Its been seven years since Alien: Covenant, we’ve been weary for a new tale.

As a franchise grows and grows over decades, with several incarnations, storylines and lore, what more can you do? Fede Álvarez says, a whole helluva lot, but does it all flow?

We all know the nefarious Weyland-Yutani corp isn’t much for team building. There’s no wellness retreat, no profit-sharing and absolutely no guarantee you’ll ever retire, but there’s one thing they do have: an unwavering company mission.

At the start of this story is a woman just trying to get out, move on and get to a place of peace. Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) is given the bad news of not having enough credits to leave the Weyland-Yutani mining colony of Jackson’s Star, as the company has risen the credit quota (so on brand, for WY), chaining her to the colony for at least a decade more. Accompanied by her “brother”, synthetic Andy (David Jonsson), Rain heads to the camp of an estranged group of friends who have found a workaround, the decommissioned ship Renaissance, and if they can get it going, there may be freedom after all. Tensions are already at a high with the team as Bjorn (Spike Fearn) has a strong and menacing aversion to synthetics, which his girlfriend Navarro (Aileen Wu) supports, Tyler (Archie Renaux) and his sister Kay (Isabela Marced) have clearly missed Rain. The exposition is a bit heavy handed here and the extensive admonishment of synthetics makes it feel burdened, but the young and beautiful ones head off on their mission, squashing feelings…for now.

A few things strike me about Rain and Andy’s relationship. We’re asked to believe that Rain and Andy are close, Andy having the sole directive to do what is best for Rain and keep her spirits up but there is no mention as to why he and his directive are put into motion for this length of time. What’s begun as a protective quest to not leave her lonely after her parent’s death has become cumbersome. Andy’s soft demeanor gives off a childlike naivete that reads old technology (any hard jostle sending him into seizure) trying to find it’s place in an ever-changing world and leans to reflect an almost neurodivergent quality. Rain seems to be slow to defend Andy when her friends insult, poke, prod, tease and taser him, when moments earlier she fiercely defended him against a group of strangers. Rain seems conflicted about how to feel about him. Jonsson carries a lot of emotional spectrum and load in the film, and as the sole Black character, he’s tokenized for his WY capabilities and used as a catalyst to show the all-out idiocracy of humans. It doesn’t come off as intentional but it’s glaring in contrast.

The team is green, so it’s no wonder that they run into trouble almost instantly and have a lack of the “NOPE” gene. Further and further they head into the Renaissance, kicking over every hornet’s nest possible, awakening sleeping beasts both deadly and artificial. It’s a test of sacrifice and survival, as it should be, but I feel the film used a lot of it’s real estate front loading the difference between humans and synthetics before it got to the meat of the showdown. But when the showdown does begin, it becomes as terror-striking and adrenaline soaked as it can, and Spaeny slowly morphs into our heroine, coming up with almost all the counterplans once shit hits the fan. The game changes, the directive changes but the destruction doesn’t.

What really works in this film, in part, is Álvarez not reinventing the wheel but giving us the grittiness of Jackson’s Star, the space trucking militance and the jump-scare of watching the face huggers dispersion as they fan out around their prey, devouring and dissecting them as only they can. Sticking with what we expect from the franchise works in the film’s favor. We do have our ultimate face hugger moment and it’s still as jarring and devoid of all hope as always and adding the Xenomorphs unexpected bi-pedal stance at times does not hurt. The atmosphere is bleak, the blood-pumping action high and the tendency to curl into your movie seat when you know our characters as walking straight into a trap is still all there. Suffice to say, I really enjoyed the ride and Jonsson is standout running the emotional gamut as Andy.

The division will come from those this incarnation has chose to resurrect but it’s the Ripley-transplant in Spaeny that breathes new life in a somewhat battered fable that newness finds hard footing in.

We’ve got decent chops here, not quite a perfect species, but all in all, with any luck, the Network should pick this up.

Mo Moshaty is a horror writer, lecturer and producer. As a Cognitive Behavioral Therapist and life long horror fan, Mo has lectured with Prairie View A&M Film & TV Program as a Keynote, BAFSS Horror Studies Sig  and The University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. Mo has partnered with horror giant, Shudder Channel, to co-produce the 13 Minutes of Horror Film Festival 2021 and 2022 with Nyx Horror Collective and her literary work “Love the Sinner” was published with Brigid’s Gate Press in July of 2023 and her two volume collection, “Clairviolence: Tales of Tarot and Torment will be published in 2025. 
Mo is the creator and Editor-in-Chief of NightTide Magazine and the Founder of Mourning Manor Media.