Movie Reviews #45…
Alien: Covenant. Ridley Scott, Dir. What! Another prequel to that great sci-fi movie Alien? This one “fits” in between Prometheus and that first movie. Whereas the first move featured a bunch of gruff, seasoned interstellar miners who didn’t pay much attention to Ripley—they all worked for an evil corporation—this tale is about a colony ship carrying hundreds of colonists in cryosleep and thousands of frozen human embryos. I liked that old mining ship better. And here there’s no evil corporation. (Funny how sci-fi movies have the theme of an evil corporation. I guess the screenwriters didn’t want to duplicate the first movie or bring to mind Avatar.)
The crew here also seems to be badly unprepared for the voyage too—screamers not knowing what to do in an emergency, a religious fruitcake (nothing is made of this in the movie, though, so why was it included?) who inherits the job of captain, and a protagonist who’s a bit teary all the way (with her lack of fortitude, she can’t begin to compare with Ripley, except for one scene towards the end that plagiarizes the second movie). Covenant is the starship’s name and is basically run by Mother. AI, supercomputer? No one knows. Mother is a bit stupid, though, because she isn’t able to distinguish between the two androids. Sure they look alike—both played by Fassbender in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide roles—but Mother shouldn’t be bothered by physical look-alikes because she only “sees” their inner electronics. Fassbender’s probably the best actor here, by the way, but that’s not saying much.
Bottom line: this is a mixed bag, and I’m getting a bit tired of this whole franchise. The good: The fantastic visuals and eerie music. The bad: All the acting. The ugly: Ridley’s obsession with the idea that humans were created by aliens. While the latter is a common theme (I liked the short sci-fi story where we’re all descended from space vermin, “rats” fleeing a doomed starship—does anyone remember the title?), and was carried to the extreme in Arthur C. Clarke’s last Rama book, it always begs the question of who created those creative aliens. Zeno’s Paradox doesn’t apply here, and I can’t even place it in the Darwin evolution v. creationist debate’s spectrum (aliens aren’t gods), but if you care, you can ask Scott.
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The Collector. In #5 of the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” the detectives set out to solve the murder of a Manhattan art dealer. After twists and turns, they discover that the crime leads to something perverse financed by stolen artworks from the Gardner Museum in Boston as collateral. This intriguing and profoundly disturbing mystery/thriller/suspense novel is the crime-fighting duo’s toughest case so far. It also introduces Scotland Yard Arts and Antiques Inspector Esther Brookstone, the protagonist of my new book Rembrandt’s Angel (Penmore Press). The ebook The Collector is on sale now at Smashwords in all ebook formats; use coupon code SV28G. My new novel Rembrandt’s Angel is available in ebook format on Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, B&N, and Apple and will be available in print format on Amazon or at your local bookstore via Ingram (if they don’t have it, ask them to order it).
In libris libertas!
