Disappointing for a huge 'Alien' fan

Rating: 5/10 (15 May 2017)

I have never been more excited to see a movie on a theater before. It was going to be the first 'Alien' movie I'd seen in a theater, as well as the first film I'd seen in IMAX. The first two 'Alien' movies are two of favorite movies of all time and I liked 'Prometheus', so of course my expectations were high.
This movie was a huge letdown.
The tone is all over the place. The film can't decide if it wants to be 'Prometheus' or 'Alien' so it tries to combine the two into some sort of Frankenstein hybrid, which results in the movie essentially splitting into four parts: two parts 'Alien' and two parts 'Prometheus'. The 'Alien' parts are fast paced and gory while the 'Prometheus' parts are slow and philosophical, which results in the movie feeling disjointed and unfocused. Not only that, the 'Prometheus' parts are less philosophical than 'Prometheus' and the 'Alien' parts aren't very scary, as the loud, orchestral music completely killed any claustrophobia and tension that could have been present.
The characters have the same problems that the characters in 'Prometheus' had: they're dumb. The choices that they make in this movie are anything but scientific, with them all splitting up at any opportunity they can, despite the fact that the alien terrain is vast and dangerous and alien life has killed some of the crew already. Special mention to Oram for being the most brainless of the bunch and ironically the least suitable person to be Captain. The characters also lack development and personality, which makes it hard to root for them to survive. The dynamics between the characters is also nonexistent, and if you hadn't seen the 'Last Supper' prologue then you might not have even realized that the characters were all couples (minus a few lazy and obvious lines such as "I've never seen my wife scared before").
The movie also introduces a new alien to the film: the Neomorphs. While these could have been an interesting addition to the movie, they ended up being a cheap device to move the plot forward and they're only in three scenes in the movie (only one of which is effective).
While I may sound like I'm badmouthing the movie, it's not all bad. The visual effects are stunning and beautifully show the Xenomorphs in all their glory, although I do wish there were more practical effects for the aliens like in the other films. The acting is also fantastic, with no one giving a bad performance and making the horror feel more real. Special mentions go to Michael Fassbender, Danny McBride and Katherine Waterston. I do wish that Carmen Ejogo and Amy Seimetz were in the film more as they did give great performances in the little screen time they had, even if their characters were just as uninteresting as the others.
Overall, despite the great special effects and acting, the film has some glaring flaws that we very hard to ignore which hindered the experience I had with this film. Hopefully the next few 'Prometheus' sequels can improve on what this film tried to do because it did have potential.