Bit of a mess

Rating: Null/10 (11 May 2017)

Alien: Covenant (2017, Ridley Scott)
After Prometheus was released five years ago, the took was that the next chapter would follow the two surviving characters played by Michael Fassbender & Noomi Rapace back to the home world of the architects of the human race. However with Prometheus not doing as well as hoped and getting soft reviews plans have changed. What we have ended up getting is a messy hybrid of some of the ideas from the proposed Prometheus sequel and a much more familiar Alien film.
This story follows the crew of a colony ship, bound for a remote planet who discover an uncharted habitable world that unfortunately contains some dangerous secrets and forces them to attempt a harrowing escape. The film is well enough made but not as visual a splendor as Prometheus was. The cast all do fair to good work with Danny McBride (Eastbound and Down) being the highlight.
However the story is a real mess and the characters are under developed with mixed results on the design and set pieces. The computer generated aliens look good at times and not so much at others with their movements feeling too over the top and not grounded enough. For those who are fans of blood and gore, this one has plenty as well as some good tense moments but on the whole this film feels like a failure but they have another chance to get it right in 2019 with Alien: Awakenings.
4.5/10