NEW ON THE BIG SCREEN/ALIEN: COVENANT
SCI-FI HORROR. With MICHAEL FASSBENDER, KATHERINE WATERSTON and BILLY CRUDUP. Director: RIDLEY SCOTT. 16HLV. In SA cinemas now. With this sixth instalment Scott returns to the inconsistent Alien franchise that’s gone from the highs of Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986) to the lows of Alien: Resurrection (1997). After the ambitious but flawed prequel Prometheus (2012) divided audiences and critics, Scott seems to have listened to complaints and gone back to the dark thrills that made Alien so successful.
Ten years after the events of Prometheus, a spaceship is on its way to a remote planet with 2 000 colonists on board. But a distress signal lures them to an uninhabited planet that seems like paradise. There they meet the android David (Fassbender), sole survivor of the Prometheus mission. The crew, led by Captain Oram (Crudup), decide to stay despite the objections of scientist Daniels (Waterston).
Then they come across weird alien pod things . . .
Most critics are positive about the film. Reviews aggregator site Rottentomatoes.com gives it 75 percent based on 131 reviews and the general consensus is: “It delivers another satisfying round of close-quarters deep-space terror, even if it doesn’t take the saga in any new directions.”
The Hollywood Reporter writes, “Savvy old master Scott has resuscitated the series with the most satisfying entry in the franchise since the first two.” The Telegraph gives it five stars and describes it as “grandiose, exhilarating, cynical and perverse”.
But other reviewers are less kind. Total Film gives it three stars. “At times, it feels less like a sequel and more like a do-over. It’s smarter and scarier than Prometheus and boasts a nightmarish atmosphere comparable to the original. But with this comes a crippling reverence for the past – Covenant too often plays it safe.” And Sight and Sound dismisses it as “a space vacuity”. – COMPILED BY SANDRA VISSER