So while Prometheus didn’t exactly wow everyone upon release, though some admired the film for its ambition, we now have a sequel to Prometheus that has been highly anticipated since its release in 2012. Expectations were raised; Will we learn much more about the formation of the Xenomorph and cinema’s most terrifying creature? What has happened to our two surviving characters from Prometheus? With a whole new roster of characters, does this film ultimately succeed? The story takes place eleven years after the events of Prometheus and a whole crew is once again in hibernation before the waking android Walter (played by Michael Fassbender) discovers a surge that damages the ship and in the process destroys a handful of crew members and human embryos, including the ship’s captain (played fleetingly by James Franco). Billy Crudup, playing the newel appointed ship’s leader, nervously tries to take control and suggests to intercept a signal that will divert from their destination but may seem interesting. Daniels (played by Katherine Waterston) is unsure of this but they proceed anyway. They rockingly arrive on the planet, filled with waterfalls and wheat growing but sense something isn’t right. Soon enough crewmembers get sick, the beastly aliens begin to attack and and old returning face, David (played once again by Michael Fassbender in dual characterisation) with unknown motivations and again a game of survival ensues.
The film pretty much sets itself out in a similar way to the other entries; crew awakens and faces problems, intercepting something they don’t know but are curious, they arrive on a strange world, characters may or may not get used for alien implantation. Also from what I can gather, Ridley is attempting to answer the critics of Prometheus, go back to a more formulaic approach and use more of the Xenomorphs in it, but by doing so the film just becomes entirely bog standard. A majority of the characters you don’t much care for and are written pretty badly. One character even has to break away from the group for personal need, ‘oh gee, I wonder if this character will make it?’ and it goes on like that for some time. Katherine Waterston is actually pretty good and while comparisons to Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley are inevitable, I think she tries her best to create her own powerful heroine but the script sells her short.
Michael Fassbender plays their android Walter and replays David from Prometheus in a dual performance. It’s fun to watch them debate about the existence of human kind and their own purpose for being, and Fassbender recaptures that creepy, angelic quality about David that made him memorable and therefore is the film’s most valuable asset. Even when the film has to go back to characters that are there to die, I think my overall problem with Covenant and to some extent with Prometheus, is that going back to try and explain the origins of the Xenomorphs themselves, takes out the scare factor. Alien worked because they were going up against a creature they don’t know of, where it came from or what it was truly capable of, all while trapped on a near tight ship. Here explaining the monster really ironically helps us to lose further interest than gain any at all.
The CGI work is particularly dodgy and awkward on the aliens themselves, how is it that a film from 1979 was made more convincing than any computer work from recent memory? The film is really in conflict, it can’t decide if it wants to overall appeal to audiences wanting more substance or to an audience craving more meat and potato fare. I was overall disappointed by the film and I think it may be time to put the nail in the coffin of the Alien franchise for good and that Scott should try and pursue projects that really stand on higher ground, like The Martian or American Gangster. Katherine Waterston and Michael Fassbender are the highlights of the film and I would say take the scenes of the duo Fassbender and just watch those scenes for some enjoyment but the film is a step back.
Prometheus at least had an ambitious vision and dared to try and take on the franchise from a different story arc, even when it didn’t overall succeed and I can admire it for that, but this, as stated in my Prometheus review, is like going back entirely to square one.
2/5
Filmlife 