Alien: Covenant

2017 sequel prequel

Rating: 11/20

Plot: Following the events shown in Prometheus, more things happen.

I have some questions.

Why wasn't this movie called Covenant or the last movie called Alien: Prometheus? Consistency, Ridley Scott!

I have other questions, but I don't feel like asking them. They'd be spoilers anyway.

Halfway through this movie, I think I decided I was done with Alien movies. As my faithful readers know, I love the first one where Sigourney Weaver is walking around in her underpants. I didn't like the second one as much, but it's very good for the sci-fi action movie that it is. The third and fourth installments confuse me, and but I liked both of them a lot more than I liked Prometheus. This one's also better than Prometheus, although it's nearly toppled by its own ambitions, has too many characters for me to not care about, and has some really perplexing logical lapses. The movies are starting to become exercises in seeing how many different parts of the body aliens can pop out of and how gruesome it can look on the screen.

But I don't want to talk about that. I want to talk about something that's starting to alarm me. A while ago, I felt like the song "Beyond the Sea" was stalking me because it seemed to pop up in every third movie I watched one year. This year, there's a new song--"Take Me Home, Country Road"--that seems to be haunting me. This is the third movie from 2017 where "Take Me Home, Country Road" has featured prominently. That's right--I've completed a John Denver trifecta.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle and Logan Lucky were the other two, in case you're keeping score at home. That makes this the best movie of the year that features "Take Me Home, Country Road."