50 God-Tier Acting Moments Buried in Bad Movies

The Alien prequel movies were beyond infuriating, and that's not just because they gave the Xenomorph, the most terrifying alien in film history, a backstory it never, ever needed. They also bombarded everyone unfortunate enough to see them with endless plot holes, bland shocks, and several of the most maddeningly stupid characters in science fiction history. 

Having said all of this, it would be difficult to wish these movies didn't exist, as they did give us David the Android, played by the magnificent Michael Fassbender. 

There is a strong argument to be made that this is one of the greatest performances in the history of the sci-fi genre. It's difficult to think of any other performance that has nailed the detached, uncanny feel of a robot, and Fassbender was the greatest thing in Prometheus by a country mile. In Alien: Covenant, he was, if anything, even better. 

The sequel progressed David from an unsettling but neutral side character to the key antagonist, revealed as the creator of the Xenomorph species. Fassbender is just as beautifully uncanny as before, but now he levels up the performance, playing the character with a terrifying malevolence. He's a haunting, nightmarish antagonist, and an Oscar nomination for Fassbender would not only have been justified but well-deserved. 

It's still difficult to believe such a perfect, all-timer performance came from such an ill-judged pair of blunders, but such is the nature of the acting craft. A great performance can come from anywhere, even when it's buried in bad movies such as these.