The Alien scenes in the movie are disappointing to me. David is emotionally attached to savage lifeforms. Yes, he feels he created them, but I, too, was a creator, and a most benign one at that, when as a kid I'd order Sea Monkeys from comic books and attempt to build a great army from my Palace of the Brine (AKA a bucket of water in my bedroom). I'm sorry to state the obvious, but David seems to give the Goo very little credit for its part in his evil godhood. And Shaw's corny tombstone? David the Great fashioned a stone worthy of...well, the cheapest ones they sell in my backwater town in the Earth year of our Lord 2017. Look on David's works! A butcher, an undertaker, a Xenomorph maker!
Daniels finds the notebook with the Giger-influenced images of biomechanical Shaw. Shaw is revealed as an eviscerated mannequin that barely looks like Noomi Rapace. David cries speaking of her, says he loved her as he insists Walter loves Daniels. This would be poignant and beautiful if any cohesion could be found in all the facts as presented. Why the Elizabeth Shaw tombstone? Why no tribute on it? Or her middle name, Mary? Why not a chilling "She found her Answers" line? Is James Whale's spirit possessing Ridley Scott? If we really ever get to see David engage in Gigeresque biomechanical "engineering," the surprise is gone as to which Xenomorph brain in a jar got dropped.
While the Aliens are thrown in, the movie is gratuitously about David and Walter. David is eerily compelling. Walter seems a pillar of strength beside his almost manic-depressive, outdated, malfunctioning twin. I like Tennessee; for some weird reason, he feels like a character from the first Alien film. Just a guy. His role might have suffered if we'd seen too much of him, but Ridley nailed this everyday hero. The shower scene was so bad and illogical it felt like a slap to the face of fandom. My God, the not-so-distraught lovebirds even listen to generic pop-rock music no one in the present day would play! It makes the death of the doctor in Alien3 look like a highlight from the proud history of Masterpiece Theater.
Shaw's death, a mystery? The mystery is whether it's a mystery! We truly needed to know if David murdered her, in order to get an accurate feel about him. The tears! The tombstone! The corpse! The art reminding us of Giger's brilliance that the studio has NO interest in exploring despite it being the draw to the titular Star Beast and the Space Jockey Engineers!
Someone watching Prometheus in June 2017 would expect the next story to explore the relationship between Shaw (lead character!) and David. Said person would then, upon viewing Covenant, be forced to feel Shaw was written out for a Hollywood reason, not a good-story decision. Her gutted body and the toss-'em-in mysteries of what happened to her almost redeem the Alien3 portrayal of the deaths of Hicks and Newt.
David equates "never dying" to perfection. The Aliens can easily be killed. Does he even want a "fellow immortal" that is all killer instinct for a companion? I'm sorry to say this again, but why didn't he just head to Earth and drop the vases there if he despises humanity so much? The answer may be that he's running his tests for an ultimate attack on old Weyland's BOA. Sadly, Shaw's death is not only a great loss to this movie, but the very reason David doesn't succeed as a fascinating character in spite of Fassbender's UNCANNY performance(s).
"We'll answer that in the next movie." I have developed a lot of wrinkles in the time between Prometheus and Covenant...
So. Spoiler alert. David and Walter easily steal this show. Scott has Oram give birth to a Ray Harryhausen action figure. (It's more Not Bad But Awful than the shower scene.) There are either too many cooks in the kitchen again, or the health inspector really needs to check this joint.
I vowed to avoid Covenant over Rapace. The Xenomorph got me. It always gets you. Ask Ripley. I'm like her clone now. I woke to a world where I've even sprung for the Covenant novelization (Alan Dean Foster helps...) and a download from the Kurzel soundtrack. Torch me. Do it! I can't handle this cocoon, or the Perfect Organism I can't remove from my imagination in spite of so many subpar movies! (I'm not serious. My Dallas deleted scene is just a thanatotic fan-fantasy. Lower your weapons.)
I have a strong, strong Sigourney feeling re whatever comes next. Prometheus was tossed aside. Watch. Covenant will also be an afterthought.