It’s probably a bad idea to get my hopes up for Alien: Covenant. After Prometheus sucked all the air out of the Alien franchise, utterly demystifying the mysterious “Space Jockey” from the original Alien, a renewed focus on the alien xenomorph may not have the mythic power it once did. Still, it’s hard not to get caught up in the hype a little bit. From the horror movie focus to the multiple Fassbenders, there are a number of indications that Ridley Scott learned some lessons and won’t repeat the pseudo-mystic rigmarole that dragged down Prometheus . So while it’s kind of cool to see Ridley Scott back on the Space Jockey set in a newly released set photo, it’s also worrying. Can’t we just ditch those stupid Engineers?
In celebration of Ridley Scott’s birthday 20th Century Fox posted this photo on Wednesday:
And a new kind of horror was born. Happy Birthday, Ridley Scott. #AlienCovenant pic.twitter.com/xJcnXilplc
— 20th Century Studios (@20thcentury) November 30, 2016
Yes, that’s the cockpit of yet another Engineer ship, with its Space Jockey rider seemingly absent. Good. Taking the original Giger design and transforming it into a helmet for the Green Giant’s doofy albino brother was one of the clearest indications of the paucity of imagination in Prometheus. Rather than design anything new and otherworldly, Prometheus punted with black goo and baddies that might as well have been human (and, apparently, had identical DNA to us… somehow).
What we know about the plot of Alien: Covenant suggests that a new ship, the Covenant, will find Fassbender’s David on the ruined Engineer homeworld. Something something ALIENS. Should the Engineers have no more role than burnt corpse set dressing, that’d be just fine with me.
Leave the masks on or cut the Engineers out entirely and Alien: Covenant might just be a good time in space, where no one can hear you scream.
