'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. 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.  Before chewing over the more predictable parts of Ridley Scott’s “Alien: Covenant,” let’s salute a really smart thing that Mr. Scott and his writers, John Logan and Dante Harper, have done with the latest edition of the “Alien” saga. 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. 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. 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. 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
– 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.