Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston and Billy Crudup in the Ridley Scott movie ‘Alien: Covenant’

A second Ridley Scott prequel to the movie Alien (1979) is our subject today. With the franchise original reviewed by Matt Lynn Digital here, and the first prequel Prometheus (2012) reviewed here, we pickup the tale for how the menace we first encountered back in 1979 came to exist as the menace we first cinematically met some 44-years ago. The name of this movie is Alien: Covenant (2017).

(From left, Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland and Michael Fassbender as David in the Ridley Scott movie Alien: Covenant).

The story of Alien: Covenant picks up neither with the remaining crew of Prometheus expedition, of the 2012 movie Prometheus, nor with the crew of colonization ship Covenant. Instead, we are given a prologue that predates the both movies with the introduction of the android David, whose role had been instrumental in the original prequel movie. We see David with his creator, Peter Weyland, in the moments following David’s animation. Guy Pearce and Michael Fassbender portrayed Weyland and David, respectively.

(From left, Billy Crudup as Christopher Oram, Katherine Waterston as Daniels and Michael Fassbender as Walter One in the Ridley Scott movie Alien: Covenant).

Eleven years after the Prometheus expedition, we meet the crew of the expedition ship Covenant. The Covenant, with 2000 colonists in stasis and 1,140 human embryos preserved for future life, is seven years from the planet the flight intends to colonize, Origae-6. Walter, an advanced android that resembles David and is portrayed by Michael Fassbender, wakes his 14 human crewmates when a solar flare damages the ship. In the reanimation process, ship’s captain Jake Branson, as portrayed by James Franco, dies.

(From left, Danny McBride as Tennessee and Amy Seimetz as Maggie Faris in the Ridley Scott movie Alien: Covenant).

It is during the ship repairs that a human voice from a habitable nearby planet captures the attention of the Covenant. Despite the arguments against investigating this nearby planet as made by Branson’s widow, Daniels as portrayed by Katherine Waterston, new captain Christopher Oram decides the crew will investigate. The investigation takes them to the planet encountered by the Prometheus expedition, which is where the group encounters David, eventually learning the fate of Dr. Elizabeth Shaw of that original expedition. Oram was portrayed by Billy Crudup. Carmen Ejogo portrayed Oram’s wife, Karine Oram. Noomi Repace portrayed Shaw.

(From left, Nathaniel Dean as Tom Hallett and Demián Bichir as Dan Lope in the Ridley Scott movie Alien: Covenant).

The investigation of the planet sees husband Tennessee keep Covenant afloat in orbit as his wife, Maggie Faris, flies a lander to the planet’s surface. Danny McBride and Amy Seimitz portrayed the pair, respectively. The action and horror of this science fiction movie take off at this point with the experiments of David driving many of the storylines that follow. The personal connections among characters that underpins much of the remaining story development does the movie credit in avoiding some of the problems present with the David Fincher directed Alien 3 (1992).

(From left, Carmen Ejogo as Karine Oram, Jussie Smollett as Ricks and Callie Hernandez as Upworth in the Ridley Scott movie Alien: Covenant).

The movie Alien: Covenant did much to align the Prometheus movie with the Alien franchise overall. What remains of the prequel stories, especially in what becomes of the characters portrayed by Katherine Waterson and Michael Fassbender in getting to the character portrayed Sigourney Weaver, remains a fascinating possibility to be explored. It is from this place that I grant the movie Alien: Covenant as directed by Ridley Scott 3.75-stars on a scale of one-to-five stars.

Matt – Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Review of the film ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald’

The film Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) has arrived at a cinema somewhere near you! Lynn and I saw the movie Wednesday afternoon with a decent fellow audience for what is the second installment in the Fantastic Beasts series movies by J.K. Rowling, with a review of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them (2016) available here. To warn you ahead of time, this review includes spoilers from the movie. Our recommendation is to see and enjoy the movie, yet read on before or after at your own risk.

(Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald.)

At the end of the first Fantastic Beasts movie, we see that Gellert Grindelwald (played by Johnny Depp) had been captured in New York City after posing as the auror Graves to acquire an Obscurus that had been terrorizing that city in the 1920s. Grindelwald, who figures in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, escapes to Paris.

(Jude Law as Albus Dumbledore.)

Albus Dumbledore, introduced to the Fantastic Beasts movies in Crimes of Grindelwald, is played by Jude Law. Dumbledore enlists his former student, Newt Scamander (played by Eddie Redmayne), to intervene against the villain Grindelwald and his plans. It is only later in the film that some of the context for why Dumbledore cannot combat the threat posed by Grindelwald directly.

(Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski and Eddie Radmayne as Newt Scamander.)

In roughly 1927, the sequence of the second Fantastic Beasts movie takes on the largely European setting suggested by Grindelwald fleeing to Paris. Albus Dumbledore does not leave London or Hogwarts in the movie, though obviously Paris is a featured setting. It is in Paris that Grindelwald sets about actions intended to raise pure-blood wizards to rule over all non-magical beings. Zoë Kravitz as Leta Lestrange and Ezra Miller as Credence Barebone are enlisted in that campaign.

(Ezra Miller as Credence Barebone and Zoë Kravitz as Leta Lestrange.)

The storyline with Crimes of Grindelwald calls into question where the lines of love and loyalty exist among characters and family members within the story. Themes explored in the divided wizarding world of the Harry Potter movies are taking their contextual voices within the prequel movies of Fantastic Beasts to a fuller level than seen in the Where to Find Them movie.

Without getting further into the plot of Crimes of Grindelwald, there is much to appreciate about the tension and building story of the Fantastic Beasts franchise. The two stories in this franchise to date are complementing the Harry Potter world that we know without taking things away from it.

(Carmen Egojo as Seraphina Picquery.)

We get to see legitimate questions about where the story of Newt Scamander and his brother (Theseus Scamander as played by Callum Turner) are going. We get to see society place pressure on the relationship of Queenie Goldstein (played by Alison Sudol) and Jacob Kowalski (played by Dan Fogler), and the wedge it places between these two as well as Queenie and her sister Tina Goldstein (played by Katherine Waterston). What is the full nature of the relationship between Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald, and how did they get the place where it is now and into the future. Will we see more of the Tom Riddle story in the Fantastic Beasts storyline?

Many questions are raised, for sure. Interesting intrigue is also raised for the Crimes of Grindelwald movie of its own accord to suggest that you see it. On a scale of 1-star to 5-stars, I rate this movie highly at 4.25-stars.

Matt – Saturday, November 24, 2018

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie review

Set upon arrival in the 1920’s New York City where witchcraft and sorcery are synonyms for Prohibition and poverty of the age, the hard times of 1920’s New York City are central to place for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016). The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, that people recognize from the books and movies, are clearly presented and present in this movie.

Almost glancing references are made to Hogwarts and Albus Dumbledore in the Fantastic Beasts story, which is accurate to the backstory of Dumbledore (supposedly born in 1881). With Fantastic Beasts existing before the more contemporary stories of Harry, Hermione, their parents, or even Tom Riddle, the timeline is satisfying for ringing true. The glancing references to language between the sides of the Atlantic Ocean (the United Kingdom versus the United States) was for my part a cute touch.

Fantastic Beasts is a good family movie, which is the focus of this post. I liked the movie and enjoyed it.

The tone hits you as less intense / dark than the last three Harry Potter movies, which are based on the books Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Scamander does a respectably British in mannerism protagonist through the movie, with mates, foils, and fantastic beasts in Kowalski the baker, Graves, Chastity, Modesty, and Credence Barebone, the Shaw family, and others. The Grindelwald mystery, which scores as a background story for our hero through much of Fantastic Beasts, does reward the clever viewer in search of a mystery.

Finally, remember that while Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is definitely of the Harry Potter universe, my strong recommendation is that this movie works in isolation. That is, the movie is an uplifting standalone experience. I’d be amiss for not mentioning that the movie does earn its PG-13 rating in the United States. Grade = B+.

Matt – Friday, December 30, 2016