Mike Dunn's Film Reviews: May 2017

Director:

Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator)

Starring:

Katherine Waterson (Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, Inherent Vice, Steve Jobs)

Billy Crudup (Watchmen, Spotlight, Almost Famous)

Michael Fassbender (Macbeth, Shame, Assassin's Creed)

Genre:

Science-Fiction / Horror / Thriller

Opinion:

Let me start by saying: I liked Prometheus.

It is not an opinion that is shared by many people, but I did. I didn’t watch Prometheus expecting a film in the same mould as Alien or Aliens, but one that further explained and established the beginnings of an existing franchise.

You know… what a prequel is meant to do.

And what I got was a well-told and interesting science-fiction film that theorised about who potentially created life on Earth, and what would happen if you managed to royally piss them off.

It had everything I expected; tension, scares, body horror. Even the added bonus of idiotic people who should not be sent into space, since they can't figure out how to avoid a rolling spaceship going in one direction. But most intriguingly Prometheus was about ideas. More than just "Who created us?", the film discussed free will and morality and whether the lack of these could have a corrupting influence. It touched upon whether religion is a manufactured construct or a necessary comfort, and these aren’t topics you find in most modern sci-fi/horror films.

But unfortunately the film wasn’t warmly embraced among the Alien die-hards and it will forever be remembered as an honest attempt that failed.

Skip to six years later and Ridley Scott has got another shot.

Set a few years after Prometheus, a spaceship intent on completing a colonising mission comes across a radio signal from a seemingly habitable, but unknown, world. Curious to it’s origin, the crew make the decision to investigate… and things go as well as you'd expect.

To go into further detail will spoil too much of the story, but if you have seen an Alien film before, you will probably see the signposts for where the film is heading. However, the audience’s familiarity with the stereotypes of the Alien franchise is where Ridley Scott tries to make the best use out of his prequel; by showing the audience how the later and much more acclaimed films were set in motion; showing you how the dominoes were set-up before we saw them fall over.

Although it seems that Scott has bowed to pressure from the audiences, and tried to have his Prometheus cake and eat it with Alien knives and forks… if that makes sense.

He wants to carry on telling the story he started in Prometheus, further developing the origins of the Engineers and theorise about ideas of our creation, but to keep the audience from complaining, he’s made some dumb people run around dark, steam-filled corridors whilst being chased by a slick, black, death creature. And the film suffers because of it.

The crew of the Covenant are never given any back-story apart from Character X is married to Character Y, since all of these people are couples and most of them are going to lose their partner to a slick, black, death creature. Billy Crudup and Katherine Waterston are given centre stage, but potentially interesting plot points are never fully developed and as with Prometheus, Michael Fassbender steals the show. Crudup is a proven talent and Waterston is an interesting up-and-comer so it’s a shame that they aren’t given much with which to work.

There ain’t no Ellen Ripley for the audience to root for, that’s for damn sure.

Whilst the locations are gorgeous and rich in detail (it might as well be H.R. Giger's homeworld), and the direction never falters, Alien: Covenant follows the trend of films with huge potential not being able to fully embrace their director’s vision, for fear of alienating too much of the audience and losing box office in the process.

Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla. Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four / Fan4stic. Even Ghost in the Shell from earlier this year.

They don’t want to leave the audience bored, or scratching their heads in confusion and telling their friends not to watch the film because of it. It’s the nature of the industry currently, and I don’t blame Scott for bowing to this pressure. I just hope that Scott doesn’t do the same with Blade Runner 2049 later this year.

Rating – 5/10 - It's worth a watch, just don't expect much.