<Review by: Sailesh Ghelani>

Directed by Ridley Scott. Starring Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Damian Bichir, Danny McBride, Carmen Ejogo, Jussie Smollett, Amy Seimetz

Running time: 2 hours

In showing us absolutely nothing new from the previous Alien movie (Prometheus) or anything different from the originals, Alien Covenant is simply a wasted opportunity.

Trying to philosophise the universe and the meaning of life with some literary gobbledegook spouted by ‘synthetics’, Alien: Covenant tries hard to give deeper meaning to what was really just a scary movie in space. And it did that exceedingly well when Sigourney Weaver was at the helm of things.  Now, with all this Prometheus mumbo-jumbo, it has become convoluted and dull with the same set pieces and storyline and nothing new. Even the CGI aliens fail to produce any fear in our hearts.

New planet, colonists, more strange space ships and statues and eggs… you get the drift. The crew are infected as usual and then die, just as usual. Nothing new to see here. Michael Fassbender in a double role headlining the film when he should have been a secondary character at best. But then the rest of the cast are little-known actors who do a terrible job of their roles. Were they actually trying to make Katherine Waterston’s Daniels into the new Ripley? Haha, that’s a laugh.

This is intellectual masturbation at its best. Alien: Covenant is a film that has nothing unique to offer, it’s just the same old thing rehashed with no surprises or thrills that made the original movies classics.