Alien: Covenant, written by John Logan and four other writers

Alien: Covenant, written by John Logan and four other writers

If you are not fascinated by neither horror nor Sci- Fi features –like the undersigned- then the new installment of Alien is definitely not your cup of team, while if you are a fan, then this is probably some the motion picture to watch and enjoy, with its repulsive creatures, unbelievable stunts and all.

By the way, one can wonder when this terrifying narrative unfolds on the screen, why is it that in horror films, The Alien, the demons and generally the “Bad” must also be disgusting, not just scary and evil, but foaming, developing out from some stomach churning mucus, with horrid and ugly teeth, bizarre but oh so utterly nauseating and obnoxious.

There is of course the alternative, wherein in cahoots with these abominable creatures we have the handsome, good looking David- an earlier version of Walter- both portrayed by Michael Fassbender, who plays two robots- or we should say Artificial Intelligence human look alike?.

Covenant is a space ship with more than two thousand colonists on board, travelling towards the planet Origae, when a fire kills members of the crew and while the rest are repairing damage, they receive a transmission- maybe more accurate would be to say that an advanced technology helmet is getting it.

This message comes from a planet that is very near and the crew is voting to get there, even if the ultimate decision is the responsibility of the captain, Oram played by Billy Crudup, in spite of the official opposition of the second in command who has a more decent, balanced take on the issue.

Members of the team do not want to go back to hyper sleep-, which appears to be a form of rest that would be discovered in the future and which helps the bodies to travel at the high speed required by intergalactic travel without aging.

And looking at what this new destination has to offer, it all seems perfect, this being a place very similar to earth, with vegetation, atmosphere… a heaven that is only a few weeks of voyage away, as opposed to the initial, better studied and planned destination that is now shelved.

When they land on this apparent Eden, it all seems beautiful and enticing, there is a splendid body of water, plenty of green all around, as plants of various kinds seem to thrive and develop.

There is no animal from of life, at least none that can be seen, until one of the men is resting and a strange minuscule cloud of what look like microscopic bees enters his ear and he becomes seriously sick.

Once at the landing vehicle, his condition is degrading with astonishing speed, the patient is taken to a room where he is given some aid, but the Alien inside bursts out in the aforementioned festival of gore, blood and repulsive, sickening metamorphosis into a violent creature.

One of the women who tried to help the human host of this demon like Alien is sputtered with blood, rushes out of the room and seals inside the other crewmember and the attacking thing, but while she goes to get some weapon to try to kill the alien without letting it inside the ship, the comrade is attacked.

To cut a long story short, this space vehicle and its occupants is destroyed in the ensuing fight, which involves ammunition shot at the attacking monster, and then the whole thing is on fire, people and machinery.

Captain Oram is devastated and he will not fully recover from this, the consequent traumas and the fight that is about to engulf all the humans present on this Planet from Hell and its gruesome inhabitants.

Walter is the AI that gets involved in another battle with the Aliens, not far from the landing vehicle and he loses one – artificial- limb as he tries to save one human being, respecting one those famous laws of robotics, which has the artificial creation putting humans first- above himself.

Nevertheless, in a later – philosophical, ethical?- discussion between two robots – both played by Fassbender – the earlier, more rudimentary- although this is questionable given the sibylline ending- version of Walter is talking about…love, whereas the “good robot” keeps saying it is duty.

David has gone crazy, if that is a word for software created by man, in the manner of Hal in the much better, a masterpiece actually: 2001: A Space Odyssey created by the legendary genius, Stanley Kubrick.

The earlier version of Walter has come to like the Aliens and he is now in the process of fighting for their cause, protecting, admiring the monsters, in the isolation of this planet, he has organized a collection of various violent forms of life.

Given that these invaders attack any animal, there is nothing left in this absolute Hades, there is a huge area where dead bodies and corpses litter the ground, in postapocaliptic Planet of the Awful Aliens.

For fans of the genre, this may be absolutely fantastic…nirvana maybe, but for those who prefer other fare, this new installment of alien can so much of the same old thing that there is no joy in watching this.