A slightly gorier, more feminist take on Prometheus (with more explanation)

Rating: 5/10 (22 May 2017)

This is definitely better than Prometheus! It's not very suspenseful though, and I found that part disappointing. There are also some feminist nods with the 2nd-in-command male seeming awkward, scared, and slightly incapable while the female 3rd-in-command is just immediately confident, has a plan, always knows what to do, bosses people around at-will, seems unaffected emotionally, etc. They go out of their way to feature women as being stronger than normal (one guy says, "I've never heard my wife sound scared before..." - lol), and I feel that takes away from the story -- we lose the sense of humanity and fear from the first two with Ripley. On that note, the female co-lead (or whatever her role is) is not very believable. I found the ending to be anti- climactic (just ask yourself why an alien all of a sudden attacks something mechanical versus a human being). To me, this felt like half a movie in that the movie really takes shape around Fassbender's David character and not what's supposed to be the main plot (essentially an add-on origin story to the Alien saga). There's a great twist at the end (not great if you're paying attention to details) that feels like it should lead to a more satisfying movie, but that's the end. You never feel like the 2 main survivors are in danger. While this is visually stimulating and attempts to fill holes, I'm left asking why their solution to solving the mythology of the xenomorph is so simple. Even when it's explained, it doesn't seem that horrifying -- the music is happy which left me feeling very confused. I find the motivation behind the explanation to be lacking as well. There's gore, but there's really no emotional significance or true fear with everything that happens -- you can see it coming a mile away. The pacing is different than Prometheus, and there's a lot more action, but I found myself only being slightly less bored. There are still holes in the movie. The ending feels rushed. What else can I say? I don't think it's worth seeing in theaters unless you're desperate for a movie to watch. It's better than Prometheus & Alien 3, but I'd say it's only on-par with Alien:Resurrection.