Ruined by stupid character writing

Rating: 4/10 (14 July 2017)

I do hate to do that - but sometimes single character decisions CAN ruin the entire movie - because all the time you have to think back and remember how moronic the characters acted.
So that movie - while actually being a good above average one - is ruined and utterly brought down by the character writing.
After Prometheus - and the plentiful criticism about its scientists idiotic behaviour - i did expect a much "smarter" crew in Covenant... just to be disappointed. And although they did not try to outrun a thin wheel by running straight instead of doing a single sidestep - or remove their helmets when confronted by an alien and unknown life form.... they did pretty much destroy the entire mission by making an irrational, emotional - and outright stupid decision by altering the course to investigate a planet - as if they were a scout ship, instead of a ship responsible for thousands of colonists.
The bridge crew acted on a responsibility level of a drunk teenager.
And it is that writing that ruined the movie for me, because it made me angry to see the plot unfold based on stupidity.
On a more technical side ... the characters were too many to be properly introduced and experienced to really care about. In the first Alien movie, there was a small crew with mostly memorable characters - in the Aliens movie, there was a small band of marines that had VERY exaggerated personalities to remember them.
Here we have a lot of "red shirts" - and i did not care a bit for most of them being killed off.
To conclude...
Sadly - the new Alien franchise is still plagued by moronic scientists and their decisions. It does affect the enjoyment of the story and significantly ruins the fun of even a casual movie goer.
The cinematography was good for the most part (except the melee fight scene that was cut in a very disorientating way ... and hence looked pretty bad) Acting was alright - considering the only character that had sufficient time dedicated was David/Walter.
In terms of being a sequel to Prometheus .... i went out of the cinema with a feeling that the 10 years that Covenant happens AFTER the events of Prometheus ... were probably MUCH more interesting than this new crew of no bodies.
all in all 4/10 - not recommended - but possibly still a "must see" cause it is part of a franchise...