Love and hate

Rating: 7/10 (7 September 2017)

I don't think I've ever read such a selection of diverse reviews before. There is plenty of love - but also plenty of hate for the film.
I guess when you go to an Alien film you're hoping it will deliver the thrills and spills of the first two. These were finely crafted films that drew mainly positive reviews - but you can't go on repeating them forever.
You could have another mining ship where the crew awake - or another set of colonists wiped out except for a few survivors that are rescued by marines - but you can't - so at least Scott and his team have attempted something different for the last two films.
I enjoyed the film and found it interesting with decent amounts of tension. On a personal basis I would have preferred more character development - and at times the crew seemed to have a collective IQ of about 20.
In Aliens the main characters were all sharply defined so we could relate to them - but in Covenant we knew very little about them.
A few more scenes of them interacting as a group - with their foibles coming out - would have made them more interesting and made us care more when they met their end.
However the inadequate makeshift captain was interesting and I would like to have seen more of him (no not his inners). Of course he shouldn't have opened his Easter egg - but who isn't interested in finding out what goodies lay inside - have you never looked into one?
I would also have liked a little more credibility in terms of the planet and quarantine procedures. In the original the high IQ Ripley showed a lot of common sense but this crew wouldn't have thought twice about walking naked through a lab containing Anthrax spores and the Ebola virus.
I hope Scott is allowed to make the next instalment and perhaps he'll tie all the lose ends up so we end up at the start of Alien.
Just think not only will the fans of this film have something to look forward to - so will all the sleeping colonists.