{"id":53249,"date":"2017-05-20T16:20:30","date_gmt":"2017-05-20T20:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/twice-the-fassbender-in-alien-covenant-weekend-movie-review\/"},"modified":"2017-05-20T16:20:30","modified_gmt":"2017-05-20T20:20:30","slug":"twice-the-fassbender-in-alien-covenant-weekend-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/twice-the-fassbender-in-alien-covenant-weekend-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Twice the Fassbender in \u2018Alien: Covenant\u2019 \u2013 Weekend Movie Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twice the Fassbender in \u2018Alien: Covenant\u2019 \u2013 Weekend Movie Review<\/b><\/p>\n

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Ridley Scott on the set of \u201cAlien: Covenant\u201d his third Alien feature<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

If the famed director Ridley Scott were in art school, his professor would be yanking the paintbrush out of his hand \u2014 \u201cit\u2019s perfect, stop adding brush strokes!\u201d His wife probably has to pull spices from his hands as he cooks. If you\u2019ve been playing along with this Hollywood giant\u2019s career you know that he can never leave well enough alone. I\u2019ve lost count of how many \u201cversions\u201d there now are of his early sci-fi masterpiece Blade Runner<\/em> (1982) and, after years of threats, that film will have a sequel this October, Blade Runner 2049<\/em>, though Scott opted to pass the directorial reigns over to Denis Villeneuve (Arrival).<\/p>\n

Having exhausted returning to that particular sci-fi well, Ridley has moved back even earlier in his career to the film that made him famous, Alien<\/em> (1979). He\u2019s now directed two prequels to it (Prometheus<\/em> and now\u00a0ALIEN: COVENANT<\/strong><\/em><\/a>) and more films are promised. (Perhaps the controversial ending of 1991\u2019s Thelma & Louise<\/em> is the only thing that\u2019s kept that film, the third member of his holy trinity of masterworks, free of his tinkering!).<\/p>\n

So how\u2019s the new film?<\/p>\n

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Michael Fassbender as \u201cWalter\u201d his second android in the franchise<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

If you need a quick refresher, Alien: Covenant<\/strong> <\/em>(2017) is the sequel to the Alien<\/em> (1979) prequel Prometheus<\/em> (2012), the first official Alien film to brave the horrific thrills without Sigourney Weaver\u2019s authoritative presence. Prometheus<\/em> is set in 2090 so her iconic character Lt. Ellen Ripley hadn\u2019t quite been born yet (Alien<\/em> taking place 32 years later). Scott\u2019s ultimately\u00a0unnecessary ambition was to tell a backstory about the origin of life itself both human and alien (mostly alien).<\/p>\n

Despite the ill-advised idea \u2014 horror films are scary if they remain unknowable \u2014 at\u00a0least Prometheus<\/em> is a virtuosically crafted wonder. The unlucky crew discovered a strange planet where \u201cthe engineers,\u201d who look like giant albino humanoids, lived. I\u2019m summarizing and probably poorly, but the engineers created the original version of what would soon evolve into those face-hugging acid-blood xenomorphs that have become the ultimate sci-fi boogeymen.<\/p>\n

Prometheus<\/em> ends, as these films usually\u00a0do, with its final girl<\/a> (Noomi Rapace\u2019s \u201cElizabeth Shaw\u201d) escaping the trauma with the help of her suspicious android companion (Michael Fassbender as \u201cDavid8\u201d).<\/p>\n

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Katharine Waterston as \u201cDaniels,\u201d ostensibly the lead though Fassbender is the main draw<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Alien Covenant<\/em> takes place fourteen years or so later\u00a0(which means Ripley is now a little tween somewhere out there in galaxy) and initially seems disconnected from Prometheus<\/em>. Despite that it\u2019s excessively familiar as the franchise entries share the same formula.<\/p>\n

You have a ship full of a diverse crew of would be colonists and crew, some resourceful (\u2611\ufe0f), some of them immensely stupid(\u2611\ufe0f) not many of them warriors(\u2611\ufe0f), but the camera<\/a> seems most interested in one brunette female<\/a> (\u2611\ufe0f, though this time it\u2019s neither Weaver nor Rapace but Katharine Waterston as \u201cDaniels\u201d) and an android(\u2611\ufe0f,\u00a0Fassbender again\u2026 this time as \u201cWalter\u201d). The crew receive an SOS message from a distant inhabitable planet, where none should be, and they think \u201cHey, let\u2019s investigate!\u201d (\u2611\ufe0f). Cue: scary music and alien mayhem(\u2611\ufe0f). The Alien franchise is, at heart, a horror franchise set in outerspace so characters are required to do stupid things just as they do in slasher pictures. \u2018Look there\u2019s a bunch of blood. I think I\u2019ll follow the trail into the dark basement \/ garage \/ woods!\u2019<\/p>\n

For reasons one can only presume are a market-driven olive branch to America\u2019s noisy fundamentalist crowd the commander this time is a born again man<\/a> named Oram (Billy Crudup) who complains to his wife Karin (Carmen Ejogo) that the crew doesn\u2019t trust him because they fear he won\u2019t make rational decisions due to his faith.<\/p>\n

Because it\u2019s a colonization mission the crew is filled with married couples<\/a>. We have to ask, though: do LGBT people really not exist in the 22nd century? That\u2019s super confusing given the franchise\u2019s time frame. And when you add the subtextually gay<\/a> David8 into the mix (the film begins with a flashback to Fassbender\u2019s shady\u00a0Prometheus<\/em>\u00a0android)\u00a0it only makes things more uncomfortable in terms of the heternormative sexual politics.<\/p>\n

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Carmen Ejogo as Karin trapped in the sickbay. Uh-oh. This actress deserves better!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Character stupidity is a staple of the horror genre (who doesn\u2019t make questionable choices when terrified?) but sometimes it goes too far. Alien Covenant<\/em>\u2018s most disastrous move is the character of\u00a0Oram. He\u2019s given a more thorough character description than any other human member of the cast (in that he has one at all!) but his decisions are so dumb and muddled that you can\u2019t tell if the film is trying to humiliate the faith-based audience who might be rooting for him or if he\u2019s making the errors because he\u2019s trying to make rational decisions that aren\u2019t<\/em> faith-based. Is this Hollywood trying to have it both ways or is this just poor screenwriting?<\/p>\n

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A mysterious figure to the rescue\u2026 but can he be trusted?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

SOME SPOILERS AHEAD<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oram\u2019s stupidity is amply punished with a death you can see coming before he even takes the stairs into this film\u2019s version of the scary basement.<\/p>\n

Though Covenant<\/em> lacks any action scene to rival that thrilling and sick abortion sequence in Prometheus<\/em>, it\u2019s still damn scary\u00a0a couple<\/a> of times. One of the best directed \/ acted \/ edited sequences is in the sick bay where doomed Karin is attending to a wounded coworker.<\/p>\n

Consider it a missed opportunity that always reliable and beautiful Carmen Ejogo (last seen as the top American official in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them<\/em>) wasn\u2019t given the largest female<\/a> role;\u00a0 she feels much less like a Ripley hand-me-down and more like her own original character. Covenant<\/em>\u2018s visual glories are by and large less pronounced than Prometheus<\/em>\u2018s too, partially because we\u2019ve returned to the same locale.<\/p>\n

The movie nearly makes up for its narrative and visual disappointments with double the dose of the perpetually perfect Michael Fassbender. The first trailers wisely didn\u2019t spoil\u00a0the fact that David8 returns but as if placing a cherry on top of that sweet surprise, the film\u2019s most gripping scenes are nearly all of the Fassbender vs Fassbender variety. Walter is a model descended from the David8 but with the bugs worked out so he\u2019s no longer homicidally curious. The two androids argue, they play the flute (no, really\u2026 \u201cI\u2019ll do the fingering\u201d), they kiss (Fassbender\u2019s look of artificially intelligent befuddlement is choice), they fight. Fassbender +\u00a0Fassbender is the reason to buy a ticket.

\n\/SPOILERS<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Even though we didn\u2019t need another Alien film, particularly given how many imitators that franchise has already sparked (remember Life<\/em> this spring with Jake Gyllenhaal?<\/a> Practically a clone!), we have another. Whether or not you choose to see it there will always be another coming, for better and worse. Mostly worse though even the \u201cbad\u201d films in this franchise have great moments\u2013 yes, even the much-maligned Alien\u00b3<\/em> (1992) and the bizarre Alien: Resurrection<\/em> (1997). I can\u2019t particularly explain my loyalty given the redundancies but I guess I\u2019ve married in for the long haul, in mysterious sickness and short lived health, \u2019til gory alien-bursting-from-chests death do us part.<\/p>\n

The post Twice the Fassbender in \u2018Alien: Covenant\u2019 \u2013 Weekend Movie Review<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Twice the Fassbender in ‘Alien: Covenant’ – Weekend Movie Review<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n