Alien: Romulus

At this point in 2024, there are more bad alien movies than good ones. So, something that pays homage to the originals really piqued my interest.

Visually, it's vintage "Alien/s" albeit with modern polish. It looks great, spectacular even, especially the space scenes. The opening scene was perfect.

The main problem with the movie is that there is zero tension, no sense of dread, and it's not scary, except for the last few scenes, which I enjoyed.

The movie tries to force tension and intensity with another plot device on top of the alien-the equivalent of a bomb timer countdown. It doesn't work as it trumps the alien threat, they become inconvenient road blocks.

The facehuggers have been reduced to annoying pests-something you can just bat away.

The aliens are cannon fodder, and the cast just seems to bump into them. I didn't get the sense that they were being hunted. E.g The sentry cannon scene from Aliens, this movie references. But you don't see the aliens dieing in Aliens, you do here which makes them look weak. On a side note this scene also reminded me of the Starwars prison corridor "boring conversation anyway".

Many scenes played out like a QuickTime event in a video game, with characters over-explaining and then narrating their actions: "I'm going to press X to do this." It's as if the audience needs to be told what they're watching and why they should feel scared or tense because there is no tension in the scene, despite an alien being present.

I have concerns about adding more law etc into the franchise. I don't need to know how the alien works, it's not scary if you know everything about a monster. That's the point of a monster. They use this new found law to get past some aliens, again it was like a scene from a video game.

It really nails the alien aesthetic, its a high paced movie with video game level writing and characters. Somewhat fun but ultimately disposable.

A few hours after coming out of the theater and I'm not sure what to make of this. It was... okay, I guess?

It felt like Fedy Alvarez examined the production of each of the previous films, and every left-over idea from them was thrown finally to the screen, along with rehashing the core components of the franchise. You have pieces from Alien, Aliens, Resurrection, and Prometheus/Covenant. For a fan of the series, there are subtle and not-so-subtle easter eggs every few minutes, from sound effects to reused dialogue.

The plot is really simple, as it should be. A group of people exploring a space station. Been there, done that. However, I really liked the use of temperature and gravity in this film, those were something not seen much in this universe. And there were plenty of jump scares. I'm not usually a fan of those, but this time they worked well.

The two lead actors were pretty good, the rest rather forgettable. And not sure what to make of the beyond-the-grave role of one actor...

The world is great. Forget the sleek and clean world of Prometheus, this is back to the ugly 70s retro futuristic stuff. Simply lovely. Aesthetically pleasing, if you like this kind of look.

Finally, however, it does feel like there is really nowhere for this franchise to go in terms of story. I wouldn't call it artistically bankrupt, but it is close. While this film tied neatly together the "proper" Alien films and the new Prometheus sidestep, it is hard to think what more to make of this creature. Nearly all the mystery has been stripped from the Xenomorph. I do wonder, is there anything left to do with this creature? More stand-alone films?

Alien: Romulus delivers a gritty experience reminiscent of the original film, with impressive world-building and familiar tech that longtime fans of the franchise will appreciate. The movie captures the essence of the Alien universe, offering a standalone story that fits well within the established timeline and cleverly nods to Prometheus.

However, the film's reliance on callbacks to previous entries in the franchise detracts from its originality. While some references are clever, others are forced and cringeworthy.

The introduction of the main character Rain, played by Cailee Spaeny, feels uninspired. We've seen this before - another Ripley. It's actually David Jonsson's character, Andy, who ends up being the most interesting by a long shot. If there is one franchise that would benefit from exploring new characters rather than rehashing old ones, this is it.

Despite these negatives, Romulus is technically impressive. It's beautifully shot, the effects are good, it has some genuine scares, and manages to deliver solid thrills and action scenes that are sure to please. I just wish it were brave enough to carve out its own identity.

Let me just say that I have been with this franchise since day one. I can remember seeing the original in the cinema before I was a teenager. I have seen and enjoyed all the films many times over and appreciated the less popular ones in the series. Seeing Romulus was a disappointment. Its dark visuals, particularly the opening sequence, had me confused at times. The relevance of the opener became obvious later on. And the dialogue was muffled in spots, and I missed chunks trying to figure out what was said, thus missing the follow up. The story was uninspiring and the Xenomorphs were identical to previous incarnations (for the most part) and close ups of the mouth parts no longer cause fear or dread, just boredom. This is one in the franchise that I may not watch again.

Nothing special, a lot of the really positive reviews are overhyped.

The characters for the most part are totally flaccid and devoid of any real character, apart from Andy. I honestly didn't have any emotional attachment to the majority of the characters and most of them were just annoying and thick.

The movie was tawdry at times, seeming to take an age to get going and relying far to heavily on Alien franchise cliches to add any real colour to the plot and script.

The special effects were good enough and the design on the original xenomorph was excellent, although the face huggers look worse in this film than they did in Alien and Aliens for some reason.

Don't ger over excited by the current hype surrounding Romulus, it isn't a terrible film but it isn't a great one either. As a huge fan of the originals, i came away disappointed.