Opening 18 May 2017
Directed by:
Ridley Scott
Writing credits:
Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett, Jack Paglen, Michael Green, John Logan
Principal actors:
Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demian Bichir
It looks like Ridley Scott can’t seem to get enough of aliens in his life. Back in 1977, his first film Alien gave him the spot light in the world of science fiction which was then followed by another science fiction cult film Blade Runner. He then moved on to other genres leaving the alien theme for other directors to play with. Then came 2012 when he provided us with a masterpiece in science-fiction genre with the film Prometheus, which, while the crew was being extinguished, provides us with an open-ended question as to the origins of mankind. These three films have several things in common: a space team of professional humans, one android, a living sustainable planet containing a strange abandoned spaceship wreck just waiting to be explored.
Ash (Ian Holm) in Alien was a dysfunctional android causing death among the crew in the film Alien. In Prometheus David (Michael Fassbender) was a David 8 series synthetic that had the mission from his creator to find out the origin of man. Now, this film begins with David who meets his creator and, at the same time, asks where man comes from but in a hard and analytical way which brings discomfort to his creator. The film then begins with a new crew which is on a cargo ship carrying embryos in order to establish a new colony. This ship is carrying an upgraded synthetic named Walter (Michael Fassbender) who ends up meeting David as they compare notes on their development. During an unexpected storm, the ship suffers damages and at the same time receives a signal. Since the experienced captain is now dead, the new captain makes a bold move in order to check out the possibilities of a possible planet for colonization. The film not only takes a turn in emotional mood swings but starts disintegrating before our eyes. This crew becomes a group of hysterical screamers as they break every logical rule in the book while at the same time losing all sense of their mission.
Despite all the logical flaws in this film, Alien Covenant is definitely a movie worth watching. It has many good science fictional aspects thanks to the extensive art and computer graphic department. They have created a beautifully cool environment that seems to have no living animals on it but breaths at the same time. The alien is even more formed in this movie but still remains foreign and scary to us. The film also concentrates on the two synthetics. We feel that they are alike but, as the film goes further, the differences grow as they do when comparing them to the human crew. It also shows us a future where we see how far developed our civilization can go while showing us how dangerous it can become for us. We also see that love between a human and an android can exist which is very interesting because it could be the future of our world. We personally enjoyed the movie but sometimes we found it too predictable. They did a great job in creating a scary atmosphere; in fact it was so scary that the popcorn went into flight as well. (Shelly Schoeneshoefer)
