Shockingly bad, inane plot; fun visuals

Rating: 2/10 (25 June 2012)

I was really excited to see this movie, and was utterly disappointed. I am shocked at how bad the screen play was, and how many ridiculous, pointless plot-holes there were. The screen writer should be ashamed of himself. I'm embarrassed for him, it's really that bad. It was impossible for me to just "let go" and suspend my disbelief so I could enjoy this movie... because literally 3-4 minutes could not go by without some character doing something completely stupid, or without something totally nonsensical happening. The plot was an embarrassing, shambling mess of all (and I do mean ALL) the SF tropes you discover as a young teen. Honestly, this might be the worst of the Alien sequels, and that's saying something. I could go on for pages and pages why this screen play was inane, but others here have covered many of the same points.
The visuals were pretty, and largely effective -- though why in 2012 aliens and spaceships can look totally real, but "old person makeup" still looks like it was created in 1972 is a mystery. The music was okay -- except for when it was totally inappropriate. It seemed like R. Scott paid for half a movie score, and kept using the same plaintive french-horn bit over and over... even in scenes that were supposed to be suspenseful or creepy.
I would honestly give this movie 1 star, but will bump it up to a 2 simply for nostalgic fondness for the very first Alien movie. There is no way in hell I would see a sequel to this, nor Lindelof's upcoming disasters: World War Z, and the new Star Trek sequel. When I told me wife that he is writing World War Z, she was crushed -- she loved that book, but hated this movie even more than I did (if possible).
Unless you are a teenage Ridley Scott fan-boy, or have some personal vested interest in loving this movie, stay away and save your money. It is embarrassingly bad.