Sci-Fi Alien: Romulus (2024)

[TheVileOne]

So if they reverse engineered it the black goo existed before the Xenomorph did and created the Xeno

According to Ridley, David used the accelerant to create the Xenos. His words, not mine.

 

[TheVileOne]

Noomi getting relegated in Covenant was what took me soooo long to even getting around to watching it.

She should've refused to do that garbage throwaway short.

 

[blue scholar]

Considering that Fede Alvarez co-wrote this, I wonder how much of this were the ideas he wanted versus servicing the things Ridley Scott wanted. But there was a definite disconnect to me how great this movie looked and how well directed it is versus how weak the script is from a writing standpoint.

Act 3 felt like Ridley Scott kicked Fede out of the director's chair lol

 

[TheVileOne]

Yep.

My issue with Act 3 is in the first half the movie actually does a great job of building back up and restoring the classic Xenomorph as a terrifying monster. And then when we finally get the Xenomorphs back and nearly fully restored to their old glory, they are kind of cast aside.

Also, the second half just goes too heavy with the callbacks. I can deal with some of those if they weren't so incessant and silly. Mother AI system? Yes, OK. "Get away from her..." No. He just does it too much. I can enjoy fan service, but it has to be well done and make sense. It took me out of the movie. Like having the retrofuture, cassette futurism aesthetic from Alien, yes I like that. It works. It feels like the movie is paying homage to Alien without making it too heavy-handed.

Even things like the Xenomorph cocooning itself were good because that made sense too. We never saw where the Xenomorph went and what it was doing after it burst out of Kane's chest. So adding something in like the cocoon was fine. Did it happen kind of quickly for my tastes? Yes, but it was at least improved from what we saw in Covenant where we saw like a fully developed tiny Xenomorph and it mimicked David's movement which was ridiculous and made no sense.

 

[samsnee]

I thought this was fine. The beginning was a little slow. But once they thaw out the face huggers it picked up.

The cast felt like fodder for alien food with only her brother being entertaining.

I didn’t care much for the ending. We’ve already done the alien/human hybrid thing and this one grew way too fast.

 

[Lily Adler]

Yeah, for me it's still a perfectly functioning movie. I just find it hard to revisit especially after this moment at the end of Aliens encompassing everything Ripley and Newt went through:

 

[Punisher_MAX]

Yeah, for me it's still a perfectly functioning movie. I just find it hard to revisit especially after this moment at the end of Aliens encompassing everything Ripley and Newt went through:

This right here is why I abhor Alien 3.

 

[CaptainWagner]

Finally caught this! Overall, thought it was pretty good. Script wasn't anything special and the supporting cast was just fine, but Spaeney and Jonsson rocked and the action sequences were very good. I especially loved the whole acid blood in zero-g sequence. That said, I can never fully love it because of the CGI necromancy BS. Besides being morally bankrupt, it's totally unnecessary and distracting. Why does dismembered Rook look fake when dismembered Ash was such perfect movie magic? Ugh. Also the new hybrid design sucked. It made Resurrection look good, and that's a very big task. Would have rather get some freaky body horror with Merced's character mutating into a failed "upgrade."

 

[Lily Adler]

This right here is why I abhor Alien 3.

Would you rather the fanfic version where Ripley dies and Newt is our main character?

 

[Captain Tired]

I prefer the corny 'Ripley forms a makeshift family and goes around the universe looking for Xenos to hunt' version

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

According to Ridley, David used the accelerant to create the Xenos. His words, not mine.

Yes but Ridley is full of it.

Spoiler

Prometheus being mentioned and a vile of the black goo the exact same as The Engineers being in Romulus show that.

 

[Drizzle]

Why does dismembered Rook look fake when dismembered Ash was such perfect movie magic? Ugh.

Spoiler

Not defending the wonky-looking CGI Ian Holm but the original decapitated Ash wasn't exactly perfect either. Everything looks fine when it's Holm sticking his head through the table but for the shots leading up to that the latex on the dummy head shrank due to the hot lights on set, making it look obviously fake. There's also the very awkward cut from the fake head to Holm that could have easily been improved by cutting away to Ripley between the two shots. It's always stood out to me like a sore thumb ever since I first watched it but it's one of those things where I can look the other way not just because of it being 45 years old but practically every other frame of the movie is flawless.

 

[Zantera]

I still think the biggest issue with Rook isn't that they did it but how they did it. Instead of keeping that down to maybe one scene of him, use as much practical as you can (you obviously still need some CGI) , use the lights and shadows to make it blend in better. Instead its just head on and he's in a lot more scenes than he needed to be. The voice was pretty good and you could have gotten away with just using that in some scenes instead of showing him. One of the bigger issues with the uncanny valley effect of the deepfake CGI is the mouth looks weird when they talk and you could have worked around that.

 

[Drizzle]

I still think the biggest issue with Rook isn't that they did it but how they did it. Instead of keeping that down to maybe one scene of him, use as much practical as you can (you obviously still need some CGI) , use the lights and shadows to make it blend in better. Instead its just head on and he's in a lot more scenes than he needed to be. The voice was pretty good and you could have gotten away with just using that in some scenes instead of showing him. One of the bigger issues with the uncanny valley effect of the deepfake CGI is the mouth looks weird when they talk and you could have worked around that.

Spoiler

I also thought that he was in it too much and that the one initial reveal scene would have sufficed, maybe also the later scene where he tells Merced's character to inject the goo.

I'm not sure if it's been brought up here, but regardless of how any of us feel about resurrecting dead actors, ultimately it's not up to us. His family was totally on board with it but to me the saddest thing about it all was that Holm felt that Hollywood had turned its back on him in the last 10 years or so of his life, and unfortunately I think he had a point given the last film he had a major part in was Ratatouille and after that were just two cameo appearances in the Hobbit trilogy.

I Feel Better About Alien: Romulus Bringing Back That Original Alien Actor Now

Fede Álvarez went about it in the right way.

screenrant.com

 

[Captain Tired]

My only issue with Rook was that they put the face of Ian Holm on someone who's obviously a bit thinner than the actual Ian Holm (and thus the Ash line of androids) was. So it was a teensy bit jarring. Otherwise, I didn't have much issue with it as fas as the execution.

 

[DeadlyWest]

We finally completed the Alien trilogy, like 30 years later.

 

[Zantera]

I think Alien 3 already was a great end to the trilogy. I know people want their happy "Ripley rides off into the sunset and lives happily ever after" ending but I feel it fits thematically with the franchise to end it on a downer where everyone she cares about is dead and she has to give her life to stop the alien. We don't need happy endings.

 

[Drizzle]

My only issue with Rook was that they put the face of Ian Holm on someone who's obviously a bit thinner than the actual Ian Holm (and thus the Ash line of androids) was. So it was a teensy bit jarring. Otherwise, I didn't have much issue with it as fas as the execution.

I guess the reason for that is Ash's blood is whole milk while Rook's is skim milk.

 

[Another_Fool]

Casually drops a ton of lore. I'm not a fan of those Scott prequels, but David is excellent.

David is excellent indeed and I like his character so much that if they said Fassbender is reprising his role in a Romulus sequel to bridge the Prometheus films with the current ones, I'd at least be open to see what they do with it.

 

[Drizzle]

David is excellent indeed and I like his character so much that if they said Fassbender is reprising his role in a Romulus sequel to bridge the Prometheus films with the current ones, I'd at least be open to see what they do with it.

I'm not a fan of Covenant but I'm still very open to seeing a conclusion to David's storyline, even if it happens in a sequel to Romulus and not necessarily a proper follow up to Prometheus and Covenant.

 

[psylockolussus]

David is excellent indeed and I like his character so much that if they said Fassbender is reprising his role in a Romulus sequel to bridge the Prometheus films with the current ones, I'd at least be open to see what they do with it.

After having an Alien rewatch (excluding Romulus).

I actually want to see the continuation of Covenant's ending. I'm assuming the box office performance was the main reason we didn't get a sequel.

 

[samsnee]

Not for me. He was fine in Prometheus but Covenant was so bad that I have no desire to ever visit that part of the universe again

 

[Sithborg]

Yeah, finishing up David's story would likely mean Ridley Scott coming back, And is that really worth it?

 

[Lily Adler]

Yeah, finishing up David's story would likely mean Ridley Scott coming back, And is that really worth it?

If it keeps him away from making "historical" epics.

 

[Punisher_MAX]

Would you rather the fanfic version where Ripley dies and Newt is our main character?

I prefer the corny 'Ripley forms a makeshift family and goes around the universe looking for Xenos to hunt' version

Yeah the Dark Horse comics plot would've 100% been better that what we got.