A Great Ride .

Rating: 8/10 (16 May 2017)

Having followed the Alien story , in real time since 1979 , I remember coming home from Prometheus disappointed . Laughing about how a bunch of highly trained and intelligent scientists could make so many poor decisions . A geologist , who came across more like a 19th century possum hunter , not interested in discovering a new planet . When they started the spaceship with a "magic flute" I thought ... They have got to be kidding . I have seen Prometheus a few times since then and overlooked it's irritations . I mean , it does look fantastic and does manage to tune you out for a couple of hours . So with Alien : Covenant I approached it knowing it would be weak in certain areas , like most Hollywood sci-fi is these days . And it was as expected . Outside of Fassbender there are not any really engaging characters .There is a lack of any real science or detail and you do have to question the actions of another bunch of dumb scientists at times . But it looks even better than its predecessor and delivers plenty of excitement . The score is great and the sound design spectacular . Kudos to those who think it wasn't good enough. I totally understand why you would be disappointed , but lets face it , we are never going to get another film like the original Alien . Nothing much really happens in the original film for the first half an hour but it sets up first contact and the rest of the film brilliantly . Film studios have a tendency to sell it's customers short in the new millennium. I think they just assume today's audiences will struggle to concentrate for a whole two hours in a row . To the detriment of film making they may be right in some part . When it comes to big Hollywood films I can't see things changing anytime soon . At least we didn't get any Abba tracks appear out of nowhere . We have to be thankful for that ! Overall , I think Alien : Covenant delivers in spades and I really liked it .