The Alien franchise resurged in a major way this weekend, with Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant chest bursting into theaters. And while the numbers at the box office may have been a bit disappointing, hardcore fans of the franchise are no doubt pleased to see a Xenomorph on the silver screen terrorizing a group of space explorers. Covenant was also met with mixed critical reception, and now Hannibal and Star Trek: Discovery producer/writer Bryan Fuller has revealed why he's taken umbrage to the recent sequel: the characters' stupidity.
Bryan Fuller recently spoke to Vulture about Alien: Covenant, where he revealed his problem(s) with the film. Regarding the characters' poor choices that result in them being killed, Fuller said:
I think the last two movies have had too many similarities to bad Friday the 13th sequels and not enough similarities to good Alien movies. [Prometheus and Covenant] were so masterfully executed on a technical level, gorgeously composed and produced, [but it's] really smart characters doing really stupid things.
Well, if that's not a backhanded compliment I don't know what is. While Bryan Fuller praised visual aspects of Alien: Covenant and Prometheus, he wasn't pleased with how the characters were constantly getting themselves killed through pure stupidity.
To accurately speak to his point, we're going to be moving into spoiler territory here, so if you haven't seen Covenant, you may want to put a pin in this story for later.
I have to say, I'm inclined to agree with Bryan Fuller about Alien: Covenant. While the large ensemble of actors gave great performances (particularly a refreshingly earnest Danny McBride), these guys just couldn't stop getting themselves killed. And it did feel Friday the 13th-ish in a way, except the team of Covenant were all highly skilled adults instead of horny camp counselors.
The first way we see this is after the shit has hit the fan, and the surviving group of colonizers are hiding in David's little temple. Female crew member Rosenthal decide she wants to "clean up", and she separates from the group to wash her face in a pool of water. Because despite being in danger and needing rescue, she just couldn't deal with a dirty face. This results in her being promptly decapitated by a Neomorph.
And even more infuriating is the love scene featuring Empire's always delightful Jussie Smollett. Well into the third act of Covenant, we see Smollett's character and his wife attempt to lighten the mood with some good old fashioned shower sex. They've been out of stasis for around a day, and just can't wait. So rather than mourning their many fallen comrades, they decide to get things wet and wild on the ship. I bet you can guess how that ends.
Bryan Fuller also had an issue with Covenant's chest burster, particularly how lethal and effective it is upon its birth. He said,
So, you see this chest-burster [in Alien] and how disturbing and snakelike it is, and then the other chest-burster in Alien: Covenant is just [a baby alien] standing up. It's like, he has good posture.
Alien: Covenant is currently in theaters now, and you can watch Bryan Fuller's American Gods on Starz.
