Terrific

Rating: 8/10 (24 May 2017)

Do not read spoilers because, for the vast majority of 2 hours, we have no idea where the story might lead us. It is true that towards the end, we see it coming, yet it doesn't remove anything from the thrill. It's probably by design. In fact, I suspect it is more terrifyingly enjoyable this way.
Summary for the reader who won't read further: Original, thrilling, intelligent, breathtaking, fascinating, with tons of awesome.
The first part, in space, is so enjoyable that I start to hope the entire story will stay on that line, that is of course until I remember that I came to see a monsters flick. What happens next has all the elements you would expect, and much new material. Ha ! There's even a real scream queen scene, sending me back to the 70s with a smile for a second.
The only reason that I don't rate higher this great theater moment is the last physical confrontation, which I find subpar to the rest, unoriginal on paper, unclear in execution, not engaging as a result. It's just one scene, but it's supposed to be a climax, so in my eyes it counts for more.
I was starting to think that nobody does SF cinema anymore, what with people paying to watch long toy commercials, predigested pointless brouhahas, adaptations of brain dead TV garbage, etc. So thank you Ridley Scott. And more congratulations for achieving greatness inside a franchise, usually the exemplar of film decay.