Alien Covenant, a welcome return to form for the Alien series.
I thought it was utterly dreadful.
No original or interesting ideas. Very little, if any, characterisation (why should we care that these people are dying?!). Hammy dialogue. And, worst of all, predictable non-scares (the two supposed big scares were in the trailer and were woefully tame).
I think it was actually worse than Prometheus, which takes some doing. At least Prometheus had some redeeming features (the medical pod scene, for example). The only reaction I saw or heard from the audience was muffled laughter and titters when David offered to "do the fingering". My girlfriend, who finds horror films scarier than most people do, fell asleep.
To me, Covenant felt more like a Blade Runner film than an Alien one; it was about the androids - their desires, needs, consciences, etc. Actually, it was like a bad Blade Runner fan fiction attempting a cross-over with the Alien universe - that's the sort of level of writing we're talking about.
A lady in front of me as we were leaving the cinema turned to her partner and resignedly said something along the lines of "Well, at least the visuals were good". If that's the ambition of a $100 million film, then it's no wonder that critics are starting to get turned off by blockbusters. Unfortunately, despite two terrible films, Ridley Scott will still get to make more, and I'll go and see them because I never bloody learn.
