Film of the Month

Alien: Covenant

Cinema City

21/04/17

In space, no one can hear you scream… with joy, over the fact that there’s a new Alien movie coming out this month. Yes, my chest is practically bursting with excitement over the fact that not only are cinema’s scariest space-monsters back, but so is original director Ridley Scott. As such, let me take you back to the beginning…

It was 1979 when one bright spark had the idea of taking a standard haunted-house-horror-movie format, swapping out the scary mansion for a creepy spacecraft, and changing the vengeful ghost for a hungry alien. Well, that bright spark was Mr Ridley Scott, and as it turns out, it was just the start of many good ideas. “Oh look, there’s John Hurt. He’s famous, I bet he’s going to see this through to the end.” WRONG – let’s shit the audience up by having a horrible creature burst through his chest in the middle of his lunch! “Oh, well, at least Tom Skerritt is in charge, he’s all manly and beardy. I bet he’s going to take care of business.” WRONG – he’s next to fucking go, leaving the whole thing down to his second in command – who just happens to be a goddamned lady! Then he topped the whole thing off with a mech-organic Alien that blends in with the pipework, has two mouths, and concentrated acid for blood. Fucking genius.

So skip back to 2017, and three sequels, a prequel, and some horrible spin-off “vs Predator” bullshit later, where does Alien: Covenant fit in? Well, this is the second prequel (following on from Prometheus) and it seems clear that, following criticism from some quarters regarding Prometheus (Philistines), Mr Scott seems keen to go back to his “good ideas” drawing board. For a start, there are “proper” aliens in this one. Big, slimey, dome-headed Xenomorphs. Then there’s Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts…), in a vest, with a gun, doing her best Sigourney impression. Well, that all certainly sounds familiar, which is what you would expect given that this promises to be the movie that ties Prometheus into the Alien franchise good an’ proper, but will it be awesome? Watch this space.