Theater, home or skip? ‘Alien: Covenant’ – Purdue Exponent

Alien: Covenant is a gruesome movie that brings the horror of the original Alien to a modern audience.

Sticking to the horror style of the original, Covenant chooses to stray away from extended gunfights with Xenomorphs the original aliens and instead makes the characters feel nearly powerless against a force they do not understand.

The movie does not pull any punches, especially to the viewers gut. Where the iconic chestburster scene of the original arguably still is somewhat frightening and surely was horrifying when originally released, the birth of the new Neomorph race of aliens will make viewers hope they didnt eat too much before watching.

The birth process of the Neomorph starts by the alien attempting to claw its way out of the hosts by ripping through their back, then causing a bloody exit through the mouth of the host. The floors and nearby people are covered in the blood of the host.

The gore and blood-ridden birth of these creatures will make the faint of heart surely feel sick to their stomachs.

This movie does excel in its use of CGI, never using too much to make the situation feel unrealistic. The Xenomorphs and Neomorphs both look as realistic as the actor who motion-captured their movements.

Their fluid movements show a clear evolution over the Xenomorph in Alien.

The strongest performance from the movie was by Michael Fassbender, playing both androids Walter and David, the latter who audiences met in Prometheus. Fassbender lives up to the idea of being a nearly soulless robot perfectly, showing no respect for human life as David, while playing a protective and somewhat compassionate character in Walter.

Where the movie ultimately falls apart is when it tries to be clever.

Near the start of the final third of the movie, the exploration team on the planet discovers that David has been trying to breed and develop the Xenomorph species. This causes a fight between him and the surviving humans when Walter comes to the aid of Daniels (played by Katherine Waterson) and fights with David in the most out-of-place parts of the movie.

A battle of Fassbender vs. Fassbender.

The two throw each other around in the building, similar to the Hulk throwing his enemies around in a Marvel film. After spending so much time developing the fear of what the Xenomorphs will do, the movie throws it away for super-powered androids.

The real tipping point comes after the fight, where Walter appears to be ahead as David reaches for a knife as the movie cuts away. One minute later and Fassbender leaves the building, leaving audiences to wonder (and likely correctly suspect) whether it was Walter or David who won.

Then the twist is revealed at the end of the film, which had distracted the audience for the 10 minutes prior.

The addition of another ending to an Aliens movie with the Xenomorphs being shot out of an airlock into deep space makes what could have been a fairly decent movie into a repeat of what came before it.

Unless youve been a lifelong Aliens fan, theres very little reason to go see this film in theaters. Wait for it to come to Netflix or your local Redbox for a scary movie night with friends or family.

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Theater, home or skip? 'Alien: Covenant' - Purdue Exponent