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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Alien: Covenant (Jed Kurzel)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if the thought of hearing a very tasteful adaptation of
Jerry Goldsmith's score for Alien in this context is enough to
merit exploring otherwise mundane, underachieving original material from
Jed Kurzel.
Avoid it... if you expect this score to make much sense, because this battle was lost in the spotting sessions for the film; likewise, the album lost its way when Ridley Scott's usual supplemental material was not included to complete the narrative.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Alien: Covenant: (Jed Kurzel) It would seem that
director Ridley Scott cannot help but obsess over the glory of his early
success with 1979's classic, franchise-inducing Alien. The man
has decided to take the general universe of that film and make
philosophical commentary about mankind itself, exploring human origins
while continuing to scare the hell out of people. The Satan allegories
are especially prevalent in 2017's Alien: Covenant, sequel to
2012's Prometheus and one of at least two more prequels to
Alien in the pipeline. Another group of humans en route to a
distant, future colony come across a strange signal and, of course,
neglect the sensible action, which is to ignore it. Instead, they end up
intertwined with the fate of the crew from the prior film, and they
encounter both the "engineers" that are the creators of human beings and
more of those nasty Xenomorph aliens that do all their usual anti-social
nonsense. Someone needs to invent a breath mint to repel those pesky
assholes from violating our personal bubbles. If you want to study
screenplays that feature characters behaving in the least pragmatic way
possible, then the Scott-led prequels are a clinic. Let it be confirmed
to those in the real world that androids that look exactly like people
and pretend to be benevolent are actually destined to be the instruments
of our demise, no different from The Terminator or, less
obviously, The Matrix. These Alien films, since Ellen
Ripley's death, have spiraled down a path towards depressing uselessness
that Scott is attempting to salvage with his deeper thoughtfulness in
his second go-around. Unfortunately, it's all still too shallow to
accept as true artistry, and this stench of stagnancy extends into the
music for the franchise. Scott is notorious for screwing up the
soundtracks in his projects; he claims now that Jerry Goldsmith's score
for the original Alien is among the greatest of all time despite
removing much of it from the picture. His application of classical music
in lieu of a proper score in his movies remains controversial and
occasionally distracting to even novice ears. In Alien: Covenant,
pivotal scenes at the beginning and end of the story are treated to
Richard Wagner's "Scene 4: Entrance of the Gods into Valhalla" from "Das
Rheingold," for instance. (Let's not overlook a little John Denver heard
in this movie, too.)
The original score was set to be the domain of veteran composer Harry Gregson-Williams, who has had a rough but arguably productive collaboration with Scott over the previous dozen years. Gregson-Williams had provided additional material for Prometheus, taking the place of Scott's regular collaborator, Marc Streitenfeld, at the time. He wrote music for the mythological element of that story, summed best in the cue "Life." Perhaps not surprisingly, however, Gregson-Williams departed Alien: Covenant and cited a combination of scheduling conflicts and creative differences (the former usually taking the emotional heat off the latter) for the decision. Maybe he sensed that his fate would be similar here to what he experienced on Kingdom of Heaven, for which Scott removed large portions of his score in favor of existing Goldsmith music. Certainly, Scott wanted Alien: Covenant to continue in expanding upon the homage to the franchise's musical heritage, Prometheus expressing hints of Jerry Goldsmith, Elliot Goldenthal, and John Frizzell in its constructs and demeanor. Novice Australian rocker and composer Jed Kurzel steps in for the save, though three Gregson-Williams cues from Prometheus are re-used for scenes lamenting the fate of that ship's crew, "Life" and "We Were Right" for primarily a grave scene and "Ancient Flute" performed by one of the androids directly. Kurzel, meanwhile, had only experienced a couple of major projects to this point, the most notable being Assassin's Creed, and his music for these films ranged from terrible to insufferable. By comparison, Kurzel's work here (maybe with some assistance from his team of orchestrators) is surprisingly polished, though much of that shine is owed to the material being referenced frequently. There are three sides to the score for Alien: Covenant, the most obvious being the outward interpolations of the Goldsmith original. These are not hints or passing references; Kurzel applies these references minutes at a time, sometimes layering the classic, woodwind and trumpet ideas with his own embellishments. But the adaptations are often nicely handled, and they are provided at five or six prominent places at length in the film. On album, these references are most solidly conveyed in "The Covenant" and "Planet 4/Main Theme." There can be a lengthy debate to ensue about the merits of this theme's appearance here at all, because symbolically it doesn't make much sense, especially given that the direct sequels to Alien never utilized it. But does that really matter? One could make an argument that Scott is trying to atone for his sins towards Goldsmith's Alien score by making it a fixture in Alien: Covenant. Regardless of intent, at least it's handled well enough even if it is blatantly odd. The second side of Kurzel's score is the ambient but sometimes quite pretty, contemplative material for the lead female character and other protaginists. In "A Cabin on the Lake," "Sails," and "Chest Burster," Kurzel supplies subtle but surprisingly warm tones, the first and third of those cues conveying his most impactful original theme for the film. He doesn't quite succeed to that same task in the duo of "Dead Civilization" and "Survivors," which strays closest to Gregson-Williams' "Life" theme amongst its droning. The third side of the score for Alien: Covenant is the outright horror element, and it is here, especially in the latter half of the score, where Kurzel stinks up the house. His ambient suspense is barely audible and the frights are little more than pounding rhythmic drivel featuring electronic manipulation. A cue like "Bring It to My Turf" is pointless noise. You can hear Kurzel try to emulate James Horner's Aliens with the percussion in "Cargo Lift," but he succeeds on that desire to a better degree in the middle of the more impressive "Launcher Landing." It's in the suspense and horror portions of the work that Kurzel's own, two-note theme for the antagonists is manifested, and it's such a generic phrase that it doesn't really function to any discernable degree. He attempts to combine these original ideas with Goldsmith's legacy in the closing "Alien Covenant Theme" but instead provides a rather tepid recapitulation of the highlighted, Horner-like crescendo from "Launcher Landing." The whole endeavor is frustrating because of the clearly questionable spotting of music by Scott and Kurzel's waffling between superior source material and his own, often non-descript original additions. Fortunately, the Goldsmith music is very respectfully rehashed even if it's a head-scratcher. If you accept the spotting decisions at face value, then one could argue that Alien: Covenant is actually a pretty decent score, and given the really wretched quality of Kurzel's previous mainstream work, a listener has to be pleased with this outcome. Casual listeners will be surprised by just how much readily accessible music there is on the album, nearly the entire mass of cues up to "Spores" easy to digest and absent much disruption in the way of stingers or heinous dissonance. An otherwise three-star rating is diminished by the absence of the Gregson-Williams and Wagner music on the soundtrack album.
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 58:57
NOTES & QUOTES:
No formal insert exists for this album; the full credits are contained on a cardboard
sleeve holding the CD within the outer packaging.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Alien: Covenant are Copyright © 2017, Milan Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 6/30/17 (and not updated significantly since). |
