Alien Covenant Film Theory

Intheyear2525

With Alien Covenant, I believe Ridley Scott is making a larger appeal to his alien universe fans as a means to articulate his Iwj criticism of humanity and what we must overcome as we march into the future.

The mural above from Prometheus I believe alludes to Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" wherein the poetic statement he describes "man as a rope tied between beast and the Uber mensch (the overman) or in The alienverse "the engineers." With the creation of David, man must overcome his own creation and beastly nature. This being a scary sci if adventure flick, I think Ridley contends that our journey towards becoming the overman or rather having dominion in creating life that we must do so morally with a sense of our own humanity - unlike the engineers who would have us destroyed and David who is running amok creating horrific monsters simply because he seeks dominion over his creators. Thus Spoke Zarathustra wasn't necessarily about man becoming god but rather us transcending our own primative nature and religious cultural constructs as part of an essential journey to undertake. Alien Covenant and Prometheus similarly seek to illuminate the dialectical nature of transcending both our beastly nature and our esteem to seek dominion over the the natural laws of the universe or with unlocking secrets of creating life.

suwhited

New Guy here..."Thus Spoke Zarathustra" is some really deep stuff that I am not even sure Ridley wants to take us that far... I think Alien Covenant will be a continued journey for the  quest for knowledge. It is the "why" men do the majority of what they undertake...In David's case, it is a quest for establishing a place for himself wherein he is looked upon as a creator and not simply a creation. This is just my 2 cents worth.

IndyFront

I prefer to think Ridley is arguing the opposite, that there is no ubermensch and that the only true dominion is the dominion of the raw power of nature itself. The Engineers attempted to attain dominion over their 'technology', yet were destroyed by it. David attempted to attain dominion over the Engineers, and instead unleashed something he may not have control of (as the future-setting Alien films revolve entirely around). And, of course, Humanity attempted to maintain dominion over androids, and now they're running around killing people and preaching about the 'perfect organism'. Nature maintains the balance between itself and the technological, sometimes by quite destructive means and ends...