Alien: Covenant

A film where someone alternately screams hysterically in confusing scenes and alternately philosophizes about the issues of the space game show quiz in far too clear shots. Everyone behaves so erratically that the Prometheus crew reminds of professors of logic on a trip to the land of the eight-way. After a totally WTF birth scene, I decided that Alien had just died for me. One star for Franco's compression without having to utter a bare sentence on board. That is the right decision. The only one. (15/05/2017)

It’s worse than Prometheus and the least interesting film in the entire saga. While the much-criticized Prometheus somehow matures into a better experience with repeated viewings, Covenant is an overripe and completely squeezed lemon. The mythology built around the most famous space killer is not interesting and the result is like a mediocre movie by a mediocre director, which takes place half of the time at night, in darkness, in dim light (Prometheus was much, much more visually engaging and colourful in this respect) and you won’t find any sign of Scott’s visual bravado. The crown is put on by the WTF mutual welcoming of the android and the newly hatched alien, which is like a cut from a Zucker brothers parody. What was that, dear producers? Please let Alien be a milestone in film history where it belongs and don't milk it like a cash cow, the poor thing is already barely hanging on. (23/05/2017)

After the light-footed The Martian, I assumed that Scott's age is just a number that comes from subtracting the number on his ID card from the number on the calendar, so I wouldn't blame it on senility. Rather (and this is worse), I attribute it to creative indiscipline and an overgrown ego that has become a tumor of a uniquely creative mind that neither respects the canon nor offers a new approach. The opening is confusing and the characters have no background, so we're following a group of really, really stupid assholes. The plot is very transparent, with the banal (the bloody mess) taking precedence over what is in fact really interesting - and in terms of the development of the series - more important (the creature). Scott wants to impress, but the character of David could stand in for Kryten in Red Dwarf, so instead of holding your breath, you're both laughing and cursing through your teeth. Visual variety, Scott's long-standing asset that has saved many a film, is also absent, with this often looking like a more expensive episode of Stargate, which is the level where the rest of the film actually belongs in terms of its quality. PS: Kurzel's audio is a dark nervous fantasy that the film is not worthy of. (13/07/2017)

Ridley Scott stands at the threshold between a spiritual continuation of Prometheus and an honest addition to alien encounters. He is slightly more successful in the first case, when I forget to breathe during the dialogue of two androids, my brain is racing in a pensive atmosphere at full speed, and somewhere in the background, a quiet voice whispers to me that many people will hate this chapter precisely because of those calm passages. The bloody meetings with the legendary adversary surprisingly do not have as much space as the trailer campaign promised, which explains the incomprehensible departures of viewers from the cinema long before the true beginning of the uncompromising confrontation. Because I have long admired the entire mythology of the xenomorphs and I happily watched Prometheus twice five years ago, I remain content. However, I am saddened that there was so little missing for the highest rating, specifically a slightly unfortunate necessity of a dramatic arc that Alien: Covenant must close in a separate chapter. I would easily leave the plot and mood scissors open even wider, and I would completely put the editor's scissors aside, because two hours are really not enough for perfect immersion. (18/05/2017)

Once again it’s not the hit we were hoping for, but I think it’s at least a decent sci-fi horror flick. In any case, it’s a pity that it’s so half-assed and unfocused, because the plot arc potential is big. Unfortunately, it’s watered down by dense characters, dense dialogues and some dense scenes, too. The birth of the first real alien was actually funny. Overall, it has the same problems as Prometheus, but a couple of positives things on top. And if you were pissed off at explorers taking their helmets off too soon in Prometheus , here when landing on a new planet, they won’t even bother to put them on. Edit: I have to say that this wore off quite fast. Much faster than Prometheus, to which I returned after the screening. When I think back about Covenant, I mostly remember the negative aspects, which in the previous one was the opposite. And this is a relevant reason to lower the rating. (17/05/2017)