Not surprised, it's apparent that the film was conceived at the studio board meeting room.
Covenant wasnt a good horror, it wasnt a good action film, it wasnt a good philosophy film and it was f**king boring and stupid at the same time, surprisingly average looking too being a Ridley Scott film. It's genuinely worse than Resurrection, perhaps even Aliens V Predator, been a while since i watched it .
Ultimately Scott prequels failed at everything that made the Alien stand apart from the crowd, why i really loved the series first place:
no atmosphere, no real tension or dread, zero realism and plausibilty, no strong relatable characters, no coherent story, mostly no convincing creature effects and Giger biomechanic aesthetics. The cosmic horror of the unknown is almost entirely absent, worst of all it tries it best to make it seem like it has always been absent, thus undermining the impact and value of the whole franchise in a way no shitty prequel has succeeded. Origin stories are almost universally horrible but this takes the cake.
Only thing that needed to explain about the Alien was already perfectly said by Ash "A survivor... unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality." The possibility that something like this could exist in the cold vast empty universe if far more chilling than the idea that Alien was made by design.
What Scott did, is far worse what Lucas did to Star Wars. After Prometheus there was still hope, after Covenant the prequels are best left forgotten or rebooted.
