‘Alien: Covenant’ review (4K UHD)

Director Ridley Scott returned to his blockbuster, sci-fi survival horror roots earlier this year with help from his favorite acid-spitting monsters.

Now jump-scaring home entertainment viewers in the ultra high-definition format, Alien: Covenant (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, rated R, 122 minutes, 2.39:1 aspect ratio, $39.99) offers a predictable story showcasing another doomed space crew.

This time, it’s roughly a dozen members of the enormous starship Covenant. In the year 2104, their simple mission was to shuttle 2,000 colonists in hyper sleep and over 1,000 frozen embryos to the distant planet of Origae-6.

When the crew is prematurely awoken by a neutrino burst damaging the ship, they receive an odd message coming from a nearby planet.

They can’t resist checking out its potential to sustain human life, and they run into a species familiar to “Alien” fans that may threaten humanity.

Cleansing the palette from the previous, head-scratching film “Prometheus,” the movie, set 11 years after those events, attempts to tie up the narrative with help from the return of the android David (played brilliantly by Michael Fassbender) stranded on the mysterious planet.

In a doppelganger role, Mr. Fassbender also plays the Covenant’s resident android Walter and does a great job of adding a stoic and methodical creepiness to the proceedings.

I won’t spoil the terrifying secrets that delve into the creation of the Xenomorph species, but I will ding the creators for unleashing another group of idiotic space jockeys that deserve everything that happens to them.

For example, part of the team takes a shuttle and goes down to the mysterious planet, but they do not wear any type of space helmet or hazmat suit on the surface for protection.

Yes, the atmosphere may be fine, but there are plenty of other elements on an unknown planet that could cause a human harm.

After a member gets infected, he is helped back to the shuttle and put in a room that has very little quarantine protocols in place other than a door lock. The result is further disastrous.

Finally, the Covenant pilot maneuvers the entire ship too close to the planet, goes down on a platform lander to rescue the crew but has little understanding of the danger that awaits him.

No starship pilot would ever take the risk of a landing, never mind bring the crew back without a high level of quarantine in place. There would be too many warning bells that the landing party’s discoveries could potentially contaminate his precious cargo.

Although, this level of “stupid” has helped keep the “Alien” franchise strong, as most of the films turned into nail-biting thrill rides when the unleashed creatures attack, it is a glaring black eye to screenwriting, demonstrating any level of plausibility.

However, I’ll forgive Mr. Scott. The gore, suspense and expansion of the “Alien” mythology sucked me into the claustrophobic, haunted-house adventure.

It gleefully reminded viewers once again that in deep space, or a surround sound blasting entertainment room, no one can hear you scream.

4K UHD in action: An upscale to 4K from the 2K master gives viewers a chance to put holes in their reclining seat handles as they watch with too much bloody detail and clarity the crew get systematically exterminated by various incarnations of the emerging alien species.

Highlights to the ultra high-definition experience include the glorious unveiling of Covenant’s copper sails acting as solar panels, the texture of the hard space suits with black rubber joints and the swirling cloud formations peaked by lightening flashes above the rogue planet.

Further worth noticing is the skin aberrations on Walter and Daniel’s face, the sweat on soon-to-be victims skin pores, and the path taken by pathogen plant spores flying though the inner ear and burrowing into the brain of a crew member.

The high dynamic range embellishes a bluish-green tint color scheme throughout assisting in the appreciation of the action during a night rainstorm and the horror awaiting crew members in poorly lit corridors on the Covenant and David’s underground lair.

Best extras: It’s certainly worthwhile to first dive into an optional commentary track with the director and gruff patriarch of the Xenomorph’s canon.

Mr. Scott first admits to not preplanning the effort and lets us know that it will be “off the cuff.”

With an occasional peppering of profanity, he meticulously talks us through the finer points of the overall story mythology and the onscreen action while admitting it’s the same plot as the original “Alien,” but he believes it’s good to revisit old ideas.

Mr. Scott is also loaded with information on film production and even offers an occasional lesson in evolution, plagues, botany and religion.

Almost as great as the commentary track is an enormous archive of David’s scientific sketches as well as the film’s production photo galleries.

David’s finely detailed chronicle of his experiments and cataloging of the planet’s species are broken down by Flora (18 types), fauna (35 types), Shaw (8 variations), specimens (24 types), and alien (13 variations).

Many of the over 100 black and white illustrations feature handwritten notes from David and all mix into an astounding eye for detail one might see from H.R. Giger’s work or Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomy drawings.

I’ll reference the grotesque section of the head dissection of an engineer or the evolution of the facehugger egg as examples.

It’s also worth noting that to really enjoy the collections, I recommend using the digital code included in the package to access “Alien: Covenant” on a computer via iTunes to easily move through and scrutinize the masterpieces. A clunky, 4K UHD player’s controller is no way to navigate this impressive, virtual art exhibit.

For those looking for more background on the events leading up to “Alien: Covenant,” the extras offer 9-minutes segments on David and what led up to his isolation on the planet and 10-minutes on preparing the Covenant crew for their long journey.

Finally, but not highly recommended due to the overt kissing of Mr. Scott’s butt from the crew and actors, viewers get a 4-part, almost hour long overview of the production.

It covers the story, characters, settings and, best of all, 15-minutes on creating the Alien creatures — from face huggers to Neomorph bloodbursters and the frightening adult Xenomorphs.