Too much

Rating: 5/10 (21 May 2017)

Just got home from watching Alien Covenant, and I have to say that I was a little disappointed. For an Alien movie, there weren't a lot of aliens in it. Add a downer ending, and you're asking for disappointment. The insane android was a twist, but once again - a disappointment. In addition, the xenomorph was able to go from a newborn to an adult in less than 24 hours in the original movies. Now it seems to take just a few minutes. Plus the xenomorphs are about 3 times stronger than they were in "Aliens," which was arguably the strongest chapter in the story line. A half-dozen guys with fully-automatic rifles couldn't take even one of them out in close-quarters combat. Did David add steroids to the xenomorph DNA or what? I did catch the rumored tie-in/similarity to the Blade Runner movie (Or franchise now, I guess) - but this movie is what I would call "busy." There's a lot going on here, and you have to work to keep up. They should have named it "Alien 5 / Promethius 2 / Too damn much going on here / Wait the the DVD." I'm delighted that Ridley Scott is back in the franchise, and I hope he stays on board to get it back on track - but this one didn't work for me. Would've been better to return to the old formula. First the egg(plant)s, then the face-huggers, then the xenomorphs, then the mayhem with gunfire and explosions. In the same situation, I would have checked the employee files of the 2,000+ colonists in the deep-freeze for any military &/or combat experience & awakened those guys up to help tackle the threat. How did nobody think of that? I'm sure there will be plenty of people who like this movie, and there's a lot to like - but the story is going off in too many directions now. Maybe they didn't want another "Superman Returns" on their hands, but all the same... If the Twentieth Century Fox people ever read this, tone it down to the basic elements next time - guys. The xenomorphs should be a doomsday bio-weapon meant to destroy an ecosystem via their breeding process. That would be far more relate-able with the original installments AND current issues. They shouldn't be an airborne disease / genetic engineering threat. Not enough of the fans are "scientist" enough to get on board with that. I will give kudos the the acting, though. Good stuff there. Before the haters starts yelling at me, I'd like to close by saying that I'm not stating these conclusions as fact. This is all just my opinion of the different story elements, and I could be wrong about it. I did JUST watch this movie less than an hour ago. After some time to digest it all, I might appreciate the story points more - but right now it just seems like too much.