Saw it this afternoon. It was an Alien flick; which I liked but didn't love.
Aliens is my favorite movie of all-time followed closely by Alien (yeah.... shut up...) and thus here is my take on the movie:
- Ridley has got to work on something besides distress call, go to planet, get infected, wait for the drama to unfold.
- Having watched pretty much all of the trailers and the prologue, the movie felt like "oh hey, when is this part going to happen..." which kinda sucks to be honest.
- The beginning of the movie with Weyland and David was great but tbh, it belonged in Prometheus. I get the subtext of driving the point home of "meeting your maker..." which was the overall theme of Prometheus however, this movie was about terraforming and exploration.
- The fact that Franco died without saying a line was actually kind of amazing.
- The fact that two people died a crispy death is also kind of a amazing.
- The cellular goo that penetrated the two colonists was as expected.
- The reaction to those sick colonists was to be expected.
- David with long hair was epic. In fact Fassbender stole the show to be frank. Whether it was Walter or David, each scene with either or both was on point. Also, not going to lie... hot android kissing.
Mythos:
Now for the "Mythos" part of the movie which I feel like Ridley fell flat on.
- We wanted to see the prologue of what Shaw and David did, didn't get to see it.
- We wanted more details as to what happened with the Engineers (we saw it). However, the context seems wholly at question. In the film, they (The Engineers) appear to be welcoming back their ship only to have the black plague dropped on them. This seems to be tied to the love story sub-plot that develops between Prometheus and Covenant. Would have loved to know more about this as it was alluded to in the convo. with Walter and David.
- Shaw herself. Obviously she died a horrible death by one of David's failed experiments or perhaps his greatest. Her body torn apart was most likely David researching any areas of the body affected after the black goo caused a generation of a creature inside. It goes to show Ridley's odd attention to detail given the fact that David had a human (or perhaps Engineer) body that you'd find in a biology class in his "secret" lair. I also hate that what most people expected going into this movie was a tying up lose ends from Prometheus of which Ridley is most likely (I would assume) save for Alien: Paradise.
- Art style was on point along with musical queues from all Alien movies but I noticed that this movie missed a chance to have a unique flair of music. I also think it should have followed some queues from 'Alien' and used the atmospheric noise as the soundtrack rather than anything used to cut or create tension.
Lastly, the Xeno's.
- David able to talk to them was fascinating. The fact that what he was doing when he found the Covenant crew was really putting them in his jar for his experiments since clearly he no longer feared them and they no longer viewed him as a threat. This was almost a harp back (ironically) to Alien Resurrection where Ripley felt a biological connection to the Xeno's.
- The shape and rapid growth was also interesting. Instead of the "chest burster" we get in 'Alien' that grows into a full grown Xeno, we get baby Xeno's that grow into larger versions quite quick. We only get a hint of the Xeno growth in 'Alien 3' when the Xeno is shedding its skin like snake. I would venture a guess that because the black goo was perfected by David and that the eggs that were laid by..... "...It must be something we haven't seen yet...." (*coughs*) Queen, then it make me wonder how exactly the eggs were laid for the facehuggers. Anyways....
Final thoughts:
Ridley checks all the boxes but the movie (to me at least) lacks a bit of a soul in terms of it identity within the 'Alien' cannon. It screams for attention as it has some great visuals and good mechanics but it lacks a long lasting punch to be remembered. The irony is I find myself liking Prometheus now MORE than I did simply because the interaction with the Engineer and the whole "how do we live forever" mythos seemed to be a bit more interesting even tho Prometheus is filled with a bevy of plot holes. Which movie is better? Neither, honestly. They each have their pro's and con's of which the story again is centered around David. Without him as an anchor, we don't really have a story to follow due to his mandate from Weyland of "..Try harder.". I will say this, the next Alien movie needs something more in common with District 9 than it does 'Alien'. It needs to be about the story telling and characters rather than the events of action or horror that happens to them. Perhaps Ridley will find that perfect combination in his next chapter.