Take ideas from some of the best moments in the Alien franchise movies to date, link them into a storyline and allow Ridley Scott to take the helm. Sounds like a guaranteed winner? Not quite.

Set in 2104, the period between the Prometheus and Alien movies, we join the colony ship The Covenant, on its way with 2000 colonisers and 1000 embryos, to start a populous on the planet Origae-6. But, as always, the cosmos is an unpredictable place and after the ship is hit by a Solar Flare the crew is awakened to avoid a catastrophe. Although averting total disaster they are left in a quandary with regard to the condition of the ship and the risk to the success of the mission, so when they happen across an unusual signal emitting from a nearby planet they decide to investigate, the rest, if you know anything about the franchise, is inevitable.

It’s a bit disappointing when the best things about a movie with this budget and expectation levels are the great visuals and excellent score, both of which are marvellous. Although it is aided by the technological leaps made over the years the movie looks beautiful, with some great camera work especially in using lighting changes at just the right moment to change the tone of a scene, coupled with Jed Kurzel using elements of the original Jerry Goldsmith score to build tension at just the right times. These two features, working in tandem really gave the movie something extra. Not that these aspects of a film are not important or deserving of praise in any movie but they should work with the rest of the ingredients to enhance the experience rather than dominate it, as they did at times. Maybe the problem is that we have become too de-sensitised by modern movies, but this just never seemed to lift itself into the realms of being a great film. There were claustrophobic moments. but not enough of them, there were decent action sequences, but too few of those and there was some good sci-fi aspects but nothing new or exciting and these were the key threads in the success of the franchise to date so diluting them and playing mixologist to try and concoct a winning combination was ambitious, but a step too far.

Still rooted with the themes that have run through all the movies in the franchise, mistrust, aspects of faith, God complex, religion vs science and God vs Satan, but it felt more like the man battling science tale featured in Prometheus rather than the desperation tinged, man against monster battles of the originals.

Adding to the disappointment was the fact that the characters weren’t given enough depth in terms of dialogue or plot events to make them appealing, so they merely served as cannon fodder for the most part and this left nobody that you really wanted to root for. It’s hard to get invested in a film where you are so apathetic towards the main players. Credit where credit is due though and Michael Fassbender was excellent reprising his role as the crew android plus Danny McBride was a surprise for me, playing it straight for a change, standing out from the pack and being the one crew member you might just have got behind if he’d been given a bit more impact.

If you’re a fan of the series then there are plenty of nods and winks to the earlier movies that will catch your eye but this also causes the movie to feel like it’s a bit of a re-hash of things seen in the series before without being done as well and, with a small number of exceptions, there’s nothing surprising in terms of the plot. It’s still an enjoyable watch, of a similar entertainment level as Prometheus, but still miles short of the levels of two classics that have set the bar so high. So, it’s yet another case of a potential summer blockbuster going by the wayside in terms of quality vs expectation and I hope this doesn’t start a trend for the coming months.

DJ Speaks Rating: 6 Out Of 10

©Darren Jones 2017