Was the opening David / Weyland scene in AC a waste of valuable film runtime?

[motherfather]

Personally, I think the Weyland / David scene should have been removed from the main film, and instead kept as a viral or DVD extra.

The saved film runtime minutes should have been better spent on the final part of the movie to re-build tension when the survivors arrive back at the Covenant. The final off-screen chest-burst was a wasted opportunity.

For newbies, Covenant opening probably would only have much significance if we saw Weyland again at some point, or at least if cast drop more references about Weyland corp.

Also, if you add up the Prometheus opening, and the Alien Covenant opening, I wouldn't be surprised if that totals around 30 mins runtime (and in Prometheus, we all know about the illogical dialogue and how rushed the final part of the film felt)

[Baron Von Marlon]

I like it and consider it necessary.
It shows how Weyland treated David in a way they didn't show in Prometheus.
And how David was "born" among art.

[Neirum]

It is absolutely crucial to the entire motivation of David and shows how his resentment was born moments after his creation. I do wonder if the Xeno felt the same as it cuts his camera feed, maybe it considers itself in that moment superior to David. No... I will not get your tea. 

[Scorpio]

The reason it's there, to show it is a David movie, not a Daniels movie. 

The opening scenes show the order of importance (in terms of characters):  David -> Walter -> Daniels

In Prometheus it was Shaw -> David -> Vickers

This is not true for every film, however, in the first Alien they don't establish Ripley until much later, so it depends on the narrative and the type of story they want to tell.  Alien is like Psycho where you follow one character and they end up dead, that character is Dallas who is supposed to be the hero of the movie, but they decided to upend convention in that instance.

[Jonesy1974]

No, I love the opening and its one of my favorite scenes in the movie. I don't think its absolutely crucial to the story but it does set up several plot points including why David behaves the way he does.

[Paranoid Android]

It's one of the film's better scenes, yet it is completely pointless. Every single piece of information given to the audience in that scene is given to the audience yet again later directly from David. It should've been cut in order to develop characters featured in the film that aren't yet known (which is everyone that isn't David).

[bobby brown]

The film surely needed it in order to be a little more than your average creature feature.

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

Personally, I think the Weyland / David scene should have been removed from the main film, and instead kept as a viral or DVD extra.

It very almost was removed from the film and was going to be used as a viral clip for San Diego Comic Con 2016. Fox even told Hicks to expect it at the end of the event but it was pulled at the last moment for unknown reasons.

Turns out it was the editor, Pietro Scalia who convinced Scott to put it back in the film.

"SCALIA: At one point Ridley wanted to take the "white room" Prologue out at the beginning. I said, "why ... no absolutely not. You can't. It's very good." It's very formal, the way was shot and edited. The compositions and deliberate pace is the beauty of it. A chess game in the formal sense, triangles and lines that intersect from a design point of view, beside it's thematic importance I mentioned before. I love that the whole scene It reminded me of Kubrick and ....

Full article here: https://www.avpgalaxy.net/2017/06/28/pietro-scalia-talks-editing-alien-covenant/

[0321recon]

It nicely set up David's story though...the 12 minute Prometheus bridge is what got sacrificed in the process. Due to that we don't know if David truly cared for Shaw, did he kill her before the bombing or was she asleep and awaken afterwards.

Scalia should had respected Scott and kept the crossing or at least moved the entire unedited sequence were we see David and Walter in Shaw's grave than what we got in the viral or in the film itself.

[David Weyland]

The Evanus extended edit of AC does it the best: https://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/index.php?topic=59282.0

[BishopShouldGo]

No. Best scene in the film and one of the Alien franchise's best scenes.

[Scorpio]

It nicely set up David's story though...the 12 minute Prometheus bridge is what got sacrificed in the process. Due to that we don't know if David truly cared for Shaw, did he kill her before the bombing or was she asleep and awaken afterwards.

Scalia should had respected Scott and kept the crossing or at least moved the entire unedited sequence were we see David and Walter in Shaw's grave than what we got in the viral or in the film itself.

The Crossing does not belong in the movie because Shaw's story is over.  It's just a pointless cameo. 

The cut that exists is perfect and is the best cut.  The Evanus cut is a boring and overlong film with weird edits, imo.  But if you enjoy it, that's fine.

[Ingwar]

One of the best scenes in the movie and Scott wanted to remove it

[Scorpio]

But he changed his mind because someone convinced him so.  Which means he is not a 'dictator' as so many fans proclaim.  He is still as collaborative as he was on Alien 1.

[0321recon]

It nicely set up David's story though...the 12 minute Prometheus bridge is what got sacrificed in the process. Due to that we don't know if David truly cared for Shaw, did he kill her before the bombing or was she asleep and awaken afterwards.

Scalia should had respected Scott and kept the crossing or at least moved the entire unedited sequence were we see David and Walter in Shaw's grave than what we got in the viral or in the film itself.

The Crossing does not belong in the movie because Shaw's story is over.  It's just a pointless cameo. 

The cut that exists is perfect and is the best cut.  The Evanus cut is a boring and overlong film with weird edits, imo.  But if you enjoy it, that's fine.

Actually I haven't even seen any of the fan edits since I know a whole lot more footage that's been locked out by Fox like this 12 minute sequence.

Her story is over though, needed proper closer for those who wanted to follow her story from Prometheus. Even Alien3 had a proper closer Hicks and Newt with the funeral scene.

In the end, if you like the theatrical cut, great, though some like myself won't find the inclusion of Shaw in an official alternate cut as pointless.