Alien: Romulus (2024)

[Punisher_MAX]

I prefer alien resurrection to alien 3, and covenant.

Same. I hate 3, I mean it's a solid Alien flick, but what they did to Newt and Hicks is unforgivable.

 

[Arnold Rimmer]

I prefer alien resurrection to alien 3, and covenant.

I agree. Resurreection is far from a perfect movie, but it's clear the people makng it knew they couldn't top the fear factr of the original 2 and just had fun with it.

Also, my man Ron Perlman's in it and just as awesome as always.

 

[Gothamsknight]

Same. I hate 3, I mean it's a solid Alien flick, but what they did to Newt and Hicks is unforgivable.

I agree. Resurreection is far from a perfect movie, but it's clear the people makng it knew they couldn't top the fear factr of the original 2 and just had fun with it.

Also, my man Ron Perlman's in it and just as awesome as always.

Well said. Alien 3 is just very dull overall, imo. And not even the Assembly cut can fix my issues with it. Resurrection at least felt like a fun 90s sci fi horror film, and most of all, it kept me entertained.

 

[DarkKnight88]

There is something about those first four movies having their own distinct style and visuals. Alien Resurrection for all its faults, *looks* wholly unique and specific to its director’s sensibilities.

Romulus looks like a great throwback but there’s nothing unique in its look that would differentiate like those first four.

Maybe that was my problem with Covenant as well whereas I appreciate Prometheus much more as something visually different than the rest.

 

[DyeLorean]

I love the philosophical aspect Prometheus brought to the table. I thought it was a great tangent from the Alien movies into a whole new playground but people didn't like it, so they went backwards. It reminds me a little bit about Halloween III and Halloween IV. They were ready to move to something new but people said "mmmm nah".

 

[Punisher_MAX]

I love the philosophical aspect Prometheus brought to the table. I thought it was a great tangent from the Alien movies into a whole new playground but people didn't like it, so they went backwards. It reminds me a little bit about Halloween III and Halloween IV. They were ready to move to something new but people said "mmmm nah".

Could've made a movie about the same things and just not tie it to the Alien universe.

 

[Zantera]

I agree there's something special about the first 4 movies (in varying levels) but a lot of that comes from nostalgia of seeing them a lot as a kid. For me I suppose my hot take would be that the assembly cut of Alien 3 is my second favorite movie after Alien and that Aliens is "only" third. But I've seen Aliens a lot more and it's probably the most rewatchable of the four. Alien Resurrection has a great visual look to it and I enjoy a lot of the weird french vibes of it. My biggest gripe is probably that the Whedon script feels like its clashing with the Alien stuff tonally.

Prometheus is interesting and Covenant has some good moments but I don't really think of either as these when I think of the franchise. Prometheus does its best to distance itself from Alien and you barely get a Xeno in it, but I still appreciate it as a stand alone thing. Covenant for me has too many moments of "character makes the dumbest choice possible and gets killed" that takes me out of the movie. It's just a bad and lazy trope in these kind of movies. What you want is a movie where characters act rationally and do the logical thing and still get killed off. You want to watch the movie and think "Oh crap, I would have done the exact same thing", not "Could you get any dumber?".

 

[SwordOfMorning]

Same. I hate 3, I mean it's a solid Alien flick, but what they did to Newt and Hicks is unforgivable.

That's why I love it lol, it's such a deeply nasty unpleasant movie. It's not great but it is very, very interesting and a really good sci-fi prison movie even if it isn't a particularly great alien slasher movie (an element of the franchise I don't really care about to begin with, tbh, I prefer the idea of expanding in broader cosmic sci-fi horror directions rather than trying to go back to basics). Resurrection is an unwatchable disaster.

 

[DyeLorean]

Could've made a movie about the same things and just not tie it to the Alien universe.

Oh yeah. But I'm pretty sure it would've been labeled as an Alien rip-off anyway.
I guess I liked the idea of a sequel in a different genre or a different set of ideas. Much like Aliens was to Alien. I thought Prometheus was an interesting step in that same direction.

 

[SwordOfMorning]

Oh yeah. But I'm pretty sure it would've been labeled as an Alien rip-off anyway.
I guess I liked the idea of a sequel in a different genre or a different set of ideas. Much like Aliens was to Alien. I thought Prometheus was an interesting step in that same direction.

An almost anthology series quality is also what I'd like from the franchise as well. The things I love about Prometheus and Covenant are more when they're a cosmic horror story about Androids rather than the more conventional Xeno stuff. I like that stuff in those movies too because I'm a Scott Alien purist who only really likes his take on them but ultimately it's not what is interesting about those movies.

Nothing but the original really "counts" to me though. I'm a huge Prometheus defender but when I watch Alien I'm not thinking about it at all. I have no desire to "know" what a Space Jockey is, Prometheus is just a fun possibility in my mind.

 

[Elayis]

I've never been a big fan of Aliens. Cameron took the horror, clausterphobic atmosphere where the xenomorph was legitimately threatening and turned it into disposable cannon fodder. The marines weren't interesting characters and Newt was just annoying. It's a typical 80s action flick on steroids that doesn't add anything interesting to the mythology.

Alien
Alien 3
Prometheus
Alien: Covenant
Aliens
AvP
Alien: Resurrection

 

[SwordOfMorning]

I've never been a big fan of Aliens. Cameron took the horror, clausterphobic atmosphere where the xenomorph was legitimately threatening and turned it into disposable cannon fodder. The marines weren't interesting characters and Newt was just annoying. It's a typical 80s action flick on steroids that doesn't add anything interesting to the mythology.

Alien
Alien 3
Prometheus
Alien: Covenant
Aliens
AvP
Alien: Resurrection

I do think there's a heavy element of satire at play in Aliens in its portrayal of the Marines are hapless, out of their depth morons that I greatly enjoy but it's the least of Cameron's science fiction work as far as I'm concerned. A fun Starship Troopers riff but also way too typical 80s blockbuster for my taste.

Alien
Alien: Covenant
Alien 3
Prometheus
Aliens
AvP
Alien: Resurrection

Never saw the second AvP. Not sure anyone has.

 

[DarkKnight88]

that doesn't add anything interesting to the mythology.

The Alien Queen alone adds huge to the mythology. Certainly more than anything in Alien 3.

And it’s not only the best written Ripley but Sigourney Weaver’s best performance in the series (thus her Oscar nomination).

 

[Elayis]

I do think there's a heavy element of satire at play in Aliens in its portrayal of the Marines are hapless, out of their depth morons that I greatly enjoy but it's the least of Cameron's science fiction work as far as I'm concerned. A fun Starship Troopers riff but also way too typical 80s blockbuster for my taste.

Alien
Alien: Covenant
Alien 3
Prometheus
Aliens
AvP
Alien: Resurrection

Never saw the second AvP. Not sure anyone has.

I never saw it, either. I have poster for it somewhere that my theater gave away, and Brian Tyler's score is good enough (at least the overture is) but I never had any desire to see it.

The satire in Aliens is there, but it isn't interesting or novel enough, and the humor doesn't land. Cameron made the mistake of thinking that 100 Aliens is scarier than 1, but when you see them getting mowed down left and right they lose any presence they had. It doesn't help that the suits were obviously done a budget, so the film's longer takes do them no favors. The vision for the movie far exceeded its budget, and as such it hasn't aged near as gracefully as the original or 3.

The Alien Queen alone adds huge to the mythology. Certainly more than anything in Alien 3.

And it’s not only the best written Ripley but Sigourney Weaver’s best performance in the series (thus her Oscar nomination).

Eh. I never had any strong attachment to the Queen as a concept.

 

[SwordOfMorning]

I never saw it, either. I have poster for it somewhere that my theater gave away, and Brian Tyler's score is good enough (at least the overture is) but I never had any desire to see it.

The satire in Aliens is there, but it isn't interesting or novel enough, and the humor doesn't land. Cameron made the mistake of thinking that 100 Aliens is scarier than 1, but when you see them getting mowed down left and right they lose any presence they had. It doesn't help that the suits were obviously done a budget, so the film's longer takes do them no favors. The vision for the movie far exceeded its budget, and as such it hasn't aged near as gracefully as the original or 3.

Eh. I never had any strong attachment to the Queen as a concept.

I hate the Queen as a concept. I despise them being a mindless insectoid horde in Aliens. My preference is for any future Alien movies to totally ignore all that stuff and come up with their own ideas for how the Xenos work.

 

[Punisher_MAX]

I hate the Queen as a concept. I despise them being a mindless insectoid horde in Aliens. My preference is for any future Alien movies to totally ignore all that stuff and come up with their own ideas for how the Xenos work.

Disagree, all the lore post Aliens is awesome, and the insectoid aspect was already thrown in there in Alien with the Facehugger and the Chestburster being inspired by the life cycle of a bot fly.

 

[Arnold Rimmer]

Could've made a movie about the same things and just not tie it to the Alien universe.

I agree there's something special about the first 4 movies (in varying levels) but a lot of that comes from nostalgia of seeing them a lot as a kid. For me I suppose my hot take would be that the assembly cut of Alien 3 is my second favorite movie after Alien and that Aliens is "only" third. But I've seen Aliens a lot more and it's probably the most rewatchable of the four. Alien Resurrection has a great visual look to it and I enjoy a lot of the weird french vibes of it. My biggest gripe is probably that the Whedon script feels like its clashing with the Alien stuff tonally.

Prometheus is interesting and Covenant has some good moments but I don't really think of either as these when I think of the franchise. Prometheus does its best to distance itself from Alien and you barely get a Xeno in it, but I still appreciate it as a stand alone thing. Covenant for me has too many moments of "character makes the dumbest choice possible and gets killed" that takes me out of the movie. It's just a bad and lazy trope in these kind of movies. What you want is a movie where characters act rationally and do the logical thing and still get killed off. You want to watch the movie and think "Oh crap, I would have done the exact same thing", not "Could you get any dumber?".

Honestly, it really does feel like Scott originally wanted Prometheus to be it's own movie at first but Fox strong-armed him into making it an Alien prequel because that was everyone, studio and audiences, wanted.

Though, I REALLY wish he had gone with the "Alien Engineer" script draft John Spaits wrote. Between that and the excellent Nottingham script that Scott threw out in favor of that crummy "Robin Hood origin story" idea, I don't understand why Scott took a look at those and thought they weren't good enough!

 

[Spider-Fan]

Alien and Aliens are 2 of my favorite movies ever. But the rest of the movies range from meh to awful.

Alien - 5/5 Masterpiece
Aliens - 5/5 Masterpiece (you can put either or at 1 or 2...equal to me)
Alien 3 - 2.5/5
Alien Resurrection - 1.5/5
Alien vs Predator - 3/5 (sort of so bad it's good)
Alien vs Predator: Reqium - 1/5
Prometheus - 2.5/5
Alien: Covenant - 2/5

Hence why I don't have faith in this until reviews tell me to get excited. Yeah, most of the bad sequels will have isolated things I like such as art direction or specific sequences, but mostly....just meh to bad

 

[Gothamsknight]

if Alien 3 wasn't just a bunch of people with shaved heads arguing, then I'd probably rate it higher.

 

[Drizzle]

I hate the Queen as a concept. I despise them being a mindless insectoid horde in Aliens.

From a certain perspective, the xenomorph by itself in Alien being more intelligent and adaptive than the drones in Aliens can be seen as a parallel comparison to humans.

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

From a certain perspective, the xenomorph by itself in Alien being more intelligent and adaptive than the drones in Aliens can be seen as a parallel comparison to humans.

The drones in Aliens managed to cut the power.

 

[Zantera]

Honestly, it really does feel like Scott originally wanted Prometheus to be it's own movie at first but Fox strong-armed him into making it an Alien prequel because that was everyone, studio and audiences, wanted.

Though, I REALLY wish he had gone with the "Alien Engineer" script draft John Spaits wrote. Between that and the excellent Nottingham script that Scott threw out in favor of that crummy "Robin Hood origin story" idea, I don't understand why Scott took a look at those and thought they weren't good enough!

I feel like some of my main problems with Prometheus were sort of problems they would never get around such as the background on the space jockey and the origin of the aliens themselves. I know it's a common misconception that David creates the aliens (when murals already exist of them) but that still implies the engineers created them. Personally I would have preferred to just keep the origin of the aliens a mystery. I didn't really mind the black goo and the experiments and some of that was fun. But I guess when you connect that to "this is how they got a xenomorph" it feels a bit meh, instead of being its own thing.

But I do agree overall that the studio and Ridley probably wanted 2 different things and with Prometheus it was like 70/30 in Ridley's favor and he mostly got to do what he wanted but they cut the trailer to look like Alien and shoved in that scene at the end, with Covenant it felt more like a 30/70 and the studio said "we'll let you make a sequel but this time its Alien baby"

 

[DyeLorean]

The concept of Alien lends itself better to the horror aspect of the first one than it does with action in Aliens, but that's just me. I appreciate the different take, but stripped to the basics I always prefer the simplicity and atmosphere of the original.

 

[Captain Tired]

if Alien 3 wasn't just a bunch of people with shaved heads arguing, then I'd probably rate it higher.

I dread to know what you think of Breaking Bad.

 

[Gothamsknight]

I dread to know what you think of Breaking Bad.

Hey now, that's possibly the greatest show of all time. I have exceptions haha.