Director: Ridley Scott

Cast : Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir

Run time : 2h 3m

Genre: Sci fi/Thriller

Alien covenant is the sequel to the confusing and mysterious Prometheus (2012) and a prequel to 1979’s Alien. This time Ridley Scott is back in the director’s chair to revitalize the franchise but unfortunately only coughs up enough blood for a satisfactory movie. The movie is a rehash of a tried and tested formula which ends up making you predict more scares than you would like.

The plot is simple- a bunch of people in the future land on a planet, come across alien eggs, get infected with Xenomorphs, give birth to them and they all get killed ruthlessly. Like the first one, there is an android (Michael Fassbender) and a badass female lead (Katherine Waterston). When the soon to be deceased crew land on this planet on account of a transmission they received in space they abandon their colonizing mission and take a detour. The planet they land on is very much like earth, although, they quickly realize the absence of any animals. Ridley is a pioneer in building suspense and this movie definitely doesn’t fall short of that. Soon, they find the alien ship that David (Fassbender) and Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) leave in to go find our supposed “creators” in Prometheus. A couple of crew members get infected with an air borne alien pathogen and start acting crazy which leads to the first reveal of the alien via the back of a crew member. This is not yet the ones we are familiar with but a white albino looking creature, nevertheless, they are scary. In a very bloody scene the crew scramble to find hope or a clear connection to the mother ship while the alien conveniently runs away only to haunt them later. After a shooting spree with the aliens, the crew finally gets saved by David the android from Prometheus. For the next long stretch David goes on to give a backstory and builds anticipation for the next alien attack.

If you’ve seen enough horror movies, you just know that some characters are going to die as soon as they start speaking. A smart person doing dumb things is what the movie thrives on. Mr. Scott tries hard to give the characters some weight and perspective but ends up with only a few fleshed out characters and many deadweight ones. His visuals, as always are spectacular. The difference between CGI and actual set are almost unidentifiable. The alien itself is scary but the devious android David and Good Samaritan android Walter (both played by Fassbender) are the highlight of this film. The female lead was adequate compared to the original female badass Ripley (Sigourney Weaver).

The film garners suspense by means of heavy monologues about faith, creation and references from the Bible, which seems a little flat when you get passed a ton of bloodshed. The only thing you look forward to is a good creepy scare, but instead you get connecting plot lines to the other movies. James Franco makes a cameo appearance and the plot twist is very predictable. The only redeeming quality of this movie would be the chills and thrills of the build up to the primary antagonists. A sweet Sci fi-horror score accompanies the visuals brilliantly.

Overall the movie has nothing original to offer and lacks the element of surprise that made the first film in this beloved franchise a classic. The film largely relies on done to death horror troupes and expendable characters to move forward.