As ever, Scott’s direction is superb, and the production values are vividly impressive. (Review: Patrick Compton - 8)
IT would be hard to describe this franchise
as “well loved” – after all it’s hard to have soft feelings about larval aliens
exploding out of people’s chests – but I am relieved, after all the
mythological mumbo-jumbo about the origins of the human race in Prometheus, that Ridley Scott has
returned to first principles in his latest space outing.
This means, in effect, that Scott has returned
to doing what he does best, both thrilling audiences and giving them
nightmares.
If you are interested in this sort of
thing, Covenant is the second of
three intended “prequels” which will take us up to the original (and still the
best) film that Scott made nearly 40 years ago. Since then he, and directors
such as James Cameron, David Fincher and Jean-Pierre Jeunet have massaged this
franchise into a multi-million-dollar industry that will surely continue next
time around.
The action starts 10 years after the
disappearance of the spaceship Prometheus,
with yet another attempt to colonise space, this time in a starship named
Covenant. A bunch of married couples – James Franco and Katherine Waterston,
Danny McBride and Amy Seimetz, Demián Bichir and Nathaniel Dean, Billy Crudup
and Carmen Ejogo – are taking hundreds of (sleeping) colonists to a distant
planet.
At this stage, the acting captain, played
by Crudup, makes a fateful decision, opting to take a detour to a green but
lifeless planet named Origae-6, which he believes might be a better bet.
Hardened watchers of this franchise will quickly realise that surely ain’t the
case as the crew members discover the crashed Prometheus and a whole lot of other, terminal, problems besides.
Essentially, Scott adopts the same kind of
tried and trusted formula that B-movie horror films have been using for
decades. Throw a bunch of people together in a forest hut/wilderness/unfriendly
planet and see who survives the attentions of zombies/bloody demons/demented
axe murderers or, in this case, the familiar but still repulsive attentions of
chest-bursting aliens.
No spoilers will be forthcoming, but it
wouldn’t be unfair to point out that the movie introduces us to a new “human”
robot, named Walter, a slightly updated version of David, who played a central
role in Prometheus. Both are played
with sinister, enigmatic charm by Michael Fassbender and a lot hangs on what
happens when they meet on Origae-6.
The leading feminist warrior – a role first
made famous by Sigourney Weaver in the original film – is this time undertaken
by Waterston, and she makes a mighty good fist of it without losing her sense
of vulnerability and personhood.
While there is a certain predictability
about what is going to happen on Origae-6, Scott keeps us guessing about
certain important matters right to the end. And, as I’ve already intimated,
seeing the HL Giger-designed aliens go about their work is an intensely
visceral experience, however much you feel you know what’s going to happen.
As ever, Scott’s direction is superb, and
the production values are vividly impressive. Ultimately, however, it is
Fassbender’s show and his twin characters provide the key narrative thread that
takes you through to the provocative ending.
Alien:
Covenant opened in Durban cinemas on May 19. –
Patrick Compton
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