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ADVENT: A STUDY OF DAVID'S LAB AND MIND

 

by David Gogel

Well. This was a pleasant surprise. Not only did not I not expect any bonus features with my digital copy but I did not expect anything as awesome as Advent. My love for David’s Lab is no secret by now. The table and sketches tell such a story by themselves, it just captured my imagination. With Advent, it seems like Fox heard my cries and blessed us with this insight into David’s mind.

The short is played out from David’s point of view, as he sends out video transmissions documenting what he has done. At the onset, he introduces himself as “David, son of the late Peter Weyland”. Now this is interesting because he is now on a mission to destroy humanity, yet he still seems quite proud to be his son. Does he do this out of arrogance? Or just to prove how important he is? David claims he wiped out the Engineer’s world for her, to create a new Eden but she refused.  So in his twisted mind he did this all for love. Well, his view and interpretations of love. He thought they would build a new world together. Instead, Shaw became a dissection victim. Such is life.

David then proceeds to go over what he’s done during his time alone. David picks apart wildlife, plants, insects, and Engineer parts. He tears, clips, mixes and matches as much as his artificial heart desires. It’s a horrific joy to watch, which to me is a huge draw to the Alien franchise. David is doing terrible things, but man is it beautifully twisted. While the “black goo” “accelerant” “xenovirus”  “primordial ooze” or whatever you want to call it is not the most original story idea, watching David find use for it is awesome. You get a clearer understanding of what it is and what is does.  And Shaw, poor Shaw. There is not a part of her that David does not use for testing and experimentation. Her body, not only blessed with female reproductive organs, but probably still had remnants with her last run-in with the xenovirus. She was just too perfect of a test subject. The human body reacted in a way that the Engineers and planet wildlife did not.

Continued at Xenomorphing ...

HIDDEN GEMS - AVP: REQUIEM BONUS FEATURES

 

by David Gogel

I thought I would take a break from another Alien Covenant discussion, and try something else on for size. With the Covenant blu-ray only a couple short weeks away, it’s the perfect time to revisit an older home release: Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. A complete mess of a movie, but containing one of the coolest bonus features in any Alien movie home release: the Weyland-Yutani Archives.

The Weyland-Yutani Archives is a fully interactive Alien and Predator educational experience. For this article’s purposes, I am going to focus on the Xenomorph portion of the Archives. But rest assured, the Predator section is just as detailed. There are three sections: Biology, Behavior, and Encounters

When you click on a subject, you get a wonderfully detailed description. If you’ve read the Aliens Technical Manual and/or the Weyland-Yutani Report you get a good idea of what to expect. It’s all written as if you are a Company employee reading classified information. I’m a sucker for this type of thing, and it really captures the vibe of what they are trying to do.

Continued at Xenomorphing ...