"That's The Spirit!"

Rating: 9/10 (23 May 2017)

Go in with low expectations (which is good advice for any film, never mind a prequel to one of the greatest of all time) and you may be pleasantly surprised. Go in expecting the Ripley & Dallas era Alien experience and you'll be left wanting.
There's not much of a story here, it's as basic as it gets. But it neatly borrows and gives subtle nods to the 1979 original here and there. A massive ship transporting thousands of people to colonize a distant planet gets caught in a solar storm and inadvertently picks up a beacon emanating from nearby (sound familiar?). The flight crew are woken by the ship and discover this newly found planet is more habitable than the one they're heading for (and changing their plans will trim seven years off their voyage into the bargain) and so decide to check it out for themselves with a view of staying there.
After a slow build up this is where the action kicks in. What they hadn't bargained for is the fact that this new planet is home to the Engineers of the first Alien sequel Prometheus, and Elizabeth Shaw is the source of the beacon. As you can imagine danger, carnage & mayhem ensues. Oh, and a few xenomorphs.
As always, aesthetically the film is in safe hands with Ridley at the helm. It looks gorgeous. The space scenes are magnificent. There's one scene midway through where a flashback reveals the fate of the Engineers at David's hands, and it's an awesome scene. The different types of xenomorphs look fantastic, and there are some suitably graphic and gory chest bursting scenes and visceral action that provide a good counter-balance to the more erudite and cerebral parts of the story.
Michael Fassbender steals the show here. He reprises his role of David and also plays the Covenant ship's robot, this one called Walter. They both have completely different accents and personalities and Fassbender is utterly convincing as each one. The rest of the cast are capable and as characters are a massive improvement on Prometheus, they hark back to the original 1979 Alien and all seem like regular folk, without absurd eccentricities (yes I'm looking at you, Fifield and Millburn), and this is a good thing as this is without doubt Fassbender's film.
If along with me you're one of the few who enjoyed Prometheus you should find a lot to like in Alien Covenant. It's by no means a masterpiece but these days what is?