A satisfying Alien movie that return to its horror routes

Rating: 8/10 (13 May 2017)

I saw Alien Covenant yesterday at my local theater (a preview screening). Even though I wasn't a big fan of Prometheus (2012), I was still excited for Covenant, and I walked out of the theater satisfied. I thought that it was a great movie (note: I have only seen it once). Though I liked Prometheus's visuals, acting, designs and themes, it felt a bit rushed, all over the place (especially in the third act)It also suffered from every character being the galaxy's biggest idiots and an overall disconnect with the Alien franchise (it fells more like an Alien spin off focusing on the Space jockey taking place before Alien, rather then a prequel to the 1979 original).
Going into Alien Covenant, I was excited as it would return the franchise to its horror routes and bring back the Xenomorphs, along with a new monster (Neomorph) and answers questions about the iconic movie monster.
I left the theater satisfied, but wanting more (in a good way). It is definitely the best Alien movie since Aliens, while still having a few issues (no movie is perfect :D).
Plot: The crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy (called Origae-6), discovers another planet which they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world. When they uncover a threat beyond their imagination, they must attempt a harrowing escape.
The Great:
The Xenomorph. It looked amazing, similar to the original Giger design, but still a bit different when it came to its movement and its brutality. The cargo ship sequence was a big highlight, and the shower scene was actually pretty good and scary (surprisingly O_o). Another great sequence was the final one of Daniels and Tennessee hunting the Xeno across the ship, with Walter (David in disguise) helping them by tracking it and closing/opening airlocks. I have heard complains about the CG on the Xeno, but I think it looks great. The beast is definitely NOT cooked.
The Neomorph is a fantastic new addition to the franchise. It's a bit smaller then the normal Xeno, but faster and more brutal. Some of the goriest death scenes in the movie came from them. The backburster is very gory, disgusting (in a good way). It also has a fantastic scene with David (Michael Fassbender), where it reacts calm to him and doesn't attack, before Oram shows up and kills it, pissing David off (which leads to Oram get facehugged).
The creature designs and creature effects were great (except for one's effect). I am happy that H. R. Giger is credited for the creature designs at the beginning of the end credits.
Most of the characters and performances were great. I cared more about the characters in Covenant then I did for the characters in Prometheus. The best characters were Tennessee (Danny Mcbride), Walter/David (Michael Fassbender) and Daniels (Katherine Waterston).
Every scene with David and Walter. Their scenes (and how David is trying to get Walter to join him before disabling him, and taking his place on the Covenant) are the most fascinating scenes in the movie.
The Covenant ship and its hardware and technology were as great as they were in Prometheus, despite still being way more advanced then the tech in the original Alien.
The ending while predictable when it came to the reveal that Walter was David in disguise after they left the Engineer city, was still good and creepy, with David planting two Facehugger embryos along with the other (around) 1000 human embryos (probably to use the colonist as hosts to continue his experiments), and sending a final message from the Covenant as Walter before continuing on its journey to Origae-6.
The cinematography, the locations and the effects were beautiful (duh). No one directs sci-fi movies like Ridley Scott.
The Not So Great:
While I did care about most of the characters, they are complete idiots (even though I thought they were less idiotic then the ones in Prometheus, that doesn't say much). They walk around in a newly discovered alien world with no protective gear (not even hazard suits), some touch stuff that causes disaster, they trust a complete stranger and some of them separate from the main group when they know a deadly alien creature could show up anytime (and then they get killed).
The CG on the Neomorph backburster when it is no longer covered in blood looked average.
I could see the twist at the end (where Walter is actually David) coming from a mile away (though it was still a good ending).
The growing time from a chestburster to a full grown Xeno was really fast and reminded me of the AVP movies (even the time for a Facehugger to impregnate someone was really fast). The second Xeno (the one at the end of the movie) grew even way faster then the one from earlier.
The tone changes drastically some times.
Overall, Alien Covenant is a satisfying movie that returns the Alien franchise back to its horror routes, yet still having some of the action elements from Aliens. Most of the characters were great, though some were clearly only there to killed by alien monsters. The effects and cinematography were fantastic and it was a lot of fun. I can't wait to see where the story goes on from here (I hear that the next one titled "Alien Awakening" is going to start shooting in 14 months) and how it all ties into the original Alien movie from 1979.
I though that it was better then Prometheus, and it is my third favorite movie in the Alien franchise.
Final verdict: 8/10 or 4/5.