Screen Anarchists On ALIEN: COVENANT

Editor, Europe; Rotterdam, The Netherlands (@ardvark23)
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("And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"
The Second Coming, 1919 - W. B. Yeats)

Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant has arrived in cinemas, and a strange film it is indeed. Like with Prometheus five years (already!) ago, people all over the Internet are pointing out flaws, or bending over backwards to try and explain them. Just the question of whether it is a sequel, a prequel, or an equal is enough to ponder over endlessly with friends.

Is it a good film though? The answers to that question are impressively diverse, ranging from all-out hate to people who say it's brilliant. Some say Scott has redeemed himself for Prometheus, others say he's letting that film down with Covenant.

Our reviewer Kwenton Bellette liked some parts of it, yet wasn't impressed with the overall end result (read his review). But what did the rest of us here at Screen Anarchy think? Time for a round-up! Here are eight mini-reviews. You can click on the small pictures or on the arrows to move between them.

Note: normally we try to keep these articles spoiler-free, but with this film that was pretty hopeless. While small spoilers are all over the place, two of the reviews (hi, Kurt and Izzy!) do a deep-dive, and I've placed warnings on them so that spoiler-wary readers can quickly skip to the next ones.

And as usual, the original reviewer gets to speak up first. Any added insights, Kwenton?


Kwenton Bellette, Peter Martin, Zach Gayne, Ernesto Zelaya Miñano, Kurt Halfyard, Michele "Izzy" Galgana and contributed to this story.

Kwenton Bellette, Contributing Writer

Quoting from the review: Alien: Covenant is an at-times cliché sci-fi and horror effort burdened by its unnecessary over-explanation of what the aliens actually are, where they came from and the purpose of this horrible madness. Relentlessly nihilistic in its approach, Alien: Covenant actually dims the uncanny horror and thought-provoking feminist slant of ‘the other’ that defined the franchise. In trying to ask and answer the big questions, both this and the disappointing prequel Prometheus dilute the genuine unknown and terrifying horror that drives it.

(Editor's note: Kwenton says "I don't have anything to add, other than that the film is quickly fading from my memory.")

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