Excellent if you don't expect a masterpiece

Rating: 8/10 (21 May 2017)

Ridley Scott delivers a beautiful horror first sci-fi second film that succeeds based on its' excellent editing, direction, cinematography and interesting but predictable story. Anyone going into an Alien film nearly 40 years after the release of the original Alien should accept that these movies have a specific story formula. If a viewer can move past their objections to the traditional sci-fi horror arc and actually focus on the meat of the film then the film is an enjoyable experience with terrific performances from the entire cast.
*spoilers below* Also, if you liked Prometheus then Alien: Covenant will be right up your alley. The film capitalizes on the many questions asked in Prometheus and answers quite a few of them through an excellent plot piece using the synthetic David. The tone of the film itself isn't actually more gruesome than Prometheus, but the pacing is quite a bit faster making the film seem more violent than any Alien film preceding it. This shift allows Covenant to feel much more horror focused than previous films. This is most evident in the "Flare" scene where the fast paced editing combined with disgustingly gory kills ramps up the intensity of the film to 11. *end spoilers*
To summarize: If you go into the film expecting a fun, horrific, and intriguing sci-fi horror then you will leave impressed. However, if you can't stop shouting about unintelligent characters or expect any film to ever top the original masterpiece of Alien, you will leave wrongly disappointed.