Reading bits and pieces. It's not a perfect draft, but it's certainly not bad. And it's A LOT MORE tense than the Lindelof storyline. wich would have benefited the film greatly.
I prefer some of the characterization and the ending of the Lindelof version though. Seeing David and Shaw begin their travel into the stars was just a perfect way to end the film. Lindelof's self professed aversion to plot exposition is plainly evident when comparing the film to the spaihts script. Lindelof just ignored tons of exposition that would have averted some of people's problems with the film. (Milburn being overconfident in his suit's protective habilities, how they get lost etc.. etc..)
Somewhere between the two there would have been a better version of Prometheus.
Here's hoping whoever writes/directs the sequel gets to use some of the unused elements in this script.... The Holloway chestburster. The room with the squidlike facehuggers... The Carlos Huante Beluga headed Xenomorphs and Mutated Fifield... the scene between David and Shaw(Watts) with him holding the facehugger right near her face.... that would have been amazing to see on the screen.
Also, neat use of Mutated Fifield... he "talks!"
I like the descritiption of the Holloway Xeno:
Spoiler
QuoteBehind them, from an eight-inch diameter pipe, a WHITE MASS
oozes, almost gelatinous. Silently as a liquid it pours
itself into the stagnant water - and stands up.
It is a humanoid demon, spindly limbs and bony back. Boneless
and flexible and monstrously strong. A threshing eel's tail.
Its blunt head dolphin-like and elongated.
It opens its mouth. A pair of bony jaws jut out impossibly
far, hungry and demonic.
The Alien strikes. Card is gutted in an instant, torn up like
a paper doll. He screams hideously and drops. The Alien,
whiplash fast, shoots away into the darkness.
For one moment Downs's flashlight beam illuminates the Alien.
A nightmare image, a translucent white goblin. Backlit, it
shows the strange shape of a human face inside its fleshy
skull. A mockery of Holloway.
And then it's gone.
This Xeno kills a shit ton of people by himself. Do like that.
It's the depiction of the Watts xeno and the Ultramorph that bother me. (They get killed way too quickly) Lindelof did well in replacing those elements with the Trilobite and the Engineer confrontation... I also prefer the Engineers in the final film to the way they are written here.
