On Second Thought… Alien: Covenant

Much like your career and marriage, it’s nice to switch it up every once in a while so I’m debuting a new type of post here Bulletproof Action and it is one that is years in the making.

Each year I see new flicks or take the time to re-watch something that didn’t quite land with me upon my first visit. Sometimes I feel the same way about a film after the time spent away from it but other times I come away with a completely different opinion of it. That is what ON SECOND THOUGHT is all about. Now, onto my thoughts….

An absolutely amazing poster and a cool series that sees its original director (Ridley Scott) returning to the helm to tell a story that he admits he always wanted to tell. Whether you believe him or not, I’m just not sure that this is the story that fans are begging for.

The Continuation of Prometheus

I have a like/hate relationship with Prometheus. Visually it is a stunning film to look at. Nobody does it better than Ridley Scott in space and he really had his A game when it came to the look of the film. Other than, though, Prometheus gets a big thumb down from me. I’m less interested in the story of the Engineers and how or why the xenomorphs exist than I am with another story of them fucking shit up in space or on some colony. Give me more Marines fighting xenos and I’m happy. What I definitely don’t want is a continuation of a story that I already don’t love. Covenant doesn’t pick up right after Prometheus but it certainly feels like it sense the opening scene involves returning characters and the thing goes for almost an hour without anything involving aliens happening. This story with David and the updated model Walter is more interesting than watching Robinson Crusoe Fassbender doing science experiments on space frogs but only be default. Sorry, Ridley. I’m just not that interested in this prequel business.

The Crew

They are certainly not as stupid as the one in Prometheus but they do make plenty of mistakes. I was happy to see that they had security on board and everyone serves their purpose without being totally one-noted. Katherine Waterston’s Daniels is easily my favorite character not played by Danny Mcbride as she shows her worth as both a leader and a fighter. She’s definitely got that Ripley feel to her where she isn’t a victim fighting to survive but a badass who has to constantly pivot to a new role. The fact that there were security dudes running around with them just waiting to be offed by the xenos was a big plus for me.

Pale, Bald Dudes

I already mentioned that I didn’t care for the story of the Engineers and I most certainly don’t want to go to their planet. Oh wait….we’re going anyway but you’re just going to kill them all? WTF? What a waste….

Kickin’ Ass

Once Covenant kicks into high gear it really does kick some ass. It’s not like the Colonial Marines or the badass crew from Alien Resurrection levels of ass-kickery but it’s still a lot of fun. Daniels uses her unique abilities to take out a couple of the xenos and the rest of the crew essentially just die where they stand. I think Covenant did a handful of things right and letting them kill a couple of the xenos is one of them.

The Story of David

One of the biggest problems I have with these prequel films from Ridley Scott is that the science seems a bit odd. It feels like these films take place years later than the original films and not decades before. It’s like watching the Star Wars prequels and seeing all of those shiny spaceships and wondering “what the hell happened?” David, in particular, feels like he’s far too advanced to be around at this point. I remember Lance Henriksen’s Bishop commenting on the android model from the original Alien but it’s a good thing he didn’t know about this David model. The good thing about these films is that they star Michael Fassbender and he crushes every scene he’s in.

I wasn’t originally too keen on Alien: Covenant as a film. Part of that was my bias against Prometheus but ON SECOND THOUGHT, I think that Covenant had way more than I wanted to admit. Waterston and Fassbender carry most of the film and the things I disliked about the film are far fewer this time around. It’s still not on par with the original four, in my opinion, but it blows Prometheus out of the water.