Yet another Ridley Scott movie desperately in need of a director's cut to save it :/
For all the stuff he managed to really nail, the end product is pretty disappointing due to the screenplay not being up to snuff. Characterization was almost non-existant and even worse, character motivations were muddy at best. It feels like a good 40 minutes was slashed from the film, all of it intergral character development. The worst victim of this was David. I could not for the fucking life of me tell you what his motivations were in this movie. At one moment, he's trying to sabotage everything and kill a character, the next moment he is helping that same character to escape. Even worse? Said character doesn't react in any kind of normal human way. Just accepts his help without ever mentioning the small elephant in the room of his part in her boyfriend's death and her almost-death. Just brutal. Not to mention that a lot of the explanations of stuff and connections within the Alien universe came off mostly like a fan-fic. Ugh.
It's too bad that the movie was doomed from the very start with a script as shoddy as this, because its great in every single other facet. It's wonderfully acted, the visuals are mindblowing, the score is surprisingly great, it moves at a nice brisk pace, and has several incredibly cool sequences.
I'd love to believe that there is a great movie in there waiting to get out with a director's cut. Otherwise, prettiest disappointment in some time.