'Alien: Covenant' Review: Thank you, David. (Minor Spoilers)

The Prometheus sequel and sixth film of the Alien series, Alien: Covenant is the latest sci-fi horror film by Ridley Scott.  Although mostly a paint-by-numbers narrative with disappointing action and unimaginative horror scenes, Alien: Covenant puts a fascinating spin on its own universe.  Thanks to a talented cast, particularly Michael Fassbender, absorbing imagery, and the inclusion of David to the well-traversed 'humans in outer-space danger' storyline, Alien: Covenant is a worthy addition to the series.     

Onboard the Covenant, a space crew en route to colonize a new planet receives a mysterious transmission from a nearby, seemingly habitable planet.  Against better judgement, the captain detours the crew to explore the planet and locate the transmission, resulting in many gruesome deaths at the hands of scary alien monsters.  Many of the characters are one-dimensional alien fodder, and the few that are fleshed-out just barely maintain the viewer's hope for the crew.  

Without question, the most interesting and best part of the film is David, the human-pitying android, played by Fassbender. Although significant to the plot, the alien threat is largely put in the background, as David is the lead antagonist of the film. Since Prometheus, David has interestingly learned to create art, play music, conduct eerie zoology experiments, and has developed a taste for creating life, even if it means ending life in the process, which of course it does.  Using the excuse that humans are imperfect, David means to prevent humanity from colonizing the galaxy.  This story thread greatly enriches the Alien universe, pushing it beyond the basic scary monster narrative seen in the predecessor films and raises provocative questions about human transmutability.

Fassbender delivers a fantastic performance, not only as David, but also as his "brother," Walter.  The dual performance is especially impressive when the two androids share the screen, as it is easy to forget that both are the same actor.  Other notable cast members are Katherine Waterston, Danny McBride, and Billy Crudup. Largely due to the script, Waterston is not comparable to Sigourney Weaver's Ripley or even Noomi Rapace's Dr. Shaw, but she is convincing in her widow grief throughout the film.  McBride surprises in a non-comedic, endearing and assertive role, and Crudup plays the part of good-intentioned, faith-driven captain well.  When the script allows, all of the actors shine.

  

Aside from David and some strong performances, there is little else that enriches the film.  The action scenes mostly underwhelm and the horror elements leave a lot to be desired.  Outside of an acid-filled alien being crushed in the jaws of a crane, nothing interesting or fantastic happens within the physical human fight for survival.  Likewise, David's hand-to-hand combat with Walter offers nothing special. The predictable "twist" ending is similarly underwhelming and should have been handled with subtlety.  Many of the deaths are splendidly gruesome, but nothing is done that audiences haven't seen before, nor are any of those scenes particularly scary.  The saving grace is that the cinematography and mise-en-scène are always beautiful and absorbing, including the bloody, gory parts.  It is a treat to see graphic horror given a big-budget treatment.

Alien: Covenant is worth watching, if only to enjoy the David developments and to keep up with the Alien film series. With 20th Century Fox and Ridley Scott already in development on another sequel, it will be interesting to see where the series goes from here. Hopefully, they won't kill off any main characters between films again.

What did you think of the film?  Sound off below!

Game of Thrones S07E06 'Beyond the Wall' Review: Pace is the enemy. (SPOILERS)

EPISODE SPOILERS!  Read at your own risk.

Game of Thrones is known for going all in on their pre-finale episodes.  Large scale battle scenes and shocking character deaths are staples of each season's second-to-last episode.  Beyond the Wall stays true to this structure, giving viewers an engaging ice zombie battle and epically killing off one of Daenerys' beloved dragons.  In terms of technical filmmaking - direction, cinematography, sound design, editing, visual effects, production design, etc. - Game of Thrones has been nothing but consistently excellent.  Beyond the Wall is no exception.  In fact, this episode may have the best production value of any television episode, ever.  However, the story pace moves faster than Gendry's marathon dash to the wall, which is an exception to the show's general slow, methodical narrative build.  Is this a result of the producers deciding to use their ten-episode budget on a seven-episode season?  Who knows?  Regardless, the rapid-fire story pacing of this episode does raise a few eyebrows in terms of logic and consistency.

Focusing on two narratives, Sunday's episode saw Jon Snow and his suicide squad venturing north of the wall to capture an ice zombie (a wight), while Sansa and Arya confront each other over matters of trust and family loyalty. 

The Sansa/Arya conflict is intriguing, despite being tolerably over-dramatic and asking the audience to accept some not-so-consistent character motivations.  Is Arya justified in her brooding anger toward Sansa over a letter written by an under duress teenager?  Would Sansa so-quickly tolerate talk of killing her own sister without questioning advice from, of all people, Petyr Baelish?  Where Sansa and Arya stand in opposition of each other is first-rate story conflict.  There are trust issues on both sides with risk of violence and death, but there have not been enough story beats to justify these circumstances or the extreme motives of either character.  Said plainly, it feels rushed.  Despite this, their story is entertaining and the strong performances by both actresses helps carry it.  Hopefully, this is not the final conflict for either character, as it would be a shame to see Arya's or Sansa's story end in a sister dispute orchestrated by Littlefinger.

To a much larger degree, Jon Snow's quest to capture a wight has its own rushed pace and logic problems.  Mostly a spectacle, peppered with testosterone-driven witty banter, these scenes come across like fan fiction.  Albeit, really fun, glorious fan fiction, but fan fiction nonetheless.  Jon Snow and his band of heroes, two of which have magic flaming swords, fight off a zombie bear, kill a White Walker, capture a wight, strand themselves on an island surrounded by a walking dead army, and are saved by Daenerys with her dragons.

Was it exhilarating to see dragons beyond the wall, burning down the Night King's army?  Was it heartbreaking, yet morbidly fascinating to watch a full-grown dragon pierced and killed by an ice spear?  A resounding yes!  But were the events that led to those moments consistently paced with what viewers have come to expect from Game of Thrones?  Not really.  And more importantly, were those events logical?  Also, not really.  The White Walkers could've used their long-range ice spears on Jon Snow and his men on the island, before the dragons arrived.  The show has never established that Gendry is a marathon snow sprinter.  Daenerys could not have found Jon and the others in one day's time.  And Jon did not need to be randomly rescued by his Uncle Benjen when he should have been rescued by a dragon to further the more interesting Targaryen ancestry storyline.

Game of Thrones is a fantasy show.  Shadow demons are birthed to kill kings, the dead are resurrected, young girls can become shape-shifters, and dragons obey the commands of a fire-resistant queen.  It's fair to expect viewers to stretch their imaginations but only when the unbelievable has been previously established in some small way, or even better, in several ways.  Beyond the Wall doesn't bother with this basic storytelling guideline.          

Despite all of this, season seven's pre-finale is an excellent episode.  In this rare case, the spectacle and production value win out over the story issues.  It is simply so much fun to watch.

What did you think of Sunday's episode?  Was Jon right to bend the knee?  What will become of his relationship with Daenerys?  Are you excited to see the zombie ice dragon in action?  Comment below!

Does anyone know what the Night King wants?