So, I got to see it a second time in London today ( amazingly given the time and location I ended up being the only person in the whole thing, got to see it with a whole theatre to myself, lying down on a couch, I will remember that for a long time
), so I can now give a proper review of the movie.
We can criticise Rotten tomatoes all we like, the fact is that 75/78% is very much what this movie deserves.
This is a big step up from Prometheus. Apart from the overall idea of "travelling the universe to meet our maker", the only truly satisfying piece of Prometheus was the Shaw abortion scene. Everything else in the movie was ok at best, but mostly extremely frustrating. Covenant is very satisfying in many places, and
occasionally frustrating, which makes for a better experience.
I have a few gripes with the movie. I'm going to list them first, but I want to say now that none of these mean the movie is bad or even mediocre. They just make the movie "good" instead of perfect. It keeps it below the level of the original two Alien movies, and it's a shame because clearly the potential was there for a slightly better movie. As it stands, Covenant is still a good movie with plenty to enjoy without reservations.
So, the gripes.
- That CGI in the neomorph birth scene is just not ok. Not in 2017, not in a franchise as important as this one, not with that budget, not with that much time to work on it. I have read people lament on how CG was painted onto practical effect, but I disagree. It works perfectly well in most of the movie. It just doesn't work when they CG-ed it from scratch. The newborn neomorph attacking Ejogo's character... that scene took me out of the movie completely, it was just extremely uneven, verging sometimes on the extremely bad. In the same scene ( the whole med-bay sequence ), I absolutely fail to understand Faris' reasoning for locking Ejogo's character in the room. It makes ZERO sense. She gets sprayed in the face by contaminated blood, so quarantine for everybody but her makes no sense, and it results in Ejogo's and Faris' death making no sense. Very frustrating because in my opinion up to this scene the movie had been PERFECT for a full hour on many levels.
- The last act. I don't get it. Such a well thought-out, storyboarded movie... And then, the last act, so unfocused, so messy to follow in the scenes that should have been the most important. On first viewing the dispatch of the first Alien made no sense to me. It worked slightly better on the second viewing, but it's still a messy piece of film-making. Similarly the lead-up to the final terraforming bay finale worked better the second time around, BUT that final release of the trucks with Daniels dodging the truck and the Alien at the last moment felt a bit forced. Forget "a bit". It felt really forced, and not only forced but way too quick. It's just a really messy piece of action, but how can you manage to f**k up the most important scene of your movie... really frustrating.
So. That said.
The positives.
There are long stretches when the movie is not only ok like Prometheus could be in its best moments, but also deeply satisfying as a cinematic experience ( which Prometheus really wasn't ).
Personally, in that respect the second viewing confirmed the first : the whole first hour is an incredible movie. There is nothing I don't like about it. I like all the characters, I like the prologue, I like the build up, I like the mysteries, I like Daniels' backstory and grief ( I cried with her ), I like the sails, I like the discovery and exploration of the planet. That whole hour is some of the best film-making I've ever witnessed in cinema. It made me as immensely happy the second time as it had done the first time.
Shame that the magic had to be undone with the neomorph birth scene. Maybe it made more sense in the script or in a previous iteration of the cut... I'm saying that because you can hear Faris' explanation through the glass a lot better in the first trailers than you can in the final movie where it seems they gave up trying to make sense of her character's actions altogether,
Most of what involves Oram and Daniels is great. Same as the reaction I had the first time around, the Oram/David/Neomorph scene is amazing. And proof that painting CGI on an actor really can work well. What an amazing scene.
Chestburster scene. Still amazing. That score! I mean, that works for most of the movie : that score from Jed Kurzel is perfect. Ok, maybe a bit forgettable in the half section, but that piece of music for the chest burster is genius. And that scene is incredibly beautiful.
The movie structure in itself is not at fault for the movie's flaws. I love the idea of having a full hour to get behind the team, half an hour to survive on the planet, half an hour to survive off it. Roughly. I think it works well. It's just a shame that a couple of important monster scenes end up being a bit messy/rushed.
By the way, the "bring it to my turf" scene worked a lot better the second time around. I personally love the filter they used for "Xeno-view", I thought it worked very well, and I thought the editing worked wonders. All these corridor doors closing looked amazing ( and again, the score! ). If there is one thing that let that whole section down it's the close-ups on "Walter"/David. We know it's David but it's really unclear and confusing as to whether we is trying to help, only witness, or on the side of the Xenomorph. It adds some really unnecessary confusion to the whole thing, which breaks the tension and focus where it really shouldn't.
Speaking of, mixing the positive with negative : all the David scenes in general are fascinating and will make for repeated viewing gold, but I think something has been lost in the final edit by being overtly obvious about the switch in the last act. The tension in the last act should be focused on the Tenessee/Daniels/Xeno dynamic. That's where the fun is. So having Walter around and knowing it's David is an extra ingredient that really doesn't work. It works once the Xeno has been dealt with, it even works wonderfully, but up to that point it makes for a pesky distraction.
So there you go. A deeply satisfying first hour. Satisfying extra moments scattered here and there in the second hour ( Engineer city, Engineer visuals, David/Walter scene, David/Oram, David/Daniels ), absolutely beautiful score almost throughout, but a couple of scenes that have sub-par CGI and messy editing in a couple of important scenes, including sadly the final confrontation.
A bit frustrating taken as a whole and all the more given how incredibly good the first hour is, but still way better and way more satisfying than Prometheus AND up there in my favourite of the series ( right after Alien and Aliens ).
By the way, on second viewing, there are definitely Giger-esque things growing out of Shaw's head... I don't mind mysteries ( there are lots of things left for us to ponder in Covenant in a good way ) but I wouldn't have minded some slightly more obviously challenging visuals when it came to Shaw mutating, or when it came to seeing Ejogo's corpse after the neomorph attack for example. Given the movie's rating, it could easily have been a bit more bold in a couple of places and would have been even more satisfying as a result.
A good movie. A good Sci-fi movie. A lot to ponder.
A bit extra care would have made an easy difference between satisfying and perfect though.
