Alien: Obituary

Rating: 3/10 (14 May 2017)

There is the time in everybody's life when he or she is at the top of the abilities and does something great. That time passes and then there is just the average level, not that special at all. The worst thing that can happen is when this person believes that is able to maintain the highest level for a very long time, despite the naked truth he/she is no longer touched by the God's hand. This was the case with George Lucas and his Star Wars prequels, the same now goes with Ridley Scott's Alien. He's created the best sci-fi horror of all time and years later returned to the genre, backed by many fans, hoping the story (already severely damaged by Alien: Resurrection and AvP) can be invigorated. This is how Alien: Covenant emerged.
The previous installment, i.e. Prometheus, was the decent attempt to expand the universe, provided you watch it not as the Alien movie, but the separate side story. The less you made connections with Alien, the better. Unfortunately, Coventant, tries to combine the classic Alien story with the follow-up to the Prometheus, which cannot be done successfully. Let's see how Ridley Scott methodically destroyed his own child.
First of all, this is NOT an Alien movie. Although the soundtrack tries to set the climax identical to the 1979 original (borrowing the key tunes and melody) which is also reinforced by the opening screen, it feels forced and will just make you angry as you see all details that contradict the canon. The action is too fast and the viewer is unable to sink into the world (both Alien and Aliens start very slowly). This is the same problem as with the new The Thing - seemingly everything looks as it should, but eventually we get only fast-paced Die Hard-style action flick. Space monsters are no longer frightening as they are not strange, unknown creatures, but simply fast-running dogs or pumas... Their life cycle is also nonsensical here, by the way...
The movie fails as the sequel to Prometheus. The latter ended with open questions, like why mankind was created by Engineers, why they wanted to destroy humans, etc. None of these will be answered, as this is no longer the case. No one asks philosophical questions about the origins and fate of mankind. You will not see Space Jockeys here, there will be no sophisticated and mesmerizing imagery of the alien world, originally created by H.R. Giger.
What's worse, this is the movie about the android and his hatred towards not only the mankind, but all living creatures. David is the main character, all other protagonists are expendable and uninteresting. Michael Fassbender is the only actor worth watching here, but his character does not fit the Alien universe.
The film is well made, landscapes are great, but the story falls flat and the ending is painfully predictable. I know it is close to impossible to see a good Alien movie in the future, but if Neill Blomkamp does not get his chance to do the "actual" Alien 3, there is no point in waiting for the incoming movies made by Ridley Scott. Is there anybody that can stop this maniac from doing them??