Every time the human race begins to enjoy new discoveries about distant planets, black holes, galaxies and other wonders space has to offer, Ridley Scott returns with another thriller about the unknown dangers space travel can entail.
MOVIE REVIEW
Movie: Alien: Covenant
Reviewed by: Rabia Tufail
Every time the human race begins to enjoy new discoveries about distant planets, black holes, galaxies and other wonders space has to offer, Ridley Scott returns with another thriller about the unknown dangers space travel can entail.
Alien: Covenant is the recent installation of the Alien film franchise and is the prequel of the original film. It tells the tale of a ship called the “Covenant” that has over 2000 hibernating colonists on board, some crew members and an android played by the talented Michael Fassbender. They are all headed to a planet known as “Origae-6” in hopes of starting a new civilization there when they suddenly pick up a signal from a new planet nearby. The crew makes a unanimous decision to check out the source of the signal, but that decision proves to be an awful mistake as the crew encounters horrifying bloodthirsty creatures that can multiply at an alarming rate.
It is understood that Ridley Scott adores several clichés that he himself created such as a space crew with several individuals belonging to different races and backgrounds or a heroine with masculine characteristics who is always undermined but proves to be vital in the end or shots of an alien ripping some fickle-minded crew member’s throat out. But unfortunately his love for such clichés didn’t work this time. Those clichés worked in his previous film Prometheus because they were reintroduced after a long hiatus which left the audience craving for more. For this film, the audience were expecting some evolvement; it is only human nature that people learn from other people’s mistakes, a trait that is overlooked in this film. One after the other the crew members make silly mistakes that lead them to their deaths. At this point, the audience expects the “main” heroine, Daniels, to step and take charge but she remains as passive as ever. Her dialogue delivery is so bland and she does not even seem to have an ounce of charisma her predecessor “Ripley” had.
All of this results into a mess of blood and gore and highly unimaginative curse words. The only redeeming factor is Michael Fassbender’s acting. The conflict between programmed feelings and original emotions is brilliantly displayed through his body language as he struggles to maintain what he was originally designed to do, which was to serve the humans.
This film had enormous potential of being a horror film and providing an intricate yet rational story to explain the aliens’ origin, to truly know if it achieved that, you have to watch the film yourself.
