But that characterization is cut off at the knees by the fact that God in the Alien universe is still a giant mystery, even six movies in. William Thackery.Īlien: Covenant starts to flesh out a character - and an origin story for the whole franchise - in which Milton’s Satan is the defining, driving force.

His rebellion is absolute he’s less like those antiheroes for whom we cling to the possibility of redemption (Don Draper, Tony Soprano, Walter White) and more like those who are so unrepentant that they don’t seem human at all - think of The Dark Knight’s Joker, Hannibal Lecter, or The Knick’s Dr. Satan is the kind of figure we’re familiar with today, both on TV and in real life: arrogant, charismatic, refusing to be subjugated to anyone, with a will bent only toward power and destruction. “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven,” he famously says. But it failed, and with his army he was cast out of heaven and became Satan, a twisted triumph. He was once Lucifer, the most beautiful of all of heaven’s angels, and he led a rebellion against God.

In Milton’s telling, Satan is a kind of tragic hero. Satan becomes Satan because of his pride. He isn’t just an abstract embodiment of badness, or something like the dark side of the Force. To really parse what Alien: Covenant is trying to do, it’s important to get a full picture of the Satan of Milton’s Paradise Lost. The Satan of Paradise Lost is in Alien: Covenant He wants to explore enormous philosophical and theological questions in a big-budget franchise movie where people get their insides colonized by terrifying extraterrestrial beings.

And yet you have to respect Scott’s ambition, even if you don’t like his movie. That’s just too many things to cram into two hours, and A lien: Covenant would probably be a better movie if it had calmed down and narrowed its scope.

It’s interested in subverting our creation narratives too. And, in keeping with a theme introduced in Prometheus, the movie also tries to weave in something about a conflict between faith and science. Vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark vox-markīut Scott also wants to make an Alien movie, which means there has to be gore, and fright, and death, and some kind of alien.

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