Alien: Legacy Tarnished

Rating: 4/10 (2 June 2017)

It might help to watch the first Alien. It was made in 1979, with simple but effective props. But what it mostly had to offer, was a sensation of claustrophobia. The fact that the monster was just there without too much explanation, added to the mystery and dread.
After 4 movies it was a good thing that this epic story ended. Still, it was time for a prequel and we got Promotheus, which was part prequel, part completely different movie with aliens crammed into it. Considering the movie an unnecessairy remake, it was enjoyable to see the hommages and consistencies with the original movies (warning signal, claustrophobia and an android). What Prometheus added to the mythology, was the origin of mankind, but without much further explanation so what it did was create more loose threads and raise more questions. That alone was a good reason for another sequel/prequel, which is now Alien Covenant.
Unfortunately it didn't deliver. Instead of continuing the story, it retold an original satisfying story in a different unsatisfying way. But the biggest flaw, besides that the crew seemed amateurish and the alien nothing more than a prop, was that they almost completely ignored the new mythology of the creators of mankind. That part was rushed over, and they focused completely on the humans and android, degrading the real alien to a side effect, nullifying the claustrophobic feeling.
Instead of steering away from the humans, the focus is completely back on them, ignoring the new mythology, and disrespecting the old mythology. The movie fails in making the humans human, and it tries too hard to make an android too human. In that way, the movie is like a handbook of distorted human relations and the destructon that comes from it.
In hindsight, not knowing the origin of humans and aliens would have been better, but we're past that. No more unknown dangers, mysterious signals and unseen aliens lurking in the dark....so it is indeed an end, of Alien as we knew it.