"Alien: Covenant" is a Pointless Way to Spend Your Holiday Movie Watching Weekend
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Spend the unofficial star of summer here, not in Ridley Scott's Alien world
First off, Happy Memorial Day. I'm a little conflicted as a person on this day. I support the troops and those that fought for the freedom of this country, but I am vehemently opposed to war, and I HATE our current government. So, for me this Memorial Day, I choose to remember family members that fought in wars, and Harambe. It is just over one year since we lost Harambe. Those are the people I will memorialize on this day.
Now that that is out of the way, lets get to my review of "Alien: Covenant".
I was very excited to see this movie. I, like most movie watchers, love "Alien" and "Aliens". Those are 2 exceptional, scary, tight paced horror movies that happen in outer space. I'm not a big fan of horror movies, but there is something about being in space that attracts me to movies like "Alien" and "Aliens". There is nothing more I can say about those movies that hasn't already been said. They're classics.
On the other hand, "Prometheus" is one big pile of trash. I was so stoked to see that movie when it came out a few years back. I was pumped that they were going to do a prequel to 2 great movies. I was so excited that one of my favorite actors, Michael Fassbender, was going to have a big part in it. I loved that Damon Lindelof, of "Lost" fame, was writing it. It had everything that I thought I wanted. Then, I watched the movie and I just hated it. It was boring, incoherent, poorly acted, poorly written, terribly directed, it was bad. My wife fell asleep during all the big scenes, and I wished I had to. The only decent thing, and I use decent very loosely, was Fassbender. That dude is a great actor. I so wanted Noomi Rapace to be awesome, and while she was okay, she was no Sigourney Weaver. Everyone else was just awful. "Prometheus" nearly turned me off "Alien" and "Aliens". But, I re watched them both, and I was back on board.
Then, about a year ago, I heard that Ridley Scott was returning to do a new "Alien" movie. I got excited once again. Then, when I saw pictures of the set, heard about the cast and heard that the Xenomorhps would be back, needless to say, I was going to see this movie. The movie came out a couple of weeks ago, but with it being a holiday weekend, I had a chance to see it yesterday, and my dad and I took advantage of our open afternoon, and we went to see it. I sat down in my chair fully expecting to fall in love all over again with this franchise. This one was definitely was going to be better than "Prometheus" I said to myself.
The opening credits rolled, And yes, it was better than "Prometheus", but, this wasn't the movie I was hoping for when I first heard about it. The movie got decent reviews, but the consensus of the mass critics kind of summed it up perfectly. They said it was a nice return to form, and better than "Prometheus", but that it didn't add anything new to the franchise. I thought that was spot on. Everything about this movie was fine. Nothing was terrible, but nothing was great. The actors were all pretty decent, highlighted by Danny McBride and Michael Fassbender. Fassbender had dual roles, as 2 versions of his robot, and he played his part very well. I totally bought it. McBride, who I have only ever seen in comedies, I thought handled the drama, suspense and horror very well. Everyone else did okay. Not great, just okay. Katherine Waterson as Daniels, essentially the Sigourney Weaver role, was kind of a bad ass, but nowhere near as bad ass as Weaver. The rest of the crew was blah. Billy Crudup, Demian Bichir, Carmen Ejogo, Jussie Smollett, Callie Hernandez and Amy Seimetz didn't really leave any kind of impression on me. They were just there. The story was still a bit slow too. They focused a bit too much on Fassbender's robot, and that was to their demise. They relied a bit too much on Fassbender's great acting I think. The action sequences were okay, but they did not blow me away. In fact, you could definitely see the CGI in a few scenes.
Say something positive I keep hearing my mother say. With that in mind, the best part of the movie was the Xenomorhps, and the other aliens that scurried through the forest. They were definitely scary and crazy looking. My only problem with the aliens though, we saw the main Xenomorph in the previews. They should have held that out. It would have made it so much more cooler had I not known it was coming.
All this being said, "Alien: Covenant" was better than "Prometheus", but that is not a compliment. I expected a whole lot more from this movie. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I really wanted this movie to be a lot better. I'm glad I saw it, I am a completist. But, it just wasn't as great as I wanted it to be. I had higher hopes.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Harambe also loved "Alien" and "Aliens". The world owed him a better film than "Alien: Covenant".