Alien: Covenant

In 2012, director Ridley Scott made Prometheus—a mythology-heavy prequel to Scott's 1979 hit sci-fi horror film Alien. Prometheus introduced Michael Fassbender as the enigmatic British synthetic (aka android) David, who was created by Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce). Fast-forward 10 years later (to 2104), as a massive spaceship called Covenant—transporting 2,000 passengers and 1,140 embryos—is on a colonization mission to terraform a planet. An American android update, Walter (also played by Fassbender), is at the controls when a violent stellar flare jolts the crew out of cryo-sleep. The Captain (James Franco) is killed, leaving behind a widow, and First Mate Oram (Billy Crudup) assumes command, immediately making a grievous mistake by diverting the Covenant to Origae-6, where the Prometheus disappeared, after he hears a distress signal containing a plaintive John Denver song. On this vast, verdant, but seemingly uninhabited planet, they encounter David, who lures them into a cavern filled with vicious, ravenous Xenomorphs that burrow into human bodies. Along the way, Scott engages in existential speculation about the creation of human life and projections for its survival but—except for the hyper-intelligent androids—his characters lack development, ultimately making this just another slithery creature-feature. A strong optional purchase. [Note: Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by director Ridley Scott, “Master Class” behind-the-scenes featurettes (56 min.), a production gallery (25 min.), deleted and extended scenes (18 min.), the behind-the-scenes segments “Phobos” (10 min.), “Advent” (7 min.), “The Last Supper” (5 min.), “Meet Walter” (3 min.), and “The Crossing” (3 min.), “David's Illustrations” galleries, and bonus DVD and digital copies of the film. Bottom line: a fine extras package for an uneven entry in the long-running Alien franchise.] (S. Granger)