Film review: ‘Alien Covenant’

Ridley Scott out of this world with thoughtful ‘Covenant'|

There is hardly a more enchanting vision than a chestburster alien popping through a human ribcage. First seen emerging from John Hurt’s carapace in Ridley Scott’s original “Alien,” this creature has inspired millions of frames of extraterrestrial cinema chasing a moment as spectacular.

Scott himself disappointed with the 2012 “Alien” film “Prometheus” - it was portent with little content - but that film allowed him to arrive at “Covenant,” a respectable heir to the “Alien” legacy.

The Covenant of the title is a ship headed toward a colonizing mission on an Earth-like planet, Origae-6, seven years of space travel away. The humans are in deep sleep under the care of Walter (Michael Fassbender), a familiar-looking android, until a power surge from a nearby stellar ignition damages the ship and wakes everyone up years too early. The Covenant captain, Jake, played by James Franco, dies in this initial chaos, which is sad news for his wife Dany (Katherine Waterston) but happy news for the audience, as we don’t have to suffer Franco’s acting for the next two hours.

Into the power vacuum steps Christopher Oram (Billy Crudup), a new skipper who is insecure in leading his crew but nevertheless possesses strong conquistador vibes - he must manifest his crew’s destiny to colonize a new world. Throwing a fair amount of shade at him is Dany, played carefully but forcefully by Waterston, as wary as we are of trying to be Sigourney Weaver in the original “Alien.”

There is good character acting from many, especially by Danny McBride as Tennessee, the chief pilot of the Covenant, who executes Jack Daniels toasts and ballsy landings with equal aplomb and also by Amy Seimetz - not seen enough since her great role in “Upstream Color” - as Maggie, a lander pilot and Tennessee’s wife.

As the crew repairs the ship and gets ready to re-hibernate in their sleep pods, they receive a mysterious transmission of the song “Country Roads.” It turns out it’s coming from almost heaven, an Earth-like planet just a few clicks away. Captain Oram makes a snap decision to trust John Denver and investigate this seemingly perfect habitat for humans.

It does not go well. Airborne, alien-growing spores infect some crew members immediately and the bloodbath is quickly upon them. Frenzied alien neomorphs spring from their hosts and rattle about quarantine cells that quickly resemble abattoirs.

The surviving crew is rescued by a cloaked figure who turns out to be David (Fassbender again, reprising his earlier model android from “Prometheus”), still golden-locked and styling himself like Peter O’Toole in “Lawrence of Arabia.” He offers the Covenant crewmembers asylum in his self-described “dire necropolis.”

It’s wonderful to see Fassbender at his best in this dual role, cycling between immense charm and utter frigidity. To distinguish Walter from David, he uses slight changes in accent and manner, as in a fascinating scene where the more spontaneous David teaches Walter to play a handmade flute despite the latter’s insistence that he can’t. The lesson is charged with rivalry - David is proud of his talent while Walter cautions him that, “One note spoils the symphony.”

Later, the pair have a discussion of literature which leads us to the most special thing about “Alien: Covenant”: it’s the only blockbuster film in recent history where a crucial plot twist is revealed by the inaccurate attribution of a poem.

The verse in question is “Ozymandias” and, in arguing about it, Walter and David show us that this film is less about aliens than about the nature of immortality. Is immortality simply living forever, as an android might, or is it something more - like an act of creation, like writing the lines:

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

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