Pretty much the definition of mediocre. Fails to capture the magic of either Alien or Aliens despite the “homages.” Also, dare I say that Cailee Spaenu just doesn’t feel like a good lead for this? There are fun moments, for sure. But they barely move the excitement needle. Shame.
I thought it was cool. I didn't see the trailer so I was expecting a continuation of the David/Engineers storyline. This felt more like a modern re-telling of the OG Alien. It paid enough homage but stood up on its own too. A bit formulaic but I also like the formula, so whatever. If I had one smol criticism to offer, it's this: in the last month I've watched every Alien movie. In that way, there are enough details and stories to build a lore. However, no one movie has ever really gone out of its way to explain it. Which I guess is also cool, part of the mystery. I don't think I would've pieced together quite as much as I have just seeing them once, spread apart through the years. Daywalker's links provide a little more insight to what the prequels did, but I think I picked up most of that anyway. Probably only thing I really didn't understand at the time was "the Deacon" being akin to an original Xenomorph. And it's a little funny that in sort of showing us the Engineers "as creators" they kinda undo it by revealing the Engineers weren't first either. Maybe humanoid vs. xenos have been going on long before them too? And Engineers are just a late-stage civilization that got got, a foreboding warning to humanity. I think I was of the mind that the Engineers created the Xenomorphs as a vengeance, but that doesn't seem correct now. Would be pretty wild to see a pre-prequel showing the real beginnings of Alien, Engineer and true creator level humanoids. Maybe it just keeps going back. Humanoid lives, grows, tests the limits of the universe, find and confront xenomorphs, ultimately succumb while the progeny live on to repeat the vicious cycle. I'll say this much, (aside from Alien vs. Predator which I've read isn't officially canon and haven't seen yet) I'd like to see a scenario where the xenos actually hit a planet. It doesn't have to be Earth, that would be endgame. Like theoretically, David is still out there with his xeno-babies in the pods right? What happens if he actually lands the ship on a colonial planet? Devastation, right? Isn't that kind of what happened with the Engineers, in fact? A Weyland-Yutani mining planet getting its **** pushed in by a hellbent David, who takes over the planet and is obviously aiming for more...and the corporation has to find a way to deal with it before he launches again to another planet or makes an even scarier breed of xenomorph. Or he takes over several planets and starts towards Earth before ultimately being defeated, however, space is now absolutely littered with uninhabitable, xeno-infested planets - drastically reducing colonial/mining outworlds. Then humanity has to deal with a similar scenario to the Engineers? I hope Rain makes it to Yvaga. I hope they make these movies forever, I'll watch all of them.
