Alien: Covenant 
 
 What does she see? Katherine Waterston treads cautiously in a scene from Alien: Covenant. ( Mark Rogers / Twentieth Century Fox ) 
 
 Starring Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demian Bichir and Carmen Ejogo. Directed by Ridley Scott. Opens Friday in major theatres. 122 minutes. 18A The cast keeps expanding and the critters keep evolving, but there’s one constant to Ridley Scott’s Alien series. It’s the horrific fear of personal invasion, by something that’s about to leap up and latch onto you, causing unimaginable mayhem. 
 
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 Alien: Covenant has this dread in abundance. It ranks among the better chapters of a sci-fi horror franchise that began with the original Alien in 1979. Scott knows he dropped the ball with Prometheus, the erstwhile Alien prequel he foisted onto the unhappy masses in 2012. It barely showed the infamous beasties, choosing instead to batter senses with windy dialogue and events that seemed to betray basic elements of this decades-long saga. Alien: Covenant brings back the visceral panic that fans expect from the franchise, along with the show-stopping title creatures: among them the face-hugger, the chest-burster and the canoe-headed xenomorph of artist H.R. Giger’s terrifying imagination. They’re waiting to greet the unsuspecting crew of the spaceship Covenant, who have travelled to the far reaches of the galaxy in search of an Earthlike planet to colonize. (The most terrifying thing of all, barely acknowledged, is the thought of what must have happened to Earth if large-scale evacuations are underway.) The Covenant carries 2,000 passengers and 1,140 human embryos, all frozen in cryogenic deep sleep and with an emphasis on preserving couples and families as they make the years-long journey to a planet called Origae-6. Something happens that interrupts the journey and prompts the exploration of an unknown closer planet that looks to be every bit as inviting — until events prove that theory disastrously wrong. Scott and screenwriters John Logan (Spectre) and Dante Harper tidy up loose ends from Prometheus, making a much better story of the gods vs. men vs. machines ideas that director Scott has being exploring for decades, with Alien and also with Blade Runner. 
 
 In so doing, they revive a moribund franchise in much the same way The Force Awakens reignited the Star Wars saga, by reconjuring characters and themes from the past. It won’t take you long to figure out who the “Ripley” character is here, for example, and the perilous planet narrative dates right back to the original Alien, and indeed to the dawn of sci-fi moviemaking. 
 
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 This might make the film seem too derivative for some. But for those willing to embrace the retro elements — count me among them — it works like gangbusters. And a story like this can’t get by on terror alone. It also needs good actors to put it across, and Alien: Covenant more than delivers on that score. Michael Fassbender reprises his android character David from Prometheus, but this mechanical man acquires deeper intrigue when he’s matched against his factory double, an upgraded model named Walter, also played by Fassbender. This is a grand performance times two that demands to be remembered at awards time. Other standouts from the brilliant cast are Katherine Waterston as fearless scientist Daniels, Danny McBride as good ol’ boy pilot Tennessee and Billy Crudup as tragically promoted second-in-command Christopher, a weak man who assumes authority at exactly the wrong time. (Watch also for cameos from Guy Pearce and James Franco, as they help connect the dots between Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.) Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski and composer Jed Kurzel skilfully combine to boost the film’s fear of the unknown. They make the remote New Zealand shooting locale look and sound both like the verdant paradise the mystery planet is thought to be and the brutal hellhole it actually is. Franchise films very often disappoint, especially as later instalments run out of fresh ideas. Not so Alien: Covenant, which breaks new ground even while revisiting old concepts. It leaves us seriously wondering what will happen next, but I can’t tell you more or you’ll yell — not only on Earth, but maybe also in space, where no one can hear you scream. ||||| 'Alien: Covenant': Film Review 
 
 Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston and Billy Crudup lead the ensemble of Ridley Scott's second installment in the 'Alien' prequel series. 
 
 There's life in the old bugger yet. And, as always, plenty of death. After the Alien series looked as though it had hit the rocks creatively (not for the first time) with the last entry, Prometheus, five years ago, savvy old master Ridley Scott has resuscitated it, and then some, with Alien: Covenant, the most satisfying entry in the six-films-and-counting franchise since the first two. 
 
 Gripping through its full two hours and spiked with some real surprises, this beautifully made sci-fi thriller will immeasurably boost fan interest in the run of prequels which Scott has recently said will consist of at least two more films until the action catches up to the 1979 original. This Fox release is a lock for major early summer box-office worldwide. 
 
 Is there a director who has ever been artistically committed to a franchise as long as Scott has to the Alien series? None comes to mind (Steven Spielberg made his first Indiana Jones adventure, Raiders of the Lost Ark, in 1981, two years after Alien was released). It's a matter of record that Scott will turn 80 later this year, and Clint Eastwood will be 87 when he starts his new film; from the evidence on the screen, 80 may well be the new 50 where some top helmers are concerned, especially those who, like Scott and Eastwood, make a new film almost every year. 
 
 It also helped to recruit a couple of very good writers, John Logan and Dante Harper, to dig the series out of its hole. No matter that these aliens have been around far longer than most of the viewers who will see this film opening weekend have been alive; this entry feels vital, freshly thought out and keen to keep us on our toes right up to the concluding scene, which leaves the audience with such a great reveal that it makes you want to see the next installment tomorrow. 
 
 The elegantly spare opening, in which a “synthetic,” Walter (Michael Fassbender), engages his “father” (an uncredited Guy Pearce) in a pointedly philosophical conversation, simply and effectively frames the thrust of the film's central interest in human life's origins and its prospects for survival. Casual viewers may assume that Walter is the same character Fassbender played in Prometheus. But, no, Walter, who sports an American, not British, accent, is an updated version of that all-purpose butler, factotum and technical wizard — a far friendlier iteration of the know-it-all computer Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey. 
 
 And as in 2001, Alien: Covenant involves a long outer space voyage during which the 2,000 human passengers, along with 1,140 embryos, will linger in a deep-freeze sleep for several years while the humanoid plays watchdog. The giant ship, called Covenant, is headed for a very distant planet, Origae-6, which is considered a promising new home for humanity to settle. For this reason, not only the slumbering immigrants, but the crew, too, are composed of prospective parents meant to propagate and establish a new homeland for homo sapiens. 
 
 This couples-only orientation lends a fresh feel to this group of space travelers, and definitely cranks up the emotional distress quotient as partners start splitting open and giving birth to the wrong kind of offspring. When a space storm hits and damages the ship's giant wind sails, the first to perish is the ship's captain (James Franco, seen ever-so-briefly), which devastates his mate Daniels (Katherine Waterston), assigned to oversee terraforming on humankind's new planet. 
 
 This accident promotes second-in-command Christopher (Billy Crudup) to run the show, but he's portrayed from the outset as uncertain and lacking in confidence; more than that, he's a “person of faith,” which puts him at great philosophical odds with most of the others. Unfortunately, once this element is introduced, the writers don't do much with it, so it feels like a missed opportunity to engage in some pithy religion vs. science debate. Worse, the character's overriding weakness as a man won't go over too well with faith-based audiences. 
 
 Not only that, but when the crew discovers a nearby “hidden planet” that seems potentially compatible to human life, it's Christopher who makes the fateful decision to land there rather than to continue with their seven-year-long voyage. Farris (Amy Seimetz), the flier wife of the Covenant's main pilot Tennessee (Danny McBride), goes down for a peek and it looks pretty darn good, just like New Zealand, in fact, where half the world wants to move to right now. 
 
 But as inviting as are the beautiful landscapes, mountains and lakes, there's trouble lurking in the magnificent flora and fauna and, given the particulars of this bloody franchise, it doesn't take long for humans to fall ill and start bursting with nasty and ferocious critters they never imagined could spring from their innards. This is not the sort of propagation the earthlings had in mind when they set off. 
 
 In a brilliant stroke, the voyagers also encounter David, Walter's double, the very same “synthetic” who co-starred in Prometheus. Distinguishable from his supposedly new and improved relative by virtue of his long hair and British accent, this lone survivor of the previous voyage, who lives among the ruins of a great civilization wiped out by the aliens, gives Fassbender the delicious opportunity of a double performance. The actor makes the most of it, subtly delineating two nearly identical characters as they enact a contest for dominance, the details of which touch in clear but unpretentious ways on the notion of playing God. What goes down between the two remains uncertain right up to the fabulously diabolical twist ending. 
 
 Scott and the writers have achieved an outstanding balance in Alien: Covenant among numerous different elements: Intelligent speculation and textbook sci-fi presumptions, startlingly inventive action and audience-pleasing old standbys, philosophical considerations and inescapable genre conventions, intense visual splendor and gore at its most grisly. The drama flows gorgeously and, unlike in many other franchises in which entries keep getting longer every time out, this one is served up without an ounce of fat. It provides all the tension and action the mainstream audience could want, along with a good deal more. 
 
 Stylistically, the film is a thing of cool beauty, with superb effects and a lovely score. Creatively, it's a major reset on a level with the series' best. 
 
 Production companies: Scott Free Productions, Brandywine Productions 
 
 Distributor: Fox 
 
 Cast: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demian Bichir, Carmen Ejogo, Jussie Smollett, Callie Hernandez, Amy Seimetz, Benjamin Rigby, James Franco 
 
 Director: Ridley Scott 
 
 Screenwriters: John Logan, Dante Harper, story by Jack Paglen, Michael Green, based on characters created by Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett 
 
 Producers: David Gerber, Walter Hill, Ridley Scott, Mark Huffam, Michael Schaefer 
 
 Director of photography: Dariusz Wolski 
 
 Production designer: Chris Seagers 
 
 Costume designer: Janty Yates 
 
 Editor: Pietro Scalia 
 
 Music: Jed Kurzel 
 
 Visual effects supervisor: Charley Henley 
 
 Special effects supervisor: Neil Corbould 
 
 Casting: Carmen Cuba 
 
 Rated R, 122 minutes ||||| Part philosophical treatise, part pulp fiction, part pure horror show, Ridley Scott 's "Prometheus" ends up with less to say than it thinks it does. Though more involving than much of this year's summer blockbuster competition, by the standards set by its wizardly director it's something of a disappointment.Scott's "Alien" (1979) and "Blade Runner" (1982) are two of the preeminent science fiction films, and so it was inevitable that "Prometheus" would be compared to them. But it's especially the case because "Prometheus" — starring Noomi Rapace Michael Fassbender and Charlize Theron — shares, as Scott himself has said, some DNA strands with "Alien."Anyone who is unfamiliar with "Alien" need not worry — "Prometheus" stands on its own. But those with vivid memories of what happened to Ellen Ripley aboard the Nostromo 33 years ago will find several points of reference in common with this latest iteration.Aside from Scott's expert first-time use of 3-D, the main differences between "Prometheus" and those earlier films are that the new venture is more creepy than it is scary, and it's considerably more self-conscious about the ideas that lie beneath the action.Although the director remains a master creator of alternate worlds, "Prometheus," unlike its predecessors, does not wear its themes lightly. It pushes too hard for significance, which is dicey in and of itself for genre material and contrasts badly with the standard nature of some of the story's plotting.As written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof (co-creator of TV's "Lost"), "Prometheus" begins, after an arresting but baffling prologue, at a dig on Scotland's Isle of Skye in the year 2089.Elizabeth Shaw (Rapace) and Charlie Holloway ( Logan Marshall-Green ), a pair of romantically involved archaeologists, have made a startling discovery: a 35,000-year-old pictogram that shows humans worshiping an enormous figure who points to the stars.This same image has also been discovered in a number of far-flung sites all over the world, leading Shaw and Holloway to conclude (as an unacknowledged Erich von Daniken claimed in his 1968 book "Chariots of the Gods") that beings from outer space had a big hand in creating life on Earth.Messianically determined to find these aliens and answer once and for all big questions like "Where do we come from? What is our purpose?," the pair persuades the world's richest human, Peter Weyland of Weyland Industries ( Guy Pearce under a ton of makeup), to spend a trillion dollars, give or take, to fund a trip to outer space with the purpose of tracking those "engineers" down."Prometheus" proper begins on a spaceship ominously named after the character in Greek mythology who suffered greatly for challenging the gods. Though Janek (an excellent Idris Elba ) is the nominal captain, the ship is really run by Meredith Vickers (Theron), a Weyland Industries bigwig who is not shy about saying things like "my job is to make sure you do yours."Theron, who has clearly found her comfort zone with ice-cold roles, is strong here, but from the acting point of view "Prometheus" belongs to the protean Fassbender, who excels as David, the spaceship's resident android.Considered by Peter Weyland to be the closest thing to a son he has, albeit with the drawback of not having a soul, David (who watches "Lawrence of Arabia" for tips on being human) is smarter and more capable than anyone on the ship and very much knows it. Fassbender gets David's almost-but-not-quite human character exactly right and is especially good at conveying the can-he-be-trusted aspect that always comes with android territory.More hit and miss is Rapace (of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"), who never quite connects with the tree-hugger aspects of Shaw's character but really comes into her own once things start to go south in a major way.For it will not come as a surprise to anyone that everything is not exactly sweetness and light on the planet where the Prometheans land in search of those creative aliens. All kinds of awful, increasingly grotesque and horrific stuff starts to happen, and having someone with Shaw's indomitability around turns out to be a major plus for mankind.(In an odd convergence, both "Prometheus" and the benighted "Battleship" share a press material reference to scientistStephen Hawking'swarning that intelligent life from other planets "might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet." True story.)Making up for the expected nature of some of the film's plot twists is Arthur Max 's spooky, H.R. Giger-influenced production design, Dariusz Wolski 's fluid cinematography, as well as Scott's moment-to-moment storytelling skill. Though the thrills here are less visceral than "Alien" and the world imagined less mind-altering than "Blade Runner," those gifts continue to impress in any galaxy you care to mention.'Prometheus'R for sci-fi violence, including some intense images, and brief language2 hours, 4 minutesIn general release
– A spaceship arrives on a distant planet that looks like a perfect new home for humans in Alien: Covenant. But if you know anything about Alien movies, you'll know there's only terror in store. Here's what critics are saying about the latest installment of the franchise, with director Ridley Scott of 1979's Alien returning: The filmmakers have finally managed to "dig the series out of its hole," Todd McCarthy puts it at the Hollywood Reporter. He calls Alien: Covenant "the most satisfying entry in the six-films-and-counting franchise since the first two." Beautiful and gripping, it "feels vital" and is "keen to keep us on our toes right up to the concluding scene, which leaves the audience with such a great reveal that it makes you want to see the next installment tomorrow." Peter Howell at the Toronto Star agrees this flick "ranks among the better chapters" of the franchise. Scott "breaks new ground even while revisiting old concepts" and "brings back the visceral panic that fans expect." Actors Katherine Waterston, Danny McBride, Billy Crudup, and Michael Fassbender—who delivers "a grand performance times two" as two separate robots—also deserve high praise, he writes. The inclusion of Fassbender's David, from 2012's Prometheus, was an incredibly smart move, writes Joe Morgenstern at the Wall Street Journal. But there was little else that impressed him. There's just "nothing new" to this "gore fest," he writes. He acknowledges, however, that "many Alien fans will come looking for something old, and that's in bloodily abundant supply." Chris Klimek had his own issues with the film. For example, "a religious subtext is introduced and then immediately abandoned," he writes at NPR. But he, too, had to marvel at Fassbender, whose "existential rap session" provides the "freshest part of the movie." Then again, Fassbender's David "is the only character in whom Scott seems truly interested," he writes.