In what is becoming an “Alien” franchise tradition, a subsequent
installment cannibalizes a superior predecessor. I don’t mean that
the sequel is inferior or simply does the same thing in an inferior
way, I mean that is actually undercuts the pleasure of watching a
previous movie. This happened the first time in Alien 3, when in
between “Aliens” and “Alien 3” the movie actually killed off
important characters that the viewer had come to know and very much
like. “Alien: Covenant” does the same thing, killing off the main
female lead of “Prometheus,” Elizabeth Shaw, played by Noomi
Rapace. The ironic thing about the “Alien” franchises is that one
of its major themes is corporate disregard for human life in the face
of profit, and the main culprit of these in-between movie killings is
most likely the waning stardom of previous main characters. At least
that is what seems to be the main impetus behind the lack of Noomi
Rapace here. In 2012 came out, Noomi Rapace, coming off the iconic
“Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” trilogy, was a the zenith of her
star power. In 2017 she has become largely absent whereas Michael
Fassbender, the other survivor from “Prometheus,” is still
around. So “Alien: Covenant” kills off Noomi Rapace even before
the movie starts and became the Michael Fassbender show. It is
notable that this is the first canonical Alien installment that does
not feature a strong female lead.
The problems start there and keep going. I am going to limit myself
to just a few complaints, but not before noting that this movie was
directed by Ridley Scott who directed both the original “Alien”
and “Prometheus.” I merely point this out to state that he should
know how to make a better movie than this one.
A large problem with blockbusters nowadays is that they use digital
effects too much. Digital effects have their place, and that is when
the filmmakers cannot make the thing they want to show without
digital effects, like say a large crowd, or a landscape, or another
world. When digital effects are used to make something really small
and close, they should not be used at all. The filmmakers should just
make the thing they want to be represented. Compare the baby-alien
chest bursting scenes in the original 1979 “Alien” and the one
this year in “Alien: Covenant.” Even though a span of
thirty-eight years of continual special effects evolution has
occurred, the 1979 version is more believable, more visceral, and
more effective. It’s that way because they made a puppet out of
real material and performed the operation physically. The same scene
in “Alien: Covenant” looks like a digital recreation. It’s
detailed but the audience can tell the difference. There is no
financial reason to do it this way. In fact, a puppet is probably
cheaper.
This movie breaks all the rules of the Alien. For it to be a
believable story, the rules having been set down explicitly need to
stay there. Here is a short list of broken rules in “Alien:
Covenant.” One: Aliens can be killed by bullets from guns. Two: The
Alien gestates in the stomach and bursts through the chest (as
opposed to say, through the upper back vertebrae, which is novel but
doesn’t make any sense). Three: The Alien needs time (maybe a
couple of weeks) to impregnate the host, grow inside it, burst out of
it, go into the wilderness and come back fully formed. In this movie,
that whole process happens in a couple of hours.
Mr. Scott perhaps broke these rules because he felt the audience may
have been impatient. Well, the first “Alien” movie was great
because he took his time to establish the rules and follow them,
which made them visceral and effective. If he couldn’t find a way
to do it here, he should have gone back to the drawing board. After,
the end product is an “Alien” movie that doesn’t have
believable Aliens in it.
As far as the philosophical underpinnings of this movie, I am
disappointed to relate that it did not follow through on the promises
“Prometheus” made in what it was trying to accomplish here. I
feel like “Prometheus” got thrown under the bus quite frankly.
I’m not happy with this movie. Two Michael Fassbenders did not make
it all okay.
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