Tomorrow, I will go with family and friends to see a movie that I have literally been waiting 33 years to see.  It opened today and the reviews, thus far, have mostly been favorable.  Prometheus is the prequel to Alien, a movie which was quite simply the last scary movie I ever saw.  Alien has had a profound effect on my life, it was the pinnacle of terror for the 11 year old me that watched it at the drive in that night.  Trapped in the dark, with something that means to destroy you, with no way out.  I still have Alien nightmares.  Yes, this movie damaged me.  But it also inured me to the idea of fear.  After all, what can be more frightening than an unrelenting Xenomorph with a hunger for human hosts?

Seven years later, just at the time I was graduating from Navy Boot Camp in San Diego and awaiting to be transferred to Great Lakes for “A” School, Aliens was released.  This time we were going back and kicking the crap out of those bastards!  I saw that move seven times in two days.  It is still my favorite movie of all time.

Unfortunately, the franchise went downhill from there.  Alien III, released in 1992 didn’t offend me the way it did some, but it was a far cry from the the first two movies and the death of two important characters just gutted the show in my opinion.  Alien IV Resurrection, released in 1997 might would have been a good B string Sci Fi if it hadn’t been tied to the Alien franchise.  But I ignore IV, I don’t even own it and can’t imagine a time when I would.  Which is sad as it was written by one of my favorite Sci Fi authors, Joss Whedon (amongst others).  But it just felt like they tried to shoe-horn in another movie.

I have to admit that I enjoy the Aliens v. Predators franchise, but that I do not put it on the same shelf as the first two Alien movies.  They’re just too … hokie.   I was disappointed that the basis for the AvP series was not the graphic novels/comic book series, which actually had a plot and wasn’t just a bunch of humans running around trying to survive the battle between the Hunting Predators and the ever lurking Aliens.  Aw-well, such is life, eh?

Suffice to say, I am SERIOUSLY looking forward to tomorrow.  While others have been raving about Avengers, Prometheus is the movie that I have been waiting for!  Here’s to hoping that it doesn’t disappoint.