Good Prometheus sequel, average Alien prequel

Rating: 6/10 (12 February 2020)

In 2104, at least 10 years since the exploits of "Prometheus" occurred; a colonisation vessel responds to a radio signal coming from an Earth like planet and decides to change their destination from where they were originally intended to go in favour of this new planet. Things have been going wrong for the vessel and landing on the new planet it the next phase in things turning out bad. They are attacked by various Alien life forms, then they are saved by a familiar looking person, that person turns out to be less familiar to their expectations, more aliens attack, things go from bad to worse - queue the escape/ chase attempt.
I liked this more than the previous film "Prometheus" as this looked and felt crisp and edgy -the first part of the film at least! After the first act, act 2 of the film leans heavily on the theoretical dribble that "Prometheus" touched upon, theorising existence and life. Much of the dialogue is led by the android David (Fassbender) as he attempts to educate his guests on the planet. Act 3 returns to its roots and becomes an "Aliens" kind of film, but recycles a lot of the content from those "Alien" films. There are chase sequences, jumps and scares, and tension as you anticipate if the humans will outwit their pre-Xenomorph alien stalkers. With the difference in the three acts the pace feels a little off beat, some of the script and dialogue also felt out of place, at times, it became predictable in places and it didn't flow continuously. A lot of the characters were un-relatable - assumedly there to die rather than to connect to the audience or to drive a theory or theme. I guess, at least the film looked ok! There were a lot of situations that unfolded that left me frustrated and shouting at the screen, either at the characters decisions or something that broke the alien canon (or continuation in the films). I know that things occurred to scare or thrill the audience, but I couldn't help but get frustrated - it's like when victims run upstairs in houses when chased by knife wielding maniacs - it has to happen, but that doesn't stop me being frustrated. Perhaps my criticism is derived from my passion for the franchise and the hope that something would affect me the way the first two alien films affected me - but I have to be realistic, cinema has moved on, audiences are different - perhaps my expectations should be too.
All in all, it was a decent film, I personally expected and hoped for more, but it was still a decent sci-fi horror film. I'd give this 6 out of 10 - it follows on from "Prometheus" with a better (albeit average) film, it (very loosely) kind of embeds itself as a prequel to "Alien" - but for me could have been oodles better - I'll still re-watch it a few times in the future though.