In 2017 there are so many different movies, from horror to comedies, even horror comedies. But, Ridley Scott brings a classical Alien on screen again, and it is special. We haven't seen a traditional Alien movie for a very long time. Since the Resurrection, Alien didn't appear in any standalones, and it was 20 years for now. There were crossovers with the Predator, but this is the very first standalone Alien film with actual alien in it since 1997.
Prometheus, which came out in 2015, was the first prequel to the Alien (1979). In that movie Ridley Scott explained the origin of life and Xenomorphs' existence. Alien: Covenant is the second prequel, which actually called "Alien" this time. And as trailers and every poster says, it has an Alien in it. Watching little prolog videos which are a part of the marketing campaign for this movie is really helpful, they explain some parts of the movie and help to get into the story as quick as possible without spoiling anything.
The story of a crew members on a spaceship Covenant, which takes a huge colony on a decent for life and colonisation planet. But the ship crashed and crew members woke up from the cryosleep. During the repairs, one of the pilots intercepted a message sent by a human. The planet from which this message was sent seemed even more pleasant for colonisation and the captain decided to check it out and find the source of the signal.
The movie very much discovers the origin of Xenomorphs. Ridley Scott really thought up a great explanation and the story is quite interesting. This movie doesn't lack the connection with the events which happened in the Prometheus. Without spoiling, I might say that the Xenomorph is not the only alien in this movie. Traditional Alien is some sort of an ancestor to another monstrous creature. That is why this film is not exactly an Alien movie. It has one in it, but it wasn't a cliche from 1979, some parts remind of that movie, but in Alien: Covenant Xenomorph is not the one and only threat, so it mostly looks like a fight between the whole spaceship crew and different alien creatures, and the Xenomorph appears only at the end.
This film is worth watching. Horror element is very strong, but it wasn't that much scary. The plot is exciting, there are no huge negatives with the story. There are no big issues with the decisions of the characters, it all seemed organic and natural. Michael Fassbender has done it again and crushed it with his roles in the movie, as well as Danny McBride and Katherine Waterston.
One of Ridley Scott's most notable mistakes, again (just like in Prometheus), is the absence of the same atmosphere as in the original film, when prior to the meeting with Xenomorph, none of the members died, and there was more time to speculate and build up the mystery of the alien. And all that brings up the biggest issue with the movie - its pacing. The movie is slow at the beginning, quite moving during action scenes, but very slow and even boring between them. I have to say, that everything would have been better at a pace, if the film had been one hour longer. If you show all the details, don't cut out the big parts of the movie to get to the boiling point, in which people start dying. It seemed more like the script was originally meant to be at least twice as long, especially in the ending. To put it mildly, Alien: Covenant may not be such a good film, not to mention a good film about Alien.
But it's still worth watching. It's visually stunning, and the origin of the Xenomorph is finally very well explained. The story itself is good, there are some great plot twists, which I personally saw a mile ago, but still, you might not. And the predictability didn't ruin any pleasure from suspense and the reveal.
