Movies Alien: Romulus (16 August 2024) - update (07/18): "Final" trailer

[Best]

Metacritic ranked this as the 4th best in the franchise. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

8 minutes ago, Best said:

Metacritic ranked this as the 4th best in the franchise. 

 

Ranking Covenant at #3 is certainly a bold decision!

[Brick]

2 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

Ranking Covenant at #3 is certainly a bold decision!

 

Is it when you look at the rest of the franchise? There's only been two truly good ones! 

[cusideabelincoln]

15 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

Ranking Covenant at #3 is certainly a bold decision!

 

I'd easily put Romulus above Covenant; so definitely at least #3. Depending on how you view Aliens as part of the universe, it might even be #2. It's been over a decade since I've watched the older ones, but I did revisit Aliens last night and its vibe is very different from the other movies since it's more like your "modern" day popcorn blockbuster than a sci-fi thriller. Also a lot of the effects/backgrounds don't hold up in 4k and compared to modern day CGI. Ripley operating the loader is still badass though.

[TheLeon]

This is a really fun movie. I think it’s probably a more successful movie overall than Prometheus and Covenant (which I enjoy), partly because it’s less ambitious. It’s a fairly straightforward, small scale story about some young people trying to escape a bad situation. They’re not having philosophical discussions with androids and trying to discover the meaning of life or whatever. 

[Moa]

[GeneticBlueprint]

3 hours ago, TheLeon said:

This is a really fun movie. I think it’s probably a more successful movie overall than Prometheus and Covenant (which I enjoy), partly because it’s less ambitious. It’s a fairly straightforward, small scale story about some young people trying to escape a bad situation. They’re not having philosophical discussions with androids and trying to discover the meaning of life or whatever. 

Mostly all of this yes. I’ll have more thoughts later but I just got out. That was fun. 

[Kal-El814]

6 hours ago, TheLeon said:

This is a really fun movie. I think it’s probably a more successful movie overall than Prometheus and Covenant (which I enjoy), partly because it’s less ambitious. It’s a fairly straightforward, small scale story about some young people trying to escape a bad situation. They’re not having philosophical discussions with androids and trying to discover the meaning of life or whatever. 

 

2 hours ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

Mostly all of this yes. I’ll have more thoughts later but I just got out. That was fun. 

 

This excites me, I find that fun is an often unappreciated quality in movies. I wasn’t going to check this out, now I probably will!

[GeneticBlueprint]

Alright. Took care of some stuff and now formulating thoughts. Spoilers will be marked.
 

For me, this entry is without question the best one since Aliens. And in some ways that’s a shame. Each entry in this franchise tries to do something new and take it in new directions. Those efforts have just fallen flat most of the time. That’s not to say Romulus doesn’t add to the lore. It does. Some things feel like confirmations of things we expected or assumed. Others kind of take that a little too far in my opinion. But the movie for the most part takes us back to nuts and bolts basics.

 

And that starts with the characters. They’re believable. They’re relatable. The actors are great and as charismatic or unlikable as they need to be. They aren’t brainiac scientists doing the dumbest shit possible when presented with a choice.

 

Speaking of choices, in some ways this movie felt like a series of trolley problems. And each time I’m pulling that fucking lever and not thinking twice. But the characters in this situation with their friends and companions don’t have it that easy. And their fear and frustration at their antagonists—the creatures, the company, the vacuum of space, their conflicting motivations—really shines through in the better moments of this movie.

 

Also, the setting of this entry is so awesome: a space station orbiting a ringed planet and slowly, but imminently, falling into those rings around the planet. And that makes for some stunningly beautiful space shots in this movie. Just phenomenal. 

 

One aspect I was actually surprised didn’t live up to my expectations was the body horror. Maybe I’m just desensitized at this point, but there wasn’t anything too freaky here in that regard. It’s no spoiler to say you’re going to see some chestburster action. And it’s probably the most underwhelming in the entire franchise. Say what you will about Prometheus and Covenant, but the body horror in those movies was absolutely terrifying and sickening. Romulus felt pretty standard fare. And of course nothing lives up to the original movie and Kane.

 

Another thing this entry gets right is the analog and dirty feeling of those first two movies. And since it takes place between them I can see this movie becoming a new part of my Alien and Aliens rewatching. Like a trilogy now. I wonder if it holds up on repeat viewings. 

 

There is some unfortunate fan service in this movie as well. More spoilery thoughts here:

 

Spoiler

Having Ash make a return felt too fan service-y even though it’s not “Ash” and he served a plot purpose. And the other fan service bits “get away from her you bitch”, “you have my sympathies”, etc. just made me audibly groan. This movie did NOT need any of that. Ash/Rook could have had a unique likeness and still served the same purpose.

 

The human/alien creature was kind of cringe. It just gave me Alien: Resurrection vibes and those aren’t vibes you want to have.

But yeah, overall a fun horror movie in a universe I’ve enjoyed. It doesn’t really tread much new ground, but since the ton of other movies they made in this franchise have all mostly tried and failed I don’t blame them for not making a huge effort in that regard here. 

[Greatoneshere]

12 hours ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

But yeah, overall a fun horror movie in a universe I’ve enjoyed. It doesn’t really tread much new ground, but since the ton of other movies they made in this franchise have all mostly tried and failed I don’t blame them for not making a huge effort in that regard here. 

 

My opinion mostly falls along in line with yours - the movie was a great time, really well made, a very back to basics approach. As a fan of Prometheus and Covenant's "bigger" ideas and more philosophical explorations, I did miss that in this movie, which is very straightforward and really has very little to say about anything. You also don't care about any of the characters outside of the main two, but the entire cast is competent and likeable for the most part. 

 

Some really good set pieces, good tiebacks to the first movie and the analog, low-tech of the first few movies looks great. I just wish the movie had more to say and more on its mind, but in terms of visceral scifi horror thrills, this was extremely well done and well made. A definite watch - 7.5/10. I also agree that the body horror in Prometheus and Covenant were worse but there is plenty of gross shit in this movie, but it doesn't top those movies. In fact, watching this made me appreciate those two movies more for what they were trying to do (except how dumb the characters behave in their horror situations, which is not an issue here).

[EternallDarkness]

pretty solid, the only real issue for me was 

Spoiler

the hybrid..WTF. horrible absolutely horrible 

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

I really have nothing further to add to the superb posts by others.  There's no doubt that this wasn't as narratively ambitious as Prometheus/Covenant, but I'm honestly more than completely fine with that!  This is one of the most visually striking films I've seen in ages -- as @GeneticBlueprint mentioned, those space shots are freakin' gorgeous -- and the actual physical environment that the characters inhabit with its distinctly 1970s analog (the perfect word!) "cassette futurism" aesthetic with several layers of grime added for good measure clearly illustrates the undeniable value of physical, practical sets in an era of computer-generated mediocrity.

 

Was there maybe a bit too much unnecessary "nostalgia bait" for its own good?  Oh sure - there absolutely was, but that really didn't detract from the overall experience at all save some eye-rolling. This was simply a damned good time at the cinema and sometimes, that's just all ya really need on a late summer Sunday afternoon!

 

I'm finally pleased to say that the last worthwhile piece of Alien media is no longer Alien: Isolation (though Alien: Isolation remains the second-best piece of Alien media in general!)

[Moa]

 

[MarSolo]

So spoilers:

 

Spoiler

Did the hybrid face remind anyone else of the Engineers?

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

2 minutes ago, MarSolo said:

So spoilers:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Did the hybrid face remind anyone else of the Engineers?

 

Oh yeah - that's exactly what I thought as well!

[Greatoneshere]

5 minutes ago, MarSolo said:

So spoilers:

 

  Hide contents

Did the hybrid face remind anyone else of the Engineers?

 

2 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

Oh yeah - that's exactly what I thought as well!

 

I think co-writer and director Fede Alvarez is definitely trying to evoke that imagery and call directly back to that for sure. I liked it despite some people in this thread not liking it so much. Was grotesque to me.

[Brick]

Finally got to see this tonight, and yeah I liked it! Some good body horror, although not quite as much, or as disgusting as I read expecting from Fede Alvarez, but still good, especially that first scene of the alien coming out. 

 

Spoiler

I also agree that the hybrid was maybe not great. I don't think it was bad perse, and I think Alvarez was definitely trying to evoke the newborn from Resurrection here, and did a better job, but it's a mixed bag. It smiling like a psychopath was also odd. I also thought for sure that when Rain turned the corner she was going to see it sucking on its mother's breasts for milk lol. So glad I was way off with that. 

 

The more I think about it, bringing back the late Ian Holm was a misstep. Not only was it confusing because I thought it was actually supposed to be Ash recovered from the wreckage of the Nostromo (I thought Rook was maybe supposed to be his last name) until I remembered that Parker torched him, not just left him to get blown up with the ship, but it was also just kind of disrespectful to bring him back using shoddy looking deep fake AI. LET THE DEAD REST. Should have just been a new character with a new actor portraying the android.