Alien: Romulus (film)

Reviews seems to suggest very very good... Fingers crossed!

I'm just hoping the cast works well and, despite their young age, make sense within the world - i.e. they're out there in space doing a serious job, so I don't want them acting like some teenagers on a camping trip in Jason's backyard, you know?

I mean, the adults in Alien Covenant did some pretty horrifically stupid things, mind you ... point is, though, I don't want any character to be doing shit that dimwitted.

OK... A pretty good effort, but some jarring cannon issues and some weak writing in some areas IMO - 6.5/10.

It certainly makes you realise how solid the writing was for Aliens as regards world building, character building and action.

Spoiler:

Just watched it tonight and quite enjoyed it.

I'm glad that the noticeably young cast did a good job overall - particularly the guy playing Andy. That said, I absolutely could not stand Bjorn ... what an annoying fucking arsehole. Why would anyone want to be around that guy, let alone date him? I mean what a colossal tosspot. Hated that character!

Spoiler:

Yes, I do agree on a certain point...

Spoiler:

They needed to do a little more working on explaining that, but perhaps a potential sequel would look into that aspect?

I loved the look of the movie - using the 70s-esque tech as the basis for everything was good (why-oh-why they didn't do that with Prometheus is beyond me) - plus the use of CGI was pretty good, used for things you'd naturally assume, but also done in a very convincing way - even the visuals had the 'look' of the first two movies, so it felt nestled-in pretty well.

There were quite a few inventive ideas thrown into the mix, too. Even though the movie is essentially sort of pointless, it's just another sequel, it did at least do justice to the franchise and entertain me throughout. I liked things like the main cast being colonist kids who've been born and raised on this mining planet and they've never seen the sun, and are basically enslaved to Weyland-Yutani because so many people are dying from new diseases caused by the mining itself. It made their plight clear, but also built upon the wider Alien world and story without stepping on other movie's toes.

And it absolutely shits all over both AvP movies, and is decidedly better than Alien Covenant - so that alone is good news.

One little thing that irked me - some of the references. The worst was "Get away from her! ... ... You bitch." - talk about self-indulgent, and it just reminds you of a superior film in the franchise without adding anything. It only serves to detract.

The 'references' I preferred were familiar sounds to machinery, things like that. Some of the more subtle references were okay, but it really didn't need any of them, to be honest, and would've been stronger without them.

I was disappointed when I left the cinema. I hated the final act.
I have since seen it 4 times this week and I really enjoy it now. There is a prequel graphic novel coming soon about what went down on the Renaissance Space Station which might explain some of the 'growth' issues. A movie about what went on would have been better but beggars can't be choosers.
What I did love was the details for monitors, their output and keyboards were clunky like in Alien and Aliens.
After a couple of viewing you notice things

Spoiler:

I would now rate this in the top 3 of the Alien movies... Just. The poor CGI of the DC version of Alien3 lets it down a bit. I would love a version of Alien3 where the CGI is fixed. There is probably a fan fixed version out there as some of the amateur CGI stuff is very good these days.

MagicMoonMonkey wrote:I was disappointed when I left the cinema. I hated the final act.
I have since seen it 4 times this week and I really enjoy it now.

What I did love was the details for monitors, their output and keyboards were clunky like in Alien and Aliens.

I would now rate this in the top 3 of the Alien movies... Just. The poor CGI of the DC version of Alien3 lets it down a bit. I would love a version of Alien3 where the CGI is fixed. There is probably a fan fixed version out there as some of the amateur CGI stuff is very good these days.

1) Interesting! So what was it about the final act you initially hated, and what's crawled under your skin to dig it so much now?

2) Yes! I loved the visuals of the film, and the set design etc. I liked those 'references' if you will, because they're not really references, but functional in-world naturalness ... but they still give you the tingle of a reference, if that makes sense? It was like the landing gear retracting on their spaceship - the same sounds as those of the landing gear of the drop ship in Aliens - or the sound of the earlier incarnation of the Pulse Rifle.

A tingle like that works very well, giving you a sensory thrill harking back to a movie like Aliens, which really gets the juices pumping - that stuff works - doing a clunky "get away from her ... ... you bitch" absolutely does not, lol.

3) The assembly cut of Alien 3 is a big improvement over the theatrical version except for the final moments as Ripley ends her life and takes the alien inside her into the fiery pit. The assembly cut fumbles it by not having the alien burst out of her (which was a reshoot) and so it lacks the goose-bump-inducing rise that you get from that sequence in the original theatrical cut.

I like that, for instance, there's more of Bishop II trying to convince Ripley to come with him in the assembly cut, but I really think there's just something far more emotional (and extra dramatic, too) about the alien bursting out of Ripley, but she holds onto it - preventing it from making a leap to safety, potentially, but also the way it mimics a mother holding her newborn child to her bosom - symbolicly it works so much better and, in turn, is in-keeping with the overall vibe of the Alien franchise's fascination with reproduction - something that Alien Romulus certainly confronts head-on, lol!