In space...no one can hear you (unenthusiastically) scream.

Rating: 5/10 (26 May 2017)

'Alien: Covenant' is the second installment of the prequel films leading up to the original 'Alien' (1979). Being one of the most iconic monsters in horror-cinema, does the infamous Xenomorph lend itself to recapturing the scares as it once did?
1. Ridley Scott returns to direct his third entry in the 'Alien Universe', with he previous ones being both the original 'Alien' as well as 'Prometheus'. It is quite easy to see that Scott is in fact the most invested in this franchise seeing as he has stuck around this long. Being such an accomplished director, Scott brings his signature style into the film giving it a nice flow as things progress. The editing is great since everything moves at a decent pace and I was never bored throughout. To Scott's credit, he knows how to keep an audience entertained or at least engaged to some extent. However it would be unwise to compare this film to any of his highly acclaimed works.
2. This installment does in fact surpass it's predecessor 'Prometheus' on the grounds of it being a little more simple with the plot. When an unexpected accident occurs, members of a colonist crew are awakened on their way to a surveyed planet when they are intercepted by a random and mysterious transmission. To it's credit, the film wastes no time plunging the audience right into the action. After critics panned 'Prometheus' for being slow, boring and weak on story, the writers obviously got the message and tried their best to tighten things up with this one. As far as the scares go, I think audiences have become too familiar with the creature at this point to be in any kind of awe.
3. From the trailers, they tried to convey that the Xenomorphs no longer need to burst through people's chests, but their backs as well. If there's anything we learned from 'Prometheus', the 'Engineers' weaponized a specific black goo that......well......does anything convenient for the plot. For something that was never fully explained before, there's still not much of an explanation in this one as well. I honestly didn't care too much for wracking my brain around the science this film was pushing, just as long as we got the alien we love incorporated with creepy thrills for the least. As far as the black goo and spores, nobody cares anymore.
4. The action is surprisingly well done but the horror and gore is nothing we haven't seen before. The crew consists of fourteen people, but we only get to know Michael Fassbender, Danny McBride, Katherine Waterston and Billy Crudup (to an extent). Everyone else (as you figured) is just to be killed off. There is a twist near the end that really is too obvious to not see coming. Once again, I still regard this as being better than 'Prometheus', but still it seems to fail in recapturing the horror or deliver the same thrills for a film that finally reintroduces the Xenomorph. "Average" is probably the best word to describe this film.
Like I said, 'Alien: Covenant' is still entertaining, although I didn't feel cheated seeing this in theaters, it's still a middle-of- the- road sci-fi flick that doesn't quite exceed expectations.