"What do you believe in, David?" "Creation."

Rating: 6/10 (4 October 2017)

The latest entry in this ongoing franchise follows the action of "Prometheus". Our current crop of characters are colonists heading to a distant planet, who decide to check out a rogue transmission. If only they'd stuck to their original mission... They land on a different planet, where the derelict spacecraft awaits, as well as various forms of alien life. They also encounter the android David (Michael Fassbender), who's been stuck there for years. Soon their number is rapidly decreasing as they fall victim to bloody attacks.
The characters are largely nondescript, and it's hard to care a lot for many of them, in this story which is kind of a remake of the first and second films. There are homages scattered about, and even Jerry Goldsmiths' atmospheric score for the legendary "Alien" of 1979 is appropriated. It may come as a disappointment to fans of the earliest entries in this series, but taken on its own as a modern era sci-fi / horror / action flick with cutting edge technology, it serves its purpose. Some people may appreciate the high body count, and the plentiful gore. The Xenomorphs themselves are barely much of a threat here, though, as they seem to be all digital, and we don't even get to see the classic form of the species in action until the last act. Like "Aliens" before it, it serves up more than one climax, and the action is somewhat exciting if also ridiculous (Daniels, played by Katherine Waterston, is whipped all over the place by a tether.)
Starring actor Fassbender is excellent, and the main reason to watch. He actually plays two androids, David *and* Walter, the companion on this colonization project, and keeps them differentiated enough so that we're not confused. David and Walter tend to have the more interesting scenes in the film, although some fans charge that this is merely director Ridley Scott indulging in a lot of silly ideas about creation.
"Alien: Covenant" is slick, high tech entertainment that may amuse very undemanding fans of sci-fi and horror, but may have others wondering where Scott - who did guide the original trendsetting film 38 years ago - could have gone so wrong.
Six out of 10.