Fairly Enjoyable

Rating: 7/10 (23 May 2017)

I'm kind of surprised at some of the harsh negative reviews here. Alien: Covenant isn't great, but it's certainly not terrible. Then again, I guess my opinion of the movie is related to my expectations for it. I'll admit, I never had enough invested in the franchise to be seriously disappointed by the shortcomings of a new installment. I like the first Alien. I think Aliens is a bit overpraised. It's okay, but I found the marines to be kind of annoying, since they don't act anything like you'd expect real soldiers to act like, and the corporate villain was just too silly. And I thought Prometheus was kind of interesting. I haven't seen 3, Resurrection, or the two AVP movies.
Anyway, Covenant, which I thought was more fun than Prometheus, is flawed, but once the characters start exploring a new planet without any special suits or anything you know what you're in for. The action starts quickly, and when it does it doesn't stop until the end. Even during the slower sequences, there's quite a bit of tension.
The actors are fine in their roles. None of the characters are particularly memorable, but that's fine. Just the situation they're in makes me sympathize with them.
I liked the score, too, especially the use of Jerry Goldsmith's music for the first movie.
One criticism I have is that the planet, while well shot, looks boring. I kind of wished it looked more, umm, alien. Also, the philosophical aspect of the movie felt kind of forced. There's this one character who says he's religious, but this isn't explored at all. And I think films need to earn quotes from Milton and the Romantic poets, which this one really doesn't.
I won't get into all the plot holes, bad decisions made by the characters, and things that just don't make sense, since other people have gone over these. They're there all right, I just didn't mind them that much.
I can understand why some more dedicated fans of the Alien series might not like Covenant, but as a more casual viewer I enjoyed it. I'll keep going to the theaters to watch these, too, because of the dearth of high-budget, sci-fi blockbusters that don't involve superheroes - not that I consider superhero movies to be sci-fi anyway (and people do remember they're for elementary school kids, right?).