Alien: Covenant Shows the Cyberpunk Side of the Alien Franchise

I was cautiously optimistic walking into Alien: Covenant. Prometheus was no masterpiece by any stretch, and following Aliens the franchise hasn’t really lived up to its potential. Don’t get me wrong, each film, even Alien: Resurrection, does have its moments but they were just okay after Aliens. So, I wasn’t expecting much, but the spoilers that had been floating around the Internet had instilled hope. Covenant, in my opinion, brought cyberpunk to the forefront unlike any of the other movies, so needless to say, I left happy. Maybe Gibson’s Alien III would have done it better, but we’re never going to get to see the reality where that happened instead of Fincher’s Alien 3.

Set in 2104, Alien: Covenant takes place 11 years after the end of Prometheus. The Covenant is a colony ship that is heading to Origae-6, a planet that can support human life, and Walter, an android with the likeness of David from Prometheus, looks after the crew. In transit, the ship is damaged by a neutrino burst, and the Covenant’s crew is awakened to make repairs. In the midst of making these repairs, the crew discovers that there is another planet that can support human life which is very near by and seems like a better option than going back to sleep for years to reach Origae-6. This is the home of the Engineers, and the destination of David and Shaw at the end of Prometheus. After landing on the planet, the crew discovers that there seems to be no animal life left on the planet, that is until one of them gets infected and a Neomorph, a kind of predecessor to the Xenomorph we know and love, is born from one of the crew members. The crew manages to kill one of the creatures, and then another crew member begets another Neomorph and David steps out of the darkness to save the crew and lead them to a dead Engineer city. Walter and David bond over their likeness and superiority over humans and more people die. The first true Xenomorph, that we know of, is born and a few of the crew escape to the Covenant, only to find that the Xenomorph somehow got onto the ship. Then, once the Xenomorph is truly defeated, the remaining crew return to cryosleep to finish their journey to Origae-6, which they really should have just pushed on to in the first place. I’ve left out some choice twists, just in case some people don’t want to hear the spoilers at this point.

The first major criticism that has to be leveled against Covenant is that the many characters are not immediately relatable, even after a fairly lengthy first act. This is somewhat alleviated by the prologue videos that were released to tease the film, and I sure hope they do an extended version of the film that includes these scenes in the movie itself. They are important elements to the story in that they act as a bridge between Prometheus and introduce us to the crew of the Covenant in a way that may actually leave you caring when one of them is eviscerated by an alien. So, I’m embedding them below. Watch them before you see Covenant and you will get a whole lot more out of it.

Meet Walter

The Last Supper

Crew Messages: Daniels

Crew Messages: Oram

Crew Messages: Rosenthal

Crew Messages: Lope

Crew Messages: Tennessee

The Crossing

Micheal Fassbender as both Walter and David really excels in his role as the androids and carries many of the best aspects of Ash and Bishop, from Alien and Aliens, respectively. One shows Ash’s fascination with the aliens and the other is the friend to humanity that Bishop represented. Daniels (Katherine Waterston) isn’t quite Ripley, but she is a strong female character, that is believable, and one that has a strong motivation despite the loss of her husband before the film’s action even begins. Danny McBride plays Tennessee Faris, the Covenant’s pilot, and manages to shine despite being a support character in the film. I’m endlessly glad that romance didn’t bud between Tennessee and Daniels because it makes the loss of their spouses during the film more meaningful and forges a bond that isn’t often seen in a film. None of the other actors are bad, but they aren’t given enough screen time, and despite that Billy Crudup does a fair performance, it is ultimately drained for not having the prologue scenes included in the film to frame his ascension to captain of the Covenant.

From a production perspective, Covenant is excellent. Everything is beautiful, especially the space and nature scenes. Some of the shots of the Engineer’s city are obviously CG, but not so bad that it throws you out of the film. The early forms of the Neomorph are a bit spastic, and don’t feel particularly real; some of the close-ups of the Xenomorph also have this obvious CG problem. Like before, it’s never so bad that it throws you out of the movie, but it’s nothing like the practical effects that made the Xenomorph terrifying before it even had a name.

Spoiler territory follows. The most exciting cyberpunk aspect of Covenant in my eyes is David’s genetic engineering of the Xenomorph. This may explain, in canon, why the Xenomorphs have a kind of bio-mechanical appearance as envisioned by H. R. Giger. A vision of perfection from the mind of an android. Sadly, this aspect of the creature was not emphasized in the movie, much to my eternal sadness. You failed me Covenant, but I’ll forgive you. While we’re in spoiler territory, another real failing of Covenant that follows in the footsteps of Prometheus is the failure of making the Engineers either interesting or even meaningful. This may be Scott’s biggest failing to the Alien franchise. People obsessed over the Space Jockey in the original film, and we settled for giant white humans? Really? There was so much more that could have been done with this. That being said, David as a Satan allegory makes an incredible villain and Walter is a fantastic foil to the character and this defines the movies best moments. On another note, the crew of the Covenant return to the roots of the Alien franchise by not being soldiers or criminals that are equipped to fight a Xenomorph. Rather, they are colonists with titles like “Terraforming Specialist” and this brings out more of the horror side of the film and softly reintroduces the low-life side, of course, paired with the high tech offerings of androids, spaceships, and genetic engineering.

Overall, I think that Alien: Covenant is one of the better films in the franchise, obviously following Alien and the nigh perfect sequel, Aliens. In fact, it actually makes Prometheus a better movie by bringing some more context and direction to the film that it lacked before the existence of Covenant. Personally, I can’t wait to see what awaits the crew of the Covenant when they land on Origae-6 in what is presumably the location of the next film.

Alien: Covenant – 7/10