It’s arguable that Ripley is one of science fiction’s best-known characters, and she anchored the Alien films by providing true stake in the outcome of the humans. The most serious flaw of Alien: Covenant is that it provides us with yet another Ripley-like-stand-in via Katherine Waterston’s character, which at this point resembles an illegible copy of a copy of a copy. Waterston isn’t at fault, but her character development is almost non-existent, relying wholly on the hope that you’ll associate her enough with Ripley to forgive the fact that she’s written primarily as a foil for David.