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.
Weird timing I actually just watched Prometheus last night and I'm watching Covenant tonight.
I consider Alien to be a masterpiece, although I'm not as big of a fan of Cameron's Aliens. I thought it deviated too far from the formula of the original.
Prometheus really was just a pointless fucking movie to make. It doesn't add anything it just seems like an interesting diversion. There's no basis in science or fact and the characters are all dogshit.
I'm watching it chronologically (AVP / AVP 2 / Prometheus / Covenant / Alien / Aliens / Alien 3 / Alien Resurrection) to make sure to end on a strong note. I'm one of the few people who enjoy Alien 3 / Alien 4 mainly because I'm huge fans of the directors involved (finch / Jeunet) and I appreciate them both putting their stamp on the franchise while keeping with the original themes.
But Prometheus and Covenant are just...so unnecessary.
Alien 4 had too many problems. It had bullets going through the outer hull of a ship that looks like a space fortress. Earth has no defensive capabilities. A goofy human-alien hybrid that tried too hard to be bad-arse but just looked like a failure in every regard. Same applied to that ragtag group of misfits. Not impressing anyone. They were also playing hoops in space. ;)
The coolest thing in Aliens Resurrection is Sigourney making that basket on the first take.
I don't think that's ever been the official claim. I think the official claim, which may also be fabrication for cool points for all I know, is she sunk it on the last shot; i.e. the director gave her one more chance to manage it, and she got it. It took her many, many tries to manage it.
Okay, you got me.
According to Sigourny and her journal, she got it on the third take.
But she had been practicing for weeks wit a basketball pro player as a coach.