Promising, oh so promising

Rating: 5/10 (28 June 2020)

The effects are great - crystal clear. The planetary setting is bleak and stark and rendered so beautifully.
But the acting is the letdown here folks, and the reason why, is the stodgy, terrible, lazy writing. Coming from someone who once took great pains to ensure that his characters motivations and tensions were real (ie: in Alien, not telling the actors when the alien birth would occur, and setting up real-life tension between the actors which would translate to real tension in the film - to this.
Terrible lines at inappropriate times, and turning Noomi Rapace into a bit of a screaming whinger doesnt work well. Neither does having great leads like Charlize and Idris do hammy one-liners (ad severely under-utlising their talent) is at times, painful to watch. The only shining star in this was (as is often the case) Fassbender. The scene of the crazed, disfigured monster-thing storming the ship was just laughable.
Its such a great premise and one that takes philosophies of our possible human origins to great places. But its such a shame thats its let down by lazy writing.
I vastly prefer Covenant for the hugely improved character writing and the interplay between them, it reminded me of the atmosphere on the Nostromo in the original movie.