“In space, no one can hear you scream. Or blog?
I was realizing how Alien is such a true genre mashup. I generally tend to think the franchise as scifi, but you could also describe it as action or horror and be totally accurate. I still don’t know what was going on with Prometheus a few years ago (combination of confusion and simply not remembering), but I def felt like Covenant was a step in the right direction. Back to basics, just pure thrills, and no ulterior motives or hidden agenda.
Normally I’d complain about a movie with a lack of plot, and I’ll admit that it is possible to doze off for a few scenes here and there and not have missed anything necessary to continue following the movie (I will, however, plead the fifth as to how I know this is possible). But what makes us keep coming back for more is the adrenaline and the inventiveness of how scenes play out. You may know where the overall story is going to go, but you never know where any individual scene is going.
There is one trick I found _highly_ effective that was unique to this movie. Because the thin plot line revolved around this being a colonist mission, every character was coupled off. What that meant for the movie was that any time something happened to one character, you had their partner to experience it through. Someone on screen cared deeply about them and is reacting viscerally, and that in turn heightens your own response than if you were left without a starting point for your own emotional reaction. Okay, I’m sounding really technical or pretentious or something. My point is, it was a simple but effective ploy to bring you even deeper into the action, and hit you even harder at each turn.
Did it really do much to further the franchise or the genre or film in general? Maybe not. Was it a fun way to spend two hours? Absolutely!
Alien: Covenant – \m/ \m/ \m/ \n”