I thought it did a lot of things right: it showed the ordinary lives of people struggling to get by in an already dystopian setting before they lob monsters into the mix, it looked fantastic (possibly the best looking Alien film yet and I'm glad I went to the iSense screening) and the design work was top drawer.
And yet... it feels like someone somewhere in the process lost confidence in the project. I'd be interested to know more about the development of the film as it feels like there's a bold, innovative story lurking somewhere in the heart if this but some studio executive felt there weren't enough Easter eggs to keep the diehard fans happy (I count myself amongst them) and gave thr script to his 14 year-old son to scribble fanboy notes into the margins. It might not have happened like that but I hate to think that an adult professional filmmaker thought it was a good idea to sprinkle in the kind of heavy-handed references to previous films that would be embarrassing if you read it in fan-fiction.
That's not to say I hated it, I'd rank it as the fourth, possibly even third, best Alien movie although that might be damning it with faint praise - the things I liked about it, I liked a lot and they made-up the bulk of the movie. Unfortunately, it's chance at greatness was sabotaged by some very poor decision-making when it came down to a handful of scenes. I'd definitely like to see Alvarez get another shot at something in this fictional universe as, if nothing else, they've scraped the barrel empty when it comes to iconic scenes and lines from the first two films. I hope.