Lazy writing, moronic characters - just tedious

Rating: 4/10 (15 May 2017)

I saw it on Friday and I have to say that it was really quite poor. Granted I didn't like Prometheus but I had watched it again before seeing Covenant, read and watched the Prometheus explained articles and videos and sought out that little prologue that they released. I only say this to indicate that I went into the film not with high expectations but with an open mind and an understanding of the film before it.
SPOILERS
I will be discussing the film so there will be spoilers
If Prometheus was confusing and the characters frustrating, here it was a slightly simpler story but the characters flat out stupid. But stupid because the writers just couldn't be arsed to apply a little bit of logic. They like to reference other films in this but it's like none of the colonists have ever seen a scary film, read up on the dangers of contamination or considered first encounter protocols.
They're on a mission and receive a strange broadcast from an inhabitable world that has no inhabitants on it. They land on this brand new, unknown planet and wander around as if they are in the Brecon Beacons. No gloves, no masks, kicking over brand new flowers, throwing cigarettes in the bushes, keeping the doors open on the lander etc. I'm not a tree hugger or anything but the apathy in their 'discovery' of this new planet smacks of blatant disregard. And because of this relentless stupidity, you just don't care about any of the characters. In one scene two separate characters slip over on the floor to make them easy bait for the Alien.
The infections, mutations and eventual expulsions from their host bodies seem to happen in minutes (because waiting would be frightfully boring) and rather than generate tension or fear just seem to be a little too exploitative and some kind of torture porn. No one is thinking of contamination, no one is that bothered about the lives of the sleeping colonists of whom they have responsibility. No one seems to hear gunfire, no one picks up on individuals acting angry then them showing you their experiments and then saying 'take a look inside this egg that has just opened'.
I remember watching Life and people comparing it to Alien. At least in Life, the astronauts are conscious of the danger of the alien organism getting down to Earth. In Covenant it doesn't even seem to cross people's minds. And the final 'twist' is so patently obvious it's genuinely laughable.
Overall the film was a collection of loud, noisy scenes that the makers wanted to film but not properly set up. It was disconnected, unengaging and a tired lazy cash in on the Alien franchise.