Wow. This brilliant little glimpse gives us a surprisingly deep look into the world of Prometheus. The tone and style give off a unique sense of sterility that we aren't used to in the Alien universe. Whereas we've had plenty of dirty, shit-talking, miners, marines, prisoners, etc. here we have a polite, "gentle", new character. We're clearly planted in prequel territory, showing a world where perhaps deep space travel and these new amazing technologies are pristine and awe-inspiring, before having been sullied with the mundaneness of work.
We also clearly see that David is still in line with what we know about the android characters from the other Alien films. He seems to have the capacity for free thought and will, but his "separation" from humans may allow him to act in potentially dangerous ways. In his own words, "I can carry out directives that my human counterparts might find... distressing or... unethical."
Good stuff. But it also reinforces the one thing that makes me nervous about this flick; that this is just a polished version of Alien. We've done the android-who-might-be-bad-but-then-oh-wait-he's-good thing many times over. The shock is gone. And while seeing that gross white stuff pumped into David gives us all some huge nostalgia boners, I worry that retreading the elements we all know might lessen this potentially amazing effort.
What do you think?
