"They want Aliens, I'll give them f**king Aliens."
This quote from Ridley Scott echoed through my mind as I watched Alien: Covenant. It doesn't feel like Scott's heart was in this one, and as a result, it doesn't do what Prometheus did well, nor does it do what a quality Alien film should do well. Well, at least most of the time.
The one truly good, high tension scene was the backburster. I also did like the birth of the Alien, it wasn't as bad as so many have reported. But the rest of the scenes with the Aliens and Neomorphs felt hollow and rushed. Clearly Ridley has no interest in making a creature feature. There is no good sequence with it. At least every Alien movie prior had that one lengthy sequence where the Alien gets to shine and do its thing. This movie doesn't have that.
I was hoping at least that the David scenes would pop as I've heard, but surprisingly I didn't even really like those. It was fine, but dragged the movie down.
The characters are much more generic and red-shirt than Prometheus. Say what you want about that film, but at least I knew most of the characters' names. That said, they are acted well.
There are a lot of good ideas in Covenant, but it feels like it was all shoved into a rather bland blockbuster format. It feels empty; like the many modern blockbusters of today. I thought the film would at least be thoughtful, but it's really not.
If this is what the remaining Alien films going forward are going to be, than I don't really know how to feel. It's hard to believe the same person who made Alien made this. Then again, that was nearly 40 years ago, Scott is a different person. But honestly, I'd rather keep in the tradition of the classic films and allow new visionary directors make Alien movies, because Ridley doesn't seem like he wants to.
