Don't let the bed bugs bite! (Alien: Covenant 2017)

109.
Alien: Covenant

 

7/10

The Sequel to Prometheus and prequel to the older Alien films, this had a lot of promise and fans waiting for a long time to come around. The return of the Xenomorph was always going to be highly anticipated amongst Alien, Sci-fi and horror fans alike. After watching life, it got me a bit more excited to watch, after what was a bit of a wet revival of the franchise in the effort of its prequel. This time there promised to be a lot more of the alien killer that has become a phenomenal presence in the heart of the cinematic world. This film saw the return of Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston fresh off the back of some Fantastic Beasts success, Danny McBride who I wasn't expecting and A couple of others from the Prometheus.
The movie begins with a big flash back to the beginning of it all and Peter Weyland, played by Guy Pearce, speaks to his newly created synthetic, who has chosen the name David for himself after looking at the famous statue. Peter tells him that one day they will find the creator of man together, but as we know from the prequel, it never happened as Weyland died and David was left stranded. Fast forward to 2104 and the new ship, Covenant is flying through space to find a remote planet carrying 2000 colonists and 1000 embryos. The ship is being monitored by Walter, a new synthetic which physically resembles David down to the ground, obviously with Fassbender playing him. Suddenly the ship starts to kick off as a neutrino burst is detected near and the new star igniting cause the ship to be damaged. The shockwave kills some of the sleeping colonists and Walter orders the ship to wake up the crew for help but the captain dies when his pod won't open and he's burnt alive. This is the husband of Daniels, played by Waterston and more surprisingly, he's played by James Franco. It's weird to think he'd agree to being in the film for such a short cameo. While they are repairing the ship, they pick up a radio transmission and against the wishes of the recently made widow, the new captain decides to investigate. Great, nothing ever goes wrong when they change the plan.
As they keep the main ship in orbit with some of the crew, a larger group leave to explore and find the transmission which leads them to a crashed alien ship. Two of the crew are accidentally infected after inhaling alien spores, rapidly sickening, a duo try to get back to the small ship and the med bay in order for help. Maggie, wife of the man pilot Tennessee locks the two in the med bay until they know what the hell is going on but things take a quick turn for the worst as a small alien bursts out of his back, killing him and the mauls the other woman to death. Maggie for some reason opens the door to kill it but the bugger is so quick she has no chance. Spraying bullets she accidentally hits a gas tank and the explosion kills her and blows up the lander. The Neomorph escapes and runs just as the second infected gets back with the gang and they all see the action. An alien bursts from his throat and now the two aliens attack from all areas, trying to pick them off one by one. Walter sacrifices his hand in order to kill one and then a bright light appears as David, who has survived, comes to the rescue. He leads them to a city which is full of humanoid corpses, burnt into position of the main square.
Now hidden away, David explains what happened and that when they tried to take off and crashed back to the planet, himself and the Doctor released a bioweapon that killed all of the natives and that Shaw died in the collision. After they tell him what they were doing on the planet, they attempt to make contact with the ship, telling Tennessee what has happened to his wife. In the mean time, one of the females in the crew is countered alone by a Neomorph and decapitated. David walks in to communicate with it until the captain shoots it dead to his horror. David tells him that they are a result of experimenting with the liquid bioweapon to create a new species. He takes the captain, Oram, down to an incubation chamber and tricks him into embracing the famous facehugger, which does its usual trick and an alien soon bursts out of his chest. This was a s light plot hole as in the sequels, it took a while for the alien to come out. As the rest of the crew search for the two deceased, Walter confronts David as he works out that the bioweapon was released on purpose to kill the population. David is of the idea that humans are an inferior species and should not be allowed to live in the galaxy. David, simply pulls a wire from Walters neck, shutting him down and goes on to capture Daniels. Explaining that he actually killed Shaw and used her for experiments of his own. Walter reactivates himself and fights David so that Daniels can run while another member is attacked by another facehugger, being saved by this team mate, they both are attacked by the Xenomorph until the rescuer is killed and the facehugged victim escapes. Surely he's been planted. Tennessee lands in another lander to extract the remaining crew but the alien lands on the small ship which Daniels decides to take on. Finally getting the better of it after a greatly terrifying scene of it trying to smash through the window with his head, she grabs it with a crane and crushes it to death.
Back on the ship, with remaining crew and Walter take a breather but obviously that bloke was planted. It quickly matures and picks them off one by one. The three remaining, Walter, Tennessee and Daniels trap the alien in an air lock and send it shooting out into space. With the course set to the planet they were originally set out for, the crew go back to their pods, and the colonists non the wiser. As Daniels settles to sleep she realises what was an inkling for all watchers, Walter is actually David! But it's too late and she falls asleep. David is now in control and spits out two alien embryos to store with the humans. Using Walter's name to record a log, he lies and states that the crew mostly died from the blasts at the beginning of the movie and the eerily walks down the corridors until the film ends.
With not as much jump scares as I thought we'd get, this film wasn't as intense as I first came to expect. Between the plot holes of how long the aliens took to burst out of the crew but the twists between who the characters were and the actual intent of David, it was a much more enjoyable watch that the slow prequel. The main focus on the crew seemed to be relationships as each one slowly started to loose their partner, whether is was a spouse, best friend or boyfriend/girlfriend, it showed how each one dealt with is all. There was some great action as they tried to fight each alien before killing it and the special effects were just that. The alien itself had a lot more textured look about it with the freedom of CGI and how much it was come on from the props of old. I'm glad they didn't change the look too much and that goes for the facehugger too. I'm looking forward to where we go from here and Ridley Scott may have a chance of fully reviving this franchise by the way it is going.