PROFOUNDLY DERIVATIVE. Worst of the franchise. (Spoilers)

Rating: 1/10 (20 August 2017)

PROFOUNDLY DERIVATIVE. Worst of the franchise.
I start with the proposition that the original Alien is a top 10 all-time sci-fi movie. Probably top 5. But take everything that made Alien and its progeny so awesome, repackage it with one-dimensional characters and a lousy plot and you get Covenant. Also, the Xenomorphs in this move are so much worse than previous installments. How is that possible? With the advances in movie-making technology over the last 40 years it boggles the mind.
But first, the derivative nature of the movie. Female protagonist. Check. Said female protagonist having no training in alien-fighting. Check. Diverting a spaceship for a mysterious signal. Check. Chest bursting. Check. Fight aliens. Check. Devious android. Check. Somehow the alien gets on board ship. Check. Does any of this seem familiar?
After Prometheus, which I actually liked for its promise of exploring the nature of faith, creation, etc., this falls flat on its face. All of the stupid decision-making mentioned in the previous reviews, plus the absurd notion that the Engineers are going to let in a long-lost spaceship to their planet and release the very organism they've been using as a bio- weapon, and that in seconds it wipes out their civilization? Please. And what about Elizabeth Shaw. This may be the biggest disappointment of all. Elizabeth Shaw was Ripley of our time. Smart. strong. and yet she somehow becomes a next-gen alien breeder. Or something? It is criminal that Ridley Scott allowed one of the two best characters in the franchise to expire with almost no explanation and then hand us a God- complex David as the central plot point.
I just regret all the lost potential on this project. It could have been so much more, and so much deeper. But what we ended up getting was a formulaic, rehashed hard-to-follow story that is not worth even bothering with if there is a sequel.