Sci-Fi Alien: Romulus (2024)

[Gothamsknight]

The ending worked for me, and for my fiancee. She was legit creeped out too haha which isn't easy to do. I think a lot of it is due to Fedes direction. It could've come across as goofy, but to me, it didn't at all.

There's so many moments in this movie that are just excellent.

Spoiler

zero G gravity aliens

zero g gravity acid dodging!

The chest burst scene with Isabela Merced screaming is just as horrifying as you think it is.

David Jonsson and Cailee Spaeny together were just excellent. Fantastic performances from both.

Them having to match their body temp to the room full of face huggers to not be seen while Isabela Merceds character calls them while being followed by the Alien. I was literally on the edge of my seat!

There's just so many incredible and fantastic moments. Right now, this is movie of the year for me.

 

[Punisher_MAX]

Bingo.

Romulus was Frankenstein’s monster. Aspects of all previous six movies were stitched together to make a “new” movie.

Prey was at least original.

I love Prey but it was NOT original...it was essentially Predator in Colonial America.

My favorite scene was:

When Rain absolutely unloads on the Xenos with the Pulse Rifle. It's one of my FAVORITE scenes in Aliens when Ripley does it in the nest, it's powerful and exciting as she is literally and metaphorically mowing down the traumas caused by the Xenos. Alvarez definitely made a callback to it, even showing the ammo meter counting down, and it was glorious.

 

[Spider-Fan]

Prey was very much a back to basics movie. But the overall execution was better.

That said, best sequence of the movie was

Spoiler

the part where they're avoiding the acid in zero g. Highly inventive sequence and way to solve their problem. Chef's kiss on that. That sequence was awesome

 

[Pennywise]

This will be the first film in the franchise I see in theatres, going to be exciting to watch in IMAX!

 

[samsnee]

Do we know when this takes place in the timeline of the franchise?

 

[Pennywise]

Do we know when this takes place in the timeline of the franchise?

I read it takes place 20 years after Alien and 37 years before Aliens.

 

[Spider-Fan]

Do we know when this takes place in the timeline of the franchise?

Between Alien and Aliens

 

[Gee]

So many differing reactions.

Exactly what i was thinking lol very divisive from numerous posters.

And the debate on what the third best Alien movie is continues...

 

[Spider-Fan]

My issues with the ending aside, this is easily 3rd best Alien film. That's also not a close race

 

[Captain Tired]

Just got back from seeing it. I really, really enjoyed it. That was a lot of fun. And so clearly inspired by Isolation more than anything else. I knew near enough right from the start that I was going to enjoy it. I do have one immediately obvious criticism that, in another movie not quite as aesthetically lush and creative (maybe not so much in the overall plot, but definitely in so far as the methods thought up to combat the Xeno's defences), would be a death knell for the film, and that's that

Spoiler

the Xenomorphs themselves weren't really all that menacing. For my money, they were probably the least threatening they've ever been in the core part of the franchise, i.e., Alien to Alien Resurrection. The human-xeno hybrid, however, was world's better than its execution in Resurrection, and was really quite unnerving.

 

[Gothamsknight]

My new updated ranking after Romulus.

 

[Punisher_MAX]

I'm having a bit of a difficult time picking between Romulus and Prometheus for the third-best spot. Romulus is more satisfying as a full-on Alien film, but Prometheus is a lot more original, it's not trying so hard to please. I also love that the horror element is a lot more prevalent in Romulus. They're both good but flawed in different aspects.

My (undecided) ranking:

Alien
Aliens
Alien: Romulus/Prometheus
Alien 3
Alien: Covenant
Alien Resurrection

I dont know why but I LOVE Alien Resurrection and I see it so low on people's lists lol

Alien 3 to me is the absolute worst because of what it did to the characters in Aliens, my absolute favorite film of the franchise. Of all the ways it could have gone, it gave us the worst narrative. Had it been a standalone film with a new character I might view it more favorably, but I hate Alien 3...

The SNES game for it was straight fire though.

 

[Drizzle]

Definitely catching a matinee tomorrow. Not expecting Alien or Aliens (I never was) but I'm curious to see if this knocks Prometheus out of my # 3 spot for the franchise.

 

[Captain Tired]

Backlash to Alien 3 has started irritating me to the point where I'm glad Hicks and Newt died lol.

 

[Punisher_MAX]

Backlash to Alien 3 has started irritating me to the point where I'm glad Hicks and Newt died lol.

Not our fault you like a ****ty Alien sequel

 

[Pennywise]

 

[Captain Tired]

Not our fault you like a ****ty Alien sequel

So aggressive lol

 

[Spider-Fan]

If I were ranking the series


 Great
Alien/Aliens (both masterpieces and I aint picking)

Good but flawed
Alien Romulus

 OK
AvP: Alien vs Predator (it's stupid but fun)

 Meh
Prometheus
Alien 3
Alien Covenant

Abysmal
Alien Resurrection
AvP: Alien vs Predator Requim

 

[Kane52630]

I still have to wait until Sunday to see this, I would have seen this last night but something came up.

 

[Pennywise]

 

[Hobgoblin]

Spoiler

Maybe it’s me but I had trouble understanding what the characters were saying because of their accents, especially in the beginning. I’m not sure what their plan was, except to escape the planet and salvage the wreckage.

The age of the characters initially irritated me and I wondered how they would know how to operate all of the machinery to go into space. Then again, if they’ve always lived there and worked for the company, maybe they’ve been trained.

I did like the Andy character, that guy is a very good actor.

I didn’t like that Rook was just a model of Ash. (It reminded me of how the terminators look alike. They lose their effectiveness as infiltrators if they are carbon copies.) The cgi didn’t look good and having it look like Ian Holm regardless showed poor judgement I thought. They could have skipped that problem entirely by casting a new actor.

It was cool seeing the facehuggers be dangerous and threats in their own right. The stillborn chestburster kind of answered what happens if a facehugger isn’t given enough time to do its job.

I don’t know what was going on with the alien that came out of the wall. I’ve never seen one cocooned like that before. Might it have been a former human made into an alien like in the deleted scenes in Alien?

I liked that Andy let the girl get taken by the alien. That was clever of him to realize that it was waiting for them to open the door.

After a while I felt like Andy was the main villain of the movie. Maybe he should be but I came to see Alien Romulus, not Artificial Person Romulus. I guess other people are more interested in the synthetics than I am. Ash was a nice twist in Alien but I never thought it was as brilliant as a lot of other people thought. I did think that Andy’s quoting of the famous line from Aliens was awful. They shouldn’t have used it at all.

The zero gravity scene was the best part of the movie.

By some point I just felt like I was watching scenes and ideas stitched together from other Alien and Prometheus movies. I was watching a Frankenstein’s monster of an Alien movie. By the time the girl’s baby was born, I was asking myself if it was going to reference Shaw giving birth to the squid in Prometheus or the clone Queen giving birth to the Newborn in Resurrection. (I HATED the Newborn in Resurrection.) In the end they made the birth a combination of both references: she gave birth to a mutant Engineer that looked like the Newborn. I wasn’t watching a new movie, I was watching a clip show.

Naturally, they ended the movie with one last reference.

Resurrection was my least favorite for a long time, now it’s my second least favorite.

 

[Filmfan93]

So aggressive lol

 

[Sithborg]

I read it takes place 20 years after Alien and 37 years before Aliens.

The Company said it was 20 years after the Nostromo blew up. I did like the implication that while they did find the Nostromo wreckage and the Xenomorph, they really didn't care to try and find Ripley. Some good emphasis on how **** Weyland Yutanni really is, and it makes wonder what it was really like on LV-426.

Spoiler

Maybe it’s me but I had trouble understanding what the characters were saying because of their accents, especially in the beginning. I’m not sure what their plan was, except to escape the planet and salvage the wreckage.

The age of the characters initially irritated me and I wondered how they would know how to operate all of the machinery to go into space. Then again, if they’ve always lived there and worked for the company, maybe they’ve been trained.

I did like the Andy character, that guy is a very good actor.

I didn’t like that Rook was just a model of Ash. (It reminded me of how the terminators look alike. They lose their effectiveness as infiltrators if they are carbon copies.) The cgi didn’t look good and having it look like Ian Holm regardless showed poor judgement I thought. They could have skipped that problem entirely by casting a new actor.

It was cool seeing the facehuggers be dangerous and threats in their own right. The stillborn chestburster kind of answered what happens if a facehugger isn’t given enough time to do its job.

I don’t know what was going on with the alien that came out of the wall. I’ve never seen one cocooned like that before. Might it have been a former human made into an alien like in the deleted scenes in Alien?

I liked that Andy let the girl get taken by the alien. That was clever of him to realize that it was waiting for them to open the door.

After a while I felt like Andy was the main villain of the movie. Maybe he should be but I came to see Alien Romulus, not Artificial Person Romulus. I guess other people are more interested in the synthetics than I am. Ash was a nice twist in Alien but I never thought it was as brilliant as a lot of other people thought. I did think that Andy’s quoting of the famous line from Aliens was awful. They shouldn’t have used it at all.

The zero gravity scene was the best part of the movie.

By some point I just felt like I was watching scenes and ideas stitched together from other Alien and Prometheus movies. I was watching a Frankenstein’s monster of an Alien movie. By the time the girl’s baby was born, I was asking myself if it was going to reference Shaw giving birth to the squid in Prometheus or the clone Queen giving birth to the Newborn in Resurrection. (I HATED the Newborn in Resurrection.) In the end they made the birth a combination of both references: she gave birth to a mutant Engineer that looked like the Newborn. I wasn’t watching a new movie, I was watching a clip show.

Naturally, they ended the movie with one last reference.

Resurrection was my least favorite for a long time, now it’s my second least favorite.

Spoiler

The cocoon was the chestburster maturing into a full alien. Sort of the process that we didn't see before. Which, honestly, is better than Covenant's implication that they just grow. Frankly, I think someone just wanted to shove a big giant phallus into a vagina.

 

[TheVileOne]

Spoiler

Maybe it’s me but I had trouble understanding what the characters were saying because of their accents, especially in the beginning. I’m not sure what their plan was, except to escape the planet and salvage the wreckage.

The age of the characters initially irritated me and I wondered how they would know how to operate all of the machinery to go into space. Then again, if they’ve always lived there and worked for the company, maybe they’ve been trained.

I did like the Andy character, that guy is a very good actor.

I didn’t like that Rook was just a model of Ash. (It reminded me of how the terminators look alike. They lose their effectiveness as infiltrators if they are carbon copies.) The cgi didn’t look good and having it look like Ian Holm regardless showed poor judgement I thought. They could have skipped that problem entirely by casting a new actor.

It was cool seeing the facehuggers be dangerous and threats in their own right. The stillborn chestburster kind of answered what happens if a facehugger isn’t given enough time to do its job.

I don’t know what was going on with the alien that came out of the wall. I’ve never seen one cocooned like that before. Might it have been a former human made into an alien like in the deleted scenes in Alien?

I liked that Andy let the girl get taken by the alien. That was clever of him to realize that it was waiting for them to open the door.

After a while I felt like Andy was the main villain of the movie. Maybe he should be but I came to see Alien Romulus, not Artificial Person Romulus. I guess other people are more interested in the synthetics than I am. Ash was a nice twist in Alien but I never thought it was as brilliant as a lot of other people thought. I did think that Andy’s quoting of the famous line from Aliens was awful. They shouldn’t have used it at all.

The zero gravity scene was the best part of the movie.

By some point I just felt like I was watching scenes and ideas stitched together from other Alien and Prometheus movies. I was watching a Frankenstein’s monster of an Alien movie. By the time the girl’s baby was born, I was asking myself if it was going to reference Shaw giving birth to the squid in Prometheus or the clone Queen giving birth to the Newborn in Resurrection. (I HATED the Newborn in Resurrection.) In the end they made the birth a combination of both references: she gave birth to a mutant Engineer that looked like the Newborn. I wasn’t watching a new movie, I was watching a clip show.

Naturally, they ended the movie with one last reference.

Resurrection was my least favorite for a long time, now it’s my second least favorite.

I also found the dialogue hard to understand at times. A bit too mumblecore and Brechtian for my tastes.

 

[Joe Von Zombie]

Just seems a bit strange to me. He directed it, but he didn't actually produce the original or write or create any of the characters or concepts. He didn't design the Xenomorph. Not sure why he's been granted so much control.

Undoubtedly, the Brandywine people's (David Giler and Walter Hill) control caused a ton of the problems for Alien 3 and apparently made life hell for David Fincher. The way I basically understand it, they were the ones who mediated getting Sigourney Weaver back on board the third movie, so it seems they got a long leash and leeway through that connection.

I get that but I also feel that because of Covenant and Prometheus were misfires, there's a lot of folks trying to discredit Scott's contributions to the original film downplaying his role as a director. I've seen the films Hill and O Bannon have directed. Alien would be a lesser film had anyone else touched it. Would Giger had even worked on it? The guy just got old and his standards for scripts he's willing to shoot have fallen off a cliff.