Alien: Romulus (2024)

[Jaybonaut]

Prometheus was underrated.  That was a fine film.  Sequel?  not so much

[Nick H. Supervisor]

On 15/08/2024 at 11:48, souper82 said:

[No spoilers] Hi, i'm what you'd call a die hard Alien fan, been that way since the first movie in 1979.. that and the movies which followed are what i'll gladly watch again & again, but this latest offering i would say is made for the current generation of youngsters and/or young adults. I was so looking forwards to some great special effects (it has some) with a great storyline.  For all the time i was watching i felt like i was watching a trailer for a video game, it doesn't give off  any vibes i would get with any previous version. I was disappointed and left feeling wanting. 

This is my honest opinion of the movie, yours will be different. I'm not saying don't watch it..... Just, make up your own mind as you might like it.

So I watched the film this evening...

General impressions: It's the original Alien but with a younger group of survivors. The effects are updated, but the story is nearly identical to the original. It's just missing a cat.

But we had fun watching it, and I wouldn't tell anyone to avoid it.

[FloatingFatMan]

On 24/08/2024 at 23:18, Nick H. said:

So I watched the film this evening...

General impressions: It's the original Alien but with a younger group of survivors. The effects are updated, but the story is nearly identical to the original. It's just missing a cat.

But we had fun watching it, and I wouldn't tell anyone to avoid it.

So, they went full Star Wars Episode 7?  

[BoondockSaint]

Saw this a few days ago, and as a long time fan of the franchise, I was very happy with what they did. The story plays it safe, but I didn't mind that because they were trying to follow the original ideas of the franchise rather than branching out like Prometheus did. There were a few small fragments that could have been different or left out, at times it felt like they wanted to cram in as much fan service as possible, but it wasn't offensive.

Aside from one or two places, the visual effects were excellent and the use (or rather, a lack of almost all but very selective bits) of audio in the space scenes was great. I particularly appreciate the use of practical effects. The actors did a solid job, I'd not seen any of them in other roles, and I'm glad they chose to go without a famous face as a hero.

Was it ground-breaking? Definitely not, but it was entertaining as hell and worth a watch.

[+thexfile Subscriber²]

Focusing on a group of characters, you don't care about them.

[+primortal Subscriber²]

 

[dwd999]

At least the artificial person Andy played by David Jonsson was more interesting than the ones in the previous movies. I guess a lot of really bad dad jokes helps. And making the cast members a lot younger (Cailee Spaeny) and therefore more vulnerable also seemed to help.

[rocky01]

On 20/03/2024 at 20:14, BoondockSaint said:

Alien back to its horror roots!

I was very skeptical of the project, even when I heard that Fede Álvarez was directing, because the franchise has had so many lows. A great director can only do so much.

But this trailer... this is good. I will definitely see this at the cinema.

That one with the dogs was abysmal. 

[Steven P. Administrators]

Really enjoyed this movie!

[Som]

twas a perfectly cromulent film 

[Dick Montage]

On 25/08/2024 at 17:01, thexfile said:

Focusing on a group of characters, you don't care about them.

Bingo.  That one guy who was a completely unlikeable douche.  And then we are meant to care whether he lives?

[stevember]

It may be just me, but I'm bored with the same old alien movie.

Plot: humans explore, deadly alien kills most of us, humans triumph and celebrate.

Can we not come up with something different and unique?

I get it, this is the alien series and it has to be the same movie repeated. Kind of.

[Dick Montage]

On 25/10/2024 at 16:24, stevember said:

It may be just me, but I'm bored with the same old alien movie.

Plot: humans explore, deadly alien kills most of us, humans triumph and celebrate.

Can we not come up with something different and unique?

I get it, this is the alien series and it has to be the same movie repeated. Kind of.

Hollywood gonna Hollywood...

[BoondockSaint]

In case someone hasn't heard - due to the success of Romulus, a sequel is in the works with Fede Alvarez once again in the director's chair. He breathed life into the dead franchise again.

Imagine if they could do that with Terminator...

 

[dwd999]

On 25/10/2024 at 08:29, Dick Montage said:

Hollywood gonna Hollywood...

Hollywood gonna do whatever gets them a paycheck. And if it turns a profit, all the better. Seriously though, you've got studio executives and streamer company executives making huge salaries who have to do something to keep getting paid. Never in Hollywood history has there been a highly paid executive who said "We're not going to produce any movies this year because we don't have anything worth spending production money on". The same goes for Producers, Directors and Writers who have bills to pay and expensive lifestyles to maintain who need to do something each year to generate a salary. So we can expect to see more Alien and Predator and other sequels until the end of time.

[George P Global Moderator]

On 25/10/2024 at 18:11, Dick Montage said:

Bingo.  That one guy who was a completely unlikeable douche.  And then we are meant to care whether he lives?

I don't think you are?  At some point these go from a pure horror flick to just a gore fest type movie where viewers keep watching just to see how the characters they hate die in gruesome ways.   You were only ever suppose to care about the two mains IMO.  Maybe the sister to, I guess.  But she felt more like a plot device character to me.

[George P Global Moderator]

On 25/10/2024 at 22:16, dwd999 said:

Hollywood gonna do whatever gets them a paycheck. And if it turns a profit, all the better. Seriously though, you've got studio executives and streamer company executives making huge salaries who have to do something to keep getting paid. Never in Hollywood history has there been a highly paid executive who said "We're not going to produce any movies this year because we don't have anything worth spending production money on". The same goes for Producers, Directors and Writers who have bills to pay and expensive lifestyles to maintain who need to do something each year to generate a salary. So we can expect to see more Alien and Predator and other sequels until the end of time.

Nothing wrong with that as long as they're good movies.  Prey was good IMO.  And this one is better than the last flew, even if it's a combination of plot points from the original trilogy. 

[+primortal Subscriber²]

FYI if anyone hasn't seen it in theaters.

 

[DramaInc]

On 25/10/2024 at 13:31, BoondockSaint said:

In case someone hasn't heard - due to the success of Romulus, a sequel is in the works with Fede Alvarez once again in the director's chair. He breathed life into the dead franchise again.

Imagine if they could do that with Terminator...

 

Hyped.  I enjoyed Romulus alot.  The mystery of the goop continues to deepen.  

[+Kyle Subscriber¹]

Just watched it on Hulu, really enjoyed it. 

[forster]

I thought it was pretty cool. Kind of getting sick of the female protagonist. At this point it just feels forced. I mean surely, one of these movies should have had a dude saving the day? I loved the ripley character but it just seems disingenuous at this point that the only survivor is ALWAYS a woman. I’ve no issue with strong female characters whatsoever. It just feels like a trope of the series for no real “story focused” reason. Just my 2c’s. 

[Dick Montage]

On 22/11/2024 at 12:38, forster said:

Kind of getting sick of the female protagonist.

I think the fact that they (xenomorphs) tend to want a host with a uterus to escalate up to a queen explains this.

[forster]

On 22/11/2024 at 12:54, Dick Montage said:

I think the fact that they (xenomorphs) tend to want a host with a uterus to escalate up to a queen explains this.

Oh, good. I just thought it was a complete lack of imagination seeing as all the movies are basically just a carbon copy of each other. Thanks for clearing that up. 

[Dick Montage]

On 22/11/2024 at 22:38, forster said:

Oh, good. I just thought it was a complete lack of imagination seeing as all the movies are basically just a carbon copy of each other. Thanks for clearing that up. 

It has become something of a trope.  I get it, punching up - you have to punch harder to level the paying field, but it can also feel a bit jarring at times especially when your personal norm has been male leads.  I genuinely do get it.

But in the case of the Alien franchise, there's a reason for women being so prevailing to the story arc.