My final thoughts on Alien Covenant. Before the new Disney era begins. I think whilst most cinema goers enjoyed the film overall. A lot of people did not "see the forest for the trees" truly if you like. That does not mean it's exempt from criticism, the final act's an unnecessary mess for example, albeit with beautiful imagery. But I think the vast majority of criticisms fall flat when it's what the film's explicitly aiming for. Even the most often criticised human decision making because of genre expectations. Emerging from a general ignorance of the nature of biology, the simple fact being the likelihood of something so compatible, harmful and, instantaneous existing out in deep space's near impossible, ask any known Scientist, plus it's not like the crew's basically equivalent to colonists or anything, with an onboard computer that they have no reason to doubt and the film makes a large point of their decision being a combination of fear (getting back into the pods for another ten years may burn all of them alive like their Captain), obvious hubris (faith in themselves and their creations), and blind faith in the form of Oram the newly appointed leader. Plus David ostensibly saves their lives, whilst theatrical, he also carries the face of a man they have all trusted for years. The Neomorph's redefining of the Pathogen into something with consistent features' also much appreciated as the Praetomorph ancestor.
A man "othered" who's unrequited "love" leads to harvesting a woman's sexual organs to create a version of both an A.I and the human being together, to the form of a rape monster with male and female signatures intertwined at the root to dominate every other living thing.
The final evolution of three generations David considers "failures" ultimately, he's reached "success" that, according to "perfect AI" it is the one perfect organism, according to David Weyland and Ash, even Bishop and Michael believe it is magnificent, Soldier or Sentry, Praetorian or Queen, but perfection though perfection's something a human being can't even conceive of, never mind agree or disagree with, so we can't see the "perfect organism" objectively.
Now though, for the ones who subscribe to the interpretation that David did not explicitly create the familiar star beast and's not ultimately responsible for the thing's design, it's life-cycle etcetera, this' valid insofar that he's an unreliable narrator and full of egotism and recognisable grandiosity as a creator, he gets the author of Ozymandias incorrect and more importantly appears oblivious to the way the poem pertains to the inevitable downfall of kings and rulers.
Now Ridley Scott's explicit about David being the A.I creator, but Ridley, also insists on Deckard being a replicant in Blade Runner. Now his view's valid and can be supported by the film but so can the contrary. Covenant's very much similar given that the Pathogen's an ancient virus pre-existing David's machinations. It's clearly not the progeny of humanity's apparent otherworldly ancestors, perhaps the race simply came upon it once, wielded it with varying success but ultimately perished by it.
David's advantaged in that he's synthetic and immeasurably intelligent and thus can wield the fire of the Gods without the fear of being destroyed by it, thus far, anyway as it is, so more able to unlock the secrets within than any mortal did. Pity though, one note is off, David's unstable, and his "Praetomorph" the "Neomorph" successor not quite the biomechanical beast nor the life cycle he created from his crossbreeding experiments entirety in line with the classic life cycle we know, a certain step's absent. So it's just as valid to make the inference that the star beast existed in its original form at some point before it being liquified, atomised, honed, etcetera as the Pathogen, for whatever reason though. Now remains a mystery.
On the other hand, David as the creator's another valid inference given how resolutely evocative it is of human sex organs. It's a walking, murderous, drooling phallus with teeth. David's behaviour's touched upon by Dane Hallett and Matt Hatton specifically when he describes his pathos, the synthetic's built to be so close to a human yet can not procreate; he can experience a simulacrum of human feelings such as love etcetera, but remains ultimately incapable of exhibiting their function for mating. How does an increasingly unstable and luciferin Artificial Intelligence compensate for such internal conflict? Why... you create an organism that's a violent perversion of human reproduction, of course. The Egg, obvious yes? The Facehugger itself's two skeletal hands fused together, a vulva and a phallus and literally rapes the host, before providing it oxygen. This thing's adapted quite wonderfully to human mammals. Themes of artificial intelligence in technology, sexuality, life, death, their fusion and transfiguration's something H.R Giger explored throughout his art and a lot of the masterpieces he created exist as visions of the future not the ancient past. So David the creator's got merit with regards to careful consideration of Hans Ruedi Giger's themes in his renowned body of work.
Alien Covenant, from the outset presents the mentality of stripping away a lot of what hindered Prometheus with refining the creation narrative into one that primarily explores the tortured David and the experiments in his gothic Dracula and Frankenstein like lab tucked away on an obsolete Engineer planet. (1/2)