Alien Covenant
released 2017
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“Alien Covenant” is an American, horror, sci-fi film that is a sequel to the film “Prometheus” directed by Ridley Scott and written by John Logan, Dante Harper and a story by Michael Green and Jack Paglen. It´s the second part of the Alien Prequel series. It was produced by David Giler, Walter Hill, Ridley Scott, Mark Huffam and Michael Schaefer. It stars a huge caste of very talented actors that include Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demian Bichir, Carmen Ejogo, Jussie Smollet, Callie Hernandez, Amy Seimetz, Nathaniel Dean, Alexander England, Benjamin Rigby, Uli Latukefu, Tess Haubrich, Lorelei King, Goran D. Kleut, Andrew Crawford, Javier Botet, James Franco, Guy Pearce and Benjamin Taylor. If you click on the link below and look on the IMDb webpage you will see that huge caste of people that worked on this film with their talent and hard work. That partly explains why it was such a good film. Make sure to check out the website too for more story details. I loved this film.

Alien Covenant IMDb webpage

Alien Covenant website

“Alien Covenant” is a story of a future humankind tinkering with life and finding out some uncomfortable facts about our past. The crew of a colony ship bound for a remote but habitable planet called Origae-6 take a detour to investigate a signal that was actually a John Denver song. (For those of you that don´t know who John Denver was, he was a very popular American folk singer from the late 20th Century). This is clearly a case of a Group of people who are in way over their heads. They make one bad decision after Another and the story gets more and more horrofic for them. The acting captain, played by Billy Crudup, makes terrible decisions. They unwittingly land on the planet of the Engineers and it´s desolate. There are no people, animals or even insects on this planet.

Keep in mind that the Engineers are the technologically superior race that manipulated humankind into what we are today. They are not creators of life in the strict definition of the word or by any religious standards. They do not create something from nothing. They did not create life from a void of nothingness. They are tweekers, or better yet manipulators of life on an atomic/ subatomic level. So in my opinion these creatures, the Engineers, are not even gods. They are just a race of beings more technologically advanced than us but they cannot create something from nothing so they are by no means divine. These movies do not explain or even answer the question of the existence of God or question the role of religion in humankind´s future. The Alien Series movies are more the story of how humankind accepts the fact that we are not alone in the universe. It also asks the question of how we treat life we have created outside the man / woman union. life that is better than us at surviving and that we choose not to nurture and love. This is a hard truth that we, as a species, will one day have to admit to ourselves if we are ever going to become the loving creators we hope to be. We can learn from the mistakes of the Engineers and become better people for it.

I really feel that the title of the “Alien Prequel Series” should have been called “David” because he is the center of the story. In the very first part of the movie David, played by Michael Fassbender, asks his creator Peter Weyland, played by Guy Pearce, if he is his son. Peter answers “You are my creation.” . Peter Weyland refuses to accept him as his son but rather a creation to fetch him his tea. He also is very jealous of David´s immortality. A normal, healthy parent / child relationship would have had the parent rejoice at the fact that their child had such abilities and gifts. But not Peter. Keep in mind that David is so human. He can do everything people can do but better. He is stronger, smarter, better at reasoning and has near immortality and so forth and because of this fact he will eventually be seen as a threat by the weaker humankind. For this reason he cannot assimilate in human society. He is essentially alone in the universe like Dr. Frankenstein´s Monster in the Mary Shelley classic. So David is basically lonely and seeks companionship.

That is the heart of the story of the “Alien Prequel Series”. It´s almost like what the ancient Greeks called the Nemesis. That force which you create that will bring your downfall. And of course the solution to this whole problem may just be love. Call me naive but it might be a lesson in the importance of nurturing life.

I can´t say enough about this film because I loved it that much. The story flow was less choppy than Prometheus and I cared more about the character of David in “Alien Covenant” than in Prometheus because of his desperate situation and the psychological toll his isolation took on him. I loved the story and the ending too. David is such a good strategist and problem solver he manages to escape his rough situation by a hair and might even survive and thrive.

“Alien Covenant” is a better movie than its predecessor with so many of the issues from the first resolved. So many questions are answered in this film and there´s great suspense, action and special effects. There are many different kinds of xenomorphs and I had trouble knowing who was who and how they came about, but that is OK. I´m guessing that the organic technology the Engineers were tampering with was incredibly unstable and seemed more like a doomsday weapon. The Engineers like the crew of the colony ship were in way over their heads.

Now there are flaws in this movie like the obvious sexism in film nowodays or the quick, brushed over description of how David annihilated the Engineers but that doesn´t stop it from being a good watch. (By sexism I mean the way the way male characters are always portrayed as broken or flawed next to female characters in American film nowodays. That really is annoying just like when it was done to woman 50 years ago.). As far as the destruction of the Engineers, well that should have taken a good 30 minutes of the movie or even its own movie. You could call it “Alien: Titans Fall” or something like that.   <Wink, wink, hint, hint Mr. Ridley Scott.>

So go out there and check out “Alien Covenant”. It´s worth the watch.

Written by John

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