Alien: Covenant aims to return to its Alien roots

The real title of this film should be Prometheus, Part 2, but the Alien franchise, old as it is, has more marketing power than the kinda-sorta prequel, Prometheus. I didn't hate Prometheus, but I didn't love it, either, as my earlier entry on that film stated. The good news about this sequel is that it's a more engaging and entertaining movie than its predecessor--and Michael Fassbender is again wonderful. The bad news is that it shares some of the worst flaws of the earlier movie.

This time, we follow a group of colonists who are heading for a distant planet when something happens. Rather than delving into spoilers, I'll just say that from almost the moment humans get involved, they start making poor choices. The quality of the choices goes down as the film progresses.

Meanwhile, the scenery and the effects are gorgeous, the people act reasonably well, and Fassbender is a delight.

So, yet again, we have a big summer action movie that is fun and will entertain you--as long as you turn off your reason.

It makes me yearn to write a movie about aliens or about zombies in which smart, well-trained, efficient people make intelligent choices, execute them well, and carry the day. Alas, there doesn't seem to be a market for such offerings.

If you're in the mood for big, brainless fun that is gorgeous to watch, check out Alien: Covenant. If you insist on involving your reason, give it a pass.

Prometheus

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I've been quite excited about seeing this film since I first heard about it.  Consequently, I went to the early evening show tonight with high hopes, even though friends had told me the reviews were not generally good.

I left the theater with decidedly mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I had a good time.  Prometheus is great fun, well-paced, and visually stunning.  I was never bored, and each frame of the film was lovely to behold.  The actors also generally delivered good performances.  Noomi Rapace continues to grab your attention each time she's on screen, Charlize Theron did the best she could with a caricature of a character, and Idris Elba was, as always, wonderful despite his very small role.  The best performance in the film by far, though, was Michael Fassbender's portrayal of a very fussy android. 

On the other hand, at no point during or after the movie could I allow myself to think, or the entire thing would begin to fall apart.  We're spending a trillion dollars on a two-year space mission, so of course we will pick so-so experts in each field and never think at all about how compatible the crew will be.  We're scientists in an alien atmosphere, so of course the moment the carbon dioxide level looks tolerable, we'll take off our helmets; we're not the sort to worry about airborne contagions.  We'll then take off our gloves and use our bare fingers to touch everything that squirms.  And on and on.  At no point can you allow yourself to think what this mission would actually be like.

Despite all those flaws, though, as I noted above I left the film happy to have seen it.  If you are willing to suspend not only your disbelief but also all sense of reason and logic, definitely check out Prometheus.  If, however, you can't enjoy a nonsensical movie, give it a pass.