It's a two and a half hour long fan-edit of both of Ridley Scott's disappointments: 'Prometheus' and 'Covenant'. The first one tapped into the 'Ancient Aliens' hype as peddled by the History Channel and the second doubled down on this cringe, driving a stake through the Aliens franchise altogether.
The fan-edit is a more clinical/documentary style adaptation of the available footage (including bonus material). It follows the synthetic 'David' and explores his motivations and character arc more fully. It removes much of the cringe, but does not manage to excise all the Hollywoke stupidity. E.g. the study of micro-organisms was apparently never developed in this universe, explaining the complete and absolute stupidity of the characters in removing their protective suits in a xeno-biological environment or never bothering to put them on in the first place (as is the case in the second movie).
It was definitely a good attempt and it even gave off vibes of the original 'Alien' movie, but it also had a lot of smaller narrative plot holes. But all things considered, it was still better than the original.
I honestly enjoyed all of them in their own rights, but yeah, Prometheus/Covenant were a bit of a slog, and pretty smug/masturbatory in my opinion. Also, as others have mentioned, some really dumb and annoying characters, even by horror-type standards.
One thing I enjoy about the series as a whole, though, is how they all are different, but with a common theme. Some were more action-y, some leaned in more to the horror or suspense, but most still felt like Alien/s. Some were a little cheesy, but that was just a product of the time, and they're still fun movies.
I actually enjoy how AVP2 is basically a horror-lite trope checklist. It's almost a parody. It shouldn't really be enjoyable, but it somehow is. It's just got that '00's cheese, I guess.
Covenant actually had a lot of elements going for it to make it a legit horror movie. David in general was quite well done, the completely foreign planet that can infect you from just the air, and the absolute terror of being in cryosleep while a psycho is on the ship.
The problem being that the main human cast was so stupid it actually boggles the mind. Like, there is a scene where a chick is so clumsy it actually feels like a Looney Tunes joke and almost every bad thing happens because these space faring people (who should be the smart of the smart to operate such an important mission) keep making rookie level mistakes that even people with no training about space and foreign planets would make. Like shooting a fucking shotgun in the hanger full of explosives.
Yeah both of the AVP films end up being pretty decent despite some wokeness and dumb shit beginning to creep in.
Personally I wished someone competent handled a few Predators hunting Aliens and totally remove the human element...or minimizes it. The concept is awesome but they always screw it up by focusing on some sob stories to fill in space because they can't figure out how to make two alien species interacting interesting.
Interesting point. I like the whole human focus personally, but it would be interesting just for variety to see more focus on the Predator/s as the main focus. They're badass enough to make it work, as a mostly silent protagonist style thing.