Random thoughts:
1) I'm looking forward to reading Spaights' version. I have a suspicious that he probably wrote a far superior screenplay but in the interest of trying to be "more original" they just shat on everything for the sake of it. I read there that Weyland was supposed to be hanging out on a space station near Mars and his true obsession was Terraforming. Sounds much more interesting. I think the God V God angle and search for more life is an interesting idea that simply wasn't used.
2) In terms of imagery I don't think the Alien series was broke, we'd only been inside the derelict once, so why fix it and make it all shiny and post minority report looking. What happened to Giger's nightmarish quality, and why pussy out and make a ten foot Bio-mechanical creature a literal man in a suit? My only hope is that somewhere along the lines things become properly Bio-mechanical again in the sequel movies. Just smear some black goo on the ship walls. Done!