A Waste of Potential

Rating: 6/10 (15 May 2017)

Not normally being one to write reviews, I have just seen Alien Covenant and there are some major issues that I feel as though I really need to get off my chest (pun intended).
Having been a fan of these films since childhood, I was unfortunately never old enough to go and see any of the originals in the cinema. This should have been an experience to remember, albeit, for the right reasons - not for this disappointment.
Before you continue, I do have a couple of key points that I must confess:
a] I loved all four alien films. I believe that they are all good, some are just better than others (1,2,3,4 from best to not-as-good).
b] I liked Prometheus and have watched it several times (Goodbye anti-Prometheus readers).
If you're still here then hopefully that means you're sort of on the same wavelength as me and I do hope you find my review *ahem - rant* slightly helpful.
****SPOILERS AHEAD****
Firstly, Alien Covenant completely disregards the very ambiance that Prometheus had gone through the trouble of setting up. Ignoring some of the poor decisions that the crew had made, Prometheus had me asking questions and it showed us something a bit different that added more mystery to the origins of the Xenomorphs. Furthermore, the case of the creepy space alien dude from the derelict ship in the first film was even solved - which they called an 'Engineer'. These were shown to be superior in both physique and intelligence with technology much more advanced than our own. With the way that Prometheus finishes, you would expect the sequel to encompass some grand adventure in to the unknown to discover the origins of the human race. Although, lets be honest, I only really care about the Xenomorphs.
Well.........it doesn't. David destroys the engineers. Like ants with a magnifying glass. In a scene that seemed to have been forgotten and remembered in the editing room. As bleak as that sentence sounds, that's exactly how I felt upon witnessing their demise - deflated and disappointed. What was a major part of the plot in Prometheus has been reduced to a meager flash-back no longer than a couple of minutes.
Secondly, something I absolutely cannot forgive - the trailers showed most of the good bits. A technique that is often used by bad films to trick the audience in to paying to see the film, and in most cases, finding out its garbage. Not impressed.
Thirdly, David's humanity. Prometheus demonstrated that David was no ordinary droid, he has a unique form of sentience that this film tried to elaborate on - and it delivered it poorly. Whilst I agree that, yes, David has been alone on a desolate planet by himself for 10 years, there was a couple of scenes in which they tried to delve in to his psyche. This got straight up weird and fast. Not only did it completely break the flow of the film but it strangely involved some form of intrusive and mildly erotic thoughts in which David (Fassbender) kisses Walter (Fassbender) before attempting to kill him in a teary conflict of opinions. Not that I have anything against male-on-male android action but the film should have been trying to create an atmosphere of creeping suspense and terror. This just created a slump in the little amount of fear that had already been built (bearing in mind, the film was almost finished by this point). "Here, let me help you with your fingering" - yes, you heard that right. I'll leave that unto your own interpretation until you see the film but that particular line had half of the audience in stitches rather than empathizing with David's twisted perception of reality.
Finally, to cut it short, the origin of the Xenomorph is finally revealed. David GOT BORED. Yes, he got bored in those ten years and instead of taking up finger painting, he decided to create the perfect organism for ending all living things (which he defines as meat). OK, although the actual reason is that David has come to despise the human race, I personally think that the decision to reveal this as the source of the Xenomorphs was a little half-baked. Maybe this could have been forgiven had the execution been delivered at least half decently but like the rest of the film, this just isn't so. He even manages to lure the captain of the covenant to one of the unhatched eggs in order to be impregnated. Bearing in mind that David has already demonstrated enough mental instability by this point for which the captain should have shot him in the face. Instead, he decides to follow him down to the deep, dark cellar by himself with no-one knowing where he is, after which, he sticks his face right over one of the eggs which we know and love from original films. By the way, the stupidity of the crew in this installment has to be the worst out of the entire franchise.
Whilst I could go on, for me, these were the major points that really ruined it. Of course, whilst the upsides are mainly due to the film's brilliant cinematography, this only highlights how much better the film could have been. With a film so visually stunning, Scott only had to produce a half decent film and it would have rightly taken place with the others. Unfortunately for me, I'm still in turmoil as to whether this should be banished along with the AvP series. However, with the key plot points that Covenant has revealed, it will be difficult to ignore it if I want to enjoy the other sequels.
"This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off". Probably not forever though...unfortunately....maybe ....undecided.