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.