Alien Covenant (2017): The creation of Aliens

 Alien Covenant : The Creation of Aliens

Hi! It's been a while since I blogged last time. 

Sorry for that :( It was the busiest month ever in my life full of academics, band practice, basketball practice, etc. 

But you know what?

I haven't stopped from watching movies! I watched a lot of movies to introduce them to you, so I will be uploading those posts throughout this month. 

One of the movies that watched is <Alien Covenant> (2017) which I want to introduce to you first. 

Title: Alien Covenant

Director: Ridley Scott

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Noomi Norén, Katherine Waterston

Genre: Science fiction, horror

Language: English

Rated R / PG 15 (depends on the country)

Running time: 122 minutes

My Rating: 6.5/10

It's by far the most successful alien movie ever. So I think a lot of you already know this movie or have watched it. But, I realised that this movie gives me different impressions and feelings every time I rewatch it (actually, this was my third time rewatching it). I hope this post will remind you of the memories of this movie and give you a motivation to watch it again. 

<Alien Covenant> (2017) is a prequel of <Prometheus> (2012) - which is about a team of explorers that travel to a distant world to discover cryptic clues to the origins of mankind on Earth - and it is the second of the <Alien> series which started in 1979. 

Short Summary

The Covenant, heading to its destination with the largest colonial mandate in history, senses a signal from an unknown planet and decides to explore it. Contrary to the expectation that it would be a new world of hope, it was an increasingly dark and dangerous world. When an unimaginable threat is revealed, they try to make the last escape to survive ....

Trailer of <Alien Covenant>

My Honest Review

Things that I loved:

1. Philosophical Thought-provoking story

    In the opening scene, David emphasises his superiority over humans, the creator who created him by mentioning that he is immortal. While David is a creative and curious character, Walter was designed to obey humans.  David tries to become a creator by himself and he admires the innocent vitality of Neomorph - the "spores" that rip vulnerable humans' back and stomach. Although David was "flawless," his only flaw was his desire to have descendants through aliens. 

    After watching the movie, my brain was full of thoughts:

The Creator thinks the creatures to be possessions;

The creatures superior to humans try to dominate humans;

and Humans' curiosity is endless and boundless;

    The movie itself was very philosophical which left me to think a lot about the future: where AIs dominate humans (possibly) and humanity gets destroyed by them eventually. I loved the fact that the movie made the viewers think a lot, leaving spaces for contemplation. I personally think that the movie served as a caution sign to the rapid development of AIs and robo-biotics, delivering the message that the story of <Alien Covenant> might be the reality of humanity one day. 

2. High-quality CGI 

    When I re-watched this movie, I couldn't believe that this was released in 2017. The CGI skills were so advanced and I was able to feel the effort of the producers / visual technicians. I felt like the actors were actually at the planet / space ship - everything seemed so realistic with minimal awkwardness! As a person who gets fascinated with the high quality CGIs, I really liked the movie's realistic portrayal of settings. (FYI My favourite scene of all time is Spider-Man and Doctor Strange's fight scene in <Spider-Man: No Way Home> (2021)) 

Video about the previs process for the motion picture <Alien Covenant> created by the team "Argon Effects"

3. Alien universe (some mysteries were solved!)

    The director, Ridley Scott once said this in an interview:

"After the series was continuing after the first Alien movie, no one asked the question "Who created Alien and why?" So, starting with <Prometheus> (2012), I plan to give hints about who created Alien and where they came from. I am going to tell the story gradually." - and he did! (only some) in this movie.

    Mystery 1. Did the Engineers create human beings?

    Audiences who watched <Prometheus> (2012) would have had questions from the very first scene. This is because the alien that was never shown in the prequels suddenly took a pill at a random planet and as a result, was decomposed. At that time, many people thought that "the Engineers" were the ones who created humans, because the main character Dr Shaw once said, 

"They created us. Then they tried to kill us. They changed their minds. I deserve to know why"

    However, Ridley Scott denied this theory in an interview, saying:

"So we've reinvented the idea of Alien, I think, which is that Covenant gets us a step closer to who and why was this thing designed to make human beings. And if you think it's them [the Engineers], you're dead wrong."

This is Ridley Scott

It was a hard sentence to understand. He seemed like he is saying that something was made with the purpose to create human beings, implying that humans are artificially designed beings like AIs.

    Mystery 2. Who created Alien?

    We can get the hint from <Prometheus> (2012) and <Alien Covenant> (2017). The Engineers had a developed civilization than humanity - especially they had a better genetic modification techniques. Through genetic modification, they created a biological weapon, which kills the host by causing seizures, internal bleeding, cramps, self-genetic-modification, and cell mutations. However, they were killed in LV-233 because could not control themselves completely - only one was alive when Shaw and her team arrived. 

    Although Doctor Shaw survives by cutting her stomach after an alien rapidly started to grow inside her after having a sexual intercourse with her infected boyfriend, this creature eventually enters the boy of the only alive Engineer. As a result, it was reborn as a creature similar to Alien. From this scene, we learned that this biological weapon has the ability to pass through several hosts and keep evolving. By acquiring the DNA of an Engineer (who seems to have a superior DNA), it was created as a powerful creature Alien. And we also watched the scene were David infected Shaw's boyfriend in <Prometheus> (2012) . 

Therefore, the conclusion until now is:

The Engineers did not create humans. Alien is the result of what Davit improved eventually from the biological weapon that the Engineers created. 

    Mystery 3. Then, who are the Engineers?

    Let's go back to the beginning scene of <Prometheus> (2012). LV-233 is where the Engineers self-decomposed and spread its DNA. It is not clear why the Engineers decomposed themselves, but there are many opinions that it is because they are the Engineers, not the Creator - they cannot create new creatures, but they are technicians who can improve the creature mechanically. 

    Well, I am not sure because Ridley Scott once said,

"They [the Engineers] are like space gardeners. They sacrifice themselves to plant new creatures. We have seen such sacrifices a lot of times in the history. These happened in the civilisations of Maya and Inca as well. He once lived as prince, but he sacrificed himself to the Gods at the last moment to help the creation of living beings."

    His words seem to imply that the Engineers are not the Creator but they are deeply contributing to the creation of lives. It seems like they sacrificed themselves and planted their DNA to create creatures after discovering a planet where creatures can live at. Then, they visited constantly to evolve the creatures at a fast pace through genetic modifications. Perhaps, the evolution started to develop in a wrong path, destroying everything, and this is when the biological weapon was used for the first time (maybe? I think it is a possible scenario)

    Mystery 4. Then, who created the human beings?

    The answer is still: 'We don't know' - neither the Engineers nor David. It is approved that the Engineers are not the Creator of the human beings, and it is not David because 

a) David was created by humans 

b) the series is nothing to do about time loops.

 He is rather an android that thinks that he is obliged to make a perfect creature because he is a superior being to the humans. 

    Many people believe that there is another figure that created humans, the Engineers of humanoids, but I honestly don't want to go beyond that. Perhaps, we need to review what Ridley Scott has said. His words that always don't tell everything have underlying foreshadows. In <Prometheus> (2012) Shaw analysed the data that the Engineers left 35,000 years ago and headed to LV-233. Thus, the Engineers visited the Earth few thousand years ago, and one of them might have sacrificed to provide a developed DNA. Or the Engineers might have promoted the evolution of primates. The Engineers were skilled at genetic modifications that they were able to re-code the DNA when they meet the host in the atmosphere to make it reborn as a living creature. And Alien is what David completed from what the Engineers started to develop - this is another possible scenario!

    Then who are the Engineers? Although some mysteries were solved, there are many unsolved mysteries remaining that should be explained in sequels (I hope so) - which is why I am looking forward for the upcoming movies! 

4. Michael Fassbender wearing two hats 

    

    I believe that everyone who watched <Alien Covenant> (2017) was impressed with Michael Fassbender's acting as both Walter and David. His performance truly enhanced the audience's focus on the movie without any awkwardness! I was very surprised with his talent. 

Although I love the content and the concept of the series, I had a few disappointments with this movie too. 

1. Lack of Fight Scenes 

    Although there are many brutal scenes (and the movie was PG 15), there were not many fight scenes between the humans and aliens - which a lot of audience was looking forward! Honestly, I was a little disappointed when the movie finished because the fight scenes were not enough. 

2. Weak Main Character Character

    While the prequels of the Alien series left strong impressions of the female warrior, Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver) who was the Alien's mom, I felt like Katherine Waterston was not strong enough to carry on the geneology of female warriors. (FYI Katherine Waterston was a main character in <Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them> (2016). So I believe a lot of people who were expecting charisma of the strong female main character, including myself, were disappointed with the characterisation / the actress / the lines, etc. 

This is Katherine Waterston

Overall, I would confidently say that I recommend this movie to those who already watched the movie and those who have never watched the Alien series as it gives different feelings regardless of the number of times you watched it.

I totally lose the sense of time every time I watch this movie (TBH I couldn't study because of this movie although I had a test the next day).

For those who have never watched the Alien series, here is a chronological order of the movies released. 

1. <Alien> (1979)

2.  <Alien 2> (1986)

3.  <Alien 3> (1992)

4.  <Alien 4> (1997)

5. <Prometheus> (2012)

6.  <Alien Covenant> (2017)

If you want to watch <Alien Covenant> (2017), you can start from number 5 !

I hope today's post brought another joy to your day. If you have any movie recommendations / want to discuss any movies with me, please don't hesitate to leave a comment! I would love to do so. 

Have a wonderful week and lovely February. I will see you in the next post!