Sci-Fi Alien: Romulus (2024)

It's real simple, Fede. We just want the animal xenos from the Kenner toy line brought to life.

Also, Fassbender coming back would be nice.
 
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I guess someone printed a 35mm print for the trailer and then rescanned it.

 
Finally saw this last night and loved it, it's what Prey was to the Predator franchise. Fede Alvarez absolutely captured the tone, foreboding atmosphere and horror of the first two movies, the bleak industrial aesthetic mixed with the sterile labs set the stage for an intense ride that could actually stand alone.

I followed this up this morning with Civil War and Cailee Spaeny is an impressive young actress, leading this type of movies isn't easy, it takes more than just talent, you need something extra and she has it as Rain, the relationship between her and Andy is the heart of the movie. They did Isabela Merced dirty, poor Katy's death was the grossest in franchise history! :omg:

The pacing is perfect, as the obstacles facing the characters escalate and the horror of the trouble they are in fully unfolds. I don't recall if the face huggers only being able to see humans via heat has been mentioned in any of the movies, maybe in extended media? But it created a really intense sequence here, the face huggers have never been scarier than in this movie! The film is full of creativity and the highlight of this is the sequence where Rain switches off the gravity so she can shoot the Xenomorphs and keep the acid blood suspended in the air so it didn't burn through the hull, great stuff!

When these type of movies venture from the main creature it rarely works, case in point the goo beast from Alien: Resurrection, but on this occasion they nailed it, the human/xenomorph hybrid was a truly horrific creation, reminiscent of the Engineers, and Alvarez made it work in the same way as he did with the Xenomorphs, using close ups, angles and lighting to maintain the menace. If there's a sequel and we find out what happens to Rain and Andy next, that's cool, but this film can stand on it's own regardless.


9/10
 
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This looked damn good in 4K. The ending still has you in edge, just a really well crafted movie and I look forward to what Fede gives us next.
 
Hunter Rider said:
Finally saw this last night and loved it, it's what Prey was to the Predator franchise. Fede Alvarez absolutely captured the tone, foreboding atmosphere and horror of the first two movies, the bleak industrial aesthetic mixed with the sterile labs set the stage for an intense ride that could actually stand alone.

I followed this up this morning with Civil War and Cailee Spaeny is an impressive young actress, leading this type of movies isn't easy, it takes more than just talent, you need something extra and she has it as Rain, the relationship between her and Andy is the heart of the movie. They did Isabela Merced dirty, poor Katy's death was the grossest in franchise history! :omg:

The pacing is perfect, as the obstacles facing the characters escalate and the horror of the trouble they are in fully unfolds. I don't recall if the face huggers only being able to see humans via heat has been mentioned in any of the movies, maybe in extended media? But it created a really intense sequence here, the face huggers have never been scarier than in this movie! The film is full of creativity and the highlight of this is the sequence where Rain switches off the gravity so she can shoot the Xenomorphs and keep the acid blood suspended in the air so it didn't burn through the hull, great stuff!

When these type of movies venture from the main creature it rarely works, case in point the goo beast from Alien: Resurrection, but on this occasion they nailed it, the human/xenomorph hybrid was a truly horrific creation, reminiscent of the Engineers, and Alvarez made it work in the same way as he did with the Xenomorphs, using close ups, angles and lighting to maintain the menace. If there's a sequel and we find out what happens to Rain and Andy next, that's cool, but this film can stand on it's own regardless.


9/10
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They beat and tortured that poor woman the entire movie.
 
screenrant.com

"May Not Be A Direct Sequel": Next Alien Movie Gets Intriguing Tease From Romulus Producer As Early Development Is Underway

"We're discussing ideas."
screenrant.com screenrant.com

During a recent interview with ScreenRant at the Saturn Awards, Pruss shares an update on the Alien: Romulus sequel, revealing that it's still very much in the early stages of development. He shares that everything is on the table as far as the story goes, including ideas that aren't direct sequels to Romulus. Whether they end up pursuing one of those ideas, however, remains to be seen. Check out Pruss' comment below:

I am involved in the sequel with Ridley and our friends and colleagues and Fede, course. We are working on ideas for another Alien film, which may not be a direct sequel to Romulus, but it certainly is a part of the existing franchise.

At the moment we're doing what I call "sitting around tables and drinking water." We're discussing ideas. Good movies take time, and I just worked on Gladiator II, and that took 25 years to conjure up a sequel. It takes a period of time to really examine ideas and understand if those ideas are worth pushing. Sometimes they are, and sometimes they aren't, and we just have to submit to the best idea.

We are in an early phase, but we hope to really have something special to talk about as the year goes on. I promise it won't be 25 years; it'll be sooner than that, but I don't have more specifics. We aren't yet in more of a specific phase than just working with Fede and Ridley to try and come up with something great that will frankly garner the same reaction. Romulus was worth the wait, right? People loved it, they embraced it, and so it takes time to do it. But we want to give you something great.
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Interesting if that ends up being true because that'd be even quicker than a lot of TV shows shoot seasons these days.
 
Let's just hope he's got a better script next time lol. Less memberry pie and more actually moving the franchise forward.
 
The worst parts about Romulus felt very much like movie producer decisions rather than directing/writing decisions to me. And also considering the reception to the movie mostly has people going "Yeah those specific nods weren't great" maybe it makes it easier for him to push back against those things in the next movie.
 
Zantera said:
The worst parts about Romulus felt very much like movie producer decisions rather than directing/writing decisions to me. And also considering the reception to the movie mostly has people going "Yeah those specific nods weren't great" maybe it makes it easier for him to push back against those things in the next movie.
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My problems is it felt like 80% of the film was callbacks. I thought Beetlejuice Beetlejuice beat us over the head with callbacks then Romulus said "hold my beer."
 
Joe Von Zombie said:
My problems is it felt like 80% of the film was callbacks. I thought Beetlejuice Beetlejuice beat us over the head with callbacks then Romulus said "hold my beer."
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I think you shoot yourself in the foot by setting it between Alien and Aliens to begin with. That decision will remove 70% chance of new creative ideas because you gotta make it look like those films or feel like it could be set between them. Set design, ship design, cyborg design and so on.

But I can accept a lot of that because that's the movie they made. What grinds my gears is when they do the "remember this? wink wink" like "Get away from her you *****" or making deepfake Ash a huge part of the movie. You could easily fix both of those things by cutting "you *****" from the line (making it a small nod to the original line but it's not just a blatant callback) and I think the Ash/Rook thing is easily fixed by just keeping his onscreen appearance to like one scene.
 
Zantera said:
I think you shoot yourself in the foot by setting it between Alien and Aliens to begin with. That decision will remove 70% chance of new creative ideas because you gotta make it look like those films or feel like it could be set between them. Set design, ship design, cyborg design and so on.

But I can accept a lot of that because that's the movie they made. What grinds my gears is when they do the "remember this? wink wink" like "Get away from her you *****" or making deepfake Ash a huge part of the movie. You could easily fix both of those things by cutting "you *****" from the line (making it a small nod to the original line but it's not just a blatant callback) and I think the Ash/Rook thing is easily fixed by just keeping his onscreen appearance to like one scene.
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The ash thing bothers me how cliche modern Disney it is. They could have just as easily got Fassbender back to play another android if that's the route the absolutely had to go
 
Zantera said:
I think you shoot yourself in the foot by setting it between Alien and Aliens to begin with. That decision will remove 70% chance of new creative ideas because you gotta make it look like those films or feel like it could be set between them. Set design, ship design, cyborg design and so on.
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This is what happens when a writer/director/creative wants to move forward (Prometheus) and because the film wasn't "received well enough" they have to go back to the originals and stay there forever. It's disheartening the way new ideas are not at the forefront when it comes to big franchises or blockbusters.

Alien: Romulus felt, to me, like a direct-to-video epilogue/sequel/prequel episode set in the Alien universe. There wasn't anything particularly bad about it, but there wasn't anything great about it either. It adds nothing. It subtracts nothing. Is just there.
 
Sithborg said:
On the other hand, when the franchise has sort of gone bad for such a long time, a "back to basics/beginning" is sort of needed.
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Or not. Let it be. Some franchises just aren't meant to go on forever. We are not getting stories that have a beginning, middle and end anymore. No, they keep going, they keep finding the most minuscule detail to make a full feature about it. It's exhausting, they take all the mystery out of things.

When it comes to Alien specifically I like that Prometheus carved a different path to go on. It planted new seeds, even with its faults. But they keep banging our heads with the xenomorph over and over again.
 
Different doesn't mean interesting OR good.

The Alien universe has enough interesting stories in books and comics to have stand alone films.
 
Sithborg said:
On the other hand, when the franchise has sort of gone bad for such a long time, a "back to basics/beginning" is sort of needed.
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Yep, sometimes a franchise needs to go back to basics to get fans back on board and have people excited for the franchise again. Prey did it for The Predator franchise, and Romulus did it for the Alien franchise.

Now both can stretch things a bit more in their next movies.
 
I don't mind the franchise returning to more horror oriented waters either. They saw what Prey did and while you can argue Prey and Romulus both fall victim of being a bit safe, they just wanted to get the 'feel' of the franchise back after decades of weird choices. My personal problems with Prometheus and Covenant are less about them trying new things and more about how many stupid things happen in them to justify action happening.

Force Awakens is another good comparison - a movie that was just about getting people back on board after some very mixed movies. For me Romulus did what it set out to do and the sequel to Romulus is where I raise my expectations and I hope for something more than just "another one". With that said we're now so many movies deep into the franchise that what do you even do that would feel new? Romulus may have done a lot of fan service stuff but I thought most of the facehugger stuff felt new and fresh and not something they had done before. Now they gotta find something similar for the sequel.
 
Sithborg said:
On the other hand, when the franchise has sort of gone bad for such a long time, a "back to basics/beginning" is sort of needed.
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I didn't really get the "back to basics" vibe from Romulus at all frankly. It felt like AI written DLC for Alien Isolation. Damn near everything that happens once they get to the space station is a half-assed callback to a previous film. Prey did it better on almost every level.
 
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