Alien: Covenant

Ridley Scott had admitted on the record that he was "wrong" when it came to Prometheus, his ambitious but undeniably flawed 2012 prequel to the Alien film franchise he helped create nearly 40 years ago.

He's not incorrect in saying that. He now realises that audiences are keen to see, well, aliens when they hand over their hard-earned money for an Alien movie at the box office, something that Prometheus skimped on somewhat.

But at the same time, Scott isn't entirely ready to abandon the heady ideas he introduced in that movie - notions of what happens when a creator is disappointed by their creation or when a creation surpasses its creator.

And so we have Alien: Covenant, which tries to have it both ways by continuing the story of David (Michael Fassbender), the Prometheus android with a God complex, and by introducing a new spaceship crew which is destined to run afoul of those nasty extra-terrestrials moviegoers love to fear.

Mashing these two storylines together could get messy, but how Alien: Covenant presents it, it's worse - it's just kind of so-so. Of course, it's not completely disappointing. For one thing, Scott couldn't compose an ugly frame of film if he was blindfolded, and Alien: Covenant is consistently gorgeous to look at, even when the images get a bit brutal or bloody.

And there are a few sequences here that are either genuinely tense or thought-provoking, particularly those involving Fassbender's David. But there's an overall lack of cohesion to this story that proves ultimately frustrating. Just when the narrative begins unearthing something possibly interesting about the characters or what's happening to them, it takes a step back or even moves in another direction.

The Covenant of the title is a spacecraft bound for a new world where the 2000 passengers in suspended animation will awaken and begin colonisation.

But when the ship is damaged mid-flight, and some of the crew (including the captain) are killed as a result, new captain Oram (Billy Crudup) is keen to make an unscheduled stop at a habitable planet sending out a distress signal.

A landing party led by Oram, second in command Daniels (Katherine Waterston) and resident robot Walter (Fassbender again) soon discovers the planet is indeed lush and lively...but it's also where David landed ten years ago after flying into space at the end of Prometheus. During that time, David has been experimenting with alien DNA, coming up with even more exotic and dangerous lifeforms. But he needs new test subjects to continue his research (and act as human incubators), so it's very lucky a crew of humans have come knocking on his door, isn't it?

Watching David explore the possibilities of alien evolution, happily endangering hapless humans to do so, and trying to rope his synthetic "brother" Walter into his scheme is compelling in a sinister and blackly funny way. But having the aliens burst out of bodies and run amok is getting a little stale, especially when the people imperilled are pretty one-note, despite a solid cast's efforts to breathe life into the characters.

Scott has talked about another few chapters in this story, possibly even filming the follow-up to Alien: Covenant next year. Maybe he should take the time to really re-evaluate what he wants to say with this saga, and what audiences want out of it. Because in space, everyone can hear you yawn.