Finally. After FOX has baited us with movie stills, a tease trailer, and a prologue they’ve given us the full trailer. It was released a day early after it leaked all over the internet. I didn’t know what to expect from the trailer. I was nervous. What if it’s terrible?  What if it destroys all the hype I’ve built up? And then I hit play.

I can’t lie. I did not expect the trailer to be as spectacular as it was. It turned my blossoming excitement into a full blown hype train. During the early stages of Alien : Covenant I remember reading a quote from Ridley Scott that stuck with me. He was buoyed by the recent success of the new Star Wars movies and saw no reason that the Alien franchise couldn’t do something similar. Why did I think of this quote while watching the trailer? Different, yet familiar. Was Force Awakens an enjoyable movie? Absolutely, but it borrowed quite a bit from A New Hope. I think Ridley Scott is trying to tap into that. And that’s OK.

The trailer did a wonderful job of bringing together everything that has been missing from the Alien franchise in quite some time. There was a sense of wonder and exploration that hasn’t truly been around since Alien. I love the idea of a different setting. Seeing this type of horror amongst a lush, bright, and beautiful backdrop should make for some wonderful set pieces. But it also switched to the claustrophobic terror we all know and love, as the crew of the Covenant were deathly afraid of running away from the creature(s). The title Alien: Covenant may be a bit misleading, but the trailer did let us know this is indeed a sequel to Prometheus. We get a glimpse of the Engineers, a cloaked David, and Shaw’s dog tag (I have a feeling something brutal happened to her). My favorite scene in the trailer was David walking through a field of dead bodies. Is this a field of Engineers he wiped out? Did they make it to their home planet? I sure hope we get a flashback of what happened.

If there were any wories about the movie lacking any quality action, this trailer nullified that. There were multiple face-offs with the creatures, there looked to be Aliens-esque action mixed with the one on one terror Alien. Again, Ridley mixing the familiar with the new. Which brings us to the creatures themselves. We get a glimpse at the “neomorph” in the trailer, a pasty white, creepy looking critter. Supposedly this is an earlier form of the alien. I can’t wait to see it on the big screen. Different. Different. Different. I like it. We’ll know in a couple of months if it works or not, but I like that Ridley Scott is mixing up the formula.

The trailer ends with the money shot: in the midst of a big battle we get a great view of the iconic xenomorph. It has been a long time since one of these beauties graced our movie screen. Alien 3, Resurrection, the two Alien vs Predator movies, and Prometheus all featured different variations on the greatest movie monster of all time. But with Covenant, the big boy is back. And he’s looking good! There was some push back for it being all CGI, but I thought it still came out terrifying. The old school movie critic in me prefers the monster suits, but as long as the quality is high, I don’t mind it that much.

Suffice to say, my excitement has now reached new heights. I didn’t expect to be writing about the new movie so soon, but I am not complaining. I also did not expect the general public to enjoy the new trailer either. I hope the franchise can eventually retained the power it once had. If Sharknado can gain culture relevance, so can Alien. May 19th can’t come soon enough. Stay frosty…