"More Death"

A Review of "Alien: Covenant" by Nathan H. Box

Director: Ridley Scott, Writers: Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett, Starring: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup

Rating: 2 Stars, SKIP!

In the far reaches of space, the colony ship, Covenant finds itself bound for a remote planet. In the midst of the crews' space exploration, they stumble across an uncharted planet that seems hospitable to human life.  Veering off course, they decide to explore this new planet in hopes of establishing a new home for mankind. Once they land, they encounter David, played by Michael Fassbender. He is the synthetic survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition. Of course, there is more to this planet than meets the eye. It is also inhabited by a hostile and violent alien life-form. Which means, the crew must spend the better part of the movie trying to survive and escape. 

First, I must say I hate sci-fi survival movies. They are so often filled with gratuitous violence and comical death scenes. Now, I don't doubt for one second these sort of events where people do anything to survive actually occur in the real world. I also don't doubt that a story of merit can be plucked from people who survived such ordeals. Yet, in my mind, the science fiction world has a way of taking something conceivable and turning it into something cartoonish. 

This cartoonish sort of survival is "Alien: Covenant." The movie picks up where "Prometheus" left off; which is a film that confused the masses and forced people to leave theaters wondering why such things are allowed to be made in the first place. Where the previous movie confused, this one hopes to straighten things out by introducing clones and two Michael Fassbender's appearing on the screen at the same time. From there, things get really confusing when you learn no one has honest intentions and David brought these evil Aliens to the new planet. This only means one thing; more death. In fact, this movie is only concerned with death and interesting ways in which people can die. 

As I watched characters I care for very little, run, hide, and fight for their lives, all I could think was this... these aliens look really fake. How is that the Aliens from the movies in the 80's looked better and more realistic? Then I thought, how the hell do all of these movies connect together? Then I realized I wasn't paying any attention to the big screen before me. Which is a tell-tale sign the movie I am watching isn't any good. This finally led me to my verdict; avoid this one. You have better things to do with you life. 

Be good to each other, 

-Nathan