Lack of character development and set up early in the film a major flaw

Rating: 9/10 (20 May 2017)

Ridley Scott could have added 15 minutes of footage in the beginning of the film to make this a really good movie; instead, there barely any emotional connection to the characters (outside of David, of course), and what unfolds on the screen becomes ... trapped (?) ... in its own realm. That realm is still fun for any fan of the franchise, though, and that's why the film still scores a "9" here. But when you release a prologue online prior to the film, why isn't that included in the film? Not everyone watches online content, so put it in the movie. Same for the scenes with Dr. Shaw that were released online but not including in the theatrical version of the film. Why bother? As these characters inherently get picked off one by one by the alien(s), we just don't care about them at all. At least PROMETHEUS gave us some emotional connection to Shaw, but COVENANT gives us no emotional connection to anyone. We're just here to watch the aliens, and that's fine. But it could have been so much better with just a little more effort.