Phil sees ALIEN: COVENANT from 20th Century Fox - June 28, 2017

Was I one of the few who enjoyed PROMETHEUS? When I first saw the film back in 2012, I thought it was, "a visually stunning and haunting film that takes the ALIEN mythology that Ridley Scott created decades ago and transforms it into something totally new and different! It is a film that really explores our questions and fears, and at the same time gives us some chills to terrify us with."I still stand by that statement five years later. Now, Scott has returned to theaters with the visually stunning ALIEN: COVENANT, a sequel that links the previously mentioned PROMETHEUS prequel to the ALIEN saga.

The film's official synopsis: The crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world. When they uncover a threat beyond their imagination, they must attempt a harrowing escape.

Filmmaker Ridley Scott returns to the director's chair had proves, without a shadow of doubt, that he is one of the greatest directors of all time. The film is absolutely gorgeous to look at. His set-ups, his compositions, his panning and tracking, his attention to detail, it contains all of his cinematic trademarks. The story, however, felt a little flat.

Now I try to make my reviews spoiler free as possible. This one might be a little difficult to explain fully since there might be some of you out there that haven't seen the film yet. So I'm gonna make this a generic as possible.

The first problem I had with the movie was the story itself. Picking up about 10 years after the events seen in PROMETHEUS, here we have a colony ship en route to a planet that is similar to Earth, but decide to alter their course to investigate a planet that is similar as well. Really? That's a bunch of crap. Why would you do that, especially if you have thousands of people asleep on board and the planet you're going to has been researched for years? No person would do that. Well, except these people.

The other problem I had were the characters themselves. With the exception of Michael Fassbender's characters David and Walter, I didn't care about them. Not one person did I think to myself, "Oh I really like this man or woman." Nope, didn't give two shits about any of them. Again, Fassbender's dual roles were riveting! He was the only saving grace in the film.

It felt really rushed and didn't really take it's time to explain what was going on. Also, we were teased about what happened in the 10 years between PROMETHEUS and this film and, I have to say, it was very disappointing about what happened to Noomi Rapace's Elizabeth Shaw. I thought it was a cheat and wished the filmmakers would have come up with a better fate for her.

Character were boring, the plot lacked depth, the special effects weren't all that spectacular, everything was a step down from the previous film.

ALIEN: COVENANT is a sub par sequel as well as entry into the ALIEN franchise! I expected more from Ridley Scott and I was severely let down. How can he make a beautiful looking movie and not deliver anything else? Seriously, I have no freaking clue how this is possible! And the trailer looked so damn cool too! Once again I was tricked by Hollywood! 2 out of 5 stars! Maybe worth it as a rental when it comes out!

ALIEN: COVENANT is playing in theaters nationwide. Check your local listings to see if it's playing at a theater near you.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the show!