The movie Prometheus was supposed to be.

Rating: 7/10 (19 May 2017)

It's finally here! Ridley Scott's highly anticipated follow-up to 2012's Prometheus. Anticipated, because Prometheus divided audiences (Alien-fans and casual viewers, alike) around the globe. With an overly convoluted plot and illogical character actions (A zoologist petting an unknown space-cobra. Really?), Prometheus crushed under it's own weight. Let's find out if Scott redeems the prequels with Alien: Covenant.
The first pro of this movie over Prometheus are the characters. The crew of the spaceship Covenant are more likable from the get-go. All of them are couples with the intention of finding a new habitable planet and settling there. This is in sharp contrast with the crew from Prometheus who were on that particular mission either for personal gain or the simple reason of being paid to be there. This new crew feels more human. Their (sometimes rushed) decisions are based on familiar emotions (fear, love, self-doubt etc.). Are there people getting to close to alien eggs and spore pods? Yes. Stupid things like that still happen on a couple of occasions, but most of it happens by accident instead of sheer stupidity.
Michael Fassbender reprises his role of David, the curious synthetic looking for it's purpose. Apart from an interesting conversation with his creator, Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), in the intro, David's role really kicks off about halfway through the movie. With it comes the referencing of classic arts, which could foreshadow the coming events to viewers who pick up on those. His updated model, Walter (also Fassbender), offers an interesting Ying to David's Yang and the two develop quite an interesting relationship as the plot carries on. The only thing the plot revolving around David leaves to be desired, is it's link to Prometheus. It is all resolved very quickly with a flashback. The whole "Why have you created us"-plot of Prometheus does not get the conclusion we wanted for it to make sense. This feels like a missed opportunity.
Now to talk about the thing everyone bought their ticket for; the Alien. Yes, it's a proper Xenomorph this time around. Yes, you do get some answers regarding it's creation. In other words, fans of the franchise will absolutely love the intense and gory scenes in which it's titular beast is featured. Even if this movie does nothing really new with the formula. I have to admit that the movie never got really scary. In the 1979 original, the scares basically came from the fact that neither the characters nor the audience knew what was viciously killing the crew. Now, 38 years later, most people know what a Xenomorph looks like and that kills the scares a bit. Scott solves this problem by not holding back on the gore. And there is a LOT of that in this movie. Most of the scenes where the trailers cut away are shown in full gory glory here. It's not as much as an overabundance as most splatter horror movies, but not in the least for the faint of heart.
In conclusion, as a fan of the Alien-franchise you will not be disappointed by Alien: Covenant. It does not steal the crown from the first two movies, but it's proudly taking the bronze medal. Even though the unresolved plot points of Prometheus are not entirely integrated or wrapped up to satisfaction, this movie redeems itself on that front by not trying to fix past mistakes, but building the foundation for future installments in the series. Sure, the movie is not really scary and predictable at times, but it's unsettling ending and gory sci-fi horror/action certainly makes it worth the price of admission.