of a more disatrous destiny. The crew detects a strange signal that seems to come from an Earth-like planet that wasn t found or charted before. The new captain Oram takes the decision to explore this unexpected planet, believeing that it could be a better place for the colony than the destination planet Origae-6. Although Daniels doesnt agree wih this decision, nobody could ever imagine that this mysteriously appeared planet is the place to where Elizabeth Shaw and David flew . What happens to the crew and what David did on this planet is the core of the movie. Things get soon out of control towards the horror. A worse horror than you may think: the horror of a terrible creation.
Back to the women. In the footsteps of Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, Waterston focused on Daniels’ figure like an antihero one. “Ridley is a director who has always portrayed women in a really honest and believable way, he’s always been attracted to those kinds of characters,” Waterston says. “Daniels is the kind of person who gets clearer in a crisis. At the beginning of the film, Daniels is capable and smart and she’s good at her job, but I don’t think she sees herself any kind of heroic figure. As the events of the film unfold, she’s able to function and think clearly in those moments of crisis. It was easier for me to relate to her coming to realize that she was capable and brave, rather than that she was born ready for battle. I don’t know anybody like that.”
Alien: Covenant is a solid movie with many interesting and involving moments and with a good performances of its actors; Even if some scenes take inspiration from other sci-fi movies and even if some plot twists become predictable, this film will establish itself as an important bridge in direction Alien franchise. Alien: Covenant is a cool deep-space drama . where happy ends hardly exist.
“I hope the film gets people very uneasy, helps your arteries start pumping, sets hearts pounding,” says the filmmaker. “I hope you have a very dry throat but can’t take your eyes off the screen. To really scare the shit out of people is quite difficult, but his might give them nightmares. And that’s a good thing.”
Rating: 8,7
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