Alien Covenant: A Prequel That's A Sequel To A Prequel To A Prequel

     Last Friday night Tom and I went with a couple of friends to see "Alien Covenant," the latest episode in the long-running "Alien" saga, which, by the way, is neither as scary nor as metaphysical as the movie poster would seem to suggest, still it was a pretty good effort in both scariness and metaphysicality, and I enjoyed the movie well enough,

...not the least reason being that I saw it at the Marcus Pickerington Cinema, where we were able to snag the Friday $5 Early-Bird Senior Special,

...and sit in the amazing DreamLounger reclining seats

...which were so sublimely comfy that it was practically worth the five bucks just to be able to spend a couple of hours sitting back and taking a load off.

     As for "Alien Covenant," I think I would have liked it more had I been more invested in the on-going story; but alas, this was the first of the "Alien" movies I'd seen.
      Still, "Alien" being kind of a late 20th Century icon, I of course knew something about it,

...and could certainly recognize its hallmark monster well enough to figure out about halfway through the film that "Alien Covenant" is meant to be a prequel to the original "Alien," or mayhaps a prequel  to one of  a number of subsequent prequels and sequels that might come to fruition before the franchise  has run its lucrative course.

     Of course, had I read a review of "Alien Covenant" before going to see it I would have found out in advance that this film was a prequel; but it was kind of thrilling to have figured it out on my own.
     My son Tommy, an "Alien" saga fan who also was likewise intending to see this latest installment  informed me when I talked to him after seeing the film that that "Alien Covenant" is not only a prequel to "Alien,"  but the  sequel to the first prequel, which was the 2012 movie "Prometheus."

      I did not know that.
      In any case, "Alien Covenant" had an involved enough story line that afterwards I felt the need to have a group recap of the film, and we all felt the need for some food,

...so afterwards we went to the Greek Star, a nearby Pickerington restaurant,

...with a cute, cozy interior,

...where they served up the most extraordinarily generous and delicious gyros,

...though the next time I go to this place I'm going to just order a big basket of the Greek Feta Fries,

...crispy seasoned fries smothered in feta cheese and gyro sauce that were beyond amazing,

...and upon which we all feasted while we deconstructed the theme, plot points, story arc, and action sequences of the film,

...well, actually we just talked about the movie.

   But we all agreed that the script writers didn't spell everything out, but left some things for the audience to figure out and interpret for ourselves, which we enjoyed doing.
    Anyway, after seeing "Alien Covenant" I felt the desire to see all the episodes of the "Alien" epic so as to find out what preceded this installment and where it's all headed to.
    So the following night, Saturday night, I decided to start at the very beginning (a very good place to start - sorry I couldn't resist),  with the original 1979 movie,

...of which I snagged a copy,

...watched, and concluded was a better movie than the one I'd seen the previous night, and which, I'm guessing, is probably the best of the bunch.
    But then, of course, "Alien" had the advantage of being its own story and the simplicity of its plot line, which was in essence a variation of cat-and-mouse thriller,

...sort of a sci-fi intersection of  Agatha Christie's "And then There Were None,"

...the original jump-out-and-getcha thriller"Wait Until Dark,"

...and "Snakes On A Plane,"  whose writer must  surely  have drawn at least a whiff of inspiration form "Alien."

    "Alien" also had the advantage of Sigourney Weaver, who's always great in every film she's ever been in, including this, her break-out role,

..in which she looked  just a little more fetching fending off the monster in her undies,

...than did Katherine Waterston fending off the monster in her undies in "Alien Covenant,"

...though it can be said of  Katherine Waterston that she does in this film  bear a much greater resemblance to her  frail-looking-but-courageous-and resourceful-in-the-face-of-terror predecessor Audrey Hepburn, who played the  beleaguered heroine of "Wait Until Dark,"

...which is a good thing.  
    But I'm only saying, in the next sequel-prequel they better figure out a way to stick Sigourney Weaver in somewhere.  (Maybe she could play her own veteran space-traveler mom? What do you think?)