Review: Alien: Covenant is more than an origin story

Editor’s note: This review contains minor spoilers.

In 1979 Ridley Scott shocked and delighted filmgoers with Alien, a tense tale of the crew of the spacecraft Nostromo. Despite the movie’s science-fiction theme, the subtext was pretty basic: “It was seven people locked in the old, dark house,” Scott says. “Who’s going to die first, and who’s going to survive?” Buried within the tale were questions about the role of humanity, the human condition, and the hubris of greedy corporations. Those themes were explored more thoroughly by other directors in the action-packed sequels Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien: Resurrection.

When Scott returned to the Alien universe by directing the 2012 prequel, Prometheus, what had been side notes to the horror and action became significant plot points. Prometheus looked more closely at the relationship between humans and our progeny, whether carbon or silicon based, and at how we influence and adapt to our environment. The film pondered the nature of the legacy that humans—or, for the purposes of the movie, a superintelligent alien species—hope to leave when they pass on.

Scott sticks with the newly installed themes in Alien: Covenant. “You can’t keep being chased down a corridor by a monster—it gets boring,” he says. “It came to me that no one had asked the question, who made the Alien [also known as the xenomorph] and why?”

In terms of style and plot, the new sequel is a return to basics. The opening scene harks back to some of the first shots in the original 1979 movie. The spaceship Covenant, which is on its way to a new planet, is loaded with 2000 colonists and thousands of embryos and maintained by an android, Walter. The robot is a successor to David, who played a seminal role in Prometheus.

In a nod to physics, a neutrino burst alerts Walter that a storm of energetic particles is about to hit the spacecraft. Before the ship can be locked down, the Covenant sustains significant damage, and the captain is killed. While repairs are being made, a signal believed to be from a human source is received from a nearby planet. The crew members—now reluctant to reenter hibernation for the remaining seven years of their journey—decide to investigate despite warnings from Daniels (Katherine Waterston), the late captain’s wife and head of the terraforming team. Within weeks a planet is found that looks suitable for supporting human life. Of course, the more the crew investigates, the more unsettling the planet becomes.

Michael Fassbender gives probably one of his finest career performances in the roles of Walter and David. The discussions between androids and humans spell out the big questions posed by the movie: Should a species try to improve itself? And does improvement mean that past models are obsolete? “Even the monkeys stood upright at some point,” one character points out.

The movie is beautifully filmed by Scott. It is nice to see old-school techniques such as building giant sets instead of using green screens to create a new world. The Covenant‘s bridge has 1500 working lights and displays, and the astronaut suits were inspired by modern deep-sea diving suits. The acting, as you would expect from a Scott movie, is top notch; Fassbender stands out because he has the best lines.

Unfortunately, much of the film feels like a compilation of the greatest horror hits from the earlier Alien movies. For fans of the franchise, those scenes will feel less terrifying and somewhat repetitive. In addition, Scott overuses background music to portend danger. It’s a technique that has contaminated too many documentaries as well as fictional movies. Challenging the audience to recognize cues appears to be a dying art.

The plot is engaging but also at times predictable or puzzling. For example, the Covenant has spare parts to fix its solar sails but just one lander for all the colonists. That’s not the sort of interstellar service viewers would expect. Also, is so much explanation of the xenomorphs’ origin really necessary? The movie would have been tighter and moved faster if some mysteries were left unresolved.

Most striking is the concept of the xenomorphs as bioweapons, which was raised in Prometheus but expounded upon further in Covenant. The superintelligent aliens transmitted the location of a massive deteriorated weapons dump. Was it really a “Whatever you do, please don’t go there” message that was misinterpreted? If the aliens have their own issues with bioweapons going out of control, why would they leave them there? Why not clean them up and stop others from getting contaminated?

That theme raises questions about the success of the proposed warning markers for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage facility that may one day be built. The markers are intended to warn humans away from the area for thousands of years. Yet governments aren’t sufficiently prioritizing nuclear waste cleanup and sequestration. Earlier this month a tunnel collapsed at Hanford, a major superfund site that’s expected to take decades to clean up.

In light of real-life events on Earth, one could argue that the reason the xenomorphs were left lying around was budget cuts. Or perhaps a naive belief that what happens on planet X will always stay on planet X. The fate of Alien: Covenant‘s heroes is a reminder of the unintended consequences of leaving toxic materials and weapons lying around for others to stumble upon.

It’s not in the script, but it’s the nightmare that keeps me awake.