Covenant face hugs us with ample alien-tertainment and reacquaints us with the angst and slapstick suspense of our favorite teen horror comedies of the past. These nostalgic connections open the hatch for an enjoyable ride while sealing off thoughts of an inconsequential and repetitive film. And we are just fine with it.

Our gullible pioneers respond to a John Denver tune emanating from a seemingly habitable planet. Oram (Crudup) sees an obvious opportunity for colonization especially after their forced early awakening from stasis. It is here where the film overtly grasps for aspects of its predecessor and its successor at the same time leading to predictable but thrilling chaos.

We want to believe in Ridley Scott even though he leads us away from human character development as this film is clearly about the droids, David (Fassbender) and Walter (Fassbender). Their interactions, motives and experiences guide Covenant in a strange and robotic manner. But Tennessee (McBride) and Daniels (Waterston) fall into their supporting characters nicely.

The glaring lack of catch phraseology, especially considering McBride’s epic history with a Daewoo Lanos, was disappointing. Although watchable, Covenant misses a close encounter with the Film Clas elite with only 2.98 napkins out of 5.