Something is fundamentally wrong here

Rating: 5/10 (15 July 2017)

I must begin with a spoiler, but I promise it won't spoil anything for you, because there is hardly anything to spoil in this film that already isn't spoiled by Ridley Scott's once genius directing. But we do get one thing in Alien: Covenant that is totally new to the franchise, never seen before in any of the Alien films. We get to see a rather long kung fu scene between the androids. If you are by any chance an Alien or generally a sci-fi fan of the space exploration kind this will probably be enough for you to give this one a skip. If you are still here with me, I'd like to take a moment to say that I truly enjoyed Prometheus, watched it multiple times and still remember all of it's remarkable scenes. Prometheus never pretended to be an Alien sequel (or a prequel), neither in it's title nor it's story. It borrowed a legendary Space Jockey from the original Alien and took it's own path from there, into adventure, exploration and the unknown, ever so slightly tingling us with the xenomorph origins. More importantly, it led us to question humankind origins, purpose and future, something we took for granted in Alien franchise. As long as Ripley can survive, we were safe and sound. It presents us with a new kind, Engineers, possibly creators of humankind and the ones that will end it for unknown reasons alike. Also, it deepened our understanding and connection with android(s) and for the first time in franchise android takes a subtle lead on the screen. Alien: Covenant seems like it wants to play with that concept a further more, the android mind that is, but it fails miserably. Instead of asking or answering any questions related to what Prometheus or any of the Alien films started it presents itself with a bunch of cliché action scenes, culminating with a mentioned kung fu one. There are no questions here, none for us and even less for our "heroes", they don't even care for long about their loved ones deaths let alone where they are, who are the Engineers or where do the xenomorphs come from. All they care about is having a cabin by the lake, a rather strangely sustained vintage concept in the era of cross-galaxy space travel. All in all we are left with an android looking to find his place under the stars by becoming a creator himself, creating what has already been created in Prometheus and possibly even perfected according to murals seen there. It is all so surreal that halfway through film I'm thinking that all Ridley Scott had to do with this movie was lend his name to be used in the opening titles. It truly is that sad.