ALIEN: COVENANT (2017) - Review

Alien: Covenant

Horror/Sci-Fi/Thriller
2 hours and 2 minutes
Rated: R

Written by: John Logan & Dante Harper
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Produced by: David Giler, Walter Hill, Mark Huffam, Michael Schaefer, and Ridley Scott

Cast:
Michael Fassbender
Katherine Waterston
Billy Crudup
Danny McBride
Carmen Ejogo
Demián Bichir

Run.

Since its creation, the Alien franchise has been a cultural phenomenon that has seen droves of loyal fans and cinephiles eager and excited about any and every new installment within the series. And yes, some installments have faired better in the long run than others (surprisingly, Alien: Resurrection has developed a bit of a cult following and to be fair even Alien 3 has its merits - although they are hard to find through all the nonsense). When Ridley Scott, the man who began it all, announced in 2011 that he would be returning to the Alien universe with a prequel, naturally all the fans of his original film became ecstatic. And while Prometheus did see a mix of responses from fans and critics, its enormous box office success prompted Scott to have a spark of creativity and understand that the hype for these films is still very much alive and well, even forty-seven years after his original film (it's now been almost fifty!). Thus, we were promised more from the franchise's original auteur.

One of the largest complaints critics and audiences had regarding Prometheus was that it seemed too distant from the Alien universe. While there were overlaps and similarities, some wanted more and felt snubbed by the film lacking the franchise's iconic monster. With Alien: Covenant, Scott has made it clear that he has heard those concerns. Unlike Prometheus, Alien: Covenant is a return to the more horror and monster-movie elements that made the original Alien so incredible and memorable in all of our psyches. Once the story's action begins, the monster and creature effects hit the audience so fast and so hard we're barely given a moment to catch our breaths. Admittedly, it is a refreshing change of pace from Prometheus, which at times did feel majorly bogged down with philosophical discussions. Unfortunately, Alien: Covenant has a lot of this too and it actually doesn't work as effectively as it did within Prometheus. In the previous movie, we saw a group of scientists and rich corporatists searching for the creators of human life and discovering an unnerving truth. In that context, the philosophical dialogue made sense. In Alien: Covenant, the film concerns a ship that is carrying hundreds of colonists looking for a new home world to call their own. While some philosophical discussion in the way of dialogue makes sense (the sequences between the two Fassbender robots are truly remarkable), Alien: Covenant does feel a bit more weighty than Prometheus, meaning there are moments that feel to be moving much more slowly. The exposition at the film's start seems to drag on much longer than it ought to, and one is left wishing some cuts had been applied.

Not helping the lengthy exposition is the film's call-to-action, which is virtually identical to that of the original Alien. Anyone who has seen the original - or probably any Alien film - can guess what happens next. Not even halfway through Alien: Covenant, the entire story becomes evident and predictable to the point that one is left feeling disappointed Scott didn't notice just how predictable the movie really is.

Once the chaos begins, however, the film really does take a major turn for the best. Ridley Scott understands that the xenomorph creature has become such a cultural icon (you can buy plush children's toys of them - thanks a lot, James Cameron) and because of this perhaps isn't as terrifying as it used to be in Alien. It was terrifying in the original film because it played with our fears of the unknown. We never truly saw the creature in its entirety, as it was hidden in shadows, mechanical backgrounds, close-ups, and quick cuts. But Scott understands we all know what the xenomorph looks like now and it can no longer be a symbol for our fear of the unknown. Therefore, he brilliantly introduces a solution. He makes them fast - faster than they've probably ever been seen before. Most of the sequences with the xenomorph are filmed in low levels of daylight, allowing us as an audience to see the creature we all know and are familiar with. What we are ultimately scared by is our knowledge that these creatures are an unstoppable force of violence (as Ash said in the original film when Ripley asked him how to kill it, "You can't"). Add the unprecedented speed into the mix and we as an audience get a horrible feeling in our guts regarding the fate of the film's heroes.

Scott also adds some new creatures into the mix - the not-fully developed neomorphs. We're introduced to these ghostly, speeding, demons right out of the gate in one of the most grotesquely brilliant moments of the film (a moment, that surprisingly, pays homage to Lamberto Bava's film Demons which - when asked about the effect in question - Demons' special effects artist Sergio Stivaletti said was an homage to Alien - thus Scott brings it back full circle with the neomorph birth). The neomorphs are utterly terrifying and the presence of these new and unexpected monsters does keep the film in line with Alien's elements regarding our fears of the unknown.

The film's cast is terrific, as surely was expected. Michael Fassbender - as was the case with Prometheus - absolutely steals the show. This time around, Fassbender plays two characters divided purely in morals and principles. It's incredible to see this titan of a character actor perform dialogue with himself and play two characters whose only similarities are that they look alike. Katherine Waterston does a good job as the film's leading heroine, although perhaps her character isn't as memorable or well rounded as Noomi Rapace's Shaw in Prometheus and certainly not as much as Sigourney Weaver's Ripley. But, Waterston is a capable performer who answers the call to action just as anyone would expect a female lead in an Alien movie to do so. The film's supporting cast also are great and Danny McBride gives a surprisingly lovable performance in what is perhaps his most serious role to date.

All of these wonderful things considered, Alien: Covenant does have another problem ... and it is a big one. What made the original Alien so frightening was - again - its playing on our fears of the unknown. In it, space truckers stumble upon an alien organism that acts as a parasite attacking them all one by one. The film shines due to its randomness. It succeeds because the events within the film are seemingly random and shake up the characters' abilities to deal with reality. The problem with Alien: Covenant (and Prometheus too while I'm at it) is that it seems to be saying the events of Alien weren't in fact random at all. These prequel films are suggesting that humans, xenomorphs, neomorphs, face huggers, and engineers are all connected in some mysterious convoluted back story all leading up to the events of Alien. This is a major problem because Scott is essentially stripping away that randomness of the first film - the elements that made it so brilliant and so terrifying - and he is providing us as viewers with explanations for things that ultimately feel like they didn't need an explanation. Is it necessary to know where the xenomorphs came from? Was it necessary to know who the space jockey in the original Alien was and what his intentions were? Hopefully, with the continuation of this prequel franchise, Scott will pull back and understand that by providing these explanations he is undermining his original masterpiece.

Once one gets past the film's weighty exposition and largely predictable plot line, Alien: Covenant is truly a thrilling film that returns the franchise back to its horror/monster-movie roots by placing its iconic villain front and center. And while it may be problematic overall for the franchise, the extent of which has yet to be determined. In the meantime, Alien: Covenant is a whole lot of fun.

7.5/10

THE LONE RUNNER (1986) - Review

The Lone Runner

Action/Adventure/Drama
1 hour and 29 minutes
Rated: PG

Written by: Chris Trainor & Steven Luotto
Directed by: Ruggero Deodato
Produced by: Ovidio G. Assonitis & Maurizio Maggi

Cast:
Miles O'Keeffe
Savina Gersak
Donald Hodson
Ronald Lacey
John Steiner
Michael Aronin
Hal Yamanouchi

A legendary desert avenger battles a savage outlaw empire!

The 1980s signaled the decline for a great many of Italy's filmmakers who earned their proverbial claims to fame in the decades prior. Despite having gotten his start in the 1970s with great films like Waves of Lust, Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man, and of course Last Cannibal World, the 1980s seemed like they might have been a fruitful decade for filmmaker Ruggero Deodato given his starting the era with his two most discussed films: Cannibal Holocaust and House on the Edge of the Park. Unfortunately, with a few low budget pictures and one big budget film not adding up to much in the way of box office profits - by 1986 Deodato, like many other wonderfully brilliant Italian filmmakers, was finding financing his films to be much more difficult. Deodato, again like many of his cohorts, turned to becoming a gun-for-hire director in order to make money so that he might put together projects he later felt passionate about. Such was the case for his film The Lone Runner.

Producer Ovidio G. Assonitis hired Deodato to direct the film, hoping that this legendary master of the grotesque's name might add some weight to the film ensuring its success. Unfortunately for Deodato and Assonitis things didn't pan out in their favor. Assonitis initially told Deodato that the film was meant to be a made-for-TV movie, which undoubtedly led to Deodato toning back his usual amount of violence and gore (his previous three pictures: Body Count, Cut and Run, and Raiders of Atlantis were all signature, bloody Deodato). And yet when Deodato traveled to the United States after completing the film, he was surprised to find various B movie houses showing it. And that is exactly the point, The Lone Runner's biggest problem seems to be a major lack of communication between all the parties involved with making the film.

For starters, the story is an absolute mess. It follows the kidnapping of a rich king's daughter in a post-apocalyptic desert, her rescue, her being recaptured, her escaping, her being recaptured again, her being saved, her being recaptured yet again, her being rescued again, her being recaptured .... well, you get the idea. The film is so grotesquely cyclical that it reaches a point where while watching  it one feels that the actual experience is an hour or so over its real running time. Not even the film's script - what little there is in the way of dialogue - can make up for this lazy of a storyline.

Peppered in throughout these moments of rescue and recapturing is the film's running gag, where the hero, played by Miles O'Keeffe interacts with a wandering merchant - often stealing from the man promising to pay him back the next time. This happens EVERY time between a capture and a rescue to the point where it too becomes predictable, and whether or not anyone thought it was funny the first, second, and maybe third time - by the fourth and fifth time even people easily prone to laughter will find themselves growing angry.

The performances are a mixed bag at best, something that becomes a given with later career Deodato movies. Miles O'Keeffe actually is entertaining enough as the film's hero, but considering he is offered very little in the way of dialogue, his performance probably seems much better than it is. Let us not forget the Ator films, Sword of the Valiant, and even Tarzan the Ape Man where O'Keeffe shows off his particular lack of thespian talent. The rest of the performances are largely forgettable, although it should be said Deodato regular John Steiner is really a lot of fun to watch. This is largely due to his character in the film being completely unlike anything he has ever done before, for Deodato or anyone else. Hal Yamanouchi also holds his own, but like O'Keeffe he is offered very little in the way of dialogue and mostly impresses through his talent in the film's action scenes.

What action sequences are present - and trust me when I say there are quite a bit - are for the most part actually pretty entertaining, and remain The Lone Runner's greatest strength. Deodato proved himself worthy of directing exciting action sequences with Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man, Raiders of Atlantis, and Cut and Run and here he continues to flex those talented muscles. O'Keeffe especially is a blast to watch fight - using crossbows, fists, and daggers - and he undoubtedly could have had a much bigger career in action movies (hey, if Schwarzenegger made it work, why not?) His fight scenes with Steiner and Yamanouchi in particular are really terrific and a lot of fun to watch play out on the screen.

The Lone Runner, unfortunately, offers nothing more than quick flash in the pan excitement. This is especially disappointing considering the talent of Ruggero Deodato as a filmmaker, but understanding his restrictions and limitations as a gun-for-hire director of the film, one is left with the impression that if this is what came out of his more than capable hands, then perhaps this motion-picture was never meant for greatness regardless of who made it. Still, a bad Ruggero Deodato film has more merits than a good M. Night Shyamalan film - as I always say.

4/10