Alien: Covenant is a direct sequel to Prometheus, and something of an attempted course correction for the franchise. The focus on the lore and mythos of the Alien universe seen in Prometheus is all but entirely discarded, with only very rough attempts to explain or wrap up any of the events depicted in that film.
Criticism of Prometheus was evidently directly listened to, and the conclusion was made that very few fans of the franchise wanted some grand mythology established and elaborated upon. That the DNA connecting Prometheus to the later Alien films at large was too weak, and that they had evidently strayed too far from source with the film.
For those of us who loved the mythos of the first film, it’s hard for this not to be somewhat of a disappointment, particularly retroactively when viewing Alien: Covenant as the potential “bridge” between Prometheus and the 1979 original film.
We join a new crew, slightly more grounded than the Prometheus one, but arguably lacking as much character. These guys are on a colony mission, heading to a supposedly habitable planet with a bunch of bodies in cryosleep, as well as human embryos for fertilisation. However, they pick up a distress signal (nice nod to the original film) and discover a planet with even more ideal conditions than the planet they were travelling to—it’s also light years closer.
Oh yeah, there’s also a freak accident that causes the lead actress's husband to be cooked in his cryopod, who is played by James Franco, no less, the only well-known actor besides Fassbender in the entire film. The decision for him to be killed off within minutes is kind of a strange one. This whole wailing grief routine is way too early in the film though, with next to no context for the viewer. It’s very hard to sympathise with any of this when the film has barely started; I suppose it sets the tone of the film though, which is more of a return to traditional horror than what we saw in the (slightly) slower-moving Prometheus.
The entire crew of this ship, as it is a colonisation mission, is made up of couples. Clever, perhaps, but also intensely annoying, as they make benign Reddit-tier jokes about their wives to each other at every opportunity. And we are treated to deaths which are supposed to carry more weight, but instead are just hard to keep up with, and excessive levels of “spousal death/grief” are achieved.
Like Prometheus though, Michael Fassbender as David (and his more up-to-date model, Walter) entirely steals the show. However, there isn’t a great deal of show to be stolen, and the film leans heavily on both of Fassbender's roles. There’s no denying he was brilliant in Prometheus, but the extended focus on his two roles in this film is excessive and leaves barely any room for anything else, such as proper lore expansion.
This is all by design, however, and not necessarily a misstep—just the direction they wanted to go for this installment. It’s fairly unceremoniously stated that David killed the entire home-planet of Engineers with their own black goo just because he could, he killed Elizabeth Shaw to use her body in his experiments, and he’s gone positively insane. Walter, the more up-to-date android, is used as an antithetical mirror to drive this home to the viewer.
David's intro is nothing short of ridiculous, as he fires a single flare into the sky in a hooded cape a look that wouldn’t be out of place in a Star Wars or Lord of the Rings movie. It establishes him as the mythical centre of the entire film—the mystery, the intrigue. The only problem is, this is built upon in such a small way, only really seeing fit to provide the viewer with his endless psycho-babble and large number of Da Vinci-esque sketches.
The destruction of the Engineers is the most egregious act of the entire film: completely unexplained, and essentially just nuking the Engineers as a race/species out of the entire franchise. Like the writers just scribbling out the entire concept of Prometheus, as if they all just decided, “No more lore/world building, we’re making monster movies again.” It’s incredibly hard to stomach as a huge Prometheus fan.
That’s not to say the film isn’t without its moments. The “kiss” between David and Walter, completely misunderstood as an allusion to the kiss of Judas in the garden, is a chilling moment. And the new Deacon-style Xenomorphs, born from black goo exposure as opposed to the traditionally established facehugger cycle, are brilliant modern movie monsters. The scene where David attempts to blow on ones nose to gain its trust like it’s a horse, is fantastically odd.
Overall, though, it’s a less mysterious and faster-paced movie, jam-packed with horror, gore, and nastiness—just in a less calculated and thoughtful way than Prometheus. It's not quite just a shallow monster movie, but compared to what it could (and arguably should) have been, it is somewhat lacking depth.
The scene of what the film suggests is the birth of the first in-universe traditional Xenomorph is breathtaking in its mixture of profundity and absurdity, and possibly my favourite scene in the entire movie. David, after luring the captain to the Ovomorph eggs he has designed, to be the first person to ever have his face hugged, sits and watches the first Xeno ever to be born. The music swells, and he raises his arms in a messianic manner. The newborn Xeno copies this act, and the pair stand with their arms outstretched in the manner of the cross. It is blasphemous, insane, and hilarious—and when I first saw this scene in the cinema, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I still don’t know each time I rewatch it.
The ending also deserves comment, without specifically ruining it. Nihilistic, cosmic horror of the highest magnitude, and one that it seems now like we may never see the repercussions of. It’s wrapped up as a huge cautionary AI/transhumanism tale, which we’ve seen revisited as a concept in the new Alien: Earth TV show.
Not the best sequel we could have hoped for, but it has moments of value that make it worthwhile. And there can be no doubt that Fassbender's contribution to the franchise overall is no doubt, a tremendous one.