Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

Alien: Covenant Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 16, 2017

Note: Some plot points alluded to in the main body of the review may be considered spoilers by some, so those with any concerns are encouraged to skip down to the technical parts of the review, below.

Prometheus supposedly stole fire from Mount Olympus and delivered it to Mankind, metaphorically providing intellectual “light” and understanding, but Prometheus, Ridley Scott’s ambitious 2012 quasi- prequel to the Alien franchise, probably confused as many people as it enlightened. Scott’s films have often tended to split audiences and critics, but Prometheus really was a textbook case of some people loving a film while others seemed to abhor it. (Even here at Blu-ray.com, Brian Orndorf gave the film only 2 1/2 stars, while Casey Broadwater was considerably more enthusiastic in his Prometheus 3D Blu-ray review.) In a very real if subliminal way, Scott’s ode to the genesis of Mankind owes more than a tip of the space helmet to another epochal science fiction film, Stanley Kubrick’s immortal 1968 masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. While manifestly different in several important aspects, both films posit an alien intelligence which has left “clues” for an evolving human species, with epic journeys into the vast reaches of space following as those humans attempt to make contact with some unknown entity that seems to be beckoning mysteriously from behind some unseen curtain. Another salient connection between the two films is the inclusion of an artificial intelligence character. In 2001: A Space Odyssey’s case, it was of course the inimitable HAL (voiced memorably by Douglas Rain), whose subterfuges propelled the plot into its proto-evolutionary, mind blowing “ultimate trip” finale. Prometheus offered a more “human” seeming AI character, an android named David (Michael Fassbender), a “robot” supposedly consigned to support staff duties who nonetheless had a certain HAL-like superiority despite a somewhat childlike demeanor and a frankly bizarre fascination with Lawrence of Arabia.

Prometheus trafficked in some of the biggest concepts imaginable, again very much like 2001: A Space Odyssey, but unlike Arthur C. Clarke’s screenplay for that film, which was in fact fairly straightforward despite some presentational obfuscations, Damon Lindelof and Jon Spaights’ scenario for the Scott film seemed content to let several unanswered questions linger, something that some viewers of Prometheus suspected might be resolved in an already announced follow up. Alien: Covenant’s very title reestablishes a link to Scott’s original tale of ultra frightening xenomorphs, but it continues to exploit Prometheus’ sometimes confounding mix of metaphysics and unexpected character traits, with Fassbender back as a “new, improved” version of David now named Walter. (Trivia fans will know that HAL’s name was Clarke’s ingenious send-up of computer giant IBM — i.e., one letter back in the alphabet — while Alien: Covenant offers an artistic explanation for David’s moniker. How we ended up with Walter is perhaps one of those elements of evolution that defy easy explanation.) Walter and David turn out to be the lynchpin around which much of Alien: Covenant hinges, and while the film is often an exercise in unclear motivations and another slew of unanswered questions, Fassbender’s performances help to give this film some of its most distinctive flavor.

The preface showing David’s first interactions with his maker Peter Weyland (an uncredited Guy Pearce) perhaps cheekily reference the entire subtext of both Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, namely Man’s perhaps genetically encoded need to know His own origin story. The film quickly segues to around a decade after the events of Prometheus, with a new ship, the titular Covenant, seeking to colonize some appropriate outpost, until (of course) disaster strikes. With casualties mounting, Walter, the updated version of David, attempts to bring key personnel out of stasis, with even more tragedy resulting. The upshot is that the captain’s widow Daniels (Katherine Waterston) becomes this film’s de facto Ripley. While this film did not have Damon Lindelof as a co-writer, there’s a certain Lost-esque element with a mysterious signal being broadcast which lures the would be colonists to a nearby planet.

Alien: Covenant kind of pretends to deal with some of immense metaphysical questions that provided Prometheus with some of its supposed depth, but in reality it becomes obvious that Scott wants to revisit some of the “explosive” elements that made the first Alien such a sensation back in the day, with the crew almost instantly getting infected with various “morphs” from virtually the moment they set foot on the planet with the beacon signal. This film seems to be in a rush to get to those gory moments, sacrificing narrative coherence and character development as a result. There’s more a vignette driven feeling in Alien: Covenant than was apparent in Prometheus, with Scott gliding from attack to attack with brief time outs for people to catch their breaths. The whole Engineer aspect of the developing Prometheus mythos is kind of weirdly glossed over here, never more adequately clarified than it was in the previous film.

Without spoiling too much of one of the film’s admittedly pretty predictable “twists”, Fassbender gets to do double duty as the two versions of the Weyland AI creation. It’s here that the film actually finds some real energy, and Fassbender, while arguably chewing the scenery in a slightly hyperbolic way, invests the film with a more significant kind of creepiness than is summoned by visions of xenomorphs marauding through the dark. By comparison, Waterston comes off as kind of anemic, a heroine in name only, and one whose fate in this film may not be mourned by many.

Alien: Covenant Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Alien: Covenant is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Digitally captured with Arri Alexa cameras and finished at a 2K DI, Alien: Covenant's Blu-ray presentation is a largely impressive affair. As with Prometheus, there's a somewhat tamped down palette a lot of the time, with a prevalence of cool tones that tend to emphasize grays and blues. Despite the sleek interior of the spaceship, one which tends to exploit smooth surfaces, there's quite excellent fine detail in elements like facial pores and fabrics on costumes. The planetary sequences are often quite dark, especially in some cavernous moments, and shadow detail is just a little problematic on occasion. There's some interesting grading employed at times, including a kind of buttery amber tone that's applied to a central scene with David and Walter, but detail levels are only marginally affected. Aside from some soft looking CGI, sharpness and clarity are typically excellent, and as with virtually all of Ridley Scott's films, there's an awful lot to look at even when the story falters.

Alien: Covenant Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Alien: Covenant's DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 is an extremely sophisticated and immersive listening experience, one that offers great surround activity in both wide open spaces (whether interior or exterior) as well as the more claustrophobic environment of the spaceship. The film's sound design is probably the most noticeably expressive in the spaceship scenes, where the "bells and whistles" of the computerized processes provides a constant stream of sonic information. The planetary sequences also have well placed ambient environmental effects. Sound effects are quite impressive throughout, with some reverberant LFE and "squishier" sounds emanating when various nasty beasts burst through human skin. Dialogue is always rendered cleanly and with excellent prioritization. Fidelity is fine throughout, and dynamic range extremely wide on this problem free track.

Alien: Covenant Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted and Extended Scenes (1080p; 17:37)


• USCSS Covenant

  Meet Walter (1080p; 2:20) is a supposed advertisement for the new "model".

  Phobos (1080p; 9:09) offers a series of virtual therapy sessions.

  The Last Supper (1080p; 4:37) features the crew chowing down.

• Sector 87 - Planet 4

  The Crossing (1080p; 2:34) offers some background courtesy of David.

  Advent (1080p; 6:41) gives more background information on what happened to Elizabeth.

  David's Illustrations (1080p) is a kind of cool collection of galleries.

• Master Class - Ridley Scott (1080p; 55:30) is a set of appealing featurettes showing the director in action. There's quite a bit of interesting behind the scenes footage scattered throughout these.


• Director Commentary by Ridley Scott


• Production Gallery

  Ridleygrams (1080p; 1:33)

  
  

  Conceptual Art

  Exterior - Covenant (1080p; 3:43)

  Interior - Covenant (1080p; 2:58)

  Lander (1080p; 3:28)

  Lifter (1080p; 00:08)

  Exterior - Engineer's World Forest (1080p; 1:18)

  Juggernaut (1080p; 00:28)

  Exterior - Engineer's World City (1080p; 2:48)

  Interior - Engineer's World City (1080p; 1:18)

  Interior - Daniels' Apartment (1080p; 00:08)

  Interior - White Room (1080p; 00:18)

  Creatures

  Chestburster (1080p; 00:28)

  Egg Slices (1080p; 00:33)

  Facehuggers (1080p; 00:28)

  Neomorph (1080p; 1:01)

  Open Egg (1080p; 00:28)

  Xenomorph (1080p; 00:53)

  Logos and Patches (1080p; 2:53)

• Theatrical Trailers

  Theatrical Trailer 1 (1080p; 2:26)

  Theatrical Trailer 2 (1080p; 2:04)

Alien: Covenant Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm perhaps not quite as far removed from Brian Orndorf's assessment of Alien: Covenant as Casey was from Brian's thoughts on Prometheus, but I got a fair amount of excitement out of this film, once I simply realized it was Scott's return to "monster movie" mode, instead of another high-falutin' attempt to revisit epochal metaphysical questions. That said, there are a lot of narrative stumbles this film makes, including brainless decisions on the part of several crew members, and a quite surprising lack of definitive information about the Engineers. The film seems to hint at yet another chapter featuring the scheming David, and maybe long delayed answers will be forthcoming in that film, should it ever materialize. Technical merits are very strong and the supplementary package enjoyable. With caveats noted, Alien: Covenant comes Recommended.