Alien: Covenant

Name: Alien: Covenant
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller, Horror
Released: May 19, 2017
Duration: 122 min
Rating: 65
Cast: Amy Seimetz, Billy Crudup, Callie Hernandez, Carmen Ejogo, Danny McBride

2017

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 52 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 1370 Ratings

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5.8

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5.8	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 1370 Ratings

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Alien: Covenant

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Movie Details & Credits

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: May 19, 2017 | R

Starring: Amy Seimetz, Billy Crudup, Callie Hernandez, Carmen Ejogo, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir, Jussie Smollett, Katherine Waterston, Michael Fassbender, Nathaniel Dean

Summary: Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, the crew of the colony ship Covenant discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world — whose sole inhabitant is the "synthetic" David (Michael Fassbender), survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition.

Director: Ridley Scott

Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller, Horror

Rating: R

Runtime: 122 min

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Critic Reviews

100

RogerEbert.com Matt Zoller Seitz

May 16, 2017

This is one of Scott’s best-directed movies and one of his most entertaining overall, partly because he’s working in a genre, the science fiction spectacle, that he does better than anyone since Stanley Kubrick, but also because he seems to be approaching it almost entirely in terms of visceral impact and emotion—as symphony of fire and blood, poetry and schlock. Read full review

Kevin P. Sullivan

May 6, 2017

Gross-outs and gotchas are fun, but they wouldn’t amount to much if Covenant wasn’t so thoroughly well-crafted. Read full review

Ty Burr

May 17, 2017

There are a number of reasons “Covenant” works where “Prometheus” struggled to work. The characters are more incisively drawn this time, and their relationships inherently more dramatic. Read full review

Matt Singer

May 11, 2017

The reason to look past the movie’s issues is Fassbender. Read full review

Stephanie Zacharek

May 18, 2017

Alien: Covenant is reasonably entertaining. But it slips off course after that opening section, and the problem is caused by the very creatures we presumably came to see. Read full review

Time Out London Cath Clarke

May 6, 2017

Really, this is David/Walter’s show. For reasons too spoilery to give away, Fassbender is electric, giving a spectacularly skin-crawling performance. Read full review

Ann Hornaday

May 18, 2017

Presumably, Scott is giving the audience what it wants, but purists may wonder whether simply re-watching “Alien” would have provided scarier, more genuine jolts. Read full review

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User Reviews

brookadam

May 19, 2017

Absolutely stunning film! Prometheus was full of huge themes with almost stupid character reactions and annoying plot development. But Covenant is to the point brutal visceral and poignant. I loved this film and can't wait to watch again. Perfect balance of Alien and Prometheus masterlyAbsolutely stunning film! Prometheus was full of huge themes with almost stupid character reactions and annoying plot development. But Covenant is to the point brutal visceral and poignant. I loved this film and can't wait to watch again. Perfect balance of Alien and Prometheus masterly crafted by Scott you can tell straight away that the doublt that may or may not have plagued Prometheus is gone and the result is truely special.… Expand

57 of 147 users found this helpful5790

MikeMikey321

Nov 6, 2020

People love hating on stuff for no reason ignore them! This movie is really good!!!!

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Danielhero1998

May 20, 2017

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I saw Alien Covenant last week. Even though I wasn`t a big fan of Prometheus (thought that it was okay), I was still excited for Covenant, and I walked out of the theater satisfied. I thought that it was a great movie.
Going into Alien Covenant, I was excited as it would return the franchise to its horror routes and bring back the Xenomorphs, along with a new monster (Neomorph) and answers questions about the iconic movie monster.

I left the theater satisfied, but wanting more (in a good way). It is definitely the best Alien movie since Aliens, while still having a few issues (no movie is perfect :D).

Plot: The crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy (called Origae-6), discovers another planet which they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world. When they uncover a threat beyond their imagination, they must attempt a harrowing escape.

The Great:

The Xenomorph. It looked amazing, similar to the original Giger design, but still a bit different when it came to its movement and its brutality. The cargo ship sequence was a big highlight, and the shower scene was actually pretty good and scary (surprisingly O_o). Another great sequence was the final one of Daniels and Tennessee hunting the Xeno across the ship, with Walter (David in disguise) helping them by tracking it and closing/opening airlocks. I have heard complains about the CG on the Xeno, but I think it looks great. The beast is definitely NOT cooked.

The Neomorph is a fantastic new addition to the franchise. It's a bit smaller then the normal Xeno, but faster and more brutal. Some of the goriest death scenes in the movie came from them. The backburster is very gory, disgusting (in a good way). It also has a fantastic scene with David (Michael Fassbender), where it reacts calm to him and doesn't attack, before Oram shows up and kills it, pissing David off (which leads to Oram get facehugged).

The creature designs and creature effects were great (except for one's effect). I am happy that H. R. Giger is credited for the creature designs at the beginning of the end credits.

Most of the characters and performances were great. I cared more about the characters in Covenant then I did for the characters in Prometheus. The best characters were Tennessee (Danny Mcbride), Walter/David (Michael Fassbender) and Daniels (Katherine Waterston).

Every scene with David and Walter. Their scenes (and how David is trying to get Walter to join him before disabling him, and taking his place on the Covenant) are the most fascinating scenes in the movie.

The Covenant ship and its hardware and technology were as great as they were in Prometheus, despite still being way more advanced then the tech in the original Alien.

The ending while predictable when it came to the reveal that Walter was David in disguise after they left the Engineer city, was still good and creepy, with David planting two Facehugger embryos along with the other (around) 1000 human embryos (probably to use the colonist as hosts to continue his experiments), and sending a final message from the Covenant as Walter before continuing on its journey to Origae-6.

The cinematography, the locations and the effects were beautiful (duh). No one directs sci-fi movies like Ridley Scott.

The Not So Great:

While I did care about most of the characters, they are complete idiots (even though I thought they were less idiotic then the ones in Prometheus, that doesn't say much). They walk around in a newly discovered alien world with no protective gear (not even hazard suits), some touch stuff that causes disaster, they trust a complete stranger and some of them separate from the main group when they know a deadly alien creature could show up anytime (and then they get killed).

The CG on the Neomorph backburster when it is no longer covered in blood looked average.

I could see the twist at the end (where Walter is actually David) coming from a mile away (though it was still a good ending).

The growing time from a chestburster to a full grown Xeno was really fast and reminded me of the AVP movies (even the time for a Facehugger to impregnate someone was really fast). The second Xeno (the one at the end of the movie) grew even way faster then the one from earlier.

The tone changes drastically some times.

Overall, Alien Covenant is a satisfying movie that returns the Alien franchise back to its horror routes, yet still having some of the action elements from Aliens. Most of the characters were great, though some were clearly only there to killed by alien monsters. The effects and cinematography were fantastic and it was a lot of fun. I can't wait to see where the story goes on from here and how it all ties into the original Alien movie from 1979.

I though that it was better then Prometheus, and it is my third favorite movie in the Alien franchise.… Expand

13 of 25 users found this helpful1312

Kai82

Nov 14, 2020

To spare you the troubles you will not get the answers you hoped for in this movie too. Like Prometheus it is again not a true Alien movie, has a great story underneath with lots of philosophical, psychological and moral themes and the characters are also again nominees for the Darwin AwardTo spare you the troubles you will not get the answers you hoped for in this movie too. Like Prometheus it is again not a true Alien movie, has a great story underneath with lots of philosophical, psychological and moral themes and the characters are also again nominees for the Darwin Award or whatever the fictional equivalent is. I must admit that I like much of the story and themes. Would it be not linked to the Alien franchise and promises made to be more of an Alien movie it would be more accepted. Also they tried more to make it look like an Alien movie than the prequel. Here I admit that they failed and I looks more like “See, we gave you more of the stuff you wanted. Aren't we great?”. This is an example for the middle-ground being the worst alternative. A true Alien movie like Alien 1 or 2 or even a better version of Alien 4 could work. Alternatively being a true prequel like telling the story of the Engineers directly and not some unsatisfying aspects as side story would also work. There is a small realm of giving answers and still have the mystery and imagination intact. But lets go back to the movie. At the end of Prometheus David and Noomi (Elisabeth Shaw) set up to travel to the home-world of the Engineers to get answers to their questions. However Covenant already changed this Alien 3 style and it is the first disappointment. The potential is lost immediately as much as the hype or good faith the fans had. Years later the colony-ship “Covenant” is hit by a neutrino burst and damaged. After the crew is reanimated from stasis by Android Walter they find a transmission from a nearby planet thought to be unexplored and has better living condition than their original destination. They set out to explore it. So started the story and it has great philosophical, moral and psychological themes. However it is not what we expected and there are dumb decisions and the actors cant correct the flaws in the script. I want to clarify here: This could be a truly remarkable movie and I like much of the concepts and ideas. The execution and expectations however drag it down. It fails to impress you and it never succeeded in getting the immersion and emotions from Alien 1 and Alien 2. Also Again there is a great cast that is probably not used to full potential. Exceptions are of cause Michael Fassbender in a brilliant performance and Katherine Waterston with a great performance but great stupidity at the end. This is a fitting transition to stupid actions. Again there are so much brain-dead decisions here by the characters (Actual an improvement compared to the even worse decisions in Prometheus). It decreases the experience and my rating. The special effects and sets are nice and I think there is nothing to complain. Overall this is again a hit and miss. It has it moments that are truly excellent but also truly poor decisions and ideas not working in the intended way. I will give it a 6/10 and hope it has not destroyed the fan support for the franchise. Just restart with a reboot of Alien 3 with a new (and better) script.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

HTGamer

May 23, 2017

Alien: Covenant is a hugely disappointing movie.

The Prometheus movie, despite its flaws, set a wonderful stage and asked great sci-fi questions concerning the origins of humanity. Sadly all of it has been scrapped with Alien: Covenant, and the "Alien" prefix tells you clearly that theAlien: Covenant is a hugely disappointing movie.

The Prometheus movie, despite its flaws, set a wonderful stage and asked great sci-fi questions concerning the origins of humanity. Sadly all of it has been scrapped with Alien: Covenant, and the "Alien" prefix tells you clearly that the studio execs want to get rid of Prometheus and its lore (it wasn't titled "Alien: Prometheus" after all).

At the end of Prometheus Dr. Ellen Shaw set course for the Engineers' homeworld with the android David, but sadly 1) the Engineers are absent from the new movie and 2) Noomi Rapace has been cast out of the sequel and her character has been replaced with a bunch of losers, who are nothing more than dog food for the Alien creature. It's rather convenient. Because I presume Prometheus lore has to disappear for some reason.

OK, I am salty about not getting the Prometheus sequel I was expecting. That would have been fine if this movie, after having cut all its ties with Prometheus, was great. Or at least good. It's not though. It's mostly pathetic. Michael Fassbender is awesome in his dual role of the two cloned androids (David and Walter), but he can't save the movie from being a disaster. The rest of the cast are, as in the words of the first Alien movie, "expendable". The story is full of laughable plotholes, illogical decisions, and brain-dead characters who just wait their time to be munched away by the Alien. At least the plot twist towards the end of the movie does the job of aligning the prequel movies more closely with the Alien mythos.

Alien: Covenant is really just a link to some future Alien movie which will please Alien fans. Prometheus and its high sci-fi concepts are dead.… Expand

9 of 18 users found this helpful99

Easycw44

Nov 25, 2017

This will be the last Alien movie I'll watch unless they hand the reigns over to Neill Blomkamp. Really feel like Ridley dropped the ball on a really interesting story line that he initially started, the plot holes/twists are big enough to drive a train through.

4 of 4 users found this helpful40

hrrrr

Nov 17, 2019

An absolutely lovely comedy about far away future where humanity gathered 2000 hopeless degenerates and sent them away from Earth. Earthlings gave this operation code-name 'colonization' and— oh, I believe I am re-telling the story in a way it actually makes sense. We can't have that, canAn absolutely lovely comedy about far away future where humanity gathered 2000 hopeless degenerates and sent them away from Earth. Earthlings gave this operation code-name 'colonization' and— oh, I believe I am re-telling the story in a way it actually makes sense. We can't have that, can we? Also the CGI Xenomorph was gorgeous, it caused an eye bleeding so bad I had to call an ambulance.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

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