With Prometheus, Ridley Scott finally returned to the Alien franchise for the first time since the original classic in 1979. In the years since, the series has become less about continuing Scott’s story, and more about serving as individual expressions of each director, for better or worse. Aliens was James Cameron’s electrifying action movie, Alien 3 was a dark and nihilistic David Fincher film, Alien: Resurrection was a weird and offbeat Jean-Pierre Jeunet experiment, and even Alien vs. Predator was created in the blockbuster style of Paul W.S. Anderson. It was clear that Scott wanted to restore his vision to the series and set the record straight on the timeline.
Prometheus told a story in the same universe about the researcher Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and her search for the origins of humanity. While Prometheus was largely an original story, it tied in to the Alien continuity by the very end by revealing the origins of the Xenomorphs. However, instead of making a direct sequel to the open-ended conclusion of Prometheus, Scott opted for a more overt prequel to the Alien saga where the connections were more obvious. Alien: Covenant may have brought back the Prometheus fan favorite character David (Michael Fassbender), but it essentially abandoned the other story threads and characters. While it's understandable that some fans wanted to see a more traditional Alien prequel, Prometheus was much more successful than Alien: Covenant.
More Complex Ideas And Philosophy
Prometheus is a survival story in outer space similar to Alien, but it deals with very different themes. The original Alien focused on isolationism, conception, and the dangers women were exposed to, while Prometheus was about the search for a creator and the right to create life. While the crew of the Prometheus ship is obviously looking for a god-like creator, Shaw is also on a personal journey. She cannot conceive children, and she contemplates whether the ability to create is an ability that should only belong to a select group. David is also in a state of contemplation. He knows who created him since he is an artificial android, and he wants to experiment with creating life of his own. The questions surrounding parenthood, autonomy, and purpose provide a goldmine of thematic discussion.
Comparatively, Alien: Covenant responds to only a surface level understanding of the Alien mythos. It’s yet another survival story where the crew of the Covenant vessel is trapped on a distant planet and must defend themselves against the Xenomorphs. While David was a complicated character in Prometheus, he turns into a mustache-twirling villain by the end of Covenant, whose goals of wiping out humanity are more simplistic. While it briefly brings back the themes of faith that were present in Prometheus with the religious character Christopher Oram (Billy Crudup), he’s killed off so quickly that he doesn’t seem important. It feels as if Covenant was only interested in answering fan questions, and not doing anything more ambitious.
Better Characters And Relationships
Any actor stepping into the Alien franchise has high expectations in front of them. Sigourney Weaver’s performance as Ellen Ripley in the first four films is one of the most iconic in film history, and she even received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in Aliens. However, Rapace does add a lot of nuance to the role of Shaw. Her interest in science feels genuine, as does her complex relationship with her employer. Shaw realizes that Weyland is a corporation pursuing its own interests, but she understands that she must use their resources if she is to discover one of the biggest secrets to ever haunt all of human existence.
The crew of the Prometheus ship itself is interesting, as the characters aren’t just stock victims that are simply waiting to be killed off. Charlize Theron’s performance as the no-nonsense Meredith Vickers is so cold-hearted that it puts pressure on the rest of the crew to not ask questions; Idris Elba brings an authentic sense of humor as Captain Janek, but he also shows his heroism by the time that the film concludes. As for Fassbender, his transcendent performance as David creates one of the most engaging robot characters of all-time; in his review, Chicago Sun-Times critic Richard Roeper claimed that Fassbender deserved an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
In comparison, the characters in Covenant are significantly less compelling. Katherine Waterston’s role as the chief operator Daniels simply feels like every other final girl in the Alien franchise, and her personal history is much less compelling. Beyond the loss of her love interest Jacob Branson (played by James Franco in a distracting cameo), there isn’t much known about Daniels as a character. The rest of the Covenant ship crew all feel like bait designed specifically to be killed by the Xenomorph in a gruesome way. While it’s admirable that Danny McBride tried to give a more serious performance as the ship captain Tennessee, he sadly sticks out like a sore thumb.
Less Nostalgia and More Originality
It was evident that Alien: Covenant was intended to be a course correction for the franchise after the divisive reactions to Prometheus. Scott himself admitted that he changed his plans for the follow-up based on the disappointment that some Alien fans felt. Unfortunately, this made Covenant simply a rendition of everything that the Alien franchise had done before. It’s yet another installment in the series that focuses on a batch of foolish humans that awaken the Xenomorphs and get picked off one-by-one. The ending even recreates a moment where the Xenomorph is blasted out of an airlock container, which is something that the franchise has already done multiple times.
It would have been one thing if Alien: Covenant had been Scott at the top of his game, but the thrills pale in comparison to his 1979 masterpiece. Even though Covenant is much bloodier and features more computer-generated imagery than Alien, it doesn’t feel nearly as suspenseful or scary. Prometheus offered something new, but Covenant simply caved to fan expectations.