It's bad. Really bad

Rating: 1/10 (1 August 2017)

After the disappointment that was Prometheus, I was looking forward to watching this movie, hoping that Ridley Scott would up the ante. Boy, was I wrong. Alien: Covenant is significantly worse than Prometheus. Difficult to believe, but true. First, for the good things. The cinematography is spectacular, as expected from Ridley Scott. Like in Prometheus. References to other movies, in certain phrases uttered by David/Walter, are cute and endearing. Michael Fassbender as David/Walter.
That's it. The rest sucks to high heaven. In the first place, the crew of the Covenant seems to be little more than a collection of foul mouthed nitwits, without a shred of common sense.
Secondly, the personal relationships between the members of the crew are totally unnecessary for the plot - worse, they are distracting - and it is difficult to believe that anybody in their right mind would draft a crew with those personal attachments for a mission of the importance implied in the movie. But, then again, the crew seems to be made of imbeciles, so their personal relationships are perhaps immaterial.
Third, the would-be heroine, Daniels, lacks the strength and charisma that Ripley had - let's face it, Ms. Waterston, the actress who plays Daniels, cannot hold a candle to Sigourney Weaver and is thoroughly forgettable. In fact, she makes Noomi Rapace almost look good, in comparison (by the way, another plus for this movie is that we get to see very, very little of Ms. Rapace.)
Fourth, the behavior of David is absurd. All the verbiage that aims to justify it is mostly mumbo-jumbo. This makes to whole movie difficult to swallow.
Fifth, the twist at the end of the movie is so obvious and predictable, that one gets to see it even before it begins to develop.
Sixth, there is an unnecessary amount of foul language, and a totally gratuitous sex scene. I have nothing against such things, but not for movies of the class that Alien: Covenant supposedly aspires to be in.
Seventh, the essential problem of the original Alien movie (how to get rid of a foul, cunning, nimble, hyper-aggressive, corroding acid- bleeding creature in a spaceship, without destroying the ship in the process) is taken up - again - at the end of movie. Unnecessarily so (we have seen it before), rushed, amateurishly. In the inevitable comparison with the original, this particular portion of the film is particularly disappointing.
Eighth, the final scene, with Daniels fighting one of the xenomorphs, rather than spectacular and dramatic comes across as clownish, circus- like, with Daniels hanging from a thread attached to a ship that is where it should not be, and doing something ridiculous at it. It is not only unbelievable; it is almost ridiculous. Again Ms. Waterston complete lack of charisma does not help.
Ninth, the complete disregard for a minimum of scientific-technological consistency. Were I to list the inconsistencies I found, my review would be ten times as long; other reviews have already covered most of them anyway. An example: a neutrino flow would not damage anyone or anything; neutrinos hardly interact with anything. The subsequent flow of of other particles might, but the movie just talks about neutrinos, and the disaster takes place when the neutrinos arrive. In real life, the neutrinos would arrive well before the other stuff, as the 1987 supernova illustrated.
In summary, a preposterous plot, with a bunch of moronic individuals as the main characters, which make it very difficult to feel sorry for them when their final hour deservedly arrives, all within the context of a scientific-technological background that would have been ridiculous in one of those cheap SciFi movies from the 50s.
This is the end of the line for me, when it comes to the Alien saga, and possibly when it comes to Ridley Scott's movies. I have immensely enjoyed many of Ridley Scott's movies (The Duellists, Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, The Martian, etc.) but Alien: Covenant is, quite possibly, his very worst one. I shudder thinking about his plans to revisit Blade Runner.